WWE Smackdown October 20th Episode Review
Since Raw and Smackdown are both airing from the Staples Center in Los Angeles this week, I figured I’d watch them and review them for SCU. Raw has come and gone and now it’s time to review Smackdown. This week’s episode features Rey Mysterio taking on Chavo Guerrero in a Loser Leaves Smackdown I Quit match, and Batista vs. King Booker for the World Heavyweight Championship.-Smackdown starts off with a recap of last week’s episode of Smackdown’s main event between Finlay, Batista, and Bobby Lashley to see who would go on to face King Booker this week for the World Heavyweight Championship. Then it goes into the usual Smackdown intro video, and various shots of the crowd at Staples Center. JBL and Michael Cole then introduce the first match of the night.
M.V.P. vs. Kane
I don’t know much about M.V.P., but I did see his debut match at WWE’s No Mercy PPV and his gimmick is a guy who thinks he’s the greatest athlete in the world, gets all kinds of hype, and then fails to live up to it. He comes out acting cocky and has his own special entrance. They show a quick recap of hisSmackdown debut with Kane from last week. He cuts a promo talking about what happend last week, and making up excuses about how he wasn’t ready for his match last week and calls out Kane. The match starts off with M.V.P. trying to get the upper hand on Kane early on in the match. Kane took control shortly after that and tried to go for a Tombstone, but M.V.P. was able to escape and rolled out of the ring, only for Kane to come after him and prevent him from running away. M.V.P. was able to throw Kane into the ringsteps and took control again. He did some retarded dance move and went for the ropes and then caught a boot to the face by Kane. Kane was able to take control of the match, and went for a Chokeslam, but M.V.P. hit Kane with a low blow and cost himself the match. Not much of a match here. The best part of the match was JBL’s commentary, putting over how M.V.P. didn’t belong in the ring, which did a good job at getting the point of his character across to the fans.
-They go backstage and show King Booker getting ready for his match and having his wrists taped up. After that they show Batista in the back, warming up for the match and talk about how he won the World Heavyweight Title at Staples Center in 2005.
Elijah Burke vs. Vito
Elijah Burke comes out with Sylvester Terkay for the match. I haven’t seen much of Elijah, but I’ve seen a few of Terkay’s matches on Smackdown and the WWE has been trying to put over his amatuer wrestling and MMA backround. Burke gets on the mic and talks about his boxing backround and talks about how he’s the only man tough enough to spar with Terkay and claims that they’re the greatest fight team in the world. Vito is a jacked up Italian dude who wears a dress. JBL then starts to make fun of Vito and talks about how Eddie Murphy would probably pick him up at 5 in the mornng and calls him a fruitcake. They put over Vito’s winning streak since he started wearing a dress before the match started. Vito tries to distract Burke by waving his dress around, but Terkay distracts Vito and Burke gets the upperhand early on in that match. Burke dominated the match for awhile, but Vito made a quick comeback and started to build up some momentum in the middle of the match, and ran around the ring and started playing with his dress again. Vito continued to mess around and Burke took advantage, drove his shoulder into Vito’s midsection and hit several strikes to the back of Vito’s head. The ref broke it up and when he was pulling Burke back, Terkay hit Vito with a boot to the head, giving Burke the chance to pin him and gaining the victory. Another back and forth match. Decent for what it was.
-After the match, they showed more stuff got The Marine. They go to commercial and comeback with Matt Hardy being confronted by Gregory Helms backstage. Helms talked about their match at No Mercy and said his victory was nothing more than a fluke, and they trade insults. Teddy Long comes in and makes a match between Helms and The Undertaker after Helms claimed that he could beat anyone on the roster. William Regal then cuts a promo and talking about his past and talks about how he’s sick of being a joke. He says that he’s nolonger a doormat and the camera shows Dave Taylor and he says that he’s here to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore.
William Regal & Dave Taylor vs. Scotty 2 Hotty & Funaki
JBL puts over Taylor and how he comes from a wrestling family. Match starts off with Regal and Taylor working on Funaki. JBL continues to do a good job at putting over the wrestlers and talks about Taylor’s past. Taylor did a good job at throwing Funaki around, and Regal did a good job at working over Funaki’s arm. Funaki finally got some offense after hitting Regal with a running cross body block, only for Regal to regain control by kicking Funaki in the head. Taylor and Regal worked very well as a team here, with lots of quick tags and double team moves. As soon as Scotty got tagged by Funaki, Regal beat him down, tagged in Taylor who hit a double underhook suplex, held onto the the hold and pinned Scotty for the win. While the match was a total squash, it was a really fun squash that put over Regal and Taylor as the toughest team in the WWE. After the match, Regal and Taylor beat down Funaki and Scotty.
-Michael Cole and JBL are then shown at ringside and talk about the history of Mysterio and Chavo’s rivalry. Then there was a video recap that showed some of the recent happenings in the past few weeks. They go back to ringside and JBL and Cole talk about how important this match is.
