Smackdown on The CW Network
Taped on 5/20/08 in Des Moines, Iowa

[Q1] The opening video aired followed by the pyro and Michael Cole referenced Vickie Guerrero’s decision to hold up the World Heavyweight Title at Judgment Day…

In the ring Tony Chimmel introduced Vickie Guerrero who was wheeled onto the ramp by Edge. Vickie started to talk and was booed silent for a moment. She said nobody understood what it was like to run a huge TV show. She said Charles Robinson made a mistake in counting Edge out and awarding the Undertaker the title at Judgment Day. She thanked God that she was there to correct the situation.

She said that One Night Stand was a PPV where every match was contested under extreme rules. She said she was announcing the most extreme World Heavyweight Championship match ever. At One Night Stand it would be a tables, ladders, and chairs match between Edge and Undertaker. She added that if the Undertaker lost, he would be banned from the entire WWE…[C]

Shore’s Slant: Wait, let me check dotnet. Nope, no Undertaker retirement talk so I wonder who will win this match? I do like the idea of a PPV full of gimmick matches, gets it all out of my system. Still, it is a little predictable who wins. One note, I’m playing hurt tonight. My 62” screen is in the shop and I’m watching on a 32” right now. I’m old and blind so this ought to be fun.

Back from commercial and Jesse, Festus, and Cherry made their way to the ring for a mixed tag match…

1. Deuce, Domino, and Maryse defeated Jesse, Festus, and Cherry in a mixed six-man tag match at 6:02. Festus went bat guano when the bell rang and beat down Deuce and Domino before chasing Maryse off the apron. He tagged in Jesse at about a minute and Jesse proceeded to get beat down for about four minutes.

[Q2] Deuce tagged in Maryse as Jesse got the hot tag to Cherry. Cherry came in and cleaned up on Maryse. She hit a bulldog that could have gone horribly for Maryse, fortunately it didn’t. Cherry went for the pin and D&D came in to pull her off. Jesse came in and clotheslined Domino and himself over the top tope. Festus kicked Deuce who fell into Cherry. Cherry went to sit up and got kicked in the face by Maryse who covered for the three count…

Shore’s Slant: They showed the replay of the kick and ouch! I hope that boot was padded because that looked hard. Cherry got a big pop from the crowd when she came in. Pretty boring match truth be told. I looked away a couple of times out of boredom.

Backstage saw Edge and Vickie talking when Chavo Guerrero came in and said he hoped there were no hard feelings about not coming to the ring last week. Vickie said no, and to prove it she booked him in a match against the Undertaker. Chavo went nuts for a second and Edge called him scared. Edge told Chavo the whole fam damly would be at ring side for the match…[C]

Back from commercial and MVP made his way to the ring for the VIP lounge. MVP introduced Teddy Long to “give him his chance to explain his side of the story.” Teddy came to the ring and thanked MVP for having him. MVP said he was going to call an audible and instead of Teddy sharing his story, MVP was going to tell Teddy all the things he couldn’t say while Teddy was in management. He started calling Teddy jealous and petty. Teddy said he was leaving and MVP grabbed him by the tie and said he was leaving until he was dismissed.

Queue Batista’s music. Batista came down and said he didn’t mean to interrupt, he only wanted to tell Teddy goodbye. Oh, and if MVP ever put his hands on Teddy again Batista was going to put his fist down MVP’s throat.

[Q3] MVP said Batista should be in the back sweating his stretcher match and worrying about how to keep his chin out of the back of his head. Funny. He said Batista should stop disrespecting him. Batista said he hadn’t been disrespectful. He slowly and methodically destroyed the set while saying, “Now that’s disrespectful.” MVP took off up the ramp while Batista stood in the ring gloating…[C]

Shore’s Slant: Same old power face/coward heel angle. Guess we’ll see Batista vs. MVP later tonight.

Back from commercial and MVP busted into Vickie’s office and demanded she do something about what happened. Vickie said OK and booked MVP vs. Batista tonight…

Shore’s Slant: I’m not going to say I told you so…

Back ringside and Finlay and a little green dot came to the ring. The dot went under the ring so that must be Hornswoggle. Chuck Palumbo rode to the ring next…

2. Finlay w/Hornswoggle defeated Chuck Palumbo. Finlay started out in control but Palumbo hit a sick clothesline at 1:50 to take control. He worked over Finlay in the corner when the green dot came out and sprayed Palumbo with a water gun. Palumbo went after him outside the ring and got clobbered by Finlay. Finlay threw Palumbo back in the ring who popped up and kicked Finlay in the head at 3:30.

[Q4] At 9:00 the green dot was drug in the ring by Palumbo. The dot exploded, spraying green mist into Palumbo’s eyes. Palumbo staggered back while the ref chased the green dot away. Finlay hit Palumbo with the shillelagh for the win.

Shore’s Slant: Pretty good match. Finlay can get a lot out of some people and Palumbo seems to be one of those guys. I’m tired of the Hornswoggle bit, but not to the point that it annoys me. It just bores me.

MVP was shown stretching out as Cole plugged his match with Batista next…[C]

Back from commercial and MVP is out first with no ramp pyro. Batista came out with pyro. Interesting. After Batista came to the ring, a short video aired replaying Batista destroying the VIP lounge set.

