Quick results:
Jake Duncan d. Funaki (dark) with a TKO-like flapjack.
Chuck Palumbo d. Chris Master via a roll-up.
Jesse and Festus d. Conrad Borne and Jake Adams via
Festus rocket launching Jesse into a standing Conrad.
Drew MacIntyre / Galloway d. Brett Major via Dave
Taylor distraction and roll-up.
Undertaker and Kane d. MVP and Matt Hardy in a
non-title bout via Undertaker tombstone on MVP.
Great Khali d. Jamie Noble in a quick one via head
vice.
Jimmy Yang Wang d. Deuce via moonsault.
Rey Mysterio vs Finlay was a no contest.
Detailed Report:
The arena is at about the same / slightly lower
attendance than the last SmackDown taping (July 2006).
The entire lower bull is full but, save for sections
near the SmackDown set up to about looking directly
down at the ring, the upper deck is tarped off.
Even though he Justin Roberts did ECW tonight, it was
not a re-switch with Tony Chimmel as Roberts did
SmackDown too.
The tapings start with the WrestleMania 23 recap
video.
Funaki vs "Jake Duncan" - I'm 90% certain this is the
exact same dark match that opened last year's Detroit
SamckDown taping. Duncan was TNA's Trytan but last
time he was using the name Ryan. Exact same look as
his previous dark match. Crowd was surprisingly into
Funaki, but mostly in a "first superstar out" kind of
way.
SmackDown opens with a video recap of the Punjabi
Prison match at No Mercy. The video screen informs us
that Rey Mysterio vs. Finlay is taking place tonight
for the #1 contendership to Batista's title.
Palumbo (with Michelle McCool) defeated Masters when
Master's tried a clothesline but hit the ropes and was
rolled up. He had previously tried the Masterlock but
could not lock it. This match seemed better than it
looks on paper. Post match, Master's attacked Chuck
and put him in the Masterlock on the floor.
Jesse and Festus vs "Conrad Borne" and "Jake Adams".
Conrad (better known locally as Conrad Kennedy III,
aka CK3) and Jake (aka Eddie Venom) had no entrance,
just walked to the ring during a break. Some of the
smarter fans around us tried a "CK3" chant but to no
avail. Pre-match, Jesse informed us Festus just ain't
right all the time, and he's a tiger in the ring...
but really nice when it's not time to wrestle. As
mentioned above, Festus launched Jesse into a standing
Conrad for the pin. Some heat for this, kids seemed to
love it (chanting "Jesse" and "Festus" from time to
time).
Backstage, Jamie Noble informs Deuce and Domino that
Jimmy Yang Wang made some scandelous remarks about
Cherry. This makes them all angry.
A video for Joe Louis Arena only, Drew MacIntyre
appears on screen and informs us that he may be from
Scotland but he has dual citizenship, so he wants us
to chant "U S A" during his match. That sounds like
something that could be a funny gimmick for a foreign
heel but alas, it's just WWE trying to get fans to
chant "USA" at a foreign heel on TV.
Drew MacIntyre / Galloway vs. Brett Major. Brett came
out with his brother while Drew came out with Dave
Taylor, which actually had me wondering if he's really
Burchill and I don't recognize him with long hair and
no beard since I have the pirate image ingrained in my
head. The reason I say Galloway is because that was
the name in his titantron. Short match, Brett's
brother was attacked by Taylor on the outside,
distracting Brett long enough for Drew to roll him up
for the win.
A Diva Search video is shown. After that, they show
MVP and Matt Hardy discussing their upcoming match.
They both tell each other they have experience with
both Undertaker and Kane.
Undertaker and Kane vs Matt Hardy and MVP (non-title
match) was 12 minutes and pretty good action. Taker
is, as always, INCREDIBLY over. Most over guy of the
night, which helps keep the match interesting live.
Story was that Matt and MVP were actually working very
well together, with Matt even saving MVP from a
two-man chokeslam. Match ended when Undertaker went to
take a shot at MVP but MVP ducked and Matt was knocked
off the ring apron. MVP was then Tombstoned and
pinned.
Arena only video highlighting all of the Divas was
shown.
Rey Mysterio was interviewed by a woman named
Anastasia. He said he would beat Finlay and face his
amigo Batista at Cyber Sunday.
