The Smackdown! Report (10/07/05): Final No Mercy Hype
Submitted by Chad Matthews on Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 3:56 AM EST






The Smackdown! Report (10/07/05)

The show opened with a video recap of the events involving the SD superstars at Raw’s Homecoming show this past Monday.

The camera then cut to Smackdown General Manager Theodore Long and Network Representative Palmer Cannon in the ring to announce that the six-man tag match that was supposed to occur at Homecoming would be tonight’s main-event (Batista, Benoit, and Rey vs. JBL, Christian, and Eddie). Of course, it was Eric Bischoff that kept the match from happening on Raw like it was supposed to, but both Cannon and Long feel pretty confident that EB now knows that SD is not going to tolerate poor treatment. They agreed that the SD invasion at the end of the night was a success. TRL proceeded to invite the RAW guys to step up and retaliate this Sunday at No Mercy. At that point, Randy Orton and his father Cowboy Bob came down and talked about how they were the first of all the boys to do the invading. Long didn’t seem to happy about what the Ortons did, but before he could express his displeasure, Cannon interrupted and said that the network was very proud of them, and that as a result, he and Teddy would step aside and let Orton say what he needed to say. Randy then continued his verbal assault on Piper that he began on Monday. Out came the Hot Rod, though, who came into the ring as quiet as a mouse to listen to what Randy had to say up close and personal. Cowboy told the Legend Killer to break Piper’s arm and make him wear a cast for years on end, but before Randy could make a move, Roddy whipped out a bat hidden beneath his jacket and did some batting practice. The Ortons fled the scene as the Hot Scot went crazy in the ring. (CMV1 note- whew…I’m glad that they at least made mention of the Raw vs. SD stuff from Monday. Personally, I feel that Raw vs. SD is the hottest potential angle the WWE has and that it’s the perfect time to pull the trigger on that heading into Survivor Series. I hope some Raw guys show up at No Mercy, because I’ll guarantee a few extra people buy the PPV to see if that happens…not many, but a few…Anyhow, this stuff with Piper seems to have lit a fire under Randy’s behind, so I hope it continues).

Match 1: Booker T (w/ wife Sharmell) vs. Orlando Jordan
-(CMV1 note- don’t forget that these two are apart of the fatal four-way for the US title this Sunday, live on PPV at No Mercy…by the way, Sharmell took the liberty of introducing her husband as he came down to the ring). At one point, OJ knocked Booker to the outside. Looking for a high impact move, Jordan then tried to suplex Book from the apron into the ring, but as he got him up, Sharmell reached in the ring and tripped him. The finish came soon after when Booker T pinned OJ by just falling on top of him. (CMV1 rating- ½ *). (CMV1 note- standard stuff, but there’s just not a whole lot you can do in the ring with Jordan at this point in his career). After the match, Booker T saw the replay of the closing moments of the match and noticed that Sharmell helped him win. Well, he wasn’t too happy about that and the two got into a little argument. They wasted little time in making up, though.

Backstage (and eventually in the crowd), JBL cut a promo about Rey Mysterio’s fellow Mexicans coming into Texas illegally in such large masses that his home state was now beginning to look like North Mexico. All the while, he was holding (and talking to) one of those little commemorative Mysterio teddy bears. He proceeded to get some cheap heat by talking about Texas losing the Red River Shootout (Texas vs. Oklahoma in college football) the last six years in a row. He then tore the head of the little stuffed Rey and said that he would beat Mysterio at No Mercy.

Match 2: Hardcore Holly vs. Sylvain
-(CMV1 note- MIS-TER KENN-EDY…Kennedy…did commentary for this match). The finish came when Kennedy got up from the announce table and clocked Holly on the head with a microphone, allowing Sylvain to get the win (CMV1 rating- ¼ *) (CMV1 note- ouch…jobbing to Sylvain…poor Sparkplug. Anyhow, aside from the shaky finish it was fine, and it did its job in hyping the Kennedy-Holly match for No Mercy)

Backstage, Rowdy Roddy Piper cut a promo on the Orton boys, essentially making fun of his former buddy, Bob, by insinuating that the Cowboy wasn’t all that smart.

Match 3: WWE Tag Team Champions Road Warrior Animal and Heidenreich (w/ Road Warrior-ette Christy Hemme vs. Paul Birchall and William Regal
-(CMV1 note- this was a non-title match). The climax saw LOD set Birchall up for the Doomsday Device, only to have MNM come down and interfere, causing the DQ. LOD 2005 defeated Birchall/Regal via DQ. (CMV1 rating- *) (CMV1 note- pretty enjoyable while it lasted, and I’m personally glad they didn’t have LOD go over Regal and Birchall…that’s a tag team that could help get the tag division going again). After the match, Melina and Mercury hit the Snapshot on Christy. Animal carried her to the back.

Backstage, Eddie Guerrero talked about how he and Batista had become such good friends. He proceeded to head out to the ring and show post-Homecoming video footage of him “holding back” the World Champion in order to ensure that he didn’t do any further damage to the poor Raw guys. Of course, that’s not exactly how it went down, as it was really more like Batista was walking to the back with Eddie behind him yanking on his arm. The World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, then came out and showed the footage from last week where Eddie “accidentally” decked him with a steel chair during their tag title match. Latino Heat swore that he was aiming for Mercury, but Batista called bullshit and told him that he’s learned to be a little smarter than to assume that someone hitting him with a chair was an accident. Eddie acted pissed that Big Dave would actually think that he’d hit him with a chair on purpose. Batista then toyed with him a little. He grabbed a chair, handed it to Eddie, and essentially told him it was open season…he dared him to strike him with that chair. Alas, Guerrero would not do that to his friend, and called the Animal a bad buddy for even suggesting he do it. The segment ended with Guerrero storming off and Batista giving a competent little grin. (CMV1 note- interesting stuff…and enjoyable. The question will ultimately be: will Eddie turn on Batista before the PPV…and if he does NOT, then can a PPV that is main-evented by a title match devoid of much if any tension earn a decent buyrate. Conventional wisdom would so no, said PPV cannot pull a strong buy rate, but we’ll see…more on that later).

