CRZ,

How are you? Enjoying NY? I went to Smackdown. Here is what I saw. Do what you want with these.

Dark Matches

1. Steven Richards v. Randy Orton

Orton kicks out of a Stevenkick. Orton wins after rolling through a Wheelbarrow Suplex into a pin.

2. Tommy Dreamer v. Brock Lesnar

Lesnar is HUGE! I think he beat the hell out of Dreamer with power moves for the duration of the match. I missed most of it because Teddy Long was posing for pictures with some service men right near my seat (First row of seats above the bleachers DIRECTLY to the left of the stage.) After a while, I finally take the opportunity to run down, shake Teddy Long's hand, and call him Peanuthead! Lesnar kicks out of Dreamer's DDT, and later wins with a Powerslam. Surprisingly good heat for the match.

3. Ron Waterman vs. Rico Constantino

I think most of the crowd had the same intial reaction to Waterman as I did: "Is that Steiner" (He looks like BPP) At least, I think that explains Waterman's heat. Quick match saw Rico get tossed around like a rag doll until Waterman hit a powerslam ang got the pin.

At this point, Chimel came out to hawk a Rock T-Shirt made just for Jersey and a Torrie poster. Then Michael Cole and Tazz entered to mark the start of the Heat tapings.

Heat Matches

4. Spike Dudley vs. Billy Kidman

Kidman wins with his move that starts like the Nightmare of Helms Street and ends like the X-Factor. Good match, but short.

5. Scotty 2 Hotty & Albert v. Hugh Morrus and Chavo Guerrero, Jr.

Decent match, mostly comedy. Scotty got hit, and then Albert came in, hitting the Yaaahlbertbomb on Chavo and big booting Morrus out of the ring. He then did the little pre-worm arm flail to a crowd pop. He picked up the still loopy Scotty, held out his arms, and slapped his butt, and that revived Scotty directly into doing his own arm flail. He hit the worm on Chavo and got the pin. Albert then did his own worm attempt on Morrus, except he ended with a splash instead of a chop. Good heat for the worm.

6. DDP vs. Edge

Nice entrance pop for DDP, but that changed once the match began. Good pop for Edge as well. Edge hits his Buzzkiller/Impaler/Edgecutioner DDT for the pin to win.

7. Raven & Justin Credible vs. Chuck Palumbo & Billy Gunn

Palubmo gets a pin on Justin with a superkick.

At this point they went about changing the ropes for Smackdown!. Chimel stood in the midst of this hawking merchandise like a Kane mask, Rock and Undertaker license plates, Rock and Undertaker wallets, a Hardy Boyz T-Shirt, and Lillian Garcia's Band's appearance at WWF New York. Speaking of which, after the ropes were changed, Lillian came out, and with no announcement to stand, sang the Star Spangled Banner. Then Jim Ross came out and gave a patriotic speech about kicking ass in New Jersey for our entertainment. Then Chimel got back on the microphone to warn us about the pyro.

Smackdown!

Recap of Monday's events takes us to LOUD PYRO and while everyone is standing to get on camera at the start of the show, we get our first match:

8. APA (w/ Jackie) vs. The Dudley Boyz (w/ Stacy Keibler)

Standard fare from these guys. At one point, Stacy is on the ring apron trying to taunt Bradshaw, and she turns around to flaunt her ass. Bradshaw walks up, lifts her skirt, and spanks her. Nice pop. Ultimately, Farooq takes a bad looking 3-D en route to a pin by D-Von.

vignette: Austin, with Debra, tells Regal to assemble the Alliance except Angle, RVD, and Booker T in the ring. He wants to get some information. Crowd was yelling "WHAT?" the whole time.

Break: at this point, someone who I think was Rico Constantino came out to a monitor booth on the side of the stage and sat down to watch.

vignette: Matt was supposed to tag with Lita tonight, but he's accepted a IC-title match against Test. Lita wants him to choose, but Matt says he can work it all out.

The Alliance, led by Regal, makes their way down to the ring. Pretty much everyone is there, except for those three previously mentioned and Test, which seems like an oversight (OR IS IT DELIBERATE???)

