Smackdown spoilers

[Guest wildpegasus]

From wrestlezone.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Ryan Clark on 01/21/2004

 

 

Thanks to Kelly Lucas for this:

 

They opened with a Wrestlemania XX video. Biggest pop was for Hogan. Sigh. I noticed a disturbing juxtaposition of scenes in the video with a shot of Michaels riding the harness from the rafters to the ring, immediately followed by a shot of Owen Hart.

 

Opened with a dark match between Lenny Lane and Paul London. Crowd was semi-into the bout with decent work by both men. Solid support and relatively loud "Lenny" chants by the crowd. London won after catapaulting himself into the ring and rolling up Lenny. Didn't seem like many people had much of an idea of who London was, while a number of fans recognized Lenny because he's from the area and his exposure in WCW.

 

Next, they introduce Josh Matthews and Bill DeMott to begin Velocity.

 

Haas and Benjamin over Rikishi and Scott 2 Hotty. Decent support for the heels, probably given Benjamin's history at the UofM. Heat segment on Scotty ends with him tagging in Rikishi who cleans house. Scott hits the worm but H & B eventually win after the Benjamin hits Scotty with a superkick while he's held by Haas. Ok match.

 

Bashams over Funaki and Ultimo Dragon. Heat on Funaki before Dragon is tagged in and gets some offense. Shaniqua distracts the ref while Danny-not-the-legal-man sneaks in (as if they were the Conquistadors) and rolls up Dragon with the tights for the pin. Eh match.

 

Orlando Jordan beats Matt Wolftime(?) (aka a jobber). Only notable part of this match was the peanut gallery behind me describing Jordan as WWE's answer to Billy Blanks.

 

Smackdown begins with introduction of Tazz and Cole and pyro.

 

They begin with a nice intro video recapping the Guerreros controversy and Angle's involvement. Essentially announce a main event of Chavo Jr. & Chavo Sr. vs. Eddie and Angle.

 

Mysterio defeats Chuck Palumbo after reversing a fireman's carry slam into a sunset flip. After the match the FBI beat up Mysterio. Cousin Jamie Noble's music and video begins playing. He holds the cruiserweight belt while standing over the beaten Mysterio.

 

Backstage Promo airs where Heyman continues to shove his character's head completly into the McMahons' proverbial [behind]. He repeats the story of the McMahons taking wrestling from dirty, smoky clubs to "modern day arenas". He wants to lift Smackdown above the thuggery exhibited by Cena and Benoit last week so he books a 2 on 4 handicap match of Benoit and Cena vs. Lesnar, Show, Morgan and Rhyno.

 

Backstage Chavo Jr & Sr are lectured by Kurt Angle.

 

Tajiri defeats Kidman. I was getting (more) beer. But said to be a good match. Must have been short.

 

Backstage Promo where Lesnar makes fun of Show and says the only reason he's been hanging around him is to protect him from Bob Holly (as if). Otherwise, Big Show's gas problems would have driven him away long before. Interesting.

 

A-Train comes out. Dawn Marie comes out and announces that the winner of the next match will get a spot in the Royal Rumble and that A-Train's opponent is a man who has beaten him before. An aside: I obviously missed the episode where Dawn Marie became Heyman's proxy. It must have happened though right? In any case, the opponent was Shannon Moore. During the match The Cat came out and distracted no one but Train. I think Moore got a near fall before his squash. A-Train is in the Rumble. Well, that just downgraded my purchase of the PPV to the web cast.

 

Heyman gives a pep talk to the four man team backstage--except Show is absent. Lesnar surmises (jealously it seems) that Show is hanging out with his "cop buddies".

 

Handicap match is next. Cena comes out to a big pop. He raps about how his opponents are all homos and about how Show has a neckbrace from bobbing for Heyman's apples. The crowd loves it. Though I don't think they caught on to the subtle compliment. Benoit comes out. Sometime during this a judges/lifeguards' chair is set up at ringside for Heyman. The heels are introduced. Lesnar gets a good hometown pop that is soon forgotten in the face of Cena's popularity. And the crowd was even into Benoit not a little bit. Show is the last to be introduced and doesn't come out. Seems some thugs have parked a forklift or something in front of his locker room door. One does feel sorry for his cop buddies given his alleged flatulence problem.

