On Tuesday, 16 May 2006, WWE and the movie “See No Evil” presented SmackDown! from right here, in Albuquerque, New Mexico! [thumbs up, cheesy grin]. This live event was of course the taping for both the 19 May edition of the show and this week’s Velocity footage.
TODAY’S ISSUE: SmackDown! Live vs. Friday Night on UPN
I’ve been to both RAW and SmackDown! live before, as well as big pay-per-view events including SummerSlam ’03 and WrestleMania 21, yet I was quite surprised by the reactions from the Tingley Coliseum crowd. I’ll describe some of the flavors of the night that might not have translated through the television cameras.
Velocity taping:
Live in the arena Tuesday Night: I was almost shocked by the heat for this portion of the show. In the first match, they announced Sylvan’s opponent from Albuquerque, and the crowd cared deeply about this young man’s career success. When Sylvan cheated, he was booed mercilessly. Sylvan also earned the first of WAY too many “you suck!” chants of the show (in fact, he got three of them in this one match, so you can image how the evening went). When his “local” opponent made a slight comeback, the crowd was so fired up that I thought Rocky was about to knock out Drago. Sylvan finished with his own version of Marc Mero’s old TKO finisher, which looked kinda’ good on the French Canadian.
The crowd loved Pirate Paul, who shut down Simon Dean with his “Walking the Plank” finisher. Again, the pop Burchill received was downright shocking. Simon heard the “Simon sucks!” chants on at least two separate occasions during the match.
When Kash and Noble called out the dogs in their new gimmick, Albuquerque was only too happy to oblige them. The New Mexico dogs were barking for sure.
When Psicosis faced Cruiserweight Champion Gregory Helms, the decidedly Hispanic crowd went crazy for the Mexicool. Helms was another victim of the infamous “you suck!” chant, and the only thought I had about those locals singing that song was, “If they suck so bad, why did you pay good money and stand outside in the hot sun to see them?” Moving on…
Before the FBI faced off against Scotty 2 Hotty and Funaki in two consecutive matches, the crowd actually hit a “We Want SmackDown!” chant. Well, at least it was different.
SmackDown! opening:
Live in the arena Tuesday Night: Tazz got a monster pop, and any time Rey Mysterio’s image was on the tron during the history packages, the crowd almost came unglued. Judging by his heat in New Mexico, Mysterio could hold the title longer than Bruno Sammartino ever did if only SmackDown! were a South-West regional promotion.
MNM vs. PB&J:
Live in the arena Tuesday Night: At the beginning of the match, the ladies went after each other immediately, and as the men broke them up, I did approve of the crowd’s latest chant of “Let them go!” Unfortunately, yours truly failed to create enough support behind my attempted “M-N-M” chant. Damn. I’ve never heard a louder “hot tag” reaction than the pop London got after Kendrick had been beaten down by the champs.
Extended highlights packages:
Live in the arena Tuesday Night: Again, the very image of Rey on the tron generated so much heat, this time the crowd was moved to create a very loud “We want Rey!” chant. His heat on this night was absolutely amazing!
John Cena’s appearance on the tron also drew a pop, along with that of Trish Stratus and Kane. That is, if you’d call a cricket chirping in the upper balcony a pop. Kane’s image got NO reaction whatsoever, which would not be the case later that night.
Angle’s studio promo also generated a strong reaction from the crowd, and it was hard to hear his words in the arena.
Bobby Lashley vs. Jared Steele:
Live in the arena Tuesday Night: The second Lashley almost lost Steele on an attempted suplex, I remembered just how much editing can help a young wrestler look good on a taped show, versus the challenge of performing live on RAW, the only live nationwide pro wrestling programming today.
Booker T and Finlay vs. Chris Benoit and Gunner Scott:
Live in the arena Tuesday Night: Wow. To say the faces had heat in this match is to say the New York Yankees have been a pretty good baseball team over the years. This arena was rocking for the entire match. There were “Benoit!” chants, “Finlay sucks!” chants (again, not too original) and the roof came off the joint when Benoit used the Sharpshooter.
