Posted on Oct 16, 2002               <<BACK TO NEWSBOARD

Ticket says bell time is 7:40 but at 7:28 the WWF Desire Video plays, but has some added WWE Footage as well as new footage with Stone Cold Steve Austin in it. (Side Note: Is it just me or has Austin be on a lot of WWE TV in the last few days? Hmmmm) At around 7:35 the night starts off. Dark Matches Bull Buchanan and Red Dog vs. RC Hass and Scott? Crowd wasn’t very happy with this match. A lot of chants such as “Go Leafs Go” during it. Crowd is what can be expected out of these wrestlers. Bull didn’t look to impressive but Hass looked ready for the big time, winning the match for his team with a modified version of a Boston Crab and El Paso Lasso. Winner: RC Hass and Scott? Scott Vick (who looked a lot like Jake from Tough Enough 1) vs. Tyson Dux (of Boarder City Wrestling and the Twin Tower Wrestling Federation (Windsor and Toronto Indy’s)) Vick looked really big and performed a lot of power moves on the smaller Dux. Dux was the big face, as they said he was from Toronto . Vick hits a devastating couple of elbows on Dux. Dux didn’t get a lot of offense in, as he is a small guy and wound up losing when Vick hit the Vertabreaker (Hurricanes WCW Finisher) Winner: Scott Vick Shelton Benjamin vs. The Big Valbowski Although they said from Las Vegas , Nevada , everyone knew Val was from Richmond Hill (suburb of Toronto ) so he got a big pop. Shelton hits a few nice moves, and does a double arm submission which is a move I have only seen before in WWF Video Games (Mania 2k and No Mercy). Val gets a lot of his Vintage moves in from his run in the 90’s. Val goes for the Money Shot but misses, so the two go back at it. Finish comes when Val goes for his front Figure Four Submission Finisher. Winner: The Big Valbowski, Val Venis Around 8:00 at this point and they decide it is time for Velocity. Out come the announcers (Loyd and Cole) and off goes the Pyro… Velocity Results Tajiri vs. Funaki Funaki comes out and cuts a promo on Tajiri telling him that the fans do not like him because he doesn’t smile. He tells him to be happy and smile. The contest is a mix of Japanese and Cruiser style, and is defiantly worth watching, just for this match alone, if you like that type of wrestling. Tajiri gets a lot of kicks in on Funaki but misses the Moonsault. Funaki is able to reverse the Tarantula. The finish comes when Tajiri kicks Funaki hard in the back of the head. Winner: Tajiri Albert vs. Scotty Cruz Albert comes out and cuts a promo on Toronto saying the people here are fat and lazy. They should be more like him, hairy and sexy. This match was dull to say the least, and the fans were yelling at the guys to speed up and finish the match. Typical Albert style match up. Albert hits the big boot for the pin. Afterwards, he comes back down and hits the Baldo Bomb, much to the delight of the crowd, for no apparent reason. Winner: Albert Shannon Moore (who was announced as Shane More) vs. Crash Very interesting before the match, the announcers left the table and went backstage. This may be a dark match but they will probably dub it back at the studios later. Again, another Cruiser style match up. What you would expect from Crash and a guy who could use a bit more seasoning in Shannon . Shannon went for a nice looking top rope moonsault in the match. Finish came when Crash rolled him up, and had his hands on the rope for the 1-2-3 . Winner: Crash Smackdown Results Tazz’s music hits and he comes out with Cole. They announce Cole as Birthday Boy Michael Cole. They then cut to the back where there is an in house promo by D-Von and Ron Simmons. They put down Toronto and say they want to go out there, kick some ass and then get as fast as they can back to America . The WWE Intro goes, and we get a recap video of the Lesnar / Taker feud from last week. Pyro goes off and Smackdown begins. Tag Team Tournament Semi-Final Match Edge and Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Ron Simmons and D-Von Edge got a real big pop being a hometown hero (although he was really from Orangeville). (As a side note, some people around me were saying that Christian may be his partner because he arrived with Edge to the show (according to them), being that they are both from the area, which was obviously wrong). Good match for Edge and Misterio, and a GREAT Match for Simmons and D-Von. Some key spots occurred when Rey went early for the 619 but D-Von ducked and he went right into a Spinebuster. Rey hit a nice plancha dropkick during the contest. The finish was hot, as there was first a visionary when Edge speared D-Von in the corner and Rey hit the West Coast Pop for a 2 count. Edge speared D-Von out and hits the Edge-O-Cution for the 3 on Simmons. After the match, the Guerrero’s came out and beat up Rey and Edge. Eddie hit the Frog Splash, and they went to the back. Winner, and advancing to No Mercy Finals: Edge and Rey Misterio Jr. We cut to the back and Funaki is interviewing Tajiri who is wearing an referee outfit. (Note: This got fans mad because the two just had a match). Nidia came over and said she was going to come out on top tonight, just like she does in bed. Noble comes over and they get into each others faces. The Ultimate Warriors theme song starts and we see a video of him for the upcoming WWE CD (Note: I cant wait to get my hands on this, it is going to have over 80 WWF/WWE songs on it, from the 80’s to Today) A Special Boyfriend vs. Girlfriend Match (That is what they called it) Jamie Noble (c) vs. Nidia This was a real bad match. Nidia