Thanks to Paul Marshall for sending in the following report from the Smackdown television tapings that took place prior to RAW in St. Louis last night (FYI, he noted that some matches may be out of order):
Dark Match – Scotty 2 Hotty d. Vito (w/Nunzio). The match got the crowd
ready for the first show. Scotty wins it with the Worm.
Smackdown starts with a close up of the King of the ring throne and crown.
No pyro (most of it was used for RAW, go figure).
First match saw Booker T take on Matt Hardy in a KOTR first round match.
Very back and forth match. the group I was with was pro Matt Hardy.
Sharmell gets involved at key points, allowing Booker T to get a low blow,
then the scissors kick for the win.
Throughout the show, they aired vignettes hyping JBL’s Celebration of
winning the US Title at Wrestlemania, taking place later in the evening.
Also, they had some funny backstage action with William Regal and Paul
Burchill throughout the show. William was seen wearing a woman’s outfit, a
teddy bear suit, and a chicken little suit.
Paul London (w/Brian Kendrick) versus Joey Matthews (w/ Melina & Johnny
Nitro). Very cool entrance by the lovely Melina, as usual. Pretty exciting
match that almost ended abruptly when Paul took a nasty bump from the top
turnbuckle outside the ring. Paul battled back and it looked as MNM was
going to use the snapshot, but Paul rolled Joey up for the win.
Funaki took on The Great Khali…basic squash match. The Great Khali won
with his foot on Funaki’s upper chest for the cocky pin.
The Gymini (w/ Simon Dean) took on Paul Burchill & William Regal. I missed
most of the match after the entrance. William was wearing a pirate outfit.
My buddies told me that Burchill wouldn’t even tag Regal in and ended up
leaving the match. The Gymini won…which was a little shocking.
Bobby Lashley & Chris Benoit took on Orlando Jordan and Finley. Nice
reception for Lashley and Benoit. Pretty much tag formula right here.
Lashley wins with the Dominator on Orlando.
It was announced that Kurt Angle will get his rematch against Rey Mysterio
for the World Heavyweight Championship next week on Smackdown. That was met
with some boos because we wanted to see that match badly.
The main event…was the JBL Celebration. Jillian Hall was first out, as
she brought out a local high school marching band and she announced JBL.
JBL came out in a stretch hummer limo and the ring was decorated with red,
white, and blue things. Balloons came down from above as JBL marveled at
his entrance. In the ring, he degraded Jillian Hall, for her mistake last
week with hitting him with the steel cage door…and for her mistake of
using a local marching band for the ceremony. He ended up firing her and
talked about how he treats his property. He goes on about saying that he
will defend his title next week in England and that he was looking ahead to
the WHC match with Angle and Mysterio. He degraded Mysterio and out came
Angle. Angle said that he was the American Hero and the two bickered until
Rey made an appearance. Rey talks to Angle, making JBL pissed off. Rey
nailed JBL and Angle delivered the Angle Slam. 619 connected to JBL and Rey
and Kurt were face to face as Smackdown presumably ended at that moment.
Dark Match after RAW – John Cena v. Undertaker. There was no official
result as the Great Khali interrupted the match and beat down the
Untertaker. After the match, Cena walked up the ramp and left the arena,
only to come back out and raise the WWE Title in the air. Overall, he got a
slightly better reaction in St. Louis.
Great show tonight…I enjoyed it very much.
