Mega Powers Running Wild!

The legendary 'Macho man' Randy Savage teams up with 'The Immortal' Hulk Hogan to take on Ted Dibiase and Andre The Giant in the first ever WWF Summerslam!

Shawn Micahels vs. Mankind

The Heartbreak Kid defends the WWF Championship against Mankind in a thrilling main event at WWF In Your House: Mind Games.

The Birth of the nWo

From Hulk Hogan's shocking turn at WCW Bash at the Beach 1996 to the addition of Ted Dibiase, THe Giant Syxx and more, relive the very beginning of the New World Order.

Austin 3:16 Says I Just Kicked Your Ass

It's one of the most famous promos of all time; Stone Cold Steve Austin wins the 1996 King of The Ring and serves notice on all the WWF superstars. Check it out in our complete review

Wrestlemania 12 Review

The boyhood dream comes true as Shawn Michaels battles champion Bret 'The Hitman' Hart in a classic 1-hour iron man match. Plus, Diesel vs. Undertaker and more.

WCW Fall Brawl 1996 Review

Was Sting in cahoots with the New World Order? Would Lex Luger be able to get along with the Four Horsemen as they faced the nWo in War Games? Find out in this review

Showing posts with label Luke Gallows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luke Gallows. Show all posts

Thursday, 7 June 2018

TV REVIEW: WWE Smackdown: 04/12/09

Hampton, Virginia

Just nine days away from TLC, The Undertaker plans to call out his upcoming opponent, Batista, whilst Jerishow prepare for their TLC match against DX with a match against Cryme Tyme.

Here's what went down.

NOTE: This an archived review written live at the time that WWE Smackdown aired on December 4th, 2009.

I'm archiving all my old reviews and including this one on Retro Pro Wrestling for the sake of prosperity.

R-Truth vs. CM Punk (w/ Luke Gallows)

Wasting no time in getting down to the action tonight, The Straight-Edge Saviour CM Punk battled R-Truth in a good opening contest.

Punk worked over his opponent's arm in the early going, allowing him to dominate the bulk of this entertaining bout before Truth began to make the inevitable comeback. Unfortunately, said comeback was cut-off by Punk's right-hand man, Luke Gallows, leading to a DQ finish.
Your Winner by disqualification: R-Truth

Afterwards, Gallows and Punk continued to annihilate R-Truth and looked rather pleased with themselves as a result.

Kane vs. Mike Knox

Fresh from his brief cameo in the Undertaker/Batista feud, The Big Red Machine locked horns with the infrequently-seen Mike Knox for seemingly no reason.

The match itself was so dull that commentators Matt Striker and Todd Grisham ignored it completely, choosing instead to hype up the Undertaker vs. Batista match at TLC. Kane chokeslammed Knox to end the contest.
Your Winner: Kane

Backstage, Josh Matthews interviewed Unified Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho & The Big Show regarding their match against DX at TLC. Jericho, as strong as ever on the microphone, was the mouthpiece for his team; promising to end DX once and for all at the pay per view and putting over Big Show as a monster in a pretty solid promo.

From the vault: Mark Henry vs. Finlay & Hornswoggle (Smackdown 2007)

Taking a look back to the days when Finlay actually had something do to (even if it was hanging around with that annoying leprechaun) and Mark Henry was a bland babyface, we get this handicap match from November 2007. Henry was defeated when Finlay nailed him with a shelaglah after which Hornswoggle hit the Tadpole Splash for the win. Following the match, The Great Khali arrived on the scene and destroyed Finlay.

Triple Threat match to determine the number one contender to the WWE Women's Championship: Mickie James vs. Beth Phoenix vs. Natayla

With Women's Champion Michelle McCool and her BFF Layla hanging out at ringside, their rival Mickie James fought to earn a shot at McCool's belt in a decent match against Natalya and The Glamazon. Mickie was tossed from the ring in the early going, leaving the two blonde grapplers to put on a good show and carry the bulk of the contest.

The end came when Beth hit Nattie with the Glam Slam. James then dropkicked Phoenix out of the ring and stole the pinfall for herself to end an enjoyable bout that surpassed anything we've seen from the Raw girls in a long time.
Your Winner and new number one contender: Mickie James

Afterwards, Mickie James took the microphone from Josh Matthews; vowing not only to take the Women's Championship from Michelle McCool, but also to extract revenge from her and Layla for all the hurtful things they'd done over the last several weeks. James then shoved McCool, but was quickly outnumbered by the champion and Layla.

A returning Maria made the save before she and Mickie celebrated with the crowd.

