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WWE Smackdown taping
October 30, 2007
Uniondale, N.Y. at Nassau Coliseum
Report by Matt Posner, PWTorch VIP member

We arrived late due to bad traffic on the Meadowbrook Parkway. In the opening angle, apparently a match was set up with Mark Henry and Great Khali vs. Undertaker and Batista.

There was a video angle in which Vicki Guerrero gave Jamie Noble a copy of Rey Mysterio's DVD and booked him to fight Rey.

(1) Festus beat Domino. Festus with Jesse fought a short match against Domino of the greasers and pinned him with his finisher. Jesse did a dive off the steps onto Deuce. Cherry was there, and they drove out the red car, but event staff backed it out again. Festus was slightly over.

(2) Rey Mysterio beat Jamie Noble. They had a long match featuring mostly mat wrestling. Noble looked very crisp. Rey hit all his moves and won with his second West Coast Pop. Rey was very over with the kids. Finlay was on commentary during the match and then taunted Rey on the house mike, calling him cowardly and weak.

In the next video segment, Matt Hardy, who was badly beat up around the face, persuaded MVP that he's the best, seemingly psyching him up so he would go out and take a beating.

(3) Kane pinned MVP with a choke-slam. Kane came out to extremely loud pyro. Kane got a decent pop. He has lost muscle definition and is starting to get heavier as well as slower. I don't want anyone on steroids, and he still looks like a tough athlete, but the change was noticeable. The event staff then blew up MVP's tunnel and he came in to a face pop. The crowd turned against him after that though. The match was slow and had very little heat. Mostly it was MVP holding Kane on the mat with arm holds and body scissors and hitting him with short punches. It looked like a half-hearted imitation of MMA. I think MVP is advancing his style, but Kane really didn't perform that well, so the match was dull. Kane choke-slammed and pinned MVP, but then Big Daddy V came in and beat up Kane. Big Daddy V looked obese and slow. Last time Smackdown was at Nassau Coliseum, when my wife and I were also in attendance, MVP was new to WWE and won a cage match against Kane by escaping the cage and running away.

(4) Mick Foley "defeated" Coach. After only a few minutes' intermission, they began the popcorn match, Mick Foley in a black jogging suit and yellow sneakers vs. Jonathan Coachman in track pants and cutoff t-shirt. The special referee was "Mr. McMahon" who of course was Hornswoggle. Mick Foley and Hornswoggle took turns beating up Coachman, featuring the green Mr. Socko and a third rope tadpole splash by Hornswoggle and then the pin. The crowd enjoyed the comic antics. I wondered if this would make it to TV. Mick Foley is so out of shape he struggles to get to his feet from the mat. I would, too, but I'm not a professional wrestler. Great Khali showed better athleticism.

There was a video saying CM Punk was going to be on Smackdown next week. I think it was before the Palumbo match.

(5) Chuck Palumbo beat Kenny Dykstra. The attendants were removing the ring steps. We wondered why. Then Chuck Palumbo came out and rode his motorcycle around the ring with Michelle McCool on board. So the steps were removed to make room for the bike. His opponent was Kenny Dykstra with Victoria. Michelle beat up Victoria outside the ring and Chuck Palumbo did his finisher on Kenny Dykstra to pin him and then Palumbo and McCool rode the motorcycle.

Next up was a video promo with Great Khali, his translator, and Mark Henry. Henry hyped Hell in a Cell with Undertaker and Batista and said their team is divided, but you and me, Khali, we're together. The translator translated this accurately in Punjabi. Khali then replied in Punjabi and Hindi that he was all for them being a good team together. (My wife speaks Punjabi and Hindi, so she confirmed what was said.) It's a milestone that they let Khali actually speak real words in his native language rather than just growling.

They also showed a music video for Jeff Hardy. I speculated they are testing the video to see what kind of pop he will get. I hope it means they are considering pushing him more rather than that they needed some filler.

(6) Undertaker & Batista beat Mark Henry & Great Khali by DQ when JBL interfered. Khali came out first, consistently receiving the most heel heat from that point on. Then Mark Henry came out. Then Undertaker, who looks very lean in person. The men sitting behind us were talking about Taker's bald spot. Finally Batista came out to very loud pyro. Taker and Batista both got the loudest face pops of the night throughout the match. During the match, first Mark Henry took a beating, then Batista sold for Khali for a while. Khali actually went on the mat for a cover and bounced up, so his athleticism is much better although his offense doesn't look good. When Taker and Batista were making their comeback, JBL ran into the ring and clotheslined both of them, then waved at the crowd and went back to the table. After the DQ, Henry and Khali got their heat back when Henry bearhugged Batista and Khali skull-crushed Taker.

Smackdown ended at 9:49 and they started setting up the ECW ring. They showed an old video of WWE stars in Iraq at Christmas 2006. It was eerie seeing Big Show and other wrestlers who are no longer with the company. We didn't stay for ECW, since we'd already seen all the wrestlers in the main event and wanted an easy trip home.

Here are my conclusions based on what I saw tonight:

1) Great Khali is the top heel on Smackdown.
2) Batista and Undertaker are about equally over.
3) Kids like Rey Mysterio.
4) Mark Henry is unable to perform offensive moves in the ring.
5) Kane and Rey Mysterio have both lost a step.
6) Chuck Palumbo's new gimmick seems to work.
7) Mick Foley should not wrestle on pay-per-view.
8) MVP has improved a lot.

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