Show opens with Teddy praising Smackdown in the draft. There as a good 30 seconds of silence after that comment. He introduces Kofi to a good pop. Break the Walls down. Jericho gets on the mic saying how he was the face of Smackdown, now he is headed to Raw to be their face. Kofi tells him to shut it and then they wrestle. Fans were all over Jericho. Kofi hits Trouble in Paradise for the win. The running theme of the night was new Smackdown stars going over those headed to Raw. Jericho bitches to someone in the back, its Big Show. Big Show KOs him and leaves him laying.
Chavo comes out cuts a promo about his relationship with Vickie and how the fans should be glad to see him. Kane hits the ring for the chokeslam and says Welcome back. Jack Swagger did Did You Know about him for most of the night. It became funny then he showed up live which we will get to later. Another video this Shad complains about the new talent.
Morrison vs. Cody. It was a good match that Cody won with his finisher. I was a little surprised how small the reaction for John was during the match. Another Swagger video and Edge walking shot.
Edge comes out to give a heartfelt speech about not wanting to leave his home of Smackdown. Christian interrupts to an E&C chant. Christian says he knows Edge better then Edge knows himself. He calls Edge a liar about caring about the fans. Edge owns up to it and then goes off on how he loves being the puppet master playing the fans to chant for Spear. Christian says intead of E&C, he wants E vs. C. Edge backs off then sucker punches Christian, goes for the spear which some of the fans chant for only to have Christian kick him in the balls. Christian goes for the killswitch, but Edge bails. A great segment since Christian came off looking good, but there was little heat for him, so I am concerned he will get lost in the shuffle.
McCool/Layla vs. Beth/Kelly Kelly. Kelly got a massive pop probably second to Rey. Ok match with Kelly pinning Layla.
JT shows up in a video saying its time for him to get some gold after talking to himself. Dolph comes out and replays him attacking Hornswoggle. He tells the crowd he put the little guy to sleep and now he is Leprechaun heaven. Yes, they inferred Hornswoggle is dead thus Smackdown drafted a corpse yesterday.
CM Punk comes out with SES to a mixed reaction. He praises himself for beating Rey single handliley on the PPV. MVP comes out to a nice pop and gets a good reaction by verablly bitch slapping how boring Punk has made Smackdown. SES attack him, Rey comes out to the pop of the night to make the save. Rey and MVP do the Steiner Brothers stance while Teddy makes it a tag team match. It was a good match with Rey as the face in peril. He makes the tag to MVP who goes for Bawlin' on Luke, stopped by Punk who is then thrown out of the ring while Rey hits 619 on Luke and MVP takes the win. During the celebration the secret SES member attacks Rey and goes through the crowd.
Swagger comes out to the most heat I have seen anyone get. I have seen live HHH in 2000 and 2003, Austin during Invasion and JBL at SummerSlam 2004, nothing compared to this. It was a solid 10-15 minutes of booing every time he started to talk. He finally got through it when Teddy came out to introduce Big Show as the new number one contender. Big Show cuts a funny promo on Swagger and KOs him. I think this is where they end it, but not sure. Teddy makes a triple threat for the title with Jericho, Show and a layed out Swagger. Swagger wins via a title belt shot and a pin out of nowhere.
It was a good show, not great. Smackdown is going to very weird after this week. Nice idea to give the departing Smackdown stars another week on the roster. I am not sure what to make on the heat for Swagger, kids were going insane on how much they hated him, but I don't know if it was X-Poc heat or he is making a connection with the fans. All I know, is that was insane. The crowd was ok, too. Some annoying fans, but nothing as bad as Raw last year with out of control kids all over the place.
Originally posted by CaptaincubaUmmmmm...there's a post DIRECTLY above yours regarding spoilers.
The longstanding rule is that if you personally attended the show, you can feel free to post about what you saw. As Cubs mentioned in another thread, the no-spoiler rule is to discourage people from whining about what happened on shows they haven't actually seen.
This bit about live spoiler reports hardly ever comes into play because I think only Emma ever attends tapings and posts about them ('til today - thanks lotjx)
We haven't had "the new number one contender is ... THE BIG SHOW ah shit really?" in a long-ass time. It really takes me back.
He has developed a Sid'esque quality of somehow ending up back in the main event picture.
I think it's a decent move to be honest. We have a slightly fledgling champ in Swagger, who no one seems to take too seriously despite solid wins over Orton and Jericho/Edge, and beating the Big Show will ALWAYS add credibility to any champ. Show has been well-protected recently, and he's, well, big. SmackDown has little in the way of top-card faces who can give the rub to Swagger, especially with Mysterio's program with Punk. With the Undertaker on his annual hiatus, Show is the most logical choice. He busts his ass in the ring, and the matches shouldn't be too terrible.
Forfeit the game, before somebody else takes you outta the game, and puts your name to shame Cover up your face, you can't run the race The pace is too fast, you just won't last - "Points Of Authority" - Linkin Park
The cameras swapped as Show slugged Swagger so you couldn't see if it was as stiff as the one Miz got the other night. I was waiting for it but couldn't see anything, even on the replay.
Swagger's speach is a huge distraction, underscored by how slowly he speaks. Flair has a lisp but hides it pretty well and works around it. Swagger's is just right there. And he's getting heat but it's not epic heat. Vickie's heat from the height of her EXCUSE ME rants was bigger I think.
Perhaps this is old news, but I was surprised that they more-or-less explicitly said that E&C are not brothers. (Christian said they met in 8th grade.) I've often seen one or the other and half-jokingly thought to myself "hey, are they still brothers?" Now I know.
