The Smackdown! Report (8/19/04)
Submitted by Chad Matthews on Thursday, August 19, 2004 at 10:34 PM EST





The Smackdown Report (8/19/04)

The show opened with the WWE Champion John Bradshaw Layfield very slowly making his way to the ring with Chief of Staff Orlando Jordan. JBL had an enormous neck-brace on that was literally so big that his cowboy hat sat a solid 6 inches or more off his head. Bradshaw started his promo by discussing how much pain he was in and how truly lucky he was to even be there tonight considering the inferiority of the Canadian (which is kind of redundant in JBL’s opinion) hospital he was taken to following his Summerslam match. He said that he came through with his guarantee that he’d beat the Undertaker, but expressed his anger about the Deadman robbing him of his dream. Jordan then took the mic to address the chorus of boos that the champ was receiving. OJ told them they should respect JBL. Anyhow, Bradshaw’s dream was to have his pinfall victory over the Undertaker be the highlight of his WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony in years to come. However, the Undertaker hit him with the championship belt and got disqualified, thus Layfield was unable to pin him. He then accused the Deadman of failing to pass him the torch before mentioning that the Undertaker was simply not a nice guy. That brought him to his recollection of the post-match attack on Sunday and being thrown on and eventually through his limousine. At that point, JBL rolled still footage of the Deadman hitting him with the belt, slamming his face into the ring steps, throwing him on top of the hood of the limo, and finally choke slamming him through the top. The champ told us to bear in mind that it wasn’t getting put through the car that hurt the worst, but instead being thrown onto the hood, which was very hot and subsequently gave him burns. He then referred to Canada as the United State’s weaker sister that we’d always take care of before saying that the Undertaker would get no re-match. “God bless America.” Just like that, the lights went out, the gong hit and the Undertaker made his way to the ring. With help from OJ, Layfield managed to escape Taker’s imminent assault. In a hilarious bit, OJ pushed JBL over the ring barrier and into the seating area, but Bradshaw eventually tumbled backwards and took out a fan. Unfortunately for SD’s newest dynamic duo, they left the WWE Championship in the ring. Taker picked up the belt, studied it, and then rolled his eyes into the back of his head to end the segment and send us to commercial break numero uno. (CMV1 note- this was a pretty good segment in terms of furthering the storyline, but it was a tad long. JBL was downright amusing at times, as he basically whimpered throughout his promo. Should be interesting to see if all this talk of JBL getting a pinfall victory will actually lead to one).

Recap of last week’s backstage confrontation between the Dudleys and Scotty 2 Hotty, which lead us to…

Match 1: WWE Cruiserweight Champion Spike Dudley (w/ the Dudley Boyz) vs. Scotty 2 Hotty
-Scotty came out on fire with three consecutive body slams. He then flipped Spike over the top rope, but Bubba and D’von managed to catch the CW champ so that he landed on his feet. The Duds then rolled Spike back into the ring to avoid a count-out, but Scotty hit his running bulldog and attempted to do the Worm. However, Bubba Ray interfered and prevented Scotty from hitting the most retarded finisher in WWE history. Spike then gained control, but missed his top rope double stomp. Scotty quickly regained momentum with a super kick that scored him a near fall. In the end, Spike got the win via pinfall with the Dudley Dog at 3:07. (CMV1 rating- *)(CMV1 note- good for what it was, but too short to mean anything). After the match, all three Dudleys beat up the former member of Too Cool.

The RAW Rebound aired, highlighting Evolution’s shocking turn on Randy Orton.

Cole and Tazz hyped next week’s second match between Booker T and John Cena. Meanwhile, two fans held up a huge sign for John Heidenrich, who apparently makes his debut next week (CMV1 note- that sign was obviously planted…).

Backstage, Josh Matthews (no relation) did an interview with John Cena, in which Cena played up his victory over Booker T in match one of the best of five series at Summerslam. He said that match two was next week on SD and that he’d win that, too. Spike and the other Dudleys then entered the picture, as the cruiserweight champ reminded the Doctor of Thuganomics that he had no gold to back up his words. Cena retaliated by calling Spike Dennis the Menace and telling him he needed glasses because he could not see him, but Spike gave him a low blow. The Dudleys proceeded to beat the hell out of him, making that two vicious beat-downs in one night so far for the entertaining trio. (CMV1 note- I really liked this segment because it showed that the Dudleys trio could be bigger impact players on SD by attacking one of the top stars on the show. Also, I for one am looking forward to seeing if Book and Cena can finally have the good match that they have the potential to put on, next week).