I Quit Loser Leaves Smackdown Match: Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero
Chavo got a lot of heel heat from the fans during his entrance. Rey Mysterio got a huge ovation from the crowd during his entrance. Match starts out with Chavo going to work on Rey, up until the point where Rey Mysterio hit a springboard cross body onto Chavo. The match then is sent to the outside after Mysterio hit tope con hilo over the top rope onto Chavo. Rey kept giving Chavo a good beating, and smashed his head into the ring steps several times, and asked him if he wanted to quit. Back inside the ring, Rey started to beat Chavo with a steal chair, and the ref asked Chavo if he wanted to quit two times. Chavo got back up and then was hit in the back of the head with the chair. Chavo landed on the middle rope and Mysterio hit a 619 on Chavo. When Rey was going to the top, Vickie Guerrero got involved and Chavo hit Rey in the head with a chair. Chavo started to work over the knee of Mysterio, and JBL started to talk about how Chavo taking out the knee of Rey would lead to Rey not being able to use his high flying offense in the match. Chavo used several stomps and chair shots on Rey’s knee. Then Chavo set up the chair on Rey’s knee, ala the Pillman/ankle angle, and hit a frogsplash on Rey’s knee. Chavo did a good job at selling the damage the move did to midsection, and Rey did a great job at selling the damage done to the knee. Chavo threw Rey to the outside and continued to work over the knee as they made their way up the entrance ramp. They made their way up 3/4 of the entrance ramp and Chavo started to tease using a fisherman suplex off the ramp to the floor. Rey fought out of it and hit a suplex onto the ramp instead. Rey was barely able to get up and Chavo was crawling towards the edge of the ramp. When Chavo was on his knees, Rey kicked him in the head and Chavo fell off the stage and onto the floor. As Chavo started to get up, Rey ran from the top of the entrance way and hit a running seated senton onto Chavo on the floor. Rey started to work over Chavo’s back on the floor by throwing him into the stage, using an elevated crossface, and a chair shot to the back. Chavo started to fight back and both men started to brawl towards the entrance to the backstage area, where Rey speared Chavo into a lighting rig. Rey ran towards Chavo, but Chavo threw him onto the lighting rig, and Rey started to climb up the rig. Chavo then caught Rey and hung him upside down in the rig, and hit him in the knee with a chair several times. The ref asked Rey if he wanted to quit, but Rey didn’t want to. Chavo then continued to hit Rey in the knee until Rey quit. This match was really fun, and ws the best WWE TV match of the week.
Gregory Helms vs. The Undertaker
The start of the match was Helms trying to get away from Taker, who had him trapt n the ropes. Taker tried to go for a move, but Helms was able to move and gain the upperhand early on. Undertaker no sold the punches and kicks that were delivered by Helms, and threw him so hard into the corner that the turnbuckle pad flew off. Taker hit Helms with a snake eyes into the corner and followed it up with a running boot to the face. Taker was going to go for a chokeslam, but Ken Kennedy’s music started to play. Kennedy made his way to the ring and Helms made a short comeback and gave him a clothesline that sent Taker over the top rope and to the outside. Taker landed on his feet and threw Kennedy to the ringsteps. Helms tried to go for a running dive, but was caught by Taker and driven back first into the corner post. Taker threw Helms back into the ring and hit him with the usual chokeslam/Tombstone combo for the win. After the bell rang, Kennedy ran into the ring and attacked Undertaker, only to end up being chokeslammed by the Undertaker. This was an alright match. Undertaker looked much better than he has in recent years during this match.
-After the match, they showed King Booker and Batista getting ready for their matches.
-Smackdown returns and The Miz comes down to the ring acting like an idiot. JBl then starts to talk shit on The Miz. Miz cuts a promo and ruins what has been a really good Smackdown. Then he introduces several WWE Divas for a “Diva Dance Off”. The The Miz introduces the special guest judges, Nick and Aaron Carter. The Miz continues to act like a jackass. Then they show a video of The Miz getting a lapdance from a fat dude in a g-string named Big Dick Johnson. Miz continues to act annoying, so I have no choice but to skip this shit.
World Heavyweight Championship Match: King Booker (c) vs. Batista
ECW World Champion Big Show(yeah, nothing screams ECW like The Big Show) and WWE Champion John Cena come down to ringside before the match. Batista comes out and gets a pretty good reaction from the fans at Staples Center. Match starts out pretty slow, with Batista being the first to get the upperhand in the match. Batista had control until King Booker poked him in the eye, which led to Booker getting control of the match. Batista regained control after sending King Booker, but when the referee was distracted, Fit Finlay came down and gave Batista a lariat. Booker hit Batista with a Bookend and went to work on him after two nearfalls. After a few minutes, Batista started to fight back and gained the upperhand on Booker, and speared Booker into The Big Show who was sitting outside next to the announcers table. Back inside the ring, Batista was about to hit a jakhammer on King Booker, and was attacked by Big Show and the match ended with the referee calling for the bell. John Cena then ran in to make the save and cleaned house with Batista. Teddy Long than came out and announced that King Booker and Big Show will be teaming up against Batista and John Cena next week to end Smackdown. Match wasn’t anything special. It would of been better had Rey and Chavo were in the main event instead.
-Overall this was one of the stronger Smackdown episodes in a long time. Rey vs. Chavo was MOTN, and could be in the Top 5 in this month’s SCU’s rankings. The Regal/Taylor reunion was pretty awesome aswell. The biggest downpoint of this show was The Miz’s segment. He’s honestly the most annoying person on TV at the moment. I also would of loved to see Fit Finlay, Jamie Noble, Paul London, and Brian Kendrick wrestle this week. Even though they didn’t wrestle, this week’s Smackdown was still pretty good. JBL’s commentary was amazing, and he’s been one of the best color guy in wrestling within the last few years. Even though Raw and WWE’s ECW aren’t really that good, Smackdown has been putting on some strong shows lately.
