Arena was probably over 90% full, with a few scattered empty seats up high. Crowd was overwhelmingly Hispanic as well, without a doubt it will be a lot different from Anaheim tomorrow night. Lots of young kids in attendance as well.
There were five matches taped for Velocity.
1) LOD beat Simon Dean and Orlando Jordan with the Doomsday Device. Being that I had to watch this match, I don’t believe anyone else should have to suffer by reading about it.
After the match, Steve Romero and Josh Matthews came out to the booth.
2) Kid Kash beat Brian Kendrick (so I guess Kash is adhering to the dress code). Best match on Velocity for sure, but that isn’t saying much. Kash played heel but seemed to be cheered anyway.
3) The Dicks (James Dick and Jack Dick) beat James Prentice and Kevin Zacaula (who I believe are really Antonio Mestre and The Drunken Irishman who work UPW). The Dicks had matching purple trunks and came across like more tanned built guys who look like everyone else. Well, I guess they were sort of short, so maybe they can be moved into the mini division. The whole gimmick of the Dicks seems to be their supposedly funny name.
4) Sylvan beat Joey Ryan with a short DDT. After the match, Sylvan went to a young lady in the front row who was taking pictures of him. Another hired woman, as I didn’t see her the rest of the night.
5) Psicosis and Super Crazy beat Paul Burchill and William Regal when Crazy pinned Regal. Finish came when Juvy interferred helping Crazy pin Regal.
Mathews and Romero didn’t say one thing during any of the matches (I was 2nd row and would constantly look over there).
Smackdown began with a clip taped earlier tonight (when I was arriving in fact) of MNM pulling up in a limo. Teddy Long greeted them, and then told them they’d have to defend their belts in the main event against Batista and Eddie.
Show opened with Bob Holly coming out in a referee jersey.
1) Rey Misterio Jr. and Matt Hardy beat JBL and Christian when Hardy pinned Christian. Holly worked as ref, and looked pretty ridiculous wearing the ref shirt over his trunks. Holly eventually went after the heels, as he gave Christian the Alabama Slam, Rey gave him the 619, and then Hardy gave him the Twist of Fate for the pin. Jillian Hall was at ringside and boy does that mole even look more stupid up close in person. Well, that wasn’t the only fake thing I noticed on her.
Backstage, Teddy Long said he was waiting for a special visitor, Eric Bischoff. They went to commerical.
Sharmell came out with her own music and all. She introduced Booker T. Booker said everyone was suckers for falling for their plan. He said he knew what Sharmell was up to all along. He said he should win an Emmy or Golden Globe for his performance. They showed clips of the last several weeks and attempted to explain it all. Teddy Long came out and announced that Booker would defend the belt against Benoit right now. They went to commerical.
2) Chris Benoit beat Booker T by countout. After hitting multiple Germans, Booker and Sharmell walked off as Benoit stood in the ring watching. Obviously, he didn’t care enough about winning the US Title to leave the ring and stop Booker (hey, who can blame him?)
Bob Orton came out for his match against Piper. Orton got on the mic and said what may be the line of the night “Rowdy Piper put me to sleep.” I guess they watched old tapes of Piper’s matches in the back before the match.
3) Piper beat Bob Orton by DQ. Match was funny with Piper selling most of the time. Piper also teased he was going to keep his shirt-on for the match, but we weren’t so lucky. Piper had Orton in the Sleeper, but Randy came in and broke it up, so Piper won by DQ. Randy got on the mic and reminded everyone he’s the legend killer, so a match with Piper seems inevitable. More silly selling from Piper here as Randy beat him down for a couple minutes.
4) Bobby Lashley beat Vito and Nuzio in a handicapped match when Lashley pinned Nunzio with the Dominator. This match could have easily been on Velocity.
Eddie and Batista were talking backstage playing buddy buddy. Eddie brought up being in “East LA” (gee for Wrestlemania 21 it was Hollywood though).
Backstage, a limo arrived and out came Bischoff. He had a bunch of UPW guys playing his security escorts, and he told them to get him the hell out of here as quickly as possible. He ran into someone and asked “who the hell are you?” and the camera panned out and it was the Boogie Man who said “I’m the Boogie Man and I’m coming to get you.” Palmer Cannon wasn’t on the show at all this week though.
Teddy Long came out and called out Bischoff. Bischoff laid down the 5 on 5 challenge for the Survivor Series saying he’s tired of each side invading each other’s show. He also said “Taboo Tuesday aside” so naturally I yelled out for him to tell us what happened as I must have missed that show. Long accepted the 10 man for Survivor Series. This was very anti-climatic and they didn’t announce any of the participants either. Bischoff told Long he’s the B-Show, with 2nd rate talent and a 2nd rate audience. Bischoff said they’d kick Smackdown’s butt much like Nitro and WCW did to WWE. Long also challenged Bischoff for a one on one Raw vs Smackdown singles match at Survivor Series. After accepting, Long informed him that it would be Long vs Bischoff. Long said this feud would end the same way WWE vs WCW did (I was worried he meant Vince Russo was going to come in as booker), but he just said it meant Bischoff would get his! ass kicked.
5) Ken Kennedy beat Scotty 2 Hotty. Kennedy got busted up a bit, but put Scotty away pretty quick.
MNM were walking backstage complaining about already having to defend the titles.
6) MNM beat Eddie and Batista when Mercury pinned Eddie. Finish came after Melina covered Mercury which meant Eddie gave her the frog splash instead. I guess Eddie is a really bad tag team partner, cuz I swear just a couple of weeks ago Batista beat MNM in a handicapped match.
7) They did a triple threat dark match with Orton vs Eddie vs Batista for the title. Mostly a comedy match, with Batista and Eddie playing buddies, and Orton selling ridiculously like he was dazed and confused. He kept falling on the outside into the audience and onto the announcer’s table. Orton was busted open much like Kennedy was earlier. Batista was about to give Randy the Batista Bomb, but Eddie came off the top with a frog splash. Batista broke up the pin. Randy was going to hit Batista with the RKO, but Eddie held onto Batista so he didn’t go down for it. Finish came when Bob came out and attacked Eddie. Batista sent Randy into Bob knocking him off the apron, and them pinned Randy with the Demon Bomb. Eddie and Batista played around on the mic for about 5 minutes, then Eddie got serious and thanked all the fans and mentioned how life changes, how blessed he is, and thanked God.
