Joe Arcurio sent the following report to PWInsider.com after last nightâ<80><99>s SmackDown/ECW taping in Pittsburgh, PA:
Smackdown:
The opening match of MVP & Finlay vs. Chris Benoit & Matt Hardy was a good solid 15 minute bout. The crowd was very into the match, and all four men were over with the crowd. Benoit and Hardy got very some loud babyface pops.
Jillian vs. Michelle McCool was OK. Nothing groundbreaking. McCool was surprisingly over with the crowd. Jillian hurt my ears when she “sang”. She needs lessons!
The Ashley interview was kind of hard to follow because the live crowd could not hear any of the questions being asked.
London vs. Domino was a decent match. Deuce and Domino got some good heel heat on the way out.
Kane vs. Dave Taylor was nothing special. Nobody really cared either. After Kane came out and got a nice reaction from the crowd, everybody stopped caring.
Jimmy Yang vs. Chavo was a good short bout. Crowd was semi into it. Both guys worked hard.
Undertaker vs. Batista was a solid, solid bout. Both guys were working hard. Props to Undertaker for his performance because he had to be in some serious pain. The finish was very obvious when they began their descent from the top of the cage. Live, it appeared that Undertaker landed first. Everyone around me agreed.
After the match, Mark Henry came out to a chorus of moans and groans. Then after he laid Undertaker out, and Edge’s music hit the place went nuts. Edge getting the win was awesome to witness live. The crowd was really into him until he came back in the ring and laid Undertaker out again.
The druids came out and carried Undertaker to the back, which left some of the fans in awe.
ECW:
The opener of C.M. Punk vs. Marcus Cor Von started out good with the crowd being very into it, and then slowed down and the crowd just died from there. The rest of the show most of the crowd was dead except for Sandman’s entrance. A lot of people got up and left throughout the show. No significant reaction at all to anything after Sandman’s entrance, until the main event. The crowd loved RVD, and hated the other three. I don’t think anyone believed that RVD had a chance to win, though.
Post match saw Dreamer and Sabu give props to the fans along with RVD.
There was no dark match following ECW.
Notes & Thoughts:
The doors did not open til after 7:00 for an advertised 7:30 bell time, which had a lot of people ticked off. I don’t understand why WWE waits so long to allow the doors to be opened. It has been like this at every TV and PPV for the past two years in the Western PA area.
Only the very upper tier opposite the entrance was tarped. Most of the seats were filled, so I would say around 10,000-12,000 were in attendance.
Lots of young kids were there with their parents, but not nearly as many as Raw on Monday. There were a lot of old school ECW t-shirts scattered throughout the crowd, which was cool to see since Pittsburgh is an old ECW town.
Merchandise for Sandman, Lashley, C.M. Punk, Undertaker, Cena, Mr. Kennedy, Boogyman, and RVD were being sold in the arena.
Overall, a better night of wrestling than Raw Monday. Smackdown was just a fantastic show to be at live, and the Main Event and Edge’s Victory is something you want to make sure you watch on Friday because the atmosphere was fantastic!
