by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

But before we get to the lottery, there was one last night of TV to tape, so I'll go ahead and ruin that for you, if you're so damned curious.  Oh, and also Heat.

First, compiled from a pair of e-mail, here's what happened prior to RAW tapings, and which will air on Sunday night:

• Kevin "Seven" Fertig beat Some Guy in what was a dark match (Fertig and his OVW tag team partner Travis "Bane" Tomko are currently considered the top two prospects WWE hasn't yet put on TV, so maybe this lottery thing is the way they'll be debuted?).
• Lance Storm beat Some Other Guy.
• Hurricane and Rosey beat Mark Jindrak and Garrison Cade.
• Rico beat Stevie Richards, thanks to interference from Miss Jackie.  After the match, Richards went after Jackie, and basically seemed to turn heel.  No Victoria at any point.

And then, for Velocity and SmackDown!, I have the pleasure of being able to just turn things over to Long Time OO Man in Beantown, Patrick Gleason, who filed this report from last night's tapings:

Hey Rick...this is Patrick Gleason checking in with SD + Velocity Spoilers from last night at the Fleet.  Even a snowstorm couldn't keep the crowd away as it was probably 80/90 percent full, with some of the upper parts tarped off.  And, for the first time I can remember, all four titles were defended at the tapings, including (apologies to TNA) a "Gauntlet for the Gold" match.  Here are the results on Steve Austin's favorite day.

 

Dark Match

 

Horshu d. Funaki in about 3-4 minutes with Bulldog's running powerslam.  Horshu has a good look, but didn't really show much because standard "big guy vs. little guy" match.

 

Velocity tapings a little fuzzy on a couple of finishes

 

Orlando Jordan d.  Johnny Stamboli (w/Nunzio)-  Decent match, with both guys getting offense and trading near falls to the end.  Jordan wins after doing the Haas/Benjamin move where he rolls through in a bridge/cradle and pulls the legs back.

 

Billy Kidman & Paul London d. Akio & Tajiri-  Good match, crowd was definitely into everything.  Lot of close finishes and great double team moves (Akio held one of the faces up for a hotshot and Tajiri spinkicked him on the way down.)  Finish came after Kidman hit a plancha on Tajiri, then London gets the win on a 450 splash.

 

Chuck Palumbo def. Hardcore Holly-  Not sure who Holly pissed off, but he goes from challenging against Brock at the Rumble to this?  Standard power match, but totally forgettable as Palumbo won (I think) by hitting Holly with something near the ropes and holding on to them for the 3.  Sorry for the bad details.

 

CW Championship:  Chavo Guerrero (w/Senior) def. Ultimo Dragon-  My first time seeing Dragon live, which was really cool.  About 7-8 minutes, maybe more.  These guys worked really well together and kept the pace up.  Big spot for me was top rope springboard moonsault onto Chavo.  Chavo gets the win after Dragon chases Senior and gets pinned with basically a face-first Widow's Peak 

 

SD Tapings

 

No opening pyro, as Cena is announced first out of the chute to a MASSIVE hometown face pop wearing the Jersey of Celtic great Robert Parrish.  There were at least two or three seperate Cena seperate "Cena" chants during this segment.  Even he looked a little surprised.  Funny rap talked about how Big Show left WM ten pounds lighter after losing the gold, how Cena won championships like Tom Brady, and my favorite line:  "And the FCC is toning me down too,/That really sucks, just like the Yankees do."   

 

Anyway, then Heyman comes out and says Brock Lesnar left WWE because of guys like Cena in his locker room.  He also said that if he were a SD star, he would be praying to be drafted by RAW because anyone left would feel Heyman's wrath, just like the Red Sox feel the Yankees every year.  (Noticing a theme here?)  Anyway, Heyman calls Cena a "contemptible piece of Boston crap" and slaps him.  Cena starts punching him till Rhyno comes in and we go straight to a US title match  Cena wins in probably under 3 minutes with the FU.  Great wait to start the show, and the crowd ate it up.

 

Back from commercial, Heyman runs into the APA and they both laughs at him for what just happens and the Mutiny last week.  Heyman says he doesn't think it's funny and if the APA doesn't win the tag straps tonight, they're fired.

 

Scotty & Rikishi def. APA to retain tag belts-  Probably 5 to 6 minutes basically a singles match w Scotty versus Bradshaw.  Scotty went for the worm on Bradshaw at one point but Faarooq decked him.  Rikishi came in at the end to clothesline Faarooq and savate kick Bradshaw.

