Just got back from the Joe, I AIMed a friend about the show, and here's what we said:
kdawg422: are you ready for some SPOILERS?! kdawg422: no? *****: spoilers? *****: oh yeah, you were at smackdown! *****: do tell kdawg422: just got back from the smackethdown kdawg422: MORTIS!!!!!!!! *****: OMFG kdawg422: Kanyon came out dressed as Mortis for the first dark match *****: that's fucking awesome kdawg422: the 6 of us and only the 6 of us were going apeshit kdawg422: brock beat the shit out of zack, and zack even did a MONSTER blade job *****: that's pretty damn cool... how was the match? who did he face? *****: HOLY SHIT kdawg422: mortis defeated jobber *****: HOO-RAY kdawg422: then after gowen was bleeding a lot, in front of his own mom mind you, brock gave him two F5s into the ringpost *****: yeah, he's from the detroit area, right? kdawg422: then he did a stretcher job but brock beat him up some more kdawg422: yup *****: god fucking damnit. that actually kind of makes me want to watch smackdown thursday, although i don't know if i will. kdawg422: there was a pretty good sized pool of blood by the ringpost and another one up on the rampway from the stretcher job kdawg422: then we had tajiri/benoit vs eddie/rhyno kdawg422: it was so very awesome to see eddie's flyride live in person kdawg422: after the match, eddie hit tajiri with the belt, then benoit, then rhyno...then he drove away, it was so great *****: that's great *****: it makes me wish i could've seen smackdown myself kdawg422: the last cool part to happen during smackdown was angle vs big show kdawg422: BS was setup on the announce table with the steel steps right next to it kdawg422: so, angle climbed the steps with a steel chair and did the RVD guillotine leg drop onto show with the chair under his leg kdawg422: angle is so god kdawg422: then he finished off show with an angle slam through a regular table *****: god fucking damnit *****: it actually sounds like smackdown is becoming quite good again kdawg422: it's been on a pretty good streak kdawg422: now, the t shirt stand: kdawg422: good news: the brand new john cena "word life" tshirt which my brother bought! *****: OH FUCK kdawg422: and the red tajiri shirt that i bought adam for his birthday *****: OH DOUBLE FUCK kdawg422: the bad news was that those were two of only 6 style of shirts they had :-( kdawg422: therefore, no cheat2win kdawg422: we went to a few different stands and they all had the same stuff *****: LAME *****: did you ask about the cheat2win shirt at all? kdawg422: but i have hope that in a few months i can get cheat2win from gibraltar (trade center) just like i did with the hurricane shirt... kdawg422: and for cheaper too kdawg422: and yeah the people working the stands were joe louis employees so they wouldn't have known
If you have any questions about what went down, just ask.
Oh yeah, there was a lot of specualtion on the different sites whether Brock/Gowen would happen or not. It did in fact happen (could've been tough to tell from the AIM chat) and it was a pretty entertaining squash. Having Zack's mom watch him get beat to a bloody pulp was just...wow.
Looks like Big Show's latest main event run might have finally come to an end. What's more impressive, frankly; destroying a one-legged glorified jobber, or destroying a 500-pound man? I actually have no idea who will win either title match at Summerslam, which is nice for a change.
Here is a more verbose version from the Observer via 411:
Rundown of all the matches and happenings for this week's show...
SmackDown!
Angle comes out and he's mad at Brock Lesnar and wants to fight him tonight before wrestling him at SummerSlam. Vince comes out, and Angle lets loose with the profanities UPN will have to bleep (asshole, pussy, and SOB). The bottom line was Angle could not get near Lesnar or McMahon tonight if he didn't want to be suspended, stripped of the title, or fired, but he could fight Big Show in a Street Fight where falls count anywhere.
Rey Mysterio d. Matt Hardy - Good match, which seemed to be given more time than most SmackDown! matches. Kidman was with Rey, but kicked out by the ref early. One blown spot had Rey making a decision of who to give the 619 to, as Matt and Shannon were drapped on the ropes at different sides of the ring. He ran towards Shannon and stopped, because Matt Hardy did not get up in time to attack him, so they repeated the spot. No one chanted anything, and to some it may have looked like Rey was just changing his mind about who to hit. Rey won with a great looking West Coast Pop after Zach Gowen hit Hardy with a crutch.
