First off the Richmond Coliseum looked to be very close to sold out. There were people walking up and buying tickets so it wasn’t totally sold out but it had to be about 95% full.
Velocity and or Dark Matches:
Orlando Jordan vs. Johnny Depp, no it‚s Keith Richards, no wait, it‚s Paul Burchill. O.J. is out to insult us before Burchill makes his entrance. You see, O.J. is from Richmond and he‚s not too proud of that fact. He goes on to insult one of Richmond‚s own, the late Arthur Ashe. O.J. gets a loud Ã…’You Suck”° chant for that one. Anyway, Burchill takes care of the hometown boy in about 6 minutes.
Velocity announcers Josh Mathews and Steve Romero make their way to the announce table to call the action.
Simon Dean & Gymini vs. Paul London, Brian Kendrick and Funaki was next. Decent match that sees Gymini catch Kendrick while he is trying to hit a top rope bulldog. Gymini finishes off Kendrick with their finisher.
Next is exciting Junior Division action. Didn‚t catch their names but the one wearing white beat the one wearing blue. Played as a comedy match (and I use the word comedy loosely).
Next was a guy who didn‚t get an entrance vs. Sylvan. Sylvan told us we all suck and then proceeded to beat the no entrance guy in a short match.
Velocity main event saw Super Crazy (w/ Juan Deer) vs. Vito (w/o Nunzio). Nice, loud „Super Crazy”° chant for this match. Crazy hit a standing moonsault to pick up the 1∑2∑3.
Change over to SmackDown! Bring out Tazz and Michael Cole!
Cold open as we go right to the theme music for Randy Orton. Randy goes on about winning the WrestleMania 22 title shot from Rey Mysterio at No Way Out. He is getting massive heel heat in this promo, probably the loudest of the night. He says destiny is on his side and then he proceeds to run down Rey, and Eddie Guerrero and everyone who doubted him. As everyone is waiting for someone to run down the ramp to attack, Chavo Guerrero comes from the crowd and starts beating the tar out of Orton. The 3 Amigos lay out Randy and sets him up for the frog splash. Chavo hits it and then has to be forcibly removed from the premises by about 8 security guards.
During the break they showed a promo for Kane‚s new movie See No Evil. No one really seemed to care.
Next segment sees MNM defending their WWE Tag Team Titles against Matt Hardy and Tatanka. Can someone explain to me why they put a non-title match on a PPV and then have the same match but make it for the title on free TV? I didn‚t think so. This was a very good match with a lot of fast paced action and double teams. Tatanka looked very strong and agile for a guy who was away from the ring for so long. Matt Hardy had a nice move where he hit a sort of Closeline / Side Effect combo on both Nitro and Mercury. The move was to no avail though as some Melina interference and a handful of tights saw Mercury pin Matt Hardy after about an 8 minute match.
Next we go backstage where William Regal makes an appearance. He is reading a letter to Paul Burchill written by a fan asking him how he can let Burchill embarrasses himself and his former tag team partner by allowing him to dress up like a pirate. Regal tells Burchill that he‚s a “bloody hooligan, not a pirate”. Burchill is non-plused as he hands a fake bomb to Regal and leaves the room only to come back and say „Boom”° when the fuse burns out. Very strange indeed but Regal did get to work the word „besmirched”° into his diatribe.
Next is the Hall of Fame update where they show the same Eddie video they showed on Raw. Still hard to watch that footage.
For some reason, they had to change the top rope all around the ring. So to pass the time they showed us a Diva photo shoot video. Needless to say, no one in the arena seemed to mind the delay.
Booker T came out with his wife Sharmell to sit-in with Tazz and Cole for the announcing on the next match.
