Original Airdate: Friday, April 28th, 2006
Wembley Arena
London, England
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
JBL is here first and says that he is going to defend the greatest championship in all of sports entertainment. Naturally, he's playing up the US as the greatest here. He tries to get the crowd to chant "U-S-A", but William Regal is here to play hometown hero. Regal sucker punches him and I guess we're starting a match here.
United States Championship Match
JBL vs. William Regal
Regal dominates the early going of the match and knocks him out of the ring into the commercial break. JBL gains control and has a boring heat segment. Regal tries a comeback, but JBL gets his boot up. He goes for the Clothesline From Hell, but Regal counters with a T bone suplex. Regal gets JBL into a lazy looking submission hold and JBL teases passing out. JBL gets out of it and hits the Clothesline From Hell for the victory. It should be noted that Regal was bleeding from his ear. This was pretty disappointing.
Match Rating: *
Sharmell and Booker T are backstage for an interview. He's then interrupted by Gunner Scott, who reminds him that he beat him. Hilarity ensues.
They show highlights of Kurt Angle beating The Rock at No Mercy 2000.
They show a vignette about Native American's for Tatanka.
MNM & Gregory Helms vs. Paul London, Brian Kendrick & Super Crazy
This is a match I can get behind. I'm sure it will be 2 minutes long. All six men start off brawling and it leads to a double suicide dive by London and Kendrick on MNM and then a dive from Super Crazy on Helms. Melina gets involved and knocks Kendrick off the top rope behind the referee's back. They work on Kendrick until he's able to make the hot tag to London. He hits a double dropsault and then all six men get involved again. London is able to get a small package on Helms and they steal the victory. Super Crazy really didn't get any time to shine here, which is a shame. After the match, Melina is very disappointed. This was pretty good, but not as memorable as I hoped it would be.
Match Rating: **
They show Kurt Angle winning the title from Steve Austin at Unforgiven 2001.
Melina is backstage complaining that they have lost to London and Kendrick four weeks in a row. Jillian Hall gets involved for some reason and they start using cosmetics on each other, causing a brawl. Who asked for this?
Lashley is shown getting ready for his match and does a backstage interview without an interviewer.
They show Kurt Angle defeating Big Show at Armageddon 2002 for his third championship.
King Of The Ring First Round Match
Mark Henry vs. Bobby Lashley
Things start off a little slowly with Henry in control. Lashley explodes for a clothesline, but it doesn't knock Henry down. Lashley goes off the ropes and Henry destroys him with a clothesline. Lashley comes back and hits three clotheslines before finally knocking him down. He hits a body slam and then goes for the Dominator, but Henry counters into a back body drop. Lashley knocks Henry out of the ring and he gets counted out? Really? What a terrible finish to a match that probably shouldn't have been booked if that was the best ending you could come up with. After the match, Lashley is celebrating and Henry attacks him.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Rey Mysterio is with Kristal Marshall backstage. He says that if tonight is his last night as champion, it was all worth it.
They show Kurt Angle beating Big Show and Brock Lesnar at Vengeance 2003.
Booker T and Sharmell are here and then out comes Gunner Scott. Booker T fakes a cold and says that his opponent tonight is Finlay.
Gunner Scott vs. Finlay
Finlay starts off hot with his unique offense. He uses the ring apron to trap Gunner and attacks him. I can't believe a generic babyface named Gunner Scott didn't work out. Gunner hits an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Booker T hits a kick to the jaw behind the referee's back and Finlay hits the Celtic Cross for the victory. After the match, Booker and Finlay attack Gunner until Chris Benoit makes the save. The match was pretty short and didn't really show much for Gunner.
Match Rating: 3/4*
Out comes the Great Khali for an in-ring interview with Kristal. He claims that Undertaker is afraid of him and makes a bunch of loud noises.
We see how Kurt Angle most recently won the championship on SmackDown in January.
World Heavyweight Championship Match
Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio
Early on, Angle hits a belly-to-belly suplex over the top rope and to the floor. He must have stolen that from Gunner Scott. Rey makes some counters and it leads to Rey hitting a kick to the head of Angle and both men are down. Mysterio gets Angle set up for a 619, but Angle drills him with a back elbow. Angle goes for an Angle Slam, but Mysterio counters it into a DDT for a 2 count. Rey goes up top, but there's Angle to run up the ropes and hit a top rope suplex for a close call. Angle ends up hitting a German suplex with a release. He goes for the Angle Slam, but Mysterio counters and hits the 619. Angle catches him on the seated senton and puts him in the Ankle Lock. Out comes Mark Henry and he attacks Angle. The ref rings the bell and Henry throws both men out of the ring. He crushes Angle into the ring post just as he did Lashley earlier on tonight. Henry pulls out a table and sets up Angle on it. He gets up on the apron and hits a splash on Angle through the table. This was the first 2/3rds of a great match that was interrupted by a run in. Entertaining stuff, but it was just getting to great before the garbage finish.
Match Rating: ***1/4
This wasn't necessarily a classic show, but it was significantly better than the terrible episode of Raw this week. It's interesting that SmackDown is really finding it's groove here in 2006.
Overall Rating: 61%
No comments:
Post a Comment