2001 started out as a kind of mixed-bag year for fans of professional wrestling. The WWF was coming off a hot 2000 where ratings stayed in the same territory as they did in 1999 even as they tried to find a balance between the noveau Crash TV style that was popular with the casuals and the old-school wrestling feel that was big with the old-timers. Conversely WCW was undergoing yet another reboot, and ECW was hanging on by a thread, hoping for a money mark to come save them from the sinister accounting practices of Paul Heyman. By the end of the year, the entire wrestling industry had gone to shit, seeing that WCW and ECW were both gobbled up by the WWF, and Vince McMahon in his infinite wisdom decided to spray their corpses with his symbolic gism rather than integrate both entities into the company in a way that would have endeared longtime mark fans rather than made them feel like they weren't wanted.
Between those two occurances was the ultimate bone for us smark fans, one shining beacon where maybe the WWF was going to keep its streak of the hotness going and actually build two main eventers who weren't statuesque and innately muscular. No, they were Chris Jericho, the INSANELY charismatic talker and supremely gifted worker and Chris Benoit, who at the time was known more for his awesome matches rather than his gruesome ability to murder his wife and child and then himself. Even though we (and by we, I mean me and the six other people who play along with the gag) refer to him now as "He Who Shall Not Be Named" out of shame and mockery, there's no real denying that at the time, he was an important piece to the WWF puzzle. They were going to push both of these guys to the moon in opposition to Steve Austin (who was FINALLY getting over as a heel, albeit slightly) and Triple H. Of course, we all know the story. Trips tore his quad, Vince began the worst-executed angle of all-time, and well, things went to shit. Here's that faint glimmer of hope, which now serves as the biggest "D'oh!" moment in wrestling history. Enjoy!
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