Rudo Goes to Smackdown

[Guest TheShawshankRudotion]

So Lord Of The Curry calls me up 'round 4pm Tuesday and suggests going to the Smackdown show in Toronto. I sez cool and we're off. Leave Mississauga at 5 and get to TO at about 6ish and pick up our tickets. We've never really done any spontaneous ticket buying - we usually just order through ticketmaster months before - so after some confusion (we were buying at seperate ticket windows) we get our tickets. 117 level, row 5, obstructed view.

 

Now, no one has ever told me the greatness that is obstructed view. For one, our tickets were relatively cheap @ $40, and they managed -by far- to get us closest to the ring (our previous WWE endevours put us in the nosebleeds - here we were just behind the vertical LCD sign, opposite the camera-side). Plus, we were behind the set and all the way at the end of the row, so I could look over the railing and see Teddy Long hang around, Pat Patterson come by, JBLs limo, and the Mexicools lawnmowers being prepped for the show. I've never gotten backstage passes or anything like that before, so I was more entertained by the goings-on behind the scenes than I was by anything in the ring.

 

We got there a lil late, but it didn't look like we missed anything important. Ken Kennedy is pretty good on the stick; his gimmick is that he announces himself and his opponent (in this case "George"), and he announces his last name twice "... Kennedy" like a boxing announcer. He showed lots of character in and out of the ring, but wrestling-wise he was terribly basic. The crowd chanted "George", I don't think because he was a "hometown" guy, but because the Toronto crowd are dicks like that.

 

Regal came out and did an interview with Josh Mathews in the ring. He was back to wearing his Union Jack Robe and the jist of his promo was that he hated the person he became, and is now back to the person he was. It was a good promo, and showed that Regal deserves to be throwing around words with guys like JBL.

 

Bob Holly vs. Stevie Richards was memorable for two things - the STIFF chops, and the finishing sequence. Richards worked Hollys back, and the story of the match was Holly trying to hit the Alabama Slam and the end was indicative of that. They did a nice fighting spot over the move until Bob finally managed to hit it.

 

Smackdown started with Tazz and Cole coming out to a sizable pop. Eddie made his way out to the ring and cut a promo around and on top of the ladder. He says he is doing this for Dominic, not because he wants to beat Rey. It was an ok promo, but I don't like this feud at all so maybe I'm not the best one to judge. If you like this feud, then you'll like the promo. And Eddie said "Chickenshit". The LANGUAGE!

 

Jillian came out to introduce MNM. This was my first time seeing her, cause I don't really watch Smackdown that often, and she has no ass. Like, none. Then there's Melina, who has very nice legs, but was not wearing a thong under her skirt which made me . The match also made me . The side of me that loves the Footloose soundtrack thinks Nitro is one damn fine lookin man, but the side that is disgusted at the fact that I cried at the end of Beaches will compromise this by saying the dude can bump well and is charismatic. LOTC noted the turnbuckle/humping pose and I concurr, it's a great pose. The match itself was a standard Booker T match, which to me is zzzzzzzz. A bunch of shitty kicks and then a cheap finish. This all lead up to Sharmell TRIFLIN~! Or rather, saying Booker T was TRIFLIN~! *Snap Snap* Mmmm Hmmm. She WENT there!

 

OJ's backstage promo w/ Benoit was FANTASTIC. He talked about being the best athlete on smackdown and talked about his handspeed and shit. I love OJ, so I'm all about this. They should have built this match as Knock Out vs. Tap Out. Aw well.

 

LOD vs. Jobbers. This should be their matches: "OOOOOH WHATTA RUSH!!!!!" and then 5 seconds later its the Doomsday Device. Like what they did against Power and Glory. For some reason, they had this go like 2 minutes too long and did some moves that weren't the DD. And Heids facepaint looks like shit. The purpose of this was to give Heid his pads. Not enough punches.

 

Funaki got beat up by Bradshaw after an interview with him. No powerbomb or anything that impressive, which is what squashes should do. The best part about this was when Bradshaw was going to his limo backstage, he gave everyone in my section the finger - livin his gimmick, god blessum. Batista is over huge.

