1990:
1992:
- The Pegasus Kid Vs Jushin Thunder Liger – NJPW G1 Climax ’92 – Day 4 – 4 ¾* (Can't find link, sorry.)
1993:
1994:
- Wild Pegasus Vs The Great Sasuke - NJPW Super J Cup '94 – 5 – Benoit put on the performance of a life time on this night when he had back to back to back great matches against some of the toughest compeitiors in NJPW at the time. Black Tiger (Eddie Guerrero) had started becoming friends with Wild Pegasus (Chris Benoit) when they toured Japan and Mexico and other countries and through working in gyms/dojos and other things they would help each other become better wrestlers. The final match with Sasuke is seen as one of the best matches in history for NJPW and even garnered the perfect 5 star rating.
1995:
- Chris Benoit Vs Eddy Guerrero - WCW Nitro 16/10/1995 - 4* - This was the first time that the two bestfriends would compete against each other on WCW television.
1996:
- Chris Benoit Vs Kevin Sullivan - WCW The Great American Bash 1996 – 4 – A very good brawl, these men take this match to everywhere in the arena.. literally. Some of the punches that these two men give each other look stiff as shit.
1997:
- Chris Benoit Vs Curt Hennig – WCW Nitro 06/10/1997 – 3 ¾* - This was on the Tribute to Brian Pillman show for WCW, fun match to main event Nitro.
1998:
- Chris Benoit Vs Booker T – WCW The Great American Bash 1998 – 3 ½* - This was their final match in their original best of seven series, it seems people have forgotten about their first one (and probably their second one as well), but I’ve always enjoyed this match and thought it was pretty good. A climax to a great series of matches between the two.
1999:
- Chris Benoit Vs Bret Hart – WCW Nitro 04/10/1999 – 4 ¼* - Benoit had actually trained with Bret, his father and pretty much his whole family when he was training to become a wrestler. So it really puts it in retrospect for Benoit to come full circle and face Canadian-native Bret Hart. This match was dedicated to Owen Hart who had passed away earlier that year in the same building. There was plenty of mutual respect between each man, and they both put on one of the best WCW matches. This may be my favourite match from WCW in it’s last couple of years because of how well they work together.
2000:
- Chris Benoit Vs Sid Vicious – WCW Souled Out 2000 – 2 ¾* - To preface this, this is going to sound like a rant – and it is a rant. WCW really didn’t know they struck gold with Benoit, he was a great wrestler, arguably one of the best of all time but honestly this whole show was in shambles. The champion Bret Hart was injured therefore vacating the world title, Jeff Jarrett who was slotted to win got injured prior to the show – the booker Vince Russo quit and Kevin Sullivan was placed as the booker – this resulted in many wrestlers to ask for their releases (Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and more) or they were fired. So Benoit was given the opportunity to win the WCW World Championship.. only to have him vacated the next day on ‘technicality’ – instead of having a lengthy championship reign with made-stars and potential future WCW stars. This was the straw that broke the cammels back for Benoit, the following night Benoit would show up on rival company WWF’s main show Raw alongside Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero & Dean Malenko.
- Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, Triple H & X-Pac Vs Cactus Jack, Grandmaster Sexay, Rikishi, Scotty 2 Hotty & The Rock – Raw 07/02/2000 – 4 ¼* - Twists and turns lead us to this match, but its fast, it’s impactful and honestly it has one of the best endings to a Raw ever. I wont spoil it; I’ll just let you watch it.
- Chris Benoit Vs Kurt Angle Vs Chris Jericho – WWF Wrestlemania 2000 – This wasn’t just Benoits first Wrestlemania, but it was Angles & Jericho’s as well.
- Chris Benoit Vs Chris Jericho – WWF Judgment Day 2000 – 4* - These two men were some of WCW’s greatest cruiserweights and they were relegated as afterthoughts. The best decisions they made were to jump ship to WWF for greener pastures. They were taken more serious and always delivered no matter if they were competing against or with each other. This match is a brutal and faced paced Submission match, which brings out the best from each other.
- Chris Benoit Vs The Rock – WWF Fully Loaded 2000 – 4 ¼* - Chris Benoit who was a relatively new WWF Wrestler at this time to get an opportunity at the top WWF Star and the WWF Championship at the time. This match is sort of forgotten (or tried to be forgotten by WWE) but it really is a fantastic match and can show that Rock can really work. This PPV as a whole is super underrated and rarely talked about so if you’ve got a spare couple of hours on your hands watch this show.
2001:
- Chris Benoit Vs Chris Jericho – WWF Royal Rumble 2001 – 4 ¾* - These two would feud periodically throughout 2000 and 2001, but this time they’d face in a one on one affair for the Intercontinental Championship in a ladder match. This is one of the best one on one-ladder matches of all time and it’s just so fantastic the chemistry that these two have with each other. Albeit this another one of those brutal matches, including a fantastic Walls of Jericho on top of a ladder spot, which I squirm at every time at I see it.
