Heads Up Battle 2001- Honda/Inoue v. Hash/Yasuda vs. Rock v. Jericho

[Phil Schneider]

This week, due to popular demand, Rock v. Jericho from No Mercy will challenge the champ Team Z1 v. Team NOAH. Watch the matches, pimp your favorite and we will revile the winner next Saturday

 

[Phil Schneider]

We had some people specifically request this challenger, so I want to see some people make some cases

[zev]

Made sure to watch the tag match before I asked the following questions:

1. Is what's shown on that YouTube video the match in full?

2. Were there any previously announced special stipulations such as No DQ or Loser Leaves Town/Territory?

 

[Phil Schneider]

1. Yup that is the whole match

2. Japanese wrestling doesn't really do stips normally. This was an interpromotional match, with stars from NOAH taking on stars from NJ and Zero One, wrestlers from those two companies had been kept apart for years. 

Eric and I reviewed that match here

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2016/09/2001-match-of-year.html

[EricR]

Well, this one ended up being a blowout. I mostly liked the match, Phil mostly hated the match, and the things I liked about it didn't come close to comparing with what I loved about the Z1 tag. This was a one-sided tune up fight.

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2016/10/all-time-moty-list-head-to-head.html

 

 

[NintendoLogic]

See, people need to speak up. Rock/Jericho should not have made it this far.

[Brian Fowler]

I  totally missed this thread.

Having not recently watched the match, the thing that always stands out to me about the match is the masterful fan manipulation. It is ostensibly face vs face, with the crowd favoring Rock by a fair amount. Jericho works subtle almost heel for most of the match, annoying Rock throughout. But then Rock starts moving from annoyed to genuinely pissed this annoying little prick won't stay down, and they make a subtle switch to Rock working slightly heel... And it works perfectly. By the time they hit the finishing stretch the crowd was tipping like 75% Y2J. Nobody actually turns here (Jericho finally would a few weeks later) but they held that live crowd in their hands and changed them from about 60-40, to 80-20, and then swung them the exact opposite way and got it to around 25-75. 

But I make no apologies for my love of the 98-02 WWF Main Event Style. It's less complex than a lot of other styles, but it fits the big giant popcorn movie storytelling they try to do. And this was one of those blockbusters that is also a really good movie.

Shrug. I never expected it to win when I seconded its nomination. But I still love it.

[Chaos]

On 12/4/2016 at 9:34 PM, Brian Fowler said:

I  totally missed this thread.

Having not recently watched the match, the thing that always stands out to me about the match is the masterful fan manipulation. It is ostensibly face vs face, with the crowd favoring Rock by a fair amount. Jericho works subtle almost heel for most of the match, annoying Rock throughout. But then Rock starts moving from annoyed to genuinely pissed this annoying little prick won't stay down, and they make a subtle switch to Rock working slightly heel... And it works perfectly. By the time they hit the finishing stretch the crowd was tipping like 75% Y2J. Nobody actually turns here (Jericho finally would a few weeks later) but they held that live crowd in their hands and changed them from about 60-40, to 80-20, and then swung them the exact opposite way and got it to around 25-75. 

But I make no apologies for my love of the 98-02 WWF Main Event Style. It's less complex than a lot of other styles, but it fits the big giant popcorn movie storytelling they try to do. And this was one of those blockbusters that is also a really good movie.

Shrug. I never expected it to win when I seconded its nomination. But I still love it.

Outside of the finish, wouldn't Rock/Austin from that year be the better match WWF-wise. For historical purposes alone, that match essentially ends an era, and is still in someways the last real bench mark that WWF/WWE has set for itself. Hell, Austin/Angle from Summerslam is one of the few Angle matches I really enjoy. 

[Go2Sleep]

I feel like Rock and Jericho both had way better matches that year. Of course Rock/Austin goes without saying, then there's the Jericho/Benoit ladder match if you're ok with that sort of thing.