Original Airdate: Friday, April 7th, 2006
Peoria Civic Center
Peoria, Illinois
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
Tonight we are getting two big matches with Mark Henry vs. Undertaker and Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio.
MNM vs. Paul London & Brian Kendrick
London and Kendrick come out and interrupt Melina's entrance into the ring and things get underway. After a hot start from London and Kendrick, but MNM eventually slows it down and gains control. These teams could probably tear it down if given the right opportunity. Nitro illegally comes into the match and tosses Kendrick out of the ring. Kendrick finally makes the tag to London and Jimmy Korderas didn't see it, so it doesn't count. MNM takes advantage, but Kendrick somersaults through them and makes the hot tag. London hits a dropsault and gets a nearfall on Mercury. MNM cheats their way to a Snapshot attempt, but Kendrick comes in and dropkicks his partner out of the move and we then get a super close call from London on Mercury. Melina gets up on the apron to distract Korderas and Nitro shoves London off the top rope. London rolls through and steals the victory for the upset. The heat segment was a little long when taking in consideration how long the match was, but the last few minutes were masterful.
Match Rating: **3/4
Booker T and Sharmell let Teddy Long know that they got a restraining order against Boogeyman.
We see a highlight package of Rey Mysterio winning the Royal Rumble.
Booker T vs. Gunner Scott
Gunner is already in the ring. They are talking about him more than any other jobber, which kind of gives away what's about to happen here. Scott gets hit with a superkick to the jaw and a clothesline. Booker hits his variation of the spinebuster and then Boogeyman's music hits. Gunner of course rolls him up and gets the victory. Boogey never came out, but it was enough to distract Booker. Teddy Long comes out and says that it must have been some kind of technical issue. Long then announces Gunner Scott as the winner. This was a whole lot of nothing disguised as something.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We now see a highlight package of Randy Orton stealing Mysterio's title shot and then Teddy Long giving him one back.
Benoit congratulates Gunner Scott backstage.
Simon Dean vs. Chris Benoit
Benoit starts coming out before Dean gets to the ring. Dean turns around on his segue and Benoit clobbers him. Benoit throws him in the ring and the match is underway. We get a little bit of a miscommunication between the two and it leads to a little bit of a sloppy bulldog by Dean. Neither of these guys usually have that happen. Dean hits some stiff looking shots to the back of Benoit. Benoit battles out of the submission hold and hits the three German suplexes. He locks in the Crippler Crossface and that is all. This was just to get Benoit a win after his loss at WrestleMania.
Match Rating: 1/2*
While Benoit is in the ring, we get a video for JBL next week. He is going to be having a celebration for winning the US title.
They then show still photos of Rey winning the title at WrestleMania. Randy is getting ready for his match and up walks Kurt Angle. Orton mocks Angle and tells him he can find the title belt around his waist in a few minutes, so Angle slaps him and makes some growling noises.
World Heavyweight Championship Match
Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio
It seems like this should be the main event of the show, but I guess I will see what they have planned with Taker later on. Orton dominates the early portion of the match, slamming Mysterio face-first into the mat. Mysterio turns things around with a tilt-a-whirl headscissors and then goes for 619, but Orton rolls out of the ring. Mysterio hits a kick and hits a springboard seated senton to Orton out on the floor. Orton hits his reverse backbreaker and gets a 2 count. Orton puts on his infamous chinlock, but this time really puts on the pressure. Mysterio attempts a comeback, but when he goes for a springboard, Orton hits him with a dropkick and it sends him flying into a commercial break. Orton goes for an elbow drop off the second rope, but Mysterio gets his feet up. I'm not sure exactly what he was doing there, but it didn't look great. Mysterio is back and hits his variation of the bulldog for a nearfall. Rey goes up top, but Orton hits him with a dropkick. That as a nice looking dropkick from Orton. Mysterio surprises Orton with a kick to the head and now both men are down. Orton clubs Mysterio with a big clothesline and again Mysterio kicks out. Orton misses Mysterio in the corner and hits his shoulder on the post. Mysterio hits a 619 around the ring post and then another 619. He hits the springboard leg drop and picks up the victory. This was wise booking, as Orton was about to serve a suspension and Mysterio needed some big victories. Both of these guys were motivated and they delivered a good match and were given a lot of time.
Match Rating: ***1/4
Palmer Cannon is still here? Then we get a Miz hype video.
Rey is backstage for an interview and he thanks Eddie. He brings out his family and thanks all of them.
Regal is backstage and finds Paul Burchill looking through a telescope. Regal tells him if he starts dressing normal, he will forget the whole pirate thing. Burchill tells him he wears it to honor his family and that he is undefeated. He reminds Regal that isn't the case for him. Burchill challenges him to a match where the loser must wear whatever the winner picks for them. Regal accepts and Burchill says that Regal will make a lovely buxom wench.
Loser Wears Winner's Clothing Choice Match
William Regal vs. Paul Burchill
We're off to a frantic start, so this one probably isn't getting much time. After a quick start for Burchill, Regal hits a half nelson back suplex. Regal hits some knee lifts to the jaw of Burchill. Burchill makes his comeback and hits Walking The Plank for the victory. They tried to cram a normal match into 3 minutes here and that's unfortunate. The crowd here was not really behind Burchill. On the other hand, I really actually like the pirate gimmick and wish it would have stuck around.
Match Rating: *
Teddy Long announces he is bringing back the King of the Ring tournament. Kurt Angle, Matt Hardy, Lashley, Chris Benoit, Booker T, Finlay are all in it and it starts next week. Kurt Angle will face Randy Orton next week in the first round. I guess they get one more week out of Orton.
Mark Henry vs. Undertaker
Henry grabs a mic in the ring and says that Undertaker will never be the same again. Henry attempts to attack Taker, but Taker sees it coming and it backfires. Taker runs into a back elbow from Henry and then a clothesline. It doesn't take long until Taker hits Old School. Taker hits a boot to the face and a leg drop on the apron. Out comes Daivari and Great Khali. Khali stands in the center of the ring and Taker climbs in to confront him. Khali no sells and chops Taker down. Khali rips open a turnbuckle and slams Taker into the exposed metal. For whatever reason, they don't call this a disqualification, so I guess we have a no contest. This was hardly a match and was only here to have the "hot" Khali debut. I'm not sure anyone got excited about this, but I guess it was all they had in terms of a hot debut.
Match Rating: 1/2*
This show was the exact opposite of Raw. The Randy Orton/Rey Mysterio match provided more wrestling than that entire show gave us combined. I'm a wrestling guy, so I appreciated that they gave us a good match just a few days after WrestleMania. They established London and Kendrick as a tag team and announced the return of the King of the Ring. The whole Khali thing was what it was, but the rest of the show was enjoyable.
Overall Rating: 62%
No comments:
Post a Comment