SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
The following was originally published 15 years ago this weekend on PWTorch.com…
WWE Smackdown house show report
November 1, 2003
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Report by Royce Bodaly and Shane Davidson, PWTorch.com correspondents
The arena was about half full, maybe 2,000 people. Prior to the show, numerous superstars signed autographs for the lucky fans who waited outside. Among those were Danny Basham, Gail Kim (she arrived with Danny, not sure why she was at the show?), Rey Mysterio Jr, Paul London, and John Cena. John Cena was the best, as he signed autographs and took pictures for everyone that wanted. He also took the time out to talk with the fans about sports and what not. He challenged anyone to a battle rap, but nobody accepted. The funniest moment was when Mysterio tried to jump the curb in his car and drive straight up a huge grass hill. He made it to the top, then bottomed out and had to go all the way back down the hill, nearly t-boning an oncoming car…. HI-larious!!! Anyway onto the show.
(1) Torrie Wilson beat Dawn Marie and Sable in a tiny teddy contest, hosted by Edge. Sable said Canadians lost her luggage, and so she wouldn’t be competing. Torrie won after the usual crowd applause. Afterwards Sable attacked both women, and got beaten down and thrown out of the ring. Edge got a huge pop, and seemed really happy to be back, he also said he was looking forward to being back in about 4 months.
(2) Bradshaw beat Horshu after a Clothesline from Hell. Slow pacing, which didn’t allow Horshu to demonstrate whether or not he had any real wrestling ability. We all know Bradshaw has none, so needless to say the match wasn’t very good, but also thankfully, wasn’t very long.
(3) The Self Proclaimed World’s Greatest Tag Team beat Billy Kidman & Jamie Noble after a superkick by Shelton Benjamin. Really good match, with a nice mixture of high flying moves, and chain wrestling. Too much action to describe, but the ending was cool as Charlie Haas backdropped Kidman, Noble ran underneath the backdrop and rolled up Haas, only to have Benjamin come in and superkick Noble to allow Haas to roll him up for the win. Benjamin’s dragon whip kick is awesome live!!
(4) Orlando Jordan beat Rhyno after a roll up. Rhyno had the most feeble attempt at a heel turn as he simply grabbed the mic, yelled Canada Sucks!! and started wrestling. Crowd seemed to buy it, as they were all over him during the match. Nothing spectacular, but nothing terrible either, Jordan dodged a gore and quickly rolled up Rhyno for the victory.
(5) Spanky & Paul London beat Chuck Palumbo & Johnny “The Bull” Stamboli (w/Nunzio) after a roll up. Spanky & London work awesome together, Spanky really got the crowd going as London was playing the Ricky Morton face in peril to a tee. The best move was when London suicide dove through the ropes at Stamboli, but pretty much landed directly on the steel barricade, SICK!! The ending saw Palumbo accidentally super kick Nunzio off the ropes, and have Spanky win the third straight match with a roll up.
After the match there was an FBI beat down of the faces, which saw them give Spanky a modified death sentence, that Spanky sold like a champ.
(6) Tajiri beat Rey Mysterio Jr. to retain the Cruiserweight Championship after a Buzzsaw kick. This was a great match, but nothing we haven’t seen before between these two. However, if you haven’t seen it live, it is a great sight to see. Tajiri bumped the ref and gave Mysterio the green MIST and the buzzsaw kick for the win.
(7) Basham Brothers (w/Shaniqua) beat Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty to retain the Tag Team championship after ANOTHER roll up. Terrible match. The Basham’s have potential in the ring, but with no defined character they are lost. They received absolutely no reaction, which isn’t a good thing for your Tag Team champs. Oh well, after Doug Basham took the W. O. R. M. (which is still good to get the crowd going, but also terrible) Danny pulled the ol’ switcheroo, and rolled up Scotty for the win.
After the match the usual occurred as Shaniqua took the stink face and the crowd applauded like seals, and we puked. As per usual at house shows they brought in some kid from ring side, but he sucked so Rikishi gave him a stink face, which was actual slightly less vomit inducing.
A-Train comes out and works the mic. He was actual pretty good at getting over as a heel, challenging people in the crowd to come in and fight him. He then made an open challenge to anyone in the back…
And just for Burgan, we cue Thuganomics….
Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo
I was supposed to be tagging in that last match
but I here you from the back, talking like some overgrown Sasquatch
Blah, diddy blah, blah…. why are you talking all bad?
I heard you had a fight and your boyfriend got mad.
I hear he makes you do strange things, like swallow whole pickles
Dude, the only reason he’s with you is cause you got hairy nipples
Even though you got a limp bizkit, you still gave him nookie
The guys got an obsession with guys who look like wookie.
Well tonight I’m gonna take the A-Train right of his track
And before we start, I got three words for you…. SHAVE… YOUR… BACK
WORD LIFE
(8) John Cena beat A-Train with the F-U. Cena played the whole match like Hogan vs. Andre from Wrestlemania 3, as if he couldn’t body slam him. Then when he did, the crowd went nuts. Cena reversed the Derailer into an F-U and scored the pin.
Before the main event Kurt Angle told Big Show and Brock Lesnar that he would make them tap. Big Show said that there’s no way, and if he did tap, then he would kiss Angle’s ass.
(9) Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit beat Brock Lesnar & The Big Show when Show tapped out to the ankle lock, in a Kiss My Ass match. Really good match, with everyone hitting there signatures. Cool part saw Angle reverse a choke slam into an ankle lock.
After the match Lesnar ran, and as Benoit had Show in the crossface, Angle pulled down his trunks and rubbed his ass in Show’s face. Then before they left, Benoit asked us if we wanted to see Big Show kiss some Canadian ass. The crowd goes nuts and Benoit pulls his pants down and rubs his ass in Show’s face as Angle holds him in a camel clutch. Poor Big Show, who knows what he did to deserve that.
FINAL THOUGHTS: All in all it was a pretty fun show. The good more than outweighed the bad and the crowd was really into it. One funny theme was that referee Brian Hebner was always trying to make Tony Chimmel (ring announcer) laugh while he was doing the ring introductions. I don’t know why, but this was hilarious as Chimmel would have to leave the ring laughing, in order to finish them.
Biggest Face Pops:
1. John Cena
2. Kurt Angle
3. Edge
4. Rikishi
5. Rey Mysterio Jr.
Most Heel Heat:
1. Rhyno
2. A-Train
3. Sable
4. Haas & Benjamin
5. Brock Lesnar
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.