The Smackdown! Report (12/02/05): The Road to Armageddon Begins...
Submitted by Chad Matthews on Saturday, December 3, 2005 at 2:10 AM EST








The Smackdown! Report (12/02/05)

The show opened with a video recap of the events that took place during and after the main-event of the Smackdown Special, including the wildly ridiculous ending where Randy Orton “killed” the Undertaker after sending him crashing through the SD stage set on top of a low-rider. The camera then cut to arena, at which point Orton came out to the ring looking as confident as ever. Meanwhile, Tazz and Cole tried their best to make what happened seem the slightest bit realistic and credible. Anyhow, the Legend Killer did his usual “I killed the Undertaker” pitch, saying that this time the Deadman was not coming back, and that his legacy died with him. Orton thought that getting rid of Taker made him the ideal candidate for a title shot at Armageddon. He proceeded to run down his other credentials, citing that he was a third generation superstar, the sole survivor at three straight Survivor Series PPVs, and the youngest World Heavyweight Champion in history. He closed by demanding a shot at the title. (CMV1 note- feel free to skip over my rants if there are any throughout the night about the way this feud’s been restarted. I’ll try and tone it down, I promise. By the way, I do still look forward to the Taker-Orton match at Armageddon, as their work in the ring against each other has been rather good…I just don’t see the need for all the crazy, over-the-top, and a totally belief suspending theatrics).



Match 1: Battle Royal- LOD 2005 vs. Mexicools vs. The Dicks vs. Scotty and Funaki vs. Paul London and Brian Kendrick vs. Nunzio and Vito
-(CMV1 note- the tag team champs came out before the other teams and joined Cole and Tazz for commentary). The match got under way with all the teams teaming up on Road Warrior Animal as Heidi foolishly allowed MNM to distract him. Nunzio got ousted first, meaning both he and Vito were eliminated from competition. LOD 2005 thankfully got eliminated second. At that point, the lights started flickering on and off, while Cole and Tazz apologized for the technical difficulties (it’s Taker…DUDE, he must not be dead!). We then got a dreaded mid-match commercial break, but I suppose that was to be expected. Back from the break, we found out that the team of Scotty and Funaki had been eliminated. London and Kendrick were next, as after putting on an inspired performance, Paul was knocked off the top rope and to the outside by one of the Dicks. The finish came when Psicosis eliminated both of the Dicks. The Mexicools won the battle royal to become the number one contenders to the WWE tag team titles. (CMV1 rating- ** ½). (CMV1 note- it was a fun little match, and it accomplished its goal of making the Mexicools more credible challengers to MNM. I look forward to seeing that match at Armageddon).

Backstage, JBL talked about Kane and Show’s double-teaming on Rey Mysterio on Tuesday. He said that, had he been there, nothing like that would’ve happened to Rey. That being said, a tag team main-event was announced for tonight involving Raw’s Big Show and Kane against Mysterio and JBL. JBL said he’d help Rey get the job done despite the fact that he doesn’t like him.



Match 2: Chris Benoit vs. William Regal
-(CMV1 note- Booker T and Sharmell joined commentary for this bout). The two started off with their usual solid back-and-forth exchanges. Eventually, the Rabid Wolverine tried to lock Regal in the Sharpshooter, but ol’ Willy battled out and hit a shoulder breaker. He continued to work over the shoulder area in preparation for the Regal Stretch, but then switched his attention over to Benoit’s head. He placed his head up against the steel post and rammed his boot into it. Benoit tried to make a comeback, but Regal hit a running high knee and a couple of Exploder suplexes for a near fall. Eventually, the Crippler made his comeback, and even busted his head open a little after hitting several headbutts. He followed with a couple of German suplexes. Regal tried to regain some momentum, but his offense was quickly thwarted by a rare full-nelson slam from Benoit. The finish came soon after when Benoit defeated Regal via submission with the Crossface. (CMV1 rating- ** ½) (CMV1 note- not as good as their usual matches are, and perhaps it was due to the fact that Benoit had already wrestled that night. Something seemed like it was missing, but of course it was still a solid match.)

Backstage, Randy Orton hyped his upcoming match with Matt Hardy. He said that after he beat Hardy, he was going to challenge Batista to a title match, and that if Big Dave didn’t accept, he was going to spit in his face.


