Velocity: Paul London and Billy Kidman def. Tajiri and Akio. London hit the 450 on Akio after a top rope gourdbuster. 4 really good workers.
Chuck Palumbo w/ Nunzio def. Bob Holly. Nunzio distracted Holly, Palumbo used the press Samoan drop.
Between matches Lil' Naitch Charles Robinson got a few whooooos and even teased a strut.
Chavo Jr. w/ Sr. def. Ultimo Dragon. Chavito was the 1st over guy, I mean the Eddie chants were huge. Amazingly Eddie got the biggest chant when he wasn't around. Sr. (who was really working hard as a manager) does the NWO point a few times toward his son. Fall comes with a modified Gory special into a flapjack.
Smackdown: Cena, wearing a Robert Parish shirt, comes out to a big hometown pop. Talks about his peoples, how he used to sit behind a pole watching wrestling in the old Garden, said he FU'ed Big Show and made him 10lbs lighter, brought up gay marriage and said "no offense Cole", brought up the Yankees S*** chant. Which brings out Paul Heyman to get the cheap NY heat. He says the rumors are true, Brock is no longer in the WWE because the locker room turned their backs on him last week and never appreciated him. John could be the face of SD or he could be on Raw after Monday night. Locker room should pray they go to Raw after letting Austin stun him last week. Heyman enters the ring enraged and slaps Cena who throws a few punches before.....
Rhyno comes down and saves Heyman. Usual big man match w/ Cena pumping his Reeboks and winning with the FU.
Backstage Paul confronts APA about "doing the right thing" last week. They have a tag title match tonight, lose and they're fired.
Scotty and Rikishi def. APA Bradshaw torture racked Scotty to no response. At 1 point Rikishi was holding the tag rope and "Blind" Nick Patrick comes over to tell him to hold onto it. Rikishi then starts clapping to get the crowd into it. Rikishi pinned Bradshaw after a savat kick. Minimal crowd reaction to APA being fired.
Backstage APA confronts Heyman who says it was a misunderstanding. Faarooq is fired, not Bradshaw, for losing. Paul sees a financial analyst who's on Fox News, and how long can he possibly carry his dead weight partner. Faarooq leaves the room, Bradshaw doesn't want to go. Later we see Faarooq leaving the building with Bradshaw trying to explain why he has to stay with Heyman.
Backstage again we see Dawn Marie w/ hair talking with WGTT, Billy Gunn, and Rey. Paul interrupts and says he has a "Divide and Conquer" strategy: a Run the Gauntlet for a title shot tonight against Eddie. 1st up is Shelton vs. Haas.
This match would have been fine in the 80s, and they were working hard, but it killed the crowd. Shelton wins w/ a leg lariat.
Shelton def. Billy Gunn, who's entrance got a much larger than expected pop. After the last match Orlando Jordan would have been cheered. Shelton roles up Billy and uses the ropes.
Big Show comes up, runs down Cena (the mic may have been bad because he restarted), talked with Heyman earlier to explain himself last week and everything's cool. He's in the gauntlet but not now. He's at the end.
Rey Mysterio def. Benjamin. No hydrolic lift on the ramp. Rey took a whip into the buckles and with his height really whiplashed his neck. Rey won with the rana, 619, and guillotine legdrop.
Rey def. Big Show via countout when Cena interfered. Show was killing Rey, Cena's music hit, Show got out of the ring, Rey hit a 619, and Cena blasted him from behind with the US belt. Show hit the ringpost and was counted out.
Eddie Guerrero def. Rey Mysterio in a solid ***1/2 match. Rey hit an Asai moonsault off the 3rd rope onto Eddie standing on the floor. Amazing agility and leg strength. Rey missed the legdrop and Eddie won with a La Mistral cradle. Funny note: when they were backing the low rider up they didn't cut the wheels enough and it tapped the staging.