3. Batista defeated MVP at 13:00. [Q5] The match started with MVP trying different holds that Batista simply shrugged off. A MVP headlock led to Batista pushing him off with some mat crossing rope work that included a leap frog by Batista. Dude has mad ups! MVP hit a drop toe hold sending Batista face first into the second turnbuckle. When Batista stood up, MVP hit the big kick, knocking Batista over the top rope…[C]

Back from commercial at 7:20 and Batista broke a count by putting his foot on the rope. Batista sold a head injury from the MVP kick.MVP went to the top and Batista went to through him off. MVP held on to the arm and dropped it on the top rope as he jumped to the outside. MVP continued to work on the arm. Batista went for a corner tackle but MVP moved and Batista went through the ropes, hitting the same shoulder on the post.

At 12:16, MVP went for another kick but Batista hit the spear. Batista went on the high powered offense, ramming MVP’s shoulders into three ring posts. MVP tried a low blow kick but Batista caught it and reversed it for a spinebuster. Batista bomb and the win…

Shore’s Slant: Wow. That was a solid TV match. A few more high spots and that was PPV worthy. Very nice job by both men.

Foley plugged the main event between Chavo and Taker…[C]

[Q6] The first commercial was the obligatory Judgment Day encore commercial. You realize of course that we will have four straight weeks of WWE PPVs available. Last week was Judgment Day, this week is the replay, next week is One Night Stand, and the week after is the replay. Hey, I like wrestling and all, but come on…

Back from commercial a video aired recapping the Santino Marella, Roddy Piper, and Cousin Sal angle. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, consider yourself lucky. David Arquette must not have been available…

Back to the ring and Nunzio was in the ring and the lights went out. This can only mean…

4. Vladimir Koslov squashed Nunzio in 2:00. Move of the match: Nunzio off the ropes for a Zinedine Zidane headbutt. Nunzio threw a couple of shots that Koslov sold better than I expected he would. In the end it was the punt off the top turnbuckle into the inverted DDT for the win.

Shore’s Slant: All right, I like Koslov. Now I want to see him face someone real. Maybe Umaga when he comes over to Smackdown? Not a lot of mic work in that feud, but should still be fun to watch.

Cole and Foley plugged the Chavo vs. Taker main event…[C]

[Q7] Back from commercial and Matt Hardy, Kofi Kingston, Elijah Burke, and Shelton Benjamin came to the ring. A video aired of Benjamin finally beating Kofi on ECW Tuesday…

5. Kofi Kingston and Matt Hardy defeated Shelton Benjamin and Elijah Burke at 4:51. Burke and Kingston started out. Kingston tagged in Hardy who took a cheap shot on Burke when the referee was calling for the break. Burke reversed a side effect to take control. Burke tagged in Benjamin who beat on Hardy for minute before Hardy hit a side effect.

Hardy made a hot tag and Kingston hopped around the ring hitting some high flying spots. He did a standing double leg drop that seemed like he hung in the air for three weeks. Burke broke up a pin attempt and got chased out by Hardy. Kingston hit the trouble in paradise for the win…

Shore’s Slant: Fun match with some really hot spots and Kofi jumping around like he was on some good Jamaican stuff. Get it, he’s from Jamaica. And they smoke…never mind. I like all four of these guys and it was a pretty good five minutes.

Cole plugged the main event next…[C]

Back from the commercial, the Raw Rebound aired recapping Regal’s rise and fall from grace. I really liked Regal’s character and I hope he hasn’t fallen off the wagon so that he can continue/resume his push when he returns…

[Q8] Back ringside and Cole and Foley plugged One Night Stand…

Backstage, Chavo and the fam damly are shown walking towards the ring…[C]

Back from commercial and Undertaker is out first. I have not read the spoilers for this week. I am betting on Edge, Hawkins, and Ryder to bail on Chavo like he did them. We’ll see. Chavo came out next and……well color me surprised, they all made it to the ring.

6. The Undertaker defeated Chavo Guerrero at 5:21. Taker used power on Chavo early, including old school. Taker went for the big boot but missed and went over the top rope. Hawkins, Ryder, and Edge took a couple of shots and then backed off. Referee Charles Robinson ejected those three over Chavo’s protests…

Shore’s Slant: Close enough

Chavo beat on Taker for a moment. At one point, Taker stood up and Chavo looked like he was about to crap himself. Taker regained control and went for the chokeslam. Bam Neely jumped up on the apron and Chavo raked the eyes. Chavo came off the top rope and Taker caught him for a chokeslam again. Neely jumped up again. Taker let go, knocked Neely down, and turned around into a Chavo low blow.

Chavo went to the top again. Taker sat up and then stood up. Chavo went for the cross body. Taker caught him, spun him into the tombstone, and laid Chavo to rest.

Shore’s Slant: I don’t really know what purpose this served. It was a replay of the last dozen Chavo/Kane matches except the part of Kane was played by his brother. Taker does not gain any cred for this win. So again, not really sure what purpose it served.

I’m off next week because I will be in Batista’s home of Washington DC chaperoning my Quiz Bowl team at National Championships. Me and six teenagers away from home. Pray for me. Oh, and more bad news, you guys get Powell back for a week. Take it easy on him, he’s rusty. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in two weeks.

Liked what you read? Hated it? Let me know at cshore10@triad.rr.com and check out my new blog at triangletheory.blogspot.com. Thanks for reading!

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE: