WWE Smackdown/Velocity tapings
March 1, 2005
Albany, N.Y. at Pepsi Arena
Report Alex Gerou of Ithaca, N.Y., PWTorch.com readers

The Pepsi Arena wasn't too full when the show started. Only one side of the upper deck was open (opposite the cameras) with the other three quarters closed off.

DARK MATCH

(1) Joey Matthews & Johnny Nitro with Melina defeated Scotty 2 Hotty & Shannon Moore. Matthews worked most of the match for the heels. Finish came when Matthews and Nitro hit a double team DDT on Scotty for the pinfall.

VELOCITY TAPING

(1) The Bashams defeated Hardcore Holly & Charlie Haas. The Bashams ganged up on Holly for most of the match. Haas tried to get the crowd more into it but it was pretty dead. The crowd only came to life to give the Bashams heat. Finish came when the bald one hit some kind of a jumping leg drop on Haas for the pin. Dull match.

(2) Paul London & Funaki defeated Chavo Guerrero & Akio. At one point London did his drop kick to a back flip on Chavo and landed on Akio. That was really awesome. Sadly, the crowd wasn't too into this match either. Finish came when London hit the 450 splash on Akio for the win. Decent match, but too short, not surprisingly. Afterwards London taunted Chavo from the ring. That could be a great match at WM21.

(3) Nunzio defeated Spike Dudley. There were some scattered ECW chants at the beginning of this match. Finish came when Nunzio reversed an Oklahoma roll by Spike. Nothing special in this match. The crowd was pretty quiet for all of the matches to this point. I never watch Velocity so maybe this is the standard.

SMACKDOWN TAPING

There was a video recap of last week with Big Show and Cena crashing JBL's party and the tag match that followed. The crowd popped more for the video footage of Cena than any other match to this point, until….

Cena's music hit to start the show and he came out to a huge pop. He cut a promo in the ring about how just a few years ago he was buying tickets to shows just like all of us. He continued to connect with the fans and then he ripped on JBL for a while. The crowd seemed to eat it up. Good promo.

(1) Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio defeated Mark Jindrak & Luther Reigns. Eddie and Rey came out in a low-rider. I never realized how badly it smells of exhaust when you're sitting near that thing. The heels worked over Mysterio for a while until the hot tag to Eddie. Eddie got the pin after a frog splash on Reigns. No signs of a Guerrero heel turn. After the match Jindrak and Reigns shoved each other and Jindrak knocked Reigns to the mat with a stiff punch.

They showed the "A Few Good Men" parody with Cena and JBL. Throughout the night they also showed the "Forrest Gump" parody and the "Basic Instinct" parody, although only the first one will be on TV I'm guessing. They guy next to me said that Stacy looked like "a clown on acid." He was really drunk.

They showed Teddy Long backstage watching the monitor, as all good GMs do, until Carlito walked in. Teddy told Carlito that he has to follow his orders if he wants to stay on Smackdown. With that he handed him a shovel and told him to take care of the snow around the arena so no fans slip and hurt themselves. Carlito asked him how he was suppose to shovel with one good arm.

Later on in the show (don't quite remember when) they cut to Carlito shoveling out on the street of Albany. A car drove by and splashed him with water and snow. Good stuff.

(2) Heidenreich defeated Booker T via DQ. Pretty much what we've seen from these two before. Heidenreich brought the chair into the ring but Booker avoided it. Booker ended up hitting Heidenreich with it to cause the DQ. A "We want caskets" chant broke out a couple of times during the match and again while Heidenreich was heading to the back. He covered his ears and ran away.

Throughout the night they showed the Hall of Fame induction ceremony clip with Hulk Hogan and also the WM21 clip announcing Piper's Pit featuring Stone Cold. That one got a huge pop. Albany fans seem to like video clips of old wrestlers more than the current wrestlers live and in person.

(3) Angle Invitational ended in a no contest. Angle came out and talked about how he beat up Michaels on Raw. They showed the footage, in black and white (due to blood), on the big screen. Angle's opponent in the Angle Invitational came out. He had a hooded sweatshirt on and we couldn't see his face. HBK chants began. The man then removed his hood and said that his name was Sean White (I think) and he was from right there in Albany, NY. We all cheered because he said the name of the city that we were in. While Angle talked down at him, the camera man behind Angle in the ring removed his hat and a black wig and moustache to reveal none other than HBK. Michaels went after Angle and the two brawled. Security ran out to the ring. HBK gave sweet chin music to a "cop". Both men were restrained. HBK got a huge pop as he was escorted to the back.

After the commercial Teddy Long told HBK that he would have to leave the arena. HBK said that was fine and he had just come for a little piece of Angle.

Earlier there was a clip of a bunch of rookie divas backstage (I'm not too good at remembering the order of events that aren't matches). Dawn Marie walked in and made fun of them. She then challenged Michelle McCool to a mixed tag match with partners of their choosing.

(4) Michelle McCool & Big Show defeated Dawn Marie & Rene Dupree. Dawn came out with Rene first. Michelle came out alone at first with a big smile. Big Show's music hit and the heels looked worried. The ladies worked for a couple of minutes and then Big Show squashed Dupree. Not much of a match. Afterwards Big Show put Michelle on his shoulders and walked around the ring. I was amazed how huge the Big Show actually is.

JBL then came out a cut a promo. It was essentially the opposite of Cena's promo. He said he was tired of having to support lower income people like the ones in the crowd. He got surprisingly nasty, I thought. Some cheap heat at times, but over all a very good promo. They're doing a good job of setting up the Cena vs. JBL match, in my opinion. JBL ended by saying if we didn't show him respect he would leave. We booed, then he left.

Backstage, he and the Bashams got into the limo with horns. Orlando started to go with them but JBL told him to go win his match against Cena. Somewhat odd that Jordan would act like he forgot he had a title match against Cena. I thought it was pretty funny.

(5) Orlando Jordan defeated John Cena for the U.S. Title. Well, he can't have two belts after WrestleMania. Decent action with a commercial break at some point I would guess. Cena set up Jordan for the FU when the Bashams ran down and interfered. One of them got the FU. JBL then appeared at ringside and nailed Cena with the belt, allowing Jordan to pick up the win. JBL and his cabinet made their way up the ramp as Cena stared them down from the ring. That will probably be the closing shot of the show.

DARK MATCH

(1) Undertaker & John Cena defeated JBL & Orlando Jordan. Right as the cabinet turned around to leave the lights went out and Taker's music hit. That got the pop of the night. They announced the tag match. Jordan was in the ring for most of it, probably because JBL was wearing slacks. The match ended with Taker chokeslamming Jordan and Cena giving the FU to JBL simultaneously. Cena pinned JBL for the win. Taker handed Cena the WWE Championship and he held it up. Cena left first and then Taker did his usual exit.

NOTES

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good show. I don't think it's going make for an incredible episode of Smackdown, but it was definitely a great show to be at live. The extra match at the end helped a lot. At one point the drunk guy next to me grabbed my "Angle Fears HBK" sign and wrote "Beer Guy" with arrows pointing down on the back of it. So, if you see a very crudely made beer guy sign in the fifth row on the floor, that's where I was.

BIGGEST BABYFACE POPS
1) Undertaker
2) Cena
3) HBK
4) Video clips of Austin and Hogan

MOST HEEL HEAT
1) JBL
2) Angle
3) The Bashams

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