Rey Mysterio set to return

Backstage in Teddy Long's office, Batista confronts the GM over a challenge laid down by Rey Mysterio. Big Dave agreed to a street fight against the master of the 619 on next week's show, providing his hold-harmless agreement remains intact.

The Animal also complained about The Undertaker's plans to call him out later on the show, but Long insisted he could do nothing about that.

Non-title match: Intercontinental Champion John Morrison vs. Drew McIntyre

In a match he apparently requested, Intercontinental Champion John Morrison took it to Drew McIntyre in the early going, but it was the Sadistic Scot who walked away with a surprise victory after planting JoMo with a Kobashi DDT following several minutes of enjoyable back-and-forth action.
Your Winner: Drew McIntyre

The show returned from a commercial break to find Vickie Guerrero in the ring. Smackdown's consultant was fantastic at riling up the already excitable crowd with her usual 'excuse me!' catchphrase before calling out her former lover, Eric Escobar, and demanding an apology for the way he spoke to her last week.

When Escobar refused, Guerrero booked him in a handicap match against the Hart Dynasty, which begs the question as to when a consultant was granted booking power?

Handicap match: Eric Escobar vs. The Hart Dynasty

Despite his best efforts, Escobar was overpowered and outwrestled by his opponents in a passable outing, with Smith and Kidd picking up the win thanks to the Hart Attack.
Your Winners: The Hart Dynasty

In the post-match, Tyson Kidd brought Vickie Guerrero back to the ring, holding her ex in place whilst she administered a hefty slap to Escobar's chops.

Luke Gallows Speaks

Heading backstage once more, Josh Matthews caught up with CM Punk and Luke Gallows. The man formerly known as Festus told Matthews that his days walking around in a comatose state was as a result of his friends and family pushing pills on him and claims that CM Punk saved him. Furthermore, Gallows hoped that more lost souls could turn their lives around by following the Straightedge lifestyle.

Non-title match: Unified Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho & the Big Show vs. Cryme Tyme (Shad Gaspard & JTG)

As they look to battle DX in a Tables, Ladders & Chairs match at the TLC pay per view next Sunday, Unified Tag Champions Jerishow set their sights a little lower on tonight's show as they clashed with Cryme Tyme in a fairly good main event.

Following a short, explosive exchange of offence between the two teams, Big Show knocked out Shad Gaspard (now sporting short hair, for anyone interested in that kind of thing) with his Big Fist of doom to earn the victory for his team.
Your Winners: Chris Jericho & The Big Show

Having hyped up a confrontation between The Undertaker and Batista all evening, Smackdown heads towards the finish-line with the World Heavyweight Champion making his way to the ring to a thunderous ovation from the Hampton crowd.

Unfortunately for The Dead Man, his entrance was cut-short thanks to a surprise assault from Batista. The Animal attacked the champion from behind with a steel chair, and in a repeat of last week's show, proceeded to decimate him in the ring with more chair shots and a blow to the head with the Big Gold Belt.

Big Dave then posed with both chair and title belt as Smackdown drew to a close.

Final Thoughts: Despite that deathly dull outing from Kane and Knox at the start of the show, tonight's edition of Smackdown was nonetheless very enjoyable. CM Punk vs. R-Truth should probably pick up Match of the Night honours, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a tag team match pitting Punk & Gallows against Truth and Matt Hardy on next week's show (remember, Hardy suffered a similar fate at the hands of Punk & Gallows on last week's show).

Speaking of future booking plans, following Drew McIntyre's victory over John Morrison tonight, can we expect a title match between the two, possibly at TLC? I hope so, and I also hope that Morrison retains whenever they do meet over the gold, even though everything suggests the Scotsman is in for a title reign at some point in the near future.

On the negative side, I complained about it in the report, but I'm struggling to comprehend why Vickie Guerrero, who was hired only to help Teddy Long as a consultant, is suddenly granted the authority to book matches as she pleases.

Remembering Umaga
Over the past weekend, news emerged that Eki 'Eddie' Fatu, who competed in the WWE as recently as this spring as Umaga, had sadly passed away.

Umaga was a talented performer, playing the Big Monster role almost to perfection, and his Royal Rumble 2007 Last Man Standing match for the WWE championship against John Cena remains arguably as one of his career highlights. My thoughts go out to the friends and family of The Samoan Bulldozer.

Saturday, 6 August 2016

TV REVIEW: WWE SMACKDOWN - August 6th - 2010

WWE Smackdown: 06/08/10
Laredo, Texas

After being accused by World Heavyweight Champion Kane of being responsible for The Undertaker’s demise, number one contender Rey Mysterio looks to clear his name as well as taking on Drew McIntyre in tonight’s main event. Elsewhere, there’s Intercontinental Championship action and Kofi Kingston goes crazy as Friday Night Smackdown comes from Laredo Texas.

