Disc Two:
– Chris Benoit v. Eddie Guerrero. From Nitro, October 1995. Never seen this one before, actually. Eddie grabs a headlock and overpowers him, and they criss-cross into a wristlock takedown from Eddie. Benoit bridges up and snaps off a headscissors, as does Eddie. Crazy. Eddie teases a highspot as Benoit bails, but he follows with a tope instead. Great sequence. Back in, Benoit tries a backdrop suplex, but they both tumble to the floor in a crazy bump. That’s one you don’t see. They both charge at the post, and Eddie gets the worst of it. Back in, Benoit gets his nasty backdrop suplex and sends Eddie into the corner, then dropkicks him in the back of the head coming out again. Northern lights suplex sets up a snap suplex, and a back elbow. Eddie comes back with a flying armdrag and a tornado DDT, and he gets two, still selling an arm injury. Benoit then grabs the GOOD arm and rips his head off with a clothesline. Another hammerlock backdrop suplex is reversed by Eddie for two, however. Benoit keeps on him with chops and stomps on the shoulder, then takes him down with a judo throw and cranks on the arm. Eddie powers out and into a flying headscissors for two, however. Backdrop driver(!) as Eddie comes back, but the arm is still gone. Brainbuster and he goes up, but the frog splash hits knee, and Benoit powerbombs him through the ring for two. Man, they’re letting it all hang out here. Another is reversed by Eddie, but Benoit rolls through and finishes with the dragon suplex at 8:32. That was actually better than their Super J match from the year before, with Eddie selling the arm and both guys doing crazy shit and hitting everything with force. ***1/2
– Falls Count Anywhere: Chris Benoit v. Kevin Sullivan. Haven’t done this one in a while, so we’ll see if it holds up. They overdub the WCW music with the original WWF music for Benoit. They start brawling in the aisle right away and Benoit throws chops on the floor, as does Kevin. Into the crowd, as Tony actually calls it a donnybrook. They just beat the hell out of each other while going up the stairs, and into the bathroom. Dusty loves it. Kevin puts his head in the toilet stall and slams it on him a few times, then does the double stomp on the gut. Benoit fights back and almost gives Sullivan a swirlie in the urinal, but opts to slam the stall door on his head instead. Dusty is more concerned with the woman in the bathroom. Kevin, meanwhile, grabs a bag of toilet paper and uses that (good as anything), and then goes for the less surreal method and just hits him with a garbage can instead. They fight into the hallway again, throwing really stiff punches, and Benoit takes the inevitable bump down the stairs as they head into the arena again. Back to ringside, where Sullivan crotches him on the railing and throws a chair at his face. Benoit returns the crotching and tries for a table, but has trouble freeing it, so he throws Sullivan into the crowd again and is more successful on his second try. Into the ring, Benoit gets whipped into the table, but Sullivan charges and hits it. Benoit puts the table on top of the turnbuckles, but Sullivan backdrops him onto it and they fight up there. Superplex from the table finishes it for Benoit at 10:12, for a huge pop. Arn Anderson, in cahoots with Sullivan, comes out to prevent further damage from Benoit, and then turns on Sullivan himself and they put the boots to him. Unfortunately the overuse of the hardcore gimmick by Vince Russo in 98-99 really killed the impact that this match used to have, but it’s still a crazy brawl with lots of real-life intensity and hatred. I can’t really go any higher than **** with a good conscience anymore, though. Stupid Russo.
