WWE Smackdown TV taping report
January 17, 2012
Las Vegas, Nevada
Report by Simon Edd, PWTorch reader

The Thomas and Mack Center was about 90 percent full for the event. Lines were VERY long. Prior to the NXT taping starting, several videos played hyping the WrestleMania bout between The Rock and John Cena. Each time Cena was shown, the crowd booed loudly. They cheered their heads off for Rock. There was also a Raw Rebound video on the C.M. Punk/Foley-Laurinaitis situation from Raw.

Dark Match: "Ryback" Skip Sheffield beat Tyson Kidd. Dead crowd, quick match. Ryback squashed Kidd, pinning him with a high-impact maneuver that I honestly didn't see due to people needing to squeeze by me to get to their seat.

NXT SPOILERS 1/18

(1) Titus O'Neil beat Darren Young in a No DQ match. Once gain, dead crowd. From the sounds of the people seated around me, they were annoyed and/or surprised to be watching something other than the Smackdown taping. Awesome Hangman-like neckbreaker on the apron and a nice powerslam outside the ring were the high-points. Titus kicked out of Young's finisher (Jamie Noble/Dean Malenko double knee gutbuster) and won after his finisher.

(2) Percy Watson beat Heath Slater. The crowd booed Slater; mild cheers for Percy. Slater had a little offense and then Percy was on fire. He did a few power moves and got the win. The crowd popped little, and he did his "Where my dogs at?" bit, which got the crowd barking. He then cut a promo thanking the crowd for...NOTHING. He told them he's spent weeks on NXT and they've gotten him nowhere and that his fans are dead weight.

(3) Tyler Reks & Curt Hawkins beat Yoshi Tatsu & Trent Barreta. Dead crowd. You could hear a pin drop. Tatsu played the part of face-in-peril and Barreta did most of the hot-tag offense. Reks and Hawkins got very little offense in. Hawkins telegraphed the finish by grabbing his cane and put it on the apron far too early and in plain sight of the referee. The match then ended with a cane shot from Hawkins into Reks's finisher while the ref was distracted. No crowd reaction.

Throughout the taping, there were videos explaining the love story between Maxine and Johnny, but no one seemed to care. NXT then ended with a ring dressed up (poorly) for the "wedding" between the two. The fans were quiet for the segment, and many people used this as a chance to use the bathroom. Derrick Bateman, the ex-boyfriend, stopped the wedding, which was officiated by Matt Striker dressed as Elvis. I thought it was a huge waste of time and did nothing for all involved.

WWE then transitioned to Superstars.

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