Here’s what went down.

Drew McIntyre confronts Rey Mysterio

In tonight's opening promo, Rey Mysterio recalled the events of last week's show, when Kane not only accused Mysterio of attacking The Undertaker, but also chokeslammed him into the Gulf of Mexico.

Tonight, Mysterio refuted such accusations, though claimed he did know who was responsible for the attack on The Phenom. Yet before he could reveal just who that was, Drew McIntyre arrived on the scene.

The Scotsman antagonized Mysterio and eventually goaded him into a match for later on in the show. Mysterio was fairly boring here, but McIntyre continues to impress.

Matt Hardy vs. 'Dashing' Cody Rhodes

Matt Hardy and Cody Rhodes clashed in an entertaining opening contest. The crowds were firmly behind established veteran Hardy, but sadly for him, the power of the WWE Universe wasn't enough to overcome Rhodes, who dominated the latter part of the match before picking up a convincing win with the Cross Rhodes.
Your winner: Matt Hardy

Following a trailer for John Cena's new film, Legendary (which looks rubbish), a vignette aired in which newcomer Alberto Del Rio called everybody mentally constipated. Honestly, there was probably more chance of the Kizarny gimmick getting over with the crowd than this segment.

Michelle McCool gives up her title.

Well, sort of. Backstage in Teddy Long's office, the Smackdown General Manager insisted that there could only be one women's title belt on the Friday night show. Despite arguing against the ruling, Michelle McCool eventually surrendered her strap to Long, only to reveal that the one remaining belt could split in half. Thus, both girls could keep half the belt, despite there still only being one of them.

Intercontinental Championship: Kofi Kingston defends against Dolph Ziggler

Prior to the bout, the challenger's girlfriend, Vickie Guerrero gave her man a warm introduction, accompanying him to the ring and cheering on Dolph Ziggler as he controlled the early moments of the match.

Kofi fought back, and the two went back and forth in a solid championship match. The end came when Kofi struck his foe with Trouble in Paradise, only for Vickie Guerrero to enter the ring and distract the referee. This gave Ziggler enough time to recover, hit the Zig Zag and pick up the win.
Your winner and NEW Intercontinental Champion: Dolph Ziggler

However, Ziggler's celebration was short-lived, as Kofi went loco in the post-match, destroying the new champion, and the announce table, in the process.

CM Punk rallies the troops

After boasting about the Straight Edge Society's attack on The Big Show last week, leader CM Punk cut an intense promo on his charges, motivating them ahead of their upcoming six man tag.

CM Punk, Luke Gallows and Joseph Mercury vs. MVP, JTG and Chris Masters

The six battled in a short, forgettable contest with a rather predictable ending; a SES victory which came courtesy of a Luke Gallows boot to the face of MVP.
Your Winners: CM Punk, Luke Gallows and Joseph Mercury

After another of 'Dashing' Cody Rhodes' grooming tips (this one on the joys of combing one's eyebrows), cameras cut to Kane in the back.

The World Heavyweight Champion hovered around an open casket, vowing to defeat Rey Mysterio when the two clash at Summerslam.


Main event: Rey Mysterio vs. Drew McIntyre 

The angry Scotsman and the flying masked man went back and forth in a very good main event, trading the advantage several times before Mysterio earned himself an other predictable victory.
Your winner: Rey Mysterio

After the match, Kane arrived on the scene with his casket in tow and tried to drop Mysterio inside it. Instead, Rey legged it to the stop of the stage, took to the microphone and accused The Big Red Machine of being responsible for taking out The Undertaker.

Visibly shaken, a troubled Kane then chanted 'I love my brother' over and over as Friday Night Smackdown faded to close.

Final Thoughts: 
A good show overall, though it didn't really feel like anything special. The Intercontinental Championship bout was the highlight of the night, especially when coupled with Kofi's post-match beatdown of newly-crowned champion Dolph Ziggler. I know Kingston is popular as hell, but I can't help but feel that if they did ever decide to turn him, Kingston would make a fantastic heel.

Punk's verbal dressing-down of his Straight Edge Society members was an underrated segment of the show. I haven't heard, or read, many people giving it a lot of thought, but personally I thought it was fantastic.

Retro Pro Wrestling

New reviews of classic WWF/WWE events recalling every moment from Wrestlemania 1 - 30. You'll also find reviews of WCW, ECW, TNA and the occasional indie event, along with a look at old school magazines, merchandise and more.