A recap of the Long/Kristal wedding was shown. Noble
was then shown in Vicki's office congratulating her on
swooping in on Teddy's job so quickly and vicously. He
then gave himself a pat on the back for riling up
Deuce and Domino by saying Jimmy Yang Wang made
comments about Cherry. Vicki said Teddy would be home
next week and told Noble he had a match against The
Great Khali next.
Noble was squashed quickly. The video screens were
focusing on his body just laying in the ring post
match.
A very good video package highlighting Jeff Hardy's
career was shown. I hope this was intended for the TV
audience and not just the arena.
Jimmy Yang Wang beat Deuce in a rather short (and not
that interesting) match with a moonsault onto a
standing Deuce. Post match, D&D beat up Jimmy and
Cherry slapped him around. After the cameras stopped
rolling and Jimmy walked to the back, he got a pretty
good reaction from the crowd.
Batista comes out for commentary. This was an entire
segment. He got a good pop though, 2nd loudest of the
night.
I assume this was arena only (and I figured out the
reason afterward) - a Tribute to the Troops recap was
shown in total darkness while, just visible from the
light from the monitors, a whole group of production
people walked to the ring, then to the backstage area
before the video ended.
Rey (3rd biggest pop, but some boos) vs. Finlay was 7
minutes of pretty good action. Before the match began,
JBL reminded the fans to vote for him as the ref
between Batista and Finlay or Rey. Finlay brought a
chair into the ring and Rey kicked it into his face,
causing the ref to call for the bell. They kept
fighting (Rey hit Finlay with some chair shots, then a
619, but Finlay caught the West Coast Pop and
powerbomed Rey) until the lights went out. *DONG*.
Lights come back on. *DONG* Undertaker is already in
the ring and Finlay and Rey are laid out (you could
kind of see Taker doing this to them with the camera
flashes). At this point I realized the previous
in-arena segment was a way to sneak Taker to the ring.
Taker looks down to the announce table and stares down
Batista, who holds up his title belt.
As the ring crew and refs changed the set for ECW,
Justin Roberts informed us that Vicki Guerrero ordered
a rematch between Rey and Finlay. I assumed this was a
dark match but I was wrong (though it was suspicious
to being with).
ECW was what it was - the first 3 matches were pretty
dull and while Punk vs Morrison SEEMED good to us, so
much of the crowd had already left that in the slow
spots, it just seemed extra slow. Not sure if this
made it to TV or happened during a commercial break,
but Roddy Hogan was up to his antics during a
submission spot (if it was on TV, this would have been
very clear as we could see him doing it on the tron).
This elicited a brief "HOGAN" chant.
More people begin to leave after the match while I
notice that the crew has brought out the box of blue
ropes. I suspect something is up. Then, as they are
dismantling the ECW set, Batista comes out and sits at
the announce table. Then I see them changing the
ropes. Then JBL and Cole come out. Yep, it's a good
old re-take.
Finlay vs Rey - Round II: A crowd wrangler was asking
the people that hadn't left (and a LOT had by now) to
move in closer to make everything seem more filled on
camera. Less fancy stuff, more Rey taking Finlay down
and punching him on the mat. Not very long as they
basically did a few take down spots, then had Finlay
and Rey both kind of shove the ref at the same time
(more Finlay I think, it was during a grapple). The
ref calls for the bell and we get another no contest.
I don't know why they did this other than kicking a
chair you didn't bring into the ring never resulting
in a DQ that I'm aware of, and no official
announcement was made either time. Either way, it
seems like a no contest with Taker being Batista's
opponent.
Overall, not the best show I've been to, but I enjoyed
myself. The semi-main tag match will probably be good
on TV as will the Rey/Finlay match and Undertaker
angle.
Also, I think these tapings with ECW are a bit long. I
know ECW seems to have a lot of fans on the net with
people unhappy with Raw and SmackDown, but it's really
not important enough to be live. I feel they should
tape it like they used to do Velocity - everything all
at once, then edit it to stretch it out for one hour.
With the "live" format, you get there at 7:30 for a
dark match, SmackDown is taped from 7:45 - 9:45, you
have to wait 15 minutes for ECW to go live, then you
have to wait for ECW to end at 11:05. Throw in the
re-shoot and it's one long night. Just my thought on
the matter, though. Sometimes you're in the mood for a
4 hour show. I also imagine it's probably not easy to
edit together a show that needs to air 2 hours later.
Credit: wrestlingobserver.com
