by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

For starters, I only got spotty reports from RAW/Heat tapings in Atlanta... but since this weekend's Heat is going to be live, the only thing that I would be missing would be matches to air internationally.  But since the Fed did seem to take the opportunity in Atlanta to dust off some old WCW workers that might be of interest to you, here's the Cliff's Notes version of what I know happened for Int'l Heat:

• Ernest Miller worked what was assumed to be a dark match, and won (but he didn't look good)... in another presumed-dark match, Mark Jindrak faced Norman Smiley.
• In matches definitely taped for Int'l Heat, Ivory beat Molly Holly (Jackie was special ref, and Trish and Victoria also both got involved) and Chief Morley beat Maven... a Chris Nowinski win over Shark Boy was also taped, although I don't know if that's for Heat or dark.  I'm probably missing a match or two, as well.

The influx of reports from Nashville's SmackDown! tapings, however, look like they'll give us a really good idea of exactly what to expect on Velocity and SD!, however.  Read on at your ability to be surprised's own risk:

• In Velocity matches:  Jamie Noble beat a jobber...  Brian Kendrick beat Shannon Moore (good match)...  Matt Hardy beat Funaki...  and Eddie Guerrero beat Charlie Haas (really good match).
• SmackDown opened with John Cena facing off against Rhyno.  Rhyno interrupted Cena's pre-match free-styling to jump start the action, but it was ultimately to no avail.  Cena took over the middle stages of the match, and then won clean with a roll-up after reversing a move (kind of like against Benoit last week).
• Backstage: Nunzio finds Chris Benoit and gets pissy because when Benoit lost to Cena last week, the FBI lost some money.  [Hey, that's what you get for betting on pro wrestling, idiots!]  From this, we get Benoit challenging Nunzio to a match.
• Matt Hardy introduced his newest MF'er:  the returning Crash Holly.  Crash took on Rey Mysterio, and lost in a 3-4 minute match.  Some of Matt's "tough love" may be in store for Crash...
• Backstage: Sable is interviewed, and announces that tonight, all the SD! divas will be invited to participate in a bikini contest that she is hosting.
• Benoit beat Nunzio in a short, but good and stiff, match.  The match, however, was basically just a prelude to the entire FBI swarming and pounding on Benoit afterwards.  [Oh boy... I can see it now: Benoit/Rhyno/Jones vs. the FBI; the Disciples of Benoit will have some 'splainin' to do if the Crippler can't carry 7 feet of deadweight if that happens.]
• Roddy Piper made his return to WWE in-ring action (it's been a 7 year lay-off!) against Rikishi, and actually did a couple of minutes of alleged wrestling.  Unfortunately, even in that time, it was clear he was a only a shell of his already diminished WCW self.  He was, at least, getting a really good heel response (whether for his act or for his awful ringwork, that was not clear).  Sean O'Haire came out at about the 3 minute mark to bail Piper out and cause a DQ win for Rikishi.  Together, Piper and O'Haire beat down Rikishi to end the segment.  I'm guessing that'll be the provocation for Snuka to show up in Rikishi's corner at the PPV...
• The bikini contest featured Dawn Marie and Nidia competing, while Sable was the judge and MC.  To start, anyway.  Just when Sable had started talking about how Torrie was intimidated and wouldn't accept the challenge, she came out, too.  And the strip-a-thon was on!  The girls all looked good, with the crowd, obviously, favoring Torrie the most.  Sable drew out the segment, and in the end, went against the fans' wishes by declaring the bikini contest a tie.... between Dawn and Nidia.  Crowd mutinied, and when Torrie tried to register a complaint, she was pearl harbored by both Dawn and Nidia.  Sable didn't join in the attack... but she didn't rush in to help Torrie, either...
• Backstage: Rey Mysterio and Tajiri are watching footage of last week and Big Show walks in.  He is not happy that they are laughing at him getting knocked down by the 619er, and out of this, we get a Tajiri/Big Show match for later on.
• Shelton Benjamin faced Chavo Guerrero in a match that was a fairly blatant tease of the PPV tag title match... both Haas and Eddie were involved in the match, too.  Though it sounded like the best match of the night was taped for Velocity, this was rated pretty well, too.  Benjamin got the win over Chavo by using a handful of tights or something.  Afterwards, Eddie and Chavo got the better of Team Angle and sent them scurrying.
• Tajiri faced Big Show in a sort of preview of Show's Big Man vs. Little Man PPV match against Rey Mysterio... however, when the second Little Man showed up, it was too much for Big Show on SD.  Show got distracted by Rey, and tried chasing him around the ring.  Not only could he not catch up to Mysterio, he also got counted out and knocked down again.  Tajiri wins!  Cheaply...
• Another "Mr. America" vignette is shown, and then Stephanie McMahon came out and announced that Mr. America would be exclusive to SmackDown, and that he would be debuting next week.  You gotta wonder if Hulk Hogan's really ready for his vacation to be over...
• In the main event, Brock Lesnar faced A-Train.  Some good power moves, actually, and this wasn't too bad for the 7 minutes or so that it lasted as a wrestling match.  However, you had to know it wouldn't be ending on any kind of simple note...  John Cena, who had been doing commentary, ran in just after Lesnar hit the F-5, and he took out Brock with a chain-shot that left Brock bleeding.  Brock made his comeback (presumably after the cameras stopped taping), and did take out Cena to give the live crowd a happy ending.

E-MAIL RICK SCAIA
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Rick Scaia is a wrestling fan from Dayton, OH.  He's been doing this since 1995, but enjoyed it best when the suckers from SportsLine were actually PAYING him to be a fan.

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