WWE Smackdown Report – Philly 1/10/06, according to Ryan DiBiase and WrestlingObserver.com:
Arena was pretty much full. Only part of the upper level was papered. Crowd was hot for the most part the entire night.
Velocity/Dark Matches
–FBI over Danny Doring and Scott Drake. (Doring got no ECW heat or chants, for some reason) Someone needs to tell Vito to get a new set of tights-flesh colored tights make him look like he stole Naked Mideons gimmick tonight. FBI goes goes over via superkick by Vito.
–Kennedy comes out, cuts a promo and shills his T-Shirt on sale at the arena. He is still very much over, for some reason. I don’t get it.
–Jamie Noble over Scotty Too Hotty. Noble used a dropdown slam where Scotty lands on Nobles knees-a move stolen from Roderick Strong of TNA. After that spot, Noble does a Taz-Mission type submission for the win. Scotty is still way over.
–Simon Dean comes out on the segway and introduces the Shane Twins. (Gymani) Squash match over too unannounced jobbers. From the upper deck, the Shane Twins looked like The Bashams on juice. Charming.
—Paul Burchill w/ William Regal over local talent, Nick Berk of CZW fame. Not sure what you call his finisher, but it money.
—Mexicools over The Dicks. Run-in by Animal, helping Crazy and Psychosis, but afterwards, he turned on both of them. Got a huge face pop before and after the turn.
Smackdown Tapings
1.) Batista comes down to the ring to cut a promo. Huge pop. Teddy Long in there as well. Cuts promo on the legacy of the World title. (Brings up Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair and other..) Correct me if I am wrong, (Credit to my brother, Justin DiBiase for pointing this out) but that belt over his shoulder has about a three year lineage. It doesn’t go back to Flair. Even though it is the same model and *look* as the old WCW title, that championship began after HHH was awarded it on Raw. Am I right?
Editorial note: it depends on who you ask — some think you’re right, and this version of the Big Gold Belt only goes back to HHH and September 2002; others say that since Bischoff was “disputing” the WWE Title that Brock Lesnar took to Smackdown, he was using his GM power to separate the WCW World Title out from the other belt. I personally go with the latter.
Bats cuts a promo on his injury. Gets choked up and says he is giving up the title. Seemed like a send-off. He thanked the fans, kissed the title goodbye and handed it to Teddy Long. As he was leaving, he took his sports jacket off and threw it in the crowd near the entrance ramp. It should be noted that as we go to a commercial, a security guard takes the jacket BACK from the fan who caught it. Sport jackets are hard to come by these days in Titan I guess. I miss the Canary Blue McMahon one, don’t you?
2.) Backstage, Bats is saying his goodbyes to workers and officials. Ricky Steamboat has good words for him, as does Arn Anderson and Rey Jr. Bats puts over Rey Jr before he leaves.
3.) Cut back to the ring, Teddy Long cuts a promo saying that there will be a 20-man Battle Royal for the vacant title, right here tonight. Gi-normous pop.
4.) Video package runs on the Best of Seven Series.
5.) Cut to backstage, Teddy Long backstage with Randy Orton. Orton wants in the Battle Royal, even though he has the U.S. title match. Long says no, and wants him to prepare for Benoit.
6.) Cut back to the ring, Sharmell introduces Booker T, on crutches.
7.) Orton over Benoit to win the United States title for Booker T. Before the match starts, Booker gets suspended from ring side. Match goes on, very solid stuff and pretty long. Finish: Benoit tries to get Booker in the Sharpshoter, Booker shoves him off, Benoit backs into the ref-ref bump. Orlando Jordan runs in—Benoit takes care of him. Benoit snaps on a Crossface on Orton-no ref. Booker comes back out with Sharmell wielding a crutch. Swings at Benoit, Benoit ducks—Benoit almost set up for an RKO by Orton, no, snaps on a Crossface on Orton. (Booker powders) Orton is tapping now. Booker grabs the belt from ringside, gets back in and nails Benoit over the head with it while the Crossface is applied. Booker powders out, Orton lays on top of Benoit, ref counts to three. Booker T is your U.S. Champ.
7.) Video clip of Eddie’s family receiving the “Spirit of the Heart” award.
8.) Cut backstage, Piper back there with JBL. JBL convinces Piper to let him be a guest on Piper’s Pit tonight. Piper is a face here.
9.) Ring set up for Piper’s Pit. Piper comes out to a decent pop. He notes that the first Piper’s Pit was held in Philly 22 years ago. Wow. JBL comes out, cuts promo on the Battle Royal and how he will be champ again. In a hilarious moment, Piper falls asleep on a stool at one point and we can hear him snoring on the mic. Piper then has had enough and cuts a promo on JBL— Piper introduces his REAL guest—The Boogeyman. Huge pop. This guy is over like gangbusters. (What does gangbusters mean anyway?) I’m waiting for Vince to sell foam worms. Money. Once he gets in the ring and does his little shimmy gimmick, JBL powders, but Jillian is left in the ring. Boogeyman has his way with her, sniffs her and licks her huge scab on the side of her face many times. (Is it a scab?) Huge tongue. Gene Simmons-like. He then bites the scab off of her face and chews it up. He spits it out, then holds it up like sacrifice and eats it. This got over. Jillian then powders out and leaves with JBL. …which leaves Piper alone in the ring with Boogeyman. Boogeyman saunters over to Piper who is saying prayers in the corner on the mic. Hilarious. Piper is by far one of the best actors this business has ever seen—or should I say improviser. Hilarious. Boogeyman then powders to the outside, leaving Piper untouched as the segment came to a close.
10. Cut backstage, Mark Henry and MNM cutting a promo on the Battle Royal. Basic stuff.
11. Main Event: 20-man Battle Royal. 19 men in the ring. Long pause. Number 20? Kurt Angle. Boom. Not a pop—bigger than a pop. A boom. Amazing face heat. Shows that fans don’t buy the Anti-American Angle. It’s a 1984 cookie-cutter gimmick and it DIDN’T work. I’m glad they put Angle in this spot. You can’t force things on the fans.
Match goes on. Here are the workers in it, listed in the order they were eliminated: JBL, Big Vito, Animal, Simon Dean, Nunzio, OJ, Regal, Crazy, Burchill, London, Matt Hardy, (at this point Henry and Angle are on the outside of the ring and Henry slams Angle through the announce table. Angle out cold. Henry comes back in.) Lashley and Henry have a stand off-Henry sends him out. Kendrick, Sylvan, and MNM were eliminated next. This left Rey Jr. and Mark Henry. Henry tosses him out after a minute or two. Angle back to his feet. Angle and Henry. Hits and Angle Slam on Henry. Good spot: Angle with a leg scissors on Henry on the ropes trying to send him over, but Henry counters and hits a Power Bomb on Angle. They do a similar leg scissors spot again, but this time Angle leans all the way back and sends Henry to the floor. They both went over, but Henry hit first.
New World Champion, Kurt Angle. Celebration in the ring with confetti and Pyro. Huge, Huge, Huge, Huge, Huge, Huge face heat. That’s six times I typed “huge”.
End of the show. Fans go home happy.
Very fun show live.
Credit: Ryan DiBiase, WrestlingObserver.com
