IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: July 7, 2006
Location: Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 15,993
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield

We are coming up on the Great American Bash and that means we need to actually start building up the show. Last week’s show featured what felt like the end of Bobby Lashley vs. King Booker, which should free Booker up to challenge Rey Mysterio for the World Title. It’s not like there is anyone else in the main event scene at the moment. Oh and Batista is back after six months off. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

The opening video is all about Mark Henry injuring Batista, who is finally back tonight for revenge. Or maybe the Eggs Benedict.

Opening sequence.

Battle Royal

Finlay, Simon Dean, William Regal, King Booker, Brian Kendrick, Paul London, Mr. Kennedy, Psicosis, Matt Hardy, Jamie Noble, Kid Kash, Scotty 2 Hotty, Funaki, Super Crazy

The winner gets a shot at Rey Mysterio at the Great American Bash. Booker and Regal come out last so JBL is on his feet with the hat over his heart. It’s a big brawl to start with everyone going to the brawling, including a rather heated fight between Crazy and Psicosis. JBL: “It looks like a border war. That’s why we need to build a wall.” Finlay dumps Crazy (JBL: “There went my hot dog vendor.”) with Psicosis following and the brawl starting again. Kash is tossed as we take a break.

Back with Kennedy breaking up the Worm with a clothesline. Noble, Dean, Funaki and Scotty are tossed out in a hurry with London and Kendrick going after Kennedy. Hardy gets in on it as well and Kennedy is out. We’re down to London, Kendrick, Finlay, Regal, Hardy and Booker so everyone pairs off.

London saves himself from Booker’s elimination attempt but Finlay gets rid of both London and Kendrick. Regal hits the Twist of Fate to Regal and dumps Finlay but Booker kicks him down. We’re down to Hardy, Regal and Booker so Hardy clotheslines both of them, only to have the double teaming put Hardy in trouble. Regal goes to eliminate Matt but Booker dumps both of them for the title shot.

Rating: D+. They got the winner right and that’s what matters the most here, but the rest of the match was pretty lame. You can only get so far with something like this, though Crazy and Psicosis deserve some praise for making the most out of their shot. They aren’t going to get many angles or even television time of their own so good for them for putting in that much effort.

Post match, Regal says ALL HAIL KING BOOKER and doesn’t even seem that annoyed.

Rey Mysterio doesn’t like what Mark Henry did to himself and Chavo Guerrero last week. He and Henry have unfinished business, but not he has to face King Booker at the Great American Bash. Every day he gets to bring home this title home is a great day, so at the Great American Bash, Booker is just one more away from a 619.

Here’s Sylvan, sending JBL into a rant about how much he can’t stand France. Sylvan invites us all to come to Quebec and maybe we can spend the summer there. JBL: “I’d rather spend it in h***.” Sylvan speaks some French and we see some shots of Montreal. JBL: “I’d rather have a root canal. This guy sucks.”

Miz pops up in the crowd and asks for a cheese steak before hyping up the rest of the show. He also confirms Batista vs. Mark Henry for the pay per view.

We look at some of Mark Henry’s path of rage, including injuring Chris Benoit.

We also look at some of Batista’s greatest triumphs, including beating JBL.

Mr. Kennedy vs. Super Crazy

Kennedy handles his own intro as usual but Crazy’s music cuts him off. That’s really not cool with Kennedy, who takes Crazy down as JBL calls Crazy a hot dog vendor again. After a trip to the floor with Crazy being sent into various things, Crazy is back in with some right hands. Kennedy drops him again though and hits a chinlock as JBL loses it over being named Jerk Of The Month in Smackdown Magazine.

The neck crank goes on and Kennedy gets annoyed at Crazy for daring to try a small package. Kennedy sends him face first into the mat and goes back to the neck cranking. The comeback is on again with some shots to the face and Crazy hits a slingshot dive. The Russian legsweep looks to set up the moonsault but here’s Psicosis for a distraction. Kennedy hits a Kenton Bomb for the pin.

Rating: C-. The amount of neck cranking makes me think this was a little longer than it needed to be but JBL’s rants were the best part. That tends to be the case, but at some point he is going to start taking away too much focus. The good thing is there isn’t much to be seen out of a Super Crazy vs. Mr. Kennedy match, as it isn’t like Kennedy can do much of note in the ring in the first place..

Kristal is yelling about Ashley but has to stop to interview Tatanka. He isn’t worried about facing Great Khali because he is facing his fears like a warrior. Tatanka looks to be about 71 years old here.

Video on the Caribbean tour.

Great Khali vs. Tatanka

Daivari is here with Khali and has brought a casket to ringside. Before the match, Daivari calls out Undertaker to answer Khali’s challenge for the Punjabi Prison match. Tatanka comes out…and is destroyed before the bell, meaning no match.

The destruction ensues (with JBL making Indian vs. Indian jokes) so Daivari opens the casket, which is filled with white smoke. The screen goes wonky (of course) and Undertaker’s voice accepts the challenge.

Divas Search finalists video. Maryse being as fluent in English as she is after only speaking English for six months is very impressive.

Vito vs. Psicosis

We get a quick clip of Vito shopping for a purse in the Caribbean. Vito dances around to start and JBL (again) goes into a rant about Vito, including gay jokes about Cole. Psicosis tries to take him down to start so Vito strikes a pose, complete with the blurred out image. A suplex keeps the blurring up but Vito fights out of the corner as Cole explains that this is not about sexual orientation.

Hold on though as Vito stops for the Macarena (JBL: “THE MAN NEEDS A CHROMOSOME CHECK!” Psicosis is back with a reverse chinlock and another suplex but here’s Crazy for a distraction, setting up the dress over the head armbar to give Vito the win. JBL loses it again as only he can.

Rating: D. Again, ignoring all of the shenanigans, the match wasn’t very good in the first place. They were having a boring match which was only there for the sake of having Crazy come in at the end and that doesn’t make for the most thrilling use of five minutes. It also doesn’t help that Vito’s “he’s just having fun” deal is getting old in a hurry, but you had to know that was coming.

Booker promises to become World Champion and Regal toasts him with champagne.

Batista won the World Title at Wrestlemania.

Mark Henry injured Kurt Angle.

Pitbulls vs. Funaki/Scotty 2 Hotty

Noble jumps Funaki to start and a double clothesline gives Kash two. It’s back to Noble for some shots to the neck and choking on the apron. Kash plants Funaki for two and hammers away again as the aggression is working so far. Funaki avoids a charge though and the hot tag brings in Scotty to clean house. Everything breaks down and Noble hits a fireman’s carry gutbuster to drop Funaki. A spear/Russian legsweep combination gives Kash the pin.

Rating: C. The Pitbulls are a good example of a team of two guys who had nothing else going on and just needed a fresh repackaging. They aren’t doing anything that reinvents the wheel but you have two people who can work and get a new gimmick. Maybe it works and maybe it doesn’t, but at least they’re getting a chance and are making the most of it. That is something that could be used again and it could do a lot of good.

ECW Rebound.

Great American Bash rundown, with Bobby Lashley defending the US Title against Finlay and William Regal being announced.

Finlay and Regal agree that the title match is every man for himself but Finlay has to chase the Leprechaun away from Regal’s leg.

Gregory Helms vs. Bobby Lashley

Non-title. During his entrance, Helms says Lashley is a Superman but Helms is the Kryptonite. Joined in progress after a break as commentary talks about how long Helms has held the Cruiserweight Title. Lashley hits a rather delayed vertical suplex for two, which JBL says he hasn’t seen since Rick Rude. Ok then. Helms gets in a few shots of his own and grabs a chinlock but Lashley powers up to his feet without much effort. Back up and Lashley charges into a boot in the corner but comes back with a powerslam for the pin. It’s as sudden as it sounds.

Rating: C-. Another match that didn’t have the time to build into anything and doesn’t exactly do much for Helms. No he shouldn’t be beating the US Champion, but maybe they shouldn’t be having Helms in this spot if he’s going to be beaten so decisively. Lashley winning is fine, but don’t have him beat another champion like that.

Mark Henry promises to make Batista’s comeback the shortest in history.

Miz is still very fired up about what we have been seeing, and introduces the returning Batista.

Here is Batista for his big return, with commentary staying silent so the moment can sink in. Batista doesn’t waste time in calling out Henry, threatening to come get him if Henry doesn’t come out. Cue Henry for the staredown in the aisle but he turns to go back, only to have Rey Mysterio jump him. Batista comes out and gets to Henry, who is sent hard into the steps. The steps go off of Henry’s head as JBL sounds scared of what we’re seeing. Referees come down but Batista is too busy beating on Henry with a chair to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. This one really didn’t work out for the most part as the entire thing was built around Batista returning and King Booker becoming the new #1 contender. The good thing is that they have more of a direction now, but you should be able to see where things are going for the next few months. At the same time though, the wrestling was pretty worthless tonight, as we need to drag the worthless Mysterio Era to the end of its run and that could make the next few weeks a bit rough. That was the case here, and it wasn’t very good.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: June 30, 2006
Location: Roanoke Civic Center, Roanoke, Virginia
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield

We’re done with Vengeance and that means we can officially start getting ready for the Great American Bash. I’m not sure what we should be expecting there, but somehow we have another King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley match, this time inside of a cage. They really like that match and I can kind of get why, but they might want to move on. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a look back at Mark Henry destroying Rey Mysterio until Chavo Guerrero made the save and caused Henry to get disqualified. Pain seems imminent.

Opening sequence.

Here’s Mark Henry to complain about Chavo Guerrero costing him the World Title. Henry has injured a lot of people, like Batista, Chris Benoit, Undertaker and Kurt Angle. Now it’s time to do the same thing to Chavo, who comes out to say Henry needs some anger management. Chavo thinks Henry is trying to goad him out of retirement, so Henry says he spits on the Guerrero name. If Eddie Guerrero was here, Henry would spit on him too. Chavo comes to the ring and gets destroyed, with Rey Mysterio’s save attempt completely failing as well. Henry destroys Rey even more and leaves with a big smile.

Cruiserweight Title: Gregory Helms vs. Super Crazy

Helms is defending. Crazy goes for the leg to start and Helms bails over to the ropes in a hurry. A missile dropkick sends Helms outside and the dive connects as well. Back in and Helms catches him on top with a neck snap across the rope to take over. A swinging neckbreaker gives Helms two and we hit the chinlock. Crazy’s comeback is countered with a backbreaker but he’s fine enough to knock Helms off the top. The second dropkick sets up a standing moonsault for two on Helms….and here’s Psicosis to jump Helms for the DQ to cost Crazy the title.

Rating: C. Crazy was showing some good fire here, as it almost seems like it’s a little bit easier to be taken seriously when you don’t come to the ring on a lawn mower. The match was a speedy and fairly competitive match, but the ending was the right way to go given what they did with the Mexicools.

Post match the brawling continues with Psicosis bailing.

King Booker and Queen Sharmell yell at Teddy Long about the cage match but it isn’t being changed. Booker compares himself to Gladiator and promises to end Lashley and it’s all going to be on Long’s bald head.

Batista is back next week.

Pit Bulls vs. Marty Garner/???

The Pit Bulls are Jamie Noble/Kid Kash with the collars and chains. They jump Garner and the other guy not worth naming to get things going in a hurry. The double teaming is on and some double stomping in the corner sets up a clothesline. We hit the neck crank on not Garner and it’s back to Kash to pound him down without much effort.

Garner manages to come in and is thrown off the top in a big crash. Another clothesline lets the Pit Bulls run them over again as JBL can’t get over Garner’s pants. A powerbomb/top rope clothesline finishes Garner, with JBL saying that we haven’t seen something like the Doomsday Device since the 1990s. Yeah I’d forget about the Heidenreich experiment too.

Rating: C-. Total squash, but the Pit Bulls were showing a lot of intensity. The problem is going to be their size, but if they can go like this it can work out. Also it helps when the Tag Team Champions weigh about 119lbs soaking wet. Good enough for what it was and now they get to see where they can go from here.

Divas Search video.

Ashley Massaro, last year’s winner, says the Diva Search is about having a good time. Look at all the doors it opens up. Kristal was in the top ten and look where she is now. Kristal: “I finished fourth b****!” And she’s gone, because this is how WWE writes conversations between women.

Bobby Lashley is ready for the cage match because Booker doesn’t know what he’s in for.

Finlay vs. Matt Hardy

This is a rematch from five months ago when Finlay beat the heck out of Hardy in his debut. The Leprechaun sneaks around during Hardy’s entrance but Hardy doesn’t see him. Finlay starts fast by blasting him with a clothesline for two but Hardy is back up with some right hands. An elbow to the face and an elbow drop give Hardy two, with Finlay claiming something in his eye. That doesn’t last long as Finlay gets a boot up in the corner, only to dive into a raised boot.

Finlay is fine enough to take him down into a chinlock as JBL goes on a rant about everything Hardy does other than trying to become a top star. The turnbuckle pad is ripped off but Hardy knocks him off the top and hits the legdrop. Hardy knocks Finlay outside but the Leprechaun pulls Finlay under the ring. The distraction lets Finlay take over as the Leprechaun throws JBL a can of Guinness. The shillelagh (dang I spelled that right) is brought in so the referee takes it away, allowing Finlay to drop Hardy onto the exposed buckle. That’s enough to set up the Celtic Cross for the easy pin.

Rating: C. They beat each other up well enough here and Finlay is becoming quite the solid midcard villain. Throw in the Leprechaun somehow actually working and I’m getting into seeing Finlay every week. Granted some of that might be due to JBL being such a huge Leprechaun fan and selling the heck out of it.

Clip of the Miz winning on Fear Factor.

Mr. Kennedy vs. Gunner Scott

Scott starts in on the arm but gets poked in the eye and sent into the ropes. Some elbows to the back give Kennedy two but another one misses, allowing Scott to send him into the buckle. Kennedy slams him down by the head though and the Kenton Bomb finishes Scott in a hurry.

Rating: D+. As usual, Kennedy is much better with the talking than the actual wrestling so it isn’t quite the dominant performance. The charisma is more than enough to carry him for a long way though and that’s all that matters. Scott has completely fallen apart though, and given that he wasn’t exactly a big star in the first place, I can’t say I’m overly surprised.

Post match Kennedy loads up the catchphrase but here are Great Khali and Daivari. Kennedy bails so Khali wrecks Scott and puts him in a body bad. Daivari asks where Undertaker is and challenges him to face Khali in a Punjabi Prison match at the Great American Bash. Khali strikes Undertaker’s pose as JBL sounds terrified of actually seeing the match.

