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Falls
Count Anywhere EXTRA!
Smackdown! Taping Report
WARNING!
SPOILERS!
12-03-03
Myself
and my running mate Joker made our way to the Will Call window
where the WWE had kindly left a pair of tix for us. Now, these
freebies can either be rockstar, second row glorious, or just
average, non-TV side seats, which these ended up being. We
were surrounded by other comps, including some of the Rikishi
family, so we felt right at home.
The crowd
went nuts when Earnest the Cat was announced for a dark match
against Chuck Palumbo. Seriously, they were nearly as loud
for Earnest as they were for anyone on the card. It wasn't
a good match, but The Cat did some nice James Brown-inspired
offense.
The next
match was Billy Kidman vs. a guy whose name I didn't catch
but might have been Jimmy Snuka Jr. He wasn't very good, but
Kidman pulled a little something out of this match. Honestly,
a good portion of the time, Joker and I were watching the
gorgeous girl in the pink sweatshirt stand up and stretch.
The crowd went nuts when they thought they were going to get
to see the Shooting Star Press, but the other guy blocked
it, the crowd quieted, and the finish was the old D-Lo Brown
SkyHigh.
The Velocity
tapings opened with Funaki taking on Akio. This was a fun
little match, as I really like Akio and Funaki can always
be relied on to bring out a solid match. Tajiri gave Funaki
a kick to give Akio the win.
At this
time Joker also began the Circle Game (see Tough Enough Season
One for an explanation), and ended up 4-2 for the evening
over me. The crowd had cooled considerably by this time after
being very much into the first two matches.
The second
Velocity match kicked ass. Spanky and Paul London took on
Chad Collyer and Kanyon. These guys can all go, and they gave
a great match that the crowd was chanting boring during. Again,
see my thoughts on Survivor Series 1993 for my opinion on
crowds doing that. London was the star, doing an AMAZING Dropkick
/ Backflip Splash combo. It was quite impressive. Spanky and
London won, and I am hoping that they'll get more time on
SmackDown! proper soon.
Orlando
Jordan, who hasn't improved, had a match with a big guy. I
chose to take my bathroom break here. The crowd did a lot
of boring chants right here, or so Joker told me.
Bradshaw
took on Rhyno in a match that wasn't great, but was solid,
stiff and got the crowd into it. The audience seemed split,
as they gave Rhyno a big chant, then another for Bradshaw.
Rhyno got a good pop coming out, and Bradshaw got a smaller
one.
The SmackDown!
opening happened, and Brock came out first. The place was
so loud for him, it wasn't even funny. This was Piper 1985
heat, or more accurately, Superstar Graham heat. They booed
him, the crowd chanted "You Tapped Out" as loud
as any "Rocky" chant I heard in 1999. It was awesome.
They gave him continual heat through out the interview. That
said, Brock is not the best interview in the WWE, and this
went too long, though the crowd was certainly into it the
whole way. His interviews need to be short, even though he
gets across intensity and focus in every interview. The one
great Brock interview I can think of, the one right after
Survivor Series, is what he needs to do more of.
The Bashems
took on Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty in a tag match that was
much better than expected, but also featured Rikishi landing
ass-first on Doug's face. Shaniqua got a good response coming
out, but the Bay Area is always hot for Rikishi. A Samoan
drop won this one for the big Samoan. This was a non-title
affair, so it sets up another challenge. The crowd went nuts
for the Worm. Shaniqua walked out on the Bashems afterwards,
perhaps teasing a split.
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We won't
have any actual pics until Friday,
so why not pander for now?
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Paul Heyman
haad Dawn Marie with him. I can say this without question:
the only woman in the WWE who is hotter than Victoria is Dawn
Marie. My GOD was she smokin' in that outfit. She was all
up on Paul's stuff, but all he wanted to do was dictate a
letter informing Bob Holly of his continued suspension, and
then to get Shannon Moore out to the ring.
Paul Heyman
came out with Jones and Morgan to talk with Shannon Moore.
Heyman mentioned that Shannon would take a beating and get
up for "more, more, more," a point he jackhammered
home. They then called out the Big Show, leading to Moore
getting another short beating.
Jamie
Noble and Sakoda had a match that got very little response
until the retapign of the finish where the crowd booed the
hell out of it. Noble looked OK, and Sakoda did a very nice
Exploder Suplex. Noble used Nidia for the finish, which I
think they are going to say he claimed to be one of the Yakuza.
John Cena,
who did a fine little rap to open his match with Benoit, got
a huge following from the fans early in their contest. The
crowd reacted to him like a major star, almost as much as
they did to Brock or Eddy. The match itself was good, with
Benoit doing all the stuff that made him a Hall of Famer.
The crowd chanted for Cena early, but quieted down like a
Japanese crowd as the match went on, popping only for the
big moves. They did a false finish in the middle for Cena,
which was a nice way to give a commercial break for a long
match. Cena did a great sell job, supposedly injuring his
arm on a bump, allowing for Benoit to work it over after the
false finish. Joker thought that he had legit broken it, but
it was just a brilliant sell. It was solid, and ended up with
Big Show interfering leading to Cena getting caught in the
cross-face to give Benoit the win.
Chavo
Guerrero had a match with Shelton Benjamin. That is the short
line on it. Really, this match was all about Eddy. Chavo had
told Eddy that he didn't want him coming down to ringside
since tonight was all about Chavo. Eddy drove his car down
to ringside and watched wearing a FoamDome with two YJStingers.
Eddy interfered to give Chavo the win. The crowd gave Eddy
a good pop when he drove down, and chanted for him during
the match. About half-way through, there was a small Chavo
chant. It did my heart good. This was a strong match the whole
way through.
Benoit
got all up in Brock's grill right before their match, adding
another layer of intensity. They showed the FBI taking all
sorts of action on the match, giving Brock at 3-to-2. I'd
have gone slightly longer odds, but it was a good segment
with A-Train setting 10 Large on the Underdog.
The Main
Event with Brock and Benoit was awesome, at least as good
as the Jericho/Benoit vs. Austin/HHH match where HHH tore
his quad. San Jose has had a few great matches for their tapings,
and this was right up there. Brock does the big heel thing
so well that the crowd just gets totally into his opponent.
The match was fantastic, with the storyline being that Benoit
wanted to get Brock in the cross-face and Brock was trying
to make Benoit tap. The match was all the great Brock moves,
and everything that Benoit always does, but the crowd was
wild hot, popping big for all the near falls and big spots.
The finish
was Brock knocking the ref, and then getting caught in the
cross-face. He tapped, but there was no ref. Then Brock got
a chair and wailed on Benoit's leg, then put him in a cool
move where he draped Benoit's leg over his neck and sat back,
eventually getting Benoit to pass out. Vince apparently really
wanted Benoit to tap, but the other writers fought for him
to do the pass out. This was a strong match, probably the
best WWE TV match of the year.
All in
all, best show I've been to since 2001.
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