The Smackdown! Report (05/12/06): King of the Ring Semi-Finals
Submitted by Chad Matthews on Saturday, May 13, 2006 at 3:22 AM EST





The Smackdown! Report (05/12/06)

The show opened with United States Champion JBL coming to the ring for a promo. Being in Rey Mysterio’s home of San Diego, California, there were more than the usual number of the World Champion’s supporters, and they immediately placed themselves in clear opposition of Rey’s title opponent for Judgment Day w/ “619” chants. JBL fired back at them, remarking that he was surprised that they knew those numbers in English. From there on, Bradshaw talked about setting Rey up last week when he baited him into a match against Mark Henry, which Mysterio went on to lose. He then spoke of how Rey must face the Great Khali tonight and how he expects the result to be the same as last week…and that, at Judgment Day, Rey would go on to lose yet again, making Bradshaw the first man to ever hold the US and World Heavyweight titles at the same time. JBL figures that if he can beat Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit for their titles, he can surely beat Rey. The US Champ then turned his attention back toward Rey’s heritage, again mocking them for doing a lot of the menial jobs. He said that after he beats Rey, then the Mysterio family can come work for him…Rey can mow his lawn, Dominic can shine his shoes, and Rey’s wife can cook his food. At that point, Rey Mysterio finally showed up and attacked JBL. They proceeded to brawl around for awhile until refs came into break up the fight. (CMV1 note- another strong promo from JBL)


Match 1: Kid Kash vs. Nunzio vs. Super Crazy
-(CMV1 note- this was a #1 contender match for the CW title…Champion Gregory Helms joined Tazz and Cole for guest commentary). A rapid succession of near falls got us underway, but soon the heels began to double team Super Crazy. After some basic offense, Kash and Nunzio had enough of teaming up for awhile, thus allowing Crazy to come back and take control. Kash eventually gained the momentum and looked to put Nunzio away with a springboard moonsault and connected. 1…2…No! Crazy broke up the pin attempt with a Senton splash and proceeded to connect on a top rope moonsault on Kash. Unfortunately for the Mexicool, Nunzio broke up his pin cover. The heels restarted their team work soon after. As Kash climbed to the top rope, Nunzio placed Crazy on his shoulders for a high risk double team, but before the KID could jump off the top, Super Crazy rolled through and scored the pin. Super Crazy became #1 contender to the CW title. (CMV1 rating- **) (CMV1 note- solid match with some nice sequences…but still wasn’t give enough time to reach its full potential).


Backstage, Kurt Angle came into SD General Manager Teddy Long’s office and demanded a match against Mark Henry tonight. TRL reminded Kurt that he hadn’t yet been cleared to return to the ring. Angle grabbed him and reiterated his request, but Teddy wouldn’t give him a match tonight. He said he would, though, give him Henry at Judgment Day. As for tonight, he told Angle to leave the arena and take the night off…so Angle reluctantly did just that. (CMV1 note- I don’t get it…why keep putting someone with already fragile health in the ring with someone that constantly injures people? Does that make sense to a single fan out there?)

Match 2: The Gymini (w/ Simon Dean) vs. Two Jobbers
-In a short squash match, The Gymini won convincingly. (CMV1 rating- ¼ *). (CMV1 note- If we get new tag team champions at Judgment Day, then it’s pretty obvious who their first challengers on Velocity will be…the Gymini).

Booker T came to the ring with his wife Sharmell and cut a promo on the King of the Ring finals, set to take place at Judgment Day. He said that he was a little upset that Mark Henry injured Kurt Angle (CMV1 note- hey, me too!) a couple of weeks ago, as he would’ve liked to have faced Angle in the semi-finals and whoop his behind. Since that can’t happen, he said he’d give Angle one more chance if Kurt came to the ring right now. Naturally, Kurt left the building already…so he didn’t show up. Thus, when Book counted to ten and Angle didn’t show, the Bookerman celebrated as if he’d just won the KOTR with a Spinaroonie.

