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WWE Smackdown TV tapings Report – November 11th, 2008
(For shows that air on November 14th and November 21st).
By Stephen Lyon.
From: Manchester, England, U.K. (or just ‘United Kingdom’; it could be one of England, Scotland or Wales. WWE doesn’t deem it important to specify what country they taped tv in – again – let alone what city).
Boy, was this a long night. In short, the next two weeks are great for Jeff Hardy, and the exact opposite for MVP.
The M.E.N. Arena was a sellout for the second night running, which for tv is about 13-14,000.
Dark Match: A) Chavo Guerrero Jr defeated Ryan Braddock, after a frogsplash. Braddock now has a short, JBL-esque hairstyle. He still looked green here.
They played the first of a zillion John Cena videos, as they set up the ring with a casket for the opening of Smackdown. J.R. and Tazz came out, both to cheers.
For November 14th:
Show opens cold, with a casket in the ring, and Undertaker speaking menacingly about how he was going to destroy Big Show at the Survivor Series. We could only hear Taker’s voice and couldn’t see him. Suddenly the casket opened, and it was revealed that Undertaker was speaking from inside the casket. He climbed out and carrying on with his promo. Jeff Hardy came on the screen, and cut a really weird, heelish, Raven-esque promo, talking about his ‘Extreme Rules’ match with Taker later on the show. Hardy was wearing full ‘Beetlejuice-like’ face paint for this. Very strange Hardy promo.
1) Matt Hardy defeated Shelton Benjamin in a non-title, champion vs champion match. It went about 15 minutes, pretty good. Hardy won with the Twist of Fate.
2) The Brian Kendrick (w/Ezekiel) defeated Carlito (w/Primo). This was a decent match. Finish came when Ezekiel shoulder-charged Primo outside the ring, knocking him over, and Kendrick pinned Carlito after hitting the Sliced Bread #2 on him.
Ring crew then set the ring up for a Triple H-Vladimir Kozlov contract signing. A Kizarny vignette aired, similar to the others. This gizimick is stizupid. Yet another John Cena video aired.
Next came the big contract signing, with Vickie Guerrero (in her wheelchair) and Chavo Guerrero Jr in the ring. Vladimir Kozlov came out, wearing a sports coat and jeans. Triple H was wearing shades, a leather jacket, and jeans. HHH’s mic wasn’t working at first, so you won’t see that on tv. HHH said it was an honour to be in the ring, and called this contract signing, ‘like the United Nations’. He said he represented the U.S., Chavo represented Mexico, Kozlov represented Russia, and Vickie represented ‘Bulge-garia’. Vickie was aghast. HHH corrected himself and said she represented ‘Chunky-slavakia’. Once he was done, he turned to Kozlov and made fun of the way he talked, and said he would beat him at the Survivor Series. Kozlov signed the contract. As HHH was about to, Jeff Hardy came running through the crowd, hopped the barrier, climbed to the top rope, and put Kozlov through the table in the middle of the ring. He then snatched the contract, ripped it up into bits and threw them into HHH’s face, before leaving.
They announced that at the Survivor Series, it would be Team HBK (Shawn Michaels & Rey Mysterio & Cryme Tyme & Great Khali) vs Team JBL (JBL & The Miz & John Morrison & Kane & MVP).
3) Kung Fu Naki pinned MVP rather quickly via roll up, after Great Khali came out and distracted MVP, before chopping him on the head. Funaki hit the Crane before pinning him. Khali then entered the ring with Runjin Singh and held the Khali Kiss Cam. During this, MVP kept trying to attack Khali, and Khali kept laying him out. Khali brought an over-weight, middle-aged woman into the ring. He was about to kiss her, but then Singh said that she should kiss the prone MVP instead, which she did. She pounced on MVP, ‘Mae Young-style’ and rolled around the ring kissing him. Poor MVP.
4) Michelle McCool retained the WWE Divas title, defeating Maria quickly via submission. Jesse & Festus came out during this, and Festus was carrying a teddy bear for Maria. When the bell rang to end the match, Festus became enraged and chased McCool away. Maria calmed him down, and he gave her the teddy bear.
5) In the main event, Jeff Hardy pinned the Undertaker in an Extreme Rules match. This was a very good match, similar to the Jericho vs Michaels match on Raw this past week. They brawled all around the ringside area. Hardy used a kendo stick on Taker at one point, which garnered a lot of boos. Crowd was split almost 50-50, but you got the feeling that nobody was going to boo Taker. Hardy brought a ladder into use too. Finish came when Big Show came out and chokeslammed Taker. He threw Hardy to the outside, but Hardy held on to him over the top rope, and Taker nailed him in the back with a chair. Hardy then levelled Taker with a chairshot, then jumped off the top rope and leapfrogged the ladder, into a legdrop, on to Taker, pinning him clean. Well, ‘clean’ after all the interference. At least Taker sold the pin, and didn’t pop up straight away after being pinned by Hardy, as a certain Son-In-Law did later in his match with Hardy. End of show.
