Following are spoilers for this week’s Smackdown, as well as ECW notes, from John C. of Rajah.com’s The Wrestling Oratory…
The dark match saw Cody Rhodes beat Daivari with a top rope crossbody
block. Cody looked okay, but it was your basic opening match.JBL and Michael Cole came out. I think JBL got one of the best pops of
the night.Chris Benoit and Matt Hardy vs. MVP & The Miz
Decent match that went about 15 minutes with a commercial break in
there after the usual babyfaces clean house spot. Hardy got worked
over for much of the match while building to the hot tag to Benoit.
The Crippler won it with a Crossface although no rolling Germans or
headbutt. He just got the point this time. MVP got a nice pop while
Miz was hated and Hardy and Benoit got a lot of support.Finlay pumped up Hornswoggle for his match later on. Have to give
Hornswoggle some props for the facial expressions.Michelle McCool vs. Jillian Hall
I’m a fan of both ladies as far as their bodies go, but the action
wasn’t all that great. Crowd was dead for it. After about five minutes
of a back and forth match, Ashley came down the aisle just as Jillian
was in the advantage, so Michelle ended up catching her with a
spinning backbreaker for the pin. Then Ashley left. Many of us were
wondering if Jillian was going to have a wardrobe malfunction because
it sure looked like she was close.Boogeyman prepared his mini buddy by giving him worms to eat.
Hornswoggle vs. Mini Boogeyman
Lots of fun with a hot crowd for it of course. Everybody loves the
midgets apparently. Finish came when Finlay came out from under the
ring (I saw him sprinting out there during Boogey’s entrance) to help
Hornswoggle. Finlay hit Mini Boogey with the shillelagh and then
Hornswoggle won it with a splash off the top. Crowd liked him.At this point it was pretty funny because they were putting the carpet
in the ring for what we thought was the interview segment (see main
event), but then they ended up taking it out quickly as Kane’s music
started up. During the match I could see ring announcer Tony Chimmel
yelling at one of the tech guys about it. I guess they got something
wrong on their order sheet.Kane vs. Mark Henry
This was one of the worst matches I’ve ever seen live and I’ve seen
Nathan Jones live, so that’s saying something. It went about 6 or 7
minutes and ended when Mark Henry gave him a bearhug on the floor,
then rammed him into the post. Kane got counted out. They made a
lumberjack match for One Night Stand as a result of this.Backstage, Edge did his usual promo about beating Undertaker and then
Batista, so he’s not an underdog.Deuce & Domino did an interview with some new announcer dude. It was
their usual ’70s type of speak with one of them (the short haired one)
being extra aggressive.Deuce & Domino vs. London & Kendrick vs. Regal & Taylor for the Tag Titles
This match was in the 15 minute range or so. Much of it was spent with
Kendrick getting worked over by the four heels. The guy behind me
wouldn’t shut up as he yelled for Regal to tag with Nigel McGuinness
while another guy in the area yelled at him to shut up before he opens
up a can of whoop ass. That got a loud ovation. Anyway, London came in
after the tag, cleaned house and went for something off the top when
Cherry shoved him off and the champs got the pin. I don’t remember
which one. The one with the longer hair, I think.Backstage, Teddy Long credited Vickie Guerrero with booking Kane vs.
Henry in a Lumberjack match at One Night Stand. Then Kristal pondered
about what would happen if Teddy and her weren’t on the same brand
after the draft. The segment ended with Vickie telling Teddy & Kristal
to go on a romantic night out on the town because she would take care
of the rest of the show. And then she did nothing to take care of the
show. Weird segment.Main Event Interview
Batista was a guest on the Cutting Edge show. Edge got a massive pop
on the way out. I’d say it was the biggest of the night. He had a sore
throat, so they got right to the point. He beat Undertaker and he beat
Batista, so he’s not afraid of him. Then he gently slapped him,
Batista gently slapped back. Then they gently nudged eachother and the
segment ended with Batista decking him with a right hand.Smackdown ended at about 9:40 so there was a 20 minute wait for ECW.
I’m not sure how it came across on TV, but we were pretty tired for
ECW. Also, the fact that ECW airs at 12am on Friday nights in Canada
doesn’t help. A lot of people didn’t know who the wrestlers were. Some
quick notes on it.Surprised to see Orton. He got a nice pop and Dreamer’s was okay.
The Punk/Burke match was well received. There was a lot of support for
Punk while very few people knew Burke. Even less people knew Cor Von,
but there was a massive ovation for the pounce through the table.Most people thought Vince/Lashley would be in the arena, so there was
a lot of booing when we found it was just going to be by video.Extreme Expose woke the crowd up. At that point we had one ECW match
in 40 minutes. It was a lot of video wall watching.Thorn vs. Mahoney was horrible. Nobody knew them.
Orton and Dreamer’s match was so rushed. Nobody believed Dreamer could
win, so nobody cared. Orton did get a nice pop for the RKO.After the show there was a Batista/Benoit vs. Edge/MVP match, but we
left to beat the traffic. I’ll just assume Batista pinned MVP with a
Batista Bomb.CHEERS
1. Edge
2. Batista
3. Benoit
4. Hardy
5. HornswoggleJEERS
1. The guy that shoots the t-shirts.That’s really it. The top heels like Edge and MVP got a lot of respect
from the people as they deserved.Overall it was just an average show. At over 3 hours it’s a long show,
especially with all the commercial breaks. That’s why the crowd was
dead for a lot of the ECW stuff. It was typical of a go home show
before the PPV. Most were disappointed that Smackdown lacked a main
event match, but everybody that wrestled worked hard and some of the
matches were okay.Thanks for reading,
John Canton of The Wrestling Oratory
Credit: John C., Rajah.com