Raw Rebound.

Miz hypes up tonight’s cage match.

Earlier today, Vito, in the dress, went dress shopping. A lack of hilarity ensued.

Vito vs. Simon Dean

Dean is freaked out at Vito’s shaved legs as JBL makes various references to Vito’s orientation. Vito hammers away on Dean but gets knocked down, revealing that he is wearing women’s underwear (which are blurred out). That’s enough to send JBL into a crazed rant about how he has wrestled everywhere and spent years getting to WWE and now he is watching a man in women’s clothes facing a fitness guru on a scooter.

Dean grabs a chinlock as JBL makes all kinds of jokes about Cole. That makes Cole say that at least the underwear matches the dress. JBL: “I want hazard pay.” Vito fights back with clotheslines and a suplex, into the top rope elbow. The dress goes over Dean’s head as Vito grabs the armbar for the tap.

Rating: D. What is there even to say about the Vito stuff? It’s as cheap heat as you can get and that works out well enough, but they can’t think that this has any kind of a shelf life. JBL’s insane rants are funny though, as he sounds completely indignant that he is actually seeing this stuff (I mean…..fair enough).

Sylvan thinks you would love the Montreal nightlife.

We recap Bobby Lashley vs. King Booker. They have fought a few times in the last month and traded wins, but Lashley is tired of dealing with Booker’s goons. Therefore, it’s in a cage tonight.

US Title: King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley

Lashley is defending in a cage. William Regal is here for the All Hail King Booker chants and JBL gushes over Queen Sharmell’s beauty. Lashley starts fast by driving shoulders to the ribs in the corner but Booker sends him face first into the cage. Finlay is out here as well as Booker hammers away with right hands and chops. A suplex out of the corner gets Lashley out of trouble and Booker gets sent into the cage.

The spinebuster plants Booker again but Finlay is waiting on Lashley as he tries to get out. The cage is slammed onto Lashley’s head but he’s fine enough to grab the leg and pull Booker back inside. We take a break and come back with Lashley being sent face first into the middle buckle, only to catch Booker’s escape attempt again. The Book End plants Lashley and the ax kick does it again but it’s still not enough to let Booker escape.

Lashley is back up with an elbow to the face for two so Booker goes after the heavily taped up legs. The Boston crab goes on so Lashley makes the rope (which is good for a break in a cage match because reasons), sending JBL into a rant about the USA losing to Ghana in the World Cup. Lashley is back up with a running powerslam but Regal and Finlay are waiting on the floor with chairs to block the escape. They go up top again with Lashley tossing him down and then escaping over the top to retain (I guess Regal and Finlay were off getting peanuts).

Rating: C-. I wasn’t feeling this one as it wasn’t much of a match in the first place and then Lashley just calmly won after slamming him off the top. They didn’t play up much drama in the whole thing and Booker only remembered the big knee bandages with a few minutes left. Their previous stuff was much better and I’m not sure what went wrong here. It wasn’t a disaster but quite disappointing given what they had built up.

Lashley drops Finlay and gets out to end the show.

Well almost end the show as we get one more video for Batista’s return next week.

Overall Rating: D+. Pretty weak show overall as they have all but punted on Mysterio meaning anything with the title. He has been a lame duck since he won the thing and with Batista being back next week, things are only going to get worse. The rest of the show wasn’t exactly great and felt like a bunch of stuff thrown together instead of any kind of an eventful episode. It came off as several fresh/yet to be established named being thrown out there and that doesn’t make for the best night. But then everything changes with Batista getting back next week so it doesn’t matter all that much.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: June 23, 2006
Location: Pepsi Arena, Albany, New York
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield

It’s the go home show for Vengeance and that means we can finally start looking forward to Great American Bash next month. Last week’s main event saw Bobby Lashley beat King Booker in what could be seen as either an upset or the expected result, which isn’t something you get to see every day. Other than that, it’s probably going to be a bad night for Rey Mysterio. I don’t know what he’s doing, but I figure it’s the safe bet. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We recap Lashley beating King Booker last week.

Opening sequence.

Miz welcomes us again and runs down the card, including Mysterio defending against Mark Henry.

Tag Team Titles: Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs. Mexicools

The Mexicools are challenging and we see Psicosis walking out on Super Crazy last week during their match against Great Khali. They have another quick argument over who gets to start with London, with Psicosis coming in and getting his arm cranked a bit. London hits a springboard armdrag and a crossbody gets two. Crazy comes in and loads up his half of a rolling flip that the team usually does but Psicosis drops an elbow instead.

Kendrick comes in and flips out of a few armdrag attempts (JBL: “Now that’s like the APA vs. the Road Warriors!”) before grabbing an Octopus Hold. That doesn’t sit well with Psicosis, who yells at Crazy and then comes in, only to allow the tag off to London without much effort. London manages a top rope double stomp to the back of a standing Psicosis (cool) and the champs start working on the arm.

London gets two off a suplex but Psicosis gets up and staggers over to the corner for the hot tag to Crazy. House is cleaned in a hurry and London dropkicks Kendrick by mistake. Crazy goes up for the moonsault but Psicosis tags himself in, only to miss a Swanton (top rope spinning legdrop according to Cole), allowing Kendrick to steal the pin to retain.

Rating: C. This was much more about telling the story about the Mexicools imploding and given the video that aired before the match, that isn’t exactly surprising. I’m not sure if they really needed to be split up, but that has never stopped WWE before. It’s not like the Mexicools were going to get the titles in the first place, so maybe there is something else for them to do on their own. That isn’t likely going to happen, but it’s an idea at least.

Post match Crazy jumps Psicosis and beats him down before leaving on his own.

We look at Mark Henry beating Rey Mysterio last month.

Batista is back in 14 days.

Tatanka vs. Simon Dean

Before the match, Dean rants about how Tatanka’s people ripped him off at a casino last week for $150, so tonight, just like when the Pilgrims landed at Mount Rushmore, those people sold Manhattan for $24 worth of beads and wigwams. All the Indians got was Indiana and….Tatanka slugs away before we can hear about the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor. Tatanka starts fast with the chips and the Papoose To Go but here’s Great Khali to wreck them both as the referee bails for the no contest.

Khali destroys both of them and even throws in the arm folding pin ala Undertaker.

We look at Mark Henry breaking into a cage to destroy Batista.

Finlay vs. Gunner Scott

Before the match, Finlay kicks some beer cans under the ring, which seems to be some foreshadowing. Gunner goes straight at him to start but gets knocked down in a hurry. Finlay hammers away and drops an elbow, followed by the chinlock. Back up and Finlay dives into a raised boot, meaning the comeback can be on.

Scott elbows him in the face but Finlay gets in a neck snap across the top rope. It’s leprechaun time but Finlay grabs the shillelagh before he can swing it. That makes the leprechaun bite Finlay’s hand so Finlay shoves him back underneath the ring. Finlay uses the distraction to get in a shillelagh shot for the win.

Rating: D+. I’m not sure what to make of Scott, who is still going up and down almost every week. I can appreciate trying something with someone new though and if it works out in the end, good for them. That being said, Scott isn’t exactly jumping off the page most weeks and he still doesn’t have that big win or even a moment to get him to the next level. It isn’t too late for him to save him, but he needs to do something already.

Vito, still in the dress, hits on Ashley, who leaves with him but doesn’t seem thrilled.

Sylvan wants you to come to Quebec. It sounds better than watching him every week.

Chavo Guerrero talks about how worried he is over Rey Mysterio facing Mark Henry. We see Henry destroying Chavo last week but, despite being in pain, Chavo still picks Rey to retain.

Henry doesn’t care how many Guerreros are in Mysterio’s corner. He talks about all of the bones and tendons he has broken. Batista, Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle and Chavo Guerrero know how that feels and tonight, Mysterio will too.

JBL is thrilled with the idea of Mysterio being in such pain.

King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley

Non-title again and William Regal is here to All Hail King Booker. He doesn’t All Hail Queen Sharmell but she’s here too. Lashley’s taped up knee doesn’t get any hailing either. They circle each other to start and the fans are rather behind Lashley here. Lashley powers him out to the apron but Booker is right back in with some chops. Some shoulders to the ribs in the corner have Booker in trouble and it’s time to start in on Booker’s arm.

Booker isn’t going to stand for that and chops away in the corner but a big collision puts them both down. Back up and a hot shot puts Lashley down again, but more importantly it allows the light bulb to go off as Booker FINALLY starts in on the heavily bandaged knee. Booker cranks on the leg a bit, only to have the spinning toehold countered into a small package for two.

That earns Lashley an armbar as Booker isn’t exactly being so smart in this one. Lashley fights up but gets poked in the eye to slow him right back down again. The intelligence comes in again with a half crab so Lashley grabs the rope in a hurry. Regal gets in a cheap shot from the floor though and Booker’s kick to the face gets two. Cue Finlay to ringside and we take a break.

Back with Lashley knocking him down for two and then he does it again for the same. Booker sends him outside though and it’s Finlay getting in a Shillelagh shot to the bad leg. Back in and the knee is fine enough to snap off a belly to belly and Booker is sent into the corner. Lashley unloads with elbows and ax handles, only to get sent face first into the buckle.

There’s a shinbreaker to stay on the leg again and we hit the Figure Four. That’s turned over for a reversal though and Booker has to let go. Lashley snaps off a belly to belly into a powerslam so Regal gets on the apron for a distraction. Sharmell slips in a chair but Lashley takes it away and cleans house, only to get caught for the DQ.

Rating: C+. The lack of thinking from Booker got annoying at times but at least they did what they were supposed to do by keeping Lashley looking strong. Lashley fighting against the odds of the King’s Court is a good idea and they’re turning Lashley into a bigger star every week at this rate. The match worked well enough, but they probably could have clipped a few minutes out of the nearly 21 that they had.

Miz talks about how awesome this show has been but an entrance cuts him off.

Mr. Kennedy vs. Funaki

Kennedy praises Funaki’s announcing skills and now the fight is on in a hurry. Funaki’s arm is wrapped around the post and then stomps away on it back inside. The armbar doesn’t last long so Kennedy ax handles him in the chest a few times instead. The Regal Roll sets up the Kenton Bomb for the fast pin as Kennedy’s inability to pick a finisher continues.

We look at Mark Henry destroying Chris Benoit in May.

Raw Rebound.

Queen Sharmell and King Booker declare that Booker will NEVER face Lashley again. Teddy Long isn’t buying that though and makes a cage match for next week.

We cut to commentary after the announcement and JBL looked stunned in a funny shot.

Batista is still back in 14 days.

Smackdown World Title: Mark Henry vs. Rey Mysterio

Rey is defending and strikes away to start but Henry takes him into the corner without much effort. Henry unloads in another corner and hits a splash, only to miss a second attempt. That’s enough to send Henry outside and Rey hits a big dive from the top as we take a break. Back with Rey down and Henry slowly kicking away as JBL describes this as the nightmare scenario of T-Rex having a brain.

The big shoulders in the corner hit Rey’s ribs (and drive him up to other buckles to make the visual even better). Rey gets in a kick to the leg but a heck of a clothesline gives Henry two. The bearhug (duh) goes on until Henry drops him and gives us the way too cocky smile. Rey gets his feet up in the corner to stagger Henry, who misses the sitdown splash.

There’s a baseball slide in the corner and a split legged moonsault gets two. Henry sends him to the apron but a springboard clothesline gives Henry two more. The springboard crossbody is knocked out of the air though and Henry pulls the turnbuckle pad off. The referee goes to fix it but Henry throws Mysterio into him for the crash.

Cue Chavo with a chair to Henry’s back, earning himself a shot to the face. Henry grabs the chair but Rey knocks him into the ropes for the 619. Chavo chop blocks Henry down to make the springboard seated senton work. With the referee getting up, Chavo throws the chair to Henry as Rey drops down, which is good enough for the DQ to retain the title.

Rating: C. This could have been way worse and it certainly was the last time they met. Rey was sticking and moving here and I was starting to believe it, but then it was Guerrero time again, which has been a problem since Mysterio won the title. Henry is getting ready for Batista so thankfully he didn’t get pinned, but at the same time, Rey didn’t pin him so it’s kind of a wash with Rey escaping as champion again.

Overall Rating: C+. Maybe it’s building Lashley up or Batista being back soon but things are starting to look up a bit around here. Mysterio having a bit of life to him for a change helped too as this show gave you some hope for the future. It’s not a classic or anything, but after watching this show and getting more and more frustrated for a long time, I’ll take a decent show with a good bit of enthusiasm.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: June 16, 2006
Location: Sovereign Bank Arena, Trenton, New Jersey
Attendance: 5,100
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield

We’re coming up on the Raw pay per view so that means there is one more meaningless Smackdown before they have something to build towards. Things are not exactly in a good place at the moment as the World Champion is finding new ways to look useless every week, but maybe the rest of the show can pick it up a bit. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Miz welcomes us to the show and runs down the bigger matches.

Here’s JBL to say that it’s morning again in America because he’s here to replace Tazz on commentary.

Rey Mysterio vs. Gregory Helms

Non-title and Cole has to talk JBL out of going after Rey during the pre-match posing. During his entrance, Helms says it won’t even take a superhero to beat Rey. Mysterio, sporting a taped up shoulder, smiles at Helms as JBL goes into a rant about Rey going to ECW and getting hurt as a result. They go to the mat to start but Rey is right back up with a headscissors to put Helms down.

That just earns him a shot to the bad shoulder but it’s another headscissors to put Helms outside. A staredown with JBL lets Helms get in a cheap shot though, sending JBL into another rant about how this is Helms’ chance at a million dollar payday. Back in and Helms pulls on the neck but the powers of the EDDIE chants bring Rey back up. A spinning Rock Bottom backbreaker gets two and we hit the front facelock on Rey.

That doesn’t last long as Rey is back with the sitout bulldog and the springboard seated senton gets two. There’s a basement dropkick for the same but the 619 misses and Helms grabs a Sky High. The Shining Wizard misses though and it’s a 619 into Dropping The Dime (with Helms standing so he has to duck his head to avoid getting kicked in the face) to give Rey the pin.

Rating: C. I’m not sure what to think about the fact that the World Heavyweight Champion beating the Cruiserweight Champion in a back and forth match is a relief. At least they had a completely acceptable match because they’re both talented people so it could have been a lot worse. JBL still hating Mysterio was nice to see as well, making this one of the less frustrating Mysterio matches in a long time.

