WWE Smackdown house show
March 6, 2006
Melbourne, Australia
Report by Steve Moore, PWTorch.com reader

(1) Mark Henry won the inaugural 'Brisbane Cup' 20 man battle royal where the winner would go on to face Kurt Angle in the main event for the World Heavyweight Championship, by eliminating Rey Mysterio. Awesome opening match. It was my sixth time for seeing the WWE (the other five times were in Melbourne, WWE didn't come to Melbourne this time due to the commonwealth games), and this was one of the best matches I have seen live. It included big names such as Orton, Mysterio, Benoit, Taker, MNM, and Booker T, and then was filled out with others such as Hardy, Finlay, Lashley, Henry, Helms, Kash, Animal, London, Kendrick, Noble, Jordan, Funaki, and Sylvan. Eventually came down to Orton, Mysterio and Henry, after Henry had eliminated Taker taking advantage of Taker's leg being over the top rope after eliminating someone with the big boot. Mysterio managed to eliminate Orton, but Henry quickly took advantage and suplexed Mysterio onto the ropes and onto the outside of the ring, before giving him a kick to the guts to eliminate him. Taker got an awesome pop when he was introduced as the last entrant.

A few local Rugby stars came out and presented Henry with the 'Brisbane Cup'.

JBL was out next. One of my favorite wrestlers of all time. It seems like they are almost turning the guy into a comedy act, but damn is he funny on the mike. He proceeded to pay out the local Rugby game (not that I cared being from Melbourne and Aussie Rules land), calling the players gay and referring to an incident awhile ago where a Rugby player basically stuck his thumb up his opponent's ass (true story). He even went into a rhyme which ended something like 'you have to be careful when going for a pass, because all Rugby players want to do is stick their thumbs up your...' but then he stopped and quickly went 'No, no, no.. can't say that...' shaking his head. JBL was having a ball, he came out with a classic saying that he couldn't be part of the battle royal because of his injured hand, and even though the doctor cleared him to wrestle, he was saving himself for a real country like the States. He said that the battle royal without JBL, would be like the Olympic Games without Australia. He paused, and then said though Australia never win any medals at the Olympics so it was probably a bad analogy which drew him some nice heat. He went out to demand that everyone stand while he sang (badly) 'God Bless America'. Great spot. He was interrupted by Boogeyman's entrance, looking scared when he came out, and promptly fled the ring just as Orlando Jordan ran out to attack Boogeyman from behind.

(2) Boogeyman defeated Orlando Jordan. Quite possibly the worst match I have ever seen live. And for once, I can't lay the blame solely on Jordan. Boogeyman has a cool entrance and all, but please god, learn to wrestle, at least a little. End came quick when Jordan ran at Boogeyman but received some sort of two handed jab to the throat, which led to the pin. Worms were then dumped on Jordan. Took longer to clean the ring after than it did for the whole match.

(3) Gregory Helms & Kid Kash, & Jamie Noble defeated Funaki & Paul London & Brian Kendrick in a six-man tag. Ok match. Crowd didn't seem really into it, but Kash was getting some nice heat jawing with the crowd. Helms also got some heat during the match by doing the old hurricane pose but then stopping and giving the crowd the 'F U' gesture. Finish came with Helms hitting the shining wizard. Looked like early on in the match Helms took a hardway blow that left him with a bad looking bloody nose for the rest of the match.

(4) Melina won a bikini contest against Jillian Hall and Kristal. Pretty much the most entertaining diva spot I have seen in any of the six house shows I have attended. Melina was looking hot in an orange bikini, but Jillian was also giving her a run for her money in a white and black bikini. Don't remember what Kristal was wearing, wasn't paying attention, she does nothing for me. They went to the crowd, and Melina was declared the winner, though I have to honestly say that Jillian got as big a crowd response, if not bigger, than Melina did. It was very close in my mind. Jillian complained to the ring announcer, then Kristal tried to step in and Melina and Jillian both started attacking Kristal. Kristal came back with a double clothesline, and it pretty much degenerated into a cat fight.

