**SPOILERS** WWE SmackDown! Taping Results Written by Fred Cook on 06/11/2003
Dark Matches
1) Ian Harrison & Travis Tonto (maybe?) vs. Norman Smiley & ?? (couldn't hear his name)
Norman and his partner were definite faces here. The heels win, but not before Norman tried to hump "tattoo boy" from behind to a big pop.
2) Jamie Noble vs. Ultimo Dragon
Holy cow... serious pyro for Dragon's entrance, which was weird for a dark match. Huge pop from the crowd. Dragon wins, and Noble gets shot down yet again. He must have pissed off someone backstage. Wasn't he a champion or something? :-P
Josh Matthews and Ernest "The Cat" Miller come down for Velocity.
3) Brian "Spanky" Kendrick vs. Chad Collier
I guess we are just supposed to refer to him as "Spanky" now... whatever. Anyway, decent match. Spanky wore the most glittery purple shorts I have seen since Johnny B. Badd. Surprise, surprise, Brian and his loud shorts pick up the win. I'm not sure if this match will be televised. Josh and Ernest were ringside, but the Velocity pyro happened after this match.
Velocity
4) Shannon Moore vs. Orlando Jordan
Nice pop for Jordan... maybe it's just because he was wrestling IN Orlando... who knows? He looked good, though, and even bigger surprise, he gets a clean TV win over Shannon.
5) Kanyon vs. Bill "Hugh Morris" DeMott
I mention "Hugh" because DeMott started the match by telling a lame "Knock, Knock" joke. I'm not sure what the deal with his character is, but he picks up the win here with some weird reverse suplex. Kanyon was the heel, but didn't look very impressive, as you might have guessed.
6) Rikishi vs. Crash
Oh, my... can you say "squash"? Who books these things? Before the match, Crash lines the ring apron with WWE Magazines, which had Matt Hardy on the cover (I think). During one point, Rikishi knocked him down, and he crawled over to one of the magazines, and started reading it. I guess he needed some pointers from his mentor. It was pretty funny, but it didn't work. Rikishi wins with a Bonzai Drop, and then danced for us.
SmackDown!
- Michael Cole and Tazz come down to Tazz's music. The pyro hits, and they start with a recap of last week, where Rey Mysterio wins the Cruiserweight title from Matt Hardy.
1) Rey Mysterio vs. Matt Hardy (WWE Cruiserweight title rematch)
Rey pops up, and comes to the ring first. Then we see Matt backstage with Shannon and Crash. He blames them for his loss last week, and says they are not allowed at ringside. He then proceeds to deck Shannon in the face, and throws Crash into some stage equipment. Looked pretty brutal. He comes down to the ring, and gets serious heat from the crowd for his actions.
The match was good, but different than last week. Mysterio hits the 619 and the West Coast Pop, but Matt kicks out after 2. Rey goes up top, and hits a great looking bulldog, but only a 2 count. Matt goes for the Twist of Fate near the ropes, but Rey blocks it by grabbing the ropes. He then hits a hurricarana off the top rope for the win. Matt does the job for Rey.
WINNER: Rey Mysterio (retains title)
- The ring is set up for Piper's Pit. Roddy comes down with Sean O'Haire to bagpipes. There's a table set up in the ring. Half of it has sushi and half has beans and salsa. Roddy announces his guests on this international edition of Piper's Pit, Eddie Guerrero and Tajiri. Eddie and Tajiri drive down in the low-rider from last week. Funny segment, with loud "Eddie" chants. Sean wants to hold Eddie's tag team belt, but Eddie's too smart for that. Tajiri, however, wants to munch on some sushi, so he lets O'Haire hold his belt for a plate of sushi. Sean won't give it back. Roddy offers a toast of (almost) friendship. Tajiri sprays it back in their faces, as Eddie turns the buffet table over on them, and steals Tajiri's belt back.