We look at the Great Khali destroying some cruiserweights last week. Tonight, it’s the Mexicools vs. Khali for further massacring.

King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley

Non-title with JBL calling Booker’s entrance a religious experience. It’s also non-match as Finlay and William Regal jump Lashley during his entrance. Booker joins in and they take out Lashley’s knee but Matt Hardy and Gunner Scott (who are facing Regal and Finlay later) run in for the save. I think we have a main event.

Post break Lashley is getting his knee checked out but insists that he’s wrestling tonight. Keeping Lashley’s words short is the best move for him.

Mr. Kennedy vs. Nick Berk

Kennedy takes him into the corner to start and hammers Berk down without much effort. A clothesline to the back of the head gets two and we hit the neck crank. Kennedy slams him head first into the mat and the Green Bay Meat Packer (neckbreaker) finishes in a hurry.

Raw Rebound.

The Mexicools fire each other up before facing Great Khali.

Batista is back in 21 days.

Sylvan wants us to come visit Quebec. Sweet goodness I know he has the Pat Patterson connection but isn’t there anything else he can do that doesn’t involve putting him on TV in one bad gimmick after another?

Great Khali vs. Mexicools

Khali headbutts him down and shrugs off some forearms to the back. JBL doesn’t want to see this because he needs someone to mow his yard. Psicosis brings in a chair but throws it down and runs away, leaving Super Crazy to get chokeslammed for the pin. As usual, they are wise to keep this short.

Post match Daivari says everyone is afraid of Khali, including Undertaker. Khali says….I think something about Undertaker.

We recap last week’s bikini contest for obvious reasons.

Miz is in the crowd and has Ashley introduce the next match. JBL: “That’s a rat I would leave the bar early for.”

Matt Hardy/Gunner Scott vs. Finlay/William Regal

Finlay and Scott get things going with Finlay taking him to the mat for a kick between the shoulders. Regal comes in for a headlock as JBL is all over Cole for praising Scott against these two. It’s off to Hardy for a suplex on Finlay, who claims a shot to the eye so Regal can get in a cheap shot. The running clothesline into the bulldog out of the corner drops Finlay, with Hardy clotheslining Regal at the same time for a bonus.

Finlay is sent outside for a slingshot dive from Matt, who has to knock the shillelagh out of his hand. Cue the leprechaun (JBL: “IT’S THE LITTLE BASTARD!!! DOES HE COME IN POCKET SIZED???”) to grab the club and hit Matt low, allowing Regal to get in a knee to the face. Regal puts the club in the corner and it’s back inside for a chinlock on Hardy. Regal gets in some stomping on the apron knocking Hardy off the top.

We take a break and come back with Regal covering Hardy for some near falls and then grabbing a chinlock. JBL gives us a history of English fighting as Hardy elbows his way out of a full nelson. Finlay goes shoulder first into the post though and the hot tag brings in Scott to clean house. A German suplex drops Finlay and a missile dropkick gives Scott two. Everything breaks down and Hardy is backdropped out to the floor in a heap. The melee lets Finlay get in a shillelagh shot to finish Scott.

Rating: C. It was a pretty good match but it felt long, which is rarely a good thing. Regal and Finlay make for a hard hitting team and their facials alone are worth keeping them together. The match was a perfectly solid way to give us the long wrestling match on the show, but it did drag a bit and probably could have lost a minute or two.

Post match Finlay pulls out the leprechaun to attack everyone, including Regal. JBL is on his feet over how much he loves the guy, though he did think it was Tazz in green.

See No Evil. Again.

Booker T. and Sharmell are rather pleased with what they did but aren’t so happy when Teddy Long comes in to say the match is still on. That’s not fair because Booker already took his boots off! Teddy: “Well then I suggest the queen help the king get his boots back on!”

Batista is still back in 21 days.

Michael Cole brings out Chavo Guerrero for a chat (for someone who is retired, he still shows up to work a lot). Chavo talks about supporting his friend Rey Mysterio and is very happy with the results of a fan poll which says he should come back. Cue Mark Henry to say he would hurt Chavo if he was still wrestling, just like he did to Chris Benoit and Batista. Henry is going to hurt Batista again but thinks that Chavo is stepping up to him. That means a pair of World’s Strongest Slams and Chavo is left laying but Henry picks him up for the ram into the post. This has been the biggest story Chavo has had in years and…it’s still Chavo.

Michelle McCool and Ashley have a completely natural argument over who has a better body but Michelle won’t agree to a bikini showdown.

Vito vs. Scott Wright

Vito is still in his dress, as he was earlier today at the gym. The pounding is on in a hurry with Vito hammering at Wright’s chest both in the corner and on the floor. A clothesline connects and another cuts off Wright’s comeback as JBL gets to make more dress jokes. Vito grabs a keylock with the dress over Wright’s head for the tap. I think you get the idea here.

King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley

Non-title and Booker jumps him in the aisle again, including some shots to Lashley’s taped knee. A superkick drops Lashley again and Queen Sharmell is rather pleased. Lashley manages to send him into the corner a few times but Booker takes him down by the leg again. As JBL suggests that Booker is divine, Booker drops Lashley again and poses. The chinlock goes on for a bit and that’s enough to start the real comeback. Booker sends him right back to the floor though and the knee is banged up again.

We take a break and come back with Booker knocking Lashley down again to cut off another comeback. Back up and Lashley snaps off a belly to belly so Booker sends him right back to the floor, meaning Lashley grabs the knee again. Booker grabs another chinlock so Lashley fights up with a chinlock this time around. The powerslam is escaped and Booker kicks him in the face for two more. That means another chinlock but this time Lashley fights up again hits the powerslam for the fast pin.

Rating: D+. Now this one really didn’t work as it felt like they were stretching a match out way longer than it needed to be by doing the same stuff over and over. How many times can you throw Lashley to the floor, work on his knee and chinlock him? They did the right thing by not having Lashley lose here too as he already dropped the pay per view match to Booker. It’s nice to see a champion get a come from behind win like this and Lashley continues to rise.

Overall Rating: C-. You really can feel that they’re just killing time until Batista gets back and while that makes sense, it doesn’t make for the best shows. Mysterio winning was nice, but it’s not like there is any life in his title reign at this point. The show was watchable, but man alive they need to find something to pick up some energy because it’s pretty lifeless right now.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Survivor Series 2007
Date: November 18, 2007
Location: American Airlines Arena, Miami, Florida
Attendance: 12,500
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross, Tazz, Joey Styles

The company has finally settled down to the point where major changes are mostly done. The three rosters are working well enough and talent is moving from show to show fast enough to keep things interesting. There has however been one change, though it’s more the end of an experiment: all pay per views are now done by all brands, meaning there are no more Raw or Smackdown pay per views. Let’s get to it.

The opening video talks about how this started twenty years ago, as you would expect it to. It also talks about the main event matches tonight, as you would expect it to as well.

ECW Title: CM Punk vs. John Morrison vs. The Miz

Punk is defending and Miz (a reality TV star turned wrestler) and Morrison (formerly Johnny Nitro) are Smackdown Tag Team Champions. The team of course jumps CM at the same time because one on one, neither have a chance to beat Punk. Punk kicks the tar out of Miz’s head and gets a quick two on Morrison. Both challengers are sent to the floor where Punk takes both of them out with a suicide dive. Back in and Punk gets caught in a double suplex after the springboard clothesline fails.

Miz and Morrison double team Punk but Miz is the first of the heels to go extra heel, dumping Morrison out to the floor. He hooks a chinlock on Punk but has to let go to knock Morrison back to the outside. Punk kicks Miz in the head but Morrison comes back in with a backbreaker to CM followed by a cobra clutch (called a Japanese sleeper by Joey Styles).

Miz pulls Punk to the floor and rams him into the concrete to get us down to the challengers fighting. Morrison sends him into the corner chest first and hits the yet to be named Starship Pain for two. Punk comes back in and hurricanranas Morrison off the top into a powerbomb from Miz in a SWEET looking move. That only gets two but it got a BIG reaction from the crowd.

With Morrison pretty much dead, Punk kicks Miz in the face for two and hits the knee/bulldog combo for the same. Punk hits a backbreaker on Miz but Morrison grabs a rollup and trunks on the champ for two. Morrison escapes the GTS but gets knocked to the floor, allowing Punk to hit the GTS on Miz for the pin to retain.

Rating: C. Other than that hurricanrana/powerbomb spot, this was only ok. Punk had to carry the whole thing but you could see something special in Miz. It’s a little easier to see it now, but some people thought Miz would be the bigger deal because of this match. I’m not sure if I’d agree based on this match, but Miz did indeed look better than Morrison here. This was a pretty good choice for an opener, but the execution wasn’t great because Punk didn’t have enough to work with.

We recap MVP turning on Matt Hardy and taking out his knee. They had been partners for a long while before this but everyone thought MVP was evil the whole time, and this was the not very shocking turn.

MVP says that Matt won’t be competing tonight because he needs crutches to get by. That doesn’t surprise MVP, because Matt has always needed a crutch, be it either Jeff or MVP. Oh and he’s better than Matt.

Mickie James/Maria/Torrie Wilson/Michelle McCool/Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix/Melina/Jillian Hall/Victoria/Layla

One fall to a finish here and Beth is Women’s Champion. Maria is a gorgeous ditzy redhead, Torrie is a bombshell, McCool is a pretty blonde, Phoenix is a very strong woman, Jillian is ditzy as well and Layla is a British woman who dances a lot. The Divas Title doesn’t exist yet which is how things should have stayed. Melina falls off the apron during her splits entrance which is worth a chuckle. The second attempt works and thankfully she’s smiling after screwing it up.

Victoria and Michelle start things off with Michelle taking over with a headlock. A big boot puts Victoria (later Tara in TNA) down and it’s off to Torrie who isn’t very good in the ring. Victoria kills her mostly dead with a side slam and it’s off to Layla who is so bad here that she can’t even beat up Torrie. Kelly and Jillian come in and Jillian tries to scream a bit, only to get rolled up for two.

Thankfully Beth comes in to flatten Maria before handing it right back to Layla. Actually make that Melina, who misses a charge at Maria and crotches herself, allowing for the hot tag to Mickie. James beats up everyone in sight, has her partners take out Beth, and hits the Long Kiss Goodnight (spinning kick to the face after a kiss) on Melina for the pin.

Rating: D. Yes, the match sucked. Yes, most of the women in this are horrible wrestlers. Yes, if you’re complaining about these things, you’re missing the point. This was pure fan service as you had ten girls in either tight or barely there outfits and one hot woman kicking another hot woman in the head. If you’re looking for a wrestling match here, you’re in the wrong place.

Coach and Regal are in the back looking smug. Hornswoggle, who is Vince’s son at this point, is pacing very nervously. Remember that he faces Khali tonight.

Orton says history isn’t going to be made tonight. He’s going to beat Shawn because if Shawn uses the superkick, Shawn loses the match.

Shawn is here for revenge tonight because Orton has tried to hurt him and take his livelihood. Therefore tonight, Shawn is going to take the title.

Raw Tag Team Titles: Lance Cade/Trevor Murdoch vs. Hardcore Holly/Cody Rhodes

Cade and Murdoch (two rednecks) are defending. Rhodes (Dusty’s son) is brand new at this point and spent weeks getting beaten up by Holly before Holly respected him enough to team with him. Cody and Cade start things off with the rookie getting hiptossed down. The crowd pretty much died as soon as the bell rang, which should tell you about the tag team situation at the time as these are the best Raw had for their belts.

Off to the very redneck Murdoch who chops away but gets caught in a headlock. Yeah Cody didn’t quite get anywhere as a worker for a long time. Holly comes in and is immediately beaten down by Cade. The crowd is reacting a bit so it’s not totally dead but it’s nothing special. The heels are sent into each other and fall out to the floor as Holly takes over. We actually get a HOLLY chant for the only time I can ever remember.

A rollup gets two for Hardcore and it’s off to Murdoch via a blind tag. Holly gets his head kicked off and things slow back down again. The champs tag in and out a lot before Cade picks up Murdoch to drop him down with a legdrop for two. We hit the chinlock on Holly which goes nowhere so Holly suplexes Trevor down. Cade misses an elbow drop but Holly still can’t tag out.

Cade tries that dropping Murdoch into a legdrop move again but as almost always is the case, it doesn’t work this time. Warm tag brings in Cody who hits a missile dropkick on Lance for two. Holly and Cade fall to the floor and Murdoch hits something resembling a Canadian Destroyer (flip piledriver, though this was much more like a sunset flip than a piledriver) to retain.

Rating: C-. Another so-so match here but at the end of the day, it’s Hardcore Holly and a rookie Cody Rhodes vs. Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. That’s only going to take you so far as the fans aren’t going to care about it for the most part. I don’t get why they didn’t change the titles here as Holly and Rhodes would get the belts in a month (and hold them for SIX MONTHS) anyway.

The announcers explain the concept of a Survivor Series match to the uninitiated. That’s something you hardly ever see anymore: a basic explanation of WHAT IS GOING ON. Sometimes you need to slow things down a bit and tell people how things work. If you’re flipping through the channels and see something flashy like wrestling, you’re likely to stop but if you have no idea what’s going on, you’re not likely to stay. Gorilla Monsoon was a master at doing this.

Team HHH isn’t worried about being down 5-4 coming into the match (Matt Hardy was hurt) but Kane says he isn’t an underdog. We recap the Katie Vick angle (HHH: “Uh…..yeah sorry about that.” If you don’t know what this is, be glad and keep it that way.) and Jeff reminds HHH that he put him in the hospital. HHH is sorry about that too and says tonight they can unite in the idea of doing something terrible to someone else.

Team HHH vs. Team Umaga

HHH, Kane, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio

Umaga, Mr. Kennedy, MVP, Finlay, Big Daddy V

Big Daddy V is a much fatter Mabel. Kennedy’s mic doesn’t work for the live intro at first so we can only hear the ending. Jeff is Intercontinental Champion and MVP is US Champion. Remember that we’re starting at 5-4 because Matt is gone. Rey and Kennedy get things going with Kennedy using a rare power advantage to take over. Kennedy pounds in the corner but gets caught in a sunset bomb before it’s off to Jeff for a BIG pop. Rey and Jeff combine for some Poetry in Motion and Kennedy is in trouble.

