10 YRS AGO – WWE in Miami, Fla. (4-1-08): Undertaker, Batista, Miz, Edge, Vickie, Shawn Michaels, Teddy Long, Morrison

The following was published on PWTorch.com 10 years ago this weekend…

WWE Smackdown taping and dark match results
April 1, 2008
Miami, Fla.
Report by Brendan Mackesey, PWTorch VIP Member

The show in Miami tonight was pretty packed, but the atmosphere didn’t come close to Survivor Series here several months earlier. Especially after attending WrestleMania, I see PPVs and TV Tapings are two completely different experiences. On to the show…

SMACKDOWN TAPING

Edge opened the show to a lot of heat (wearing a Chavo t-shirt), and came out with Chavo Guererro, Vickie Guererro (w/Teddy Long), Curt Hawkins, and Zach Ryder. Edge said he had never been so ticked off in his life. Instead of making excuses, he talked about how he let himself, his lover, and all “of us fans” down. He guaranteed he would be World Champion again. Vickie said Edge and Chavo both “deserved” rematches for their respective titles at Backlash, but never officially clarified if these matches would take place. She said Kane and Undertaker would be facing each other later tonight.

MVP came out next and looked pissed off. Some love him and more hate him, but he’s definitely over with his hometown crowd. He has a real cool live entrance too. Matt Hardy came out to a big pop and MVP immediately jumped on him. These two had a real nice back and forth match with Matt zeroing in on MVP’s leg. MVP sold a noticeable limp the last few minutes of the match and eventually succumbed to the Twist of Fate. MVP got in the ref’s face and hoisted his U.S. championship upon the match’s conclusion. Rematch at Backlash anyone?

Hawkins and Ryder came out next and took on Jesse and Festus. The crowd really liked Festus, not much of a reaction for the Edgeheads. Nothing special here, I think I was getting a beer when the match ended, but Jesse and Festus won.

Surprise, Shawn Michaels is here and on his way out to the ring. Good pop for Shawn who basically mimicked his “I feel guilty about ending Flair’s career” schpeal from Monday. He was interruped by Batista (another good crowd response, Miami loves the stars but doesn’t care about the mid-carders). Good, surprising mic work from Batista here. Batista talked about how Michaels should feel guilty for ending Flair’s career and how he let his ego get in the way of doing the right thing. Batista said he would have let Flair win at WrestleMania if he was in Michael’s situation. After expressing frustration that he would never get to be with his “friend and mentor” (Flair) ever again, Batista referenced Michael’s “Old Yeller” line about Flar from a week or so ago back towards HBK and aggresively threw down his mic and exited the ring. This earned Batista some boos; the crowd is definitely on Shawn’s side here. Michaels stared Batista down as the show presumably cut to commercial.

Teddy Long came out to award the Diva of the Year award for Smackdown. He had some guys that built some motorcycle out there with him who talked about the custom bike that would be awarded to the winner. Cherry came out to zero reaction, who was followed by smokin’ hot Michelle McCool. Long unsurprisingly awarded the Diva of the Year title and the motorcycle to Michelle. I am not sure what exactly was supposed to happen next, but Michelle could not figure out how to start her new motorcycle. The crowd was sympathetic and gave her a nice ovation anyway. Suddenly Victoria came out and called the Miami crowd “El-Stupido,” among other things. She attacked McCool and Cherry and was eventually joined by Beth Phoenix. The two heels cleaned house convincingly.

John Morrison & The Miz took on Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore next. Nice and short; I think Morrison got the pin on Wang Yang. Before the wrestlers could make their exit, the Great Khali came out and kicked everyone’s ass. He got on the mic and started speaking jibberish which brought out the Big Show. Show claimed that Monday Khali got in his face, so now he is getting in his. Again, just like Monday, Khali cautiously got out of the ring and stared Show down from the ramp.

This was the crowd’s fourth time of the night seeing Kane, so he didn’t generate the type of reaction you would anticipate for the main event. Undertaker on the other hand, may have had the biggest pop of the night. These two started out very slow with an excrutiatingly long armbar on Kane. When it looked like things were about to pick up, the Brothers of Destruction tried to chokeslam each other at the same time and ended up simultaneously giving each other the big boot. Edge, Chavo, Hawkins, and Ryder ran out to start beating on Kane and ‘Taker which trigered the DQ bell. It looked like the Brothers were down for the count, but each did their trademark “Dead Man pop up” and Edge and Chavo both received violent chokeslams. The two brothers struck a pose over their fallen victims, and I am pretty sure this is where the show went off the air.

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NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS 10 YRS AGO FLASHBACK: 10 YRS AGO – KELLER’S WWE SMACKDOWN REPORT: Punk vs. Morrison, Jericho vs. MVP, Batista vs. Snitsky, plus Kane, Maryse, McCool, WrestleMania hype