did show some Tough Enough talent, but it was the typical Boy vs. Girl match. Noble roles up Nidia for the pin. Nidia gets mad that she lost and attacks Tajiri. Tajiri then goes to attack Nidia but Noble saves her, and the two double team him. They do the gimmick where they aren’t sure if they should get together or not, and then we have a big make out session in the ring. Winner: Jamie Noble They show a clip of the Taker in the back getting ready for an interview. After a small break, we cut to the back and we have a Taker interview, where he says that girl we saw last week was his girlfriend 7 years ago before Sara (wasn’t he from the dead back then, with Paul Bearer?). Anyways, he then goes on to say he is going to win Hell in a Cell on Sunday. We see a Hell in a Cell promo which has been aired on TV for the last few weeks… The WWE has some trouble and is able to air 10 seconds of a promo that John Cena cut on Kidman. We got the good part though where he says that Kidman better get used to loosing, cause he tapped out last week and he will once again this week. Kidman vs. John Cena This match was decent but the crowd wasn’t into it. I think the surprising turn of Cena for no reason made the fans sit on their hands. That and word was making round in the arena that the Leafs were losing, which prompted a Go Leafs Go chant to start up during the match. We do get some good Cruiser stuff, and the finish comes when Cena roles up Kidman and uses the ropes for leverage. Winner: John Cena Heyman and company come into Steph's Office. They demand that Taker has to have his cast removed before the PPV because Lesnar is the future of Smackdown. Lesnar has been champion for 4 months, will continue to be champion for 4 months, and will still be champion 4 months after that. He also says that Matt Hardy version 1 is the future as Taker is someone holding on, to a once shinning star. Chuck Palumbo vs. Brock Lesnar (c) This match was all Lesnar, so Toronto fans chanted Goldberg. Chuck did get two Superkicks in that stunned the big man, but Lesnar hit a back breaker, held on and then made it into a F5 to retain the title. Taker comes out and beats up on Lesnar with the cast. Lesnar begins to blade. Security come out and try to stop Taker but they get decked. He goes back to Lesnar and beats him some more. Then out come all the Indy guys from the beginning of the night and they get laid out as well. Taker finally leaves, after Heyman is able to grab Lesnar out of the ring during the brawl. Winner: Brock Lesnar The crowd realizes that Toronto Raptor player The Junk Yard Dog is at ringside and pops for the home town player. We go backstage to see Torrie Wilson wearing some good looking attire. She sees her dad walking backstage with flowers. He says he wanted to see her baby wrestle, and gives her flowers. She tells him that she should stay away from Dawn Marie, because he is on the rebound from getting divorced from his wife. Dawn Marie and Matt Hardy version 1 vs. Rikishi and Torrie Wilson Dawn came out first followed by Matt Hardy, who now has a count down like entrance, similar to Jericho ’s. (It is at WWE.com and it says Wrestler: Matt Hardy Keyword: Version 1 and then shows a status bar loading up, then his music hits.) This match was very funny and at one point, when Rikishi went for the double stink face, Hardy put Dawns face in front of his. As the ref went to escort out Rikishi, Torrie rolled up Dawn, but Hardy rolled Marie on top for the three. After the match, Rikishi beats up on Hardy and goes for the stink face. Wilson says she wants to do it, and Hardy gets ready for the time of his life. After closing his eyes, she puts Rikishi’s as instead of hers. Winner: Dawn Marie and Matt Hardy version 1 We go to the back where Lesnar is with EMT’s. He tells Heyman to go tell Steph that Taker has to lose the cast. We then go to a Benoit and Guerrero’s promo, which is very funny. First, Eddie says he didn’t do it, and then starts talking his way into a whole. Since Chris wont say anything to him, Eddie starts to break down and cry, and Chavo says Chris should feel bad for what he did to his friend. Must see promo Heyman goes to Stephs office and she says she will decide later tonight. Cole and Tazz rundown the PPV lineup. Only addition is Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie. We then get a promo between Angle and Benoit where Angle says he didn’t attack Benoit. He says they better be on the same page tonight, because he doesn’t want to lose a year of his career. He also goes on saying he doesn’t need a year to train for the Olympics because he is Kurt Angle. Another promo between Torrie Wilson. She goes to get her dads flowers from someone backstage, but the lady says the card is for Dawn and not her. She starts looking for her dad, and enters the Heel Woman’s Locker Room. She sees her fathers clothes, and goes into the shower. The curtain is closed and see fears the worse. When she opens it, we see a naked Dawn Marie (back to the camera) and Wilson ’s father, wearing clothes, making out in the shower. Torrie runs off, breaking down. We go back to the shower, and her father doesn’t know what to do, but Dawn has a smirk on her face. Tag Team Tournament Semi-Final Match Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit vs. The Guerrero Family (Eddie and Chavo) As the Chavo and Eddie come down, they get attacked by Edge and Rey. Angle and Benoit attack Edge and Rey once the two disposed of Eddie and Chavo and both are hit with the twos signature moves. At this point