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WWE Smackdown house show report
February 1, 2004
Pittsburgh, Pa. at Mellon Arena
Report by Amy Deak, Pittsburgh, PWTorch.com reader
(1) Orlando Jordan pinned Chuck Palumbo with a roll-up. Not much else to say about this one.
Paul Heyman came out to insult Pittsburgh. Paul had good news and bad news for us. He had just finished talking to Vince McMahon on the phone and will kick up the announced main event of Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar by adding Eddie Guerrero to make it a triple threat match. The bad news was that John Cena got hurt during the Royal Rumble, and even though we all wanted to see him wrestle, Heyman wouldn’t allow it. He said that Cena was being placed on medical suspension and that he’s “as useless as a woman from Pittsburgh.” Paul threatened to kick our collective ass when Cena came out to a huge pop. After some hilarious thuganomics (including the obligatory ‘Steel Curtain’ mention), Cena challenged Heyman to an ass kicking match and was immediately gored by Rhyno.
(2) Billy Gunn beat A-Train with a Fameasser. High points of the match were when Billy pulled A-Train’s back hair (and had to be warned by the ref) and when A-Train rubbed Gunn’s face in his armpit (collective EEEWWW from the crowd).
Smackdown Hot Bodies contest was up next. Usual suspects: Torrie, Nidia, Dawn Marie and Sable. Sable made the crowd beg to see her drop her robe, then refused and walked out of the arena. Nothing new – girls strip and strut and Torrie wins.
(3) The Bashams (with Shaniqua) beat the Self-Proclaimed World’s Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas) when one of the Bashams hit Haas with Shaniqua’s stick then pinned him. Lots of “bor-ing” chants.
Rhyno came out and gave an open challenge to anyone in the back to come out and fight him since his scheduled opponent, John Cena, was hurt. Rhyno was really funny, telling the crowd to shut-up while he was talking, which made us yell louder. He insulted the Steelers, funny because the Lions are nothing to be proud of. Line of the day came from somewhere behind me: “Hey Rhyno, don’t bring up baseball because we’re pretty neutral about that around here.”
(4) Bradshaw pinned Rhyno. The concession stand saw more action than we did during this match. Bradshaw got the pin when Cena ran in and tripped Rhyno, giving the big Texan the opportunity to lay the ‘Clothesline from Hell’ and the pin on Rhyno.
(5) Tajiri beat Jamie Noble and Nunzio in a Cruiserweight Three Way Match. Tajiri pulled out all his best moves and pinned Nunzio after giving him a face full of green mist. Great Match.
Intermission — the guy shooting the t-shirts had a tough time aiming to sections where fans were sitting because the lights were still out. As a result, most of the shirts went into empty sections.
(6) Big Show beat Hardcore Holly with a choke slam to keep the WWE U.S. Championship. Slow match with a lot of rest holds.
(7) Rey Mysterio beats Chavo Guerrero (w/Chavo Guerrero Sr.) to retain the Cruiserweight Championship. Fast paced match that the crowd was really into for the first time all afternoon. Chants of “Ed-die, Ed-die” all through the match. Rey had on a really cool yellow mask. Both men used their full arsenal of moves. Rey won with the 619 and West Coast Pop.
(8) Brock Lesnar beat Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero to keep the WWE Heavyweight Championship. Kurt came out to a standing ovation from his fellow Pittsburghers. Lots more ‘Ed-die’ chants all through the match. Lesnar is a monster. You truly can’t understand how huge he is until you see him in person. Match had everything — F-5’s, Frog-Splashes, and Angle Slams. Kurt made Lesnar tap out with an ankle lock, but the ref was unconscious at that particular moment. End came with Angle tossed to the outside and Lesnar giving Eddie the F-5 for the win.
Afterwards, as Lesnar headed to the back, Kurt wished Eddie good luck against Brock at No Way Out. Eddie told Kurt, to be successful, he had to get himself a low rider.
Biggest Pops:
Kurt Angle
Eddie Guerrero
John Cena
Most Heat:
Rhyno
Paul Heyman
Chavo Guerrero
Attendance: Around 5,000 in a 16,000 seat arena.
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