- Chris Benoit Vs Chris Jericho Vs Eddie Guerrero Vs X-Pac – WWF No Way Out 2001 - By 2001, several of the WCW Cruiserweights had made the move from WCW to WWF, and they were getting more opportunities and spotlight then ever in WCW. All four of these men were former WCW stars and they got put on an underrated classic with each other.
- Chris Benoit Vs Kurt Angle – Wrestlemania X-7 – 4 ¼* - Personally I think that is because Benoit is Angles best counterpart. These two are so evenly matched when it comes to in-ring ability and that’s why every time they compete against each other it’s magic. For some odd reason at the previous Wrestlemania their match (which included Jericho) just seemed off-pace and off-beat where as this match fixes all of that and really holds up as one of their better matches with each other.
- Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho Vs Triple H & Stone Cold Steve Austin – Raw 21/05/2001 – 4 ¾* - One of (if not) WWE's greatest 2 on 2 Tag Team match this match could’ve main evented any WWE PPV at that time. Austin and HHH were now working as a tag team and reaking havoc on all the wrestlers male or female at this time. This was also the way to have Benoit and Jericho gradually gain some credit as top-WWF stars.
2002:
- Chris Benoit Vs Kurt Angle – WWE Unforgiven 2002 – 4 ½* - In Benoit’s first Smackdown Brand Exclusive feud he got to compete his former arch nemesis – Kurt Angle. These two must’ve loved fighting with each other, because here we are again discussing one of their matches, although this time I would say this match is less known to most fans. It’s still as good as their previous matches against each other, but what helps it more is that it leads to them becoming tag team partners with each other in the next couple of months.
- Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle Vs Edge & Rey Mysterio – No Mercy 2002 – 4 ¾* - This was the final match in the tournament for the Smackdown Tag Team championships quite frankly its one of the best matches from the Smackdown brand in 2002. The mix of these four wrestlers styles works so good with each other, the endless possibilities of what they could do with each other is unfathomable. If you’re watching for the first time it’s very hard to pick who will win this match, highly recommend. It may have only involved 4 out of the 6 ‘Smackdown Six’ but it just goes to show how great each person was. This is a perfect 5 star match for me.
- Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle Vs Edge & Rey Mysterio - Smackdown 07/11/2002 – 4* - Following No Mercy 2002, Edge and Mysterio were offered rematches for the WWE Tag Team Championships on an episode of Smackdown it was contested in a two out of three falls match; this is an ultimate guilty pleasure of mine because it was one of the first Smackdown matches I ever watched at the time due to limited access to wrestling.
- Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle Vs Edge & Rey Mysterio Vs Chavo Guerrero & Eddie Guerrero - Survivor Series 2002 - 3 ½* - This match was seen to be the big blow off for the ‘Smackdown Six’. All 6 men in this match were some of the greatest highlights from Smackdown 2002, if you’ve read my other essential match lists with any of these 6 men you can see in 2002 onwards on this list you can see that these 6 men put on great, continuous match with each other. Highly recommend everyone gets to watch this match – or really this whole PPV in general
2003:
- Chris Benoit Vs Kurt Angle – WWE Royal Rumble 2003 – 4 ¾* - This to me is Chris Benoit's and Kurt Angles best match in WWE, well for me at least. These two had wrestled many, many times (hell if you’ve actually read the list you’ll see they’re listed several times.) I love these two mens wrestling abilities, two technicians giving their absolute all in a close to 30-minute match. This is the perfect 5 star match to me, and if you don’t agree with me, rewatch the match and be the judge for yourself. Also watch after the match finishes when Benoit finally gets to his feet and you can hear the crowd give Benoit a standing ovation for his performance. This match goes to show that WWE saw Benoit as one of their future World Champions.
- Chris Benoit Vs Kurt Angle – Smackdown 07/02/2003 – 4 ¼* - This is a rematch from their Royal Rumble match a week or so prior and it’s just as good and I highly recommend everyone watches this forgotten gem.
- Chris Benoit Vs Eddie Guerrero – Vengeance 2003 – 4* - These two are best friends, who just love professional wrestling, staggering throughout tiny promotions, all the way to the big wrestling world of Japan, back to America in companies such as ECW & WCW finally to make it to WWE. This match was the final for the tournament for the inaugural WWE United States Championship. This is close to five stars for me, if this match didn’t include a screwy finish I would award it that. But don’t disregard that as anything bad at all. This is my favourite match between the two.
- Chris Benoit Vs Brock Lesnar – Smackdown 02/05/2003 – 4 ¼* - This is a very underrated gem from the great Smackdown era from 2002-2004. Two of the best athletes of all time compete in the squared circle for the WWE Championship; previous to this Benoit had made Lesnar tap out at the Survivor Series PPV. Benoit would compete against Cena earlier that night in a number one contender match. This match gives us a tease of how Benoits 2004 would go.
