Even though last night’s Smackdown tapings were long, I had a great time.
Tremendous night if, like me, you were a Hardy fan. Four matches, four wins.
A ladder was placed underneath the ring before the tapings began. The Mayor of Manchester was introduced and shown on the titantron. Most people booed her LOL.
Referee Charles Robinson got some Ric Flair chants and he did a little strut before one of the matches.
The pre-show dark match was Chavo Guerrero vs Ryan Braddock. Good heat for Chavo. No-one knew who Braddock (now with shorter hair) was. Braddock busted out a nice looking leg lariat early on, but it was Chavo who picked up the win following a frog splash.
The Jeff Hardy titantron promo you’ll see on Friday was very eerie and dark, but ultimately very good and edgy. The combination of Jeff’s facepaint and the lighting reminded me of the Joker from the Dark Knight.
Based on their matches I wouldn’t be surprised to see something involving Matt Hardy, Mark Henry, Shelton Benjamin, R-Truth, The Colons, Brian Kendrick and Ezekiel Jackson at Survivor Series.
Before the contract signing, Vickie Guerrero accidentally said ‘Survival Series’ and Triple H’s mic initially didn’t work. These will be edited out come Friday.
Kung Fu-Naki’s titantron is very funny. Not a good night for MVP. Beaten twice in quick fashion, with one of those times being by a British indy worker (James Mason). He must really be in the doghouse. Not sure if the Kiss Cam woman was a plant. She ad-libbed the rolling around with MVP quite well. Great Khali received a great response on both of his appearances and Runjin Singh did a great job in working the crowd and getting several ‘Khali’ chants started.
Michelle McCool received her fair share of boos including from me.
J.R and Tazz went to the back for a brief costume change before the second hour started at around 9:30pm. The second hour was more tag team based. Announcer Justin Roberts informed us Jeff Hardy was getting a title shot on the show. Vickie Guerrero corrected him and said it was Jeff’s chance to turn the Survivor Series match into a triple threat.
At the start of the second taping, R-Truth came out past my row on the rafters. I was placed halfway in and tried running to greet him but he’d just gone past. Lots of ‘What’s Up’ chants, and he was very over.
John Morrison didn’t seem to chime the bell loud enough on the two occasions he used it to mess with Festus. Festus sold it both times. They’ll probably dub that in during post-production.
Lots of families started to leave at various points during the second tapings, due to tiredness and needing to travel home.
The guy who gets his drink knocked away by The Brian Kendrick backstage, was the local who jobbed to Mark Henry on this week’s ECW.
I was really happy that I got to see the Bella twins perform. They rank up there with Lilian and Layla as my favourite Divas. There was lots of wolf whistling during their tag match.
I had to leave before the final segment to get my train as it was 11:00pm. I’ve read that the Undertaker delivered the Big Show his last rites then put Chavo Guerrero into the casket, following a failed attempt on Vickie.
Overall Smackdown topped the Raw taping and was money well spent. See you Sunday for the Vintage Collection.
Shaun