Match 3: King of the Ring (Round Semi-Final)- Bobby Lashley vs. Finlay
-(CMV1 note- the winner advances to face Booker T in the finals at JD). Finlay started the match looking to keep things grounded. He caught Lashley with a headlock, but Bobby powered out. Lashley then connected with a big boot as Finlay came off the ropes and followed with a suplex. Around that time, Booker and Sharmell came out as far as the entrance way and looked on. Meanwhile, Finlay went to the outside to regroup after having taken some power moves from Bobby. Lashley tried to follow suit and come after Fit, but Finlay pulled back the ring apron. With Lashley trapped, Finlay basically just wailed on him. We then got a dreaded mid-match commercial break, but I guess that’s to be expected. Back from the break, Finlay continued to dominate with basic ground-based offense. Lashley eventually made a comeback, though, and caught Finlay with a belly-to-belly suplex. He kept his momentum rolling with a running powerslam and set himself up in the corner for a spear. Once Finlay reached his feet, Lashley came flying at him, but Fit hit a jumping knee strike that scored him a near fall. Frustrated that he couldn’t pick up the victory, Finlay grabbed his shillelagh from the outside. He proceeded to distract the ref with it, allowing him the time to go and grab a chair. As Lashley reached his feet, Finlay planted him in the skull with a chair shot, but Bobby shook it off and hit the Spear out of nowhere. 1….2…3! Lashley defeated Finlay to reach the KOTR Finals. (CMV1 rating- **) (CMV1 note- solid work between these guys. Lashley is improving. I would’ve liked to have gauged Bobby’s progress against Benoit in this semi-final, but given their history, Finlay was probably the right guy to do the job).

WWE Tag Team Champions MNM came to the ring for a promo. They called themselves the sexiest tag team in the history of pro-wrestling before turning their attention toward their JD challengers, London and Kendrick. They said that the reason they had attacked them last week was because the just simply don’t like being embarrassed. Melina took the mic at that point and ran down the challengers a little more. Jillian Hall proceeded to make her way to the ring and ask Melina why they were waiting until Judgment Day to have their match…she wanted it now! MNM semi-attacked the blonde bombshell, prompting London and Kendrick to make the save, which included all three members of MNM getting their pants pulled down (or in Melina’s case, her skirt pulled down).


Match 4: Mark Henry vs. Pirate Burchill
-The match began…and then it ended soon after a totally unnecessary squash. Henry defeated Burchill with the World’s Strongest Slam. (CMV1 rating- ¼ *) (CMV1 note- I’m getting really tired of Mark Henry)

Backstage, Big Vito was trying to console Nunzio (who lost earlier tonight) and told him they should hit the town tonight. As Vito walked away, Orlando Jordan entered the picture and told the former Little Guido that he’d seen Vito dressed as a woman when they went to England. Nunzio didn’t believe him, but OJ insisted it was him.


Match 6: World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio vs. The Great Khali (w/ Daivari)
-(CMV1 note- this was a non-title match). JBL was at ringside for the match…Khali and Mysterio had an early stare down that saw Rey’s head barely reach past Khali’s mid-section. Rey tried to attack, but Khali just tossed him out of the way to the outside. JBL proceeded to yell at the champ. Mysterio tried to fight back, but ended up on the outside again. As Khali just stood there, Rey connected with a springboard dropkick. However, Khali completely no sold the move and eventually got the win. Khali defeated Mysterio. (CMV1 rating- n/a). After the match, JBL told Rey he had one more opponent for him that he’d have to face next week. (CMV1 note- Was it like an office joke to give Rey the title? I mean, what’s the point of making the guy champion if all they are going to do is put him credibility defying matches against monsters and have him job clean two weeks in a row to shitty talents? I just don’t follow the logic in all of this. It doesn’t do a thing for Rey or the championship or SD or the guys that worked to build that title into something meaningful. Hell, at this point the damn thing is at a lower point than it was when it was simply handed to Triple H in 2002)


All in all…Terrible show…two decent, yet still fairly average matches and a bunch of crap. Any show that features both Khali and Henry in the ring in separate matches I bound to be a bad show…where was the Boogeyman to make it as horrible as possible? Okay…end rant…this show did have a few bright spots, but a very few…and the bad was so bad that it made what little good was shown really mean much. 4.0/10 for one of the most poorly done shows I’ve seen from SD in quite awhile. Have they done a thing to make anyone want to order Judgment Day? I won’t be ordering it…





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