2004:
- 30-Man Royal Rumble Match – Royal Rumble 2004 – 3 ¾* - This match helped build up two of WWE’s biggest stars at the time, Chris Benoit and Randy Orton. They entered as number 1 and number 2, and Orton lasts more than half of it and Benoit would actually go on to win this match from the number one position, the only person to do it since Shawn Michaels. But it’s a 30 men royal rumble match, not a 2 men royal rumble match, so credit goes to everyone involved it’s a very good match and is one of the more funner Royal Rumbles to sit back and revisit. The ending of Big Show & Chris Benoit has been repeated many times since, but this is still the best.
- Chris Benoit Vs Triple H Vs Shawn Michaels – Wrestlemania 20 – 4 ¾* - It’s a shame that WWE can’t really talk (and show for that matter) about how great this match is, and the post-match celebrations were. For rightfully reasons I guess, but I digress this isn’t a ‘WWE should show and talk about Chris Benoit’ post. This is probably my favourite Triple Threat match of all time, these three men just work so well with each other. This also has one of my favourite Wrestlemania moments, and that’s the post match celebrations. Eddie Guerrero as WWE Champion and Chris Benoit as World Heavyweight Champion embracing each other in a WWE ring to end Wrestlemania 20. Emotional, perfect and very fitting. This is possibly the greatest end to a Wrestlemania of all time.
- Chris Benoit Vs Triple H Vs Shawn Michaels – Backlash 2004 – 4 ½* - This was a rematch to their Wrestlemania 20 match, and by all means it holds up as just as great as this. They say most rematches can’t live up to what we first saw, but this is definitely exceptional to the rule.
- Chris Benoit & Edge Vs Batista & Ric Flair – Raw 26/04/2004 – 3 ¾* - WWE trusted Benoit so much in 2004, that they not only had Benoit hold the World Heavyweight Championship, but also the World Tag Team Championship alongside with fellow Canadian Edge.
- Chris Benoit Vs Triple H – Raw 26/07/2004 - Triple H yet again has a 60-minute iron man match, this time against Chris Benoit, one of the best pure wrestlers of all time. This match really doesn’t get noticed or really talked about much, maybe it’s because people don’t enjoy long matches or purely they just didn’t like this match – but I’ve always enjoyed this match. I think they could’ve saved this match for a PPV personally, but that’s not a big deal.
- Chris Benoit Vs Randy Orton – Summerslam 2004 – 4 ¼* - This is Chris Benoit’s swan song as World Heavyweight Champion. He had a decent run as champion with some great matches with some of Raw’s top talents including: Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair and Kane. But this was the first of Randy Orton’s World Championship win; he really has the crowd behind him during this match. This was the start of WWE’s first time trying to build Orton as the face of the WWE, and he certainly earned the respect of Benoit after the match.
2005:
- Chris Benoit Vs Chris Jericho – Raw 07/02/2005 – 3 ¾* - This was the first time WWE had returned to Japan in years, and WWE were going to give them a hell of a show they put former-NJPW wrestlers Benoit & Jericho on first in a great, however forgotten Submission match.
- Chris Benoit Vs Edge Vs Chris Jericho Vs Christian Vs Kane Vs Shelton Benjamin - Wrestlemania 21 - 4 ½* - This match is fairly Significant as it is the first Money in the Bank match in WWE history, which featured 6 of Raws best mid-card talent at the time, but also significant in the career of Edge because it helped skyrocket him to become one of the top guys in the company for a couple of years. This match would also help develop the ongoing Edge and Benoit feud which had slowly been brewing since mid-2004.
- Chris Benoit Vs William Regal – Velocity 12/07/2005 – 4 ¼* - Great match between two absolute fantastic wrestlers, wish it gained more attention and was actually contested on a PPV or a Smackdown instead of WWE’s C-Show.
- Chris Benoit Vs Booker T – Armageddon 2005 – 4*
2006:
- Chris Benoit Vs Finlay – Judgment Day 2006 – 4* - Another great and underrated match from both Benoit & Finlays long list of decent matches.
- Chris Benoit Vs Chavo Guerrero – Survivor Series 2006 - In late 2006 Benoit returned from a few months off and won the United States Championship and would be placed into a feud with his bestfriend (Eddie Guerrero) nephew and wife and an underrated series of matches.
2007:
- Chris Benoit Vs John Cena – Raw 19/03/2007 - This was featured on a 'Wrestlemania Rewind/Switch Partners' episode of Raw, and a really fun and short match which people compare Cena's 2003 match with this one.
- Chris Benoit Vs Edge – Smackdown 08/06/2007 – 4* - This is one of Chris Benoit’s last matches before his who controversial death. But lets not let that take that away from either man, because this is also one of his best matches in WWE. These two could’ve main-evented many PPV's for the World Heavyweight Championship that year, such a shame.
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