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WWE ECW/Smackdown TV taping
December 2, 2007
Florence, S.C. at the Civic Center
Report by Shawn Cavender, PWTorch VIP subscriber

The Civic Center wasn't nearly sold out, with the upper level behind the hard cameras tarped off and a lot of empty seats in the lower level behind the cameras.

DARK MATCH:

(1) Charles Evans beat Chavo Guerrero with an inside cradle. Evans is a former 2-time OVW Television Champion and exhibited mostly basic power moves. He looked fairly smooth in the ring, though.

ECW:

The show opened with a video package, mixing footage of last week's Extreme Rules match between Big Daddy V and Kane with a promo by Matt Striker (with Mark Henry and Big Daddy V at his side) in which he issued a challenge to CM Punk. Tonight, Punk must choose between wrestling Big Daddy V or Henry in the main event.

(1) WWE Tag Team Champions John Morrison & The Miz beat the Major Brothers. The highlight of the match was one of the Majors doing a plancha onto the Miz on the outside, then the other brother doing a nice somersault plancha onto Morrison. The finish was Morrison hotshotting one of the Major Brothers, then hitting him with his spinning finisher.

Next we saw an introductory "coming soon" vignette for Kofi Kingston, the WWE developmental wrestler. It was very similar in the way it was shot to the ones for Carlito before his debut. This one was set at the beach, with reggae music in the background. Kingston talked a little in a Jamaican accent, then it cut to a big muscular bully picking on a normal guy at the beach. A moment later, the bully was buried up to his neck in the sand and Kingston was standing over him saying something about there being "trouble in paradise". The vignette didn't reveal which show Kingston was coming to.

Punk appeared on the big screen from backstage and did an interview with Joey Styles about Punk's "Champion's Choice" match mater in the show. Punk said he didn't care which guy he had to wrestle, so GM Armando Estrada or even Matt Striker could choose his opponent instead.

(2) Kelly Kelly & Balls Mahoney beat Kenny Dykstra & Victoria. Kelly pulled off both a tilt-a-whirl head scissors and a huracanrana, but they were both shaky-looking. Balls got the pin on Dykstra with a small package.

(3) Shelton Benjamin beat Jimmy Wang Yang. Before the match, Shelton cut one of his best promos. They had a very high-energy 3 minute match, which Benjamin won with his new finisher.

(4) Kevin Thorn beat Jeff Lewis. Short squash, which Thorn won with the Shock Treatment move Abyss uses.

Big Daddy V made his entrance with Striker, followed by Mark Henry's separate entrance. Striker flipped a coin to determine who would face Punk, and Henry won.

(5) ECW Champion C.M. Punk vs. Mark Henry (with Matt Striker & Big Daddy V) ended in a No Contest. After 6 or 7 minutes of action, Punk got the advantage, and Big Daddy V climbed in the ring to interfere, so the ref called for the bell. There was no announcement of a winner, so I guess it was a No Contest.

Post-match, Big Daddy V and Henry double-teamed Punk for a minute, then Kane's pyro hit and he came out to make the save. Kane had a steel chair, so Striker handed chairs to Henry and Big Daddy V. After a clash of chairs by Kane and Big Daddy V, V dropped his chair. Then Henry tried to hit Kane with his chair, but Kane ducked and Henry hit the top of the ring post instead. Henry's chair shot into the fans at ringside, striking a woman (she appeared to be OK when I looked at her later). After BDV and Henry bailed, Estrada came out to announce a match for Armageddon, Punk & Kane vs. Big Daddy V & Henry. Then Kane brought Striker into the ring for the corner knee-strike/bulldog combo by Punk and a chokeslam by Kane.

SMACKDOWN:

The show started with a video package recapping the last two weeks' events involving Undertaker, Batista, Edge, Vickie Guerrero, and the returning Theodore Long.

After the show opening and pyro, Theodore Long came out. He spoke a bit about the World Title situation, then announced that Rey Mysterio would get a shot at MVP's United States Championship at Armageddon. Edge came out and started complaining to Long about having to forfeit his title four months ago. He also spoke into one of the ringside cameras and sent his love to Vickie, still laid up in the hospital somewhere. Edge went back to Long, saying he wanted redemption. Long said he could get some redemption later when he faces the man who injured him four months ago, Kane.

(1) WWE Tag Team Champions John Morrison & The Miz beat Jesse & Festus. The finishing sequence saw Jesse go to the top turnbuckle to do the double-team move with Festus, but Miz took out Festus and Morrison hit the ropes, crotching Jesse. Then Morrison rolled Jesse up for the pin.

Anastacia interviewed Elijah Burke backstage about his match with Batista later tonight.

We saw a video of the Mardi Gras skit with Edge and Kane from four months ago, during which Edge tore his pec.

