Smackdown Spoilers

[Guest GameCop]

So, we got angle vs. benoit, A-train vs. Edge, and Kidman vs. Chavo...

[Guest GameCop]

Here are the spoilers for Smackdown 12/17/2002:

 

Report by: Doodle, rajahwwf.com reader

 

Hey, Rajah. I just got back from the SmackDown show in Tampa, FL. This is the first time I've seen a WWE televised event, and it was twice as cool, because I also got to see RAW in Orlando last night. I didn't get a chance to take notes, so this is from memory. They start out with Tazz and Michael Cole coming out to Tazz's entrance music.

 

- Kurt Angle's music hits, and the new WWE Champion makes his way to the ring. Everyone still chants "You Suck" during his music, but they're also excited to see him. Kurt says he has won every award in his life by himself. He doesn't know if he could have beat Big Show at Armegeddon by himself, and maybe he'll never know. Regardless, he would like to thank a man to stood by his word to watch his back. Brock Lesnar's music starts, and the crowd goes nuts. Angle thanks him, and says that to repay Brock, he's going to give him what everyone in the arena and everyone in the world wants to see... the ultimate showdown between Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle. NCAA Champion vs. Olympic Gold Medalist. He says that, just like he promised Brock, he'll face him any time, any where. Brock says it should be tonight (Big pop!!) Kurt says that, as much as he'd like to do that, he's already signed a non-title match with Chris Benoit tonight. But, next week, on Smackdown, it's definitely on. Brock agrees, and they both leave.

 

- In the locker room, Big Show is destroying someone's locker. Paul Heyman is cowering in the corner, as Show yells at him for letting Brock get the first title shot instead of him. He grabs Paul by his little, fat face, and threatens him. Paul says not to worry, because he has the ultimate contingency plan. Show says that he'd better.

 

Match #1: John Cena (w/ B-2) vs. Chuck Palumbo

 

- Chuck comes out to his heavy, macho music and natural hair color. I guess the pink hot pants are a thing of the past, huh? Cena raps his way down to ringside, slamming the Buccaneers on the way to get heat. Anyway, this wasn't a great match. Cena wasn't selling well, but ends up winning with interference from Bull. They're gonna say he used the tights to win, but in reality he missed the tights, and it just looks like he was feeling up Chuck's BUTT. That's gonna be interesting on TV.

 

*Winner: John Cena

 

Torrie Interview

 

- Torrie appears on screen, and speaks to the crowd from her home in Boise, Idaho. (Yea, right... tell me she wasn't backstage.) Anyway, she knows people think she was humiliated last week, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. She's proud of what she did with Dawn Marie, and it just goes to show how much she loves her father. As far as her being a "sexual predator", she can't deny she's a very sexual person (huge pop), but we all know who the real predator is. Music hits, and down comes Dawn Marie and Al "Mr. Personality" Wilson to the ring. The crowd got really loud at this point, so I didn't hear everything that was said. Torrie had some great facial expressions, though, reacting to what Dawn Marie was saying. Basically, they love each other, and are still getting married on Smackdown (next week?). Torrie is disgusted, and says "You two deserve each other", before ripping off her lapel microphone and running off.

 

Match #2: Eddie Guerrero (w/ Chavo) vs. Billy Kidman

 

- Good action here, as always. Eddie is the consumate professional in the ring. One thing I remember is Billy going for a hurricanrana, but Eddie didn't flip. Instead, he just stood there, and Billy's feet slipped off his head. I don't know if that was a mistake, and if it was, how they are going to sell it on TV. Eddie ran out of the ring on his knees at one point, to regroup with Chavo. It looked really funny. Billy lept over the top rope, and landed on both of them. Eddie missed the Frog Splash, but landed ok. Later, Billy nails his Shooting Star Press, but only gets a two count. Eddie wins with a modified powerbomb of some sort.

 

*Winner: Eddie Guerrero

 

- Backstage, Matt Hardy goes up to Stephanie's office door, and acts like he's about to knock. He decides he doesn't need to knock, and just walks in. Steph asks what happened to his eye (it looked bad), and I couldn't hear his response. Anyway, she wanted to find a replacement, since he is supposed to wrestle Brock Lesnar tonight. Matt says no way. "Do you remember that Brock threw me through a wall a few weeks ago?" He says he'll wrestle Brock, and the crowd drowned him out, so I couldn't catch the rest.