– Chris Benoit v. Booker T. This is the concluding match in the famous best-of-7 series, as a flashback from Thunder a few nights previous refreshes my memory about Bret Hart interfering and necessitating an eighth match in the series. Winner of this gets Fit Finlay for the TV title right away. The match is crazy over with the crowd, which must of course be a hallucination on my part because neither guy has ever drawn a dime or knows how to work main event style. They exchange hiptosses to start and Booker grabs a headlock, but Benoit takes him down with a drop toehold and sends him out. Back in, Benoit grabs a hammerlock, but Booker reverses him to the mat and gets two. Benoit tries again, but Booker elbows out and gets a back elbow for two. Benoit charges and hits boot, but suckers him in with a dragon-screw to work on the previously-injured leg. Benoit starts chopping and gets the back elbow for two. Backdrop suplex gets two. Benoit hits the chinlock, but Booker comes back and they criss-cross, into a Benoit chop that gets two. Now that’s a chop. Snap suplex gets two. Benoit sends him into the turnbuckles, but Booker counters another suplex for two. Back to the chinlock by Benoit, but Booker powers out again, only to run into a knee. Benoit suplexes him onto the top rope and slugs him to the floor, but Booker makes it back in again. Lariat gets two. Benoit chops him down again and goes back to the chinlock. I’ve always found it odd that WWE doesn’t let them use chops for near-falls. That was uniquely a WCW thing. Benoit switches to a nasty surfboard, using his head for leverage, and Booker powers out and gets a powerslam. He heads up and totally whiffs on a high cross, missing by a mile. Benoit tries to crossface him, but Booker fights it off long enough to make the ropes. Benoit goes back to the chinlock, but Booker fights out again, and this time counters the dragon-screw with an enzuigiri. MAIN EVENT SPINEBUSTER and Booker makes the comeback with a flapjack, and does a primitive Spinarooni, but the stalling costs him, as he goes up and gets caught by Benoit with a superplex. Benoit gets two off that after selling the bump. He used to take such a cool bump on that move before the neck injury, as he’d roll backwards and flip over in the process. Rolling germans are blocked by Booker, but he gets a dragon suplex for two instead. The crowd pops HUGE for that. Man, how did they ever f*ck these guys up so badly? Back to the chops, and then he blocks Booker’s sunset flip out of the corner with another chop. Awesome. Booker is DEAD, so Benoit heads up with the flying headbutt, which gets a MONSTER reaction, and both guys are out. Benoit recovers first and gets two. Booker gets a small package for two. Booker comes back with a sidekick to the back of the head, and a spinkick, and now Booker goes up with a missile dropkick that gets the pin at 16:19. Weak (albeit totally clean) finish, great match. Booker looked a lot less polished than he does today, but Benoit carried him like a champion through the whole thing, and made them both look like a million bucks. ****1/4
– Chris Benoit v. Bret Hart. This is the Owen Hart tribute match, from Kansas City in 1999, during one of WCW’s greatest eras, when they had no one in charge and they were just throwing shows out there with great wrestling on them, in the days before Vince Russo took over. Now, here’s a weird one: They overdub Bret’s WCW music with a generic music, instead of his WWF music, which they OWN. Lockup to start and Benoit grabs a headlock, which turns into a wristlock battle. Bret overpowers him and fakes Benoit out on a criss-cross. They start again and Benoit does the bridge off the test of strength, then takes Bret down with a straightjacket hold and turns it into a hammerlock takedown. He goes into a surfboard, which Bret reverses, so Benoit mulekicks him into the corner and grabs an armbar. Bret counters with a Russian legsweep and grabs a chinlock, but Benoit fights out, only to run into a knee. Bret drops a leg and pounds on him in the corner, but Benoit fires back with a chop, so Bret DDTs him. Bret gets an elbow from the middle and travels nearly 3/4 of the way across the ring to do so. Nice. Bret tries the knee again, but Benoit rolls through this time and gets a crazy variation on the Liontamer, until Bret makes the ropes. Benoit backdrops him for two. Backbreaker gets two. They take an ad break and return with Benoit dropping an elbow for two. Another one misses and now Bret does the headbutt to the abs and suplexes him. That gets two. He goes back to the chinlock and then hits him with a backbreaker, taking him to the floor and working on the back. Back in, Bret keeps stomping and throws forearms, but Benoit reveres a tilt-a-whirl into a tombstone for two. That was Owen’s thing, of course. Northern lights suplex gets two. Benoit gets his own knee to the gut for two. Benoit misses a dropkick, so Bret drops an elbow and then gets a vicious backdrop suplex for two. I wonder if Benoit just enjoys taking that bump or something. Bret hammers him against the ropes and charges, but runs into the ropes and knocks himself silly in the process. Benoit puts him out and follows with a tope suicida. Another ad break and we return with Bret hammering him on the apron and suplexing him into the ring. Benoit