Match 4: Randy Orton and Bob Orton vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper
-Randy got first strike points and worked over old Piper in the early going of the bout. Eventually, though, the Undertaker’s gong hit, causing Randy to quickly tag his dad and get out of the match. The finish came when that very same gong rang again, and distracted Cowboy long enough for Piper to pin Bob via roll-up. (CMV1 rating- * ¼) (CMV1 note- just one of those matches that you can’t help, but enjoy. I can’t say that Taker’s bell scaring the Ortons is a good thing, but hey…it’s Undertaker’s gong. Interesting, I had been prepared to predict Taker to win at NM, but after he caused the Ortons to lose to Piper, I think I may have just changed my mind). After the match, the druids appeared with a couple of caskets. Taker then made his presence felt via Titantron and told the Ortons to look into the caskets and behold their futures. There, inside the caskets, lay two very life-like representations of Bob and Randy. Then the lights went out, and when they came back on seconds later, the Deadman was inside the ring behind the Ortons, who proceeded to hightail it out of there.

Match 5: Bobby Lashley vs. Eddie Craven (A. Jobber)
-Before the squashing got under way, Simon Dean came out and whined about how Lashley had broken his hand. He said that because of his hand injury, he would not have the strength advantage over the rookie at No Mercy, so he was going to have to be better conditioned. As the match got going, Simon did squats on the outside. Meanwhile, Bobby picked up Craven and started doing squats, too. Lashley then went for the finish, but Dean grabbed the rookie monster’s leg. Bobby thwarted off the interference and stepped on Simon’s injured hand. Lashley defeated Craven. (CMV1 rating- ¾ *) (CMV1 note- got extra points just for Simon’s entertaining involvement. You know, the build to this match has actually been really good for a little mid-card match that you can tell is going to end in a squash. Simon Dean is funny…Bobby Lashley is a pretty impressive young star in the making…enough said).

Cole and Tazz ran down the No Mercy card, which features: World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. Eddie Guerrero, Randy and Bob Orton vs. Undertaker in a handicap Casket Match, Rey Mysterio vs. JBL, United States Champion Chris Benoit vs. Christian vs. OJ vs. Booker T, LOD 2005 and Christy vs. MNM, Bobby Lashley vs. Simon Dean, Hardcore Holly vs. Mr. Kennedy, and Cruiserweight Champion Nunzio vs. the guy who wins the #1 contender battle royal on Velocity (I know who wins…but won’t spoil it for anyone who wants to watch Velocity and be surprised).

Match 6: Eddie Guerrero, JBL, and Christian vs. World Heavyweight Champion Batista, Rey Mysterio, and United States Champion Chris Benoit
-The climax to the match came when JBL attempted to drill Batista with the Clothesline from Hell, only to have Eddie Guerrero prevent the move. Of course, that didn’t really work out too well since the plan had been for Christian to follow up on JBL’s finish with a move from the top rope. When JBL was taken out of the picture, Captain Charisma just said screw it and went ahead with his leap from the top. Unfortunately for Christian, Batista caught him and gave him a vicious spinebuster, and then pinned him. Batista, Benoit, and Mysterio defeated JBL, Eddie, and Christian. (CMV1 rating- ** ½). Eddie Guerrero then tried to celebrate with the faces. He hugged Rey and tried to shake Benoit’s hand. Obviously, that didn’t go over very well since Latino Heat obviously has some big time history with both of them. Benoit and Mysterio blew off Eddie’s attempt at comradery, and Batista pretty much just gave Guerrero the “cut the shit, jackass” look. JBL and Christian weren’t too happy either, so they both attacked Eddie (poor guy can’t make any friends). Batista made the save, but right afterward gave Eddie the look again. (CMV1 note- pretty fun main-event, nothing more and nothing less. I still can’t get over the slow build to the Guerrero-Batista match. I mean, this shit is pretty perfect for a match that’ll take place at Survivor Series…and it probably will happen again there…but no real conflict between the two guys about to face each other for the World title on PPV? That’s a gutsy call).

All in all…I thought it was a good show that effectively hyped the No Mercy PPV, which I think looks pretty good. There’s nothing that’ll blow you away on the NM card, but much like last year’s show, it has a strong enough line-up to allow me to be quietly confident that it’ll be pretty good. The only disappointing thing about this show was that it was originally “supposed to” feature both Mick Foley in Piper’s corner for that handicap match AND a potential run-in by some of the Raw guys. Now, my first inclination is to say that the WWE have decided to drop the ball and not keep the Raw vs. SD thing going, but I’ll put on the positive helmet and say that they’ve just decided to make people pay to see that by tuning into No Mercy. That’s actually not a bad idea…No Mercy should be the focus…and it was tonight…thus, SD gets a 6.5/10 this week…not for the wrestling, but for the effective hype for NM



This week in Smackdown history… Eddie Guerrero delivered one of SD’s most interesting and perhaps disgusting moments on the October 9th edition in 2003. At the time, Guerrero was US Champion and feuding with Big Show. In the main-event that evening, Big Show took on Eddie’s nephew and tag partner, Chavo Guerrero. However, there was never a match, as Eddie came out with a septic truck and hosed down the Giant with an ass-load of human feces. That’s right, this was the infamous poop truck incident that was intended to play off of Angle’s milk bath and Austin’s beer bath segments of past years. Man, that was gross…


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