Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Chris Benoit vs. Booker T: Best of Seven Series #2

Their first Best of Seven series was awesome. So, their second series would also have to be awesome, right?

 

Prologue
Smackdown
November 25, 2005

Booker T(c) (w/ Sharmell) vs. Chris Benoit [United States Championship]

Okay, so I really liked the first Benoit/Booker series when I watched it back recently. This series immediately got off to a bad start because Booker T was a heel and thus working on top. If this continues for much longer in the series, we might be getting a very boring series of matches.
Booker T tried to work over the shoulder, but the work was not compelling it of itself and there was no payoff. For the finish, Sharmell prevented a diving headbutt which allowed Booker to superplex Benoit. This led to a double-pin.

Teddy Long came out to make an executive decision. After considering making a tag match and having both men go one on one with The Undertaker, he settled on holding up the title and making a Best of Seven series between these two men to determine the champion.

This was all very tedious. (**)

 

Match #1
Survivor Series
November 27, 2005

Chris Benoit [0] vs. Booker T [0] (w/ Sharmell)

I just realized that Sharmell was getting introduced by Michael Cole as, “The Former Black Miss America, Booker T’s Wife!” Dear lord.

So, this was another boring contest featuring Booker T working on top in a methodical manner that led to nothing valuable. A wiser person would just cut bait now and stop watching. I am no such person though and will continue on out of spite or something.

The finish played off the end of their double-pin match. Sharmell went to prevent the diving headbutt again. Benoit overcame that only for Booker to avoid the headbutt. Booker then picked up the win by putting his feet on the ropes for a pin. (**¼)

 

Match #2
Smackdown
November 29, 2005

Chris Benoit [0] vs. Booker T [1] (w/ Sharmell)

So, this started out better because Benoit was filled with purpose and urgency. He was down 1-0, and he lost via nefarious means. He worked like he needed to win. Then he missed a tope suicida, and Booker T took over. Sigh.

Booker T did nothing of value while in control as expected. Then the finish was really clunky. Benoit crashed to the floor on a failed German attempt. It sounded nasty. Booker went to pin Benoit, but the ref ruled that Benoit’s shoulder was up. It was hard to tell based on the camera angles if that was actually the case. Anyway, after some awkwardness as they seemingly figured out how to fix the situation, Booker hit the Axe Kick for the win. (**½)

 

Match #3
Smackdown
December 9, 2005

Chris Benoit [0] vs. Booker T [2] (w/ Sharmell)

This seemed to be the “cool-down” match for these guys. They took their time and worked a real methodical pace for reasons that are not entirely clear to me. Booker T being the heel just completely kills this series. Benoit even controlled a lot more of the first half of the match, but that did not help. As soon as Booker got control, the match died even more. Then this match had the advantage of having ref bump shenanigans and a phantom tapout victory for Benoit. Sharmell got involved yet again, and Booker won. (**)

 

Match #4
Armageddon
December 18, 2005

Chris Benoit [0] vs. Booker T [3] (w/ Sharmell)

With this on PPV, they were allowed to have a bit more time to do their thing. Ultimately though, this ended up being yet another methodical match dominated far too often by Booker and featuring way too much important inference from Sharmell. The end featured a ref bump as well. I just don’t know what happened here. Booker has been bad, but Benoit seemed to have just given up entirely. Benoit ended up winning via the crossface. (**½)

 

Match #5
Smackdown
December 30, 2005

Booker T got injured and was forced to cease competing for the time being. He opted to get a substitute for himself instead of forfeiting. Benoit used ‘whoever’ when he meant ‘whomever’ during the skit where all of this happened. The CTE had clearly already set in. As much as I detest Orton as a worker, this series desperately needed a changeup.

Chris Benoit [1] vs. Randy Orton [3] (w/ Booker T & Sharmell)

There was not much going on here that needs reporting on. Benoit and Orton worked a house show effort. It was methodical without much creativity. Benoit was about to win with the crossface when Sharmell hit Benoit with Booker’s crutch to give Benoit the win via DQ. Orton gave Benoit an RKO afterwards. (**¼)

 

Match #6
Smackdown
January 6, 2006

Chris Benoit [2] vs. Randy Orton [3] (w/ Booker T & Sharmell)

This match made a number of course-directions in terms of how the matches were worked in this series to make it a more tolerable experience. For starters, it was the closest this series has come to providing a short sprint instead of a methodical slog of a match. They even removed Sharmell from the proceedings almost immediately. Orton saw her interfere and did not like the idea of that happening. He got her kicked out. SHADES OF GREY~!

Then Orlando Jordan showed up and attacked Benoit to get some revenge on Booker for something. What a disaster of a series of matches. (**¼)

 

Match #7
Smackdown
January 13, 2005

Chris Benoit [3] vs. Randy Orton [3] (w/ Booker T & Sharmell)

They decided to have a very serious and physical match here. Benoit even got Booker and Sharmell kicked out early on. I appreciated the effort here, but this was possibly one of those cases where knowing the context of everything that came before actively made me less interested in a blowoff. There was no reason to be invested in this one. I know the story was placed behind the eightball after Booker got injured, but the booking amplified the negativity of the situation instead of doing anything positive to make the most of it.

On top of all of that, we still got interference from Booker, Sharmell, and Orlando Jordan at the end. We also got ref bumps and a phantom victory for Benoit. I guess you can argue that was the story being told throughout the series: Benoit vs. Booker shenanigans. It was a fucking terrible story though. Orton won the match after Booker hit Benoit with the belt. (*)

 

Epilogue
No Way Out
February 19, 2006

They did an incredibly bizarre pre-match angle where Booker tried to forfeit the title instead of defending it. Benoit called Booker a coward. Sharmell slapped Benoit repeatedly. Booker finally jumped Benoit, and the match was underway.

Booker T(c) (w/ Sharmell) vs. Chris Benoit [United States Championship]

They proceeded to work a match that was right on theme with their second best of seven series: long and boring. They tried to get a little physical with it, but it came off as very meaningless in the context of their boring series. They did some to try to make the win come off as being more meaningful, but it was impossible for me buy into it. I can see some people liking the PPV matches they had out of context. To me, this was just yet another tedious match in what genuinely felt like a neverending series of them. Benoit won the match and the title cleanly after making Booker tap out to the crossface. (**¼)

 

Read Chris Benoit match reviews!

Read Booker T match reviews!

 

Watch some free matches!

Chris Benoit vs. Terry Funk

Booker T & Test vs. The Rock & Chris Jericho

Booker T & Rhyno vs. Steve Austin & Kurt Angle

Booker T vs. Curt Hennig

Booker T & Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio & Rob Van Dam vs. The Bashams vs. Mark Jindrak & Luther Reigns

2.0

The final score: review Very Bad

The 411

This was the worst.