By James Caldwell, Torch columnist

CALDWELL'S WWE SMACKDOWN/ECW TV TAPING REPORT
February 6, 2008
Houston, Texas

The ticket-taker at the door said 15,000 tonight without a sellout on Wednesday morning. And there was a long line at the box office, so this is probably going to be a sellout with walk-up ticket sales. We'll see how the arena fills up when the show starts.

Dark match: Vladimir Koslov beat Funaki in 1:00 with a weak fireman's carry forward slam. NW - needs work. Funaki was bleeding afterward. Hardway blood in the dark match. Nice.

TAPING FOR FEB. 12 ECW TV

Arena was packed, so close to a legit sellout of available seats for TV.

They opened with a recap video of the Gulf of Mexico match last night...er...last week.

Chavo Guerrero came out first and complained about his ailments after being dumped in the water. Big heat, as Chavo said he had infections all over his body. (Cue up the Arn Anderson world's smallest violin.) He wants revenge right now by defending his title tonight against Punk. Armando came out and said no way because he has a PPV main event to protect. He instead booked Punk vs. Henry tonight.

They showed Stevie's promo from last night.

(1) Stevie Richards beat Rory Foxx in 3:00. Baby Bash came to his front row seat a minute in. (He stayed the entire show and was very cordial with the fans.) Richards with a butterfly suplex for the win. Good crowd reaction for Richards. This program has a lot of potential.

They aired a video promo for Henry.

(2) Kelly Kelly beat Layla in 4:00. All psychology here as Layla worked the left armpit. For real. Kelly with a rocker dropper for the win. Not bad.

(3) Kofi Kingston beat Mike Knox in 4:00. Kofi with the Kofi Kick for the win. OK match.

(4) Tommy Dreamer (w/Colin Delaney) beat John Morrison (w/The Miz) in 4:00. Dreamer countered the spinning neckbreaker into a DDT for the win. Afterward, Miz and Morrison beat up Colin for good measure. He sure does know how to take a whooping.

Henry and Chavo talked turkey backstage.

(5) C.M. Punk beat Mark Henry via DQ in 3:00. Faced with impossible odds, Punk prevailed when Henry didn't break a choke in the ropes before a five count. Afterward, Chavo took a G2S and Punk stood tall at the end of the show.

***

TAPING FOR FEB. 15 SMACKDOWN TV

Of note, Michael Cole has a thesaurus on the announce desk. American Heritage, I believe.

(1) Batista beat MVP clean in 15:00. Nice, solid match. Good psychology here. Batista with the Batista Bomb for the win after MVP effectively worked over his left arm. (***1/2)

Edge blew off Hawkins and Ryder backstage. He's got bigger things to worry about.

(2) Yang & Moore & Jesse & Festus beat Hawkins & Ryder & Deuce & Domino (w/Cherry) in 3:00. Yang with a moonsault on one of the Greasers for the win. Yang was very popular with the audience. Afterward, the heels tried to beat up the rednecks, but Jesse rang the bell and Festus snapped to attention to beat up the opposition and clear the ring.

Vickie got a makeover backstage.

They showed a clip from last night's taping, which will air on Friday, of Palumbo beating the crap out of Noble part 5.

(3) Victoria beat McCool in 3:00. Before the match, Palumbo came out for a closer look at the action. He proceeded to rev his engine the entire time very annoyingly. I had to double-check this wasn't Hog Wild and Leno wasn't in the ring. Michelle was distracted by Palumbo being a heel, setting up Victoria for the Widow's Peak for the win. Afterward, Palumbo cut a promo. Didn't really say anything we haven't heard in the storyline already. Of note, Cole had a good laugh with the photographers ringside. Must have been something funny in the thesaurus.

(4) Undertaker beat Big Daddy V (w/Matt Striker) in 7:00. Taker with yeoman's work trying to work a good match in slow-mo. Taker won with a chokeslam before choking out Striker post-match. Striker bled from the mouth for added effect. He then did a stretcher job. Greatest line ever from a fan screaming for everyone to show respect and take a knee. You had to be there.

They showed Edge pacing in his locker room. He's a Nervous Ned.

(5) Kane & Punk beat Shelton & Chavo in 5:00. Punk with the G2S on Chavo for the win when Shelton walked out. Chavo with another TV defeat.

(6) Finlay (w/Hornswoggle) beat Khali (w/Singh) in 5:00. One conclusion to draw from two nights of TV is that Hornswoggle, or at least his entrance music, is very, very, very popular with the kids. And WWE is going to make a ton of money at the merch. tables selling his green derby hat. $10 a pop with about $3 of variable costs on a paper hat with some green dye means a ton of profit. The match followed the usual formula match of Horny in peril, then Finlay with shillelagh shots behind the ref's back for the win.

After a crew took some time setting up the flower shop in the ring, they went to Vickie's Valentines Day segment. Edge came to the ring first to the tune of live violins. He was so very nervous about his special question. He then brought on Vickie to the top heel reaction of the night. Edge proceeded to sing horribly (on purpose). He even got some of the audience to mockingly sway back and forth. It was great. He then popped the question and Vickie said yes to being his wife. He gave her a ring and they kissed, which grossed out the kids. Same reaction as seeing Vince's ass on Monday night. Rey interrupted to a huge pop after Edge built up all the heat. Rey said this is disgusting. Edge wanted an apology, so Rey entered the ring and Edge attacked him. Rey came back with the 619, and went for a seated sentaun, but Edge moved and Vickie ate the sentaun from her wheelchair. Rey just shrugged his shoulders with a "did I do that?" look and left the ring to another strong reaction. They did a stretcher job for Vickie to close the show.

Send everyone home happy match: Hawkins and Ryder then called out Rey for a handicap dark match, which ended in DQ. Batista ran out to make the save and Rey splashed Edge's cronies to clear them from the ring. Rey and Batista then posed to close the taping. They did several victory laps for the fans on the floor while posing for pictures. The taping wrapped up around 11:00 p.m., well past the target demo's bed time.

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