» On Thursday, May 26, 2005 at 10:17 PM EST WWE Smackdown
May 26, 2005
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Announcers: Michael Cole and Tazz
Four days removed from Judgment Day, we saw two rematches of sorts from the PPV as well as a battle royal with an interesting outcome, to say the least. Here are the details of tonight's show:
Before tonight's show began, highlights from the I Quit Match between John Cena and JBL from Judgment Day were shown.
Carlito's Cabana:
Carlito welcomed everyone to the Cabana, and stated that this past week on Judgment Day was "cool." Our beloved Chia Pet didn't have a guest this week, so we got treated to Chia Pet (who touted himself up as being 'respected in the locker room', etc.) and then went on to interview himself. Funny stuff. Carlito and his new flunky Matt Morgan then gloated over themselves for what they did to Big Show on Judgment Day, with Carlito saying Morgan's actions spoke louder than any words, then showing footage of Morgan's F-5 on Show. Carlito then told Morgan that with him by Carlito's side, he could beat Show on Judgment Day, Mother's Day, Groundhog Day.any given day.
They were then interrupted by GM Teddy Long, who came out to the ring. He then did a funny stuttering imitation of Morgan and said if Carlito sic'ed Morgan on Long, Morgan would be suspended. Long then talked about the draft, and how next week is one superstar's last week on Smackdown. Long then announced a 'winner's choice' battle royal for later tonight, and whoever wins it gets a match of their choice on next week's show.
As for Carlito, he said when he won the battle royal, he wanted to face Cena for the WWE title. Long was glad he wanted to be into the battle royal, then informed him that he had a rematch with Show again tonight. Carlito was not happy about this, to say the least. The look on Chia Pet's face said it all!
Backstage in Rey Mysterio's locker room, Josh Mathews asked Rey if he was in any condition to compete tonight. Rey responded that Eddie should have taken his life, because as long as he is breathing, he is going to make Eddie pay.and when he wins the battle royal, he is coming after Eddie!
Match #1: Hardcore Holly and Charlie Haas vs. Tag Team Champions MNM
Mercury and Holly started off the match, with a cheap shot from Nitro on Holly before Mercury went to work. Holly got in a good suplex and a near-pin. Holly went for the top turnbuckle before being chopped down by Mercury; more chops exchanged between the two. Holly then flipped Nitro over into the ring, and a few more brutal shots to Mercury. Haas came in and went to work on Mercury Haas got in a reverse key lock on Mercury before Nitro was tagged in. Haas got in an impressive standing drop kick after being shoved from behind and went for the cover; kick out was at two and the battle continued as the match went to a commercial break.
Upon return to the match, Haas went for the sunset flip, a blind tag was made, but Nitro still went to work on Haas. Haas got out of the choke hold, battled back, but Nitro pinned him; Haas kicked out. Haas then got knees to the ribs. Nitro went for a suplex, but Haas countered with a roll up, Nitro kicked out of that one.
Nitro and Haas both looked aggressive; Haas was then knocked into a corner, tagging in Mercury. Melina got in a distraction, and chaos broke loose, with Holly coming into the ring and attempting to protect Haas. Haas looked pretty maxed out at this point, but he battled back before getting to Holly, despite Mercury having a hold on his leg. Holly got in and cleaned house on the champs, to say the least.
The ref then took a bump when Holly went off the top rope, and Holly and Haas looked to have the match wrapped up, but there was no ref for the three count. Nitro got a chair, took a whack to Holly with it, and got busted by the ref when he came to, resulting in the DQ. Haas then picked up the chair, chased MNM partially to the back.
Winners: Holly and Haas via DQ
Backstage, Steve Romero interviewed Booker T about Angle and a clip of their Judgment Day match was shown. Booker talked about how proud he was on Sharmell giving a beat down to Kurt and how he won't forget to take out the trash because he doesn't want to get that kind of beat down from Sharmell! LOL.Sharmell added, "No one messes with my man!" Now can you dig that suckaaaaaaaaa!!!!!
Cena came out to quite an ovation and started his promo, thanking everyone who never gave up and "what this is about..this is for you." Cena then said that before Sunday, there had been talk about him being a one hit one wonder, not living up to the hype and being a bad champion.before two words that never came out his mouth changed all that. He then went on saying that JBL was right about a lot of things..except taking Cena's soul and walking out WWE Champion, saying how JBL feels that he lost everything..he quit!!!! Cena went on to say how JBL must be feeling before Cena said that he had something for JBL. JBL then arrived in his limo, moving very gingerly toward the ring. JBL said that he didn't make excuses, and that is why he has been successful in everything that he has done. He had never failed at anything..until Sunday. He then said that Cena's the better man, and that he gave Cena everything JBL ever had..but Cena wouldn't quit. He said that Cena was on a roll, that he was the man.for now. JBL then added that Cena will only be great for a short time, and that when Cena will self-implode, and then he will burn out, and when Cena does, JBL will be there. JBL said he may not win the title back from Cena, but he will wait till Cena burns out, JBL will be WWE champion again. Cena responded to JBL that he does not decide his own legacy, but the people decide their legacy, and when he does go down, it will be in a blaze of glory, and he doesn't care about legacy. He then said he had something for JBL before he got on his high horse. JBL then grew interested in what Cena had for him, but Cena kept stalling him about it. JBL kept begging Cena to see the video Cena made for JBL. Cena finally gave in after the crowd encouraged him.
