Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko made their first appearance on the January 31, 2000 episode of WWF's Raw is War as audience members and backstage guests of Mick Foley. They interfered in a match consisting of Al Snow and Steve Blackman and The New Age Outlaws. While the group was sitting in the front row, Road Dogg took a cheap shot at Benoit, which prompted all four to severely beat both of The New Age Outlaws inside and out of the ring. The attack ended after Guerrero performed a frog splash on Billy Gunn and Benoit performed a diving headbutt on Road Dogg, with Jim Ross dubbing them The Radicalz. The four were offered a chance to "win" contracts by beating the members of D-Generation X in a series of three matches. Malenko lost to X-Pac after an illegal groin attack, while Saturn and Guerrero ended up losing against The New Age Outlaws, since Dogg had pulled the referee out of the ring when Guerrero was covering Gunn for the pin after a frog splash, thereby illegally breaking up the cover. Benoit then lost to Triple H, but not before making him tap out to the Crippler Crossface while the referee was unconscious. Soon afterwards, the four wrestlers were "given" contracts with the WWF by Triple H, in exchange for them turning on Mick Foley. The group became known as The Radicalz (sometimes spelled The Radicals in on-screen graphics), and they attained some measure of success. At first tightly-knit, all four of the wrestlers in the group eventually drifted apart as all of them sought stardom as singles wrestlers in the WWF.
Saturn and Malenko formed a tag team, with the injured Guerrero serving as a manager for the team. Benoit sought singles success and only worked with the stable when he required back up. Malenko quickly won the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, annoying Benoit. Varying levels of success caused a rift within the group, and they quietly separated. However, Saturn turned on Guerrero, instigating a feud over the WWF European Championship.
The four drifted apart mainly in the summer of 2000 to pursue individual goals, but in November of that year the group reformed and aligned themselves with Triple H as his secondaries/hired guns during his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin. In early 2001, Benoit had turned into a fan favorite during a rivalry with Kurt Angle, while the other Radicalz remained villains and eventually forced Benoit out of the group, with Guerrero replacing him as the leader.
Guerrero eventually turned into a fan favorite as well, and had a short alliance with Team Xtreme (The Hardy Boyz and Lita), but was taken off television in June 2001, eventually being released by the WWF in November 2001. Saturn, Terri and Malenko continued as The Radicalz until Malenko's retirement, making their final appearance together on the July 3, 2001 episode of SmackDown!, where a frustrated Malenko attacked Saturn after his erratic behavior disrupted a bout between Malenko and Scotty 2 Hotty.