[jetskid48]

As long is there's no Met game delaying it, the recap should be up tonight. Preview:

The following is from WWE.com:

Crowning a champion?
May 23, 2008

The stage was set for Undertaker or Edge to walk out of Judgment Day as the new World Heavyweight Champion. However, things didn’t go as planned for either Superstar. Although Undertaker defeated Edge, it was by count-out. So – as SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero reminded a chorus of booing fans – the title remains vacant.

However, WWE.com has learned Guerrero will kick off Friday Night SmackDown with huge news regarding One Night Stand. Will it involve the ongoing struggle for the title?

Will Edge continue to rely on his cohorts, including fiancée Vickie Guerrero, to help him in his quest to reclaim the gold? Are chinks starting to show in the armor of people the Ultimate Opportunist has surrounded himself with? Last Friday on SmackDown, Bam Neely & Chavo Guerrero opted to walk away from partners Edge, Vickie, Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder before a Handicap Match against The Phenom. What will Chavo & Bam do this Friday?

WWE.com has also learned that former SmackDown Assistant General Manager Theodore Long will be a guest on MVP’s VIP Lounge. What will Long have to say about his action on last week’s SmackDown – when he quit so that Guerrero could not fire him?

Batista vowed to hurt Shawn Michaels if The Animal found out HBK faked an injury in their match at Backlash. Recently on Raw, HBK finally admitted he did feign his injury. At Judgment Day, Batista reminded HBK of his warning to hurt him – and it would happen when he least expects it. If and when The Animal does deliver, will HBK be ready for him?

Witness all the fallout from Judgment Day on Friday Night SmackDown at 8/7 CT on The CW Network.

[jetskid48]

Smackdown Report 5/23/08 - By: JetsKid48

Vickie Guerrero comes out with a cold opening and starts complaining about how hard it is to be GM. One of her jobs is to enforce rules and regulations. Belts can only be won by Pin or Submission. Large "You Suck" chants begin. At One Night Stand, no mistakes will be made. She has a huge announcement and she has no worries of reprucussions. It will be a TLC match between Edge and the Undertaker...holy shit. If Undertaker loses this match, it'll be his last match on Smackdown, because he will be banished from the entire WWE......way to be fucked Edge.

Commercial.

1. Jesse, Festus, and Cherry v. Deuce, Domino, and Maryse.
Jesse and Festus start off with some double team wrestling on Domino. Domino is able to tag out and Jesse goes to work on Deuce. Foley asks when Deuce and Domino last won a match on Smackdown? Cole replies sometime last August! "Gee, that's a long time" Domino gets tagged back in as they get the advantage. Chinlock, then picks up Jesse and gives him a Michanoku Driver for 2. Tag to Deuce, but Jesse goes for a roll up for 2. Quickly Deuce comes back with punches. Jesse starts to fight back but is pushed into the corner. Quick tags keep Jesse on the ground. Domino legdrop for 2. Cole and Foley start talking about Foley's longest losing streaks. Jesse tries to fight back but gets double knees to the face. Tag and a couple stomps by Domino. He goes for a pin and gets a 2. Jesse gets a swinging bulldog and finally makes the tag to...Cherry. Maryse in with her and shes in contol. Run to the corner and a monkey flip. Face smash and a tag to Festus....but nothing happens. All carnage in the ring, and Festus bicycle kicks Domino. Ring clears and Maryse kicks Cherry so hard that she falls herself.....horrible. This gets the pin.

Winners: D&D&Maryse.

We're in the back and Chavo walks in on Vickie and Edge. He justs wants to straighten things out and wants no hard feelings. She's glad there's no hard feelings since she put him in a match with Undertaker later tonight. Chavo isn't happy but Edge asks him if he's afraid. He says he's a Guerrero, he's never afraid. Edge says the whole family will be with him, so he shouldn't worry.

Commercial.

We're back and MVP comes down for the VIP Lounge.

His first guest tonight is the former Smackdown GM, Teddy Long.

MVP wants to give him a chance to tell his side of the story. He knows he wants to tell his side of the story, but MVP has his own stuff to talk about. He wants Long not to forget what he put him through. Now MVP can say all the things with no reprocussions. Teddy was jealous of everything about MVP, including his hair, heh. Teddy tries to leave, but MVP grabs him. And of course....its the ANIMAL Ba-TissssssssTA...to save Long.

