Full WWE SmackDown Results - 9/18/03 - Raleigh, NC (New WWE champion)
» On Thursday, September 18, 2003 at 11:27 PM EST
Full WWE SmackDown Results - September 18, 2003
Taped From: Raleigh, North Carolina
Commentators: Michael Cole & Tazz
Report by: Mike Siciliano of Wrestleview.com
QUICK RESULTS:
BLOW BY BLOW:
Smackdown opens with one of only two visits by the boss, Mr. McMahon. He promos the ironman match, putting over both combatants, but is stopped suddenly by a returning Undertaker. Undertaker says he won't interfere in the title match, he respects the title too much. He also says he knows Vince set him up in his title match vs. Angle. Undertaker told Vince he never forgives, and he never ever forgets.
A tale of the tape is shown for the ironman match, leading up to the opening contest....
Rey Mysterio comes out, his partner Benoit follows. Tajiri comes out, and a match for next week's Smackdown is announced, a rematch for the cruiserweight championship between Mysterio and Tajiri. Rhyno comes out, and the matchup begins. The match itself was back and forth for a substansial amount of the contest, with some significant spots.. Benoit got caught in the tarantula early by Tajiri, while the referee was physically holding back Rey Mysterio from assisting his partner. While the ref was still working with Rey Rey, Tajiri broke the tarantula, and Rhyno caught Benoit in to what looked like a vicious spine on the pine spinebuster. The back and forth action continues until a tag made by Mysterio, who literally countered almost every move that Rhyno tried to throw at him. Tajiri tried to regain the momentum by going for the green mist into Mysterio, but missed, hitting Rhyno instead. Tajiri gets caught by Benoit following the Mist miss, and endures a german suplex into a 619 double team combination. Rhyno then gets hit with a 619 of his own, and Rey Rey gets the win with a drop of the dime on the man beast.
A promo is shown for the tag team title match which is upcoming between the World's Greatest Tag Team and Los Guerreros. A 2nd promo is also shown for the IronMan Match.
COMMERCIAL
A quick promo for the Rock, who is upcoming on the cover of GQ Magazine.
Torrie Wilson comes out for the 2 on 1 match between herself and Nidia against Shaniqua. Nidia follows, with Dawn Marie at her side. Highlights of last week's beatdown by the Basham's valet on the divas was shown, as Shaniqua made her way to the ring accomapnied by Doug and Danny Basham. Shaniqua stops the Bashams at the top of the stage, and sends them to the back, as she approached the ring for this handicap match. Torrie and Nidia get some minor offense in on Shaniqua, but this match was a virtual squash from the word go. Nidia was slammed on top of Torrie, which led to Torrie rolling out of the ring, leaving Nidia to the wolves. Shaniqua set up Nidia for the powerbomb, which got a quick 3 count. Dawn Marie came in to try and help out the divas, but she got clotheslined out of the ring, and then thrown head first in to the steel ring post for her efforts, as Shaniqua laughs her way all the way to the backstage area.
The only vignette with both members of the McMahon family is shown as the diatribe continues of Stephanie not quitting as GM, and Vince saying he will make her quit. Stephanie challenges her father to fire her, but Vince says he does what he wants, when he wants. Vince challenges the GM by saying "If you want to play rough, I can play rough. When I'm done, you're gonna beg me to quit." Big Show and Sable are behind Vince, smirking.
A promo is shown for the tag team championship match, upcoming.
COMMERCIAL
A promo is shown for Angle vs. Lesnar 3, and highlights from the previous two matches are shown. Lesnar's attermpt at the shooting star press at Wrestlemania, and Angle's ankle lock submission of Lesnar at summerslam, the f5 setup followed by the counter in to the ankle lock.
Eddie and Chavo are in the back, Eddie is thrilled to have Chavo back, and asks Chavo how he got the tag title match. Chavo says he went to Stephanie, talked about 'La Famiglia', and how the Guerreros being back together desereved a title shot. Stephanie agreed, and the match was on for the tag team straps. Eddie thinks he needs some more gold, and that they're gonna do it for 'La Razza!"
Another promo for the tag team title match is shown, coming up next.
COMMERCIAL
WWE REWIND - Last week, the parking lot brawl. The return of Chavo Guerrero, leading to Eddie winning the brawl over John Cena.