Cena then showed a JBL tribute video, which turned out to be actually a video of JBL saying "I Quit!" repetitively, with a background beat thrown in for good measure. Cena then added that JBL is the most celebrated quitter in WWE history. JBL looked like he was ready to kill Cena right then and there!
Match #2: Big Show vs. Carlito (w/Matt Morgan)
Big Show came out and wasted no time going to work on Carlito right off in the corner of the ring while staring down Morgan at the same time. Show then clotheslined Carlito, followed by a boot to the face of Chia Pet. Show then went to work even more on Carlito, tossing him back into the ring at one point and then wrapping things up quickly after Matt Morgan was then banned from ringside by Charles Robinson.
Winner: Big Show
Aftermatch:
Morgan came back, laid a beat down on Show, putting him into the steel post before F-5'ing him through the announce table. Robinson chased him out again as Carlito had a look of shock from inside of the ring.
A clip of Eric Bischoff "celebrating the death of ECW" on this past Monday's RAW was shown.
Backstage, Kurt Angle was shown watching the RAW clip with a strange look on his face.
Match #3: Angle Invitational
Kurt Angle did a promo talking about it being a dark time for "your Olympic Hero," not only losing to the inferior Booker T, but also being embarrassed by a gutters***, and then began to run down ECW. He responded to the "ECW" chants by saying "ECW can kiss my a**" Angle went on about how it was not wrestling, and about the night he was there and left and how disgusting and embarrassing it was and he would never return. He added that he would one last time to ECW and then told Tazz, "I'm going to bounce around your ECW buddies just like Paul Heyman bounces checks!"
He then asked the local guy what his name was, and the guy got out "Robert," before Angle beat the crap out of him in the invitational, looking over at Tazz from time to time, then finished the guy off with the Angle Slam and the ankle lock.
Winner: Kurt Angle
Angle then said "Now that was fun!" before then announcing to get on with the battle royal.
Match #4: Battle Royal for Match of Choice on Next Week's Smackdown
Heidenreich and Carlito (w/Matt Morgan) had made their way to the ring when the match went to a commercial break.
Upon return, Booker had made his way into the ring. Rey then followed, and almost magically, Eddie came out of nowhere, beat on Rey before the officials removed him off of Rey and had him go to the ring. and Rey was taken backstage. During the battle royal, Eddie remained outside the ring.
Order of Elimination:
Paul London, Funaki, Joey Mercury, Akio and Mark Jindrak was the last eliminated as the match went to its second commercial break.
Johnny Nitro was eliminated during the commercial break.
Upon return to the match, the order of elimination:
Billy Kidman, Heidenreich, Chavo Guerrero, Charlie Haas, Nunzio, Shannon Moore, Carlito, Scotty 2 Hotty and Hardcore Holly.
Rey came back out, eliminated Eddie! (Rey then looked as if he wanted to tear Eddie up after, but officials held him back) as the match went to ANOTHER commercial break.
Upon return, the elimination was as follows:
Orlando Jordan, the Bashams and Booker T were eliminated together within ten seconds.
Rey and Angle were then left to battle it out for a period of time--with a LOT of close calls--before Angle eliminated Rey.
Winner: Kurt Angle
Aftermatch:
Angle says he's going after something next week that he's obsessed with.and this was John Cena's lucky night. He then said next week, Cena could have the night off because it would be Kurt Angle vs. Booker T's wife..Sharmell! POST-SHOW NOTES:
Carlito interviewing himself was quite funny. It was nice to see something first besides a Cena/JBL promo for once.
Call me a nut, but Nitro's got a lot to be proud of nowadays. Just a year ago, he was the annoying assistant to the general manager on RAW and was basically a laughingstock in and out of the ring. Now he's one half of the tag team champs on Smackdown. His career is developing quite well considering the late start and the Tough Enough curse.
I just love Sharmell! The woman has spark. Just my opinion, but this woman outclasses all the SD divas thus far!
I liked how JBL handled this promo with that list of short success stories that implode. He did a good job in general in putting Cena over.
WOW! Show actually lifting Carlito off his feet with ONLY ONE HAND! How wild was that one?
Tazz was not very pleased with Angle's remark; I have a feeling that Tazz would have liked to have gotten into the ring and given Angle a beating of his own! For all we know, Tazz could've been in training and could be ready to pounce at any moment..
Not that I minded the battle royal much, but with all the commercial breaks, they could have gotten in the CW match instead. How annoying to break the momentum of matches with the constant breaks.
If that wasn't enough, where I was, the end of the show was cut off for the ten o'clock news.
Next week, Smackdown is coming to us from Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. Until next time, enjoy wrestling.