Post match Heyman came back, ran down Eddie and Rey saying they should be deported, and that nobody would stop him from running SD his way. GONG. Taker comes out with Paul Bearer, backs Heyman into the ring, where Rey and Eddie push Heyman into Taker for the tombstone. Taz and Cole helped Heyman to the back.
Looks like a decent show. Sounds better than Raw, IMO. Haas/Benjamin, Rey/Benjamin, and Rey/Eddie all sound like good matches.
Can't see me getting up early on Saturday for that one. The APA split sounds utterly contrived and I can only see it leading to either a Bradshaw/Simmons feud or Ron's retirement. If its the latter, he deserves better in spite of his faults, and if its the former then..... well, ugh. Stick them in a feud for a couple of months with a mid card tag team and have it end with an APA win and emotional farewell on a SD only PPV.
They really need to give Rhyno the odd win if they want him to be buyable muscle against guys like Cena. The fact that Haas and Benjamin were in the gauntlet highlights exactly why the rosters need shaken up, and whats with them playing face against Heyman? If you want the guys to generate heat at least let us know consistently whether we should be cheering or jeering.
Man I'm unusually bitter today. At least Eddie/Rey should be fun and any time Rey gets a W over Big Show can't be all bad regardless of Cena's interference.
Originally posted by The Amazing SalamiDid I miss it or was there absolutely no mention of the whole lottery thing.
"John could be the face of SD or he could be on Raw after Monday night. Locker room should pray they go to Raw after letting Austin stun him last week."
But other than that, not really as far as I can see. Can't understand why Heyman was allowed to book a title match and Bischoff wasn't, but I'm probably thinking to much about such things.
Damn, Holly goes from a title match at the Royal Rumble to jobbing to Chuck Palumbo on Velocity in the span of 2 months. Benjamin looks to be in line for a potential singles push if they decide to break up TWGTT, although at this point that would just cripple the tag team division. Not like they give a damn anymore, but it kinda resembles the WCW tag team scene of 1998, although at least Judy Bagwell and Kenny Kaos aren't champs (yet).
Originally posted by dMrCan't understand why Heyman was allowed to book a title match and Bischoff wasn't, but I'm probably thinking to much about such things.
Bischoff said that he couldn't book a title match until Vince made his announcement, I think. Of course, he just went ahead and made the main event right then and there anyways, so it ended up being a moot point.
Gee, the opportunity to dump Bradshaw happens and they let it pass. Please don't allow this to be the impetus for him to get a heel singles push in the next few months. But, it probably will. If Cena was mentioning the old days at the Garden, why couldn't they have dug up the Duke of Dorchester Pete Doherty to make a special appearance? If Vince is serious about a 'new era' occurring next week, hopefully this will be the last program where a non-wrestler involves himself in almost every segment. Yet, despite the new promises, I doubt that will occur.
Pondering whether the world is ready for the Red Sox Nation Lawrence Welk Workrate Report.
Originally posted by onebetterthannoneThe best chants of the night had to be 'we want A-train' and 'Bob's a jobber'.
P.S- If you look close you can see me front row, right behind the ring steps, I'm the bearded leather coat wearing man.
Oh gosh, if you tell me you participated in the Bob chant, you get a 10 rating. Gotta love the Boston fans. The show sounds good, and Heyman gets more comeuppance. I can forgive stupid storyline excuses for people leaving (Brock, Ron) as long as there are good matches on the show.
Originally posted by onebetterthannoneThe best chants of the night had to be 'we want A-train' and 'Bob's a jobber'
I still luv you Bob...even though its pretty much a proven fact that I AM the only one....*sigh*
Cheers,
Erin
Omen Tattoo's Vancouver BC Canada
"I mostly just hurt people"
Forget hypocrite, when Shawn superkicked Benoit and signed on the dotted line, the first thing to go through my head was "Now I *KNOW* Jesus wouldn't do that" FurryHippie
Originally posted by Dave MeltzerRon "Faarooq" Simmons was fired today by WWE, just hours before a television angle done on Tuesday, where he was also fired, was scheduled to air.
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