Some detailed spoilers with Dark Match and ECW notes.
DARK MATCH:
Casey James/Aaron "The Idol" Stevens d. Christian Gibson and Scott Commodity
Gibson and Commodity were announced as being from "Eden Prairie" while Idol and James were announced as being from "Green Bay" so we knew who to cheer and who to boo. All and all an ok match, Stevens is obviously a seasoned pro, and Gibson and Commodity worked well as a team. Really nothing spectacular though.
After that, the ring crew brought in Booker's throne and William Regal told us to "All Hail King Booker" as Booker made his way to ringside. That's REALLY annoying live.
SMACKDOWN
-Regal reads a Royal Proclaimation that he is going to beat Rey Mysterio tonight so that King Booker can have what's left for him at the Great American Bash. Booker narrates over some clips of "after Smackdown" last week, when he beat Rey up in the locker room. He claims that Divine Intervention will finally strike Rey's title reign down (I guess God has turned heel?). After Booker gets done talking, Rey runs out and sends Regal, Booker and Sharmell scattering.
-Matt Hardy d. Ken Kennedy
Kennedy puts a little extra zing in his "Hailing from GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN" this week, and the crowd never really stopped dogging him. However, before he can get to his "Mister Kennedy-Kennedy" part, Hardy attacks. It's back and forth for a few minutes until Hardy scores a quick roll-up for the win. Right after my section got done discussion how Matt Hardy never wins.
-Last year's Diva Search Losers Krystal and Michelle talk some smack about this year's contest and about Ashley, who arrives shortly with Jillian Hall. A catfight ensues that is quickly broken up by referees and officials.
-Great Khali and Daivari come out, and Daivari thinks it's rather strange that while Undertaker's voice has appeared on Smackdown, Taker himself hasn't shown up. So he dares Taker to come and face Khali. Well, of course, the lights go out and Taker is in the ring (huge pop for that, by the way). Pyro goes off (I'm assuming that's the lightning bolt pre-production?), but Khali doesn't back down. Eventually Daivari drags him away while Taker poses.
-Jaimie Noble (w/ Kid Kash) d. Paul London (w/ Brian Kedrick)
A little slower than I expected from these two, but the match told a pretty good story with London firing up at appropriate times only to be met by Kash and Noble's cheating. Eventually Noble hits an Inverse Back Cracker (rib cracker?) on London for the win. Ok match, but a dead crowd.
-The Miz is backstage and says that the Divas are getting ready for the Boot Camp.
-In the most seemless transition of the night, Sylvan comes on the Titan Tron and tells us that while the Diva Search girls are beautiful, nothing matches the beauty of Quebec.
T-eddy Long comes out and dances. Then he says that Batista/Henry is for the #1 Contendership at Summerslam, but if either guy touches the other, the one who did the touching forfiets his title shot.
Batista comes out and cuts a promo about how he's been waiting seven months to crush Mark Henry, and then he gets all choked up because the fans are chanting for him. Mark Henry comes out and tries to cut a promo about how Batista crossed the line by making him bleed, but we out "What"ed him (yes, I participated, yes, I'm embarrassed), and he ended up getting frustrated. So they signed the contract, and Batista beat the shit out of the table.
-Fit Finlay d. Bobby Lashley for the WWE United States Championship
Lashley wasn't as over as I thought he would be. Anyway, the match was pretty good except for Finlay constantly stalling with restholds, but both guys hit real hard, so that kind of made up for it. The finish came when the Leprachaun (the most over participant in the match) popped up and threw Finlay a sheleli while the ref was distracted with a chair. Finlay tried to pass the sheleli back to the midget, but it bounced off his hands and back into the ring, but they just went on with the finish anyway. Afterwards, Finlay indicated that it was now an Irish Championship while Lashley looked crestfallen.
-The Diva Search Boot Camp featuring Sgt. Slaughter and The Miz (who posed for a faux cheer when he got the numbers for the contestants right the first time, but then screwed it up the second time). Same as last year's boot camp with no "wardrobe malfunctions." Really excruciating stuff, though. Layla (the black British chick) won with a time of 37 seconds in case you care. I don't know if it will make TV or not, but the fat, bethonged stripper (Big Dick Johnson) demonstrated the course before the girls.
-Rey Misterio d. William Regal
Relatively cleanly too. Booker was at ringside providing commentary and distracting Rey. After a few minutes, Michael Cole got in Booker's face about something, and Booker left the announce table and started to get into the ring, but Rey got to him first, and then pinned Regal for the win. After the match, Booker was regrouping with Sharmell at ringside, when Rey swung around the ringpost and kicked him in the face.
ECW TAPINGS
You already saw it or know what happened. Just two notes:
-Flair and Show really won the crowd over after a slow as fuck start (which included both Flair and Show leaving the match), by just being bloody and brutal. Good stuff at the end there though.
-CM Punk was very over with about 33% of the crowd.
DARK MATCH 2
Rey Misterio d. King Booker and Fit Finlay
A lot of people didn't stick around for this as they didn't send Teddy Long out to announce it until the ring crew had already started taking down the ECW set pieces. The story of the match was Booker and Finlay working together until Booker went for a cover, and Finlay pulled him off. That set about a confrontation between the two of them which ended with Finlay getting busted open. Then Rey got back into the match, hit the 619 on both guys, and the Frogsplash on Booker for the win.