counters into a rollup, however, and Bret counters that for two. He goes for the direct approach, choking Benoit down and throwing a forearm, but Benoit backslides him for two. Bret works on the back, but Benoit cradles for two out of nowhere. Bret goes right back to the back and pulls out a swinging neckbreaker for two. He whips Benoit into the corner, and then catches him on the rebound with an inverted atomic drop, then puts him on top. Great transitions there. Benoit tries to catch him napping by coming off the top, but Bret crotches him into a superplex. Both are out, but Bret recovers and goes for the Sharpshooter, which Benoit reverses to the crossface! Awesome. I think he did that a couple of times in the WWE, too. Bret makes the ropes, however. Benoit pulls out Eddie’s rolling verticals and goes up, hitting the flying headbutt. Another nice thing about Benoit: You never know if he’s hitting or missing the headbutt. That only gets two. He returns the backdrop suplex favor from earlier, and drives an elbow into him. The crowd cheers for Bret, so Benoit gets upset and walks into an elbow. Piledriver gets two for Bret, but Benoit makes the ropes. Bret sends him into the corner again, but Benoit flips out of it and chops Bret into oblivion. He goes for a dragon suplex, but then opts for the rolling germans instead. Bret fights out of a fourth one by pounding on the back, but Benoit fights for the crossface, so Bret blocks it like a pro. Bret takes him down to the mat, still blocking, and then fights for the Sharpshooter, getting the move for the submission at 23:02. Benoit should have went over, but that’s minor, because the match was a classic for all the right reasons. And really, arguing star ratings on something like this is about as gay as you can get. *****
– WCW World title: Sid Vicious v. Chris Benoit. This is from Souled Out 2000, and it’s pretty much the low point for the promotion. The original match was Bret Hart v. Goldberg, but Goldberg injured his hand in the infamous limo-punching skit, so they slotted Sid Vicious in instead. Then, Bret Hart declared his retirement due to concussion, so the title was vacated and the match was set to be Jeff Jarrett v. Sid Vicious instead. Finally, Jarrett announced that he was unable to travel due to concussions, so US title challenger Benoit was stuck in the match and promised the World title instead. Vince Russo’s idea was to put the title on Tank Abbott, and that cost him his job. So you can see why Benoit wanted out. The match is actually a rematch from Fall Brawl ’99, where Benoit did the job for Sid in a match where Ross Forman had the unmitigated gall to go on WCW Live and say that Benoit “got the rub” from doing a clean job to the powerbomb and losing the US title. Sid powers Benoit into the corner to start, but Benoit grabs a headlock, so Sid clotheslines him out. Back in, Sid presses Benoit , and then uses HHH’s forward suplex. The crowd, not clued into the script, chants for Sid because he’s the bigger star. Benoit dropkicks the knee and goes to work on it, then pulls him onto the floor and dropkicks the stairs into the knee. Smart move. He starts throwing chops, which Sid actually sells, and they head back in where Benoit gets one. Figure-four, but Sid quickly reverses, forcing Benoit to make the ropes. He keeps chopping (with Sid on his knees so he can reach) and starts battering the knee in the corner. Legdrag gets two. He throws more chops in the corner and gets a snap suplex, and an elbowdrop gets two. Benoit ties him up with an Indian deathlock, bridged. All the wrestlers are out watching, and it’s truly a who’s-who of has-beens and jobbers out there. Benoit dropkicks the knee again and Sid bails. Back in, Benoit keeps hammering him, as the crowd gets behind Sid’s comeback. He bitchslaps Benoit to a big pop, so Benoit dropkicks the knee again. He keeps working on the knee, but Sid blocks a kick, so Benoit hits him with the german suplex instead. Sid, much more direct, powerslams him for two. Benoit does another dropkick to the knee and this time wraps him up in an anklelock, but Sid powers out of it. When he stands up, however, Benoit casually suplexes him and goes up. Diving headbutt gets two. Sid kicks out with authority and chokeslams him, but it gets two, as Benoit’s foot was under the ropes. He tries it again, but Benoit takes him down with a crossface and Sid taps at 14:51, thus giving Benoit the title. They left themselves an out with the rope thing, since Sid’s foot was under the ropes, and then used it when Benoit surrendered the title the next day and went to WWF-land. Sid basically let Benoit do everything, but it still wasn’t great. **1/2 Sid’s ridiculous speed in tapping to the crossface here actually reminds of a story stemming from their first match in 1999, as Sid had never wrestled Benoit before or taken a crossface. Not exactly considered the smartest cookie in the jar, the bookers took extra time to stress to Sid beforehand how incredibly important it was NOT TO TAP THE MAT should Benoit put him in the crossface. Of course, partway through the match, Benoit put him in the crossface, and while rallying the crowd Sid started tapping the mat, which the ref had to ignore, despite the whole crowd thinking Benoit had just retained the title. That’s why I love Sid.
