Report by: Gareth Cullen, rajah.com reader
Smackdown (18/10/05) **Spoilers**
Velocity kicked things off with Scotty 2 Hotty/Matt Striker. Not too great
of a match, but the crowd was hot so it was fun. *1/4 (all out of *****)
Juvi/London for the Cruiserweight Title was amazing. Reverse headscissors,
the Juvi Driver, springboard dropkick. Fast paced and intense, easily the
match of the night. Juvi retains. **** 1/2
Christian/Spanky was also awesome. Christian doesn't actually sell moves
very wel camera side. However, he was intensely over with the crowd and
played well to them. is ability to remain in kayfabe was great as he utterly
ignored the crowd outside while everybody else at least nodded. ***
Regal/Burchill v. LOD was decent. However, the thing that truly made it was
the end where we saw the entire tag division (MNM, those short guys from
last week, and one other team) filled the ring. No Hemme, though. None at
all that night. Melina is insanely, insanely hot. **
Onto Smackdown.... cool hype video for Booker/Benoit
Benoit/Booker opens the show with some great spots. Some of the most chops
I've seen in a match lately (no I didn't see Joe/Kento yet). Benoit's
suicide dive to the outside that lead to him just crash landing on the table
was awesome. End saw a low blow from Sharmell, scissors kick, 1...2...3. New
US Champ. Crowd was all for Benoit and hated Booker after the match.
Booker's pyros are as hot as hell. ****
Benoit starts things off again with some great work backstage talking.
Apparently, when he screams, he's awesome. Somewhere in here, Cowboy Bob
said he couldn't compete, leaving a spot open.
Matt Hardy/Nova. Good match with a hot crowd for Hardy. Hardy wins
relatively easily. **1/2
Vito/Lashley. Complete squash, but Lashley did some more moves then he has
recently. Sambo, multiple belly to bellys, and a huge Dominator. ***
JBL cuts a nice promo backstage about Edge featuring a rocking line: If Edge
wants to show up then yum, yum- come get some.
JBL/Rey was pretty good with JBL really shining in the match. I was the only
man to boo Rey, so that was neato. Jillian Hall is definitely hot. End saw
Rey almost win when Edge's music hits. Edge runs from the crowd and spears
Rey for the DQ victory. JBL chases off Edge while Chris Masters hits the
ring and locks in the Masterlock. Afterwards, Masters takes out almost
everybody from Velocity before being run off by Holly and a few others. ***
Some more backstage stuff leading to hardcore match with Holly asking Sylvan
why he didn't support SD! Hardcore match was decent with a nice toss from
the lower level (where I am wearing the Peep Show shirt) to the ground. End
saw an Alabama Slam through a table. ***
Backstage segment introducing Junior division. Fans loved it for some odd
reason. Long seemed to be going insane from all the crap happening that
night. He opens a door and is greeted by Boogeyman who rambles on for a few
minutes. Teddy is frightened and goes to sit down where a Junior member
(Super Porky) tries to offer him some pork.
Eddie also cuts a nice face promo with Batista.
Orton/??? v. Batista/Eddie. Orton got nice heel heat, while Eddie and
Batista got over huge. Orton's partner is Mr. Kennedy. Kennedy goes to
introduce himself, but the ref tells him he can't. It'll probably be cut,
but the fans gave a huge round of boos for this. Match was ok, but too many
rest spots as end saw DQ when Eddie moved in the way of a chair shot from
Kennedy who wanted to hit Batista. Long came out and sent up a six man tag
involving Kennedy/Orton/Orton v. Batista/Eddie/Piper next week. End show. **
Post-Smackdown saw Orton v. Batista for the belt. Orton got the RKO when the
ref was out and the crowd counted to five before he rolled off. Batista then
reversed corner punches with a gigantic Batista Bomb to retain. ***/12
Good Smackdown! Great as a matter of a fact for the 6 matches on SD!
including the hardcore, US, and Lashley matches. Velocity is the place to be
as everything was gold save Striker/Hotty.
Afterwards, Lashley and Juvi signed autographs while Nova told me and my
friends to keep it down when we started a Nova chant. My friend and I also
chanted Kennedy and were told to "put more bass in it." Crazy seeing Melina
and Burchill together... she was actually quite affectionate to him.
Overall:
Biggest Pops went to:
Batista
Eddie
Christian
Benoit
Hardy
Biggest Heat:
Booker (by far)
Masters
Kennedy
Orton
Nova
Biggest Mark Out Moments for Me?
Booker winning
Kennedy coming out
London/Juvi
Christian/Spanky
The Long/Canon segment
Biggest Disappointments:
No Christy Hemme
No Kennedy on the mic
Biggest Surprises:
The number of matches
Velocity kicking that much ass
Nova getting over big as a heel
Christian getting over big as a face
Masters impressive in the ring (really, live he's damn good)
BUT MOST OF ALL O_O NEW US CHAMPION BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKER T!