Scratch that trouble as Jeff runs into an elbow (JBL: “That’ll knock the purple out of your hair!”) and it’s off to MVP. MVP limps a bit which apparently is a fake injury. Or maybe he’s making fun of Matt Hardy. Off to the 550lb Big Daddy V who uses his big fat man offense on Jeff, before stupidly throwing Jeff to the corner for a tag to Kane.

V almost immediately belly to belly suplexes Kane down for two but Kane comes back with some clotheslines in the corner. A top rope clothesline puts V down again but Kane has to chokeslam Finlay. V hits a Samoan Drop and a big elbow on Kane for the upset elimination. HHH comes in and hits the facebuster on the monster but gets caught by a clothesline to shift the momentum right back.

We get the match that everyone is looking forward to in HHH vs. Umaga and the fans don’t react at all. Umaga takes him down with a belly to belly of his own and a headbutt has HHH in trouble. Umaga misses a middle rope headbutt and there’s the hot tag to Rey. Rey pounds away but almost immediately gets knocked down by the other monster. Mysterio goes after the leg but a hurricanrana is just a bad idea. Actually it isn’t as he swings Umaga into the 619, followed by a springboard seated senton for two. Umaga unleashes a BIG SAMOAN SCREAM and hits a spinning release Rock Bottom and the Spike to eliminate Rey.

So it’s all five villains vs. Jeff and HHH, and it’s not that the two superheroes are likely to run through all five and win or anything like that of course. Jeff vs. Kennedy starts things off and Hardy is in trouble quickly. I don’t think Jeff really gets going until he looks like he’s been thrown out of a building though. Jeff comes back with a dropkick but the slingshot dropkick in the corner misses due to an MVP assist. Cole talks about how that’s the second time MVP has caused that move to miss in three days. JBL: “Maybe MVP is just smarter than the Hardys.”

Off to MVP who hooks a chinlock on Jeff which goes on for a while. Jeff fights up but gets gets caught in a fireman’s carry drop. MVP starts talking trash to the fans and walks into a Twist of Fate to make it 4-2. Kennedy is in next and walks into an enziguri, which allows for the tag off to HHH. A high knee sets up a clothesline for two for HHH followed by a spinebuster. HHH sees the human whale known as Big Daddy V coming and avoids an elbow which crushes Kennedy and allows HHH to make it 3-2.

V gets both superheroes on the floor and crushes Hardy against the post to put him down for awhile. Back in the ring HHH and Hardy avoid a charge in the corner and hit a double DDT on V for the elimination. I’ve always wondered how basic moves when a monster is fresh is enough to eliminate them. These guys have no stamina at all.

It’s HHH/Jeff vs. Finlay/Umaga if you’re keeping track. Finlay comes in and pounds away on HHH while JBL talks about how great Finlay is. Finlay goes to the middle rope and jumps into HHH’s boot to put both guys down. Hot tag brings in Jeff for a hard Irish whip into the corner and the slingshot dropkick for two. Jeff goes to the apron and is immediately drilled by Umaga to give the evil foreigners control again. Finlay whips Jeff into the corner but gets caught by a Whisper in the Wind. A mule kick staggers Umaga and there’s the hot tag to HHH to meet Finlay. The high knee puts Finlay down and there’s a spinebuster to follow it up.

The Pedigree is loaded up but Umaga kicks HHH’s head off to break it up. The Celtic Cross (White Noise) is escaped and there’s the Pedigree to make it 2-1. Umaga DESTROYS HHH in the corner but the running attack misses by a mile. The Pedigree and Swanton Bomb connect and we’re done.

Rating: B-. The match was pretty fun stuff but once we got down to 5-2, it was a matter of guessing what order the five were going out in rather than who was going to win. That being said, it’s probably the right move as HHH would move on from Umaga after this and take to feud with Orton. That feud would follow Hardy vs. Orton at the Rumble, so this was definitely a launching pad for the two survivors back to the main event.

Shaquille O’Neal is here.

Hornswoggle is still nervous in the back. Tonight’s match is another of those tough love things from Vince. Speaking of the boss, he comes in and Hornswoggle immediately hugs his leg. This is one of those things that I think WWE missed about Hornswoggle: he acts like a child.

Allow me to lose control for a second. HE HAS A FULL BEARD! THE GUY IS IN HIS TWENTIES! HORNSWOGGLE IS NOT A CHIL……why am I annoyed by this? It’s Hornswoggle. Vince says he made this match because Hornswoggle is a McMahon and therefore has to rise to the occasion. He compares this to his battles with Turner and the US government. Vince gives him a pep talk and Hornswoggle is ready.

Here’s Shane McMahon to the arena, rocking a suit. Shane introduces Vince and apparently they’ll be in the corner of Hornswoggle tonight. Well that’s nice of them. JBL says this is going to be Biblical. Cole: “This isn’t the Bible.”

Hornswoggle vs. Great Khali

Runjin Singh, Khali’s manager, says we should have the wrestlers get together for the reading of the rules. This results in Singh talking over the referee as he translates. The fans want Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) but they get the bell instead. The fans realize Shaq is here and Vince tells him to sit down. Vince tells the fans he doesn’t care what they want.

Hornswoggle takes off his jacket and hat and kicks Singh in the face. He kicks at the legs of Khali…and wisely runs away. Singh runs his mouth some more and gets GREEN MIST IN THE FACE! Hornswoggle dives on Singh and pounds away before hiding from Khali under the ring. The small guy finds that Irish club and calls Khali in but the stick is of course caught. Khali kicks him down but before the Vice Grip can go on, Finlay runs in for the save and face turn.

Rating: D-. Well, there was at least a purpose so it’s not a total failure. It should have been on Raw though and the whole story really wasn’t the most entertaining. At the end of the day, this is a big comedy angle designed to get……actually I’m not sure who this is designed to get over. Not that it worked anyway but some clarification would be nice.

Finlay beats up Singh and Khali with the club. It would eventually be revealed that Finlay was Hornswoggle’s father, but I’m not quite sure why Vince agreed to the whole thing in storyline.

Alfonso Soriano, a baseball player, is here.

We recap Shawn vs. Orton. Shawn had the title won in a previous match but Orton intentionally got himself disqualified and then punted Shawn to the shelf for a few months. Shawn admitted he wanted revenge but Vince banned the superkick for no apparent reason other than being evil.

Raw World Title: Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton

Orton is defending, if Orton gets DQ’ed the title changes, Shawn can get no more shots if he loses, and if Shawn attempts to use the Superkick, he loses the match. Shawn almost immediately goes to the cravate and Orton spends nearly two minutes trying to fight out of it. Now that’s a (European) headlock. Orton escapes in the corner and Shawn raises his leg for the kick but the referee says that wasn’t an attempt. It’s going to be one of those referees I guess.

Orton drops down as Shawn runs the ropes so Shawn gets on Randy’s back and chokes away. The hold switches to a front facelock as they’re spending a lot of time in holds so far. Randy finally gets to the floor where Shawn fakes diving over the top so he can dropkick him through the ropes before faking ANOTHER dive and hitting an Asai moonsault in a good sequence. Back in and Orton rolls through a crossbody for two before hitting an uppercut to take over.

Shawn fights up and throws on the required Sharpshooter until Orton finally makes the rope. Orton comes back with a thumb to the eye and snaps Shawn across the top rope to take over. The Elevated DDT hits for two. It’s off to a chinlock by Orton as the hold marathon continues. It’s not boring or bad but it’s a very different way of going about a match.

Shawn fights back but walks into a dropkick for two. He catches another dropkick in mid air and slams Randy down a few times before hitting the top rope elbow for two. By instinct, Shawn tunes up the band but he fakes Orton out by making him duck and grabs a rollup for two. Brilliant psychology there.

In a move I was shocked to see at the time, Shawn puts on a Crossface. Remember that this is just five months after Benoit so that’s not a move you would have expected to see here. Orton finally gets a leg over the rope and Shawn looks spent from that not working. He tries the hold again but Randy clotheslines his head off for two. Orton hits the backbreaker and loads up the same Punt which kept Shawn out for five months.

Randy gets a running start but Shawn grabs an ankle lock with a grapevine to make Orton scream. Orton uses the good leg to kick Shawn away and break the hold. Why don’t more people do that to Angle? Michaels tries the Figure Four but Orton kicks him into the post. Shawn pulls up the foot for the kick but since he has to stop, Orton hits the RKO for the pin to retain the title.

Rating: B. I was digging the psychology here as Shawn had to come up with all kinds of ways to beat Orton instead of the superkick. It says a lot about Shawn that the only way they could have Orton be able to hang in a fight with him was to take away Shawn’s big move. Orton would hold the title for another five months or so until HHH (of course) took it away from him.

Orton demands that Shawn say Orton is the future but Shawn is pretty out of it. Not out of it enough though as there’s the superkick we were waiting on.

Cole is talking about the main event and SAVE US. For those of you unfamiliar, this was a series of videos that popped up at random on shows with what looked like the Matrix announcing that someone was coming to SAVE US. It would be revealed the next night that it was the return of Chris Jericho.

The Cell is lowered.

We recap Batista vs. Undertaker. Batista lost the belt to Undertaker at Wrestlemania and they feuded for the title on a few PPVs. After a cage match on Smackdown, Edge cashed in the MITB contract and won the title from Undertaker. Later, Edge was hurt and had to vacate the belt, which was won by Khali. Batista eventually beat Khali for the belt and Undertaker came back to challenge him for it.

They fought at Cyber Sunday with Batista winning, which made them 1-1 with a few draws. Undertaker wanted one more match and Batista was perfectly cool with that, but Undertaker wanted it in the Cell. See how that worked? It was a natural progression with the Cell being the FINAL match between them (one on one at least). That’s a logical progression that you rarely get anymore.

Smackdown World Title: Batista vs. Undertaker

Batista is defending. Undertaker charges to start and is caught in a headlock before getting run over by Big Dave. Undertaker shrugs it off and tries an early chokeslam but Batista fights out of it. This is one of those feuds where you don’t bother with the basic stuff and go with the big power moves because that’s all that’s going to have any effect. Undertaker clotheslines him down and pounds away in the corner. We’re still in the early going here so this doesn’t mean a lot yet.

The Snake Eyes and big boot get two for Undertaker and it’s already chair time. Batista hits a BIG spear to take Undertaker down and gets the chair. That goes badly for the champ as Undertaker kicks the chair back into his face and gets two off a clothesline. They head outside and Undertaker keeps control with a solid shot into the steps. Batista gets raked against the Cell and there’s the legdrop on the apron.

To stay on the throat, Undertaker puts the chair over Batista’s throat and slams the bottom of the chair into the steps. The champ is bleeding from the mouth now. Back in and Undertaker covers by driving a forearm into the throat. Undertaker is kind of the heel in this match, which says A LOT about how over Batista was here. Back in, Undertaker loads up Old School but Batista catches him in the spinebuster in a cool counter.

They slug it out and Batista takes over with a clothesline that gets two. Batista hits a powerslam and takes it back to the floor. They’ve done a solid job here of having both guys dominate for a long stretch which usually works well for a big time match. Undertaker whips Batista into the Cell to take over again so maybe what I just said is nonsense. Batista gets rammed head first into the steel and things are starting to pick up.

A chair shot keeps Batista down and the champ is cut open on the forehead. Batista blocks Old School again and hits a superplex to put both guys down. As Batista is crawling over to him, the Dead Man tries the Hell’s Gate (triangle choke) but it’s not on full. Batista makes the rope and heads to the floor for a breather, setting up the Undertaker Dive over the top rope.

Undertaker picks up the steps and tries to ram Batista with them, but the champ pulls himself up using the cage and kicks them back into Undertaker’s face. Batista picks up the steps and just rams Undertaker in the head with them four or five times to draw blood. Back in and Batista does the stupid thing of punching Undertaker in the corner and gets a Last Ride for his efforts. That only gets two and the pop isn’t huge from the crowd. They know we’re getting A LOT of finishers before a pin here.

There’s a chokeslam but it only gets two. The Tombstone is countered into a spinebuster for two and there’s another spinebuster for good measure. It’s table time and Batista easily powerbombs him through it….for two. There’s the pop from the crowd on the kickout that we were looking for. Now the Animal loads up the steps but Undertaker backdrops him onto said steps for two. The Tombstone hits….for two again, making Batista one of a handful of people to survive the Last Ride, Tombstone and a chokeslam.

Undertaker KILLS Batista with a Tombstone on the steps but someone pulls the referee out of the ring at two. It’s the returning Edge, who I presume was hiding under the ring the whole time. He steals a camera and clocks Undertaker with it before hitting a Conchairto on the steps. Batista has no idea this is going on after the Tombstone. Edge pulls the champ on top and the pin is pretty much academic.

Rating: B+. This was very good but it never quite got to that level that they were hoping for it to I don’t think. The problem is this was match was based on respect instead of hatred which takes a lot out of a match like this. Edge would win the title in a triple threat next month and eventually lose it to Undertaker at Wrestlemania.

After the Cell is raised, Edge beats on Undertaker some more to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. This was a nice surprise. The Tag Team Title match is some uninspired stuff but other than that (ignoring the non-match between Khali and Hornswoggle) there’s nothing bad on here at all. The Divas match is what it is and if the worst thing I have to do is look at Kelly Kelly and Maria in barely there shorts for five minutes, I’ve got a good show on my hands. The big matches delivered and the other matches aren’t bad so this is a solid show all around and worth checking out.

Ratings Comparison

CM Punk vs. John Morrison vs. The Miz

Original: B-

Redo: C

Mickie James/Maria/Torrie Wilson/Michelle McCool/Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix/Melina/Jillian Hall/Victoria/Layla

Original: D

Redo: D

Lance Cade/Trevor Murdoch vs. Hardcore Holly/Cody Rhodes

Original: D

Redo: C-

Team HHH vs. Team Umaga

Original: C-

Redo: B-

Great Khali vs. Hornswoggle

Original: N/A

Redo: N/A

Randy Orton vs. Shawn Michaels

Original: D+

Redo: B

Batista vs. Undertaker

Original: A-

Redo: B+

Overall Rating

Original: B-

Redo: B

The main thing I’ve learned about myself from these redos is that I was a lot looser with my grades back then. The redo grades here are a lot more toned down and it’s a bit harder to please me now.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/11/16/history-of-survivor-series-count-up-2007-batista-vs-undertaker-in-the-cell/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Survivor Series 2007
Date: November 18, 2007
Location: American Airlines Arena, Miami, Florida
Attendance: 12,000
Commentators: Tazz, JBL, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross, Joey Styles

With another year comes not a lot of change. Orton is world champion here having taken out HHH for the belt at No Mercy in their first last man standing match. Tonight he takes on HBK in another of his random filler feuds before Cena gets back from injury. The Game is the other major player on Raw (shocking isn’t it?) as he’s feuding with Umaga for your Survivor Series match of the night.