The bouncer doesn't do a very good job keeping Bats from the lounge...he should be fired. Bats gets a mic. It's not what MVP thinks, he just wants to say goodbye to Long. He says good luck to Theodore for whatever he wants to do. He also wants to say that if he touches Long again, he's going to shove his fist right down his throat. MVP says he needs to be worried about his stretcher match.

Bats says he wasn't being disrespectful. He starts listing what would be disrespectful and tossing things around. MVP powders out at this point. He punches through his curtain with a nice karate WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Then his music hits. Batista is still over. Incredible.

Commercial

MVP barges into Vickie's office. He's upset about before. Vickie instead gives him a match with Batista. He's not thrilled.

2. Finlay v. Chuck Palumbo
Nerve hold to start for Palumbo who then takes down Finlay and puts him in a legvine. Finlay turns that into a leghold. Finlay gets up and steps on his leg off the ropes. Palumbo gets the advantage and hits Finlay's face into the corner. Follows this with a kick to the side of the head. Work in the corner. Big clothesline gets a 2. Rear choke hold is put on. Two kicks to the spine followed up into the corner with shoulders by Palumbo. Big punch gets a reaction. Palumbo lifts Finlay's leg but Hornswoggle interferes with a SuperSoaker. The distraction when Palumbo follows tot he outside allows Finlay to jump over HS and clothesline Palumbo down. Back into the ring, Palumbo runs and kicks Finlay in the face to the outside. Palumbo goes out, then in to break teh count, then back. In the ring, he lifts up Finlay and gets a reverse suplex for 1. Mount punches and Finlay reverses into a Fujiwara Armbar. Palumbo gets to the ropes quickly. Palumbo with a clothesline and it gets a 2. Back to a chinlock but Finlay starts to get back up. Finlay runs him into the corner and follows with forearms. Finlay gets pulled off and Palumbo gets a big clothesline for 2. Kick to the back by Palumbo and knees to the back when Finlay's in a sitting position. He gets a side headlock on him on the ground. Uppercuts to the stomach, but Palumbo slams him for 2. Palumbo goes back to working on the back and puts the chinlock on again. Finlay stands up and gets a desperation jawbreaker.

Clotheslines by Finlay. He shoulders Palumbo in the corner and gets the Fireman's Carry flipdrop for two. Finlay to the middle rope and gets a crossbody for 2. As Finlay runs into the corner, he gets a clothesline by Palumbo. Belly to Belly throw and Hornswoggle is back. Palumbo gets him and throws him into the ring. As Palumbo follows, he gets the Irish Mist in the face. Shieleleigh to the face and its over.

Winner: Finlay.

And we see MVP GETTING THE GLOVES ON...its next.

Commerical.

3. MVP v. THE ANIMAL BATISTA.
Some testing out to start. Batista gets the power advantage eventually and MVP powders to the outside. He gets back into the ring and dances around with some punches to Batista, that basically just anger him. MVP gets a headlock but is thrown to the ropes, Batista actually jumps over MVP and gets a kick to knock him down. Batista follows to the outside with MVP and hammers down. Back into the ring and a suplex. That gets a 2. Clothesline to the corner. Irish whip to the other side, but as Batista charges, MVP dropkicks the bad knee. He sets up for the big kick and drives Bats to the outside. This leads to a

Commerical.

We're back and MVP is still in control. He goes for a pin and gets a 2. Front face lock keeps Bats down. Finally he powers out and charges MVP's back into the corner. Batista shoulders to the ribs, but as the ref pulls him off, MVP goes low and kicks his knee out again. MVP to the top rope and Bats catches him, only for MVP to drag Bats' neck across the ropes. This gets a 2. Armbar put on. Bats seems to be favoring his arm and gets it slammed against the ringpost. MVP starts pulling on the shoulder across the post more. Batista starts to punch back, but MVP does a drop toe hold and tosses Batista into the steel post. MVP pulls him out of the corner and gets a 2. He continues his armphillic offense. Back to the armbar. Bats fights back but its a swinging neck breaker by MVP. MVP goes to the corner to set up for the boot. He doesn't even get to run because Batista turns around and spears him. Throw to the ropes and a one armed back body drop. MVP rolls to the outside and Batista throws him into the post. He throws him back in. Batista whips him to the corner and posts him. Then to the otherside with another post. MVP elbows him in the face, goes for a lowblow, but is lifted and spinebustered. Batista gets hot and goes for the Bomb and hits it. That's all.

