BorneAgain

Well so much for that.

We so need Lesnar to run in and kill the entire face team.

I'm betting Jericho/Mysterio/Eddy myself.

Testicular Claw!

Not yet.

Didn't see one, so I figured, what the hell? Not too bad a match between Booker and Kidman, though the latter's slowed it down a bit.

Nice suplex by Jordan on the outside. This has been slightly better than most of Jordan's work.

Considering Eddie's now a violent, obsessed, sociopath, I think his three suplexes need a less festive name than the three amigos.

Its not my ideal scenario either, but its still better than having three world titles around. Truth be told I think the title match will be a bait and switch with JBL winning but the Long telling him instead of being the Smackdown Champion he's now the No.1 contender for Smackdown's new champion, Batista.

Other than the Hassan reference, that's one of the most generic promos I've ever seen.

Matthews: Chris Benoit, the first Smackdown draft pick in the lottery on Velocity! *shakes head* Damn, no Akio. There goes my interest.

I'm not the biggest Velocity viewer, but this is some odd commentary.

What the hell is on Dupree's face? Though his hair looks better black then those blond highlights he had going.

That six-man championship match has to begin with everybody ganging up on Hassan and eliminating him in about two minutes. Say what you will about Benoit's promos but at least he can get his point across and sound genuine about it.

That would depend largely on the retired champion, (i.e. someone like Bret could wok, a guy like Slaughter wouldn't) and how well the audience would take to the "Rocky" character. Would definitely be something to see though if done right. The Bane story from Batman always struck me as something that could easily be adapted for wrestling. Say you have the older established veteran, (Batman) who's the champion, and would have a younger protege/partner (Azrael) that have been together for a while. Then some type of monsterous, but cunning baddass type (Bane) comes along. He nearly cripples the veteran, seemingly putting him into early retirement, and takes the title. The protege, deternmined to avenge his mentor, feuds with the monster for months, in a series of violent matches eventually defeating him in a completely brutal encounter (think Blanchard, Magnum T.A. from Starrcade), where the rookie shows a dark side no one has ever seen before, and finally wins both his master's honor and the title. But the pressures of being champion, and the hellacious matches that he's gone through have taken their toll, with him becoming more and more unbalanced and angry with each passing title defense, to the point in which he's unnecessarily beating the living hell out of his opponents, even in non-title matches. Meanwhile the veteran, who has not been seen since his injury returns to television to congratulate his old student, and thank him for defeating the the animal who put him into retirement. Their meeting, though gracious at first turns ugly when the mentor questions his friend on his recent behavior. The former protege gets pissed and starts yelling at him about being ungrateful and saying how he did what his supposed mentor couldn't. He then cheapshots the older one and walks off. The veteran, realizing that his former pupil has to stopped, if just for his own good, reabilitates, comes back, and challenges the champion. You have teacher vs student at the PPV and the mentor wins. The rookie either turns face again, or remains heel to continue to feud with his former friend. For the veteran, you could have a number of guys (Benoit, Eddie, Shawn, Taker, possibly Booker), with the protege same thing (London, Shelton, Haas, some outside Indy talent). The Bane type would be a bit difficult as Kane has lost some of his credibility, and Snitsky is way too goofy to pull of being a mastermind. Ideally it would be some new person the fans aren't familar with, so he would have some mystique about him. (Abyss if he talked, and was good at it would be a great choice).