Then, they get back in the car, and try to back it out, but it keeps stalling out. I don't think that'll be on Smackdown. The stage crew had to push it out.
- Sable appears on screen, as Stephanie enters the picture. They talk about Zach Gowen's chances for a contract, and Steph knows Sable is up to something. She also mentions that she is bringing back the U.S. Title (!). Kick ass!!
2) A-Train vs. Billy Gunn (Guest ring announcer - Torrie Wilson)
Billy makes his return to Smackdown in style. He comes down to his Mr. Ass music and gimmick, and Torrie is all over him. Lots of "Shave your back" chants for Albert, as you might expect. The crowd was all over A-Train's ass (or wait, no... no...). Billy wins with the Fame-ass-er, and then exchanges playful spankings with Torrie. They leave arm in arm.
3) Undertaker vs. Johnny Stamboli (w/ Chuck Palumbo and Nunzio)
The best part about this match was that I didn't have to hear Michael Cole mention a "numbers game" or someone getting "whacked"... but, I'll hear it when I watch Thursday, I'm sure. Stamboli looked good in this match. He had Taker stunned with a spinebuster and started slapping him in the face. That didn't last too long, as Taker got pissed and came back momentarily. UT spent a good part of the match chasing Nunzio, which was pretty funny. Stamboli hit a beautiful suplex, considering how tall the Undertaker is. Johnny misses a leg drop from the top rope, and Taker capitalizes, hitting the Last Ride for the win.
After the match, Palumbo gets involved, and gets a nice chokeslam for his efforts. But, Nunzio smacks Undertaker in the face with a steel chair to leave him laying in the ring.
- Backstage, Zach Gowen is getting a pep talk from Mr. America.
- After the break, Stephanie comes down to ringside to oversee the arm wrestling contest. She is about to announce Zach, but Sable's music starts instead. Sable comes down to the ring, and starts to say something, but Steph cuts her off. She finally gets to announce Zach, accompanied by Mr. America. Then, "No Chance" hits, and here comes the boss! Vince is wearing a tank top and workout pants, and he's pumped up huge for this.
Hogan gets on the mic, and says this is about you and me, McMahon. Why don't you put that little spaghetti arm up here, and let's settle it. Vince says he'll arm wrestle Hogan on two conditions. First, it has no bearing on Zach's contract, and second, if Mr. America loses, he has to leave the ring. They lock up left-handed, and go at it. It looks like Hogan might win, but Sable interferes and they stop the contest.
Steph warns her not to get involved again. They try it again, right-handed. This time, Hulk is keeping an eye on Sable to make sure she doesn't interfere again. He's about to beat Vince again, when suddenly Sable flashes her tits at Mr. America. He's momentarily stunned (and who wouldn't be?) and Vince takes advantage and wins. He then forces Mr. America, Stephanie and Sable all to leave the ring.
Now, Vince starts verbally trashing Zach, and they get set for the real arm-wrestling contest. Left-handed, Vince sells big time to Zach. It almost looks like Zach is going to pull off a miraculous upset, when Vince kicks Zach's leg from under the table, and pins his arm down. The ref didn't see it. LOL. He continues to berate Zach, forcing him to leave the ring.
4) Chris Benoit & Rhyno vs. Doug & Dave Basham (w/ Shaniqua)
The Bashams have gotten themselves a valet, and it's none other than Linda Miles! This was a pretty decent match, with Rhyno taking a beating. Chris goes up top for the flying headbutt, and Linda tries to interfere. He just kicks her away, but he misses the headbutt. The match ends with Rhyno accidentally punching Benoit in the face, and one of the Bashams pins Benoit. After the match, he's not a happy camper.
Later, backstage, Benoit and Rhyno get into a shouting match, with Rhyno trying to tell Benoit that he didn't mean it. Benoit wants to know how he can trust Rhyno.
