WWE
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Two weeks after being granted their release from WCW, Benoit, Malenko, Saturn and Guerrero made their WWF TV debuts on Raw, coming out of the crowd to attack the New Age Outlaws. They were dubbed The Radicalz. After the group turned heel, Benoit was quickly put into a feud with Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle, and in April 2000 he won his first championship in the WWF, the Intercontinental Title. Because of how often he defended his WWF Intercontinental Title, Chris Benoit has been called the "fightingest" Intercontinental Champion in WWF history. A high-profile feud with The Rock (who was the WWF Champion at the time) filled out the remainder of 2000. In fact, Benoit "won" the WWF title twice during 2000, but both times the decision was reversed both times by then "Commissioner" Mick Foley and the match restarted due to Benoit's cheating. He remained the Intercontinental Champion into 2001, which he lost the belt to Chris Jericho in a ladder match at the Royal Rumble. He eventually turned face, and had a match against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania X-Seven. The two had a match with a great deal of mat and chain wrestling, but Angle won, via cheating, and started a feud between the two, during which they had a variety of specialty matches. One was an "ultimate submission" match, which Benoit won 4-3, at sudden death overtime. That led to a three falls match at Judgment Day with one fall being a ladder match with Angle's medals suspended above the ring, because Benoit stole them and put them in his pants. Angle won, due to Edge and Christian's appearance. In May, they would have a steel cage match. Benoit was about to win, when Steve Austin closed the door on his face. Angle climbed out the other way for the win. In May 2001, Benoit would later team with old rival, Chris Jericho, to defeat Triple H and Steve Austin in a match for the WWE World Tag Team Championship. The same week, Vince McMahon booked the new champions in a TLC Match against the masters of the match: Edge & Christian, The Hardy Boyz, and the Dudley Boyz. This would be the first TLC match to be shown on network television, which Jericho and Benoit won. This would also be known as "The Forgotten TLC", because it was a randomly made match to punish Benoit and Jericho. They held on to the titles for a month, before losing it to the Dudley Boyz. At King of the Ring, Benoit was put in a triple threat for the WWF Championship against the champion, Austin, and former partner, Jericho. In the match, Benoit had landed hard on his neck. Benoit underwent major neck surgery in June of 2001. He ruptured a disc, which fragmented into his spinal column. The injury required spinal fusion surgery, which sidelined Benoit for the rest of 2001. This injury is played on every warning before a WWE PPV or DVD starts. The Return During the first WWE Draft he was picked by McMahon to be part of the new SmackDown! roster, although still on the injured list. However, when he returned, he did so as a member of the RAW roster. He, and Eddie Guerrero, were then moved to Smackdown during a storyline "open season" on wrestler contracts, with Benoit bringing his newly won Intercontinental championship with him briefly before Rob Van Dam defeated Jeff Hardy in a Number 1 Contenders match and returned the title to RAW. After returning to SmackDown!, in October he was crowned the first winner of the WWE Tag Team Titles, alongside foe and partner Kurt Angle. They both turned face again by betraying Los Guerreros. The two made an impressive combination, but they could not stand each other. Angle won his third WWE Championship from the Big Show, and Benoit faced him for the title at Royal Rumble 2003. Though Benoit lost the match, he received a standing ovation for his efforts after an exciting match. At WrestleMania XIX, the WWE Tag Team Champions, Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, would have to put their belts on the line against Benoit and his partner Rhyno, and Los Guerreros in a triple threat match. Team Angle retained by pinning Chavo Guerrero Jr. Benoit stayed at the middle of the card for the next few months, feuding with John Cena and the Full Blooded Italians, and teaming with Rhyno occasionally. In June 2003, the United States Championship was reactivated, and Benoit participated in the tournament for the belt, first beating Rhyno, then Matt Hardy in the second round, but losing the final to Eddie Guerrero. Benoit was now in major title hunts, and had a great rise in popularity. He would defeat the likes of A-Train, Big Show, and Brock Lesnar by submission. General Manager Paul Heyman wanted to hurt Benoit, so he made his life difficult. When he won a Royal Rumble qualifying match, he was placed in the number one spot. World Heavyweight Champion On January 25, 2004, Benoit won the 2004 Royal Rumble, last eliminating Big Show, and thus earned a WWE Championship title shot at WrestleMania XX. As a result of the long-standing Royal Rumble tradition that the winner receives a shot at the world champion at WrestleMania and the fact that there were effectively two world champions due to the brand split, Benoit exploited a "loophole" in the rules and challenged World Heavyweight Champion Triple H instead of the WWE Champion Brock Lesnar. This "loophole" clause has become standard storyline practice, with the Royal Rumble winner being free to choose which title he will challenge for. With this win, Benoit became one of only two men to enter at #1 and win the Royal Rumble (Shawn Michaels was the first) and he set the record for being in a Rumble match the longest at 1:01:34, narrowly surpassing Bob Backlund's record of slightly over an hour (1:01:10), while Shawn Michaels' Rumble win, and even surpassing Ric Flair's legendary record of 59:26. However this record would be surpassed by Rey Mysterio two years later, at the Royal Rumble 2006 (Mysterio would enter at #2). Though the match was originally intended to be a one-on-one match, Shawn Michaels, whose Last Man Standing match against Triple H at the Royal Rumble for the World Heavyweight Championship ended in a draw, thought that he deserved to be in the main event. When it was time for Benoit to sign the contract putting himself in the main event, Michaels superkicked him and signed his name on the contract, which eventually resulted in a Triple Threat Match between Michaels, Benoit, and then champion Triple H. On March 14, 2004, at WrestleMania XX, in what is considered by many to be one of the most memorable moments in WWE history, Chris Benoit won the World Heavyweight Championship by forcing Triple H to tap out to his devestating signature submission move, the Crippler Crossface. It marked the first time the main event of a WrestleMania ended in submission. After the match, an emotional Benoit celebrated his win with his good friend, the late great Eddie Guerrero, the then reigning WWE Champion. The two of them came to WWE together and on that day, they were standing in the ring at Madison Square Garden, both of them world champions. This was Benoit's first official WWE World title win - he had "won" the WWF Title on two occasions, once at Fully Loaded and once at Unforgiven 2000. However, both times the decision was over-ruled. This was Benoit's first real World Heavyweight Title reign in any promotion after a series of controversially reversed decisions in both WWE and WCW. The triple threat was hailed by many fans as one of the year's best matches. The rematch was held at Backlash in Benoit's hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. At one point in the match, with the referee knocked out, Earl Hebner ran in to call the match while Michaels had Benoit in a sharpshooter, a clear reference to the Montreal Screwjob. However, it was Michaels who ended up submitting to Benoit's sharpshooter, allowing Benoit to retain his title. On August 15, 2004, Chris Benoit was defeated by Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam. His reign had lasted 5 months, with 7 straight pay-per-view victories. Benoit would than fued with Edge, when Edge noshowed at Taboo Tuesday, but Benoit was still able to win the World Tag Team titles. Benoit would side with Randy Orton's team while Edge teamed with Triple H's team, Edge was able to pin Benoit after a Pedigree but Benoits team won. Their rivarly would end at New Years Revolution, where Edge would fued with Shawn Micheals and Benoit would enter the 2005 Royal Rumble. Benoit entered the Money in the Bank show at Wrestlemania 21, where Benoit had the match won but Edge hit him with a steel chair restarting their fued. At Backlash 2005 Edge defeated Benoit after a brick shot. Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Host 'server.full-effect.com' is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server in /home/chrisben/public_html/WWE.php on line 158 cant connect | |