Tuesday's Smackdown! taping will be emanating from my neck of the woods (my seats might be in view of the camera, but then again they might not), and - as such - we've been seeing some local TV spots advertising the events here on our local UPN channel ... However, these ads have been talking about a supposed main event that (quite frankly) has me scratching my head :
Spoiler Below: Highlight text to read
Batista and John Cena vs Triple H and JBL in an interpromotional tag team match
Now, maybe one of the news sites have gotten wind of this, but I've (personally) heard nothing about it online, and I would think that such a thing would have been advertised beforehand ... Of cours, it could always be just some old card information that the TV stations have gotten hold of (that current storylines have rendered obsolete), or is it possible that they are going to hold a "dark match"-type main event (I had no idea they did such things at actual television tapings)?
For those that don’t know, the Tiger Mask character was based on a Japanese cartoon, so Misawa stepping out of that and becoming the best wrestler in his country would be kind of like Chris Benoit doing a Darkwing Duck gimmick and then becoming the Chris Benoit we all mark over. - AWC
Around here, they've been advertising the same match for the 7/18 Raw from Philadelphia for weeks now -- in fact, they were advertising it long before Batista jumped rosters, which was a bit of a spoiler in and of itself.
Ling-Ling into battle go Fulfill destiny of the soul Sever skull of adversary Shove it in the poo-poo hole
All the children sing: Kill kill kill kill die die die Kill kill kill kill die die die....
(This isn't actually a spoiler because it's a dark match and won't be refered to on screen, except in ads. I'm going to skip the tags)
They've been advertising/listing this match for this set of shows for a while, going back to the beginning of the draft lottery. They had planned from the beginning to switch both top faces, and this match keeps happy those who thought they were getting Cena or Batista and no longer are because of the moves. RAW's never done house shows on Tuesdays, and SD! isn't running Monday shows, so the guys are free to work this without making other people unhappy.
(That wasn't a problem the last couple weeks, since they had the double taping. They probably won't be doing it forever.)
BigSteve, not that I'm complaining... but did Meltz give a reason why Triple H would be off TV?
They gotta bring these back!!!: "talk to the hand because the man don't understand." - "The Crippler" Chris Benoit "...and that is the LAST WORD." - "The Big Nasty" Paul Wight and of course: "Don't hate the playa...HATE THE GAME~!" - WCW World Champion Booker T
Originally posted by The SquireBigSteve, not that I'm complaining... but did Meltz give a reason why Triple H would be off TV?
This was the quote from Meltzer's update yesterday:
Originally posted by Meltzer Confirmation that HHH is taking himself out of the game with Hogan around is that some formerly with HHH & JBL vs. Batista & Cena on top have been changed to Hogan & Cena & Batista vs. Michaels & JBL & Angle. Flair will be around during this period at last word.
So basically, I guess he's not interested in being a second (or third) fiddle.
FWIW, I saw the same "interpromotional match" ad last night during Smackdown for the end of the month show in Cleveland.
"Lita holds a Stone Cold Steve Austin home pregnancy test. What will the Bottom Line say? “Hell Yeah” or “Eh-EH”?" - Raw Satire, 6/15/04 (Apparantly ours said "Hell Yeah", 03/08/05)
So basically, I guess he's not interested in being a second (or third) fiddle.
The 'offical' reason they're telling the newsletters is that HHH thinks his character has been overexposed, and we all need a break from him. He's scheduled to be back after SummerSlam.
You could say "he's been overexposed for three years, awful concidental timing that he takes the time off when he's probably stuck in the 2nd or 3rd program and has no one intersting to work with", but I'm sure Hunter would counter with "I couldn't take the break before because the show needed the star power, and since right now is likely to be a rare occurance when they don't need me (Hogan's not going to be around forever, Cena feuds won't be as big when people are used to Cena on RAW), it's gotta be now." (And then he might make fun of your look. That darn HHH.)
(I'm trying to express that there's two ways of looking at it, and I'm not particularly endorsing either viewpoint. Not sure if I made it clear.)
And technically from a storyline standpoint, he'd be selling the Hell in a Cell bigtime, which is pretty nice considering after the last one both guys just came back to TV the next night with makeup jobs and walking gingerly. Then again, I guess Batista is fine.
Though for all we know he could get antsy, come back on Monday, reclaim the Cena match for SummerSlam, and go "2.6 to 3.6, am I the Game or what!"
Originally posted by BigSteveAccording to Meltzer, Triple H is going to be off TV for a while, so these matches have been changed to Hogan & Batista & Cena vs HBK & JBL & Angle.
Just for the record, I attended the taping last night, and the (unaired) main event was in fact JBL and Triple H versus Cena and Batista.
UNLESH THE ANIMAL - Sign in crowd highlighted by brilliant WWE cameraman during Batista's drafting on Smackdown!