He pinned Faarooq after a move I didn't see (maybe a sit-down splash or another kick?)  APA look angry as they stand in the ring and leave.

 

Back from commercial, they both find Heyman in his office and demand that he say "You're Fired" to their faces.  Heyman backpeddles saying that only Faarooq is fired because he respects Bradshaw for being a financial analyst as well as on Fox news.  Faarooqq leaves as Bradshaw stands looking shocked.

 

Another break as Heyman now stands in a locker room with WGTT, Billy Gunn and Rey Mysterio.  Gives a brief speech about challenges and opportunities with Lesnar gone and says these four men will run  a single-elimination gauntlet w/ each other for a title match w/Eddie that night.  Benjamin says no problem because they're the WGTT, so Heyman makes it Benjamin versus Haas in the first round next.

 

Shelton Benjamin def. Charlie Haas by pin to advance-  Good amateur wrestling throughout as eventually Shelton played the heel escaping to the outside from Haas' moves.  Crowd wasn't really into it though, because both were ostensibly heels so never really got behind either one.  Shelton wins with some kind of spinkick out of the corner.

 

Our final "live" segment of the night as Bradshaw chases Faarooq down, saying he needs the exposure and shouldn't be punished because Faarooq said something stupid.

 

(Interesting note:  Whoever won the matches stayed in the ring through commercials.  No other time filler segments were used, except for HOF and WM recaps.  No Diva appeared on camera.  Not sure if they'll add segments later or not.)

 

Benjamin def Billy Gunn by pin after a rollup out of the Fame-Asser attempt (grabbed the rope). Basically see same notes as above.  I know they are trying to get over a new style, but for this match they really had the wrong people dioing it.   Right after the pin, Show comes out and says that Cena used knucks to steal his US title, so Heyman will let him be the final competitor in thiis gauntlet match.  Called Cena another Boston street punk and promised to walk out as champ

 

Rey Mysterio def. Benjamin by pinfall after 619/horizontal splash off the top rope-Good match, both guys worked hard.  I think Shelton rammed Mysterio an arm/shoulder into the post to give him an injury later on.  

 

Rey def Big Show by Countout to earn a WWE Title Mtch after Cena interfered and hit him with knuckles   Match was similar to last year's Backlash one, with highlight being Show pressing Rey and just dropping him like the Warrior.  He also stepped on Rey by the corner ringpost.  Looked to have things well in hand till Cena came out and did his job.  Crowd counted along with ref for the Countout.  Rey versus Eddie tonight!

 

Eddie Guerrero def. Rey Mysterio by pinfall after rolling cradle to retain WWE Title- Nice long match, at least fifteen minutes.  They do have a commercial break in the middle.    I am so glad this was the main event.  Eddy started off selling big for Rey, taking his spinning headscissors bump to the floor, and takiing Rey's big monkey flip so it almost hit him out of the ring.  Eddy follows with a plancha, but both men back in by 8 or 9.  Eddy slowly became more heel as the match went on.  Story of the match was Eddy working on Rey's previous injury, doing various arm and shoulder submissions to wear him down.  Crowd liked the match, but wasn't very loud in this spots because they used it 3 or 4 times. As we near end game, the two start trading near falls.  Eddy goes for frog splash, misses, up at 2.  Mysterio goes for West Coast Pop, Eddie moves, hits the "Majestral" rollup out of an armbar as Nick Patrick counts 1-2-3!

 

Immediately after, Heyman comes out and rails both of them, saying this is the last night of the "Old" SD and he hopes they're both not only drafted to RAW, but deported!  Huge heat for that.  Heyman says he's the only one who's job is safe, he can't wait for the "New" SD, and there's not "a man alive" who can stop him.

 

Heyman turns to leave, but the lights go down, and the Bong is heard as Taker and Paul Bearer show up.  Crowd goes nuts as UT does his trademark slow walk and brings the lights up.  Rey and Eddie feed Heyman to Taker, who gives Heyman a Tombstone at the end.  .  Great show, that took some chances, gave us a look at future singles pushes and made the title seem important.  I had a blast!  Sorry this is so long.

Big thanks to Patrick for the ready-to-publish report.  Check out SD! on Thursday night, to see it in its as-aired form, or come on back to OO on Friday for the usual full slate of results and analysis...

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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