 

Match was decent until the end. May be better on TV. Lesnar and Rhyno do virtually all the work for their team. Which was good. Lesnar ends up walking out on the match but Holly stops him in the aisle and they brawl. I think Lesnar just clonked Holly with the belt and left anyway. See ya at the Rumble Brock. Rhyno works the rest of the match alone despite Morgan's presence. Heat segment on Benoit ends with hot tag to Cena. He pumps his Reebok pumps before ascending to the ropes and hitting a standing elbow. Cena wins with the DVD. He and Benoit clear the ring leaving Heyman alone. They tip his chair and he tumbles into the ring. They prepare to beat him down before Show struggles to ringside to squash them both with chokeslams. Great. Fabulous.

 

I may have missed something in my notes but the next match appears to be the main event. At some point Angle is blinded for some reason and accidentally hits Eddie with the Angle slam. The refs do a fake X sign to sell the eye injury. Chavo the Younger hits a frog splash on his uncle for the pin. Again, a decent match. Chavo Sr. took a few bumps.

 

Afterwards (probably after the cameras stopped rooling) Eddie calls Chavo II out for another match and they have a short one-on-one match with Eddie winning. Eddie gets a huge pop as he did all night.

 

Not a bad show. May come off better on TV but I don't understand squashing Cena and Benoit to Show's chokeslam.

[2GOLD 0]

I noticed a disturbing juxtaposition of scenes in the video with a shot of Michaels riding the harness from the rafters to the ring, immediately followed by a shot of Owen Hart.

 

Great editing by the WWE.

 

 

Opened with a dark match between Lenny Lane and Paul London.

 

Huh? He quit last week right? To come back and wrestle a dark match??

[AndrewTS 0]

*smacks his TV*

[The Metal Maniac 0]

Sooner or later, they HAVE to start making the teams with more people WIN THE FUCKING HANDICAP MATCHES.

 

The refs do a fake X sign to sell the eye injury.

 

Does this bother anyone else? I hate that they take all the stuff that people actually believe, and work that too. Fucking Christ....

[Guest rawmvp]

What about the three remaining Rumble entrants?

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Huh? He quit last week right? To come back and wrestle a dark match??

 

That was Spanky.

 

 

Anyway, I read A-Train is in the Rumble, so who are the last remaning four from SD to complete the participation?

[The Metal Maniac 0]

Hopefully mystery participants.

 

I hate knowing every single wrestler who's going to be in the RR...suprises are much better.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Sooner or later, they HAVE to start making the teams with more people WIN THE FUCKING HANDICAP MATCHES.

 

The refs do a fake X sign to sell the eye injury.

 

Does this bother anyone else? I hate that they take all the stuff that people actually believe, and work that too. Fucking Christ....

It bothers me.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Opened with a dark match between Lenny Lane and Paul London.

 

Huh? He quit last week right? To come back and wrestle a dark match??

Umm, wasn't it just Spanky who quit?

[Karc 0]

Sooner or later, they HAVE to start making the teams with more people WIN THE FUCKING HANDICAP MATCHES.

 

The refs do a fake X sign to sell the eye injury.

 

Does this bother anyone else? I hate that they take all the stuff that people actually believe, and work that too. Fucking Christ....

It's like the "Boy who cried Wolf." Eventually, someone will really get hurt doing a fake "X-sign" stunt, and bleed to death out there.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Well...I'm sure they came up with an alternate signal for that match if there was a real injury to protect the workers...

 

but it bothers me that they would do it on a throwaway show when it could probably be a big angle on a larger venue.

[Guest Deebo]

I agree, at some point you'll see a guy get seriously hurt, but nobody believe it because of shit like that.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I'll take a guess the last four will be: Rhyno, Kidman, Tajiri, and um...Bradshaw.