Booker T scuffles with two dudes in the front row:
Live in the arena Tuesday Night: This was something that didn’t make it to television. Booker got into a mild skirmish with two heavyset fans sporting Bret Hart t-shirts and with replica title belts slung proudly over their shoulders (I never understood that particular souvenir – do you fancy yourself the “real” champ? While one carried the Big Gold Belt, the other sported one RAW tag team belt. Don’t you even want to be a singles champ in your fantasy?). The crowd, of course, booed security for ending the action before the locals got a piece of Booker T. I’m sure they would have fared quite well in a face-off with the former 5-time WCW champion (note: my tongue was nestled firmly in my cheek when I typed that remark).
Angle advancement stuff – Undertaker vs. the Great Khali:
Live in the arena Tuesday Night: Daivari came to the ring during what was a commercial break on TV Friday night, and as he stood there we saw a video package highlighting this masterful “feud”. Taker’s visage on the tron got huge heat from the crowd, but they hated Daivari. In fact, he and Khali drew the ever-xenophobic “USA!” chant because, you know, they weren’t born in this country. In case you weren’t aware, to the average pro wrestling fan, being foreign implies that you’re evil.
Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy:
Live in the arena Tuesday Night: Matt was crazy over with the Albuquerque fans. After the post-match beat down by Henry, I was not surprised to hear the “What?!” chant from my fellow attendees. After all, it’s a cliché, and they were hitting their clichés on all cylinders this night.
Final TV Segment (Vito in drag, ppv card run-down, Rey vs. Kane):
Live in the arena Tuesday Night: During the “Vito does drag” segment, Burchill got another very strong reaction, even though he was only on the tron in the arena. Methinks they have potential to do something really solid with Pirate Paul, perhaps a US Title run. Wonder how long it’ll be before Creative ruins this one…
During the last set of graphics for the upcoming Judgment Day ppv, Rey’s image drew a huge reaction once again. I mean, ‘Hulk Hogan in 1984’ huge.
JBL heard at least two more “you suck!” chants while he berated Rey and tricked him into saying “May 19th” to draw Kane’s ire.
Kane’s appearance absolutely floored us all, although in hindsight, I felt I shouldn’t have been too surprised considering, as I mentioned earlier, “See No Evil” was a sponsor for this live event. You could feel Rey’s fear as Kane stormed towards the ring.
World Championship Triple Threat Match – Rey Mysterio vs. JBL vs. Mark Henry:
Live in the arena Tuesday Night: For weeks, the main event had been advertised as a triple threat title match featuring Mysterio, JBL, and Kurt Angle. Surprisingly, after his injuries, the local ads changed to Mysterio vs. JBL vs. Mark Henry, and that’s exactly what we got. After the cameras went dark and the TV portion of the show ended, Henry returned to ringside to demand the match he was promised.
I was quite surprised with the amount of action we got. They must have gone at least another 10-15 minutes. They actually told a bit of a story during the match, as JBL and Henry seemed to be on the same page until Henry was in a position to win the match. JBL would continually interfere with Henry’s pining combos on Mysterio, not wanting Rey to drop the strap before Sunday’s ppv.
The crowd attacked JBL with another fabulous chant, this time calling him a “Chicken shit!” How clever. There was also another “Eddie” chant, which makes absolutely no sense to me at this point. Hell, earlier in the evening JBL himself told the crowd that they’d better chant for Rey, because he was going to need the support of the fans to survive the title match with JBL on Sunday.
During the match, JBL mocked Guerrero’s mannerisms more than once, and the crowd went ballistic. However, that was nothing compared to their reaction when Rey hit JBL with his 619, then Dropped the Dime, and covered for the victory. After being decimated by Kane and left lying, he really drove home the gimmick of “underdog who will not quit” by surviving this second consecutive match.
The sign of the night was: “He’s not Eddie, he’s Rey!” Nice.
I’ll admit that SmackDown! has become somewhat of a chore to watch recently, but after feeling the electricity of the live crowd (forgiving their decided lack of originality), I have a bit more enthusiasm for the product.
For more on SmackDown!, check out the following:
Michael Fitzgerald’s SmackYOU!
Troy Hepple’s The (Early) SmackDown Report
The IP Wrestling Staff’s Rasslin’ Roundtable for Judgment Day
For other pro wrestling stuff, click below:
Steve Murray’s Look on the Bright Side
Iain Burnside’s Anti-Pulse
Douglas Smith’s TNA: In the Zone
We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.
p.s. – Why do you have to “put your two cents in”, but it’s only a “penny for your thoughts”? Where does that extra penny go? Somebody’s getting over…