 

Match #3: Jamie Noble and Nunzio (w/ Nidia) vs. Crash and Bill DeMott

 

- After everyone gets in the ring, Crash is just itching to get his hands on Noble and Nunzio, for what they did to him last week. But, Big Bill puts him in his place, and says he's starting the match, not Crash. Well, Bill DeMott just wiped the ring with those two, even doing a little comedy, making them tag each other, so he could beat up the other one for a while. It was pretty funny. Crash keeps begging for a tag, but instead DeMott goes up top, and nails a great-looking moonsault on Noble to win the match all by himself. After the match, Crash gets in the ring, and starts bitching out Nunzio and Noble, getting a little revenge in anyway. He goes to shake hands with DeMott, but Bill just clotheslines him, and proceeds to hit the moonsault on Crash as well.

 

*Winner: Bill DeMott

 

Match #4: Brock Lesnar vs. Matt Hardy (w/ Shannon Moore)

 

- Matt and Shannon come to ringside, both sporting "Version 1.0" t-shirts. Brock is already in the ring, and Matt gets a mic and tells him that on the way to the ring, something got in his good eye. So, basically, he's blind right now, and there's no way he can compete tonight. So, in his place will be the original Mattitude follower, Shannon Moore. The look on Moore's face is priceless. He doesn't want to go in, but Matt throws him in the ring. Brock tosses Shannon around, and then hits a SPINNING SUPER F-5!! He gets the pin, and walks off. Matt goes to attend to his friend, then Brock changes his mind, and comes back to the ring to give Matt Hardy Version 1.0 a nice F-5 of his own. Short but sweet.

 

*Winner: Brock Lesnar

 

- Steph and Kurt meet backstage, and she tells Kurt that he needs to fix this problem he's created tonight. He can't promise Brock Lesnar the first title shot, if his contract specifies the Big Show is entitled to the first shot. If he won't go the ring to fix it, she will. Stephanie starts to walk out, but Kurt stops her, and says he'll take care of it. Blackout.

 

- Kurt comes back down to the ring, and explains that before his match at Armegeddon, he had a special legal team handle his contract, so there wouldn't be any suprises. So, he wants to introduce the man who supervised that contract, Paul Heyman. Heyman comes down to serious heat from the audience. This is a MAJOR spin. Kurt and Paul hug, and Paul takes the mic. He wants to know if we're really that surprised? It was all a double-screw job on Brock Lesnar. No one saw it coming, and as a message to Brock, "Gotcha... again!"

 

"Weeeellllll.... it's the Big Show"... Show comes to the ring, and he's pissed. He backs Heyman into the corner, screaming in his face. Angle looks like he's gonna nail Big Show with the belt, but Show turns around in time, and they just point at each other. Paul gets the mic back, and talks Big Show down. With the Big Show getting the first title shot instead of Brock, that means no matter who wins and who loses, there's no way Brock can ever get the belt back. As long as it stays in this little circle, the Heyman family, we get to screw Brock all over again. Big Show isn't convinced, but takes Paul's hand, and doesn't kill him. He continues to bitch Angle out until they all leave.

 

- Backstage, Ernest "The Cat" Miller interviews Edge about his upcoming match with Albert... uhhh... I mean George "The Animal" Steele... or whatever... speaking of which, during the commercial break, Albert appears on the screen to taunt the crowd. He says he knows we have someone here in Tampa that we like to call the "A-Train", namely one Mike Alstott (big pop). Albert says that not only is Mike Alstott not the real A-Train, but that Albert is from New England, and there's one thing that New England has that Tampa never will... a Super Bowl title. Oh, my... that pissed off the crowd... hehehehe.

 

Match #5: Edge vs. A-Train

 

- Decent scientific wrestling here, believe it or not. Albert spent most of the match working on Edge's knee. Lots of "shave your back" chants, of course. Edge battles back, and wins with a nice spear.

 

*Winner: Edge

 

Match #6: Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit

 

- Before the match started, Kurt and Heyman come down together. I guess they cut to a commercial, because Heyman gets on a mic, and starts ripping on the crowd hard. At one point, he's talking to people at ringside, and goes "I am NOT an asshole". Which, of course, prompted an nice "Asshole" chant from the arena.

