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WWE Smackdown taping report
Las Vegas, Nev.
October 15, 2008
Report by Ken Langston of Las Vegas, Nev., PWTorch VIP Subscriber

I attended the show in Vegas tonight and here is what I saw. First, during the Finlay-Morrison match on ECW, there was a funny bit right after Hornswoggle and the Miz disappeared underneath the ring. They didn't show it on television, but Finlay picked up the Miz's hat and put it on. after that he hit Morrison with it a couple of times, and then threw it into the crowd. I found it kinda funny that immediately after the person in the crowd caught the hat, security came and took it away from him and brought it to the backstage area. Why would Finlay throw it into the crowd if Security was just going to confiscate it? It made no sense to me, but a lot of things in the WWE don't these days.

Anyway, Smackdown started with a recap of last week's altercations between Jeff Hardy, Vladimir Koslov, and Triple H. after the video, and the opening pyrotechnics, Big Show came out to the ring with Chavo. He explained that at Cyber Sunday, the Big Show would face the Undertaker in one of three different matches. Interestingly, instead of texting to vote, viewers could only vote online at WWE.com. I guess they are throwing the people complaining about having to pay to vote a bone. The three choices are Knockout match, Last Man Standing, and I Quit.

Big Show then brings out three jobbers to demonstrate how each one of the matches would work. None even had generic theme music to come out. The first guy comes out to demonstrate the Knockout match and Big Show clotheslines him and them punches him. He is knocked out and Big Show kicks him out of the ring, and he lies motionless on the ring apron as the next guy comes out. Big Show puts him in a sleeper or maybe a modified Cobra clutch until the guy screams I quit. As the third guy comes into the ring, they bring out a stretcher. Although both guys are still lying motionless on the ground outside the ring, they still only bring out one stretcher.

The third guy is the last man standing demo, and Big Show clotheslines him. Wouldn't you just stay down for the ten count instead of getting up to take more punishment? No, this guy tries to get up and ends up being chokeslammed through a table for his effort. As Big Show and Chavo leave the Carnage, Big Show asks the audience if they have any questions. I also thought it was pretty funny that though the first two guys are still lying motionless, they end up using the stretcher on the third guy who went through the table.

In the first match, Primo & Carlito vs. Hawkins & Ryder for the tag team belts. It was a pretty short match. I would say around five minutes. Carlito and one of his opponents are fighting on the outside, and Primo hits his finisher on the other one. I can never remember which one is Hawkins and which one is Ryder, sorry. Carlito and Primo celebrate in the ring.

Backstage, Vickie and the Big Show are in her office, and Vickie complains about the pain in her neck. A knock at the door and Funaki comes in dressed like the Karate Kid and announces he is Kung Fu-naki. Vickie immediately tells him to leave, and Maryse comes in and complains that she shouldn't be in the "Divas Las Vegas" qualification match later tonight to determine who is the number one contender for Michelle McCool's Divas title. Vickie explains to her that even though she beat McCool last week, she still had to qualify for the title shot at Cyber Sunday.

Vickie explained the rules of the "Divas Las Vegas" match in that there would be a pair of giant pink fuzzy dice on a pole and the first diva to grab the dice would be the number one contender. Vickie then dismissed Maryse, and The Great Khali and his translator entered. Vickie tells the Great Khali that she has set up a match where he could prove his dominance. Through Singh, the Great Khali asks who his opponent is. Vickie tells him the Undertaker. Khali gets mad and says that he is not some puppet to do their bidding and if they have a problem with the Undertaker to solve it themselves. Big Show then gets in Khali's face and asks him to wrestle the undertaker out of respect for the office of the general manager, and Khali and Singh reluctantly nod their heads.

Eve interviews MVP backstage. The crowd was booing so loudly that I couldn't really hear what her question was, but MVP said that he was going to get his incentive bonus by beating R-Truth, something that Shelton Benjamin had not done, MVP reminded the crowd. Then MVP said that after he won he was going to the casino and he was going to be balling.

I was surprised at how quickly they were able to set up MVP's inflatible tent. it took less than 30 seconds. MVP came out to incredible heel heat. R-Truth came out through the crowd as he usually does and did his what's up routine to loud cheers. The match itself was pretty good with lots of back and forth action. At the end, MVP went for the Drive-By, but he missed. R-Truth hit his finisher and got the pin.

They showed footage of the Las Vegas Strip, as they always do. Interestingly, it must have been stock footage as they showed the old Boardwalk Hotel and Casino, which was torn down six or seven years ago. I know no one outside of Las Vegas will realize that, but I found it rather amusing.

Undertaker vs Khali was next. The set up crew unrolled a grey carpet for the Undertaker's entrance. The crowd went nuts as the first bell tolled and the arena lights went down. I have seen the Undertaker's entrance in person probably five or six times in my life and it never fails to give me goosebumps. Khali came out, and it is amazing how much bigger he is than Taker. He flattened Undertaker as the match began with a clothesline. The story early in the match was that Undertaker couldn't get Khali down no matter how hard he tried. Khali even went for his head crushing move and locked it on but Undertaker was able to power out of it. Just as Undertaker grabbed the momentum and was about to chokeslam Khali, Big Show came out and kicked the Undertaker. Taker won by disqualification. Big Show grabs a chair from ringside and tries to hand it to Khali to hit the Undertaker with. Khali refuses and after a minute of arguing back and forth, Khali slaps thew chair out of Big Show's hand and walks out of the ring. As Show is watching Khali leave, Undertaker sits up and grabs the chair. he hits Show in the back with chair knocking him out of the ring. Show walks slowly to the back glaring at Undertaker.