Match 2: Paul London and Billy Kidman vs. Chavo Guerrero and Jamie Noble
-(CMV1 note- good to see Chavo and Noble back on SD). This non-title bout began with some nice back and forth action from London and Noble. Chavo then tried to get involved, but Kidman came in and the champs cleaned house, hitting a nice double-drop kick in the process. Chavo and Jamie then took control and worked over London for a while, and the always-impressive Guerrero looked sharp with his tag teamwork. London eventually got the hot tag to Kidman. Kidman hit his unique neck-breaker (in which he rolls his opponent over his shoulder and slams their neck on his knee) and then did a running bulldog into a headlock takedown, head scissor combo on both Noble and Guerrero. Noble then hit a beautiful back suplex on Kidman, but London caught him a running leg lariat that knocked Jamie to the outside. London then went to the top looking to take Noble out for good, but Chavo pushed him off the top and to the floor. Kidman then nailed Guerrero with the BK Bomb and set him up for the Shooting Star Press. Noble recovered and prevented the SSP, but got a kick to the face for his troubles. Torrie’s husband then improvised and landed a sunset flip, but Noble got involved one last time and pulled Chavo into position to pin Kidman with some help from the ropes. Chavo and Jamie won the match at 5:01. (CMV1 rating- * ¾ )(CMV1 note- interesting to see the champs suffer a loss after defeating the 1929914-time tag champion Dudleys several times, and while having Noble and Guerrero get a victory helps solidify another team in the tag division, they must also be careful not to forget that London/Kidman are not very over with the crowds when they aren’t doing some dangerous high risk maneuver, so they need to walk a fine line with having them lose to random opponents. The good thing about this is that it could provide an interesting mini-feud for the tag titles for the next few weeks before re-igniting the Dudleys vs. London and Kidman feud for SD’s next ppv, No Mercy).

SD General Manager Teddy Long announced that John Cena would take on D’von Dudley tonight.

A commercial aired that revealed to the world that Tough Enough would be returning this Fall in the form of a 1,000,000 dollar contest similar to that of the Diva Search.

Eddie Guerrero then made his way to the ring and proceeded to call out the man who made him tap out last Sunday, Kurt Angle. He said that they had unfinished business since they each had one win over each other. With that, Guerrero challenged him to a match tonight on Smackdown to break the tie, but Kurt made his way to the ring and refused, saying that since he made him tap out at Summerslam, why should he wrestle him tonight. Eddie then reminded him that the score was tied at one match apiece since he did indeed get a pinfall victory over the former Olympic Gold Medalist at Wrestlemania XX before questioning Angle’s manhood for not accepting his challenge for tonight. Angle said he was the better wrestler and had no reason to prove it again. Latino Heat proceeded to talk about how he admitted that Kurt had outwrestled him like no one had ever done this past Sunday and for that, Angle had earned his respect. He said that they are both men who love the wrestling business, before offering to shake his hand. Angle backed off, citing that he doesn’t want to shake the hand of a liar and cheater whom he cannot trust. Eventually, though, Kurt shook Eddie’s hand, only to have Guerrero attack him. That, of course, brought out Luther Reigns, but before he could get involved, Rey Mysterio made his way to the ring and saved Eddie from getting double-teamed. (CMV1 note- good segment…I’m very pleased that they decided to continue this feud for a while longer, as after the disappointingly short match that Angle and Guerrero had at Summerslam, I still want to see them go at each other at full strength for 20+ minutes).

Match 3: John Cena vs. D’von Dudley
-(CMV1 note- Booker T was doing guest commentary for this one, and doing a pretty nice job of it too). Not much of a match, as the finish saw Cena pin D’von via the FU at around 3:00. (CMV1 rating- ½ *)(CMV1 note- very short and nothing special. D’von jobbing to Cena in 3 minutes wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I said the Dudleys could be bigger impact players on SD). After the match, Cena got on the mic and told Book that the title belonged to him and that next week he was going to show him how much he means business. Booker and Cena then stared a whole through each other.

Cole and Tazz then hyped a match that had just been made between Reigns/Angle and Guerrero/Mysterio.

Smackdown then stole my Retro Smackdown idea, as they introduced the SD “Throwback” highlighting the first ever episode of Smackdown in honor of the 5th anniversary edition of WWE’s Thursday night program.

Match 4: Rob Van Dam vs. Rene Dupree (w/ Fifi)
-In a re-match from Heat, this contest started off with a lot of impressive back and forth action, consisting of several nice looking counter moves and what not. RVD gained control with a monkey flip out of the corner, but Dupree whipped RVD in the ring post, shoulder first. The French Phenom then worked over the shoulder for a while before Van Dam came storming back with a cartwheel into a standing moonsault. Then, RVD hit a German suplex pin on Dupree for a near fall. Dupree then gained control when he put his knees up during Van Dam’s attempted Rolling Thunder. RVD quickly regained control, though, and went to the top for a high-risk move. However, Dupree managed to get to the top himself and bring Mr. Thursday Night crashing to the mat with a sky-high superplex. Soon after, RVD hit the Five Star Frog Splash for the win at 5:37. (CMV1 rating- * ½ ). After the match, Kenzo “I have absolutely no talent and should go back to Japan” Suzuki came down and took out Van Dam with his claw, leg-sweep nonsense finisher. (CMV1 note- after a good match, they had to go and bring out that worthless idiot Suzuki. I had thought they might have learned their lesson with him and sent him down to Velocity before releasing him, but I suppose not).

