Four days passed since the smoke cleared at SummerSlam and King Booker remains at the top of the SmackDown mountain.
As the Wilkes Barre crowd assembled, the King of SmackDown and his queen entered the ring. Flanked by United States Champion Finlay and William Regal, the King celebrated his win against Batista at SummerSlam. King Booker told the crowd that he could not have vanquished The Animal without Finlay and Regal. To reward their efforts, King Booker would knight both men and they would serve in his majesty’s service.
Lashley who speared Sir Finlay and pressed his attack against Sir Regal and The King (not to be confused with Raw’s Jerry Lawler) abruptly interrupted the celebration. As King Booker and his court continued their flogging, The Animal hit the ring to even the odds.
This brought out SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long. He said that he spoke to each of the five participants earlier in the day and they all agree to compete in the night’s main event by participating in a three-on-two match where The King and his knights would face The Animal and Lashley later in the evening.
Kennedy looked to continue his winning streak as he took on Matt Hardy. Before the match, current WWE Cruiserweight Champion Gregory Helms (who remains the longest running champion ever) came out to do color commentary.
Hardy controlled the match in the early moments, securing several near pins by mixing a ground-based style of wrestling with his usual “mattitude”. Kennedy would show why he should be in the WWE title hunt (in addition to beating two former champions in Batista and Rey Mysterio) by changing the direction of the match, focusing in on Hardy’s shoulder.
While the match teetered between the combatants, Helms left the commentary table and interfered, costing Hardy the match and continuing Kennedy’s momentum.
SmackDown saw it share of debuts this week as 2006 Diva Search Winner, Layla El made her way to the ring to be interviewed by Mike “The Miz” Mizanin. While she talked about be excited to win the competition, Miz seemingly stole the spotlight by announcing that he would be debuting in the ring next week on SmackDown.
Tatanka has faced disappointments over the past two weeks; however, he hoped to turn things around, as he would face the undefeated Sylvester Terkay. The monster from Big Bear California seemed unimpressed by the Lakota tribesman as Terkay blended MMA-style moves with cheap shots and other blatant acts of disrespect.
Tatanka would not surrender easily, however, as he battled back with a series of chops and clotheslines that rocked Terkay. Being the first to take the MMA fighter off his feet, Tatanka landed a tomahawk chop off the top rope. However, the tribal warrior would not get his hand raised in victory as Terkay’s foot was on the ropes.
Feeling as though the SmackDown referees screwed him over in previous weeks, Tatanka went ballistic. Believing this was yet another screw job, and unfocused Tatanka walked into Terkay’s vicious roundhouse kick, which allowed the MMA fighter to remain undefeated.
The war between Chavo Guerrero and Rey Mysterio pushed both men to extremes at SummerSlam. With Vickie Guerrero unwittingly costing Rey his match on Sunday, she looked to make amends to both men for her mistake.
As Rey entered the ring, he looked genuinely hurt by the events that unfolded at SummerSlam. Vickie, who sought Rey’s forgiveness, tearfully apologized to the former WWE Champion.
While Rey accepted Ms. Guerrero, would Chavo do the same? As he walked down the isle, Chavo looked as if the situation was not yet resolved between him and Mysterio. However, Vickie wanted the situation to end.
Vickie would ask Chavo to forgive her for what happened at SummerSlam and to move on from the conflict with Rey. While seemingly unwilling to comply with Vickie’s plea, he hugged his sister-in-law.
However, the adage appeared trued that blood was thicker than water as Chavo attacked Rey from behind. In an atrocious display, Vickie smashed Rey’s face with a steel chair, leaving her one-time friend unconscious in the ring.
WWE Tag Champion Paul London was in singles action against K.C. James. As both men’s partners were at ringside, the match ended in a no contest, as the returning Pitbulls, Jamie Noble and Kid Kash hit the ring and laid into both teams. Ultimately, referees rushed the ring to separate the three teams.
Former Barker Beauty, Kristal secured a win over JBL’s ex-image consultant, Jillian Hall when Kristal countered Hall’s Samoan Drop attempt and held on to Hall’s jeans for the win.
SmackDown’s hottest free agent, Montel Vontavious Porter, sat at ringside as Vito (who remains undefeated in a dress) took on Sylvan. Looking for a measure of revenge against Vito for a previous defeat, Sylvan would dominate early in the match balancing aggressive punches with high intensity slams. Vito, however, would regain control of the match and keep his streak alive by “dressing” Sylvan and cinching in the submission.
Vito would not end there as he challenged a mocking Porter to get in the ring. It would appear that Montel would oblige, however, a call from the free agent’s representative nixed the idea.
"No contract, no contact," Porter said to Vito as he left the ring with two female companions. “We’re going to have to do this some other time.”
The main event would see King Booker and his knights; Sir Regal and Sir Finlay take on the team of Lashley and Batista. The Animal, who secured a DQ victory over The King at SummerSlam, continued on his quest to unseat SmackDown’s current monarch. Sir Finlay would start the match for the royals, though it mattered little as Batista dominated the match. Lashley would continue the domination as Batista tagged him in.
The heels were able to gain the upper advantage by using the royal cheap shots followed by the royal double and triple teams. At one point, even the leprechaun, the Little Bastard, made an appearance as Finlay used him as a weapon against Lashley. At one, the leprechaun even attacked Michael Cole.
A miscue by the heels allowed Lashley to tag in Batista who cleaned house; Booker tried to attack The Animal with the royal scepter, but received a devastating spine buster, which allowed Batista to secure the win.
Contents copyright © 2006 by Trinae Angelique Ross. This document is written exclusively for www.rajah.com. No part of this report may be used without expressed written permission by the author or webmaster. Inquiries about using this material on other websites should be made to the author or to the webmaster at webmasterATrajahDOT com.
