Thanks to Vinnie Gesuele and PWTorch for the following report. Our own Trevor Hunnicutt was also at the show, so we’ll have more on this soon!
WWE Smackdown house show
May 14, 2005
San Francisco, Calif.
Report by Vinnie Gesuele, PWTorch.com correspondent
I went to last nights Smackdown house show from the Cow Palace in San Francisco, CA. The arena was hardly half full, I would say closer to empty than full. The crowd was hot during much of the show. The advertised card was changed quite a bit, but the show wasn’t that bad. On to the show.
(1) Cruiserweight Battle Royal: Akio, Scotty Too Hotty, Shannon Moore, Paul London, Chavo Guerrero, Billy Kidman, and Nunzio. Match was a basic battle royal. Nunzio, Shannon Moore and Akio were all eliminated early on. Scotty was eliminated while attempted a worm by Chavo Guerrero. Kidman was eliminated by Chavo and it came down to Guerrero and London. London eliminated Chavo to retain his Cruiserweight title.
(2) Heidenreich beat Spike Dudley. Heidenreich came out and read the same poem from Smackdown and picked a kid out of the audience. Spike then came out and they had a similar match to their Smackdown match this week. Heidenreich won with his sideslam finisher.
(3) Carlito’s Cabana with Teddy Long as guest. Teddy Long announced that Undertaker would not be on the show and that Rowdy Roddy Piper would be the special guest referee for the main event. He then announced that someone wanted a piece of Carlito and Big Show came to the ring and he and Carlito had a face off. Carlito and Show went at it and Carlito took some hard chops and a few hip tosses before getting out of the ring.
(4) Matt Morgan beat Funaki. This was a simple squash match much like their Smackdown match this week. Morgan won with an F-5, which I thought was weird.
(5) Booker T pinned Kurt Angle. This match was not originally scheduled, but was an added surprise. The match turned out to be very good. It was up to this point the match of the night. Booker T won with a scissors kick after escaping the ankle lock and avoiding an angle slam. A solid match that was better than their Smackdown match this week and hopefully means their Judgment Day match will be good.
Divas Miss Jackie and Michelle McCool came out to shoot t-shirts and then their was a 15 minute intermission.
(6) Tag Team Champions MNM beat Hardcore Holly & Charlie Haas. This was a good match that started with back and forth action. Nitro is really improving in the ring and carried a lot of offense for MNM. Mercury added some good offense. The team got a lot of heat, but Melina always gets a great reaction for her ring entrance. Very impressive I might add. The finish came when Holly was going for the Alabama Slam on Mercury and Nitro superkicked him to get the win. Very good match.
(7) Rey Mysterio beat Eddie Guerrero by DQ. A Judgment Day preview and WrestleMania rematch. Man this was a disappointment. Match started slow with Eddie not wanting to get into the ring. Match progressed with too many rest hold and not enough high impact action. Finish came when Rey hit a botched 619 on Eddie and then went for the West Coast Pop and Eddie hit him with a low blow. After the match Eddie went to brainbuster Rey on a chair but referees broke it up. Guerrero got an abundance of heat. A big difference from the night he won the WWE Title at last years No Way Out.
(8) John Cena beat Orlando Jordan & JBL in a handicap match. Piper came out as special referee and looked a little intoxicated. He was an entertaining ref. JBL came down w/ Jordan and JBL ran down San Francisco calling it Sacramento and badmouthing the city. Cena came out and they had the match. Cena dominated Jordan early on until JBL got control JBL and Jordan controlled Cena with their basic moves and at one point Piper got knocked out. JBL hit the clothesline from hell on Cena and another ref came out. Cena kicked out and JBL punched the other referee in the face. JBL went to hit Cena with the old WWE Title belt until Piper got up and took the belt and then punched JBL in the face. Cena knocked him out of the ring and hit the F-U on Orlando Jordan for the win. After the match Cena talked about making JBL quit at Judgment Day and how San Francisco was a great historic sports city.
Biggest Pops
(1) Cena
(2) Piper
(3) Rey Mysterio
Biggest Heat
(1) Eddie Guerrero
(2) JBL
(3)Kurt Angle
Overall the show was ok, but not the best house show I have been to. A little disappointing to see so many Smackdown rematches and so many Judgment Day preview matches. The Rey-Eddie match was slow and a bit sloppy. I love both of their work, but they weren’t clicking on this show. Otherwise good show.
Eddie
Levski11@aol.com