Over on Smackdown, we only have one big match, but it’s a major one as Taker is challenging Batista for the world title in a Hell in a Cell match. If nothing else they’re keeping it big. Oh and one other thing: Hornswoggle is Vince’s son now.

Yes, that painfully stupid and bad storyline has finally begun as he’s already dropped the Cruiserweight Title because Vince doesn’t like small wrestlers. Finally, we have my boy Punk defending his ECW Title against the newly crowned tag team champions of Miz and Morrison. That should be good. Let’s get it started.

Hey, take a wild guess as to what the opening video is about. If you guessed Survival, you’re of about average intelligence as the show is called Survivor Series. If you guessed that it sucked, then you’ve been paying attention to my reviews. Yep, this is nothing of note. We’re starting with the ECW Title match, so the first two voices that we hear are Joey and Tazz. Surprisingly we don’t hear their colleagues yet, which is odd indeed.

ECW Title: CM Punk vs. John Morrison vs. The Miz

Punk took the belt off of Morrison and Miz said he wanted it. That’s about all I’ve got for you here as far as a backstory since ECW back then was even less developed than it is now if you can believe that. Oh yeah. And they were thrown together on Smackdown (literally) and given a tag title shot because two guys that are thrown together that hate each other are light years ahead of all the other great tag teams on Smackdown right?

See what kind of shape the division was in around this time? Somehow this wasn’t even the worst it would be. However, these two would be pretty much the best team in a good long while and will likely be that for a good long while. Also, around this time there was a big thing about how Miz couldn’t wrestle. A buddy of mine and I said just give him time. I’m writing this in mid-October, two days after being completely blown away by a segment these two did at a Smackdown taping I was at.

Now as of this writing, it hasn’t made air in America yet. I’ll be most interested in seeing how many people are saying how awesome he is after that. Styles goes through all of the combinations that could result in Punk losing his title which is somewhere between interesting and filler. You might think that this is a handicap match, but it really isn’t. These two don’t get along yet and while they’ll double team for awhile, it’s usually very short indeed.

I’ve always loved that suicide dive that Punk does. He does the WHAT’S MY NAME thing that worked so well in ROH but never caught on in WWE. To be fair though, the crowd starts a big CM Punk chant. My goodness this guy was over. After beating on Punk as a team for awhile, Miz and Morrison break up again, maybe over one of them not doing the dishes or something. Good night Morrison does some amazing stuff out there.

He still does the same kind of stuff today but dang this was impressive stuff back then too. We get a glimpse of Miz vs. Morrison her but it’s nothing really that special. Punk hits a backbreaker that used to be called Welcome to Chicago M’Fer which has been changed for obvious reasons. Following some miscommunication from the new tag team, Punk hits the GTS on Miz for the pin.

Rating: B-. It got the crowd going a bit, but at the same time there was never any real drama in this at all. That’s fine though, as I don’t think there was really supposed to be. Sometimes you need to just have a match to get some ring time for the champion and have a decent match out of it. It makes the champion look stronger and saves the showdown for later on. This was just fine.

We get a recap of MVP hurting Matt’s leg and putting him out of the Survivor Series match later tonight. MVP had a big C on his outfit back then. He was CMVP. Oh that’s just awesome. Anyway, now we go to the back where some interviewer that I don’t recognize is talking to him. He’s REALLY bad on promos at this point.

Face Divas vs. Heel Divas

Faces: Mickie, Maria, Torrie, Michelle, Kelly
Heels: Beth, Jillian, Melina, Layla, Victoria

This is your token Diva match of the night. Torrie has what is now Tiffany’s music. Basically, around this time the only face Diva that can wrestle at all is Mickie. There’s no story here at all as this could just as easily have been on Raw. Thankfully this isn’t elimination style. We start with the almost too hot Victoria against Michelle. Ok, the Divas yelling at each other is REALLY annoying. Kelly is in essence in a swimsuit with sleeves.

To show the brilliance on display here, Torrie has Victoria down and leaves her there to run across the ring and get a tag. That’s tag wrestling 101 there and she can’t get that right. Even trying to pull Victoria back to Torrie’s corner would have worked. Whatever let’s just get this over with. Jillian is in now and for some reason rubs Kelly’s face in her chest. Wow. Anyway, we get the obligatory handspring elbow, which is the most impressive athletic maneuver there is.

It’s so impressive that nearly every Diva does it. Dang will you STOP WITH THE FREAKING SCREAMS? CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW FREAKING ANNOYING IT WOULD BE TO HAVE SOMEONE THAT SCREAMED EVERY TIME THEY OPENED THEIR FREAKING MOUTH? IT WOULD BE SO FREAKING….never mind. JR actually makes a bit of a comparison of Kelly and the Great Muta. I’m at a lost for keystrokes. All of the heels are wearing some form of red. Is that some messed up team unity thing?

Mickie comes in and attempts to save this match. Mickie hits the sexiest move in wrestling history, The Long Kiss Goodnight, to get the win. It was a move where she grabbed the other girl’s hair and actually bent her back and kissed her before kicking her in the face. Why do I have a feeling that’s Norcal’s dream date? Oh and Michelle fell out during the match. Nothing special.

Rating: D. That’s half of what this match was all about. The other letter is also D. Yep, this was all about looks here. If you don’t believe me, look at Kelly and Maria’s outfits. They’re just there for looks and nothing more. This was just bad and showed how awful the majority of the women were at the time. At least it was short and the girls looked good.

Orton says he’ll win.

Shawn says he’ll win. Well I’m glad they’re in agreement that he’ll win. Shawn looks stoned here and actually swears. That’s surprising.

Raw Tag Titles: Cade and Murdoch vs. Holly and Rhodes

Please…make it short. This was the token title feud of the month as the faces were thrown together over respect or something and instantly were number one contenders. The problem with the tag title picture was simple: Miz and Morrison were thrown together and won the tag belts. Holly and Rhodes were thrown together and won the tag belts. Do I need to explain why this was such a complete and utter failure for so long?

The reunification has helped a good bit lately, but they’re still in desperate need of help. With a roster as big as they have, it really wouldn’t be hard to get a few teams together and put some stories out there. Think of all the guys on the roster that never do anything but could have decent matches. The stuff is there, trust me.

Could Cade be any more generic? Hey! Buy Armageddon so we can validate our completely stupid PPV schedule. Holly and Rhodes won a triple threat vs. Londrick and the Highlanders to get here on Heat of all places. DAng it’s weird to see Rhodes as such a rookie like this. Rhodes and Cade start us off. Rhodes has bulked up a bit since this.

Rhodes literally slaps Murdoch on the back. That sounded sick too. Holly in now who takes down Murdoch. Holly does his low kick that isn’t really low but really looks like it is while the other guy is on the ropes. The champions are in trouble here. Double teaming gets the advantage back to the rednecks.

Cade takes Holly down to prevent he tag as this is just DRAGGING. There’s no reason for this to be on PPV but it is anyway because that’s how tag wrestling in this company works. There’s your heel miscommunication so that Rhodes can come in. And then that doesn’t work as he hits a missile dropkick for two and walks into Melina’s finisher (the sunset bomb thing) from Murdoch to retain.

Rating: D. This was just bad. Just like the match before it, there was no need to have it on PPV. Neither team stands out at all and there’s just nothing special about it. It’s not any good at all so there’s no way to say it’s anything but bad by default. Horrible match and everything that’s wrong with tag wrestling in this era. Holly and Rhodes would get the titles a few weeks later.

Team HHH says that they’re going to do some terrible things to the other team. In a very funny bit, Kane and Jeff mention all the things that HHH has done to them over the years. That’s just amusing. Jeff is taller than I thought he was.

After a too short to tell what’s going on recap of the Survivor Series match, we’re ready to go.

Team HHH vs. Team Umaga

HHH, Kane, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio
Umaga, Big Daddy V, Kennedy, Finlay, MVP

Matt is injured remember, so it’s starting as a handicap match.

I love the way Justin Roberts talks. In what cracked me up, Kennedy comes out to do his standard intro and the mic doesn’t work. About halfway through it kicks on mid word. That’s just hilarious. Big Daddy V is in desperate need of a shirt. MVP needs to bring back the counting part of his music. It’s so much better that way. Let’s see: the most successful heel here is….MVP I guess? Maybe Umaga?

On the other side, we have four former/future world champions. Oh yeah this is going to be a great contest here. Kane’s pyro is some of the loudest stuff you will ever hear in your life. It’s insanely loud. Rey’s song really is catchy when it’s all you’re hearing in the arena. Jeff has his old music here. The start of his singles run would be in less than two months as he would fight Orton for the title at the Rumble. He’s IC Champion here.

Oh yeah the feuds. HHH vs. Umaga, Kane vs. BDV, Jeff vs. no one in particular, Rey vs. Finlay, Matt vs. MVP so I guess Jeff gets Kennedy and MVP by default. We’re now at ten minutes of entrances. We start off with Kennedy and Rey, so an overrated guy that’s good but nowhere near as good as he is made out to be vs. Kennedy. This is pretty decent stuff here as Kennedy for once gets to show what he can do, which isn’t bad.

He’s not the next Austin but he’s not bad at all. Rey does in essence the same move that Murdoch won with earlier, using that pesky thing known as the right way. JR says that Hardy has D. Wade like hang time. That just doesn’t sound right at all. BDV comes in to beat on Hardy for awhile since we need jobbers out there for awhile.

We move on to Kane vs. BDV which was a feud at the moment, so look for a big pinfall here. Kane hits the big clothesline from the top to put him down for a bit as this is really just no sell theater.

Following a little interference from Finlay the Samoan Drop ends the Big Red Machine to make it 5-3. Again, Kane jobs. Some things never change. The facebuster from HHH simply couldn’t miss more than it does here. We get HHH vs. Umaga here, which I guess was supposed to be a big deal? It’s just coming off as weak to me, but whatever.

After HHH (which I accidentally spelled as HGH for a bit there in a funny moment) gets beaten down, Rey comes in and after making Umaga look ridiculously bad, goes out to the Spike, leaving us with 5-2. I can smell the comeback coming from a mile away. We start this part with Jeff vs. Kennedy, which would have been an interesting feud had various things not happened. After a missed Drive By, Jeff gets a quick Twist of Fate to make it 4-2.

Kennedy is taken out after something that looks like it came out of a Three Stooges short with all of the blunders by the heels. HHH gets the pin. We move on to Viscera vs. HHH since I guess the fat man had to get something done that night. A double DDT takes him out to get us to 2-2 and you can see the ending coming from here. In probably the biggest thing of his career, Finlay beats on HHH for awhile before the tag to Hardy brings the crowd back a bit.

Once the terrible twosome were all that was left, this match started going downhill fast. This needs to end, like now. After a lot of token offense from Finlay, HHH comes in and takes care of Finlay. Cole tries to build Finlay as an equal to HHH. That’s just amusing. About 44 seconds later, the Pedigree leads to the Swanton which leads to the end of this way too long match. The face team of the gods celebrate for awhile before we’re done.

Rating: C-. This is a tale of two grades here. Before we got down to the final two faces, this was pretty good. After that, the whole thing just fell apart because there was zero chance that the faces weren’t both going to survive. Kane and Rey were just filler out there and everyone knew it. The first part is good, the second part is just bland. It got Jeff over though, which was the main goal of the whole thing.

Vince tells Horny not to die. That’s just funny.

Hornswoggle vs. Great Khali

You know the story so let’s get this over with. Vince and Shane are with Horny here. When I grow up, I want to be one of Runjin Singh’s sideburns. They do the rule thing just to add more hijinks to this. The fans chant We Want Shaq. Ok then. Oh yeah this is Miami when Shaq was on the Heat. That makes sense now. Oh and Shaq is in the front row. See what happens when I pay attention? Vince grabs a mic and says he doesn’t care what the fans want.

At least he’s honest. Horny runs once Khali screams at him. For some reason he spits mist at Singh who doesn’t do anything but stand there with a what the heck look on his face. Well thanks for that buddy. The club that Horny grabs is knocked away and then Khali smacks him. This needs to end like now.

The joke is over and has been for a long time. Just as I say that, Finlay runs out and hits Khali with the club to make the save for the DQ. The fact that Finlay would be revealed as the real father was about as obvious as possible at this point.

Rating: N/A. It was a joke, not a match.

We hit the recap button on HBK vs. Orton. This is pretty simple. Orton was on a punting spree and one of his first targets was Michaels. The night after Orton beat HHH at No Mercy there was this big ceremony for him which ended in Shawn returning in what was a cool moment. They had a match at Cyber Sunday where Orton got himself disqualified. That led to this, where Shawn can’t use the superkick and Orton can lose the belt via DQ. That’s about it.

Raw World Title: Randy Orton vs. Shawn Michaels

Lillian looks great with her hair pulled back. Ross takes a small shot at FOX News, so at least some things never change. Orton hasn’t started hearing voices yet. Oh and the belt still spins. This is Shawn’s second PPV in 5 months. Shocking isn’t it that he more or less took the summer off after Mania. He would never do anything like that again would he? Dang that spinning belt looks like crap. It’s scary that today the belt looks about 100x better.

We get the old school ceremony of the referee checking the boots and pads etc. I love the little things like that because they can enhance a match so much. Shawn starts off with a lockup known as a Crevate. Now most of you have likely never heard of that. It’s a European style headlock but not quite. More or less you look like you’re setting for a snapmare but you grip like it’s a headlock. It’s really a cool idea and there’s a lot of stuff you can go with from that position.

Chris Hero is well known for using a ton of varieties of things like it. They go to a LONG headlock/front chancery sequence that has the crowd on the edge of unconsciousness. Finally we hit the floor for a bit where Shawn hits a picture perfect Asai Moonsault to knock Orton down. The commentators try to argue that Shawn is using a different style here because he’s not allowed to use the kick. That makes ZERO sense.

Think about it. Shawn’s finishing move is a kick to the head. What kind of setup does that require? All it takes is one second and some accuracy and he’ll knock you out. It’s not a wear down move like a figure four where going for it immediately makes no sense. It’s a move that can be hit from nowhere. Think of the Iron Man match.