– Chris Benoit v. William Regal. This is from the Pillman Tribute show in 2000, and it’s fan-cam footage used here. Cole and Tom Pritchard provide commentary. They fight over a wristlock to start, which Benoit wins, but Regal kips up and they counter into Regal’s advantage. Regal takes him down with a knucklelock, but Benoit powers into a bridge and takes Regal down. Regal bridges out as well and they start headbutting each other while in that position, and Benoit fires off an enzuigiri as Regal starts bleeding hardway. They bail and Regal boots him in the face, but they fight on the apron and Benoit DDTs him on the apron. Back in, Benoit gets two. Backdrop suplex gets two. Regal takes him down with a drop toehold, however, and wraps him up with a facelock, but Benoit makes the ropes. Regal throws a nice standing dropkick (when you do see THAT from him?) and takes Benoit down with the Rita Romero Special. Benoit fires back with a german suplex to buy some time, and starts throwing chops. Regal headbutts him straight in the face, however, and uses some stiff high kicks to put him down again. They slug it out and Benoit goes to the rolling germans, but Regal fights out and pounds Benoit into a butterfly suplex attempt, but Benoit counters him into a german suplex. He goes up and Regal catches him and superplexes him, for two. They collide in the corner and Benoit gets two. Slugfest, but Regal wraps him up for two. That was great. Backslide gets two for Regal. Dropped backdrop suplex gets two. CRAZY. He has to start using that again. Regal throws down and Benoit takes it, then reverses a tombstone attempt into his own, and a nice one. Back to the top, but the diving headbutt misses. Both guys are out, but Regal recovers, and they reverse until Benoit gets a release dragon suplex and the crossface for the submission at 12:47. Finish was a bit abrupt, but the rest was tremendous. ****1/4 By the way, pressing “right” on the menu selection calls up Benoit’s Wrestlemania XX promo spot.
– Cage match: Chris Benoit v. Kurt Angle. This is actually from the first RAW I did for Wrestleline in the post-CRZ era, June 11 2001. The original rant wasn’t so good, so I might as well redo it. This was during the brief-but-awesome Austin-Benoit feud of 2001. Angle attacks him with an overhead belly-to-belly to start, and then fires off another one. Angle sends him into the cage a few times and stomps away in the corner, but Benoit comes back with chops and just destroys Angle’s chest. Angle counters him into the cage again, however, until Benoit fights back with more chops and a snap suplex. He turns it into rolling verticals, but Angle counters with a gut-wrench suplex series of his own. Angle starts climbing, but Benoit follows him up and brings him down with a german suplex from the top rope. JR calls it ungodly, I call it awesome. Benoit climbs, but falls victim to the pop-up throw from Angle, and a top rope elbowdrop follows. They slug it out and Benoit sends him into the cage a few times, with Angle taking manly bumps in the process. Benoit climbs, but Angle gives him a shot in the nuts to bring him down again. Angle Slam, but Angle instead chooses to climb the cage and tries the moonsault from the cage”¦and misses. Benoit comes back and throws knees at him, but Angle reverses him into the cage again. He rams him facefirst into it, but Benoit comes back with the rolling germans, six of them. Benoit suckers Angle into charging by faking a walk out the door, then moves and catches Angle on the rebound with another three german suplexes. That’s incredible psychology. He then climbs the cage and sees Austin swinging a chair at the bottom, so he opts to come off the top of the cage with the diving headbutt on Angle instead. No wonder he needed surgery. Austin blocks the door, however, allowing Angle to recover enough to stop Benoit from leaving. He locks in the anklelock, but Benoit counters with the enzuigiri and crawls again”¦until Austin slams the door in his face and allows Angle to climb out at 14:29. I liked this one even better second time around. ****