 

The match itself was good. Benoit sold well, as Angle was in control for most of the match. Chris' main offense involved about 6 German suplexes in a row. Even I was tired when they were over. Benoit goes for the cross-face, but the Big Show rumbles down to the ring to break it up. The DQ bell rings, as he chokeslams Benoit. But then Brock Lesnar hits the ring, and does a nice belly-to-belly suplex on Big Show. He knocks down Angle and then grabs Paul Heyman, and drags him into the ring. The crowd goes bananas, as Brock lifts up Heyman for an F-5. At the last second, Kurt tackles Brock's legs, saving Heyman, who quickly rolls out of the ring.

 

*Winner: Chris Benoit (DQ)

 

- Angle and Big Show spend the next several minutes taking turns on Brock, who sells the beat-down very well. But, suddenly he's up, and roaring through Angle and Big Show, while Heyman takes off up the ramp. He clothelines the Big Show out of the ring, and turns his attention on Angle. Outside the ring, Brock picks him up for an F-5 near the ring post. He swings Kurt around, and delivers a perfectly placed F-5, where Kurt's knee hits the ring post. Huge pop for that, since they all hate Kurt again. We all chant "Once more, once more", so he picks Kurt up, and does the same thing, nailing his knee on the steel post again! Kurt is screaming in pain, as referees and the medical team rush to ringside. Brock is walking up the ramp, surveying the damage he's caused, then decides it's not enough, and comes back down. This time he picks up Kurt while holding his knee up, and drops him, knee-first on top of the guard railing. Well, that just finished the champ off, and the crowd is chanting "Brock, Brock, Brock". He finally leaves, and medical team helps the new WWE Champion limp to the back.

 

*I don't know when they stopped taping, so I don't know how much of the carnage at the end they will show on TV, but all-in-all, it was great. The storylines, from begininng to end, were top-notch. We all knew Angle needed time off to get knee surgery, so this was the perfect way to accomplish that. It also further cements Brock Lesnar as "The Man", because he is WAY over.

 

By the way, this is where the Tampa Bay Lightning play, so it's decent sized arena... I'm guessing 12,000. The 3rd level of the arena was completely blacked out, and on the side where the camera was, it was only 1/2 sold... overall, probably a 50% house. I saw Survivor Series 2000 in this building (one of Chyna's last appearances), and that event sold out, so I know it's possible.

 

BIGGEST POPS:

 

1. Brock Lesnar (by far)

2. Edge

3. Big Show (when we thought he was gonna kill Heyman)

4. Kurt Angle (when he first came out)

5. Torrie Wilson

6. Chris Benoit

 

 

BIGGEST HEAT:

 

1. Paul Heyman (by far)

2. Kurt Angle (after the swerve)

3. Big Show (when he came out at the end)

4. A-Train (for dissing Mike Alstott)

5. John Cena

6. Dawn Marie

 

credit: Rajahwwf.com

[Guest Brian]

What the fuck? A face injures a heel champ? Five cruiserweights get buried in one night?

[Guest bob_barron]

The Angle-Show-Benoit-Lesnar-Heyman stuff sounds pretty kickass

[Guest New World Order of Wrestling]

Dumb question time:

 

Is Eddie cruiserweight champ?

 

I thought they were building toward Benoit/Angle at RR?

 

Why did Nunzio get buried a week into his debut?

[Guest GameCop]

Looks like Brock is winning the rumble, though. Heyman, Show, and Angle are currently doing everything they can to ensure that Brock doesn't get a title shot. Brock, of course, will enter the Rumble, and emerge victorious, setting up an Angle vs. Lesnar showdown at Wrestlemania.

 

Why can't an unexpected person win the Royal Rumble for once? Every year, it's just too obvious.

 

There's just no unpredictibility anymore.

[Guest cynicalprofit]

- Kurt comes back down to the ring, and explains that before his match at Armegeddon, he had a special legal team handle his contract, so there wouldn't be any suprises. So, he wants to introduce the man who supervised that contract, Paul Heyman. Heyman comes down to serious heat from the audience. This is a MAJOR spin. Kurt and Paul hug, and Paul takes the mic. He wants to know if we're really that surprised? It was all a double-screw job on Brock Lesnar. No one saw it coming, and as a message to Brock, "Gotcha... again!"

 

Paul gets Show face heat, holy freaking crap.

 

This will be awesome. Angle is a great heel, Paul is a great mouth peice, this will OWN baby.

