Falls Count Anywhere

03-28-06

It's all a stunt.

SmackDown!
After the disaster that was the rating of Saturday Night’s Main Event (3.1 or so, 80th of 82 shows), they came out with a show which wasn’t great.

Randy Orton came out to Rey’s entrance including doing the jump thing. That was a nice touch. He did a basic interview building the Mania match and complaining about the finish in the SNME match. Wow, not at all effective. The man can talk, but sadly, they aren’t giving him the material to work with.

They reviewed the Money in the Bank winners (Finlay and Matt Hardy) and then they held a Battle Royal to see who would get the final spot. Animal played subtle veteran heel and said he shouldn’t have to be in the match and everyone ganged up on him to eliminate him. Nice.

The guys in were Tatanka (who tossed Kash), Scotty 2 Hotty (who was tossed by Kash), Gymini (who Laskey tossed while they posed) and a few others. Basically, they did this to give Lashley a way to get in to the MitB match and he won the Battle Royal and looked pretty good. The Finlay vs. Lashley matches have been pretty good in every report I’ve been getting. MNM and Lashley were the last two. Nice ending section.

This didn't end as well as you might think

In a weird match, Fit Finlay beat Rey Mysterio. Rey did a pretty good job, and the match wasn’t bad. Finlay worked Rey over, and he ended up grabbing the shillelagh, but the ref stopped him. Orton ran in and hit the RKO, allowing Finlay to get the pin. Rey worked hard, as always, and he got the Seated Senton and the 619, and Finlay was stiff as always, including a brutal-looking Shoulder Breaker, but having Rey job if he’s not going to win the title at Mania.

Teddy Long set up a contract signing between Theodore R. Long and the Boogeyman. Booker didn’t want to sign, and Teddy then gave Booker the right to have a mystery partner. No idea who, but I’m betting it’s Stevie Ray.

Benoit took on William Regal in a match that should have been great, but JBL and Jillian Hall were at ringside and that really took things down. I did like Regal’s early Exploder, but the match was short and Benoit got the clean win with the Crossface after Benoit got out of a Cross-face Chickenwing with a Dragon Suplex. Nice touch.

I missed Kurt vs. Mark Henry, though I’m betting I didn’t miss much, but I did get back just as Mark Henry was dealing with Rey, who must have run in, and then pinned Kurt. That makes no sense whatsoever. None. You don’t devalue your champ right before Mania. You just don’t do it. Angle and Rey and Orton had a little thing and ended up staring each other down.

The booking here was dumb, but the show was OK, even if I missed the Mark Henry vs. Angle match. Or maybe especially because I missed the Henry vs. Angle match.

RAW

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Chris Garcia