Winner: Batista.

Commercial.

4. Vladimir Kozlov v. Nunzio.
It was a squash with a few holds for once. Nothing much to see here. He did Zidane him for the first time in a while.

Winner: Kozlov.

Break.

5. Matt Hardy and Kofi Kingston v. Elijah Burke and Shelton Benjamin
Kofi and Burke start. Armlock by Burke flipped out by Kofi. Kofi plants a knee in Burkes stomach, but Burke gets out. Kofi rolls him up and gets a 1. Hardy tagged in and continues work on the arm. After some stuff in the corner, Matt gets a wayyy too stiff punch to Burke's face. Suplex by Hardy and he goes up to the middle rope. AHHH Elbow drop landed and Matt waves for the Twist of Fate, instead, he gets distracted by Shelton and knocks him off. He turns into a Burke neckbreaker. Tag to Shelton. Shelton lifts Hardy and tags back. Burke takes Hardy's head and slams it on the ropes for 1 count. Shelton gets back in but with some Burke outside help, they continue to keep Hardy down. Shelton gets a reverse neck breaker lock on Hardy, laying him across his knee. Hardy powers out and after a whip to the ropes, gets the Side Effect on Shelton. He tags Kofi who starts flying around the ring with forearms. Kofi jumps on Sheltons shoulder and after spinning, flips him over. BO BO BO legdrop continues the onslaught. Crossbody off the ropes gets a 2. Pandamonium in the ring as Burke and Hardy powder out. Kofi out of knowhere gets the Jamaican Pancake or whatever its called on Shelton. Pin.

Winners: Hardy and Kofi.

Commercial.

Some promo stuff...and another Commerical.

6. Undertaker v. Chavo
Starts off with Chavo trying to avoid all UT punches, but finally gets grabbed and put in the corner by Taker, strikes and more strikes continue. Corner offense by Taker. Old School already by Taker. He sets up for the chokeslam but Chavo gets to the ropes. Taker misses a running kick and gets caught on the ropes. The entourage pull him over the ropes and start the beatdown, but Charles Robinson throws them all out. Chavo kicks UT to keep him down. Back in the ring and Chavo is still kicking Taker, but he's getting up. Chavo pounds in the corner, but Taker throws him off. Chavo throws him to the outside and tries to jump on him, but Taker catches him and rams him into the post. Chavo rolled in, but Chavo takes advantage as UT gets in. Taker sits up and gets control. Headbutts by Taker. This is followed by usual Taker corner crashing and Big Booting. It gets a 2 count. He sets up but doesn't get the chokeslam as Neely distracts. Chavo to the middle rope, but gets caught in chokeslam territory. Neely distracted again and Chavo gets a low shot. Chavo to the top rope, but Taker gets up, Chavo caught, Tombstone. Over.

Winner: Undertaker.


I had been waiting for that tag match for a while, so that was cool. Not much storyline advancement, but an okay Smackdown.

[Tommy]

The pre-cap isn't exactly heartening.
Hopefully Nattie Sharpshooters someone to bring up my spirits a bit.

[jetskid48]

Recap is up.

[Batman]

That wasn't bad. I don't know how I feel about the threat of "banishment." Were they scared people would be too worried Edge might win otherwise? But whatever.

Batista v MVP was extremely random, but not a bad match at all.

Finlay pulled a better match out of Palumbo than I would have thought humanly possible.

I even found Kozlov oddly watchable. Nunzio's hope spots were fun, anyhow.

The main event didn't thrill me, though.

Kingston and Shelton are kind of a weird deal. I love their wrestling, but I never actually love their matches. And it's not like they haven't had plenty of chances. Do they just need more time? Or what?

I liked Foley's comparison of Kingston with a young Steamboat. They're both...springy.