 

But I dont want a 3 way mania match with Brock Angle Show, if they count Benoits wins and make it another 4 way, maybe, but outside of brock, the other two dont stand a chance to beat Big Show. From a size prospective.

[Guest bcu1979]

Does any of this Heyman crap make sense logically? I can understand Heyman wanting to align himself with whoever has the belt. And I can accept Angle agreeing to join forces with Heyman.

 

But nothing else makes any sense. Didn't Stephanie only lift Brock's suspension after Angle went to her and asked? And how is Heyman any better off now than he was when Brock was suspended?

 

So what if Show gets the first title defense. He doesn't get the second and the third and the fourth. Heyman played both Angle and Show just to confuse Lesnar and now they are stable. The only person who is looking strong is Paul Heyman. He's becoming the Stephanie McMahon of Smackdown.

 

They could have accomplished the same goal by having Angle go back on his word to Lesnar and tell him he's not getting a title shot anymore. Lesnar gets to chase Angle for Mania and the heat is put on Angle. Heyman and Big Show are out of the equation.

 

And what happened to the whole Benoit/Angle tag team/feuding partners thing? Did they just drop it so all the attention could be on Heyman and Big Show? It looks like Benoit just gets pushed to the side on SD. He sure doesn't come across as someone about to get a PPV title shot.

 

And Kidman loses clean while all the cruiserweight contenders gets sacrificed to put over Bill Demott.

 

This is scary but I think RAW might be the better show again.

[Guest bob_barron]

EDIT: nevermind- I can't read

[Guest midnight_burn]

I guess Bill DeMott squashing cruiserweights is how they plan to push the division, yay.

 

And the Angle-Heyman-Show-Lesnar stuff sounds like it could be good, and it gives Angle an excuse to get his knees scoped, but i sense that'll it'll turn out to be cowardly Kurt Angle dodging Lesnar until Wrestlemania, but hopefully i'm wrong and they make Angle out to be a threat and not a chicken-shit champion.

 

And i guess this means a face run for Chris Benoit if he's still going to take on Angle at the Rumble.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Angle doesn't need Heyman for a mouth piece. He can get over on his own.

[Guest BoboBrazil]

Match #3: Jamie Noble and Nunzio (w/ Nidia) vs. Crash and Bill DeMott

 

- After everyone gets in the ring, Crash is just itching to get his hands on Noble and Nunzio, for what they did to him last week. But, Big Bill puts him in his place, and says he's starting the match, not Crash. Well, Bill DeMott just wiped the ring with those two, even doing a little comedy, making them tag each other, so he could beat up the other one for a while. It was pretty funny. Crash keeps begging for a tag, but instead DeMott goes up top, and nails a great-looking moonsault on Noble to win the match all by himself. After the match, Crash gets in the ring, and starts bitching out Nunzio and Noble, getting a little revenge in anyway. He goes to shake hands with DeMott, but Bill just clotheslines him, and proceeds to hit the moonsault on Crash as well.

 

*Winner: Bill DeMott

This is just wrong. I have no problem with Bill Demott, but he shouldn't be beating two guys at once, especially one that got hype coming in from Noble for a few weeks.

[Guest BoboBrazil]

- Kurt comes back down to the ring, and explains that before his match at Armegeddon, he had a special legal team handle his contract, so there wouldn't be any suprises. So, he wants to introduce the man who supervised that contract, Paul Heyman. Heyman comes down to serious heat from the audience. This is a MAJOR spin. Kurt and Paul hug, and Paul takes the mic. He wants to know if we're really that surprised? It was all a double-screw job on Brock Lesnar. No one saw it coming, and as a message to Brock, "Gotcha... again!"

This makes no sense at all. Why would Kurt get Lesnar unsuspended and then actually invite him to be in his corner if this was a plan all along? Kurt being with Paul is a waste too. Kurt doesn't need him.

[Guest EternallyLazy]

Kurt being with Paul is a waste too. Kurt doesn't need him.

Kurt doesn't need Paul? On the contrary. Paul is guaranteed heel heat. Even with Angle as a heel, people still want to cheer him. If they want Angle to be a bonified hated heel, placing him with Paul Heyman is the best way to go

 

 

And as for the plot holes... it's wrestling, and I've long accepted that everything isn't going to make sense. This however does sound exciting, and MILES ahead of what they've been doing

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

I like DeMott, but single-handedly squashing Knoble & Nunzio is FUCKING LAME, considering they were hyping Nunzio as the guy to help Knoble get off his losing streak. Lame, lame, lame.

