WWE Smackdown TV taping report
April 6, 2010
Chicago, Ill.
Report by Richard Karels, Torch reader

Attendance was probably somewhere around 11,000. Almost half of the upper deck was tarped off. I hadn't seen that much blocked off since the bottoming-out period for wrestling in the early 2000s. WWE did hold a Supershow in the same arena less than two months ago and sold the place out with 16-17,000 people.

There were lots of families in the crowd, but not as many as there have been for WWE events the past few years. More long-time and young-adult fans than I've seen in a while. Not just the hardcores, but the kind of people to make you think wrestling may be "cool" again.

After the Dark Match, Superstars, and NXT, they taped Friday's full episode of Smackdown. Read the Superstars SPOILERS.

Smackdown taping for Friday's show

Tony Chimmel introduced World Hvt. champion Jack Swagger. Swagger called himself the best natural athlete in WWE now that Shawn Michaels has retired. This brought out John Morrison, who made fun of Swagger's speech impediment. Great, back to that. For the record, I can off the top of my head think of a handful of students at my school that have speech difficulties and are huge WWE fans.

(1) World Hvt. champion Jack Swagger beat John Morrison in a non-title match. Swagger bled hardway from something I didn't catch, and since this isn't WrestleMania, the ref immediately stopped the match so Swagger could get glued up. Perfectly fine match.

Chris Jericho was shown complaining to Wade Barrett backstage. Swagger walked in and they bickered.

Shad came out to his own music, then turned around and left. A minute later, he came back out to Cryme Tyme's music. He cut a clearly scripted promo, but delivered it well. JTG ran down to attack, Shad ducked out of the ring, JTG gave chase, and Shad laid him out with a boot.

(2) Intercontinental champion Drew McIntyre beat Matt Hardy in a non-title match with a cradle DDT on the floor. Somehow, Hardy manages to stay over with the crowd.

C.M. Punk led the SES and Darren Young down to the ring. LOUD chants for Punk since this was in his hometown. Everyone who wasn't chanting for him was booing against him. They were going to initiate Young into the SES until he changed his mind. Rey Mysterio ran down for the save. Rey teased shaving Punk's head, but he escaped up the ramp. Before the SES could make it to the back, Teddy Long came out to make a Street Fight between Punk and Rey to start now.

Dark Match: Rey Mysterio beat C.M. Punk with a 619 followed by a splash. Not much in the way of brawling, but another good match between the two. A handful of families left after this match.

Hart Dynasty cut a quick promo before their match.

(3) Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd & D.H. Smith) beat Caylen Croft & Trent Barreta. Can you say bathroom break?

On the big screen, Josh Matthews introduced Dolph Ziggler. Matthews asked him how it felt to defeat The Great Khali last week and Ziggler replied by putting Josh out with the sleeper.

Again on the big screen, Swagger approached Edge in his locker room. Edge made fun of Swagger's speech impediment.

(4) Chris Jericho vs. Edge in a #1 contender match ended in a double count-out when they started brawling through the crowd. Jericho tried to escape, but Edge threw him back into the ring so he could get speared. Swagger came down to attack Edge, but he was speared as well. Another good match, though not at the level of their Mania match.

Edge closed the show with the standard kiss-up-to-the-crowd speech, noting how one of his favorite wrestling videos as a kid was The Wrestling Classic, which was a one-night tournament that was held in the same building.

We suggest these recent related articles...

WWE NEWS: Superstars SPOILERS - Results from Chicago Raw

WWE NETWORK: Monday, Oct. 12 Schedule - Raw pre-show, Sting DVD preview

WWE NEWS: Lana & Rusev reportedly engaged - follow the interesting 2015 timeline