Nicole Montalto sent this:
The Norfolk Scope was completely sold out, I saw the seats filled to the very top of the arena. The crowd was very live all night long. Tazz and Cole came out to a nice pop and then a Hall of Fame themed video played. Pyros went off and out came Rey Mysterio for the first match.
Rey Mysterio defeated Sylvan with a 619, followed by a pin. Lots of Eddie chants. As soon as the match ended, Randy Orton appeared at the top of the ramp in street clothes. He stated, “Rey, you are lucky you gave me a concussion last week or I’d come to the ring and beat your a$%.” He then said that despite his comments about Guerrero last week, at least Eddie main-evented WrestleMania. “You Rey Mysterio, are no Eddie Guerrero,” came next with the usual blather of “you’ll never main event WM …”
Backstage, Rey meets up with Kurt Angle who reminds Rey about all the people who said he could never make it in the WWE, could never win the Rumble, etc. Kurt demands that Rey never say never and that “it would be my honor to face you in the main event at WM.” Mark Henry then appears and declares he will be taking out both Kurt and the Undertaker in tonight’s main event handicap match. Suddenly, Daivari shows up and hustles Mark Henry off.
Orlando Jordan is in the ring and declaring that “there isn’t anyone in that locker room I can’t beat” while the crowd screams about his tapping out. Who then shows up but the Boogeyman. The smoke and fire was impressive and he proceeds to squash Jordan like a bug in less than one minute. It takes longer for the crew to clean up the worms in the ring and on the ramp then the entire match. But, the people love the Boogeyman, especially all the kids around me.
Next, footage from the “No Way Out” press conference runs on the Titantron. Then we see Nunzio, Big Vito, Funaki, the Mexicools, Paul London, and Brian Kendrick backstage in a huddle. Gregory Helms breaks through the group acting arrogant and saying something I could not quite make out. Helms proceeds to the ring and we have a cruiserweight championship match against Scotty 2 Hotty. Helms wins and declares he will do the same to every cruiserweight backstage. Then, Helms begins a beat down on Scotty – which brings the entire group we saw backstage running to the ring. They proceed to beat down Helms and then each hits him with a big move, ending with Scotty giving him the Worm – another crowd pleaser.
The video package on the Undertaker plays and then we go backstage once again where Helms is being iced by a trainer. Theodore Long enters and tells Helms he will be meeting each and every one of the cruiserweights at No Way Out in a championship match.
Next up is Crystal, who is ready to interview Pirate Paul Burchill. Before they get started, Mr. Kennedy interrupts and begins mocking Pirate Paul’s persona. That goes on until Paul pulls out his pirate sword and puts it up to Kennedy’s neck, leading to a lot of apologetic backsliding.
Out comes Booker T and Sharmell, who head to the announcers table and settle in for our next match, which puts JBL and Finlay (w/ Jillian Hall) against Chris Benoit and Bobby Lashley. There is a very cool spot where Benoit goes out of the ring and ends up caught in the ring apron while Finley pounds him. This is a good brawling match that the crowd was into and ends with JBL pinning Benoit.
Simon Dean and the Gyminis come out and berate the crowd about their weight. This is interrupted by the entrance of Matt Hardy, who gets an enormous pop from the crowd, second only to Mysterio’s at the beginning of the show. Hardy pins Dean after a Twist of Fate.
A video package airs on Kurt Angle and then the Raw Rebound, which spoils the show for everyone in the arena who planned to watch it Thursday night. I was surprised no announcement was ever made that Raw was going to air on Thursday.
We then cut backstage where we see Matt Hardy and Melina. Matt tells her he accepts her offer to take on MNM and will do so at No Way Out with a partner that is yet to be selected.
Finally, the main event which is a 3 on 2 match with MNM and Mark Henry taking on Angle and Undertaker. Undertaker gets the biggest pop of the night and the match begins. The competitive rivalry between Angle and Undertaker is played up throughout the match and then Mercury taps out to the ankle lock.
After the main event ended, Angle and Undertaker remained in the ring when Mark Henry comes back in. Undertaker chokeslams Henry and then, actually tombstones him. I was in the front row ringside and he was facing us and I thought he gave himself a hernia. The taping ended with Angle and Taker up in each other’s faces.
After the taping, Teddy Long came out and announced a fatal 4 way for the world championship between Angle, Taker, Henry, and Randy Orton. Orton gets chased out when Mysterio runs in and chases him up the ramp. Angle and Undertaker toss out Mark Henry and then go at it. Angle ends up winning, I think he pinned Taker but cannot remember exactly. Taker is the last one left in the ring and he slowly heads up the ramp and the show ends.
On a personal note, the show was a lot of fun, the seats I had were awesome and Taker is in about 100% better shape than JBL. The ringside crowd was all over JBL for how flabby and out of shape he looked, seriously, he almost needed a bra and should go back to the APA style full length tights.
