Credit: Anthony Alston & Prowrestling.net
WWE SmackDown (Airing Friday):
Prior the taping, Paul Heyman made an unadvertised appearance and drew mega heat.
JBL is introduced to a mild pop followed by Lilian Garcia. She welcomed Philly to Smackdown 15 and pumped the crowd up for the opening. The signature aired followed by classic clips of Smackdown through the years. Notable was the focus on Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy throughout the highlights.
Smackdown has a new opening theme which will take some getting used to. Lilian introduced Smackdown’s first GM Stephanie McMahon. Stephanie plugged WWE Network by pointing out that The Rock coined the phrase Smackdown and noted that her husband Triple H had beaten Rock. She led the crowd in a brief $9.99 chant.
Stephanie was interrupted by John Laurinaitis, who got a People Power chant. He also pimped the Network. Out next was Teddy Long, who got a pretty big pop.
Teddy and Johnny get into a back and forth over their storyline heat from back in the day. They actually got into an argument over the booking of Teddy’s favorite match – the tag match. The result was Teddy actually trying to book a 15-man tag match which was pretty damn funny. Stephanie suggested that Teddy and Johnny each pick a team and that whoever’s team won would result in that man being declared the greatest GM of all time.
Stephanie said that Miz will host a face to face between John Cena and Dean Ambrose. Adam Rose and his crew, including the Bunny, interrupted and actually got a pretty loud pop. Rose told Steph not to be a lemon and she promptly booked him against Kane as punishment…
During the commercial break, we get a clip from the first Smackdown featuring The Rock vs. Triple H with HBK as the special referee. We also got a Network plug…
Back from break, Rose did the trust fall. Kane headed to the ring cutting a promo saying he is not a cheeseburger, lemon, or a Rosebud. He is, however, a party pooper…
Kane defeated Adam Rose. Kane squashed Rose in under a minute with a chokeslam. The Rosebuds tended to Rose. Kane destroyed all of the Rosebuds with the exception of The Bunny, which would have popped the hell out of me…
The next Smackdown clip was Cena’s debut against Kurt Angle…
A.J. Lee defeated Alicia Fox (w/Paige). There were brief CM Punk chants that died quickly. Fox was in control and once again the Punk chants picked up with an AJ chant mixed in for good measure. AJ went over with Black Widow, but before Lilian could finish her announcement, Paige attacked Lee. AJ fought off Paige and Fox to end the segment…
Seth Rollins (w/Joey Mercury, Jamie Noble) beat Kofi Kingston. Rollins got a mild “You Sold Out” chant before the match started. Rollins started the match off very aggressively and was beating the hell out of Kofi, who made a brief comeback but was cutoff with a neckbreaker. Rollins played to the crowd and drew some damn good heat. Kofi came backs and went on a nice run before getting shut down with a buckle bomb followed by The Curb Stomp…
A Bray Wyatt/Luke Harper promo aired. The visual of a darkened arena that is lit by only cellphones is one of the coolest visuals in pro wrestling history…
Out next were Dolph Ziggler followed by Rusev and Lana… The next Smackdown moment was a collection of MITB cash-ins over the years. Footage of The Rock/Rusev confrontation from Raw aired…
Rusev (w/Lana) defeated Dolph Ziggler in a non-title match. The match started with Ziggler dodging Rusev until he got caught. There was a brief USA chant. Rusev controlled much of the match with Ziggler bumping his ass off as usual to make Rusev look like a beast. The crowd fired up the USA chant again but they once again don’t pick up steam. A small “Let’s Go Ziggler” chant got going but was drowned out by USA chants. After several minutes of Rusev offense, Ziggler woke up the crowd with some flashy offense but it was not enough, as he was crushed and forced to submit to The Accolade…
Afterward, Lana cut a promo trashing Philly and The Rock. Rusev said Rock will pay as well as Big Show. He challenged Show to a match on Raw. The Russian flag dropped and that ended the segment. This promo drew amazing heat live…
The next Smackdown moment was one of my favorites of all time with Steve Austin beating the hell out of Booker T in a supermarket… Lilian put over the Philly chapter of Susan G. Komen and a brief video airsed… The Philadelphia Eagles players got some camera love to a nice pop…
