[SD] Detailed Report from Tapings in Washington, DC (Spoilers)

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And we are here LIVE (well, I was, last night) at the Verizon Center in beautiful downtown Washington, DC. The crowd is very lively – I don’t believe it’s sold out, but it’s very close. Tony Chimel tells us several times that the pyro will be going off soon, and the show would be starting. The crowd buzz starts to grow, and then BOOM – man, those explosives are loud (and *hot* — I can feel them in my seats in section 101; they must be nearly unbearable if you’re sitting right in front of them). And so we go straight to… umm, nothing. Wow – way to kill the buzz, guys. Luckily, that only lasts a minute or two (during which the crowd amuses themselves with dueling “wooo!” chants), until we finally here the music for…

Booker T (w/Sharmell) vs. Tatanka. Booker gets a somewhat mixed reaction — the lower floor sections across from me were filled with “smark” fans, so the crowd reaction was mixed for pretty much the entire night. And just to prove my point: as soon as Tatanka’s music hits, they absolutely SHOWER him with boos. Wow – the crowd really, really didn’t want to see him. (The family sitting next to me is confused by this — a Mom with her 9 year old son, 11 year old son, and 15 year old daughter. I quickly try to explain why smarks act the way they do, but I’m not sure how well it goes over. I ask the 9-year old who his favorite wrestler is, and he tells me that he likes Undertaker and John Cena. Oh boy – he’s in for a shock later tonight.) (By the way, if that family is reading this, please email me – I lost my notes that had your names on it.) Although I have to say, Tatanka looks a bit better in person than he did on TV (to me, at least). Sharmell takes a seat at the announcer’s table. The match itself is… meh. The crowd pops for Booker’s big moves (including a very nice sidekick that catches Tatanka coming off the top rope), and they continue to boo Tatanka when he gets even the most basic offense (and oh man, do they let him have it when he does his “pissed off ethnic stereotype” comeback routine). Booker has the match won, but before he goes for the pin, Boogeyman’s music starts up. Everybody looks up the ramp (except, luckily, me — because I catch Boogey running through the crowd and crouching down behind the announcer’s table). Boogey slowly rises up right behind Sharmell, with a mouth full of worms – which of course freaks her out. While Booker is screaming in the ring at Boogey, Tatanka catches him from behind, and gets the pin with a roll-up. Afterwards, Boogey chases Booker and Sharmell out of the ring, eats some more worms, rinse, repeat.

Randy Orton vs. Super Crazy. Orton gets the biggest heel reaction of the evening – you can just feel the hatred when he pulls that “arms wide” pose in the corner. Having just recently re-watched ECW’s One Night Stand, I was happy to see SC — but unfortunately, the crowd didn’t give him much of a pop. Orton dominates to start, until SC catches him with a dropkick to the head. SC then gets a surprising (to me) amount of offense in, with a several near-falls that the crowd seemed to believe might actually result in a 3-count. SC was getting *serious* face pops by the end of this match, simply based on what he was showing everyone in the ring. However, SC misses a moonsault, and gets caught with the RKO for the pin.

(9 year old next to me: “Mom, someone over there has a sign that says ‘John Cena Sucks’!” He seems legimately upset. Geez, how am I supposed to explain the concept of ‘workrate’ to this kid?)

MNM (w/Melina) vs. Matt Hardy & Road Warrior Animal. No, that’s not a typo. Hardy gets, by far, the biggest face pop of the night so far (not a typo there either). Geez, Animal looks bad – looks like all of his upper-body muscle slid down into his gut. Hardy starts off hot, Animal comes in with a few power moves, but gets caught in the corner and takes an extended heat sequence (again – not a typo). Believe it or not, Melina’s screams are even MORE annoying live. Hardy finally gets the hot tag (and crowd pops huge AGAIN – why doesn’t this guy’s popularity come through this well on TV?), and goes to town on MNM. He gets the Twist of Fate, but the pin is broken up. (From a distance, it’s nearly impossible to tell Mercury from Nitro, so if I get them switched here — just deal with it.) Animal clothelines Mercury out of the ring, and motions for the Doomsday Device, but Hardy stops him, and tells *Animal* to go the top rope, while Hardy lifts up Nitro on his shoulders. But, as Animal comes off the top rope, Mercury comes back in and clips Hardy’s knee, screwing everything up. MNM hit the Snapshot on Hardy, and that’s all she wrote. Post-match, MNM leaves, and Animal gets pissed at Hardy, screaming that he never should have climbed up on the top rope in the first place. The two of them come face-to-face, but Animal backs off… and then charges Hardy and attacks him from behind. The beatdown continues out of the ring, and on the ringpost. The crowd is PISSED.

They play scenes from the WWE’s visits to Afghanistan, which seems to excite the family next to me for some reason — I assume it’s just when they show Cena (the Mom and the daughter *really* like him). I give a quizzical look at one point, and Mom explains that she was actuallly *in* Afghanistan — she served there until about a year ago, and she recognizes most of the places they’re showing in the video. Well, shit – now I owe her a beer.

Finlay vs. Lashley. The crowd is solidly behind Lashley, and Finlay gets a decent heel reaction (but about 10% of what Orton got). The match itself is decent, but somewhat short, as it quickly degenerates into a brawl and a double-DQ. The refs pile into the ring and pull them apart, but we get several “break free, rush across the ring, and dive at your opponent” moments: the crowd pops HUGE for Lashley every time he does this.

They run a quick video recap of the spat between Kristal and Jillian, and announce that they will have a match next week.

We get a backstage bit with Burchill and Regal, with William again trying to convince his former tag partner to ditch the pirate costume. (“If you go out there dressed like a bloody buccaneer, these people will laugh at you!”) Burchill informs Regal that next week, he’s getting his first match — and he’s going to dress exactly the same way, and if he has anything to say about it, his first opponent will be: Mr. Regal himself. And with that, he pulls out a knife, and cuts Regal’s necktie off. And once again, Regal looks rather non-plussed.

Kurt Angle (w/”You suck” chants) vs. Undertaker (w/smoke and spooky lights). About a 25 minute match, that started off slowly but told a very nice story. The end came fast-and-furious: Angle goes for the Ankle Lock, gets kicked off; hits the Angle slam, UT kicks out. UT goes for the chokeslam, reversed into another Ankle Lock; UT reverses into the Triangle Choke, Angle makes the ropes. Angle goes for a moonsault (BIG pop from the crowd when they realized it) but misses; UT hits the Tombstone. UT goes for the pin, but it’s broken up by Mark Henry and Davairi, to the biggest heel reaction of the night. The crowd is PISSED again.

Henry drags UT out of the ring, and slams him into the ring apron a couple of times. Henry then clears off the announcer’s table, and lay UT across it. He then clears off the Mexican announcer’s table, and climbs up on that. We get a primal scream, a couple of chest pounds, and… nothing? Henry almost makes like he’s going to walk away, but simply walks to the other end of the Mexican announcer’s table. More screams, more pounds… and he takes 3 steps and splashes UT through the table. BIG pop from the crowd. Davairi tears his jacket off and throws it at UT – and we end the show.

Overall, a fairly entertaining show, with four matches that ran from decent to very good (SC/Orton, and the ending of the Angle/UT match really had the crowd going). And of course, we still have 2 hours of Raw coming up – and the crowd is definitely ready for it.

Top 5 Face Pops
1. Undertaker
2. Matt Hardy
3. Kurt Angle
4. Lashley in pull-apart brawl
5. Super Crazy’s nearfalls

Top 5 Biggest Heel Heat
1. Mark Henry interference
2. Randy Orton
3. Tatanka
4. Animal’s turn
5. Finlay