It’s funny I release this week’s Retro SmackDown review at this time of night, as back in the day SmackDown would be shown between 10pm and midnight on Friday’s on Sky. So there’s every chance this time 13 years ago I was indeed watching Friday Night SmackDown. Anyway here is week 3, probably the best and most fun to watch of 2007 so far. And I think it’ll only get better… Enjoy!
We began this week with a Recap of end of Beat the Clock sprint last week with Kennedy fucking over taker.
I will never tire of the opening of this show with the Rise Up theme song … and the legendary SmackDown fist stage of course… we are 9 nights from the 2007 Royal Rumble PPV by the way…
Kennedy came out to open the show, he announced himself as BTC sprint winner. He brags about facing Batista at the rumble and winning the btc, puts over Miz for taking taker to the limit (right…) and tells people that say he screwed over taker to “stick it” and that he was just protecting his best interest. His promo was with the spotlight on him and all the lights out and with the OG mic from above. Was very effective tbf. Then… Well… it’s taken me 3 shows… but FINALLY Teddy Long on retro SmackDown has told someone that they will go one on one WITH THA UNDER-TAKAH!!!! – If Undertaker wins by the way the Rumble world title match will be made a triple threat.
a Maryse vignette… she spoke French…
Matt Hardy defeated Joey Mercury
After the famous ladder spot that fucked his face up… they showed it THREE times on this show 🤢🤢🤢… jbl says Hardys team of the 90s and mNm team of the 00s… nope… Matt with a right hand direct to his nose mask… jbl trying to put Joey over as a hero… Joey back on top pulls hardy over ropes to outside and then rest hold on ring as crowd chant for hardy. Joey nearfall and then thump in eyes, Joey takes off turnbuckle pad and pulls Hardys face on the steel… again uses rope to choke hardy, rest holds, more hardy chants, they love Matt but this is boring, Matt comes back eventually with side effect off ropes, – 2 count, and again after backdrop, to top rope and elbow to Joey m… Twist? Counter by Joey m but Matt with jackknife cover for win. Crowd were really into hardy… Johnny nitro (raw) immediately jumps Matt after bell …. mNm double team… where is Jeff??? Melina out here too… they rip up ringside Mat… they go to do double move on floor, Snapshot on floor… lots of boos… where the fuck is Jeff fgs!? …
Miz brags about facing taker to Layla and Ashley…(you got fucked Miz wtf…?) … said he did what nobody else has done and he took taker to the limit and would’ve beaten him with more time. Ashley points out he did the tombstone and had him pinned and with more time would’ve beat him. Layla was laughing and Miz said he was playing possum… as he went on Kane appears from behind and the crowd cheer. The women turn round and Miz looks shit scared as he sense Kane behind him.
Kristal catches up with Vickie Guerrero backstage. She still has the neck brace. She says she needs to talk to her about something very personal and asks to speak to her privately. They go into her dressing room… she didn’t wanna talk about the us title match tonight.
They’re pushing the us title match hard tonight as the final encounter between the two. They played a video explaining the feud and that Rey and now this guy are trying to live off the Guerrero name… feud comes from that basically…
William Regal & Dave Taylor & MVP defeated the SmackDown Tag Team Champions Brian Kendrick & Paul London (with Ashley) &… VITO!?
