WWE Smackdown TV taping report
June 15, 2010
Raleigh, N.C.
Report by Shawn Cavender, PWTorch reader

The RBC Center had the fewest number of fans I've ever seen for a WWE TV taping in the building. The entire camera side was tarped off, as well as the upper deck, and there were empty seats scattered through the rest of the arena.

Dark Match: Dos Caras beat Jason Stone. Caras did the same shtick he's been doing before all the TV tapings lately by coming out to cut a promo in Spanish before his match to get heat, then switching to English to insult the fans, then back to Spanish. Stone was announced as hailing from Raleigh before he was taken apart by the much bigger Caras.

NXT taping

Nothing really of note happened off the air during NXT. The crowd popped big for some of the Pros, especially Kofi Kingston, who was over big time with this crowd, especially kids.

Superstars taping for Thursday

(1) Intercontinental champion Kofi Kingston (w/Michael McGillicutty) beat Trent Baretta (w/Caylen Croft). This match was actually filmed in the middle of Smackdown, presumably to give Kofi an hour of rest after his tag match during NXT. I list it here before Smackdown to make it less confusing. Kofi won with Trouble in Paradise after a pretty long, evenly-fought match.

Smackdown taping for Friday

Sprinkled throughout Smackdown were clips showing the history of the Teddy Long-Drew McIntyre saga, including Vince McMahon's introduction of Drew as a future World champion, Drew's expunged losses during his winning streak, the Drew firing, getting his IC title back from Kofi, and last week's announcement of Drew's match with Teddy.

The show opened with a video package centered on Kane's path of destruction last week through the four men in the Fatal Four-Way title match.

C.M. Punk came out alone and cut a promo, saying that he was glad The Undertaker was in a vegetative state and he wishes he was the one responsible for it. The lights flickered and went out, and when they came back on, it appeared Undertaker was in the ring. A lot of the fans thought it was the real guy, but Luke Gallows pulled off the Undertaker hat, coat, and a black wig to reveal that he was an impostor. Kane came out to attack Punk and Gallows, but Punk had set this all up as a trap, as the hooded SES guy and Jack Swagger came out from the back to help give Kane a four-on-one beat down. Big Show and Rey Mysterio then ran the heels off, only for Rey to give Kane a 619 and Show to chokeslam Kane.

(1) Curt Hawkins & Vance Archer beat MVP & Christian. MVP and Christian were both looking for payback for last week when both were attacked by Hawkins & Archer. The heels worked over MVP's arm for a while. The finish came when Archer gave Christian his inverted DDT, then Hawkins hit the elbow drop. Post-match, they did the same combo to MVP.

Backstage, Team Lay-Cool was walking with Kaval, talking about makeup, when they ran into Rosa Mendes. Rosa expressed interest in joining their group, but Lay-Cool shot her down, saying that the Joker called and wanted his makeup back. Mendes sadly walked away.

As the arena was darkened for a video package, the crew changed the ring skirt for the Superstars match mentioned above.

After the ring skirt was changed back to Smackdown, Vickie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero were shown talking backstage in her office. Chavo was interrupted by the arrival of Dolph Ziggler, who was dressed only in cut-off denim shorts and a tool belt. Vickie began paying her new boy toy her full attention, and when Chavo tried to get her attention again, she told him to leave because he had a match next. Vickie then handed Dolph a framed picture of the two of them together and told him to hang it on the wall. As he was hanging it, Vickie stared at his butt. Chris Masters came in to talk with Vickie about something, but then he saw what was going on and left, saying he'd come back later.

(2) JTG beat Chavo Guerrero. As he came to the ring, Chavo was still taping up his wrists and his boots weren't laced on tightly since he only had a few minutes notice that he was wrestling. After he won, JTG brought three kids in from the front row to dance with him in the ring.

Backstage, Josh Mathews interviewed Kofi Kingston. It was revealed that he would be defending the Intercontinental Title against Drew McIntyre at the Fatal Four-Way PPV. Kofi said it would be a fight on Sunday, that he's been fighting all his life, and there was no way he'd lose the title at Fatal Four Way.

The "This Week in WWE History" segment that aired on Raw about the Muraco-Morales IC Title match at the Philadelphia Spectrum was shown.

(3) Drew McIntyre beat Smackdown General Manager Theodore Long. Drew came out first, then Long's intro played, but he didn't come out. McIntyre grabbed a microphone and reminded Long that he'd be fired if he didn't fight McIntyre. Long came out reluctantly, dressed in a suit. There was a loud "Teddy, Teddy" chant. Drew announced that he'd hired private security to prevent Kofi or Matt Hardy from interfering, and eight big guys came out in black security outfits. Drew ordered Long to get on his knees and say that Drew was the chosen one. Teddy did it. Then Drew ordered him to lie down in the middle of the ring so he could pin him. Throughout all of this, Long hesitated often, only for Drew to remind him that wrestling was all Teddy knew and it was the only way to provide for his family. Long complied, crawling to center ring and letting Drew put a foot on him for the pin and three count.

Post-match: Long arose, with a look of shame on his face, and was about to leave the ring when McIntyre grabbed him and prepared to give him his double-arm DDT. Kofi tried to run out to make the save but was stopped by the security guys. McIntyre got out of the ring and beat up on Kingston as the security guards restrained Kofi, then Matt Hardy came through the crowd and jumped the guardrail to attack Drew. The crowd popped big for that. But, Drew's security force restrained Hardy as well so Drew could beat him up. Both Kofi and Matt were rolled into the ring so Drew could give them his DDT finisher.

(4) Kelly Kelly (w/Tiffany) defeated Co-Women's champion Layla (w/Michelle McCool) in a non-title match. Michelle tried to interfere, but was attacked at ringside by Tiffany. Kelly won with her Rocker Dropper variation.

Backstage, Josh Matthews interviewed Jack Swagger. He talked about a pep talk he got from his daddy when he was about to compete in his first track and field meet when he was four-years-old. He then said that when he won on Sunday, he would dedicate the win to daddy since it'll be Father's Day.

Vickie came out of the entranceway to introduce Dolph Ziggler, but I literally couldn't understand ten words of what she said because the fans were booing so loudly.

(5) Dolph Ziggler beat Chris Masters with the Zig Zag.

(6) Rey Mysterio & The Big Show beat World Hvt. champion Jack Swagger & C.M. Punk (w/Serena and Luke Gallows). Rey pinned Swagger after reversing the gutwrench powerbomb into something like an inverted Killswitch.

Post-match: Kane came out to lay waste to everyone and cut a promo, saying that one of these men is in hell and doesn't know it yet and that Sunday would be fatal for him.

After Smackdown went off the air, there was a bonus tag match in a cage, but I left during the beginning of the ring introductions so I could beat the traffic out.

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