– Smackdown World Title: Kurt Angle v. Chris Benoit. This is from Royal Rumble 2003, and I’m actually pulling this review from the new book because I can’t find the old one online at the moment and my archives don’t include 2003 stuff due to a virus I had. Team Angle gets the boot before we start, to ensure fairness. Benoit quickly goes for a Sharpshooter, but Angle bails to escape. Back in, Benoit grabs a headlock and kicks off an attempt at a single-leg takedown by Angle. Angle tries a sleeper, but Benoit armdrags out of it, and then legdrags Angle into another Sharpshooter attempt, which Angle again blocks and makes the ropes. Angle’s knee might as well have a big “kick me” sign on it tonight, as it’s braced and previously injured. Angle posts him and pounds away in the corner, into a vertical suplex that gets two. He starts throwing chops, but that’s a dumb thing to try with Benoit, and he fires back and pounds on him in the corner. Angle misses a charge and Benoit hits him with a clothesline to the back and a knee to the gut that gets two. More chops as he keeps wearing Angle down, but he gets suplexed onto the top rope to break up the momentum. Benoit necksnaps him, however, and they slug it out on the apron, leading to a Benoit DDT out there. Back in, he gets two. Flying headbutt comes way too early, however, and misses. Angle goes for the Angle Slam, and now Benoit really does get the Sharpshooter, having built up to it three times. Angle makes the ropes, however. Benoit hits him with a backdrop suplex and gets two. Angle responds with an overhead suplex and tosses Benoit, and they brawl outside. Angle wins that pretty handily and stomps away. Back in, Angle hits him with a short-arm clothesline for two. Angle goes to a chinlock and gets the hooks in, but Benoit powers out and armdrags him. He walks into another suplex, however, and can’t get the momentum going again. Angle drops him with a backdrop suplex for two. Back to the chinlock, but Benoit powers out again. This move actually serves two purposes within the match — it works on the surgically repaired neck of Benoit, and it causes him to expend energy escaping the hold. They collide with clotheslines and both are out. Benoit is up first and slugs away, and overpowers Angle into a backdrop. Rolling germans, but Angle reverses and starts throwing his own. Benoit then reverses after the first one thrown by Angle and throws his own, winning the battle 4 suplexes to 1. Benoit goes up after blowing snot on him (not just a great athlete, but a true gentleman), but Angle pops up with the superplex for two. Now that’s guts — taking a snot rocket for the sake of selling the injury. Benoit reverses the Angle Slam into the crossface, dead center of the ring, and Angle looks to be in trouble. He makes the ropes, however. Benoit then switches to an anklelock, but as generally happens, Angle counters that into his own version of the move. Benoit counters back into the crossface, but Angle rolls him over for two to escape. Benoit keeps coming, however, taking him down with another crossface. Angle rolls him over again, but Benoit adjusts this time and hangs on, so Angle adjusts to that and uses the Angle Slam, but Benoit kicks out at two. Angle gets pissed and grabs another anklelock, but Benoit rolls through and counters Angle into the corner, and then rolls him up off a reversed german suplex for two. He starts throwing more suplexes, but Angle switches and hits his own. Benoit then tops him by throwing him 180 degrees in the air and onto his head. Angle is ¾ of the way across the ring, so naturally Benoit hits him with the flying headbutt from all the way over there. He gets two as the crowd starts to get seriously into the match. Back to the crossface, but Angle rolls out of it and tries a powerbomb, then drops Benoit neckfirst onto the top rope, into another Angle Slam for two. That was a guaranteed finish in any other match, which only made Benoit a bigger babyface with the crowd. Benoit takes him down again with the crossface and Angle is about to tap, but he spins into another anklelock instead. Benoit kicks him off, but Angle hangs on tenaciously, thinking one move ahead. Benoit finally powers out, but is too weak to fight him off again, and kicking off won’t work a second time because Angle can anticipate now. Benoit goes for the ropes, but Angle pulls him off and turns it into a heel hook (a more painful variation where Angle wraps his legs around the knee) and that’s enough to tap Benoit at 19:47. Just a great hybrid of pure mat-wrestling and mixed martial arts psychology that not only got Angle’s shooter image over, but made Benoit into a huge babyface”¦for about two weeks, at which point they pissed it all away again. ****3/4 Benoit gets a standing ovation after the loss, and even limps back to the dressing room, selling the ankle injury the whole time.