they will probably go to a commercial break. From this point on, we see the match of the year (non-gimmicked tag team match category). Way to many spots but the match goes over 20+ minutes. The crowd was on the edge of their seat throughout and were really happy with this match. The finish came with a ref bumb that took out Chris and Chavo. Angle but Eddie in the Angle Lock, and then Chavo brought in a chair. He goes to use it, but Benoit stops him. He says he will hit Angle, but then hits Chavo. Angle then hits the Angle slam for the three. If you don’t normally watch Smackdown, make a point of watching this match somehow. It was really good live, cant wait to see how it came out on TV. Winner: Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit At this point, the fans began to leave, thinking the show was over. After a quick 30 second break, we see Steph backstage so people sit back down. She says that she made a decision about the cast on the Taker, but she will say it out in the ring. They aired a Trish Stratus Desire Video, but it wasn’t the complete product and it looked like a work in progress. Something wrong occurred, and the man who does ring side production began to scurry around, and got Tazz to come in the ring and do a survey to kill some time. Stephanie comes out and says asks for Lesnar to come out. She says on one hand, Lesnar broke Takers hand. On the other, Taker is using the Cast as a weapon. But in all of this, Hell in a Cell has no rules. So she says he is aloud to have the cast. Lesnar puts Steph in the corner and scares her, almost kissing her, but not doing so. Taker comes out and Lesnar attacks. Lesnar and Heyman double team Taker, but Lesnar leaves and Heyman doesn’t. Taker begins to destroy Heyman for a good 15 minutes, some of to be seen on TV, some of it not to be. After Lesnar left, Taker choke slammed Heyman. Heyman then sold for a good 10 more minutes, which was really funny, cause he was badly blading. The ref put the mic to Heymans mouth and he said he hates coming to Canada . He continues to run his mouth and he crawls up the ramp. Near the top of the ramp, the fans chant Asshole and Heyman says that anyone from New York isn’t an Asshole. End of show Approx time: 3 hrs and 15 mins Some Notes in Brief: Overall a good show. The only problem was they had commercial breaks. Cant they just add them later. The show could have been done in 2 hrs and it would have made the flow a lot better as well. The story line progression was ok and the matches were good. It seemed that the cheap areas were sold out, but the expensive seats were not. Also, they rose merchandise prices to 30.00 Cdn, which got me mad. The exchange was 50%!!!. From Toronto , Canada , the home of Mania X8 Adam Lebow Adam Gilbert sent this report. Hey, I just got back from Smackdown in Toronto and here's what happened: Two guys I didn't recognize def. Mark Jindrak and Bull Buchanan (who looked A LOT slimmer) We got in during the middle of this match due to a screw-up with our tickets that involved our section being tarped off. So we FINALLY were given other tickets to comp us, but there wasn't much special in this match. Interesting finisher used by one of the winners as it was a leg submission that is really hard to describe! I hope someone can! Scott Vick def. local jobber Didn't catch the name of the hometown guy due to the LOUD roar he got from the crowd when they announced him as being from Toronto. Nice to see Scott Vick is still working since I hadn't heard anything on him in quite some time. Once again, nothing special here, good solid work though from Vick. He finished him off with a wristlock(!) of all things though. They should move him up to TV soon if they can find him a finisher Val Venis def. Shelton Benjamin I have to agree, Benjamin's video is hilarious. Val missed the Money Shot to put him away and they seemed to screw up the spot after that. Val then won with the Blue Thunder Bomb Velocity: Tajiri def. Funaki Funaki cuts a promo telling Tajiri that maybe people would like him more if he didn't make so many ugly faces and smiled more. Funny stuff. Tajiri wins with the KICK TO THE HEAD. Thankfully, we managed to get a huge "Sho Funaki" chant in before it was over Albert def. Another local jobber Albert cuts a promo before the match talking about how Canadians are fat and ugly and how he's so sexy with all his fur. Yeah. Deafening "Shave your back" chants early in this one. Went too long for our liking though. Crash Holly def. Shannon Moore Nothing good here. All attempts at "Elroy" chants didn't work. This match really killed the crowd before Smackdown Smackdown: D-Von and Ron Simmons cut a backstage promo full of cheap heat just to piss us off at them. Just in case we forgot that Edge and Rey Mysterio were the faces. Edge and Rey Mysterio def. D-Von and Ron Simmons Amazingly enough, our attempt at a "Faarooq, Faarooq, Faarooq is on fire, we don't need no water, let the motherf*****s burn!" chant didn't catch on! It's such a simple one too! All the usual spots here to set up the finish of Edge hitting the Edgecution for the win. Eddy and Chavo beat them down after the match. Funaki starts to do an interview backstage when Tajiri shows up, apparently ready to become Smackdown #1 Referee. Well he would get his chance in the next match which was Nidia against Jamie Noble. Nidia and Noble argue backstage, recapping their issue from last week. Jamie Noble def. Nidia Nidia attacks Noble right off the bat just wildly flailing at him. That's pretty much all she