5) Funaki vs. John Cena
Cena does a cool rap about Michael Cole liking boy bands, and gave props to Orlando. Kind of surprising, considering he's still the heel. But, he got one of the biggest pops of the night when his music hit. Funaki tried to do a rap, calling Cena ugly. He got a hard clothesline for his trouble. This match was a total squash, and lasted all of 30 seconds or so. The first clothesline, and his F-U finisher for the win.
- Kurt Angle comes down to the ring to the biggest pop of the night. He said he was happy to come back to Smackdown last week, but this week he has unfinished business to take care of. He calls out Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. The crowd is definitely not happy to see Team Angle. Kurt says he understands why they didn't call him in the hospital, but why weren't they at Smackdown last week to welcome him back? Shelton says they were sick... sick of living in Kurt's shadow. And where was Kurt when they were forced to wrestle in a ladder match? Kurt says it's too bad they lost the tag team belts, so let's go sit down and figure out how to win them back. Charlie takes the mic, and says no... they aren't going anywhere. They are tired of Kurt calling all the shots, and tired of the crowd yelling "You Suck" when they walk to the ring, so Kurt is now no longer in charge. Angle says there's only one reason the crowd chants "You Suck"... because he earned it... four years, title after title. Basically, he fires Team Angle to the crowd's delight.
After the break, we see Charlie and Shelton waiting on Kurt to come backstage. Some words are exchanged, and they attack him from behind.
- Video recap of the Brock Lesnar / Big Show feud, going back to last Summerslam.
6) Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show (WWE Championship)
*WOW*... ok, match starts kind of slow. Big Show goes over the top rope to the outside. Brock follows him, but gets thrown head-first into the steps. Lots of heat for the Big Show, chants of "Big Show sucks" throughout the whole match. Brock is selling an injury, probably his shoulder from the steel steps. He tries an F-5 on Show, but collapses. Big Show goes for a chokeslam, but Brock gets out of it. Show hits a big leg drop, but only a 2 count. He finally hits a chokeslam, but again, only for 2. He's going for a 3rd chokeslam attempt, and he looks like he's trying to drag Brock to the top rope. Brock blocks it, and crotches Big Show. Brock sets him up for a superplex off the 2nd rope. He hits a massive superplex, and the RING COLLAPSES!! The ropes come down first, then the bottom drops out of one side. It was amazing to watch. It's going to look great on television! The crowd was in shock, and both wrestlers were on their backs as the show went off the air. The "Holy Shit" chants started as the EMT's came to ringside with stretchers.
--------- Wow..seems like a really good show. I can't wait to see it.
*Hugh Morris is back. *Another car stalls out (thats got to be a record for WWE) *More Sable crap *The WCW...WWE U.S. Title is back (cool!) *Bad Ass Billy Gunn returns and gets Torrie *And WWE seems to be breaking up another good tag team in Benoit/Rhyno
Oh well, seems like a really good show but one thing is missing that would make it great. If they show the Kevin Nash clip of him "running" to the cage to help Mick on RAW.
Your Official Sunday, April 13, 2003 Randomly Selected Wiener Of The Day!!
Kanyon was the heel, but didn't look very impressive, as you might have guessed.
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Pretty schizophrenic (sp?) SD. Looks to be about 1/2 good stuff, 1/2 bad stuff.
Oh, look, Taker goes over Stamboli. That's 2 FBI members down, and I'd imagine Nunzio gets beat next week. Glad to see him putting over guys in the mid-card. That Taker, what a guy.
They've gotta do something w/ Kanyon and Knoble. These 2 guys are away too talented to be jobbers.
And what's up w/ A-Train? He gets a mini push, squashing Rey, and now he's jobbing to Billy Gunn?
"Shaniqua"? Geez... I guess someone thought she'd be confused with Linda McMahon. Makes as much sense as anything...