John Cena is shown on the roof of the arena, cutting a promo, saying he underestimated the Guerreros. He said that Eddie and Chavo cheat more than Ben Affleck did with J-Lo. (Terrific line.) He continues to say that he will one day win the US title, his 'patriotic duty.' He makes some references to next week, but does not elaborate.
Los Guerreros come out, Haas and Benjamin are already in the ring waiting for the challengers. A huge crowd pop for the returning Guerrero tag team. The action was fast and furious back and forth from the beginning, leading up, right before the commercial, into simultaneous hilos over the top rope on the champions by both members of the challengers.
COMMERCIAL
When Smackdown returns, Haas is being choked out with the tag ropes by Eddie. The back and forth action continues until Chavo gets drop kicked on his injured arm by Shelton Benjamin. The champions continue for a few minutes to work on Chavo's arm, but after a failed tag to Eddie with the ref not seeing it, the champs make a mistake on an attempted double team maneuver, leading to a Chavo drop kick on Charlie Haas. Benjamin then catches Chavo as he lunged for Eddie, but the duo fell in to the Guerrero corner, which got the tag to the US Champion. Eddie goes for his triple vertical suplex on Benjamin, nails 2 of them before Haas saves his partner. Eddie goes for a frogsplash, rolls out of it as he sees Haas get up, Benjamin goes for a steel chair on the outside, tries to hit Eddie with it, but Chavo drop kicks Shelton's knee, and he falls out of the ring viciously on to the floor. Haas looks down as his partner, and realizes something is wrong, but is forced to go back to the Guerreros in the ring. Eddie & Chavo whip Haas to the ropes, and drop him on his head with a double team slam that knocks Haas cold. Eddie hits the frog splash for the 1, 2, 3 count, and the new tag team champions are Eddie and Chavo, Los Guerreros!
Tazz shows his keys to victory for the ironman match, followed by a repeat of the tale of the tape.
COMMERCIAL
WWE Smack of the Night - Last week - Stephanie fighting for her life vs. Brock Lesnar in the match setup by her father.
The superstars assemble in the locker room and the APA office for the 3rd ever IronMan match in WWE history. Bradshaw proclaims that someone is 'gonna get their ass kicked.'
The WWE Championship match is next. It was a terrific match by both competitors. Here is a brief of all the falls, and the unofficial times they were during the match.
Fall 1 - Brock absolutely clocks Angle in the head with a steel chair right in front of the referee. DQ on Lesnar. Angle leads the match, 1 fall to none,. 9:46.
Fall 2 - With Angle still trying to recover from the hideous chair shot, Angle gets setup for the f5. Lesnar connects and gets the pinfall to tie the match, 1 fall apiece at 11:23.
Fall 3 - Brock says to the crowd that he'll make Angle tap out. He then locks the Ankle lock on Angle, which the champion taps out from at 13:14. Lesnar 2 Angle 1
Fall 4 - At the 20 minute mark, action was outside the ring, when Angle gets hit with an f5 on the floor. Lesnar rolls in to the ring and gets the count out fall. Lesnar 3 Angle 1
COMMERCIAL - following 20 minutes of good action
Fall 5 - After some major beatdown that took place on the champion, Angle was able to connect with the Angle slam out of virtually nowhere on Lesnar, and get the 3 count at 26:00. Lesnar 3 Angle 2
Fall 6 - The referee gets knocked silly by a Lesnar clothesline right around the 30:00 mark. Lesnar continues by hitting a low blow on the champion, grabbing the WWE title belt, clocking Angle in the skull, reviving referee Brian Hebner, who counted Angle down for the 3 count at 31:35. Lesnar 4 Angle 2
COMMERCIAL
Fall 7 - Following 15 minutes of near falls, and back and forth action by two exhausted combatants, Lesnar superplexes Angle off the top rope for the 3 count at the 46:30 mark. Lesnar 5 Angle 2
Fall 8 - At 51:10, following an f5, Lesnar goes to the top rope, looking like he was setting up for a shooting star press. Angle climbs the ropes, hits a belly to belly off the top rope, covers Lesnar and gets the three count. Lesnar 5 Angle 3
Fall 9 - At 56:55, following multiple reversals of german suplexes by both comeptitors, Angle rolls out of a german suplex attempt in to the ankle lock for the fourth time in the match. Lesnar does a virtual identical act like what was done at Summerslam, grabbing at any rope all over the ring, and finally taps out. Lesnar 5 Angle 4
At the end of the match, Angle captures Lesnar in a modified ankle lock, like the one he has used on Benoit on many an occasion with about 20 seconds left to go. The clock just ran out on Angle, and Lesnar was declared the winner. The final 15 minutes of this contest saw Lesnar literally running away from Kurt Angle at every opportunity. However, the final score was Brock Lesnar 5, Kurt Angle 4, and the new WWE Champion is Brock Lesnar. As Smackdown went off the air, Michael Cole claimed that Brock Lesnar cheated his way throughout the 60 minutes to the WWE championship.