He hit back to back kicks from nowhere to win his first world title. Here’s your “it’s Survivor Series so Shawn has to reference Montreal with a Sharpshooter” Sharpshooter. This has been all Shawn so far. Say it with me: as I type that Orton takes over.

Orton is very boring. That’s all there is to it. However, since he looks like a statue and can cut decent promos, Vince decides to keep putting him in big matches with this ridiculous Viper gimmick which more or less consists of him sliding around the ring before the RKO. It’s an excuse for not having to come up with something creative. Orton vs. Cena and HHH is about as boring of a pair of feuds as you’re ever going to find.

JR then has the nerve to say that this is a pure wrestling match. No Jim, it’s really not. This is a match that has an extra gimmick added to it because no one in their right mind believed that HBK would lose to Orton without it. Orton is just flat out awful in this gimmick of his and something needs to be changed, fast. Naturally, that means that Orton will be the same guy going into Mania 30. Oh look it’s a chinlock. What is the appeal of this?

To be fair, Orton is a bit better now, but around this time he was just flat out boring. Now he’s just mostly boring. Ok, for the love of goodness, WE GET THAT ORTON’S DAD IS IN THE HALL OF FAME! He was a horrible character and did nothing of note, ever. He’s another great example of the Hall of Fame being a complete joke. Anyway, Shawn initiates the ending sequence but gets dropkicked with one of three moves Orton can actually do really well.

In what’s a pretty cool move, Shawn sets for the superkick and fakes Orton out to get him to drop down so Shawn can hook a small package. That was really smart and makes perfect sense. In something that really surprises me, Shawn uses a crossface. This is a mere four months after Benoit and in the middle of the investigation into his death. I guess that this was before the whole thing came out. Michaels goes even crazier by putting on an ankle lock. Man he’s going nuts here.

He gets the heel hook but Orton gets out. DAng , Orton is better with submission than Lesnar is. Something occurs to me. If Orton gets disqualified, HBK gets the belt right? Why doesn’t Shawn get one of his buddies to come out and blast him with a chair or something? Man this face thing getting in the way of something that makes sense.

As he goes for a figure four, Shawn is kicked into the post. After a very brief counter, the RKO ends it. Afterwards Orton yells at Shawn and picks him up, naturally getting kicked in the head before Shawn leaves. Well that was a pretty basic ending.

Rating: D+. I get that some people would like this match, but I just could not get into it at all. There’s no drama, there’s one decent looking spot with the moonsault, there are tons of dead spots, and the whole thing just falls short. There just was no reason at all to watch this, plain and simple. They weren’t going to put the belt on Shawn so quick. Earlier tonight in the Punk match you had a good match that was a token defense.

This is the same, but this was far more boring. It’s a great example of a good match like this and a bad one. Jericho would come back in less than a month to save Raw and have more bland matches with Orton. Vince, get it through your head: two surefire hall of fame wrestlers in Jericho and Shawn can only pull ok matches out of Orton. That simply can’t be a coincidence.

Recap of Batista vs. Taker: they’ve fought a bunch of times and split most of them, but they just think the other is a swell guy. Yep, that’s about it.

Smackdown World Title: Batista vs. Undertaker

Remember this is Hell in a Cell. Taker is the challenger here. JBL actually does some good analysis of what both guys need to do to win. He then ruins that by saying “oh that’s a clothesline!” Well thanks for that great brilliance there Johnny boy. Naturally Batista isn’t afraid of Taker. Less than three minutes in we have a chair brought in from under the ring. Or would it be out from under the ring? Whatever. Taker controls the majority of the opening part of the match.

Batista takes a chair shot to the throat and has some faint blood from his mouth. I know there’s not much being said here but the opening to this is solid which makes it difficult to make fun of. They’re trying to play up the experience/skill of Taker vs. pure power of Batista. That’s not a bad idea at all. As usual the rules of where you can pin someone here change per match, but I’d assume that it’s only in the ring. Cole implies it’s falls count anywhere.

They’re focusing a lot more on wrestling here than violence, which is fine. There’s certainly more than one way to have a good cell match and this is one of those options. Taker gets the Triangle Choke and Batista starts waving his arm and slapping the mat which looks a lot like tapping to me. He gets the ropes which apparently is a rope break. Even the announcers say that’s not correct. Batista is bleeding horribly.

After Batista gets some weapons shots in to take control, he gets caught in the Last Ride for two. This is a good match. The chokeslam gets two. He goes for the Tombstone but Batista does the leg wiggle of doom to get out and hit a spinebuster to take over again. A table is brought in as I begin to think: do those really help? I mean think about it. They kind of break your fall.

When you’re in a move like a powerbomb or something, the impact of the move is based on the amount of momentum built up when you’re coming down right? Well if there’s a table there blocking your way, doesn’t it stop a lot of the momentum? The impact of going through the table would hurt, but since you keep going anyway, it’s not going to hurt that much. Think of it like this: what hurts worse, taking a short ride and falling through a table, or taking a long ride and landing on something solid?

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I guess it can look good or something like that. Now we get to something else that’s kind of stupid. Batista sets up the table and hits a regular powerbomb through it (they call it the Batista Bomb but I can let that one go). If he had Taker that weakened, why not just hit the regular Batista Bomb and not give Taker the extra recovery time? Batista kicks out of the Tombstone, which makes him the second guy ever (Shawn at Mania 25) to kick out of all three finishers.

Shawn took it a step further though as he got out of Hell’s Gate as well. A Tombstone of the stairs should do it but the cameraman pulls the referee out and of course it’s Edge, returning from whatever injury he was out with. A camera shot to the head of Taker followed by a conchairto and Batista keeps the belt. Seriously, that’s the ending? Edge posing takes us out.

Rating: A-. This was a very good match until the ending. These guys have some solid chemistry together and showed it off tonight. Most Cell matches have zero story to them but this one did, which goes to show that you can have good wrestling and storytelling in a match like this and include weapons and blood.

That’s a big flaw in a lot of gimmick matches today: they forget they’re wrestling and just have high spots. Edge interfering really brings this down though as I wanted a clean win for someone. This was very good though and easily the best match at Survivor Series in a good while.

Overall Rating: B-. This is another example of a show where the grades don’t give an accurate representation of the whole show. I know I graded a lot of them low, but at the same time the whole show turned out to be pretty good I thought. The main event helped a lot as it was an excellent match. It goes to show you what a main event is capable of.

I know some people are going to think I’m an idiot for my Shawn vs. Orton grade, but the issue I have is simple: it was overbooked. Seriously, does a guy like Shawn need gimmicks in order to get over? You tell him how long he has and the finish and let him take care of the rest. The show certainly isn’t bad, but it’s hardly a classic. Batista and Taker is worth going out of your way to see, but while the rest is certainly good, it’s not must see. Recommended though.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: June 2, 2006
Location: Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

Things are certainly happening around here but I don’t know if I would call them interesting. We are a long way off from the Great American Bash, meaning we have all kinds of time for Rey Mysterio to lose but still hold up the title. The show is also in need of a replacement for JBL so maybe we can start that tonight. Or we could just go hard with King Booker. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with the new Smackdown host: the Miz. After a HOO RAH, Miz runs down the card, including Great Khali in Piper’s Pit (oh dear). For now though, we can start with this. Who could have imagined what this would lead to over the years?

Opening sequence.

Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio

Non-title, likely so Rey can lose again as Angle is on his way to ECW. Speaking of ECW, Paul Heyman joins commentary. Cole puts over the history here as Angle double legs Rey down without much effort. Angle cranks on the arm a bit and Rey looks shaken in a hurry. They do it again as Angle is running over him to start. It’s too early for the ankle lock as Mysterio gets to the ropes and then the floor, where the frustration is already setting in.

Back in and a headscissors takes Kurt down, which has him looking shocked. Angle takes him down by the leg again with almost no effort as Heyman promises a new vision for ECW. Rey manages to send him shoulder first into the post but Angle runs him over. The Angle Slam is countered with an armdrag to the floor though and it’s time to go toe to toe, plus to a break. Back with Angle dropping him with an uppercut as Heyman announces Mysterio defending the World Title against Sabu at One Night Stand.

Angle gets two off a suplex and a release German suplex gets the same. The bodyscissors goes on to work on the ribs but Rey gets to his feet and hits a dropkick. A DDT plants Angle and there’s a spinning headscissors to put him down again. Rey dropkicks him to the floor and a sliding headscissors has Angle down on the floor. The springboard seated senton gets two back inside but Angle snaps off a release German suplex to flip Rey upside down.

Rey grabs a rollup for two but Angle runs him over with a clothesline. The Angle Slam connects for two with Rey having to use the ropes for the break. Rey is right back with the 619 but Angle runs the ropes to break up the frog splash. A sunset flip is countered into the ankle lock, which is reversed with a rollup. Angle counters the 619 though and there’s an overhead belly to belly out to the floor for the countout.

Rating: B. They were getting going in the end and then Rey loses because that’s what he does to everyone but JBL. It wouldn’t be right to have Rey look like he can beat someone like Angle because the World Title means nothing while it’s on Rey. It’s annoying, but it’s what we’re stuck with for the time being. But hey, at least that unproven kid Kurt Angle looks good on his way to the new show.

Batista is back in five weeks.

Bobby Lashley is proud of his US Title and can’t wait to earn respect in all of his title defenses. Tonight, he’s starting with Booker T.

Nunzio needs Vito in his corner tonight.

Nunzio vs. Matt Hardy

Hardy works on the arm to start and takes him down to the mat for a headlock. A slam sets up an elbow for two but Nunzio is right back to the arm. Back up and Matt makes his comeback with clotheslines and the middle rope elbow to the back of the neck. The Twist of Fate is good for the pin.

Rating: D+. Just a quick match here, likely to set up something between Nunzio and Vito. Nunzio is just there at this point and Matt….well he’s just there too but he has a better history. I’m not sure what else there is here, but the Vito in a dress thing is not likely to go well in the slightest.

Post match, indeed here is Vito in a dress to help Nunzio up, sending Nunzio running off in anger/disgust.

We look back at Mark Henry injuring Chris Benoit last week.

Miz introduces Roddy Piper for Piper’s Pit. He knows WWE calls him when something weird goes down and now he wants to see Great Khali in person. Cue Khali with Daivari so Piper asks how much English Khali speaks. Daivari says none so Piper tells Daivari to leave. Piper looks Khali over, including from behind, and makes a Brokeback Mountain reference. First question: what does Khali eat? Daivari: “People the size of you!”

Piper wants to know where Khali is from and then makes elephant noises upon hearing the jungles of India. Piper talks about how tough Undertaker is but Daivari says Khali is the new superstar of “the World Wrestling Entertainment.” Hold on though as Piper wants to speak eye to eye with Khali so he gets on the middle rope. Khali grabs him by the throat but Daivari calls him off. Piper slaps Daivari so Khali hits the big chop to knock Piper out.

Jillian Hall vs. Kristal

Ashley Massaro, now on Smackdown, is on commentary to talk about the Diva Search. They lock up to start with Jillian grabbing a headlock takeover but Kristal reverses into one of her own. Jillian’s dropkick gets two and a snapmare is good for the same. Back up and Jillian rubs her face first into her cleavage before countering a victory roll for the pin. This was there for the looks and that works out fine enough. Jillian was trying and it could have been worse.

Post match here’s Michelle McCool (Cole: “Wow.”) to say she’s new around here too and promises to teach them how to be a real lady. Maybe she can teach the guys something about the birds and the bees. The glasses come off as she promises to make things a lot hotter. It felt like a bit of a Stacy Keibler knockoff but not as memorable (and more teacherish).

Mark Henry vs. Paul Burchill

Before the match, we take a closer look at Henry destroying Benoit, putting him on an indefinite hiatus. A big boot and two World’s Strongest Slams finish Burchill in a hurry.

Post match the destruction is on, with Burchill bleeding from the mouth to send him back to OVW.

Mr. Kennedy is back next week.

Finlay vs. Caden Matthews

Finlay hits him in the face to start and then nails a hard clothesline. The forearms to the ace in the ropes keep Matthews down and Finlay throws him outside. Something pulls Matthews under the ring so Finlay pulls him back out, setting up the Celtic Cross for the easy pin.

Post match the leprechaun comes out to beat on Matthews some more. Finlay throws him back underneath the ring.

Video on Sabu. It’s so weird to see this in WWE.

Tazz gets very serious and rants about Jerry Lawler insulting him. If Lawler is a man, come meet him at One Night Stand. Tazz has one more left in him so beat him if you can and survive if he lets you. It’s just an announcers feud but these two are both great talkers so we should be in for some nice promos.

King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley

Non-title and Booker has Sharmell and William Regal, doing his ALL HAIL KING BOOKER, with him. Before the match, Booker introduces Queen Sharmell and sits on the throne like a king should (I guess?). They go face to face to start with Booker talking more trash and Lashley saying bring it on. Lashley powers him into the corner but Booker is back with some right hands.

That’s fine with Booker, who knocks him down and then grabs a suplex for two. Some chops against the ropes just annoy Lashley but a hot shot works a bit better for Booker. A snap suplex puts Booker down though and Lashley is back up with some more shots to the face. Lashley hits a belly to belly but charges into a knee. Not that it matters as Lashley grabs a running powerslam for the pin.

Rating: C-. They didn’t have time to do anything here but what we got was good enough. Lashley gets a win to even things up after the pay per view and doesn’t lose in his first match after becoming champion. At the same time, Booker can just point to the crown to keep his heat so it is hardly some devastating loss.

Post match Regal jumps Lashley and Finlay comes in to help with the beatdown. Booker adds the Book End and it’s time to bring the throne back in. With Booker sitting down, Regal and Finlay keep up the beatdown and force Lashley to bow. Booker isn’t done though and makes Lashley kiss his foot, meaning it’s time for Sharmell to shout ALL HAIL KING BOOKER (she’s no Regal) to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. One of the most interesting things about going back and rewatching these shows has been seeing the arrival of these people, with people like Khali, Miz and the future Hornswoggle, plus the returning Kennedy, being on the list. They have been adding in some different people lately and it is making things feel different. That being said, other than Angle vs. Mysterio, this was a pretty skippable show, which is likely to be the case at the moment as we are a good length away from the next Smackdown pay per view.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Judgment Day 2006
Date: May 21, 2006
Location: US Airways Center, Phoenix, Arizona
Attendance: 14,000
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

It’s time for what feels like the most B level pay per view in a good while. The main event is the loser of a World Champion in Rey Mysterio defending against perennial challenger JBL, who has been racist against Mysterio while accurately pointing out how terrible of a champion he is. Other than that, it’s time for Great Khali to destroy the Undertaker again. Let’s get to it.

