Original Airdate: Friday, May 11th, 2007
Mellon Arena
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork22
MVP & Finlay vs. Chris Benoit & Matt Hardy
It's weird how Matt Hardy kind of just has this side gig with his brother on Raw and on SmackDown he is a singles competitor. Benoit gets the Crossface on MVP early on, but he gets his feet to the ropes almost immediately. He and Benoit will wrestle yet again at Judgment Day. We go outside the ring and Benoit is able to hit a suplex on Finlay. Benoit goes in the ring and we see Hornswoggle talking to Finlay as we go to commercial break. When we come back, Hardy hits a bulldog on Finlay, but he's able to make a tag to MVP. Hardy hits a Side Effect on MVP, but Finlay breaks up the pin attempt. Hardy hits a top rope moonsault, but hurts his knee in the process. They work on the knee for a bit, but Hardy is able to get a hot tag to Benoit. He hits the three German suplexes on Finlay and then knocks MVP off the apron. He misses with the top rope headbutt and in comes MVP. We get an awkward spot that leads to Benoit pinning MVP with a jacknife cover. That was a terrible ending to an otherwise good match.
Match Rating: **3/4
We get a Batista/Undertaker hype video and then a commercial for the WrestleMania 23 DVD. Want one more commercial? Sure. Ozzy Osbourne will be on SmackDown next week.
Jillian is in the ring singing and then Michelle McCool's music interrupts.
Jillian vs. Michelle McCool
It takes about 30 seconds for this match to turn into a sloppy mess. When I say that, it's not these performers faults always. WWE had a terrible habit of throwing people who weren't ready to wrestle on TV and obviously McCool would go on to be much better than she is here. Jillian hits a cartwheel into an elbow drop for a 2 count. McCool hits a backbreaker and wins with that? This was really bad.
Match Rating: 0 Stars
Teddy Long is getting a massage from Kristal and she's about to tell him something, but they are interrupted by Jesse and Festus. Teddy is excited to have them here and they ask for a match tonight. Teddy says that he's busy looking for an assistant, but he'll give them a match next week. Kristal recommends Vickie Guerrero for her assistant, but Teddy doesn't trust her. Kristal says that they are best friends and that she's going through a lot. That's enough for him to tell Vickie to come to SmackDown next week and he'll give her an interview. This was all cringe.
We get a recap of Edge taking the Money In The Bank briefcase from Mr. Kennedy.
Michael Cole now is interviewing Ashley from Stamford. She is anxious to get back in the ring from her injury. They probably should have went with a pre-taped interview here.
Paul London vs. Domino
We get a bit of a standoff to start, showcasing that these two know each other well. London possibly makes a mistake, as we get a little bit of an awkward pause before Domino decides to go on offense. We get a few quick pin attempts and then London hits a flapjack. The announcers cover for London saying that he is rusty from being injured. London hits a spin kick and Kendrick holds off Deuce from interfering. London hits a dropsault and gets the win here. This was sloppy.
Match Rating: 1/2*
We get more hype for Batista/Undertaker, which it deserves but we already know what happens.
I assure you, no one cares that Snitsky is coming.
Kane vs. Dave Taylor
Who on this planet thought this was a good idea? Boogeyman is out with Kane just to make things even worse. I know this is shocking, but no one cares about this. Has anyone ever cared about Kane since his first feud with Undertaker? At least when he was in WWE, he wasn't polluting our government. Kane hits a chokeslam and puts us all out of our misery.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We now get recaps of the Undertaker/Batista WrestleMania and Backlash matches.
Steel Cage Match For The World Heavyweight Championship
Batista vs. Undertaker
They have tried so hard to make this match feel important and all I keep thinking of is how long are they going to let them wrestle before Edge cashes in? We get a pretty standard cage match that keeps getting interrupted by commercial breaks. When we come back, Undertaker gets pulled off the ropes and to the mat. Michael Cole and JBL talking about this feud as the best in the last decade is pretty ridiculous. I say that as someone who has enjoyed these matches, but I mean are you really going to even compare this to Steve Austin and Rock? Undertaker comes back an hits the chokeslam for a 2 count. Batista escapes a Tombstone attempt and throws Taker into the cage and we get our third commercial break. There is a lot of time afterwards, so hopefully that helps because this many commercials is ridiculous. When we come back, Taker is gushing blood from his head. He tries to crawl out of the cage, but Batista grabs the ankle and we're back at it. They battle up on the top rope and Batista is able to knock Taker off. Batista starts climbing, but of course Taker sits up. Instead of going after Batista, he starts climbing as well and we get the boring tied finish. The referees ask the announce team for a replay, which is obviously very easy to fake. They watch the replay shows no conclusive evidence and they declare it a draw, which the crowd hates. The cage raises and all of a sudden Mark Henry is out and attacks Undertaker. The world was just clamoring for a rematch to their WrestleMania 22 classic. As Henry goes to the back, Edge's music hits. This match was fine, but nothing memorable.
Match Rating: **3/4
World Heavyweight Championship Match
Undertaker vs. Edge
Edge goes right to cover him, but he kicks out at 2. He tries again and unsurprisingly gets the same result. Edge seems to be questioning his decision a little bit. Taker halfway sits up, but then falls over. After much delay, Edge hits the Spear and is the new World Heavyweight Champion. This was not as good as the first, especially since he so randomly won the briefcase on Raw. After his celebration, Edge hits Taker in the head with the briefcase for good measure.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Well, stuff happened and that's good. However, we still got a women's match that was horrendous and were force fed more Kane. The main event was disappointing because they spoiled the finish on ECW and WWE.com and also because they hyped it up so much. Edge winning the title should breathe some new life into SmackDown and kind of leaves Raw in a weird spot.
Overall Rating: 57%
No comments:
Post a Comment