Basham Brothers d. Gunn and Noble. Short match. Gunn KO'd either Doug, but Danny snuck in and played dead, then small packaged Noble for the win.
Zach Gowen vs Brock Lesnar was announced, as Brock was being a good sport and taking on someone to be on equal footing with Angle. Zach's mom was interviewed at ringside by Michael Cole.
Zach Gowen d Brock Lesnar via DQ. No official announcement made, Brock just pretty much killed Zach after promsing in an earlier segment to break his one good leg. Gowen to the outside when Brock was taunting his mom, but that was bout it. Double powerbomb and a brutal chair shot lead to the DQ. Big blade job by Zach after Lesnar smashed him with a chair. Lesnar F5'd Zach on the post twice, then attacked him while he was being stretchered out. The SummerSlam match recap later in the show still showed Gowen / Hardy as being on the card, but this 'match' really seemed to suggest Gowen is seriously injured in storyline terms.
John Cena & A-Train def. Undertaker and Orlando Jordan. Cena's freestyle on the way out was hilarious (something like "You had to know Brock would smoke Zach like a joint / he really sucks because he's from Detroit, and something about Joe Louis Arena actually being a big crack house) big heat for Cena for the rap, but most people around us seemed thrilled when he pinned Undertaker relatively clean. Taker had Cena up for the Last Ride, but A-Train clipped Taker in the knee. Cena fell on the Dead Man for the one, two, three. Word life, indeed.
Eddie/Rhyno d. Benoit/Tajiri. Criminally short, but good for what time it was given. A big "Eddie" chant started during the break as people could see the lowrider hidden behind the set. Rhyno won with a Gore on Tajiri. Eddie hit him wit hthe US belt afterwards. Rhyno got a good exit pop.
Kurt Angle d. Big Show in a Street Fight, Falls Count Anywhere match. Angle has a knack for carrying Show to good matches, and this seemed enjoyable live. The match had some good near falls, despite the fact a table was set up in the ring and never used until the finish, making any fall prior to Kurt Angle Slamming big show through it for the pin seem like an obvious kick out.
Overall, we enjoyed ourselves.
As for attendance, about 5-7 tapred off upperdeck sections on the hard camera side and some empty seats in the top part of the upper bowl, but a good sized crowd. From what I could hear, "TWOOOO" was in full effect and the crowd seemed pretty good when they weren't chanting "Let's Go Red Wings" during the 'commercial' breaks.
Originally posted by Notorious F.A.B.Rey won with a great looking West Coast Pop
So does that officially mean that the WWE has given up on Gail Kim enough to let Rey have his REAL finishing move back, instead of the "dropping the dime" or whatever one he's been having to use lately?
Tribal Prophet
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Originally posted by Notorious F.A.B.Wow. I missed watching a couple of SD!s and I completely missed that. (Rey not doing the West Coast Pop.)
I actually thought Rey kept the West Coast Pop in his arsenal while trying out different finishers. Can't have too many finishers, right?
LS: You're sure going into the women's locker room will get us on TV? GD: Absolutely! And if it doesn't, I've got Max Mini ready to come out of retirement. HE'LL get us on Raw! Nothing spells ratings like MIDGETS!
I attended the show at the Joe last night and the beating that Gowen took was pretty sick. It's one thing watching those things on TV, but watching Gowen bleed like a stuck pig and get tossed around by Lesnar was pretty awful.
Also, Undertaker (as much as I despise the guy) is crazy over in Detroit (at least his entrance is). The place went apesh*t when he rode out.
Oh, and watch Rey's West Coast Pop on Matt Hardy - he doesn't get Matt completely around and absolutely plants his head into the mat.