As the ring crew sets up for the stupid "Divas Las Vegas" match, Eve interviews Triple H. It was the standard Triple H promo that we hear seemingly every week. "I am the game, blah,blah, blah. It doesn't matter who I face at Cyber Sunday, blah, blah, blah." The crowd did go nuts when they saw him though.

The Divas came out for the match. Maria first, Maryse second, Natalya third, Victoria fourth and Brie Bella last. the match was a bad as could be expected as most things on a pole match are. I won't bore you with the details but Maria ended up winning by grabbing the dice from the pole.

The next match was Jesse and Festus vs Kenny Dykstra and Ryan Braddock. a pretty short match with Festus pinning Dykstra in about five minutes.

The Brian Kendrick came out and said that he had a throat infection and could not wrestle tonight. It was pretty funny when someone in my section yelled out syphilis when Kendrick said he had a throat infection. Kendrick was wearing a black leather jacket with epaulets and different colored fuzzy fabric on the lapels. It looked like something out the junior Bret Hart collection Kendrick explained that he had found a suitable replacement for his match against Super Crazy. His advisor Ezekial would wrestle for him. It was a squash match of course, as Ezekial won the match in less than two minutes. Kendrick kicked Super Crazy a couple of times after the match and celebrated like he just won the world title.

All throughout the night they showed highlights of the feud between Koslov and Jeff Hardy. as usual, the WWE did a good job with the vignettes hyping the match.

Maria was backstage still carrying the dice from her match. She ran into Michelle McCool. McCool congratulated Maria on her victory. Maria said it was always her dream to win the Divas championship. McCool sarcastically said that it was so sweet that Maria had dreams like that. It seems like they might be leading to a McCool heel turn, because she was basically saying Maria has no shot to win the title. McCool quickly realized that this might have offended her friend, and apologizes. She tries to explain it off as just her competitive nature. and that she knows it will be a great match. McCool runs off and Jesse and Festus come up to Maria and congratulate her on her victory. Festus gives Maria a flower and then stares at her for a few uncomfortable moments before Jesse grabs him and says they have tickets to the Wayne Newton show tonight.

Triple H comes out for commentary for the main event. Of course, the crowd goes nuts when his music hits, as they usually do when The Game is involved. Jeff Hardy comes out first to rousing cheers. Koslov comes out next. The match was pretty good and it really showcased the different styles of the two wrestlers. It was back and forth, and it says a lot that either one could win the match, which is the kind of tension a good main event should create. Anyway, after about 10 minutes Koslov hit the head butt and got the pin. Triple H came into the ring, and was nose to nose with Koslov. Koslov backed down after a minute or two and went to the top of the stage by the Titantron. Triple H helped Jeff Hardy up, and gave him the inevitable Pedigree to retaliate for the Twist of Fate Hardy gave him last week. I am sure the show will end with Triple H posing over Jeff Hardy holding the title, while Koslov scowls from the stage.

After the match, Triple H and Koslov leave. Jeff Hardy is still lying in the ring. Big Show comes out for the non-televised extra main event. He chokeslams Hardy and then kicks him out of the ring. Undertaker comes out and it is a no disqualification match. Both are throwing punches, and each blow staggers the other, but they can't knock each other down. Eventually, Undertaker does the old school move. He wins the match in about 12 minutes with the choke hold submission that Vickie banned a few months ago. Big Show tapped out, and the crowd cheered as the Undertaker knelt and extended his hand.

OTHER NOTES

The opening dark match was Ricky Ortiz vs Gavin Spears. The crowd really wasn't into the match at all. I would say about 30-40 percent of the crowd hadn't even arrived yet when the match began. Ortiz won the match in about 10 minutes.

As Crime Tyme was leaving, after the ECW show was over, some idiot came out of the crowd and tried to attack Shad. Security immediately took him away, but Shad looked like was about ready to hit him back. How much alcohol would you have to drink in order to attack someone who is about 6'8" and weighs over 300 pounds?

The top portion of the arena was curtained off so it was a sellout. If there were any empty seats, there were less than 100 in the bottom bowl of the Thomas and Mack Center.

The biggest cheers were for Undertaker, Jeff Hardy, and Triple H. the most heel heat was for Big Show, Koslov, and MVP.

During the show, my brother and I were trying to mention the most obscure wrestlers we could think of just to get a laugh out of one another. My brother mentioned the Battle Kat and I brought up Bastion Booger. I noticed that during the ECW telecast that Matt Striker mentioned that he was either going as the Repo Man or Bastion Booger for Halloween. That is really bizarre that Bastion Booger was mentioned twice in the same evening. again it amused me, but probably no one else.

Anyway, it was a good show, and I am glad I went.

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