 

*takes a deep breath

[AndrewTS 0]

Hopefully mystery participants.

 

I hate knowing every single wrestler who's going to be in the RR...suprises are much better.

Skip all the lousy throwaway TV shows. Then you're sure to have some surprises in the Rumble match.

[2GOLD 0]

Oh right, Spanky.

 

Well, good to see the WWE has a plan for Paul.

[Guest wildpegasus]

So what's the point of the Big Show getting the last laugh against Cena and Benoit? Does that mean there's going to be some type of signifigant altercation between Show and Benoit or perhaps Cena?

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

I'll take a guess the last four will be: Rhyno, Kidman, Tajiri, and um...Bradshaw.

 

*takes a deep breath

I assume that Tajiri vs. Kidman might be a RR qualifying match, since it would make sense and the guy doing the report said he didn't see the match so he might have missed that.

 

If I were to guess I would say Rhyno and the APA will be the other three Smackdown guys in the Rumble.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Sooner or later, they HAVE to start making the teams with more people WIN THE FUCKING HANDICAP MATCHES.

 

The refs do a fake X sign to sell the eye injury.

 

Does this bother anyone else? I hate that they take all the stuff that people actually believe, and work that too. Fucking Christ....

It's like the "Boy who cried Wolf." Eventually, someone will really get hurt doing a fake "X-sign" stunt, and bleed to death out there.

What I really hate is when they do an injury angle all serious like. You know when JR and King use their "Owen" and tell you that this is real when it's really not. Like the time Chyna "broke" doing her shitty handspring elbow against Ivory at the RR a few years back.

 

One day someone will get really hurt and the fans won't buy it.

[humongous2002 0]

I'll take a guess the last four will be: Rhyno, Kidman, Tajiri, and um...Bradshaw.

 

*takes a deep breath

I assume that Tajiri vs. Kidman might be a RR qualifying match, since it would make sense and the guy doing the report said he didn't see the match so he might have missed that.

 

If I were to guess I would say Rhyno and the APA will be the other three Smackdown guys in the Rumble.

How about Taker?He's suppose to return sooner or later.

[eirejmcmahon 0]

I've no real problem with them using the 'X' like that.

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

Here is a another more detailed report

 

Report by Troy Throne

 

(1) Paul London defeated Lenny Lane. Paul London was out first to a mild pop,while Lenny got a huge pop and the crowd was nuts for him the whole time for some odd reason. A fairly good match with a botched spot or two

 

VELOCITY TAPING

 

(1) Worlds Greatest Tag Team defeated Rikishi & Scotty Too Hotty. WGTT got a big pop, the crowd went wild for Rikishi, I have no clue why. Good match with WGTT winning with the superkick into the back suplex. Scotty hurt his arm during the match, I had a backstage view and he looked to be in big pain when he got back.

 

(2) Bashams (w/the the real manbeast shaniqua) defeated Ultimo Dragon & Funaki. Nothing of note in this match other than Ultimo Dragon's pyro is extremely hot

 

(3) Orlando Jordan defeated Jobber whose name I don't remember. The only good thing about this match was the "lets go jobber" chants going on in my section. Funny stuff

 

SMACKDOWN TAPINGS

 

(1) Rey Mysterio defeated Chuck Palumbo (w/FBI). Great match with Mysterio winning with a rollup. FBI beats him down afterwards when Jamie Noble comes out and hands Nunzio an envelope then holds the title up.

 

Paul Heyman cuts a promo on Benoit and Cena claiming they have ruined Smackdown then claims a new era of Smackdown starting tonight makes a 2 on 4 match with him sitting at ringside

 

(2) Tajiri defeated Billy Kidman to advance to the Rumble match. Sloppy match with Kidman missing the shooting star press and Tajiri winning with the kick to the face.

 

Backstage segment with Brock Lesnar following Big Show around. Show is pissed and tells Brock that he's just doing it cause he is scared of Holly. In a funny moment Lesnar gets upset saying he's put on 15 pounds being around Show and all the food. Funny segment.