They also had Christian saying he's never won a world title, which more-or-less explicitly says that the NWA/TNA title doesn't count. Of course, they have almost never acknowledged any title that isn't theirs (they pretty much only started acknowledging WCW and ECW titles after they owned those companies, and even then they rarely said much), but I don't know how often they've made it that clear. Not important, in the scheme of things, but I found it interesting. Good promo; I hope it helps raise Christian's profile a bit.
Originally posted by Peter The HegemonPerhaps this is old news, but I was surprised that they more-or-less explicitly said that E&C are not brothers. (Christian said they met in 8th grade.) I've often seen one or the other and half-jokingly thought to myself "hey, are they still brothers?" Now I know.
They also had Christian saying he's never won a world title, which more-or-less explicitly says that the NWA/TNA title doesn't count. Of course, they have almost never acknowledged any title that isn't theirs (they pretty much only started acknowledging WCW and ECW titles after they owned those companies, and even then they rarely said much), but I don't know how often they've made it that clear. Not important, in the scheme of things, but I found it interesting. Good promo; I hope it helps raise Christian's profile a bit.
They didn't even bother to mention his two "ECW" title reigns. But they didn't call that belt a world championship at the end anymore, so that's probably the reason for it.
The "brothers or not"-thing is certainly interesting.
Edit: Great E&C segment! And I loved the crowd reaction Swagger got. And it really isn't X-Pac-Heat. He's just a good heel, I think.
Smackdown wasn't bad as it had some matches that had the new Smackdown wrestlers win in their debut on their new show.
Chavo comes out......so what? No one has seen him except on Superstars and I honestly don't know how many people watch that show. Kane comes out and "welcomes" him back to Smackdown (I wonder if that is the last time we will see Chavo on Smackdown for awhile or one could hope at least).
Big Show just KO's everyone from Jericho, to Edge, and at the end of the night, Swagger. Show switching to face? Eh, it will work and he already has a feud with Swagger now (or so it seems) and I am interested in where this goes.
Cody and Morrison was a pretty good match and no surprise, Rhodes get the W on his Smackdown debut.
I will admit I will a little puzzled Edge coming out as a face still despite turning heel on Orton on Raw. Anyway, I thought Edge would remain face with his farewell speech and was interested to see what Christian would come out and say. A minute into it, Christian calls out Edge and Edge turns heel saying everything was a hoax and just controlling the WWE fans like puppets. I don't think there was a big reaction to this when Edge said this and in my opinion, this watered down him being a heel because the transition from face to heel wasn't credible as it should have been.
I also wasn't sure of what to make of the "Did you know?" facts about Swagger; is this supposed to make him look better based on his accomplishments? I really didn't hate them per say but I felt like it was kind of useless at the same time (then again, it does tie into him accomplishing winning the World title).
Again, not a bad Smackdown with everything that has happened via the lottery. It should be interesting to how Raw ties in with its new Raw cast.
Originally posted by The GameI don't think there was a big reaction to this when Edge said this and in my opinion, this watered down him being a heel because the transition from face to heel wasn't credible as it should have been.
I like it a lot. He was the same manipulative prick Edge all along. Edges gotta be Edges.
Originally posted by Peter The HegemonPerhaps this is old news, but I was surprised that they more-or-less explicitly said that E&C are not brothers. (Christian said they met in 8th grade.) I've often seen one or the other and half-jokingly thought to myself "hey, are they still brothers?" Now I know.
They also had Christian saying he's never won a world title, which more-or-less explicitly says that the NWA/TNA title doesn't count. Of course, they have almost never acknowledged any title that isn't theirs (they pretty much only started acknowledging WCW and ECW titles after they owned those companies, and even then they rarely said much), but I don't know how often they've made it that clear. Not important, in the scheme of things, but I found it interesting. Good promo; I hope it helps raise Christian's profile a bit.
When they were teaming for a bit in 2004, JR called them 'good friends', I think the brother angle ended when they split in 2001. This is probably the first time they've directly ignored the TNA title, but I do think they've said R-Truth hasn't won any titles, when he is a former NWA champ too.
Good show, real good show actually. Cody/Morrison surprised me a lot and I think Cody has a chance to actually get over and be something on Smackdown. He probably has more hope than Dibiase does on RAW. And they finally got Edge and Christian in a segment together for more than 30 seconds! If they slow build that feud and blow it off at a big PPV, it'd do big business.
Show looked like he enjoyed himself out there, and his title shot makes the match-up intriguing. How can Swagger win without hitting his finisher? I think Show can carry him to a good match. I do.
I thought Swagger's speech was a great script delivered stiffly. But that's Swagger. He doesn't have the poise yet. He would benefit greatly from a manager.
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
I wouldn't mind seeing a Christian/Big Show tag team for a little while. Show doing the random partner thing is the best thing to happen to that division in years.
Originally posted by BigDaddyLocoI wouldn't mind seeing a Christian/Big Show tag team for a little while. Show doing the random partner thing is the best thing to happen to that division in years.
That'd be good, then Edge and Jericho could reunite and they could have a big interbrand tag match at Summerslam.
Did anyone else notice that Cody Rhodes's entrance video changed from 'Legacy' to 'The Legacy'. The annoucers didn't make mention of it, but I wouldn't be surpirsed to see him be refered to as 'The Legacy', unless they're trying to get a different wall entrance treatment for him.
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