 

The Mexicools started to warm up in the back around this time - Juvi was getting his bicepts pumped, Psi was walkin around talkin to him and said a prayer. Super Crazy wasn't around much. At this time, the jackasses behind us who did nothing but say a ton of unfunny shit very loudly, kept yelling out "PSICOSIS!!! PSICOSIS!!! PSICOSIS!!!" What is everyones preoccupation with yelling out wrestlers' names? What do you expect them to do? "Hey, that guy knows who I am. I think I will ask him if he wants to come backstage and meet all the guys" Or maybe they just wanted him to look up at them, because lord knows there are no better things in life than a wrestler acknowledging your neverending screams of the obvious. God damn I hate wrestling fans.

 

Rey came out to the ring, which lead to Curry suggesting to me that we'd be seeing Rey vs. Juvi which got my hopes up. Then Simon Dean comes out. Well, same thing. The wave by the crowd almost made up for the disappointment. This was a crap match, made crappy by the fact that Rey is 4 feet tall and him beating the shit out of anyone isn't convincing - especially when he doesn't have the moves for it. Oh, and Rey has THE WORST PUNCHES EVER.

 

Christian came out and got a huge pop. The crowd had been chanting "we want christian" all night. We boo Edge, we love Christian. The Mexicools came out, and it was interesting to see those three guys get pumped up before making their way through the curtain. A beat-down ensued, and the crowd kinda died from the point of Christians entrance to the end of the segment. When the Mexicools returned backstage, they seemed happy with their performance.

 

They aired a Summerslam video, and Hogan got a mixed reaction. I wouldn't bring him back to Toronto if I were the WWE, because the mania which started here in 2002 ain't here now.

 

It was at this point in time when I turned to my right and saw a group of roadies standing there. In the middle of them was the Undertaker. He had a beanie on, and some tubing around his shoulders. It was pretty obvious that he was going to do a sneak-attack or something to Orton during the Benoit/Orton match. It was cool though, cause it looked like how MMA fighters look before going out to fight, which is one of the things I like most about Taker (during an episode of UFC Unleashed which profiled Jeremy Horn, they showed Taker hanging out backstage with team Miletich). They were standing there for a while, so I nudged Curry and Curry told the guy beside us and then everyone in our section was hovering over me. I hate wrestling fans.

 

The main event was a good match. It started off showing some promise, with the two fighting over holds. Benoit getting the best of a top wristlock exchange, Orton going to the headlock to get Benoit down to the mat, Benoit finding various ways to escape the headlock. Benoit tried many times to get the sharpshooter, so the story basically was Sharpshooter vs. Headlock. Ortons headlock is 100xs better than Benoits Sharpshooter. It broke down when it left that story and just went for the standard "your turn/my turn" bullshit with a lot of basic holds. The end had OJ coming down to distract Benoit and then Orton hit the RKO. After the match the arena went black and when the lights came on Taker was in the ring. He chokeslamed Orton and that was it.

 

After the show, Teddy Long came out and called for JBL vs. Batista. That match sucked, but Batistas entrance was awesome. I should note that obstructive view is very, very, very LOUD. Now, I covered my ears for all the pyro until this point. But this is Batista, this is the pose... I gotta do the pose.

 

The match turned into Taker/Batista vs. JBL/Orton which was a much better match because Taker was in the ring for the most part. Taker got off some BEAUTIFUL punches, including rapidfire bodyblows in the corner to JBL. JBL has some nice punches too. The match ended with a tombstone to Orton. Highlights of the match included Old School and Taker doing a FLYING KNEE in the corner. I love UnderShooter. After the match, Batista and Taker stayed in the ring and wished Tony Chimmel a happy birthday. Batista got on the mic and was really, really weird. LOTC and I call this Batista "FUN DAVE". Because he's all about having Fun. He talked in this really goofy manner, where he'd say things really quickly. "Imhavingfun, Takershavingfun, Thecrowdishavinfun". He then poured gatorade over Chimmels head. And gave him a stinkface. Thats so wrong.