Just before the commercial break, TRL went into the video control room and gave a production girl a video tape he wanted her to play, mentioning that he was about to go out and make a big announcement.

WWE Rewind was back and it highlighted the finale of the first Tough Enough, where Maven won and Chris Nowinski got pissed off. Cole and Tazz then hyped the $1,000,000 Tough Enough contest.

TRL was in the ring to make his “major announcement” when we came back from the break. He said that he had recently resigned one of Smackdown!’s biggest stars, the Big Show. Teddy then played a video that recapped some of Show’s biggest moments of the last several years. Cole and Tazz again hyped next week’s show featuring Cena-Booker T, match 2, and John Heindenrich’s tryout match. (CMV1 note- I cannot wait for the Big Show’s return. The question now, is, will he return as a heel or a babyface. At this point, with the babyface GM signing him, it seems to me that they are leaning toward babyface, and while that probably isn’t the greatest idea considering how poorly he was used during his last run as a good guy, the fact of the matter is that babyface Big Show is better than no Big Show at all).

Match 5: Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle and Luther Reigns
-Early in the match, Guerrero tagged in Mysterio and the two did a pretty impressive double-team maneuver. Eddie picked up Rey and threw him into a dropkick on Reigns. Angle and Eddie eventually went at it and Eddie gained control when he tried to hit the Three Amigos, but Luther prevented Guerrero from hitting the third. Angle then Irish-whipped Eddie as Luther pulled down the top rope, sending Latino Heat sailing over the top. We then got a dreaded commercial break, but that was to be expected. Back from the break, both Kurt and Luther were working over Eddie’s injured ankle. Angle then hit an Irish-whip into an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. With momentum on his side, Kurt went for the kill with an Angle Slam, but Eddie countered it into a DDT. Guerrero then got the hot tag to Mysterio, who hit a springboard sitting Senton on Luther, smashed Angle in the face, and then countered a Luther power slam attempt into a spinning DDT. Luther then accidentally took out the ref and Angle ended up on the outside. Mysterio then came flying around the ring post and hit Kurt with a 619. The climax of the match saw Angle hit Rey in the knees with a chair as he was swinging around to hit Luther with the 619. Eddie then got a steel chair and chased our Olympic Hero up the ramp. Guerrero then ran back to the ring and hit Luther, who was about to powerbomb Mysterio, with a low blow. As the ref came to, Rey tagged in Eddie, and Latino Heat hit the Three Amigo vertical suplexes. Mysterio then hit the 619 and Guerrero finished him off via pinfall with the Frog Splash at 16:00. (CMV1 rating- ***). Kurt Angle then came back out to ringside and dumped a can of paint on Eddie’s low rider. (CMV1 note- this was a good TV main-event that furthered along the Kurt-Eddie feud nicely).


All in all…I’ll give this show a 6.5 on my rating scale. I thought all the follow up to the two major feuds was well done and gives Smackdown some direction in a time, in which they won’t have a PPV to build up for a while…. The main-event featured some good action and all four played their parts quite well…I didn’t particularly like Teddy Long playing to the crowd and trying to introduce his Holla catchphrase, as none of that does anything for his GM character…I am very excited about the return of the Big Show, who hopefully lost weight and is ready to make a huge impact…The show was not all that exciting, but the only thing that I really disliked was the lack of time given to all the matches (except for the 16-minute main-event).


This week in Smackdown history…Booker T and The Rock went to battle in the first-ever “Light’s Out Match” (which was essentially just a no-DQ match) on the August 16 edition of SD in 2001. Earlier in the night, Book had come out with WCW/ECW Alliance leader Shane McMahon and mocked the Rock, saying that his Spinaroonie was the most electrifying move in sports entertainment and asking the Utah crowd if they “smelled what the Book was cooking.” During the match, The Rock looked to have gained control, but Shane-‘O-Mac came out from under the ring and hit a low blow on the People’s Champ. Booker then hit the Great One with the Bookend on the announce table and did the Spinaroonie as the show faded to black. This was, of course, during the Rock and Booker T’s WCW Championship feud, in which the Rock defeated the Bookerman for the title several days later at Summerslam.






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