RANTINGS AND RAVINGS
If I attempted to try and go blow by blow from the ironman match, my fingers would've fallen off. It just wasn't possible. It was a terrific heel vs. face storyline match. Lesnar pulled every Paul Heyman like trick out of the book to capture the title, and Angle, under extreme emotional duress, fought a majestic battle against odds that, I believe, were stacked against him. Angle now, when he returns from his bereavement, (let me say right now, my sincere condolences from my family to his on the loss of his sister.), gets a major chip on his shoudler, and takes some of the tactics that Lesnar used on him, and brings it back to the new champion ten fold. This deal is not done. This sixty minute match did not end the feud with these men, I think that a match needs to be done with these two men to end it all. Lesnar claims to be a monster, so chain him up like a monster. Put him and Angle in hell in a cell, or a chain match with Angle, and lets see the violent side of both of these men. I think it would provide the perfect capper to a excellent feud. AND, lastly, NO VINCE. Beautiful, sheer beauty. No Vinnie Mac. Great. FINALLY.
I love Los Guerreros. Eddie is a maniac. An absolute maniac. But the pop he is getting is enormous. Serves him right to be a double champion. I'd like to see him drop the US gold to Benoit or Cena soon, but he and Chavo deserve a nice long reign as tag champs. The only viable opposition I can see to the Guerreros, with Benjamin on the shelf, is the APA. And, as much as I like the APA, they can't go speed for speed with Eddie and Chavo. I think that the lying, cheating, and stealing will continue until the World's Greatest tag team is ready to go for a rematch. Now, on to the fact that Haas and Benjamin are a little banged up. OUCH. Benjamin dropped like a stone following the drop kick to the knee by Chavo. He looked like he was hurting really bad. And that double team slam on Haas that knocked him silly, WOW... impact? Looked like Haas hit the back side of the Guerrero's low rider.
The divas feud with Shaniqua makes no sense. I don't know where they're going with this, but Shaniqua wrestling takes the Bashams out of the spotlight, and I thought they were going to be soon contending for tag team gold. Like I said, no sense out of this one..
Mysterio & Benoit vs. Tajiri & Rhyno. I like this match a lot. A WHOLE LOT. The differences in styles on all four men make for some terrific competition. Mysterio looked tentative throughout the match. Does he have an injury we don't know about?? The counterwrestling that Rey Rey performs is on a level that I think is only on par with Kurt Angle. It is that damn impressive. Benoit and Rhyno need a gimmick match to end that feud, so that both men can go elsewhere, but I don't know what type of match to suggest there.
No Vinnie Mac, outside of the two segments. No Big Show, outside of one segment. Undertaker returns and sets his sights on the boss, (GET HIM, UT!) Cena with the line of the night claiming the Guerreros cheat more than Ben Affleck did with Jennifer Lopez. BENNEFER. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! An entertaining show for a night where I thought I'd be walking around with a candle and a prayer that the idiots at the phone and power comapnies can get my stuff turned back on because of this hurricane breathing down my collective neck.
Ok. Now. Feedback. New wrinkle. I will post in the WWE Forum of the Wrestleview.com bulletin boards a thread called SMACKDOWN FEEDBACK - 9/22. That will be a place where anybody who wants to talk about Smackdown, or some of the insanity that I write about week by week can go to, and I will check it regularly, and respond as much as I possibly can. Obviously, I would love email feedback too. SMACKDOWN@WRESTLEVIEW.COM. I will not be able to submit a column next week, due to the fact that my youngest child has to go into the hospital next week for some pretty major surgery. I will be back in two weeks to talk trash with you people, and rant and rave about the blue and white that is WWE Smackdown.
Till then, take care everybody.
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