Afterwards, there was a five minute break. J.R. and Tazz briefly went to the back, changed clothing attire and came back out again. At around 9:30pm, the ring announcer said that there would be ‘another two hours of Smackdown action’. Even the promise of a Triple H vs Jeff Hardy match didn’t stop some parents with young children leaving at this point.
For November 21st:
1) R-Truth & Matt Hardy (Hardy’s 3rd match in 2 days in this arena) defeated Shelton Benjamin & Mark Henry (w/Teddy Long). R-Truth came through the crowd, rapping, and was over huge. He got the pin for his team, with an axe-kick on Benjamin.
Maria was chatting to Festus backstage with Miz and John Morrison came up to them. Miz was obnoxious and kept slapping the comatose Festus on the chest and gave him a ‘Wet Willie’, old DX-style. Morrison made some remarks about Maria’s photos on WWE.com being airbrushed.
2) The Miz & John Morrison defeated Jesse & Festus. Festus was destroying Miz, when Morrison grabbed the ring bell and rung it. Miz then pinned Festus with ease, using a neckbreaker. Morrison also hit the moonlight drive on Jesse. Afterwards, as Miz and Morrison reached the top of the ramp, Morrison rang the bell again, just for the heck of it I guess, and Festus became enraged again and chased them to the back.
Vickie Guerrero (in her wheelchair and accompanied by Chavo Guerrero Jr) came out. She said that the upcoming Triple H vs Jeff Hardy match wouldn’t be for the title, but if Hardy won, he would be added to the HHH vs Kozlov title match at Survivor Series, turning it into a triple threat match.
3) Jeff Hardy defeated Triple H in a lengthy (20 minutes plus) match, to be added to the title match at the Survivor Series. This was a surprisingly boring match. Maybe it will play better on tv, but the crowd were totally burned out by this point, as we were 3 hours into the tv taping. Finish came when Kozlov came out and tried to interfere. Kozlov distracted Triple H, leading to Hardy rolling him up for the pin. As alluded to earlier, this was a ‘slip-on-a-banana-peel’ pinfall win over HHH, who popped up immediately. HHH shook Hardy’s hand, but Kozlov clotheslined the pair of them, then left both of them laying.
The Brian Kendrick and Ezekiel were backstage, and made fun of some backstage worker, knocking a beverage out of his hand.
4) The Brian Kendrick & Ezekiel defeated Carlito & Primo Colon in a non-title match, when Big Zeke pinned Primo, after picking him up with one arm and slamming him. This was a good match when Kendrick and Primo were in against each other. I’m presuming this is the start of a tag team title program between the two teams.
5) British jobber, James Mason pinned MVP via roll up, quickly. Mason didn’t even get a ring entrance or music. Great Khali came out to distract MVP, leading to Mason getting the win. MVP was utterly dejected after this defeat. This was hilarious. Poor MVP.
6) The Bella Twins defeated Natalya & Victoria, when either Brie or Nicky pinned Victoria. This was decent action, but a few thousand people had left by this point, and the rest were just waiting for the final segment.
Show finished with Undertaker ‘reading the last rites’ to Big Show. The ring was set up with a casket and black wreaths. Undertaker came to the ring and gave a big over-elaborate speech about how he would banish Big Show to the darkside at the Survivor Series. Big Show, Vickie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero Jr came out. The lights went out, and when they came back on, Undertaker had Vickie by the throat in the ring. He lifted her up and placed her in the casket, shutting the lid. Big Show threw Chavo into the ring, and freed Vickie. Undertaker gave Chavo a tombstone, then placed him in the casket and shut the lid. End of show.
Everyone left. Scott Armstrong freed Chavo and they played Chavo’s music to end the arena show. Show finished at 11:10pm.
Line up for Survivor Series ppv:
– WWE World Title Match: Chris Jericho vs John Cena;
– WWE Title Match: HHH vs Vladimir Kozlov vs Jeff Hardy in a Triple Threat Match;
– The Undertaker vs Big Show in a Casket Match;
– Team HBK (Shawn Michaels & Rey Mysterio & Cryme Tyme & Great Khali) vs Team JBL (JBL & The Miz & John Morrison & Kane & MVP).
Overall verdict: This week’s Smackdown show is quite good, but the following weeks’ show is simply passable. This tv taping lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes, with no intermission, which is far too long, especially when they are marketing to little kids. After the third hour, it all became rather monotonous, the crowd heat died, and I can only imagine this is what all those old WWF tv tapings full of jobber matches felt like in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Thanks,
Stephen Lyon,
St Helens, England, U.K.
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