January 31, 2000 had a few big moments in wrestling history, and two of them happened on Raw is War (Monday Night Raw’s name during the Monday Night Wars. They dropped the War part after 9/11).
Mimicry and birth of a new stable
Mimicing the invasion WCW portrayed with WWE stars appearing on Nitro a couple of years earlier, the Radicalz (former WCW champions Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko) made their WWE debuts by sitting in the audience at ringside.
This wouldn’t last as during a tag team match between the New Age Outlaws (“Road Dogg” Jesse James and “Bads Ass” Billy Gunn) and Head Cheese (Al Snow and Steve Blackman), Road Dogg found his way over the barricade among them. After climbing back over, he started pushing and shoving them, apparently taking offense to something they said, they swarmed him and beat him and Billy Gunn down. During the process, Jim Ross coined their name Radicalz when he said, “The Road Dogg took a shot at these four radicals.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xixRCIKtOOg&t=43s
Prior to this, Konnan, Billy Kidman, and Shane Douglas had joined the foursome in allegedly requesting their release from WCW if Kevin Sullivan remained WCW’s head booker the Friday before Souled Out was held.
While the four that would be dubbed the Radicalz remained steadfast, Kidman, Konnan, and Douglas backed out of their threat. To be fair, the WWE was the only other big market around and ECW was dead or dying, so it’s likely that Konnan and Douglas’ reasoning for not following through had more to do with their previous experiences in the WWE than anything else, but they’re the only ones that can answer that.
It’s rumored that Chris Benoit was then booked to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to appease him, and when the other Radicalz arrived at Nitro, they were sent home for requesting their releases and not backing off.
Benoit, at hearing of that, decided he would leave with them in spite of assurances that he’d remain WCW world champion. He left the bet with Nick Patrick as he left.
Kurt Angle suffers his first pinfall loss
On a lesser note for the evening, but no less impactful, Kurt Angle faced the Rock in the night’s main event. In what was a really good match given its short length, Angle played his heel role to a tee, even asking his hometown fans why there were booing him since he was from there. The Rock put a stop to it, and to cheers from the WWE faithful, including the front row nearly diving over the barricade to catch the Rock’s elbow pad, hit Angle with the People’s Elbow for the pinfall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX_m52PNsxI&t=35s
While this ended Angles unpinned streak, it only fueled their rivalry that would continue off and on for years to come.
Hervina makes history
Harvey Whippleman in drag (as Hervina) beat The Kat in a “Lumberjill Snow Bunny” match in a snow-filled pool surrounded by female wrestlers who kept the competitors from leaving to become the only male wrestler to hold the women’s championship.
His reign lasted less than a day (the match was broadcast February 3) to Jacqueline in less than a minute. It was the shortest WWF Women’s Championship reign in history.
Guess that makes it a two- for-one deal?
Okay, that was a bad joke.
That’s it for today’s first This Day in History (that’s right, another is coming later), so thank you for tuning in and I’ll see you later today for our next historical reminder.
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