– RAW World title: HHH v. Shawn Michaels v. Chris Benoit. Despite weeks of crappy booking, Benoit is clearly the crowd favorite here, as MSG’s traditional hatred of Shawn has kicked in again full force. And what’s with the white boots on HHH? Did Steph buy them for Christmas and withhold sex unless he wore them or something? On the upside, the gay bicycle shorts are gone and HHH is back to regular tights again. Shawn goes after HHH to start, but Benoit pulls him away and they fight over who gets to fight. Benoit takes him down immediately and starts chopping Shawn, to the delight of the crowd, but Benoit whips Shawn into HHH and slugs away. Shawn takes him down with a headlock, and they do the pinfall reversal sequence off that, and Benoit crosses Shawn up with another crossface attempt, which Shawn reverses for two. Northern lights suplex gets two for Benoit, and Shawn clotheslines him down, but HHH returns and lays Shawn out. He tosses Shawn, who skins the cat back in while Benoit pounds HHH, but Benoit gets dumped. Shawn backdrops HHH and throws some chops, but walks into a high knee, which gets two. Benoit fires away with shoulderblocks from the apron, but hits knee and gets sent into the apron by HHH afterwards. Shawn hits both of them with a baseball slide and follows with a moonsault. Guys with torn ACLs probably shouldn’t be doing that. Back in, Shawn gets two. He throws chops on HHH , but puts his head down and eats knee. Pedigree is broken up by Benoit, who goes right for Shawn again with knees, and sends him into the post. Snap suplex and he fires the chops, but HHH sends him into the corner and puts him on top, hanging him in the Tree of Woe to keep him occupied for a bit. HHH whips Shawn into Benoit, and gets two on Shawn. Now why hasn’t anyone thought of that before in a triple-threat match? Another try is reversed, and Shawn rolls up HHH for two. They slug it out and Shawn gets the forearm and kips up, but Benoit promptly clotheslines him over the top to get rid of him. Rolling germans on HHH follow, and he does the SNOT BLOW~! and goes up, only to get crotched by Shawn. Shawn tries to superkick HHH, but it backfires and he gets DDT’d, leaving Benoit hanging on the top. HHH & Benoit slug it out on top, leading to a superplex on Benoit for two. HHH pounds him on the mat, but Benoit fights back, winning a slugfest, but puts his head down and HHH goes for the Pedigree, but Benoit reverses to the crossface, which HHH is able to fight off until Shawn can save. Shawn hits Benoit with an attempt at rolling germans, drawing big boos, so Benoit reverses to his own, which the crowd enjoys more. Back up for Benoit, and the flying headbutt gets two. Shawn knocks him out of the ring with a forearm and comes back on HHH with clotheslines and a slam to set up the flying elbow, and the superkick gets two, as Benoit saves. They all brawl outside and Shawn brings Benoit back in and starts chopping. Benoit reverses him into the corner and takes him down with a catapult into the corner that triggers a gory bladejob, so fast that I couldn’t even see him do it. Benoit takes him down for another crossface, but HHH prevents him from tapping. Benoit and HHH fight outside and head over to the tables, where Benoit gets whipped into the stairs and HHH preps the announce tables. Benoit comes back on HHH, but Shawn recovers and joins them, and Benoit takes a double-suplex through the Smackdown table as a result. With Benoit apparently out of the equation, Shawn calls HHH into the ring while dripping blood everywhere. He’s about 1.0 Muta at this point. He slugs away on HHH and whips him over the top, into a cameraman, and HHH eats post and starts bleeding too, because apparently that’s what all the cool kids are doing at Wrestlemanias these days. Back in, Shawn slugs away, but HHH hits him with the Pedigree as the crowd starts going nuts for Benoit to recover and make the save. HHH gets two, and as desired by MSG, Benoit makes the save. Benoit starts chopping HHH, but HHH goes for the Pedigree, so Benoit reverses to the Sharpshooter. The pop for that would be massive if it was the finish. Sadly, it’s not, as Shawn saves with a superkick. He gets two on Benoit. He goes for the kill, and the crowd chants for Benoit as he sets up for the superkick (ouch, that’s gotta hurt), but Benoit dumps him. He looks like he’s gonna walk into a Pedigree, but he reverses to the Crossface in mid-move. HHH fights it and almost makes the ropes, but Benoit pulls him back. HHH tries one last desperation reversal, but Benoit holds on, and Edmonton goes insane as HHH taps to the crossface to make Chris Benoit the World champion at 24:46. Best three-way match I’ve ever seen, and although that’s not usually saying much, this was truly special, with HHH doing the right thing and everything hitting perfectly on all cylinders. If you can find a fault with this match, you’re nuts. *****
– Finally, three bits of odds-and-sods close out the disc, as you get the 90 second bit showing Benoit going in for neck surgery in 2001, a montage of crossfaces, and his RAW magazine photo shoot. There’s also an easily-found Easter Egg, in the form of a tooth icon. I’ll leave it to you to discover what it unlocks.
