WWE Smackdown “WrestleMania Revenge Tour”
April 25, 2005
Cardiff, Wales
(1) Paul London defeated Chavo Guerrero, Billy Kidman, Akio, Spike Dudley, Shannon Moore, Scotty 2 Hotty, and Nunzio in a Battle Royal for the cruiserweight championship. Spike got eliminated early, but kept running back in to get beaten up some more. Scotty was OVER and Chavo got huge heat throughout. Final three were London, Kidman and Chavo, and London got eliminated when fell during an attempt t to skin the ropes. After a few moments of confusion, Kidman and Chavo threw each other out for a double elimination, and the ref restarted with the final three in the ring again. Hmmmm, it’s almost as if they messed up the finish! After the restart, London got the win, but there was no London Calling. Great opener with some nice comedy spots like Scotty worming spike while all 6 other wrestlers held him down.
(2) Rene Dupree defeated Funaki. Dupree reversed a tornado DDT into a Michinoku Driver, picked up the win and then failed to do the French Tickler, leaving me and my brother most disappointed.
(3) Hardcore Holly & Charlie Haas defeated The Basham Brothers. Bashams both acted terrified of Hardcore throughout, but all he did was a few hard sounding chops. Finish came when the Bashams pulled a switcheroo, but Charlie reversed the rollup. Bashams teased dissension in the ranks throughout the whole match, and pushed each other and faced off after their defeat. How is Hardcore Holly so over?
(4) Carlito Caribbean Cool defeated Mark Jindrak. Jindrak came out to complete apathy, and Carlito got some mild face pops. Jindrak wrestled as the heel, taunting the crowd and getting GAY chants from the 10 year olds sat near me. Finish came when Carlito rolled Jindrak up by the ropes, but didn’t actually use them as leverage, getting the clean win.
(5) Undertaker defeated Kurt Angle. Angle played the coward throughout the match, and the finish came after a tombstone. The response to Undertaker was incredible considering the small (6,000ish) arena, and seeing the number of kids in Deadman T-shirts made makes you realize why he keeps going. A few nice reversals from Nagle, but the match was fairly disappointing.
Torrie, Dawn Marie, Miss Jackie and some hot brunette threw t-shirts into the crowd. Five minutes of eye candy, getting some crowd interaction with the chanting and no wrestling. Great diva segment.
(6) MNM (w/Melina) defeated Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio. MNM won after Melina interfered, stopping Eddie making the save following an MNM double team on Mysterio. The crowd LOVED Eddie and Rey and there were a few comedy spots in this one to. Didn’t seem to play up the differences between Rey and Eddie, but a really good tag match none the less.
(7) Booker T defeated Heidenreich. Urgh. Heidenreich was awful, and Booker didn’t get much reaction as the crowd seemed tired following the previous match. No-one cared when Booker won with an axe kick. No Mrs. T appearance either.
(8) John Cena & Big Show defeated JBL & Orlando Jordan. Loads of comedy spots, with Cena taking an inflatable hand of a kid in the front row and pounding JBL and OJ with it before giving them a giant finger and the “you can’t see me”. JBL acted scared of Big Show all match, OJ got no offence at all, and Cena was insanely over with the welsh crowd. JBL is a promoing God, cutting a great promo on the welsh dissing the royal family, their flag (the squirrel!), their national sport, their women and that they were part of England. I’m English, and so I thought it was genius! JBL may not be much in the ring, but he is hugely entertaining on the mic and with his mannerisms. Finish came with a missed double belt shot from the heels and then an F-U to JBL and a Chokeslam to OJ. After the match was a slightly lame promo from Cena saying how great Wales was, and an F-U to Chimmel when Cena asked him about wales and Chimmel said it was part of England.
Notes: The venue was small (6000ish), but the atmosphere was great. The crowd were really young, but all loved it. Also, I ‘m really glad I went to the Smackdown dark show instead of Raw taping in Birmingham – Twice as many matches, and a whole lot more entertainment!
BIGGEST BABYFACE POPS
Cena
Taker
Eddie
Rey
Scotty
MOST HEEL HEAT
JBL
Chavo
Angle
Jindrak
Credit – Tom Luxton, PWTorch.com