A backstage segment aired with Rock, Triple H, and Stephanie reminiscing about their Smackdown history through the years. Rock teased him and Triple H going at it one more time and the crowd popped huge. Things started to get a little tense between the two as they teased a future WrestleMania match. Steph stepped in and called both guys winners and suggests they go get something to eat. This segment is funny as hell and is a must watch on Friday Night…
Lillian introduced another former Smackdown GM in Booker T, who got an initial loud pop that died quickly. Booker was on commentary for the next match…
Team Teddy (Sheamus, Mark Henry, The Usos, Los Matadores, El Torito, and Jack Swagger) beat Team Johnny (Goldust, Stardust, Heath Slater, Titus O’ Neil, Damien Mizdow, Bo Dallas, Cesaro, and Hornswoggle in the silly ass Gator outfit). It didn’t take long for things to break down as the heels regrouped on the outside. A small but pretty vocal “Sexual Chocolate” chant was heard throughout the match. Everybody got a chance to shine, but the most notable thing about this match was how over Mizdow was, which I hope WWE takes notice of because the guy is being criminally wasted. After several minutes of pretty forgettable action Sheamus was tagged in to a huge pop and went on a tear that included hitting his trademark ten clubs on Ceasro, Stardust, and Heath Slater at the same time. The Usos hit dives on the heels which popped the crowd. Ceasro, after months of non-use, broke out the Ceaaro Swing, which the crowd ate up. In the end the Usos took out Mizdow with a superkick/splash combo giving Team Teddy the win…
A Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan promo aired…
The next Smackdown moment was Stone Cold destroying the DX Express…
In what was most likely a dark segment, Team Teddy was still in the ring. Teddy’s theme played as he did his trademark dance. Booker T entered the ring and pumped the crowd by asking if they want to see a 15th anniversary spinnaronni from each member of Team Teddy. First up was Mark Henry followed by the Usos. Next was Los Matadores and Torito, Sheamus, and Swagger. Teddy even did one, which was pretty bad. Sheamus pointed out that the announce team should also do spinnaroonies. So we got one from JBL, and Booker finished us off. This was entertaining but a bit long…
The Royal Rumble is confirmed for Philly on January 25…
Kofi Kingston came out and demanded another match with Seth Rollins. Rollins came out with Mercury and Noble for the match…
Seth Rollins (w/Joey Mercury, Jamie Noble) defeated Kofi Kingston. Rollins dominated the match for the most part. Kofi made a comeback but not enough as the match ended the same way as their previous one. My guess is that this was a re-take as there was a slight botch with the finish of the original match.
Miz TV with John Cena and Dean Ambrose was up next. Miz is introduced to little reaction… The next Smackdown moment was the 9/11 tribute show..
The Miz started off the segment putting himself over followed by covering what happened between Cena and Ambrose on Raw. Miz said the match between Ambrose and Cena at HIAC will now be a No Holds Barred Contract on a Pole match. Whoever gets the contract gets Rollins in HIAC. When the hell did WWE put Vince Russo back on payroll?!?! Miz introduced Ambrose and Cena. Ambrose got a nice pop and Cena got the usual mixed reaction. Miz pointed out that Ambrose embarrassed Cena on Monday. Ambrose said that he wanted to show Cena that he takes crap from no one and that at HIAC Rollins belongs to him.
Miz gave Cena the chance for a rebuttal. Cena went into hyper mode and actually got a damn loud pop from the crowd after a little sucking up, of course. He put over Ambrose as a guy who speaks his mind. Cena pulled out two baseballs and said those are what it takes to make it in WWE. He than proceeded to bury Miz for having no balls. Cena went into preacher mode putting over Ambrose and their match at HIAC.
Miz stirred the pot by pointing out all of Cena’s accolades to Ambrose asking him if he thinks he can beat him. Ambrose responds “Yup.” Funny. Miz attempted to do the same deal to Cena, but Cena cut him off and basically told Miz that Mizdow is better than him, which led to Sandow getting another big pop. The segment ended with Cena and Ambrose beating the hell out of Miz. Cena gave Ambrose his receipt from Monday by hitting him with the Attitude Adjustment to conclude the Smackdown taping