The Dicks make their entrance. They were expecting to be in a tag team match. They were delighted to hear Tony Chimel announce that instead of a tag team match they wiould be in a handicap match. Their moods quickly change however when they find out that they will be facing The Boogieman. The match doesn‚t last long as Boogieman pinned one of the Dicks with a chokeout – powerbomb. Afterwards, Boogieman comes over to Booker T‚s end of the announce table. Booker and Sharmell get out of there in a hurry and exit through the crowd. Boogieman decides to move over to Tazz and Cole. Boogieman then grabs his bucket o‚ worms and pours it all over the announce table. Tazz is over the wall and Michael Cole looks like he‚s about to puke. One thing I will say about The Boogieman is that he gets a reaction from the crowd. Not sure it‚s the reaction they want him to get, but it is a reaction none the less.
The „Big Time”° WrestleMania moment tonight is the Swanton Bomb off the ladder into Bubba Rey Dudley by Jeff Hardy from WrestleMania 2000.
Rey Mysterio is out next to say that he is very happy that Eddie will be a member of the Hall of Fame Class of 2006. He is also out to apologize to everyone for letting them down at NWO and loosing his WrestleMania 22 title shot. Theodore Long comes out to console Rey. He tells him that even though Randy Orton cheated his way to the win at NWO (and Teddy has the video evidence to prove it) he can‚t reverse a referee‚s decision. So while he can‚t take Randy Orton out of the match at WrestleMania, he can add Rey to it. So he makes it a triple threat at WrestleMania between whoever the champion is vs. Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio. Needless to say, Rey (and the crowd) like this announcement.
Next out is Kristal with a copy of the 2006 Diva‚s Magazine. She is all set to give everyone a preview (by removing the robe she is wearing) when Jillian interrupts her. Jillian tells her that no one wants to see Kristal out of the robe so Kristal winds up slapping Jillian, ripping her shirt off and then dropping her own robe.
Gregory Helms cuts a promo which I am guessing was for our eyes only to try and drum up some heel heat. He said that while he had heard that the Virginia state slogan was „Virginia is for Lovers”° he didn‚t realize that that meant brother and sister love. I don‚t know it seemed funny at the time.
Next match is for the Cruiserweight title and it‚s Gregory Helms vs. Psicosis. Match never really gets in sync as these 2 don‚t seem to mesh well for some reason. They both seemed a beat or two off. Helms does however manage to retain the Cruiserweight title.
They then show us extensive footage of the Undertaker / Kurt Angle match from NWO. After that Theodore Long comes out to announce that next week at the Raw / Smackdown Supershow from Washington DC it will be a rematch for the World Heavyweight Championship between Undertaker and Kurt Angle.
After the break Randy Orton is backstage complaining to Teddy Long about the Taker / Angle match next week and also putting Rey Rey in the WrestleMania match.
What I think is the SmackDown! main event is next and its Randy Orton / JBL / and Finlay vs. Rey Mysterio / Bobby Lashley / and Chris Benoit. Really good match with everyone getting involved and hitting various finishers. Bobby Lashley is very impressive live. He is extremely quick and explosive. He and Finlay seemed to mesh really well. There were several Eddie chants as would be expected. Benoit must have hit close to 10 Germans spread out pretty evenly among his 3 opponents. Finish saw Rey Rey pinning JBL after Chris Benoit soften him up a bit. Benoit and Rey are posing in the ring, joined eventually by Bobby Lashley. I think that‚s where the show will end.
After the end of that match, they announce our main event which is a fatal 4-way for the World Heavyweight Championship with Kurt Angle vs. Mark Henry vs. Randy Orton vs. The Undertaker. Biggest pops of the night were for Kurt Angle (2nd loudest) and Undertaker (loudest with ease). Match only lasted about 5 minutes. Undertaker Chokeslamed Mark Henry to hell but before he could get the pin, Kurt Angle snuck in gave Undertaker an Angle Slam. With Taker incapacitated briefly, Kurt Angle pinned Mark Henry. Seemed way too short to be the main event for SmackDown! so I‚m pretty sure it was a dark match. Only reason I am doubting that is this match was Kurt Angle‚s only appearance on the show. Seems kind of strange to not have him on the show but who knows. This also was Undertaker’s only appearance of the night but he dosen’t show up on SmackDown! too often anyway.
All in all it was a really good show that should come off well on TV.
Credit: Scoop Madison, Inside Pulse