Austin comes out to a large pop and a chorus of "WHAT?"'s. That word may be the most over thing in the federation right now. Austin starts intimidating certain Alliance members, and starts asking who could be jumping to the WWF. The crowd replies "RVD", which prompts Austin to yell "WHAT?" Austin goes nuts with the "WHAT?"'s at the crowd, and the crowd yells "RVD" and "WHAT?" right back at him. Finally, he asks if we know what his watch is saying, and again, crowd answers with "WHAT?" Austin replies, "Its not saying that." Austin demands trust from the Alliance, and starts singling out members to make sure they trust him. He targets Chavo, Hugh, Hurricane, Stasiak, Kidman, and finally Tazz (who he calls over from the commentator booth.) Everyone agrees to trust Austin, except Tazz. Tazz stands up and tells him that he doesn't trust him, referencing D.T.A. in the process (saying that for him, its Don't Trust Austin.) Austin gives Tazz a stunner and starts assaulting him, and the rest of the Alliance, save Regal, starts leaving the ring and walking up the ramp. Austin starts asking where they are going and why they are leaving, and begging them to come back.

break: Austin and Regal leave, then Nick Patrick comes out and helps Tazz out of the ring. J.R. comes back out and hits the commentators table. I should also point out that someone who looked a lot like Kanyon was watching the previous segment from beside/behind the stage, and then left afterwards.

The Lugz Boot of the week is the conclusion to Raw's Edge v. Test match.

vignette: Austin is backstage with Shane, Paul Heyman, and Stephanie. He reasons that if none of the Alliance members had the guts to help him beat up on Tazz before, then none of them have the guts to jump ship. He reasons that it must have been someone who wasn't there, and sends Shane to get Booker, Paul to get RVD, and Stephanie to get Angle. WHAT ABOUT TEST?!?!?!

9. Test vs. Matt Hardy (Intercontinental Title match)

Match starts to a dead crowd, but they get into it as the match goes on. Test tries to get the pin with his feet on the ropes as he did Monday, but the ref catches him. Test pushes Matt out of a Twist of Fate attempt, and when he bounces off the ropes, hits the Boot and gets the pin. As Test walks up the ramp celebrating, he turns to face the crowd (and his back right to me), and Edge runs out, and when Test turns around he spears him. Good pop for the spear.

vignette: Austin is talking to Booker backstage. He questions his allegiance, showing him King of the Ring footage from this very building where Booker throws Austin through a table injuring him. Booker says he did that because he was, and is, loyal to the alliance, and then accuses RVD before leaving. Shane then says to Austin that it isn't Booker.

break

Quick shot of Rock taping his elbow leads into a recap of his match Monday with Jericho.

vignette: Vince shows up to ask Rock if he can work with Jericho at Survivor Series. Rock says Jericho shouldn't be concerned about Survivor Series, he should be concerned about surviving.

vignette: Booker visits RVD and tells him that he told Austin he thinks he's the mole. RVD thanks him for the honesty, and there's tension between the two.

10. Booker T. vs. The Rock (WCW Title Match)

Booker's pyro burns for a WHILE. After a ref bump, Rock goes for the People's Elbow, and Jericho comes from behind to hit the bulldog and lionsault. Jericho and Rock take it outside the ring, and Booker gets up and when Rock puts down Jericho, Booker gets Rocky from behind. They go back to the ring, and Rock hits the sharpshooter. RVD runs out and spin kicks Rock to break the hold and earn the DQ (as apparently the ref was out for the whole Jericho fight.) Rock and Booker are both down, so RVD climbs the turnbuckle, and frogsplashes Booker. Rock gets up and Rock Bottoms RVD, then gets up and turns around to get chaired by Jericho. Good heat for all guys, especially RVD and Rocky.

Break: Chimel hypes an upcoming Austin/Angle v. Kane/Undertaker match.

replay of the end of the previous match, followed by an exterior shot of the arena

vignette: Taker walks into Vince's audience. Vince asks where Kane is. UT says Kane isn't there. Vince says he knows that Kane isn't in the room with them, so he asks where Kane is again. UT: "He's not here." They do it one more time, and then Vince realizes Kane is not there. Vince asks what UT wants to do about his upcoming tag match, and Taker says he's handle it alone. Vince asks if he wants to add more men to the match to make it fair, and Taker says Austin and Angle need about ten more guys to make it even. Vince finally says Taker should choose a partner, and Taker picks Vince. Vince conveniently forgot his gear, so he wusses out and lets Taker fight the handicap match. Taker then yells at Vince for wanting to take Austin back into the WWF.

