Falls Count Anywhere

09-03-04

Catholic schoolgirls made me late.

SmackDown!
They opened with a nice review of the Angle and Guerrero feud. The two of them are great and the video package showed it.

Booker T came out and did a promo where he put over Cena chants and then pointed out his 2 to 1 lead in the Best of Five series. Booker got a pretty solid response, as he’s strong on the mic. He did a little bit of rapping, which was not good, but it got his point across.

Rey Mysterio came out at that point. He got into the ring and asked if Booker had a match. Booker went over the reasons why he didn’t want to wrestle. After the two of them are about to go at it, Kenzo Suzuki came out. He did another of his broken English promos, talking about how he loved America. After Kenzo did his Anime smile, RVD jumped him, which led Rene Dupree to come in and they all brawled for a bit. Theodore R. Long came out and made a six-man tag team match where he teamed with Dupree and Suzuki against RVD, Rey Mysterio and John Cena. Teddy then called for a ref to start the match.

We joined the match in process. John Cena did his silly ‘You can’t see me’ thing while Suzuki was down. Booker and John Cena fought a little bit, then Dupree came in. RVD came in and did his spinning leg drop. RVD isn’t going reckless nowadays, but he’s still way over with the crowd. Kenzo came in and stunk up the ring for a bit. The match wasn’t great, but they worked a few spots that I enjoyed. Dupree has a nice set of moves, and he had a chinlock on, and he then adjusted to lock Van Dam’s arm behind him. RVD got a tag and flew all over the ring. Dupree did his French Tickler, which got a half-face pop. Mysterio then did a French Tickler before trying a 619. Mysterio finally hit the 619 and followed with a Flying Legdrop for the pin. Not bad, but they’ve done better six-man matches of late.

They did the replay of Eddie’s win over Kurt at WrestleMania. It was a creative ending, that’s for sure.

Paul Heyman ran into Teddy Long and Teddy fined Heidenreich $5,000 for beating up the interviewer last week. They then ran up the Billy Kidman and Chavo Guerrero incident last week. They are probably going to use this as a part of an angle. Kidman and London were shown backstage getting ready for their match.

They did a promo for CCC: Carlito Caribbean Cool, aka Carlito Colon, talking about how cool he is and how dope his hair is. He looked like the lead singer of The Melvins. OK, I know that’s obscure, but it’s true.

The FBI took on Kidman and London. The match was actually pretty good. Paul London did his FlipKick (DropSault) early in the match. The FBI are seriously underrated as a team. Nunzio is smart and Stromboli is improved. Kidman went up to do the Shooting Star Press, but he looked like he didn’t want to risk it. That’s actually a good way to get a move over as dangerous. Look at the Tombstone in Mexico. Nunzio got the pin with a backslide. John Heidenreich came out and beat on Paul London. Heidenreich then chased Michael Cole out of the announce position. He was acting like he had the worst case of 'roid rage ever. Paul Heyman came out and stopped the carnage.

The Big Show arrives back on SmackDown! in three weeks. Torrie and Teddy Long talked about Torrie being nervous about Big Show coming back. Long’s best line of the night: You Can’t Go Wrong, with Theodore R. Long. Nice.

JBL came out to do commentary with Taz and Michael Cole. Orlando Jordan and Charlie Haas had a fun little match. Haas was good at what Jordan let him do, but Jordan got most of the offense and JBL got most of the attention. Orlando went for a Flying Body Press off the Top, but Haas ducked it. It actually looked really good. Haas did his twisting bodypress off the top for a nearfall. Jordan managed to rip off the turnbuckle pad as Haas was trying to give him the German Suplex. Haas went face first into the buckle and Orlando got his neckbreaker for the pin. JBL then spent a little time giving Haas a Clothesline from Hell.

Big Show was pretty comical as he pushed the SmackDown! Your Vote movement. He’s a funny guy and he got a good joke about making a big impact.

The Dudleys came out with Spike to take on Billy Gunn and Hardcore Holly. I can’t think of the last time I saw Hardcore. Spike slapped Hardcore to start things, then let his brothers take on the boys in the ring. The match was pretty good, since Hardcore and the Dudleys work together pretty well. Bubba Ray Dudley did a real nice Spinebuster. The Dudleys got the win when Spike hit Hardcore with the Cruiserweight belt. I like Spike as The Boss.