"next to of course god america i love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh say can you see by the dawn's early my country tis of centuries come and go and are no more what of it we should worry in every language even deafanddumb thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry by jingo by gee by gosh by gum why talk of beauty what could be more beaut- iful than these heroic happy dead who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter they did not stop to think they died instead then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"
Well, if nothing else, "Shaniqua" is more unique than the very generic Linda Miles. Maybe she has a character that goes with the name (because in the past, her personality has been as generic as her name, very plain).
Why is it that when I read about the Torrie and Billy Gunn segment, I am getting flashbacks to the Booty Man and the Booty Girl?
U.S. Title is coming to Smackdown, that's cool. They needed a secondary title, though I think I may have perferred that Bischoff had brought back the U.S. Title, and Steph bring back the Intercontinental title. But that's picking a minor nit. Now they should freeze the amount of titles where they have them.
Team Angle no longer Team Angle? I like those guys, but I'm not sure how well they will do without the Angle gimmick. But I guess they have to let them run on their own at some point.
Sounds like the main event is going to provide a very neat visual, at any rate. It's also beginning to seem like more and more that they are going to stretch the Big Show/Lesnar saga to one more PPV. The last PPV seemed like such a blowoff match, I'm not sure what else they can do. Are they thinking of taking the title off Lesnar and putting on Show to lead to Show/Angle for the title?
Smackdown continues to up itself every week. I don't see as many Smackdown complaints as I do RAW each week. My only question is, doesn't this once again screw up continuity? US Title, property of RAW, Unified with WWE IC Strap. Oh, wait, WWE doesn't do continuity, my bad. Planning in to watch and really enjoy this Smackdown.
(edited by jwrestle on 11.6.03 1034)
Hey look! My wiener is bigger than yours!
Banned Once! The independant thought alarm went off, knew to much about b*tching.
Billy Gunn and Torrie Wilson - I can't wait to see them acting in some backstage vignettes.
Somehow I think that Billy Gunn will be your next US Heavyweight Champion or make it to the finals. It's time for his annual failed singles push of the year. Matt Hardy or John Cena would be my choices for the US Champ.
If Chris Benoit goes back to being a heel, they really need to go back to being The Crippler and constantly going after Angle's neck. I think Tazz could sell the character well on commentary like Joey Styles used to in ECW.
Way too much Steph/Sable/Vince/Hogan/Gowen on the show for my tastes. I think this is one of those tape it and watch it with the fast forward button deals because the rest seems decent.
AAAhhhhhhh Haaa. Torrie is all about the Ass, or Torrie is all about the Monty Sopp? The second just sounds more dirty!
There was some guy named Travis Tanto in a dark match? How come he didn't tag with some one by the name of "Tristen Devonte" or "The Bone Ranger"?
I like the return of the U.S. Title. They should rename Team Angle: Team Allstar. They can keep the cool ass warm ups! The Main Event sounds awesome, I'm so there!
I guess they couldn't harm Show's super drawing power by having him actually lose to Brock on a non-PPV show, and you know what, Show chokeslamming Taker through the ring or when Bigelow and Tazz fell through was just as cheap and fleeting. At least Brock's doing the superplex again.
I got to see the show live, and I enjoyed it. The guy who wrote the spoilers did a better job that I could've, but I'll add what I can remember.
The crowd definitely remembered Norman Smiley. I didn't get the names of the other two guys either. "Tattoo boy"'s partner, Ian I guess, was ripped. He pinned Norman's unidentifiable partner after a decent starting match.
Nidia was nowhere to be seen. Ultimo Dragon got Knoble to tap after an STF-like submission hold.
Spanky and Collier's match was very good; they seemed evenly matched throughout. Spanky got a quick pin with a rollup, and ran away before Collier even knew what happened.
Orlando Jones, at 245, was much bigger than Shannon Moore, and that shaped the match. I thought that either was just as likely to win. I guess that they want to establish Jones as a player (or is that playa).
People didn't seem to care much about Kanyon, which surprised me a little. I was more surprised by the finish, since I thought that they would want to build up Kanyon.