Bumped because I would like to hear some more strange storylines

One last set of spoilers with backstage segements/interviews included I got from another board, though with curious differences from other spoilers. Velocity -- Scotty 2 Hotty & Shannon Moore d. Trevor Rhodes & I swear they said Garrison Cade, but that's not what I remember him looking like. Suprisingly good match, with Scotty selling like a maniac, & the heels showing very good ring presence. -- Booker T w/ Sharmell d. Billy Kidman: Booker's back to enjoying life, which is always fun. Nothing earth-shattering, but a perfectly fine little match. -- Orlando Jordan d. Nunzio: Nunzio working his ass off & Orlando trying to keep up. Rene Dupree d. Patrick Rizer (or Glazer, or something -- same guy who had Masters last night): Holy shit, not only does Dupree have the cheezy new heel mustache, he's dyed his hair jet black! Patrick seems to have some decent basic skills & reasonable presence. He seemed to get a little rung on the Dupree chokeslam though, & they may have had to wrap just a little early. Chris Benoit d. Akio Akio took the rolling suplexes just fine. Quick tap to the crossface. SmackDown Randy Orton out to talk about killing legends, along with video footage of his suprise RKO on Taker last week -- on a loop. As Randy enjoys the video, he doesn't notice the fog rising from the ring. Taker appears with his own video of the Tombstone on Randy at WM. Randy bails unceremoniously, & Taker observes "Death waits for no one." MNM out for Joey Mercury vs. Heidenreich. I'm astonished at how over Heidenreich is. Heidy's channelling more of Hulk Hogan all the time -- it was very nearly a Hulk-Up moment, as well as a "You" point at Melina. Match going along pretty decently when Michelle runs in to jump Melina. They do a decent catfight, providing the distraction for Nitro to kick Heidenreich in the head. Mercury gets the easy pin. Rey Mysterio video promo -- all done in closeup, very intense. "Brought up a side of me that I never thought existed." Very good stuff. Backstage, Melina is annoyed about Michelle as the boys cluelessly celebrate their win. "She's not even a B-list diva!" Melina challenges Michelle to a match next week. JBL corners Teddy Long just outside his office. JBL should be the champion. Teddy talks him down a bit, but won't let him into the office. Indeed he does have the next draft pick stashed away in there. Chavo vs. Paul London for the Cruiserweight Championship. Crowd was dead for Chavo, & somewhat more interested in Paul, who was doing all the interesting stuff in the match. Just as Paul is about to go for the definitive top-rope leap, they're interrupted by ... "The Mexicools". Juvi, Super Crazy & Psicosis in matching coverall outfits come rolling out on some sort of John Deere cart. They have a Mexican flag attached to a rake. They dispatch Chavo instantly, then take turns leaping onto Paul. They then cut a promo, which felt to me very Clique-wannabe. They're clearly intended to be heels, but they were getting a full-on mixed reaction -- dunno about the wisdom of debuting a Mexican heel faction in Tucson. JBL out to talk. He seems quite happy & hits the "It's morning again in America" line. He feels that he should be "The Champion of SmackDown". Booker's out to opine that the 2 of them should have a match to determine the champion. Benoit out to toss in his 2 cents. And "It's the Big Show..." And finally here's Teddy to settle things down. There were actually some pretty cute moments through this, & largely around JBL not having this all go quite the way he'd planned. Teddy is carrying a large pouch, which obviously should contain a championship belt; however, he never actually opens it, oddly. Makes a 5-way match for next week with the 4 of them plus the Undertaker. The winner will be "The new SmackDown Champion". Just as Teddy is getting things under control, out come Hassan & Daivari. He's already bitching that he just arrived & that he's being discriminated against, etc. So now it's a 6-man match next week. Finally, the faces take turns tossing Hassan around, & Big Show full presses Daivari before tossing him outside. As a warm welcome, Teddy makes Hassan vs. Big Show for RIGHT NOW. Things are pretty squashy, till Matt Morgan wanders out to join in on commentary. BigShow is momentarily distracted, but gets back to the business of squashing, including a nice delayed vertical suplex. Meanwhile, Matt is having some sort of momentary disagreement with Tazz, but they seem to resolve that. BigShow shushes the audience so that everyone can hear the slap on Hassan, then tosses Daivari most of the way across the ring. Matt decides it's finally time to runin with a chair, but SHow sees him & punches the chair back into Matt's face. Hassan gets the chair & hits Show with a *big* chairshot, mostly dropping him. Hassan wins with the cheap pin after the chairshot. Full video recap of the entire Rey/Eddie situation. Eddie gives a very strong backstage promo: "I don't think [Rey] knows what I'm capable of." Interesting match between Rey & Eddie. They were doing a lot of size each other up, a big burst of very cool lucha-ish goodness, then back to staring & jockeying. They had a lot of time for this, & it was really quite good -- I'm interested to see how it plays on TV. Rey just wouldn't cooperate & stay down, & Eddie just wouldn't cooperate & stay in place for the 619 -- til the very end. Rey wins with the 619 / West Coast Pop into a leg drop. Rey leaves happy, & Eddie remains in the ring quivering in dismay & disbelief. I presume TV ends on that note. Eddie then gets a mic. "I used to think I represented each & evry one of you. Now I realise that I only need to represent myself. All you are is just a bunch of wetbacks." And he's out to some massive heel heat

Man they're not even trying with Smackdown are they?

The ending (with devestating pedigree) wasn't good at Wrestlemania XIX and wasn't that effective here either.

It just occured to me that Smackdown has largely turned into WCW circa 98. Booker, Eddie, Benoit, Mysterio, Chavo, Big Show, Kidman, Juventud, Psicosis, all on the roste, with Jericho likely to follow.

Batista? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That's what I'm guessing.

Well we just found out who's winning Sunday.

I think you may have weeks mixed up? Because I'm pretty sure the draft was said to be 5 and 5. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You're right. I guess I just wish four of those would end up on Smackdown. Jericho, Shelton and HHH/Batista are definite though in my opinion.

Considering that Batista/HHH, Jericho, Shelton, and Shawn likely will end up on Smackdown its really just a novelty PPV. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Smackdown only has 3 more picks.. I want a Tag match! HBK/Batista vs HHH/Angle <{POST_SNAPBACK}> My mistake. 3 of the five will end up on Smackdown in my opinion though.

Considering that Batista/HHH, Jericho, Shelton, and Shawn likely will end up on Smackdown its really just a novelty PPV.