Intermission

(5) Rey Mysterio & Bobby Lashley defeated Randy Orton & Finlay. Mysterio got a big pop. Orton is in an interesting position again where he is playing a heel, but a lot of the crowd like him so he gets a mixed response. Lashley worked a lot of the match, taking a lot of punishment from the heels. Eventually got the hot tag. Was able to hit a 619 with both Orton and Finlay laying on the ropes next to each other. Lashley dumped Orton out of the ring while Rey hit a springboard splash from the apron onto a prone Finlay, getting the pin. During the celebration, Rey grabbed a sign from the crowd that said 'We miss you Eddie' on it and laid it in the middle of the ring with the tribute Eddie t-shirt. Eddie's music hit and strong 'Eddie' chants began. Rey kissed the video screen image of Eddie before he left. On one hand, it's nice to remember Eddie and see he isn't forgotten, but I have to agree that they are taking it all too far and it does feel a little like exploitation.

(6) Chris Benoit retained the U.S. Championship against Booker T. I really enjoyed this match for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I had gotten to meet Sharmell and Booker at a signing earlier that day, and second, it was my first time seeing the crippler live. Benoit got a very loud pop. Sharmell was great with her princess crown and all. Pretty standard match though. Felt too much like a formula match. I know these two have wrestled each other many, many times, but it would have been nice to have felt like something fresh and new. Benoit got the win after three germans, which was followed up with a sharpshooter transitioned nicely into the crossface and the tap out.

(7) Kurt Angle retains the World Heavyweight Championship against Mark Henry (accompanied by Daivari) via DQ. I wasn't expecting much at all from this match. I hate that now that Angle is a face, it's like he is suddenly afraid almost of Henry. Angle spent a lot of the match doing offense that looked like he didn't know how to handle Henry, and we were subjected to Henry's boring offense which relies way too much on the bear hug. Was nice seeing Angle hit the Angle Slam on a guy the size of Henry though. Henry kicked out and this led to the straps down and the Ankle Lock. Just as it looked like Henry was going to tap out, Daivari ran in and hit Angle from behind, causing the DQ. Henry and Daivari then started to double team Angle, which led to Taker running out and helping Angle to empty the ring. Angle and Taker had a bit of a stare down, with Taker making the 'I want the belt' gesture. Angle left first, with Taker still in the ring. A few people were already trying to leave to get out early, so some ushers actually were stopping people and telling them to stay. Taker then did his kneeling in the ring bit, and left with his theme playing, stopping at the rampway and lifting his arm in the air in salute.

Overall it was an awesome show, top to bottom, and it is fighting for one of the best shows I have seen out of the six times I have seen WWE so far. I think they put together some really nice matches, especially looking at some of the matches they put together on some of the other house shows. Too many times before, I've been to a Smackdown house show, and been treated to a couple of real stinkers of matches a la Funaki vs. Sylvan that was on the Wellington show. Matches that put the crowd to sleep. This time they seemed to go with some of the best matches they could put together, and it worked. The crowd was hot. The Boogeyman match was terrible, but even still, it was short, and his entrance was kinda cool. Worse part of the night was being stuck next to a loud mouth smart mark. This guy was shouting out stuff during Benoit's match like 'Go Pegasus! Do it for Dynamite!' or during the battle royal he came out with 'Go Mark! Calloway I mean.. not Henry!'. He also had a sign about MNM needing to learn respect, saying to me something about how they sometimes wear the titles stuck down their pants is disrespecting the tag titles and everyone who held them before them. Mind you, I'm sitting there with a 'it's okay to stare' MNM t-shirt on... We all love wrestling and love to know the real story behind it and all the history etc. but in my mind, there is nothing worse than a loud mouth smart mark like that. Anyway, Smackdown were that good that they made me start to think that it is looking like again that Smackdown have all the great, hot talent at the moment, and is the better show than the flagship Raw, which is good for business in my book.

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