 

(3) A-Train defeated Shannon Moore to advance to Rumble. A-train wins despite The Cat coming out and dancing. Lots of "shave your back" chants.

 

(4) John Cena & Chris Benoit defeated Rhyno & Matt Morgan & Brock Lesnar & Big Show. Big Show was trapped in his locker room backstage. Monstrous hometown pop for Lesnar which quickly turned into heat and "you tapped out"chants. Heyman was at ringside sitting on a lifeguard chair. Cena cut a funny rap before the match talking about Heyman and Lesnar giving each other massages. Great match which went a long time with Lesnar trying to leave the match and getting attacked by Hardcore Holly, who was actually very over with the crowd and plays the nuts gimmick very well. Cena wins with the F-U on Rhyno. Show comes out afterwards and lays out Cena and Benoit

 

(5) Bradshaw defeated Akio & Sakoda in a triple threat match to advance to Rumble. In a word, boring.

 

(6) Chavo Guerrero Jr. & Sr. defeated Kurt Angle& Eddie Guerrero. Biggest pop of the night for Eddie. Kind of disappointing match considering the talent involved. Chavo Sr. seems to be in great shape and held his own in the ring with the other three. Finish happens as Angle gets hit in the face and temporarily blinded hits Eddie with the Angle Slam and gets taken to the back, Chavo then hits the frogsplash for the win

 

Overall a great show, well worth the price. The lower level was sold out with the top level blocked off on the camera side and the top level on the other side half full. After the cameras stopped rolling Eddie calls Chavo out for an impromptu match and wins it with the frog splash. Biggest pops of the night go to Eddie, Cena, Lesnar, Angle, Benoit, and Holly. Biggest heat goes to Heyman, Lesnar when the match started, and Chavo.

 

---------------------------------------------------

 

So it appears Tajiri, A-Train, Bradshaw and Rhyno are in the Rumble, with one spot remaining.

[Mystery Eskimo 0]

No ones going to buy an X sign if Angle just hit the Angleslam on Eddie.

 

If it was such serious injury that an X is required he isnt going to be trying to continue the match, or be stupid enough to execute it on the wrong guy.

 

Just dumb.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

(5) Bradshaw defeated Akio & Sakoda in a triple threat match to advance to Rumble. In a word, boring.

So, so wrong

[Mecha Mummy 0]

Opened with a dark match between Lenny Lane and Paul London. Crowd was semi-into the bout with decent work by both men. Solid support and relatively loud "Lenny" chants by the crowd. London won after catapaulting himself into the ring and rolling up Lenny. Didn't seem like many people had much of an idea of who London was, while a number of fans recognized Lenny because he's from the area and his exposure in WCW.

 

Did this sadden anyone else or was it just me?

[Mole 0]

That saddens you because some people remember WCW?

[Mecha Mummy 0]

So, there's nothing slightly wrong with the fact that Paul London is less recognized than a WCW lower midcard comedy character who hasn't been on national TV in three years? (Then again, he's been on like one Smackdown so far, so maybe I SHOUILDN'T be so shocked.)

[Mole 0]

No, because London sucks.

[MixxMaster 0]

So, there's nothing slightly wrong with the fact that Paul London is less recognized than a WCW lower midcard comedy character who hasn't been on national TV in three years? (Then again, he's been on like one Smackdown so far, so maybe I SHOUILDN'T be so shocked.)

Lenny Lane is a VERY widely known wrestler in the Minnesota area. He wrestle's in a number of indies, and is a big draw for them.

[Guest wildpegasus]

So what's the point of the Big Show getting the last laugh against Cena and Benoit? Does that mean there's going to be some type of signifigant altercation between Show and Benoit or perhaps Cena?

I love quoting myself! I think I read somewhere that Show eliminated Benoit and Cena over the top rope so it definitely sounds like Benoit or Cena will be getting their revenge against Show at the Rumble.

[haVoc 0]

That whole Big Show has heat with Lesnar, cops, locked in a closet, comes out at the end and squashes Benoit & Cena after they win the handicap match is friggen confusing. Hopefully seeing it play out on TV will make more sense.