The opening video talks about how everything leads here and all of your decisions will determine your fate.

Tag Team Titles: MNM vs. Brian Kendrick/Paul London

MNM is defending and has Melina with them. London and Nitro start things off but the champs have to pause for posing. Nitro runs the ropes but gets tripped down, allowing Kendrick to come in and crank on the arms. A double clothesline gets two on Nitro but he takes Kendrick into the corner for the tag off to Mercury. That means a double hiptoss from Kendrick and London into a double elbow, followed by a big dive from Kendrick.

Back in and Mercury takes out London’s leg and a double gutbuster gets two. Melina adds a headscissors on the apron and Tazz is rather jealous. We hit the chinlock for a bit but the fans help bring London to his feet. The hot tag brings in Kendrick but he’s cut off in a quick Snapshot for two, sending Melina into freaking out mode. The chinlock goes on again, followed by a double legdrop from the champs. Kendrick gets sent outside for a cheap shot from Melina and it’s right back to the chinlock.

Back up and the champs are sent into each other for the breather and the hot tag brings London back in to clean house. The Dropsault takes the champs down for two but Melina screams at the referee for the save. Kendrick misses a slingshot dive to the floor but Mercury hits Nitro by mistake, knocking him into Melina. A rollup with a bridge gives London the pin and the titles.

Rating: B-. This was a very good choice for an opener with a mostly fast paced match and someone as evil as Melina getting what was coming to her. London and Kendrick have been ready to win the titles for months now so it was the right call to finally give them the belts. MNM had lost so many times lately that it was long overdue for them to lose, which is kind of shame given how good the act really is.

Post match Melina slaps Mercury so he grabs her arm, causing Nitro to jump him. Melina slaps Mercury in the face and tries to leave with Nitro, but Mercury is back up to start the fight again. Referees and Teddy Long come in for the save but Long is shoved down in the melee.

Video on the King of the Ring.

Chris Benoit vs. Finlay

They had a good match a few weeks ago so this should work. Finlay takes him into the corner to start and we actually get a clean break. The lockup goes all the way to the floor and against the barricade before they finally break up. Back in and they go nose to nose until Benoit grabs the legs for a failed Sharpshooter attempt. The chinlock goes on Finlay instead before Benoit switches over to a headlock. Finlay accuses Benoit of an eye poke though and then jumps him when the referee stops to check on things.

It’s a chinlock on Benoit this time but he isn’t sitting in that for very long. Instead it’s Benoit getting up and unloading in the corner, setting up another chinlock. Benoit tries to switch into the Crossface before turning Finlay over for two. Finlay hits him in the face and then pulls on the arm while putting his foot on Benoit’s head for some pulling. The chinlock is countered and Benoit snaps off another German suplex, followed by the Swan Dive for two.

Finlay is right back with a knockdown of his own into a running seated senton and it’s off to a chinlock with a knee in the back. A hammerlock/dragon sleeper combination (that’s a new one) keeps Benoit down and Finlay just pounds him in the back. Finlay says get up so he can show Benoit how tough he is. That means a clothesline to drop Benoit again but he’s right back up with a German suplex.

They head outside with Benoit hitting another German suplex on the floor, followed by Three Amigos back inside. The threat of another Swan Dive makes Finlay knock him off the top, with Benoit’s head hitting the barricade. Back in and Benoit’s shoulder goes into the post but he’s fine enough to snap on the Crossface for the tap.

Rating: B+. Oh like these two getting twenty minutes wasn’t going to be really good. They had an awesome match a few weeks back and now they did it again on the bigger stage. These two compliment each other really well and it felt like a fight with wrestling moves instead of a match, which worked very well. I could go for it again and it’s the kind of match where you could see it going either way.

We recap Jillian Hall vs. Melina, which started over makeup, as many feuds do.

Melina vs. Jillian Hall

Johnny Nitro gets ejected before the bell so Jillian attacks in a hurry. Jillian hammers on the mat and hits a Hennig necksnap. Melina tries to bail to the floor but gets sent into various things. Back in and Melina stomps her down and grabs a choke, followed by a bodyscissors. Some knees to the ribs in the corner have Jillian down again but she sends Melina face first into the buckle. A sunset flip gets the fast pin on Melina, though she had her hand on the rope.

Rating: D+. I’ve liked this feud since the beginning and all things considered, this was a near miracle. They aren’t exactly great in the ring and yes a lot of this is about eye candy, but they have been putting in the effort and intensity to make it a pretty fun little feud. I don’t need to see it again, but for what it was, it worked out rather well.

Melina yells a lot post match and Kristal to ask if Melina got what she deserved. The fight is on and broken up in a hurry.

JBL promises to beat Rey Mysterio to take the title tonight because it’s what he does when the lights are on bright. Chavo Guerrero comes in and says JBL needs to stop living in the past. Oh and VIVA LA RAZA.

We look at Steve Austin winning the King of the Ring.

Cruiserweight Title: Gregory Helms vs. Super Crazy

Crazy is challenging. They circle each other to start until Crazy grabs a backslide for two. Crazy hangs on instead of being sent outside and it’s a clothesline to put Helms on the floor. A big dive over the referee takes Helms down again and it’s all Crazy to start. A swinging neckbreaker gives Helms two and a regular version is good for the same. It’s off to something close two a Crossface but Crazy is back up, only to get elbowed back down. We hit the seated abdominal stretch, followed by a chinlock to keep Crazy down.

Helms’ sleeper is countered into a rollup for two and the comeback with on with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Crazy gets two off a middle rope dropkick but misses the moonsault. The Shining Wizard misses as well though and Crazy hits a spinwheel kick for two more. Helms gets a boot up in the corner to slow him down and a middle rope Blockbuster gets another near fall. Crazy tosses him into the corner but Helms grabs a rollup with feet on the ropes to retain.

Rating: C. This could have been on any given television show and that’s not a terrible thing. They weren’t likely to steal the show here as the Cruiserweight Title hasn’t meant anything in a long time. The wrestling was fine as Helms can wrestle with anyone, but was anyone buying Super Crazy as having a real chance at winning here?

Melina and Johnny Nitro come in and yell at Teddy Long about what has happened tonight so Melina slaps him in the face. Long fires both of them.

We look at Kurt Angle winning the King of the Ring.

Mark Henry vs. Kurt Angle

Henry has injured Angle’s ribs in recent weeks and clears off the announcers’ table before Angle comes out. Mark grabs the mic and says he hurts people but here’s Angle to swing away. Angle can’t get in a whip to the corner so he settles for a middle rope flip dive to drop Henry. A front facelock goes on so Henry backdrops him over. The sitdown splash misses though and Angle hits a basement dropkick.

They head outside with Angle not being able to German suplex him through the announcers’ table. Back in and Angle takes the monster down by the leg and cranks away but Henry fights up with pure power. A kick to the chest drops Angle in a hurry and it’s time for a reverse chinlock to stay on the back. Angle fights up again and has to counter the World’s Strongest Slam into a tornado DDT for the double knockdown.

They slug it out and Angle snaps off the German suplex into the Angle Slam for two. Angle is all fired up so Henry cools him down with a clothesline. The World’s Strongest Slam (which connected during a split screen) gets two and it’s Henry’s turn to be frustrated. The yelling takes too long so Angle pulls him into the ankle lock, which is countered with a whip out to the floor. Henry teases the splash through the announcers’ table but does splash Angle against the post for the countout win.

Rating: C-. Henry was doing what he could here and can make the power stuff work rather well at times. On the other hand, Angle was doing a lot of the work here and that’s probably the best format for everyone involved. It was certainly miles ahead of their Royal Rumble match, though that isn’t exactly the biggest surprise.

Post match Henry loads up Angle for the World’s Strongest Slam but Angle fights up and destroys Henry with a chair. The Angle Slam over the table has Henry mostly done and a chair shot through the table ends him for good.

Sharmell says tonight Booker is going to show that he’s better than King Tut, Don King, Martin Luther King Jr. and King James. Maniacal laughter ensues.

We recap the King of the Ring tournament and the paths to the finals.

King of the Ring Tournament Finals: Booker T. vs. Bobby Lashley

Lashley shoves him down and the bell rings, followed by Lashley taking it into the corner with pure power. The running clothesline gives Lashley two and it’s time to start on the arm. Back up and Lashley throws him down again, followed by a running clothesline out of the corner. Booker finally avoids a charge though and Lashley goes shoulder first into the post.

The banged up arm is wrapped around the rope, followed by the armbar to keep it in trouble. Booker loads up the ax kick but Lashley is right back up with a forearm to knock him silly. Sharmell’s distraction doesn’t work as Lashley suplexes him down, only to have Sharmell grab the leg to block the spear.

The Book End gives Booker two and Lashley’s powerslam gets the same. Lashley charges into a boot in the corner and the ax kick connects for another near fall. There’s the spear to cut Booker down but Sharmell offers a distraction, allowing Finlay to come in with the Shillelagh to the head for the pin and the crown.

Rating: B-. They were working fast here and they might have had one too many near falls. Finlay coming in was a little annoying but I’ll take that over Lashley getting pinned clean or even with feet on the ropes or something like that. Booker is a better choice for the King though as Lashley hasn’t exactly shown an in-depth personality.

Post match Booker goes to sit on the throne but Lashley knocks it over like a sore loser.

Video on Great Khali vs. Undertaker, with the latest new monster taking Undertaker out with no issue. Undertaker hasn’t been seen since but has issued the challenge.

Undertaker vs. Great Khali

Daivari is here with Khali. Undertaker strikes away to start and is quickly sent outside, leaving him looking rather confused. Back in and Undertaker fires off right hands, only to get tossed to the floor again. A Stunner over the top rope staggers Khali a bit but Old School is slammed off the top with ease. There’s a clothesline to drop Undertaker again and Khali kicks him to the floor.

Khali whips him knees first into the steps and it’s mostly one sided so far. Back in and a slugout gives Undertaker the slightest glimmer of hope but Old School only staggers Khali. The jumping clothesline gets Khali’s arms tied in the ropes but Daivari breaks him free in a hurry. A big boot into the chop to the head drops Undertaker and another big boot lets Khali put his foot on the chest for the pin.

Rating: D+. As you might have guessed, this made me think of Jillian vs. Melina earlier. They weren’t going to have some kind of a classic because Khali can barely move, but he did a good enough job with what he could do. Khali uses a limited offense because it’s all he needs to do. Why should he do anything besides big boots, chops and the like? Undertaker sold them like death and that is the kind of thing that makes Khali look as good as possible. This could have been much worse, but it did what it was supposed to do by making Khali look like a destroyer.

We recap JBL vs. Rey Mysterio. Rey won the World Title at Wrestlemania and has promptly been destroyed by almost everyone since then. JBL doesn’t like Rey because he’s from Mexico (at least in JBL’s mind) and because people cheer for Eddie Guerrero instead of Rey. Now it’s time for Rey to get the win back, but he has taken so much damage over the last few weeks that another JBL reign doesn’t sound too bad.

Smackdown World Title: Rey Mysterio vs. John Bradshaw Layfield

Only Rey is defending as I had completely forgotten JBL was US Champion. The EDDIE chants begin and Rey slugs away, with JBL looking a little surprised. Some strikes to the leg set up a quickly broken headlock so Rey slaps him in the face. The threat of the 619 sends JBL outside and it’s a seated senton off the apron to take him down again. Back in and a basement dropkick gives Rey two and he hammers away in the corner.

The referee gets distracted for a second and Rey gets in a low blow, only to have JBL come back with a big boot. They head outside with Rey being whipped into the steps and it’s already time to go back in. A right hand puts Rey on the floor again, with JBL sending him into the steps a second time. JBL hits Three Amigos before dropping him ribs first into the top rope as Rey is busted open.

That means another trip to the floor with JBL making Rey’s wife look at the blood. Some short arm clotheslines put Rey down again and JBL gets two, with the kicking making him panic. We hit the chinlock to squeeze some blood out of the head but JBL lets him go at two arm drops to cover instead. Rey breaks up the belly to back superplex and gets his own two off a moonsault press, followed by a kick to the head for the same.

JBL is back up with a powerbomb attempt but it’s a hurricanrana to set up the 619 instead. The referee gets pulled in the way of the West Coast Pop though, meaning the Clothesline From JBL gets a very delayed two. JBL grabs the chair but it gets kicked back into his face, setting up the frog splash to retain the title.

Rating: C+. This felt like it should have been for the Intercontinental Title in a featured match on Smackdown rather than headlining a pay per view. They have done a horrible job of devaluing the World Title in the last few weeks. Rey retaining here felt a bit like what would happen if MNM retaining in the opener. That’s not exactly the best way to present the main event of a pay per view, but the match itself was fairly good.

Chavo Guerrero comes out to celebrate and get us through the required tribute to Eddie to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. The show was actually pretty good for a two hour and forty five minute pay per view that isn’t going to mean anything in a few days, even with such a lame main event. Most of the matches were either good or fairly short, much like how Smackdown feels most of the time. They have to do something different with Rey though because this title reign is bringing everything else down.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: May 12, 2006
Location: ipayoneCenter, San Diego, California
Attendance: 11,700
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

We’re on the way to Judgment Day and that means it’s going to be a bad night for Rey Mysterio. Last week he got destroyed by Mark Henry and tonight it’s probably going to be the Great Khali. But hey, at least he can beat JBL at the pay per view and that makes up for everything, right? Let’s get to it.

The opening video looks at Rey Mysterio becoming the underdog World Champion and getting destroyed by Mark Henry last week. Tonight it gets even worse with Great Khali.

Here’s John Bradshaw Layfield, who set up Mysterio’s battles with the giants, to get things going. He talks about how Rey is “a tough little Mexican fighter” and worries that Rey is going to take his innertube back to Mexico. The fans stop to chant for Eddie, who JBL agrees was great, but JBL was greater. Then he took the US Title from Chris Benoit and at Judgment Day he’s going to be the first ever double champion.

After that, he’ll offer Rey’s family a job. Dominik can shine his boots, Rey’s wife can do his dishes in a short little Latino dress, but Rey can sell drugs, get into prostitution or work a donkey show in Tijuana. Rey finally comes out to clear the ring in a hurry. JBL can say these things with some conviction, but dang the times have changed.