Firstly, Cena is right on the verge of breaking through and being a HUGE star. Everybody in my section was waiting for Cena all night long. During the long boring breaks for "commercials", people were talking about Cena and waiting for him to come out and were starting to get pissed as it got later in the show as they thought he wasn't going to be there. When his music hit, the place blew up. Then, he dissed Detroit in a HILARIOUS rap and everybody booed. But it was the good "We're just playing along by booing, but we really love you" type boos. Great lines about Joe Louis being the world's largest crack house and Detroit having more rednecks than Jerry Springer.
And Reverend J Shaft is right about that West Coast Pop on Matt. Absolutely BRUTAL! Matt came down with force right on his head. We got no 'X' sign from the ref, and Matt left under his own power, so he was alright.
I was right at the side of the TitanTron and was one chanting for Eddie as he was in his low rider backstage. He and Rhyno put on a little show and were hamming it up for us. The Eddie chants started as soon as he came out and he sort of waved and kind of blew us off at first. Then Rhyno came out, and the Rhyno chants started. Eddie then started to point to Rhyno in beat with the chants, which started an Eddie chant. Rhyno stood up and beat his chest like "What happened to my cheers?", so another Rhyno chant started. It was a lot of fun.
The Zach blade job is pretty brutal as well. A literal crimson mask. His mom was great during this whole segment, too, which made me wonder if it was really his mom or an actress hired to play his mom. She was screaming and yelling at Brock the whole time. She hopped the rail after the second F-5 into the post and everybody was expecting her to get a beatdown by Brock (stunt granny!!). It wasn't to be. However, when Zach was being carted up the aisle on a stretcher with his mom by his side, Brock ran up to knock him over and his mom smacked him on the shoulder in a "stay away from my son" kind of way. I just thought that was funny.
My whole section was expecting the "street fight" to spill over to the floor in front of the stage right in front of us, because before the match started, the concrete there was lit as if there was going to be action there. We were all excited about this, but they stayed in the ring or around ringside for the entire match.
Oh yeah, something else that wasn't mentioned. After the A-Train match, there was a backstage skit with A-Train and Sable where Sable fondles A-Train's chest saying that Mr. McMahon wanted her to personally thank him for taking out Stephanie. She was running her hands through his hair and groped his boobens then gave him her hotel key card. It was disturbing.
The other backstage skits included Big Show freaking out after the opening interview segment where McMahon set up the Angle/Show Street Fight for later in the night, and a segment with McMahon/Brock after that where McMahon says that since Angle has a match before SummerSlam, Brock needs one too. He says Angle has Show, so Brock needs a suitable opponent as well and sets up the Zach match. That was it for backstage segments that I remember, besides the WALKING! shots.
There was a video segment about how Stephanie has been abused the past few weeks and "how is she going to continue as GM/is she going to quit?", but had no follow up with a Stephanie interview or anything.
Basically, everybody who's involved in SummerSlam was involved in this show. It was a really great show live, and should be decent on TV. There really wasn't a lot of McMahon as he was in the opening segment, then the two short backstage segments to set up the two matches later in the show. All segments were kept short and all had a point in relation to the rest of the night, with the exception of the A-Train/Sable segment. Should come across as a solid and fun show on Thursday.
Originally posted by Notorious F.A.B.Rey won with a great looking West Coast Pop
So does that officially mean that the WWE has given up on Gail Kim enough to let Rey have his REAL finishing move back, instead of the "dropping the dime" or whatever one he's been having to use lately?
Tribal Prophet
I had thought that he had just stopped using it since he had started tagging with Kidman, with their finisher now being 619 to SSP. The West Coast Pop is also a bit difficult to continually fit into a tag match without it looking too contrived. I mean you need the opponents partner disabled for a fair bit, opponent on the ropes and so on.
Would they really mind 2 people of different sexes on different shows using a similar finisher? I dunno.
I think the West Coast Pop is also hard on the knees. Rey's had problems w/ his knees for a while, so he prob. stopped for a while to give his knees a rest. IIRC, he hurt his knee in WCW doing the move.
What is the big deal about where this leaves Kane? Does it make him look foolish because his "wife" has been dating someone else and then had an affair on HIM? HELL no. They acknowledged this is all a storyline. We all know it's fake.