 

- Matt and Shannon come to ringside, both sporting "Version 1.0" t-shirts. Brock is already in the ring, and Matt gets a mic and tells him that on the way to the ring, something got in his good eye. So, basically, he's blind right now, and there's no way he can compete tonight. So, in his place will be the original Mattitude follower, Shannon Moore. The look on Moore's face is priceless. He doesn't want to go in, but Matt throws him in the ring. Brock tosses Shannon around, and then hits a SPINNING SUPER F-5!! He gets the pin, and walks off. Matt goes to attend to his friend, then Brock changes his mind, and comes back to the ring to give Matt Hardy Version 1.0 a nice F-5 of his own. Short but sweet.

This, however, I could get into. Mattitude & his MF'er. They should let them try doing an Eddy/Chavo "Cheat to Win" angle between the 2, or at least have Moore undergo a gradual conversion to Mattitude. That is, if they don't release him first (boo!)

[Guest Ram]

Take what you can get.

 

This is way better than some of the crap we have been getting.

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

Well, since it looks like Benoit is getting push a side, can they at least have Angle turn on Big Show and put Benoit and Angle together with Heyman?

[Guest godthedog]

hey, wow. the wwf blows yet another chance to have a blowoff for the angle/benoit feud to blow their angle/brock load early at the rumble. oh joy.

[Guest Brian]

It's like booking took a one-eighty. RAW has the direction now and SmackDown is ass-backwards.

[Guest the pinjockey]

This is so freaking retarded. Obviously the DeMott stuff is a disgrace. At least WCW had Steiner a ME powerhouse champion type bury cruiserweights.

 

The Angle/Heyman stuff is ridiculous. We had double secret contract negotiations. This is right up there with Shane rehiring Austin just to screw him over again. I am starting to worry about Heyman throwing himself into the middle of the whole ME scene now.

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

Who cares? At least Heyman is Entertaining.

 

I'm going to wait and see how it turns out on TV before I judge it.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Hmm...it seems Heyman is building a new version of the Dangerous Alliance...

[Guest nikowwf]

hey, wow. the wwf blows yet another chance to have a blowoff for the angle/benoit feud to blow their angle/brock load early at the rumble. oh joy.

WWE is not doing Angle / Brock at rumble. Angle will not give him rematch, and somehow will wind up facing Benoit. Brock will earn the shot the only way he can, by winning the rumble. So we get three months of buildup. Sounds good to me.

 

niko

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

WWE Velocity Tapings [spoilers]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Matches

 

R C Haas & Shelton Benjamin defeated The Shane Twins (who I was rooting for because they train at my gym). The winners used a cool finishing move which combined a superkick with a back suplex.

 

Billy Fives & Scoot Andrews defeated Sly & Blake Gale (I think that's what they were called).

 

Jamie Noble pinned Funaki after powerbombing him.

 

Josh Mathews and "The Cat" Ernest Miller arrived at the commentary booth for Velocity.

 

Chavo Guerrero defeated Shannon Moore

 

Rikishi squashed a wrestler (whose name announcement was completely inaudible). he used the Banzai Drop.....and no dance from him!

 

Bill DeMott came out to Mark Mero's old entrance music and destroyed Michael Shane with a moonsault.

 

credit: 1wrestling.com/411Wrestling

[Guest Choken One]

It actully shows they have started to plan for WMXIX..using a Match the majority of the Smarks are begging to see. The angle has thus far been Perfect since they started it in early november...they keep TBS interesting, Use Beniot in ME, Brock gets HUGE, Angle becames a Evil Asshole again and Paul fucking rules all. It's perfect!

[Guest Polish_Rifle]

At least Mattitude is back on Smackdown...He still gets punked but at least he's on the main show.

[Guest Brian]

It hasn't been close to perfect.

[Guest nikowwf]

Its not perfect, but it gives us a great Royal Rumble main event, and 3 months of buildup to a match I want to see Brock / Angle with Angle as a super heel. Thats not so bad.

 

niko

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

So, Nunzio comes in to help Knoble, yet they both still get squashed on SD by 1 man. But, he gets to win a dark match? Whuh?

 

Hopefully, they air the Knoble/Funaki match in place of either the Rikishi or DeMott match.

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

Nunzio must have forgot to shake Hunter's hand when Hunter limped into the Arena.