Chris Jericho Recalls Pitch For WWE World Title Match Against Chris Benoit
Le Champion details his 2004 pitch to face Chris Benoit for the WWE World Title in Winnipeg.
Joined by Nick ‘Eugene’ Dinsmore on the most recent episode of Talk is Jericho, Chris Jericho has detailed how he once proposed to have him and Chris Benoit face off for the World Heavyweight Championship during a Winnipeg-held episode of WWE Raw.
The Raw in question was the 5 July 2004 show, with Benoit then three months into his post-WrestleMania XX reign with Big Gold.
From Jericho’s point of view, having two of the greatest workers in the world, two long-time rivals, two Canadians – including one local to the area – main eventing for the biggest prize in the business would be the perfect way to close out that red brand outing.
Instead, Jericho would end up involved in a musical chairs segment hosted by Eugene.
“I’ll never forget that week. I’m from Winnipeg, I think Benoit was the champion at the time. I’m like, ‘We should do something like Jericho vs. Benoit for the World Title in Winnipeg. What a story!’ And [Brian] Gerwitz calls, ‘I got some ideas.’ ‘What is it going to be?’ ‘You’re going to play musical chairs.’ I was like, ‘What the f**k are you talking about?’ And I was super pissed, because I was expecting some kind of classic angle in my hometown.
First time ever on TV in Winnipeg, but I’ll tell you what, that segment ended up being great because we’re just having some fun with it, and it was actually really cool. But when I was first pitched that, I was like, ‘This sucks! I hate Eugene!’ – as if you wrote it.”
That particular episode of Raw featured Eugene getting to be the Raw General Manager for a day.
In addition to the musical chairs segment, Jericho did get to wrestle that night, but that was in a losing effort against Intercontinental Champion Randy Orton. As for Benoit, he and Edge lost a main event handicap match against Eugene, Ric Flair and Triple H.