Regal and Taylor didn’t get tv entrances 😦 … I’m gonna presume without knowing this result that MVP pins Vito right? MVP had chest wrapped still selling his burns. I LOVED MVP back in the day, 2007 MVP was cool as shit to me ngl even as a kid he was cool to me. Christ Vito… toughest guy to wear a dress as Michael Cole said. The babyfaces ran into the ring and the brawl began… Taylor battered Kendrick on the outside as London wrestled Regal in the ring and tagged in Vito. (Ashley as out with the tag champions as well)… MVP was tagged in and got the best of Vito… crowd were into Vito… much better crowd tonight than recent weeks it seems, they again mentioned how Ashley is on the cover of playboy in March. Taylor got a nearfall on Vito after a Suplex. And hit some hard punches after, until Vito moves causing Taylor to run into the ring corner. Taylor pulled Vito from getting a tag and then tagged in Regal who went to town. JBL said a line on commentary as Regal was battering Vito “that’s what they do with women in the UK”… just an FYI but that isn’t the case… I think anyway… Taylor and then Regal and then MVP ganged up on and isolated Vito. The camera shows a shot of Ashley and JBL sounded like he had blown his load (fair cause as a kid I fancied her too). Vito got a small package on Regal for a nearfall, then normal service resumed. The crowd were chanting for Vito even (told you this crowd was decent). Vito got a back body drop in, but Taylor came in and the heels took over again. Vito was very close to a tag but MVP stopped him just. Vito got MVP and staggered to a tag to Kendrick, who came in like a house on fire with tonnes of fast high-flying moves. After Regal and Taylor broke up a nearfall, Paul London flew in and dropkicked Taylor out the ring… and then a crossbody to Taylor on the outside as Kendrick beat on Regal in the ring. Kendrick went to hit his Sliced Bread finisher off the ropes but as he came off the corner, Regal placed Kendrick right into the path of MVP who hit a sideslam for the win. Didn’t expect that finish, don’t see what good it does for the singles star to pin one half of the tag champions but oh well… fine enough match for what it was… and the right guy got the pin.
They played an advert for WrestleMania 23. My childhood nostalgia levels are insane rn.
Chavo Guerrero challenges for the US title in a No DQ match.
Sorry, but I can’t review this match seriously. Even after watching the dark side of the ring doc… for the record the match was pretty good. Chavo was severely underrated for me. Would’ve loved a Chavo vs Rey world title feud. Cb retained.
Kristal interviews Batista. He talked about the main event tonight and said he’d be ringside to watch it…
Jillian Hall talks with Kennedy backstage. He moaned to her about Teddy Long, Jillian said he should go into his office and give him a piece of his mind…
DEUCE AND DOMINO debut and beat some jobbers
Deuce is a brother (irl) of Tamina… These were two Greece/Elvis rip offs. They were accompanied by Cherry who was your classic rollerblade girl. They were billed as from the other side of the tracks. They came out in a classic car too. Famously one of these guys was the cameraman who didn’t catch Undertaker after his famous dive in the first HBK WrestleMania match. They were babyfaces here I think, that changes… Domino took the mic and talked up Deuce, then had the favour returned. This was… different, JBL was not a fan at all… well, he liked Cherry… Cherry was Domino’s sister, and Deuce’s “chick”. The crowd liked Cherry too… Domino called the two jobbers “the best Arkansa had to offer?”… then then both battered the jobbers before the bell… and they won a squash match. I remember them being a decent team in this era on SmackDown but the fact I don’t really recall what they did after this, and the fact it was Deuce who was put in a cameraman role for a spot at mania two years after this says it all really…
We cut to the (I’m presuming) GM’s “office” wheeler Teddy Long called Kennedy disrespectful as he questioned why he was in the match with Taker tonight. Long said the match was still one. So essentially Mr Kennedy walked in all
Fired up… and achieved nothing.
Maryse was seen welcoming us back to the show. So the pattern here each week is she looks all sexy, and the first one she talks french and the second of the show she talks English… yeah… this is exactly was it is… meh… 2007…
Kane defeated The Miz
I really liked Kane in this era. Would’ve loved him to go above upper mid care tough babyface status… Miz did another great job of being terrified cocky heel. He walked very slowly to the ring to meet his fate… … bet you won’t be able to guess how this will go… Kane won basically a squash with the Chokeslam… who’d have thought it?!… they mentioned on commentary how Kane had previously eliminated 11 men from a Royal Rumble match. They said this years was the most star-studded in history, so I’m presuming this was just to build Kane up going into that, they did mention him as one of the potential favourites.
The Raw rebound this week was Rated RKO vs HBK in a handicap match. They first destroyed Jim Duggan as a warning to anyone who thought about helping Shawn Michaels later that night. Ric Flair said he would be there to help him, later than night Flair was took out… in what was billed as the potential end of DX, Shawn got destroyed but ended up on top. He used the sledgehammer to help him as well as a nod to Triple H. Tremendous stuff.
