WWE Smackdown Taping
Green Bay, Wisc. at The Resch Center
Report by Dot Net reader David Nordby

Attendance-wise, it was not completely filled up. I would say it was a slightly smaller crowd than the house show back in March, but still a decent sized crowd. The new HD stage made its debut in the Resch Center and it made the arena look small. Packers Pro Bowl wide receiver Donald Driver attended the show with his son.

The show started off airing the Wrestlemania 24 highlight video that got the crowd pumped up. Cena got booed in the video. Tons of Woo chants for Flair.

Tony Chimel was out next and welcomed us to the show.

Dark Match

1. Jimmy Yang defeated Bam Neely. Not bad for a little dark match. Yang was over with the crowd. He hit a couple of nice maneuvers for nearfalls and then finished him off with a backflip.

Tony told us to get excited and air the shot for ECW before the show went on the air. Everyone went crazy and held up their signs. One funny sign I saw was, "Hey, Jeff, how was the flight?"

ECW Taping Notes

Todd Grisham and Matt Striker were both introduced to cheers actually. Teddy Long accompanied by Tiffany made their way out to the ring before the actual taping started. The opening video and the ECW video showed on the big screen followed by a display of pryo, and then you guys watched a boring edition of ECW that the live crowd didn't enjoy other than the six-man main event.

They made a ring change fairly quickly which the refs did most of the work for. They showed a very cool WWE video that went the length of the ring change. They showed the trips to Iraq, WrestleMania, celebrity interviews, Make-a-Wish videos, and everything else. Jay Leno clips from WCW were included, which is weird, but a really cool video from start to finish capping WWE in the media and life.

They shot out T-shirts, introduced Jim Ross and Tazz, and the Smackdown All-Star show was finally underway.

WWE Smackdown Taping

The WWE video and Smackdown video showed and a huge display of pyro went off. Then the show started with a huge match the fans loved.

1. Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysteiro and Batista and Finlay (w/Hornswoggle) beat MVP and JBL and The Kane and The Brian Kendrick (w/Ezekiel Jackson). It's amazing how they change the pyro and blow up MVP's entrance so fast. Jeff Hardy got his huge pop. Tons of fans around for him. Hornswoggle is from the Wisconsin area so he got a huge pop as well.

A very good match that included some comedy spots with Hornswoggle and Kendrick. All eight men had a good finish at the end and Jeff Hardy got the pin after a Swanton. After the match all the faces, especially Jeff Hardy and Batista, went out of their way to make the fans happy. Jeff Hardy gave hugs to women wearing his t-shirts and a couple of them just about passed out.

Big Show was shown angrily walking backstage.

Mike Adamle, Tiffany, and Teddy Long were talking about the All-Star kickoff. Big Show came in and kicked them all out of "his" office. Chavo walked in and Big Show said he is in charge tonight and said Chavo was going to wrestle.

Santino cut a promo in the ring with Beth Phoenix that featured the Honk-A-Meter. Then in a hilarious interview that won't air on TV, Santino cut a promo on Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. The crowd cheered Favre's name and booed Rodgers mostly, by the way.

A Shelton Benjamin promo showed on the big screen.

2. Santino Marella (w/Beth Phoenix) defeated Shelton Benjamin. R-Truth rapped through the crowd and cost Benjamin the match. Short match.

They showed John Cena and WrestleMania videos again. Cena was cheered this time though. Fans were hoping this would lead to an appearance from him.

Big Show came to the ring and said Vickie was about to see something she would like from her bed resting and healing up.

3. Mark Henry (w/Tony Atlas) and Great Khali (w/Runjin Singh) defeated Chavo Guerrero in a handicap match. After the match, Big Show cut a promo on Undertaker, came out from under the ring or somewhere. Big Show didn't appear to be scared. Undertaker is awesome live and the crowd loved it.

Carlito and Primo cut a promo and said they hope it was okay that they changed their match to a six-man tag. Carlito works well with his brother.

4. C.M. Punk and Carlito and Primo defeated Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase and Manu in a six-man tag. Not a real good match, crowd wasn't as into Punk as I thought they would be.

Jesse and Festus appeared and spoke about the move to My Network. The Lumberjills came out.

5. Beth Phoenix beat Michelle McCool in a Diva Lumberjill match. They actually had a good match, but I don't think that's where the fans concentration was. Kelly is amazing, it's not like any of the other Divas are slouches either.

6. Triple H defeated Matt Hardy and Chris Jericho in a Triple Threat match. Really good match, all worked well together. Triple H beat Matt Hardy at the end, but I think Matt looked like a main eventer here.

After the match, Jericho attacked both men and pulled out a ladder. Jeff Hardy came out to make the save and then took out Triple H. Vladimir Kozlov appeared and laid them both out to apparently end Smackdown.

After the taping, Jeff Hardy and Triple H spent time at ringside and went around the audience. Triple H stayed out for a long time just like he did at the March house show, and really ended the show on a positive note for fans. Triple H is definitely over.

Biggest Pops: Triple H, Undertaker, Jeff Hardy, and Hornswoggle.
Most Heat: JBL, Jericho, and Kozlov.

Notes: Good, entertaining show. It should come across well on TV. The eight-man tag and the Triple Threat were good, entertaining matches. I'm not sure if they did a great job leading into the No Mercy pay-per-view on Sunday, but this was a good show for their debut on MyNetwork TV.

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