Match 3: Matt Hardy vs. Randy Orton
-(CMV1 note- I’m looking forward to this one). Orton scored with his nice looking dropkick in the early going to gain control. Randy then applied a side headlock. Hardy battled out and caught Randy with a flying forearm shot that sent the Legend Killer tumbling to the outside. Hardy proceeded to hit Orton with the Side Effect, and head to the top rope looking to put the match away. He then came flying off with a moonsault, but Orton rolled out of the way. The finish saw Orton poise himself for his finisher and drill Hardy with the RKO for the win. Randy Orton defeated Matt Hardy. (CMV1 rating- ** ¾). (CMV1 note- Solid match that made me want to see them wrestle again in the future. It probably won’t happen since its clear that Orton is about to get a mega-push to the top). After the match, the lights went out and Taker’s voice came over the loud speakers spouting out that he was going to destroy Orton, and take him to Hell. The HIAC match was then announced, officially. Meanwhile, Orton was trying to escape the arena, but was met with a casket or old school Undertaker prop at every pass.

Backstage, Simon Dean was interviewed by Diva Search reject Kristal about his match later against the Boogeyman. Dean said he wasn’t afraid, and tried to hype a new Simon System product that was covered up on a nearby platter. When Simon removed the cover on the dish, he revealed not his new product, but rather the Boogeyman’s head. Boogey was eating worms (yes, worms), prompting poor Simon to run away scared.



Match 4: Simon Dean vs. Boogeyman
-Just a quick squash match, and an ugly one at that. Boogey defeated Simon. (CMV1 rating- ¼ *) (CMV1 note- Well, I hope the people that were starting to cheer this idiot quickly realize that he’s all character and no wrestling talent. This could get ugly)



Match 5: Bobby Lashley vs. Sylvain
-Another squash match for Lashley. Give this guy something to do! Lashley defeated Sylvain (CMV1 rating- ¼ *) (CMV1 note- another day, another squash for Bobby).


Match 6: John “Bradshaw” Layfield and Rey Mysterio (w/ Jillian Hall) vs. World Tag Team Champions Big Show and Kane
-JBL was all fired up to start this match, as he picked up right where he left off in regards to whaling away on these to guys at Survivor Series, and dropped Kane with a big boot to the face. Soon after, he reared back and attempted the Clothesline From Hell on the Big Red Machine, but Kane escaped and exited the ring. Bradshaw stayed on the offensive and took a shot at Big Show while he was standing on the apron. That was enough to piss off Show, who got the tag from Kane after he blasted JBL with a big boot of his own. Show was unable to keep the momentum, though, as Layfield attacked Show’s leg with a shoulder block. He continued to try to do it all himself despite Rey wanting to tag in and help out. JBL proceeded to hit a flying shoulder tackle off the top rope before Kane tagged in and started dominating. Kane and Show then isolated Bradshaw until Rey made a blind tag and finally got into the match. As JBL looked upset over the tag, Rey knocked Kane into 619 position. However, as he tried to hit his patented move, Big Show struck him from behind. Meanwhile, JBL pretended that the ref poked him in the eye and left ringside in protest of Rey not letting him go it alone. Of course, that left poor Rey all by himself to battle two seven-footers. We then got a dreaded mid-match commercial break, but that was to be expected. Back from the break, the Raw tag champs were predictably beating the holy hell out of little Rey Rey. After getting his ass handed to him for a few minutes, Rey managed to start staging a comeback. First, he ducked Show and Kane’s attempted double team. Then, he hit a wheelbarrow bulldog on Kane and went for the cover. Big Show tried to stop the count with a leg drop, but Rey quickly moved out of the way. He then miraculously managed to drill both with the 619 and set up for a springboard into a Seated Senton. The finish came when Show caught Rey’s attempted finish, and he and Kane double chokeslammed him for the win. Show and Kane defeated Mysterio and JBL. (CMV1 rating- ** ½). After the match, Kane retrieved a chair from ringside and the tag champs attempted to give Rey a second double chokeslam onto it. However, the World Heavyweight Champion Batista showed up and cleaned house. He and Rey celebrated with a lot of mock Eddie Guerrero stuff as the show faded to black. (CMV1 note- this was an enjoyable match, and I’m glad to see that the Raw and SD feud is continuing. Apparently, the plan is to run an interpromotional match between Show/Kane and Mysterio/Batista. That’s a good plan, as SD really needs Batista’s star power on this upcoming PPV)




All in all…it was a decent enough show, dominated by some more over-the-top Orton-Undertaker feuding, but it had four solid matches and hyped the upcoming Armageddon PPV pretty well. Speaking of the PPV, its shaping up fairly nicely…so, essentially this was not quite the effort that we saw last week, but it had enough moments to not make it a waste of time to watch. I’ll give it a 5.5/10…



This week in Smackdown history… Chris Benoit defeated John Cena in the first hour of the show, thus earning a shot for the main-event against WWE Champion Brock Lesnar. This took place on the December 5th edition of SD in 2003, and it was one of Benoit’s finest nights of that year in the ring. He carried Cena to a very good match, and then turned around and put on a memorable performance against Lesnar.



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