HHH vs. Chris Jericho (WWF - 7/23/2000)

Generally speaking, I don’t care for gimmick matches. Wrestling to me is about prevailing in combat through superior skill and/or toughness, and matches where the primary goal is something like climbing a ladder or escaping a cage feel too far removed from that premise. Last Man Standing matches are the exception because knocking out an opponent so they can’t answer a ten-count still adheres to combat sports logic. There’s lots of stuff from the Attitude Era that has aged horribly, and this feud beginning with the babyface Jericho forcing himself on Stephanie certainly qualifies. But I’m always pleasantly surprised by how well this match holds up. At its core, this is a heated brawl with the gimmick accentuating the work in the ring rather than overwhelming it. The absurdly long ten-counts that WWF referees give are thankfully kept to a minimum, and while several of the spots were clearly planned out beforehand, I thought they did a better job of setting them up organically than is typical in WWE gimmick matches. Jericho wasn’t much of a brawler at this stage of his career, but his babyface fire is enough to carry him here. Also, much of the damage he inflicts is with weapons like a chair and the stupid sledgehammer (the dumbest signature weapon in wrestling history). HHH takes some pretty big bumps to get Jericho over as a threat, and his sick bladejob makes passing out from blood loss seem like a legitimate possibility. All of HHH’s rib work was great as well. I didn’t have problem with it being largely forgotten down the stretch since it wasn’t supposed to be a path to victory. HHH was trying to make Jericho suffer for what he did to Stephanie, so it made sense for him to abandon it when the match started to slip away. The ending is certainly questionable, but we’re far enough removed from Hunter’s reign of terror to be able to evaluate the matches on their merits and not get too wrapped up in the booking.