Falls Count Anywhere

09-24-04

Never say no to ice cream.

SmackDown! Mini-report
I really think they would have been better off doing an all retrospective show as opposed to folding in the interviews and highlights with a regular show. That said, there were a few good things to talk about on this one.

The Paul London vs. Billy Kidman feud is interesting but oddly booked. I like using the Chavo injury to build a program, but it seemed to happen so fast. Kidman walked out before the match actually started. Tazz rode him on commentary, and then Booker T came out and wrestled London non-title. London’s nose got busted up by an elbow. Dropsault (or FlipKick) and Running Enzuigiri followed by a flying bodypress by London. Booker rolled through and got the pin using the ropes. Not a bad, but way short, match.

Mick Foley came on the screen and talked about his favorite moment: when the Rock lost his sunglasses and Mick gave them back. Foley wasn’t around much during the SmackDown! era, so this is to be forgiven. The HHH beat down delivered by Cactus Jack was a much better moment.

Billy Kidman was backstage when Theodore R. Long, holla if you hear dat, playa!, came out in his stylin’ tux and said that Kidman and London would wrestle at the PPV and if Kidman walked out, he’d be fired. Nice touch.

Smart way to tie a couple of programs together. Spike and Rey Mysterio were being pretty standard cutting promos on each other, until Rey went into Spanish. Kenzo Suzuki came out and said that Rey is in America and that he should be speaking Engrish. Rey beat on Kenzo and tossed Spike around. Nice little touch. Kenzo’s character is growing on me, even though he’s pure crap in the ring.

Turtleman!

Rey took on Spike in a fun little match. Like everything on this show, it was rushed, but the ending was solid, with Kenzo taking out Rey on the outside, and then Spike pinning him. While Rene Dupree and Kenzo were beating on Rey after the match, RVD made the save, setting up their title match at the PPV.

Stephanie McMahon talked about her favorite moments, including slapping her mother and when Kurt Angle kissed her. I hear that Kurt was tasting Hunter for a week after that.

Undertaker took on Gangrel and Viscera. Undertaker won with a chokeslam. My excitement over Gangrel’s return was quite short-lived.

And the nominees for Worst Match of All-time are: Big Bossman vs. Al Snow in the Kennel from Hell Match, HHH vs. The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 12, Capt. Lou Albano vs. Freddy Blassie in 1984, Dawn Marie and Torrie Wilson vs. Mae Young and The Fabulous Moolah in the School Girl Match. And the winner is…Capt Lou and Freddy Blassie, but still, the School Girl match was right up there with it. This was seriously awful. I got heat for my comments that Ric Flair shouldn’t be wrestling, but would anyone fault me for saying that Mae and Moolah shouldn’t be wrestling? Dawn didn’t look as hot as usual. Torrie did.

Steve Austin said that his favorite moment was Christmas in Baghdad. I gotta say that’s one of the best things the WWE has ever done, not just as a piece of television, but as a company that supports the troops. They don’t get as much press for what they do, but there are always WWE guys on USO-type tours.

Garcia's least favorite moment...

John Cena rapped, using snippets of Steve Austin and The Rock. Kurt cut a great promo talking about how he was the most memorable performer in SmackDown! history. I’d tend to agree. He then said he was gonna make a moment people would never forget. He’s so damn good on the mic.

Hogan came on screen and said that the July Fourth win with Edge over Billy Gunn and Chuck Polumbo was his favorite moment. I actually remember liking the build-up to that match very much.

Kurt Angle and Luther Reigns beat the Big Show and Eddie Guerrero following Kurt shooting Big Show with a dart gun. That’s right, he shot him with a tranquil gun. The match was really good up until that point, with Eddie and Kurt working very well together. They must have hammered things out from last week. Luther Reigns is not that athletic a big man, but he seems to be trying and not resting on his size. Big Show is Big Show, and he wasn’t awful here. The finish was very weak.

They should have done a show that was just highlights. I know that they felt they needed to build to the PPV, but even if they had done a special on Wednesday or a Friday it would have worked better and not have rushed the important stuff.

NEWS
As I mentioned earlier, the Big Bossman, Ray Traylor, passed away on Wednesday. There’s no report on what happened, but he was actually known to live pretty clean of late, and wasn’t a huge party boy back in the day. He was just 42 years old.

Traylor got his break working as Jim Cornette’s bodyguard with the Midnight Express. He was young, wasn’t a great worker, but could be brought to have a good match, and got a good sized push. In the second ever War Games / The Match Beyond, he played the role of War Machine. Not too long after that, he headed out for the WWF and the Big Bossman character that made him famous.

He feuded with Hogan, teamed with Akeem: the African Dream. He eventually left and headed back to WCW, where he had various names and a number of terrible feuds, not the least of which was the one with Earthquake John Tenta. He returned to the WWF, looking much more healthy, for a memorable, though not really good, run.

FlashBack!
The Big Bossman was a great gimmick, but it was his last WWF run that I will always remember for an angle that, at the time, was way up on the ewww scale (this was before Katie Vick, Al Wilson, and all those other angles that have changed wrestling other the last couple of years).

A tribute to the Bossman.

Bossman and Al Snow were feuding, and Head, Al Snow’s very helpful disembodied mannequin head, had had a railroad spike driven through it by Albert. One day, while sitting on the street, Al is approached by a small Chihuahua named Pepper. Of course, Al can hear what it’s saying and he adopts it. He brought the dog to ringside and it was always shaking and nervous, but it was very cute and brought to mind the ‘Yo Quiero Taco Bell’ dog that had been all the rage. The dog was scared, and that brought protests, and at one point, he peed on Lillian Garcia.

As was expected, the Bossman kidnapped Pepper as a part of their feud. He held him for a few days and then told Al Snow that he would give him Pepper back in his hotel room on SmackDown!. Al showed up, and Bossman was very polite, saying that he’d give Pepper back after Al had some dinner. Al just wanted his dog back, but Bossman was insistent and so Al ate the food, saying that is was pretty good and he was about to ask for the recipe when the Bossman revealed that it was Pepper that he was eating. (you can read a full transcript here.)

This led to Al Snow puking, and the Bossman beating him up. It was a way-over-the-top angle for the day, but I can’t fault them for doing it wrong, since they actually did a good job with it.

A few days later, on the website, Pepper responded, saying that he was fine and that it had all been a part of a contract dispute and that he had left the WWF to pursue other projects. It was one of the funniest articles ever on the WWF website.

Unfortunately, Al Snow’s career stagnated after this, though it was only a year and a half before Tough Enough would make him a star again. Bossman was around for a while longer, including the famous Big Show feud, but he never made it back to the main event.

That’s all for this week. I’ll talk about Bossman vs. Big Show and other news and view next week!

Chris Garcia