Super Crazy vs. Nunzio vs. Kid Kash

The winner gets Gregory Helms, on commentary, for the Cruiserweight Title at the pay per view. It’s a brawl to start with Crazy being sent outside and Nunzio being backdropped out after him. Everyone gets back in for an exchange of rollups for two each until Kash’s clothesline gets two on Nunzio. Kash kicks Nunzio off the top and hits his moonsault for two more with Crazy making the save. Crazy covers both of them for a near fall each and Nunzio makes his own save. Nunzio loads Crazy up in a Doomsday Device but Crazy victory rolls him for the pin as Kash misses the high crossbody.

Rating: C. It was fine enough action but there was no hiding how unimportant everything they were doing was here. The Cruiserweight Title hasn’t meant anything in years and you can see how far it is falling almost every week. Points for trying to do something and having an action packed match, but this was the popcorn/nacho portion of the show.

The returning Kurt Angle storms into Teddy Long’s office to demand a match with Mark Henry. Long says no because Angle isn’t cleared so Angle grabs him by the jacket. The match is on for the pay per view.

Gymini vs. Mike Wellington/Joey Ryan

The Gymini are Jesse and Jake, while Ryan (yes that Ryan) has belt loops on his trunks. Jake powers Wellington to the apron to start and hits a clothesline back inside. Ryan comes in and gets kicked in the head, followed by a double shoulder for a bonus. Some elbows to the back of the head set up a chinlock, with Jesse pulling the hair. Wellington gets slammed onto Ryan and a double toss into the air for a big crash finishes Ryan without much effort.

Rating: D+. There is something rather cathartic about seeing Joey Ryan getting beaten up. Total destruction here of course as WWE has almost always known how to push two big monsters like this. I’m not sure how far they can go from here, but they can do this match well enough, especially given how short it was.

Various wrestlers like the See No Evil premiere, with Kurt Angle having to hide behind Viscera.

We look at Finlay beating Chris Benoit to make the semifinals of the King of the Ring.

Here are Booker T. and Sharmell for a chat. Booker is upset that Kurt Angle was thrown out of the tournament because he was looking forward to the match. He doesn’t want a forfeit so Angle can come out and face him right now (Angle was escorted from the building after talking to Long). Booker even gives him a ten count, with a pause for one last beg at nine, before declaring himself the winner. The celebration is on, complete with spinning Sharmell around and a Spinarooni.

King of the Ring Semifinals: Finlay vs. Bobby Lashley

They fight over a lockup to start with Lashley eventually powering him into the corner. Lashley takes him down with an explosive single leg but Finlay is back up with a clothesline. The chinlock goes on for a good while before Lashley is back up with a big boot. A gorilla press gutbuster has Finlay in trouble and a running clothesline in the corner rocks him again.

Some forearms gets Finlay out of trouble though and he chokes with the ring skirt. The chinlock goes on again and a pull of the trunks takes Lashley down again. Cue Booker and Sharmell, with the former sitting on the throne to see Lashley get his knees up to stop a splash. Lashley gets caught in the ring skirt for another beating though and we take a break.

Back with Finlay working on an arm, with an elbow into the shoulder for a bonus. A running shoulder gives Finlay two but Lashley gets fired up and snap off the overhead belly to belly. The running powerslam connects but Finlay blocks the spear with a boot. Finlay throws in the chair and grabs the Shillelagh, the latter of which is taken away. The referee is dumb enough to get rid of it, allowing Finlay to get in a chair shot. Lashley shrugs it off and hits the spear for the pin.

Rating: C+. The chinlocks took something out of this but they made Lashley look like a monster and that’s the important part. Lashley is showing some different offense out there most weeks and that’s an encouraging sign for someone who could do three moves and get by on his look alone. Finlay continues to be a nice gem and they worked well together.

Post match Lashley tells Booker to get out of his chair before he gets thrown out.

Here are MNM for a chat. Johnny Nitro says they’re the hot team and the sexiest champions of the century. They don’t like Paul London and Brian Kendrick getting in their way, which is why they got three straight Snapshots last week. After we see a clip from last week, Melina talks about how those punks are just trying to get a rub from the champs. Cue Jillian Hall, who talks about beating up Melina at the makeup table. Melina says Jillian looked better with the growth on her face. The fight is almost on but here are London and Kendrick to pants the champs. Hall rips off Melina’s skirt too and the good guys run.

Mark Henry vs. Paul Burchill

We get the debut of Henry’s signature song. Henry clotheslines him down and hits a kick in the ribs as this is feeling squashish. Burchill is tossed outside in a heap (with one hand) and Henry throws him back inside for a bonus. There’s the running splash in the corner and a second one against the post has Burchill pretty much done. Back in and Henry hits two more splashes, grabs the mic to say Kurt Angle is getting the same thing. The World’s Strongest Slam is good for the pin.

Rating: D. This was little more than a way to keep Henry warm before his match with Angle. It was nothing we hadn’t seen before but there was only so much you can get out of this version of Henry. Also, so much for Burchill, but how long was a Pirates of the Caribbean tribute character going to last?

Tatanka is still becoming a Lakota warrior.

Big Vito says he and Nunzio are going out tonight. Nunzio needs to go get a shower but Orlando Jordan cuts him off, saying that he saw someone who looked a lot like Vito in drag in a club in London. Nunzio doesn’t buy it.

Judgment Day rundown.

Rey Mysterio vs. Great Khali

Non-title, JBL is on commentary, and Cole keeps mentioning that Mysterio’s friends and family are here because it’s his hometown. Before Khali comes out, Rey dives onto JBL but here is Khali (with Daivari) to cut things off. Mysterio gets in Khali’s…uh, chest, and the EDDIE chants start up again. Khali throws him outside in a hurry and JBL turns up the trash talk to an eleven. Rey gets knocked off the apron again and a springboard dropkick hurts Mysterio more than Khali. Mysterio is thrown outside for a third time with JBL getting in a cheap shot. Back in and the double arm chokeslam finishes Rey in short order.

Rating: F. What do you even say here? This came off as more of Vince and WWE being annoyed at the fans for wanting something and punishing them for it after giving them what they asked for. They do this with so many of their titles and then wonder why it isn’t as important or why the fans are walking away. It made Mysterio, who could potentially draw some money, look like nothing and Khali isn’t likely to get a title shot anytime soon, but at least they advanced Mysterio vs. JBL, which I’m sure people will be flocking to pay for. I remember thinking this was stupid in 2006 and it is even worse now, which doesn’t surprise me.

Post match JBL gets in Rey’s face to talk about how he let everyone down. JBL has another opponent for next week. Tick tock. JBL shoves him to the floor to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. Well that happened. This was not WWE’s finest hour as they don’t seem to have a clue about what they want to do here so the solution is to squash the World Champion on back to back weeks. It was a rough sit as this show doesn’t exactly have star power and they are going out of their way to damage the star power that they do have. Bad show here, and WWE isn’t helping itself.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Smackdown
Date: May 5, 2006
Location: US Bank Arena, Cincinnati, Ohio
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tazz

It’s time to start building towards the next Smackdown pay pr view as Backlash has come and gone. Therefore, it’s time for Rey Mysterio to continue looking like the weakest World Champion in history, which kind of defeats the purpose of making him the World Champion in the first place. It’s rather sad to see but that’s what you get around here sometimes. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a recap of last week’s main event where Kurt Angle had Rey Mysterio in a lot of trouble until Mark Henry ran in for the DQ. Henry destroyed Angle after the match.

Opening sequence.

Here’s Mysterio, who is officially defending against JBL at Judgment Day, to get things going. Rey talks about how awesome it is to be champion every day and he’s loving it all. He was ready to tap last week…and here’s JBL to interrupt. JBL says it isn’t over yet amigo but at Judgment Day, it’s the American hero vs. the masked illegal immigrant. There is a place in JBL’s America for illegals though, because just last week there was a mass walkout to shut down all kinds of things across the country.

The fans chant for EDDIE, with JBL saying how it’s always either for EDDIE or JBL because no one cares about Rey. Anyway, there are always places for illegals to take out his garbage or clean his house. It’s the size of the fight in the dog. Rey asks if JBL is calling his people dogs. JBL: “You’re not a dog Rey. You’re a Mexican.” JBL goes on a rant about Rey living off of Eddie’s legacy so Rey says he’ll fight anyone, anytime. That works for JBL, so Rey can fight this man tonight. Cue Mark Henry, who just happened to be standing behind the curtain I guess. The staredown is on and I don’t see this going well. Again.

Booker T. vs. Gunner Scott

Rematch from three weeks ago where Scott scored a big upset. During the entrances, Cole announces that Booker is going to the King of the Ring finals because Kurt Angle has injured ribs and can’t compete. Booker runs him over to start and elbows his way out of a hammerlock attempt. Scott strikes his way out of the corner, only to get caught in a hot shot. We hit the chinlock but Scott fights up with more strikes. Some suplexes have Booker in trouble until he hits the hook kick to the face. A Sharmell distraction sets up the ax kick to give Booker the pin.

Rating: D+. This was a way to right the ship after Booker lost a few weeks back and doesn’t get the King of the Ring match. I’m not sure how much Booker needed the win, but at least he gets some momentum heading into a bigger match. Booker could make for a pretty good king, and the fact that he is talking about it more than anyone else would suggest he is a likely candidate.

Post match, Booker is proud of his win over Gunner somebody and promises to win the tournament. His subjects need to get used to bowing down.

Tag Team Titles: Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs. MNM

MNM is…not defending here as they jump London and Kendrick from behind. Kendrick takes a pair of Snapshots and there’s no match.

Video on Tatanka entering a Lakota sweat lodge to be purified so he can become a warrior.

Great Khali and Daivari come in to see Teddy Long, who has a contract signed by Undertaker for a match at Judgment Day. Khali growls a bit.

King of the Ring First Round: Finlay vs. Chris Benoit

The winner gets Lashley in the semifinals. Finlay drives him into the corner to start but doesn’t get very far. Benoit gets it to the mat for a headlock and then switches to an armbar to counter Finlay’s counter. Finlay winds up mounting Benoit, who punches his way from the mat to get out. Back up and they go nose to nose until Finlay starts slugging away to knock Benoit into the corner.

That earns him a leg takedown with Benoit cranking on the leg. The hold sends Finlay over to the ropes for the break as the chess game continues. Benoit gets sent shoulder first into the post and it’s time to work on an armbar. Some shoulders are driven into Benoit’s shoulder so he sweeps the leg for a failed Sharpshooter attempt. The top of Benoit’s head has been busted open (not that badly) and he can’t get the Crossface t make things even worse.

The release German suplex works though and Finlay comes up holding his shoulder. It’s so banged up that he rolls outside and throws in some chairs as we take a break. Back with Benoit getting two more off a snap suplex but getting sent chest first into the buckle. We hit the chinlock until Benoit jawbreaks his way to freedom, only to get pulled down into another facelock.

Finlay sends him into the corner but misses a charge into the post. The rolling German suplexes set up a missed Swan Dive but Benoit ducks a Shillelagh shot. With the referee getting rid of the club, Finlay gets in a chair shot, setting up the Celtic Cross for the pin to advance.

Rating: B. This was a good example of a match with two guys beating the heck out of each other for a long time and it was rather entertaining. They kept Benoit looking strong in defeat and Finlay gets one of the biggest wins of his WWE tenure. Sometimes you need two people beating the fire out of each other until one of them is done and that’s what you got.

Gymini vs. Scotty 2 Hotty/Funaki

Simon Dean fires the Gymini up before the bell. We’ll say Gymini #1 puts Funaki on the top rope to start and #2 pulls him down to the floor in a crash. Back in and #2 stomps in the corner and we hit the chinlock. There’s a butterfly suplex to drop Funaki again but this time he rolls over and brings in Scotty, who gets suplexed down in a hurry. The Crash Diet (kind of a double powerbomb) finishes Scotty in a hurry.

Rating: D+. Total squash here, but does beating up Scotty and Funaki really mean that much? You can only get so far off a match like this and it feels like the Gymini debuted months ago. It isn’t a hard gimmick to make work, but they’re managing to make two muscleheaded twins look like a big waste of time. That’s hard to do.

Video on See No Evil.

Bobby Lashley comes in to see Booker T., who is in a towel. They both promise violence.

Super Crazy vs. Kid Kash vs. Nunzio

The winner gets a title shot at the pay per view. They start with the rapid exchange of shots to the face until the Sicilian Slice gets two on Crazy. Kash and Nunzio are sent outside for the top rope Lionsault from Crazy….and here’s Great Khali to destroy them all for the no contest.

Khali destroys them all for a bonus feature.

Raw Rebound.

Judgment Day rundown, with Khali having accepted Undertaker’s challenge and Melina vs. Jillian Hall confirmed.

Rey Mysterio vs. Mark Henry

Non-title and JBL is on commentary. After the same video that opened the show, we’re ready to go. Rey starts dodging around to start but nearly gets caught after a chase around the ring. Back in and Henry slugs away, only to get knocked down in a hurry. JBL goes after Rey on the floor and gets sent over the announcers’ table.

Back in and Rey’s springboard is knocked out of the air, which JBL says is like Henry eating Rey like a $3.99 pizza buffet. Cole and JBL argue about whether underdogs or rich people built America as Henry runs Rey over. Some missed charges in the put Henry down and Rey reverses the World’s Strongest Slam. A dropkick to the back sets up the 619 but Henry pulls him out of the air for the World’s Strongest Slam and the pin.

Rating: D+. And so one of the lamest World Title reigns of all time gets to continue because WWE thinks this is what you’re supposed to do to make fans pay for a big show at the end of the month. If you don’t want Mysterio as the champion, just have him drop the title already, because this isn’t helping the title in the slightest. I guess Vince found it funny or something though and that’s all we’ve got.

Post match Henry drags him up to the stage and loads up a splash off the set but JBL runs up to say no. JBL promises him the first title shot when he beats Rey, because if Henry crushes him then there’s no title shot. With Rey still down, JBL makes Mysterio vs. Great Khali for next week in Rey’s hometown of San Diego.

Overall Rating: D. What a strange show. This was a bunch of pretty bad matches with one really good one stuck in the middle. That’s not enough to save the rest of it though and we get this kind of a show, which only left me wanting to get through the pay per view so we can move on to anything else.

So far JBL has humiliated Rey, pointed out that no one really likes him, or even chant for him for that matter. Then you have Rey ready to lose to Angle and then actually lose to Henry here. Imagine any other face World Champion ever being presented like that and see how fast you get a quick headache. Benoit vs. Finlay was good, but that was nowhere near enough to save us from the really bad main event angle.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6