does for most of the match. Noble ends up with the win off a roll-up. After the match, Nidia accidently hits Tajiri when he tries to help her, since she thought it was Jamie. Tajiri takes offense and goes to attack her, but Noble saves her and they make up. Undertaker talks backstage admitting he knew the girl from last week but that he hadn't seen her in 7 years, so there was no way he was cheating on Sara w/ her. He goes on and on about something or other but I wasn't interested and neither was the audience as the "What?" chants got going again. John Cena cut a quick backstage promo about how Kidman was the reason he lost last week in the tag tourney. This leads into the next match John Cena def. Billy Kidman We managed to get a pretty good "Cena Sucks" chant going, but this was clearly the bathroom break match as many people got up to go. Kidman went for the Shooting Star Press but it was turned into a facebuster from the top. Cena wins with a roll-up and the feet on the ropes. More backstage stuff from Brock, Heyman and Steph about the cheating stuff (which gets dropped FAST) and Taker's cast being used as a weapon in Hell In The Cell. Brock Lesnar def. Chuck Palumbo Good match from these two which surprised me. Started slowly but picked up towards the end. Cool spot as Chuck was in the tree of woe but when Lesnar charged him, Chuck got his legs free and dropkicked Lesnar. Chuck later hit him with two straight Jungle Kicks but Lesnar managed to get his hand on the rope. Finished Palumbo clean with the F5. Undertaker then ran down and attacked Lesnar, busting his head open with the cast. Taker then attacked a few officials as well. Torrie was backstage talking w/ her father about the kiss he got from Dawn Marie last week when her father gave her some flowers. Matt Hardy and Dawn Marie def. Rikishi and Torrie Wilson Matt's entrance video is HILARIOUS. Just make sure you watch it if you see a show live. Towards the end of the match, Rikishi goes to do a double stinkface on Matt and Dawn, but Matt pushes Dawn's face into Rikishi's butt to save himself. Win comes when Torrie cradles Dawn, but Matt rolls them over to give his team the win. After the match, Matt is about to receive the stinkface when Torrie stops Rikishi and goes to do it herself, which Matt is all for. Then when Matt closes his eyes, Torrie moves and Rikishi delivers it. HUGE pops for the stinkface. More backstage stuff w/ Lesnar, Heyman and Steph. Torrie finds her dad w/ Dawn Marie in the shower and is SHOCKED AND APPALLED. Eddy and Chavo find Benoit backstage. PROMO OF THE YEAR from Eddy. Benoit doesn't say a word and Eddy is gold. You just have to watch this. More Steph and Taker Angle and Benoit in a very similar promo to the one w/ Eddy, with Angle playing Eddy's part. More hilarity ensues. FINALLY we get back to a match after the crowd has been killed! Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit def. Eddy and Chavo Guerrero Outstanding match from these guys. Edge and Rey beat down both teams before the match even starts. Starts off slow but really picks up towards the ending. Finish comes when Chavo tries to convince Benoit to hit Angle with the chair and Benoit agrees but was just tricking Chavo and ends up hitting Chavo and Eddy. Angle hits the Angle Slam on Eddy for the win and it looks like Angle and Benoit are on the same page together. That's downright scary! Angle was turned into a MAJOR face by the crowd here as huge "We Want Angle" chants actually managed to drown out the "Angle Sucks" chants that were present at times. The Main Event Interview: Steph brings out Heyman and Lesnar to tell them she's decided to let Undertaker wear his cast in the cell at No Mercy. Lesnar is upset and is about to attack Steph when Taker makes the save. Lesnar however gives him a big spinebuster and walks away. Heyman, however, goes to kick Taker but is caught and Taker starts pounding him. Brock gets cut off from saving Heyman as Taker pounds them both. Finally Brock leaves a bloodied Heyman in the ring but stares down Taker from the top of the ramp. This is where the cameras cut off. Taker then stands around for a while before starting to leave. Then he returns to chase the refs from helping Heyman. Then he goes in and acts all nice to Heyman by putting his hat back on and helping him up. Heyman keeps trying to escape though. Taker stands on his foot to stop him and Heyman starts screaming in pain... he even taps out! Good stuff. Taker finally chokeslams him and bows(!) to the crowd before leaving. Tony Chimel then asks us to give it up for Paul Heyman! Then we get the usual good-bye speech and we all start to leave. BUT, Heyman's not done yet. They put the mic to his face and we get "Ugh.... Ugh... Ugh.... Ugh... Oww... Oww... Oww... Owww... Oww.... Oww.... I... I... I... I... I... I Hate Canada" which gets booed loudly by the remaining people. He then stumbles around for a while and starts crawling up the ramp. We all go to leave again and he starts up again "I.... I.... I.... I.... I could come out there.. right now and kick all your asses!" Well this prompts the first asshole chant of the night. Took us long enough! Heyman said there are no assholes in New York. Then for one last bit we got "I.... I.... I... I... I... think you suck!" At which point they cut his mic off so we could finally leave. Overall, the few bright spots made the show great but the overkill in Heyman/Lesnar/Steph/Taker skits and the commercial breaks killed the crowd. Other comments: Ultimate Warrior's music was used for the Anthology commercial tonight In Toronto, Rocky still sucks This show was brought to you by The Ring, Tower Of Power HX Series and Taco Bell (Oh yeah!) The building was probably about 90% full (at least the non-tarped areas). Pete Elkerbout sent this report. Here are the Smackdown details from tonight's taping in Toronto ON. Dark Matches: 1. I came in late and missed a dark tag match. 