SMACKDOWN!
Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Paul Burchill in a dark match
Scotty 2 Hotty dominated much of the match. He done the worm and before he could chop, Burchill knocked him across the ropes and rolled him up for the pin. I read an interesting report on the Springfield Smackdown! Show where the same finish was implemented against Scotty 2 Hotty. Winner: Burchill
Benoit vs. Christian
Chris Benoit came out to a nice ovation from the crowd. Captain Charisma came out and a lot of younger men cheered. Orlando Jordan came to the ring and said, please dont tell me this is happening. He said he refused to go down in history as the guy who tapped out at 22.4 seconds and attacked Chris Benoit. Benoit regained his step and caught Jordan in the crippler crossface and almost made him tap before Christian starting stomping and kicking. Booker T made the save and the match was announced as a tag team. Orlando went for the chair on the outside and Booker T grabbed the chair. Booker pulled the chair away and accidentally ran into Sharmell. Orlando and Christian doubled up on Chris Benoit and Christian executed the unprettier for the 1-2-3. After the match, Benoit was furious and asked Booker T what had happen ( or thats what appeared to going on). Winner: Christian and Orlando Jordan
Teddy Long and the network guy came to the ring with an applause (granted it was Longs applause). Teddy Long said it was time to name a new number one contender for the Heavyweight Belt. He talked about the contender being an underdog his whole life, a family man, and a Latino. He was obviously talking about Mysterio but the network guy took the microphone and announced it would be Eddy Guerrero as the number one contender. Batista came out to a huge pop and listened. Eddy came to ring and talked about how he had several addictions and the worse one of all was that of manipulation. He said it was behind him now and he was a changed man. . A guy shouted at Batista not to believe him and Eddy called him a Moron and then apologized and said See, the old Eddy wouldnt have done that -apologize. Batista smirked and said everyone knew what kind of man he was and he could imagine what kind of champion he would be. Eddy talked some more about being a changed man and offered his hand and Batista said friends dont shake hands, friends hug
and he embraced Eddy. The camera showed Eddys face contorting with the discomfort of hugging Batista but acted nice. Dont misunderstand one important facet of this angle
.Batista is not playing the fool that believes Eddy
and Eddy isnt trying to be super secretive about his ambitions because its a superficial type of niceness. Writing about the microphone talk does not do it justice
.it came off well and had some comical moments with Batista calling eddy Holmes.
L.O.D vs. M&M
It could play differently on television but this match was of inferior quality. Animal wrestled little and relied on H to carry the math (scary, huh?). M&M is such a talented team to be wasted on the New L.O.D. The match ended when one of the M&Ms hit Heidenreichit with one of the tag team titles. Winner by DQ: L.O.D.
Teddy Long was upset with the network guy for ruining his decision for the number 1 contender. Network representative said the network wanted someone like Eddy because he has overcame odds
..(Would you want a former addict to headline your show if you were a strict values network? ) Nunzio and Vito came in and Nunzio complained about not being on Smackdown. Eddy Comes in and thanks Teddy Long for the opportunity and listens to the complaints. He says that he would like to see Batista in action and alludes to a match of Batista vs. Nunzio and the network guy jumps on the idea and announces the match.
Bradshaw vs. Mysterio
The Titantron showed footage of the bull rope match between John Bradshaw Layfield and Dave Batista. Rey Mysterio received one of the biggest pops of the evening which surprised me. Bradshaw and Mysterio focused on the David and Goliath match where Bradshaw was stomping and trying to simply catch Mysterio. Mysterio controlled the speed of the match only to be stopped a few times. One highlight is Mysterio going for a monkey flip in the corner but squatted away. Rey Rey hit a somewhat blotched springboard moon Sault for the surprise victory. Bradshaw was stunned and later backstage, he asked Julian Hall if she would be work for him. Bradshaw is portrayed as a chief executive so a public image specialist to help salvage his reputation makes sense and will be entertaining to watch. Winner by Springboard Moonsault: Mysterio
Josh Matthews attempted to interview Bradshaw about losing to Batista and Rey Mysterio but he just walked away in disgust. Ken Kennedy walked up to Matthews and talked about the media being all about negativity. He then started to smell something and said the foul odor was Joshs cologne, then said it must come from his underpants, then said it smelt like Arkansas and started to gag.
Mr. Kennedy came out and told the ring announcer to get out of the ring. Mr. Kennedy introduced himself (and not his opponent. He added one pound to his weight saying he gained a pound. Kennedy has a lot of talent and is the real CAPTIAN CHARSMA. His microphone skills are topnotch and his ring skills are incredible. The Match was short and sweet. I marked out when he executed the AMAZING finisher (Green Bay Plunge). Winner by an off the top rope flipping firemans carry slam: Mr. Kennedy
Kennedy
Batista vs. Nunzio
Eddy Came out and watched match from the stage. This was obviously a squash match with Batista dominating. He picked up Nunzio and placed him on the top rope and Nunzio dropkicked the champ. He hit the spine buster on Vito and power bombed Nunzio ( Man, that looks REALLY REALLY STIFF when you see it in person.) Eddy gave the thumbs up to the champ. Winner by a stiff Liger Bomb: Batista
Randy Ortan vs. The Undertaker The Ortons kept talking about a surprise all night. Bob Orton had a surprise in a U-haul truck and kept teasing the crowd by knocking on the side or the camera showing them as they closed the door. This was an excellent match with back and forth action from both respective wrestlers. The Undertaker worked on the arm and the shoulder by clubbing blows and teased the OLD SCHOOL but was foiled by Orton kicking the ropes. Orton gained the offensive and started working on taker with fists and typical Orton arsenal. He really pulled out all of the stops on the undertaker with DDTS/impact moves and signaled for the U-Haul Truck. He opened the door and it the surprise was a casket. Taker got up and surprised Randy with a choke slam. Taker went for the pin but the ref was pulled out of the ring and knocked out by Bob Orton. Taker and R. Orton wrestled outside and taker grabbed Orton and placed him on his shoulder, opened the coffin lid only to see HIMSELF in the coffin. It surprised him as it did us and he dropped Orton and tried to regain his senses. The two went back to the ring and Taker won with a tombstone. After the match he did the signature fist raised in the air (on the stage). Winner by Tombstone Pile driver: The Undertaker Note: The undertaker in the coffin could have been fake but it looked VERY real and I thought he would open his eyes and we would have another Undertaker 2 in WWE history. Television could show I to be fake looking but everyone was stunned so it looked real.