They spent more time getting the Angle vs. Guerrero match over than they have almost any of the PPV matches of late. They made it seem real important, which is what they need to be doing for every major match.

Setting it up right.

Eddie and Kurt had a good Two of Three match. They did a knucklelock into a nice series of chain wrestling moves early. Eddie was getting some nice chants early. Kurt and Eddie traded headlock spots too. They were working a smart match that didn’t put their bodies at too much risk. The two are hurt, and at times it shows, but they put their energies into safe and sane spots and work. Smart guys. Eddie and Kurt locked up in an Overhead Wristlock, and Kurt was getting the better of it, but Eddie yanked him down by the singlet. Eddie was trying to frustrate Kurt, which is a nice concept for the match. The first segment of the match was easily the best wrestling in about a month on SmackDown!. Eddie got DQed to give Angle a 1-0 lead.

The second fall was short, but they worked smart knowing that the fans knew that Guerrero would be getting the win. Eddie got the pin with a roll-up.

They busted out the suplexes for the third fall, and when Kurt went for the AngleSlam, Eddie turned it into a Swinging DDT. They were getting good heat at that point. Eddie then went for the Frog Splash, but Kurt turned it into a very safe belly-yo-belly off the top. Eddie made a comeback, hitting his Three Amigos triple vertical suplexes. Eddie went for the Frog Splash again, but Kurt moved. Kurt hit a second AngleSlam, and then went for the anklelock. Kurt then bumped the ref. Luther came out and Eddie gave him a plancha. Eddie got a chair and whaled on Kurt and Luther for a while. Kurt had the chair, but the ref recovered and made him give it away. Kurt got the win with the anklelock. Luther beat on Eddie after the match, setting up their feud.

Not a bad episode, especially with the main event.

NEWS
There is a lot of talk about the Diva segment. Everyone seems to think they went over the line…everyone except for the guys who are running the Diva segments. The big issue was the language and many are afraid that it will be what kills off the Cow Palace as a drawing venue. I stand by the fact that Joy’s promo was solid. I can remember the talk of folks when Steve Austin and folks were getting heavy in 1996 and 1997.

There is a lot a talk about Brock, but most seem to say that he’s leaning towards NFL Europe or trying to find a new team.

Steve "Dr. Death" Williams is back in bad shape. The man did his first MMA match when he was 43 and had been diagnosed with throat cancer a while before. The cancer has spread a lot of places and he’s probably going to have to have his voice box removed. Here’s hoping he pulls through.

FlashBack!
I still haven’t got my Chris Benoit DVD set, which I ordered almost a month ago. I was going to write about one of the greatest matches ever between Chris Benoit and Great Sasuke. SO, since I can’t find my old, fourth generation tape, I thought I’d talk about another memorable Chris Benoit match: Benoit vs. Sabu in ECW.

Sabu wide open.

Sabu was one of the three or four biggest names in wrestling at the time. Honestly, more than anyone else, it was Sabu that made chairs more than just another piece of furniture to be used in a match. He used them as launching pad for his Triple Jump Moonsaults. He used them in a move called the Arabian Facebuster where he would do a leg drop onto the poor guy while holding the chair under him. Sabu took putting guys through tables an art.

Chris Benoit had been in ECW for a while. Paul Heyman’s idea was to try and make Chris into the next Crippler Ray Stevens. In ECW, Benoit was called Crippler Chris Benoit, which was a good name for him. Benoit had been in WCW for a while previous to that, but he had never been given a real push. The two faced off in 1994 in ECW after they’d done a couple of other matches in Michigan.

The match was good, but the spot came when Benoit went for one of a couple of things: it was either a knee breaker or a big drop. It turned out to be both. When Benoit brought his up, he must have lost his grip or changed his mind, because Sabu went flying. He landed directly on his head.

That’s right. Right on his head.

He finished the match, which was no where near what folks were expecting, and then Sabu found out that he had broken his neck. This was a great way to get Benoit over as a crippler, even though it meant that Sabu would be out for a while. The match is still pretty well thought of today. Sabu would go on to have a couple of great years, but he faded as the injuries piled up. We all know what happened to Chris.

That’s all for this week. Next week will feature a look at the NWA Tourney that took place in ECW in 1994.

Chris Garcia