Kristal was talking with Teddy Long… we picked them up mid chat as Kristal said they could talk more later this week about that idea she had, Teddy had no problem with that, then Kristal complimented his tie (I know where this goes so it’s hard for me to comment, but let’s see what I make of it in 2020…) … then King Booker appears with his Queen and said how he never got his rematch against Batista but vowed to reclaim the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania by winning the royal rumble. Teddy said he’d help him by having a mini preview next week for the rumble by having a 6 man over the top rope challenge next week…
Commentary thanked the band who did the theme song for the rumble … and then previewed the royal rumble match featuring Raw and SmackDown superstars AND ECW “extremists”… Appearing in the graphic were: Viscera, Benoit, Shelton Benjamin, MVP, Johnny Nitro, Tommy Dreamer, Hardcore Holly, The Sandman, Sabu, RVD, Carlito, CM Punk, Finlay, Chavo, Ric Flair, Miz, Kenny Dykstra, Chris Masters, Matt and Jeff, Kane, Shawn Michaels, Edge, Booker and Randy Orton. Also the WWE title match with Cena defending against Umaga Last Man Standing, Bobby Lashley defending the ECW World title against Test and of course Batista vs Kennedy for the world title
Batista comes out to sit ringside for commentary before the main event. He got a HUGE pop.
Mr Kennedy defeated The Undertaker by DQ
Kennedy wasn’t happy at all coming out. Kennedy starred down Batista after he came out. Taker got a big pop coming out, obviously… Kennedy player chicken shit, opportunistic heel… Taker overpowered Kennedy where he could… Taker did old school early on… they were really talking up the possibility of Taker being in the Undertaker world title match… Kennedy got back into if after a kick to the face and a clothesline that got him a nearfall. Kennedy kicked Taker in the chest and Taker no sold it and launched Kennedy to the outside. Kennedy went face to face with Batista as Taker went on the attack, and hit a big boot. Taker then hit a strike to Kennedy’s back, before rolling him back in the ring and glancing back at the world champion Batista before getting back in the ring himself. Taker was on top still after the break, and hit punches to Kennedy on the top rope and tried a superplex after but Kennedy hit a headbutt to knock Taker down. But before Mr Kennedy could hit the senton Taker sat up and went after him. He threw him down to the outside… eventually Kennedy retreated back into the ring and Taker hit a big running high knee to Kennedy in the corner… until Kennedy came back with a chop block, and then went after Taker’s knee. Batista was putting over Kennedy as a competitor on commentary which again was a nice change to what I’m now used to, as the crowd tried to will Taker out of his current predicament. Taker eventually kicked his way out the hold, and then Taker kicked Kennedy to the outside. Kennedy then reversed the momentum and this led to Taker colliding into the steel steps. Kennedy then tried to dive into him but got caught, and Taker drove him into the ringpost. Batista put over Taker too, whom then hit the big leg drop to Kennedy on the apron for a nearfall. Taker went for the Last Ride but Kennedy got out of it, and went back to targeting Taker’s knee. He got a nearfall and then beat on Taker some more until Taker grabbed his throat looking for the Chokeslam, Kennedy kicked him to the ribs but Taker came back with strong punches, and then snake eyes and the big boot. Kennedy retreated to ropes and Taker made him go over them back to the outside. Kennedy then stumbled before turning round and striking Batista, before quickly getting back in the ring. Furious Batista went after him as Taker had him ready for the Chokeslam, Batista came in and hit the Spear in retaliation for the cheap shot. This of course caused the ref to ring the bell. And so your winner by DQ was Mr Kennedy! So it’s still just a one on one match between Kennedy and Batista for the title. Pretty genius heel stuff from Kennedy here. Taker screwed again, and he looked on bewildered as Batista screamed at a retreating Kennedy. Taker gave Batista the death stare…
And that was SmackDown. A really fun show overall with lots of stuff going on to set up things going forward. Next week is the go home show for the 2007 Royal Rumble. Fun times ahead!!!
Josh.
NobodyisReady.com 