 

Overall, it was a fun show because of the great seats we had and the perspective it gave us. We got to see Steph walk around, she's a blonde now. The douche who kept yelling "PSICOSIS!!" yelled "STEPHANIE!!" which got her attention and. she. looked. at. him. He must have felt complete. Carl Demarco - WWE Canada President- walked around with two asian guys and an indian guy showing them the set-up (I imagine they are involved in the sponsoring of WWE programming in Canada - Pizza Pizza execs and whatnot). Lil Naitch was by us waiting to take down the ring. Benoit walked right by us with the refs holding him up after his match... I hope he heard my "I really enjoyed the headlock spots" comment... The Highlanders came out to see Benoit/Orton, and no one really cared.

 

And why do wrestling fans bring belts with them to the shows???

[Loss]

I'm interested in seeing the main event.

 

This was an entertaining read. I know I shouldn't be, but it's still surprising how Christian is so over in spite of his treatment all year.

[Strummer]

And why do wrestling fans bring belts with them to the shows???

I was thinking the same exact thing at the House Show I went to in Albany last Saturday. There was a guy, probably in his early to mid 20s, going around with a belt posturing and doing cliched heel promos to total strangers. He stood up the ENTIRE show and would taunt the wrestlers with his belt when they came out. As if it was supposed to make them jealous or something that he had a replica belt. During intermission, he went around carrying the belt over his head chanting "ECW Motherfuckers!!! ECW!! ECW!!"

[goodhelmet]

So did anyonw watch the show last night? Rudo wasn't the only one who praised the main event so I was interested in other people's thoughts.

[Resident Evil]

So did anyonw watch the show last night? Rudo wasn't the only one who praised the main event so I was interested in other people's thoughts.

It was good to pretty good but a ways off from their classic Raw match of last year.

 

 

They did a good job at the beginning at keeping things interesting with the mat wrestling. The flow here was good but not great. One nice moment had Orton using the reff break on the ropes to get Benoit back into the headlock. Their timing was also pretty good on the armdrags. The beginning part of the match actually went on for quite a long time.

 

 

Orton took over with a two part move for the "first" real control segment. He ends up hitting Benoit with a face first DDT while Benoit's feet are on the middle ropes. Devestating move and they treat it as such right away as Benoit's actually in trouble right off the bat just managing to put his foot on the ropes.

 

 

Benoit mostly fought back here with his intense brawling which of course I always like. Orton went for his Canadian backbreaker into a neckbreaker spot but couldn't get Benoit up so he just goes for a wicked DDT. I don't know if it's just because he's facing Benoit who loves to take more than his share of punishment but Orton was better here than he was in the past at having convincing offence in the heel control segment portion of the matches.

 

 

The switch back to offence for Benoit was a highlight of a match. Orton does the irish whip shot of Benoit into the turnbuckles where he gets the extra oomph on the move by going down to the mat (ala HHH vs Benoit). However, Benoit comes/collapses out of the turnbuckle and hits Orton with a headbutt with his weakened neck. Great, innovative spot and both are down for the count of 10.

 

Finisher time. They do the brawling exchange that Orton always does in his matches and go from there. This segment was pretty good but too short as Jordan comes down and interferes.

 

Overall, it was a pretty good little match. The flow was good but not super like in their Raw match from last year and the ending was a little too short for my likings but I assume that's partly because they weren't doing a PPV match where they kick out of all their finishers. The middle felt a little short too probably due to the length of the mat wrestling in the beginning.

 

 

Watch it and have fun. That's what it's all about.

[goodhelmet]

Who watches wrestling to have fun ?

[Resident Evil]

I watched Kawada vs Ohtani last night and had fun. Don't tell anyone though. It'll be our little secret.

[Guest Dorian]

Dammit Rudo. Your write up of Smackdown makes me wanna watch SD now. And I don't wanna watch the crap WWE is showing us these days.

 

Glad to see you around NMB.