2. Scott Vick (I wonder if he's related to Katie Vick? ;-) ) over some local guy with "Text Book" written on his tights. 3. Big Valbowski (he's really from around here even if his "hometown" is listed as Vegas) d. Shelton Benjamin at 6:10 via an arm submission move. Ok match with Val getting most of the offense in this one. Velocity tapings: 1. Tajiri beat Funaki at 3:55 with the superkick. Decent match with lots of reversals, but like all cruiser matches, it was too damn short. These guys seem to really work well together. 2. Albert cut a heel promo on the crowd about how sexy he is. Lots of shave your back chants. He beat another local whipping boy (Tommy Cruise? I asked the people I was with and we couldn't even agree on what the frst name sounded like) at 4:41 with a big boot. Post match saw Albert deliver the Baldo Bomb for good measure. 3. Crash defeated Shannon Moore at 5:31 with a sort of sunset flip move in the corner. Crash had his feet on the ropes for the pin. Crowd was dead for this match, and the match kind of sucked because Crash really doesn't wrestle the cruiserweight style. He's just a really small guy that wrestles a regular style - how does he keep getting the cruiser matches while Noble has defended the belt maybe once in the past 4 or 5 weeks? (And why are there two women's matches on the next PPV but no cruiser matches??) End of Velocity. Before Smackdown officially starts, a clip is shown of D'Von and Ron Simmons cutting a heel promo on Toronto. They do the usual complaining about the local city and then mention how they can't wait to return home for some good beer. Cheap heat, but at least it gets the crowd going for Smackdown. Tazz and Cole arrive, the announce that Tazz is the birthday boy tonight! Smackdown starts, the pyro goes off and everyone's ready to go. 1. Edge (home town boy!) & Rey Mysterio d. D'Von & Ron Simmons at 4:35 when Edge hit the Edge-cution (can't remember on who). Decent match with a good crowd reaction. Great start to the show. Post match saw the Guerrero's run in for a beat down on the faces. Eddie is nursing a nasty looking black eye complete with stitches. Don't know where he picked that up. - Clip shown of Funaki, Tajiri, Nidia & Noble backstage. Nidia says she's gonna fight Noble because of their argument last week, Tajiri will be special ref. Funaki was being the nuber one announcer. 2. Jamie Noble d. Nidia @ 1:59 with Tajiri as special guest referee. Very quick match, nothing surprising. Post match saw Nidia and Tajiri arguing about something, which led to Noble beating down Tajiri and Nidia and Noble reconciling over their differences. Nidia always plays her character so well. Undertaker vignette - nothing of note to pass along, your standard fare from the American Bad Ass. Quick heel clip of Cena shown where he burns on Kidman for losing their tag match last week, saying that Kidman should get used to losing. 3. John Cena wearing the Toronto blue and white colours (why? Isn't he supposed to be a heel now?) d. Billy Kidman @ 6:47 with his feet on the ropes. Good match, but the crowd was DEAD for this one. I can't figure it out... weeks ago Kidman was getting pops like mad and now he doesn't seem to matter. Steph backstage vignette. She sends Heyman's girl Tracy home (the one who claims to have had an affair with UT). Break. Undertaker vignette. I don't know if it's this one or one of the other clips of his tonight but at sme point he explains that he dated this girl Tracy many many years ago, even before he met his wife. 4. Brock Lesnar d. Chuck Palumbo @ 6:25 with the F5. Chuck got in some decent offense, this certainly wasn't the squash match I expected. Post-match saw Undertaker come down and bust Brock open with his cast. Crowd popped pretty big for that. Backstage clip shown of Torrie and her dad again. He had some flowers for her, how cute. 5. Dawn Marie & Mattitude d. Torrie Wilson & Rikishi at about 3 minutes when Matt helped Dawn Marie pin Torrie. At one point Matt and Dawn Marie were in the corner and Rikishi went for the stinkface. Matt let Dawn Marie take the brunt of that one. Post match saw Torrie tease a stinkface on Matt, and when he closed his eyes Rikishi made the switch and gave him his just desserts. I love Matt's new gimmick and I was totally marking out for him. Backstage clip of Lesnar and Heyman talking with Steph. They want 'Taker to remove his cast for the HIAC match since they say it gives him an unfair advantage. Backstage clip of Eddie and Chavo heading into Benoit's dressing room. Benoit is silent throughout and Eddie is hilarious when talking about the beating last week and denying any role in it. Another clip of Heyman, Lesnar and Steph. Steph says that she'll announce her decision about the cast in the ring. I didn't think it was that big of a deal but she seems to think it is. Somewhere else in there Undertaker visits her and tells her that since Lesnar put him in the cast, he should be allowed to use it. He gets angry and smashes a lamp. Pretty scary. Backstage clip of Angle and Benoit. Once again Benoit is totally silent looking tough and Angle does all the talking. He says is Benoit thinks he's going to train for the Olympics, he's so good that he doesn't need a year for that. 6. Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle d. Eddie & Chavo Guerrero at about the 12 minute mark when Angle hit the Angle slam on Eddie shortly after a Ref bump. Match of the night here easily, great action and a hot crowd was getting behind Angle and Benoit. Lots of pro-Angle chants in there with the usual anti-Angle chants. After much delaying, Stephanie comes out to make her announcement in front of the audience. She calls out Heyman and Lesnar and tells them that UT will be allowed to wear the cast in their HIAC match at No Mercy. I should have just left after the main event match because this dragged on as a waste of time. How is someone's cast worth this much attention? They're playing it up like it's some huge announcement but it's a minor match stipulation. Anyway, of course UT comes out and lays the beats on Brock and Heyman. UT keeps tossing Brock out of the ring so he can beat on Heyman. Heyman gets busted open and eventually Lesnar leaves the ring by himself. Not sure when the taping cut off, but after Heyman sold for many minutes, Undertaker gave him one last chokeslam before leaving. Overall it was a decent show but I think that last October's Smackdown show was better overall. The crowd was pretty OK, even if they were DEAD for the cruiser and cena/kidman matches. There were also LOTS of empty spots, with the entire upper deck on the dark side being tarped off. There weren't any signs that were particularly clever, but someone had the clever idea of bringing a white board and they made different signs throughout the show. Steve Birnie sent this report. Greetings from Toronto! Just got back from the Smackdown taping on Oct 15. A decent show, with some definite highlights. Also, the most poorly attended WWE Toronto show in a long time--the upper deck, on the side of the stationary camera, was almost empty. When I went to RAW in May, I sat up there and ALL the seats were sold. WWE always draws great in Toronto, and if they're not even selling out here--hoo boy! Here are the results: The show kicked off, as usual, with the Desire video of WWE/F highlights. I've seen it many times, but it is still an extremely well done piece. Tony Chimel did all the usual announcements (laser pens, photography, etc.), before turning over the mic to the new announcer (whose name I'm afraid I don't know, though he does a decent People's eyebrow). Dark matches: Bull Buchanan and guy whose name I didn't catch (The Big something-or-other) vs. RC Haas and another guy whose name I didn't catch. Haas got The Big ? to submit to a submission move that looked something like a cross between an Indian deathlock and a Boston Crab. Scott Vick (?) vs. another guy whose name I didn't catch. The opponent was announced as being from Toronto, which prompted a roar from the crowd that drowned out his name. Vig won with a version of the Snowplow. Sheldon Benjamin vs. the Big Valbowski The first solid match of the night, though they blew a spot where Benjamin was apparently supposed to slingshot Valbowski into a bow-and-arrow. Val won via submission. At this point, Michael Cole and Mark Lloyd were introduced, and Velocity was underway, after mucho pyro. Tajiri vs. Funaki Funaki gave Tajiri a lesson in face psychology, explaining that he shouldn't make so many faces, but just smile a lot if he wanted to win over the fans. A typically entertaining Tajiri match, featuring lots of stiff kicks. Tajiri finally won after attempting a kick, countering a Funaki reversal and hitting a kick to the head. Albert vs. Billy Bruise Again, not sure of the name there. He was also announced as from Toronto. Man, I know I haven't been to an indy show in seven months, but I didn't know ANY of these 'Toronto' guys. Albert did some mic work to get some cheap heat (berating the obesity of the audience, saying how sexy his fur was) A Superstars-type match: Albert dominated though there was one decent false finish after a missle dropkick. Albert wom with the boot to the head. He beat down Bruise afterwards, delivering the Albert Bomb. Billy wasn't done for the night, though. After that, Cole and Lloyd left, which I guess means the next match was a dark match. Shannon Moore vs. Crash The crowd was dead here. Crash tried to draw heel heat, but since the crowd was more interested in him, all that did was kill the crowd. Crash won with a roll-up, his feet on the ropes. Before the Smackdown intro, a promo was aired of Ron Simmons and D-Von, slagging Canadians and singing the praises of American beer (ha!). This later prompted the 12 year old behind me to sing the praises of Canuck brew. The less said about that the better... A Brock/Undertaker recap from last week, followed by the intro and pyro, and Smackdown! was underway. Edge and Rey Mysterio vs. Ron Simmons and D-Von Straight to a match! Lovely. Solid little match--crowd was of course way into homeboy Edge, as well as Mysterio. Mysterio is a joy to watch live. At one point, he and Edge did a nice catapult/rana move. Edge and Rey won when Edge hit the Edgecution of D-Von. After, the Guerreros came out to beat down Edge and Rey. Cut to Funaki, who introduces the newest WWE official, Tajiri (any animosity from their Velocity match apparently forgottten, I guess). Nidia appears, and complains about Jamie Noble. Noble arrives to retort, receiving a slap to the face for his trouble. This leads to the next match (after commercial break).. Noble vs. Nidia for the cruiserweight title. Tajiri