William Regal walks to the ring and calls out the Big Show

11. William Regal vs. the Big Show

The sparks from Big Show's entrance bounce nicely off the floor. Before Show gets to the ring, Kidman (or maybe Morrus, I never saw his face), and Stasiak jump show, and Show shrugs them off. Show enters the ring, and the rest of the Alliance jobbers attack show (Awesome, Raven, Justin Credible, Chavo, and others), but he fights them all off. Kidman/Morrus jumps off the top rope into a chokeslam. Chavo gets a chokeslam. Regal runs away as Show makes a joke out of WCW. Everyone then leaves to the right side of the stage.

break

vignette: Lita stretching as Matt walks up, ready for their tag match. Lita says that since he wrestled before, she found herself a new partner. Jeff walks over and they leave for their match.

vignette: Big Show meets with Vince. Vince says that since he destroyed half the alliance before, he offers him his spot on team WWF. YEAH!!!!!!

break: I'm still smiling about the last vignette. I'm afraid now it won't quite air on tv...

12. Jeff Hardy & Lita vs. Lance Storm & Ivory

Lita moonsaults Ivory to get the pin while the boys fight outside.

Backstage interview with Christian. He's going to show New Jersey a winning Jersey (Diamondback jersey)

break: crowd is pro-Yankee

Creed makes the WWF sacrifice time that could go to wrestling by getting them to use it to show their desire. Crowd pops for Triple H's appearance in the video.

13. Christian vs. Tajiri w/ Torrie Wilson (non-title match)

Crowd is still pro-Yankee, but after that chant dies down, the crowd is mostly quiet, and the few Christian fans are louder than the Tajiri fans, so Christian is mostly cheered for the match. Tajiri hits some unfamiliar holds and moves (at least to me and most of the crowd) Christian hits the Unprettier to get the pin.

break: Earl Hebner comes out, and a fan starts a chant of "You screwed Bret!" Hebner taunts the guy with a crotch chop.

vignette: Austin meets RVD. He makes RVD sit down, then turns off the lights and has one single bulb above RVD, so he can interrogate him. He should go get Kurrgan. Austin yells at RVD for disqualifying Booker and preventing him from winning the WCW title. RVD says its between him and Booker, and Austin says since Booker is Alliance, he's involved too. RVD accuses Austin of turning, pointing out how he first hated Vince McMahon, then joined Vince McMahon, then joined the Alliance. Austin dismisses RVD.

break

X-Box presents Austin's Stunner on Taker from Raw.

13. Undertaker vs. Stonecold Steve Austin & Kurt Angle

Angle and Austin have words on the ramp while Taker waits in the ring. Finally, they charge the ring, but Austin stops short while Angle slides in. He turns around to whine to Austin, and then turns back to get attacked by Taker. The two double team UT for the bulk of the match, until at the end, Austin goes for the Stunner, but Taker pushes him off and into Angle. With Angle down, Taker rolls up Austin and gets the pin. Almost NO heat for this match, as a) the crowd was spent, b) the crowd didn't know who to cheer for, and c) handicap matches are ALWAYS won by the single person. Austin gets up and stuns Taker. Then Angle gets up and they beat Taker down. Austin walks over to Angle and stuns Angle. Austin then walks backstage, and comes back out on the ramp with three beers, doing the beer guzzle routine from his babyface days, while Angle writhes in pain and agony in the ring and on the floor. Austin leaves, then Angle gets up and leaves. Then Taker gets up, poses around the ring for a bit, and finally leaves himself.

Decent show. Some of it is the same old crap the WWF has been doing, but some of it actually seems promising. I can only hope the dead crowd at the Meadowlands translates well over TV, but it never does...

SEE YA!!!

Eddie Burkett
[slash] wrestling

I know this really isn't important, but I forgot to mention this before. After the show, when the Undertaker was standing in the ring, a fan apparently jumped the rail, and ran up the ramp to the stage, where he posed, and then started walking to the side (my side.) Security rushed him from behind, and hit him so hard it looked like the kid was going to fall off (he looked to be about 13-16). The held him and abducted him backstage.

Thanks.

SEE YA!

Eddie