WWE SMACKDOWN IN WHITE PLAINS, NY LIVE REPORT: BENOIT & BATISTA VS. JBL & ORTON, HARDY VS. BOOKER, BOOGEYMAN & MORE
by Mike Carroll @ 12:30:00 AM on 12/27/2005
WWE held a Smackdown house show at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY tonight in front of a sell out crowd of 3,000. I thought it was a pretty good show and everyone there seemed to enjoy it.
-Show opened with Teddy Long coming out and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. He noted Smackdown's victory over Raw at Survivor Series to a mixed response from the crowd. Conveniently he didn't mention the tag match at Armageddon.
- Kid Kash retained his cruiserweight title in a three way over Juventud Guerrera and Jamie Noble. Juvi came out on a lawn mower. Lots of nice three way sequences. Finish came when Juvi went for the 450 splash but Kash got up and crotched him on the ropes. Kash then hit a brain buster for the pin. A good 8-10 minute match.
- Orlando Jordan pinned Idol Stevens (OVW's Aaron "The Idol" Stevens, managed by Beth & Shelley, his OVW valets) with his feet on the ropes. Match went about 3 minutes tops. Isn't one of the positives of running house shows supposed to be that it gives guys a chance to work decent length matches as opposed to quick TV matches?
- The Dicks defeated The New LOD. There was tons of stalling before the match, with the Dicks doing the old "stop chanting LOD or we leave" routine. Match was pretty bad, especially when Heidenrich was in. Finish came when the LOD went for the doomsday device. One of the Dicks hit Heidenrich with a chair, then hit Animal. The other Dick pinned Animal with his feet on the ropes (yup, the same finish in consecutive matches).
-Bobby Lashley defeated William Regal & Paul BUrchill. Birchill ran in from the crowd and attacked Lashley from behind. Heels worked over Lashley pretty much the entire match until he made the big comeback and hit Burchill with the Dominator for the pin.
-Matt Hardy defeated Booker T by, I guess, knockout in a no DQ match. It was a good match that featured a weird finish. Matt went for a pin and the ref counted 2 1/2 even though it looked like Booker didn't kick out. Matt got up, and the ref gave Booker a 10 count and stopped the match. A bunch of people came out from the back and attended to Booker. One guy was working on Booker's right leg and it looked like from the way he was treating it that it was a cramp. Booker was able to walk out on his own with some assistance.
-Mexicools defeated MNM. MNM ended up beating on Psychosis until Nitro missed a moonsault. Crazy got the hot tag and cleaned house for awhile. Finish came when MNM ended up getting Crazy in the snapshot, but Psychosis broke it up. Crazy ended up rolling up Mercury after a somewhat botched leg whip to the face from Psychosis. It was a decent match with a real good finishing sequence (except for the leg whip).
-Boogeyman pinned Sylvan. Sylvan tried to do mic work, but it wouldn't work. Then, Boogeyman's music played. He came out and was foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog. I guess they save the worms for TV tapings. The match consisted of Sylvan running away in terror and trying attacks after Boogey's back was turned. Sylvan hit a nut shot, which Boogey no sold. Boogey then hit a nut shot of his own, which led into the pumphandle slam and the pin.
-Chris Benoit & WWE World champion Batista defeated Randy Orton & JBL. In his pre-match mic work, JBL informed all the kids in the audience that "Santa is fake... Your parents may lie to you, but JBL won't". It keeps getting harder and harder to hate JBL. The pop Batista got was ENORMOUS and dwarfed everyone else on the show. Match was real good as Benoit did was in most of the match, although Batista did more than you'd think given his physical condition. Finish saw Batista get the hot tag and clean house. JBL went for the clothesline, Batista ducked, JBL shot off the ropes right into a Batista DDT. Benoit then hit the diving headbutt, and Batista hit the powerbomb for the pin.
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