is the ref. Just a throwaway match, with Noble shying away from hurting Nidia. The end comes with Noble pinning up Nidia. Afterwards, Nidia gets into a dispute with Tajiri, resulting in Noble and Nidia beating down the rookie ref. They make out afterwards, proving that indeed love conquers all. Undertaker is then shown in the back, preparing for an interview. Back from a commercial break, UT does an interview. He says that while he DID get busy with Tracy, it was years ago, long before he got married. He promises to put Lesnar through hell. John Cena does an interview, where he blames Kidman for the loss in their tag match last week. Commercial break. John Cena vs. Billy Kidman Decent match, but the crowd wasn't into it, save for some half-hearted 'Cena sucks' chants. The teased a shooting start spot, which also popped the crowd. Cena won via backslide, following Crash's lead by putting his feet on the ropes. Cut to Stephanie's office, which is promptly invaded by Lesnar, Heyman and Tracy. Tracy claims that UT lied and she was getting down with him just 10 days ago. Stephanie's response is to kick Tracy out of the building. Heyman and Lesnar then complain about UT wearing a cast, and using it on Brock last week. They insist UT should be forced to remove the cast before the match on Sunday. Stephanie says she'll think about it for..ohh..the next 90 minutes. Commercial break. Back in Steffo's office, which is now invaded by the Undertaker. He calls Tracy a liar (is Steph a shrink or lawyer or something now?) and smashes the cast a lamp with the deadly cast. I believe it was a gift from Randy Orton before his departure to RAW. Some kind of family heirloom... Yet another commercial. Brock Lesnar vs. Chuck Palumbo. Lesnar comes out first. Palumbo has ditched the red tights for a pair that says 'CP' on them (in honour of a now defunct Canadian railroad). A false finish is teased when Palumbo delivers two jungle kicks and pins Brock. Brock, however, grabs the ropes. The match ends when Brock delivers side breaker and quickly turns it into an F5. UT rushes the ring and beats down Brock. He smacks Brock with the lethal cast, resulting in Brock blading. Officials come down to pull off UT (including Billy Bruise from the earlier dark match), but feel the wrath of the cast. Brock retreats from the ring, and we cut to commercial. Back from commercial and backstage, Torrie runs into her father. He warns her father that, even though he is divorced, he should stay away from Dawn Marie. Dad responds by giving Torrie a bouquet. She shows her appreciation by passing them off to the makeup lady, as her match is NEXT (after the commercial break--blegh). Dawn Marie and Matt Hardy version 1.0 vs. Rikishi and Torrie Wilson Funny spot as Keesh gets Matt and Dawn down in the corner and prepares for the Stinkface. Matt pushes Dawn's face forward so she can take one for the team. Other than that, nothing to write home about. Dawn Marie pins Torrie. Afterwards, Keesh again gets Matt down in the corner. Torrie asks to deliver the stinkface, prompting Matt to close his eyes and invite her to proceed (smart man!). Torrie then reliquishes the honours (Canadian spelling!) to Rikishi. Oh, the irony. Backstage, Lesnar is getting stitched up. Both her and Heyman complain about UT's use of the cast of doom. Lesnar sends Heyman off to Steffo's office to again make their case. Commercial. The Guerreros wander backstage to their dressing room, which is dark. They flip on the lights, and there is Chris Benoit, staring a hole in them. Eddie claims he wasn't the one who clocked Benoit last week. He reminds Chris of their defecting from WCW together, and their switch from RAW to Smackdown, also done together. Eddie gets himself into quite a hissy fit, until Chavo finally has to lead him away. Benoit just glares, while Chavo tells him 'Shame on you!' Commercial Back to Steffo's office, where Heyman is having his own hissy fit. He insists UT remove the lethal cast prior to Sunday's match. Steph says she is still thinking about it (She was! I could hear both brain cells rubbing together from my seat!) A plug for No Mercy is run, showing all the matches. Only new addition appears to be Dawn Marie vs. Torrie Wilson. There may be a stipulation to this match, but since the Smackdown! screens don't show the graphics at the bottom, I've no idea what it might be. By the way, I guess WWE isn't shelling out to get the rights to a song by a legit band for this PPV. The 'official song' that ran during the plug sounded like some generic tune created in-house. Angle encounters Benoit, who is still doing the staring bit. Angle also professes innocence. Of note, he makes mention of taking year off for the Olympics (though he wouldn't need a year, he claims), so I guess that is unfortunately inevitable. Commercial break. Backstage, Torrie Wilson asks the makeup lady for her bouquet. The makeup lady explains that the card with the bouquet is addressed to Dawn Marie. Torrie goes hunting for her pop, eventually finding him in the shower with Dawn Marie. Thankfully, his shirt is still on. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't reveal if Dawn's is or not. Torrie runs away crying. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit vs. The Guerreros I should mention at this point that the crowd was hot for Angle all night, chanting his name during commercial breaks and such (when they weren't chanting 'Go Leafs Go'). His entrance got the pop of the night, though of course the crowd was obliged to chant 'You suck!' during his entrance music. It's just expected. Before the match, Edge and Rey attacked the Guerreros, while Angle and Benoit looked on with bemusement. Eventually, Angle and Benoit jumped Edge and Rey and threw them into the ring. Edge and Rey then quickly turned the tide, with Edge spearing Angle and Rey hitting the 619 on Benoit. Again, Rey is just poetry in motion. Not surprisingly, this was the match of the night. After all, the WWE's three best wrestlers (Angle, Benoit, Eddie--and Chavo's not too shabby either) were in it. Benoit played Ricky Morton for much of the match, which just got the crowd chanting for Angle even more, until the big pop for the hot tag. Closing sequence--Eddie goes to the top, Angle goes for the climb-the-ropes suplex. Eddie throws him off, and then hits the frog splash. Benoit then pounces on Eddie and applies the crossface. Chavo breaks it up, and after a bit of a melee the ref gets bumped and he, Chavo and Benoit end up on the floor. Eddie then applies a variation of the Texas cloverleaf, which Angle escapes and turns into an ankle lock. Still no ref though. Chavo goes to clock Angle with a chair, but Benoit grabs it. Chavo and Benoit shake hands at that point, however, and Chavo encourages Benoit to give Angle a shot. Benoit instead waffles both Guerreros, Angle gives Eddie the Angle slam and that's all she wrote. So it's Edge/Rey vs. Angle/Benoit at the PPV. As they walk off Angle tries to be chummy with Benoit, who is his usual stoic (and staring!) self. Cut backstage to Mark Lloyd who asks Steph about the burning issue of the day: the Undertaker's cast of death. Steph says she'll announce her decision in the ring, right after this word from our sponsors (ok, she didn't say the last part). Commercial break. Steph goes to the ring and invites Lesnar and Heyman out. After playing coy for a minute or two, she says UT can keep the cast on Sunday. Lesnar reacts by backing Steph into the corner and then...getting really creepy. He sniffs her hair and acts like he's going to kiss her or something (sorry Brock, you're the wrong champion for that duty). UT runs out for the save, but gets a spinebuster for his trouble. Brock also stomps on the 'broken' hand of Taker. Brock walks up the ramp, but Heyman stays behind to berate Taker. UT then gets up and now clocks Heyman. This results in HEYMAN doing a blade job (well, probably a blood pack, but anyway). Taker invites Brock back, but Brock, after getting smacked on his way in, respectfully declines. After this, the cameras probably stopped rolling. Taker just kind of wandered around for a while, headed up the ramp, posed, then came back to the ring and chokeslammed Heyman. And that's all, folks. Again, decent show (Angle, Benoit and Guerrero, as always, make Smackdown! worthwhile). Biggest face pops: 1) Angle 2) Edge 3) Mysterio 4) Undertaker Shots of the women, of course, got big pops Biggest heel heat: 1) Eddie 2) Lesnar (he'd be number 1, but he ALSO got some decent face reaction) 3) Matt Hardy 4) Albert (cause there's nothing meaner than a 'shave your back' chant) Email me at stevebirnie@rogers.com. Adam Masson sent this report. Dark Matches 2 No names beat Bull Buchanan and some other no name Two other no names fought as well Big Valbowski beat Shelton Benjamin Velocity Albert beat some guy from Toronto , assaulted him after the match Funaki beat Tajiri Crash beat Shannon Moore Smackdown (not sure the order) Show opened with Rey and Edge vs. D-Von and Ron Simmons in the Tag Team Tournament. Rey and Edge won, but Eddie and Chavo ran in at the end and beat them up. Jamie Noble beat Nidia in a grudge match, Tajiri was the ref. After the match, Nidia slapped Tajiri and he was about to kick her, but Jamie Noble and Nidia beat him up. Then they kissed and made up. Backstage, Brock and Paul Heyman were in Stephanie’s office. They wanted the Undertaker’s cast removed before Hell in a cell. She said she’d think about it John Cena beat Kidman, crowd was all over Cena. Undertaker was mad that Brock and Heyman wanted his cast removed, Steph said she looks out for their best interest, and that Taker was using his cast as an offensive weapon. Taker smashed her lamp and said he’s show her offence. Brock beat Chuck, then taker ran in and beat up Brock with his cast. Brock was getting stiched up in the back and sent Heyman to ask Steph about the decision. He went in yelling at Stephanie and she told him to calm down and she still would tell them later on. Torrie Wilson saw her dad and questioned him about Dawn Marie, he told her that there was nothing going on and gave her some flowers. Matt Hardy and Dawn Marie beat Rikishi and Torrie Wilson. Torrie came back to get her flowers but the person who was looking after them said they were for Dawn Marie. Torrie then looked around for her dad, and caught him in the shower with Dawn Marie. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit beat Eddie and Chavo. At the beginning of the match, Edge and Rey attacked the Guererros. Crowd was really into Angle. Great match. Steph came out to the ring and called out Brock and Heyman. She told them that after considering what Taker’s been doing, as well as knowing that Brock broke Taker’s hand, she said that Taker can wear his cast in the match. Brock then looked like he was going to attack Steph, but Taker came out and beat up Brock and destroyed Heyman. Brock kept trying to come in, but Taker kept knocking him down. Show ended with Brock at the top of the ramp, bloodied up, starting down with Taker, who was in the ring.