Despite what the IWC thinks, people really do love Rikishi. I got to see Crash's entrance for the first time. Crash charging Rikishi after "Big Kish" wiped his butt with one of the magazines was funny. I believe that Rikishi's popularity justifies his push. If only they could find a suitable angle for him...
I was looking for Matt Facts, but got none. They must tack them on later. This was the first match were both participants got a strong crowd reaction. Rey was cheered for his victory, and Matt was torn up by the crowd for losing.
When the ring crew were setting up Piper's Pit, they put two wooden chairs in the ring (one with a Japanese flag and the other with a Mexican flag), but they took them out again right before the segment started. At least that let me know who were the guests, since I was too far away to see what was on the table. I expected Tajiri to throw the sushi at someone, but spitting the drink later made more sense.
Sable and Stephanie on the screen took some of the attention away from yet another auto malfunction. The crowd loved hearing about the resurrection of the U.S. Title. Even I was slightly miffed at Sable for ruining the surprise like that.
Billy Gunn's return was a big deal to some people. A lady near me called someone with her cell phone to spring the news. I gotta hate the guy now, though. He does nothing and Torrie Wilson comes on to HIM? Wassupwidat!?!
The Undertaker's (pop)ularity cannot be overestimated. The crowd really wanted Taker to destroy the FBI. Nunzio seemed like a cowardly little weasel that always seemed to get away/rescued at the last second.
Stephanie blowing Sable off (not in that way, only in our dreams...) got a big reaction. The plan to get rid of Mr. America was apparently Sable's. I didn't get to see Sable's flash because Hogan...er, um, Mr. America was blocking my view. The replay didn't reveal much except the hilarious reaction of Zach Gowan. Most everybody there voiced their hatred of Mr. McMahon.
Hmmm...so that WAS Linda Miles. What I noticed the most were her abs. Even from far away, she looked to be right out of a body sculpting magazine. I didn't see her do anything at all, but she was on the far side from me.
I couldn't tell whether Cena was praising or dissing Orlando. I understood the "Magic stick" reference, though. He got quite a pop for taking off his shirt. After all the work he obviously put into getting that chiseled, I must say he earned that pop. Funaki was funny, but I was hoping for at least a little offense from him.
The crowd was really into the Team Angle confrontation, especially when Angle dissed his pupils. They loved when Kurt declared that the "You suck" chant would be replaced with the "Goodbye" song. We didn't get to hear the backstage confrontation, except Angle's last reference to the new chant. The production crew seemed to have difficulty all night switching audio between the arena and backstage.
I really dug the main event. I don't have the same loathing for the Big Show that so many here have, and I was impressed with seeing him in person. "Sucks" chants don't always mean apathy for non-Angle wrestlers. The finale was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. The whole show came to a stop and neither guy moved for nearly five minutes. Brock got up, got his belt, and walked away while the Big Show remained motionless. He finally got up (with help) but collaped. He got back up and tried to walk out, but fell again when stepping down from the ring. He staggered to the back on his own, refusing help.
Sorry this is so late; I actually was busy at work for most of today. This is only meant to be an addition to the spoiler report. I hope it isn't too long.
To ensure that this post on topic, I include the following:
Having been to a taping for SD, I'll confirm that yes, the Matt Facts are tacked on later. I was a little miffed because they didn't have 'em for the show.
Originally posted by Chico SantanaI wish it was Orlando Jones, his finisher could be hitting people with a 7up can!
And his music could start with "Great Googamooga!"
Seriously though, Orlando Jordan looks exactly like a buff Mace Windu. They should give him Jedi robes and he could choke guys out by pointing at them.
Kane Robot, they did have the six-sided ring. Here's an image of Scott D'Amore doing the Canadian Destroyer. I heard he did it at the house show: Dawg, just wondering, were there TV cameras there at the venue?