In Chris Jericho's newest book, The Complete List of Jericho, Dave Meltzer talked about his top 10 favorite Jericho matches. He was far from the only one, as tons of people in the book gave their top 10 favorite Jericho matches and top favorite Jericho moments. Anyway, in this top 10, he talked about Jericho and Benoit Vs Triple H and Steve Austin. And according to Meltzer, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit Vs Triple H and Steve Austin happened because Vince McMahon was given false information from the cable companies about buyrates.
Here's an abridged version of what he wrote. I didn't include the stuff that talked about the match itself.
"Austin and Triple H did a Pay Per View main event with The Undertaker and Kane that was supposed to start a long program. Then Vince McMahon got the word that the show only did 300,000 buys. While at another time, that would have been a number to celebrate, after 1999 and 2000, it was considered a terrible number. McMahon decided they need to do something new. Heyman was working for WWF by this time, with ECW having just shut down. His suggestion was to make Benoit and Jericho the top babyfaces, and to do so, they'd need to beat the company's two biggest active stars decisively to kick things off. McMahon signed off on it.
In those days, the reporting of Pay Per View numbers was haphazard at best. The company would get an estimate from its cable partners a few days after the show. The number could be off the real number by 20 percent, which is pretty significant. Vince McMahon had told me that his entire business at the time was about drawing big Pay Per View numbers and reacting to those numbers. He was having to make decisions on what was and wasn't working based on numbers that weren't completely accurate. He thought with tens of millions of dollars at stake, how could the cable industry not be able to give him an actual number the day after the event, or at least a few days after. Remember, he came from a business where decisions were based on the live gate, a number the promoter knew midway through the show, and you take that number and tweak your direction based on this.
About a month or two later, McMahon found out that Austin and Triple H Vs Undertaker and Kane actually did closer to 450,000 buys, which wasn't a bad number. Had he known that before, Benoit and Jericho would have never been put over in what was essentially a panic move. Unfortunately, even as great as the match and the ending was, McMahon pivo
... keep reading on reddit ➡On GB News having a chummy pint with Farage yesterday, shilling for China. Great look for the Liberal Democrats.
I am making a doc for cable television with Vince Neil. I guess I am asking for help. I need to know what the best videos are....the best photos....and the best questions you want asked as fans? I am a long time redditor and am asking for help :-) I figured you are the people who would be interested! Photos and video links of key moments are great! Useful info and pointers are definitely welcome. Thanks for any and all help! Hopefully rip my inbox :-)