(2) World Heavyweight Champion Batista defeated Elijah Burke. Batista got the win at the four-minute mark when Burke came off the top turnbuckle to drop a fist, but Batista spinebustered him out of midair, then got him up and hit the Batista bomb. The mid-flight spinebuster looked really devestating and Burke sold it during the whole backstage segment we saw next.

Jamie Noble, wearing a shirt that said, "Noble 2, Palumbo 0", started hitting on Michelle McCool backstage, and he ended up getting her to agree that if he beat Palumbo again tonight, McCool would have to go out on a date with Noble.

(3) Jamie Noble beat Chuck Palumbo (with Michelle McCool). After a couple minutes of action, McCool tried to distract Noble by taking off her shirt. Noble ducked a clothesline from behind by Palumbo, who had to hit the brakes to avoid wiping out McCool. Then Noble small packaged Palumbo for the win.

After Noble left, Palumbo got a microphone and bitched about losing three straight times to little Jamie Noble. He asked McCool if she cost him the match on purpose, and said she wasn't much of a "friend". Then he told her she could ride home alone, and he left by himself on his chopper.

The next segment was MVP's "VIP Lounge", with special guest Michael Hayes. This was a long segment, which may have to be trimmed down for broadcast. Hayes came out to "Badstreet USA". They started out the interview promoting the upcoming release of the "Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling" DVD, which of course Hayes has a huge role in because of his time in the Fabulous Freebirds. A short highlight package from the DVD was shown. Hayes talked about the death of 5 of the 6 Von Erich brothers and how the moral of the DVD is "say no to drugs". The interview segued into a discussion of Hayes' friendship with the Hardys, as well as MVP's upcoming title match with Mysterio. MVP insulted Hayes because of his age, and Hayes demanded to be shown some respect. Hayes threatened to kick MVP's ass, but MVP got in the first blows as Hayes removed his jacket. MVP hit Hayes with the running kick and the Playmaker, then Rey Mysterio ran in to make the save, wrecking the "VIP Lounge" set a little bit in the process.

Anastacia interviewed Batista backstage.

Hornswoggle was shown behind the wheel of Deuce & Domino's classic car, which was parked backstage, pretending to drive and making "vroom vroom" sounds. Deuce & Domino, with Cherry, saw him and were about to beat him up when Finlay arrived on the scene. Deuce & Domino backed off, clearly intimidated by the tough Irishman. With his buddy Finlay there to back him up, Hornswoggle showed some swagger, broke off the car's antenna, and bent it in half.

After a break, a graphic was shown on the big screen, and it looked like Finlay & Hornswoggle vs. The Great Khali was announced for Armageddon.

(4) Finlay (with Hornswoggle) defeated Deuce (with Domino & Cherry). After a few minutes of action, Hornswoggle shot Domino and Cherry with a fire extinguisher, which distracted the ref. With the ref's back turned, Finlay hit Deuce in the head with his shillelagh, then got the pin.

After the match, The Great Khali's music played and Khali walked to the ring. With Finlay watching Khali's entrance, Domino attacked Finlay from behind. Then Khali got in the ring and attacked Finlay, ultimately putting him in the head vice.

While the house lights were lowered and the fans watched the "I am Jeff Hardy" video package from Raw a few weeks back, a group of 15 or 20 WWE employees walked from the back and circled the ring, sneaking Undertaker to the ring for one of his magical appearances.

(5) Edge vs. Kane went to a No Contest. Batista came out to do guest commentary. Edge came out first, got a mic, and sent out another "I love you" message to Vickie. The match itself went 10 minutes or so, and the ref called for the bell when Edge brought a chair into the ring. No announcement was made, so it was ruled a No Contest, I suppose. Edge went to use the chair, but Kane booted it into Edge's face. Kane brought some ring steps into the ring, but Edge gave Kane a drop toehold into the stairs, then a spear. Edge set Kane's head on the stairs and grabbed the chair to do a one-man conchairto, but Batista slid into the ring to stop him. Then the lights went out, The Undertaker's music hit, and he appeared in the ring, with his hand on Edge's throat. Batista speared Taker and Edge bailed. As Batista watched Edge go, Taker got back up and chokeslammed Batista to end the show.

There wasn't much quality in-ring action to speak of at this taping, but what we saw wasn't bad. The shows felt somewhat newsworthy, with the announcement of a lot of matches for Armageddon and the first Kofi Kingston vignette. I was disappointed that Mysterio didn't wrestle, since he's my favorite wrestler of all time and he's had some good matches on Smackdown lately.

BIGGEST POPS:
(1) Batista
(2) Undertaker
(3) Kane
(4) Rey Mysterio
(5) Shelton Benjamin

MOST HEEL HEAT:
(1) Edge
(2) MVP
(3) Big Daddy V
(4) Mark Henry
(5) The Great Khali

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