WWF SmackDown! 9/18/2003
Ten days from Unforgiven, we've got a wrestling-heavy night of action. We kick off with Raven's continuing quest to destroy everything Scotty 2 Hotty cares about as he takes on the near-seven-foot Canadian "Horse-Faced Gremlin" T-Money. Money controls most of the early going with power moves, but Raven is just too smart for him and plants him with the Raven Effect for the win. After the match, Scotty comes out and they brawl a bit.
Monday night on Raw, Hardcore Holly cost the Manbeast Rhyno his opportunity at the Intercontinental Title. Rhyno looks for revenge tonight and gets it, Goring Holly for a click, clean win. Holly looks pissed that he had to put over the monster and gets in a little offense after the bell to (try to) reclaim some heat.
Kurt Angle is backstage. He talks about The Rock and the Road To Redemption. He talks about John Cena and Shawn Michaels. He talks about everything that everyone is talking about. And he talks about one thing nobody is: himself. He's the one with the title shot at Unforgiven. He's the one with the intensity to break Brock Lesnar's freakin' ankles. He's the one with the intelligence to beat the World's Greatest Tag Team tonight. And he's the one with the integrity to carry Olympic gold. Wooo! Oh, it's true. It's damn true.
Back in the ring, Rhyno's Team BRECK-J stablemate Chris Benoit is in action against Dirty Dozen member Kane. Benoit puts up a valiant effort, including German suplexing the everloving crap out of the Big Red Machine. Eventually, Kane chokeslams Benoit and puts a foot on the ropes for leverage and the cheap win.
The Rock's Road To Redemption continues next as he takes on one-half of the most exciting tag team in the WWF. Jeff Hardy comes to the ring pumped up after his upset victory over Randy Orton on Raw. His win streak ends at one, though, after he takes a Rock Bottom. After the match, Rock shakes hands with Hardy, showing him respect after a great performance.
Not showing respect to Hardy, though, is Randy Orton. After Rock leaves the ring, Orton enters it with a chair and destroys Hardy. He pummels him with it before finally trapping Hardy's ankle in the chair and coming down on it with a stomp, shades of the "Pillmanizing" angle from seven years earlier. Hardy howls in pain and Orton grins demonically. EMTs, Jeff's brother Matt, Lita, and several others come out from the back to check on Jeff as he's carted off.
Our third BRECK-J/Dirty Dozen match of the evening pits Chris Jericho against the Big Show. Not a strong match at all as Show just can't keep up with Jericho. Y2J wins with a Lionsault.
Two guys who
can keep pace with each other are up next as John Cena takes on Eddie Guerrero. These two, widely considered to be the future of the WWF, put on a clinic. Both men have big matches coming up at Unforgiven against Shawn Michaels and Triple H (more on them later), but they give this match their all, putting on the match of the night. Cena wins clean with the F-U.
Undertaker is backstage. He talks some more smack about The Rock. This is such a good way to keep him on TV without making him wrestle. 2003 Undertaker was rough.
Our penultimate match of the evening pits the aforementioned Shawn Michaels and Triple H, former partners in DeGeneration X against the #1 contenders for the World Tag Team Championship, Edge & Christian. Another really good match ends with HBK and HHH getting into it a bit allowing Edge to hit the Edgecutioner on Michaels for the victory. After the match, Michaels and Helmsley continue to argue.
The main event tonight is the match that Kurt Angle alluded to in his promo earlier, a handicap match against Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, the World's Greatest Tag Team. It's another strong technical match (better than the tag match, but not quite on the level of Cena/Eddie), but it's marred when the World Champion Brock Lesnar hits the ring. While Benjamin has the referee distracted, Lesnar attempts to clothesline the fuck out of Angle, who dodges, and Lesnar turns Haas inside out. Angle knocks Benjamin off the apron and covers Haas for the victory. He celebrates by taunting an enraged Lesnar as Raw goes off the air.
Quick Results (Final Rating 5.28)
- Raven over T-Money
- Rhyno over Hardcore Holly
- Kurt Angle promo, don't forget about me
- Kane over Chris Benoit
- ROAD TO REDEMPTION - The Rock over Jeff Hardy
- Randy Orton pillmanizes Jeff after match
- Chris Jericho over Big Show
- John Cena over Eddie Guerrero
- Undertaker promo on The Rock
- Edge & Christian over Shawn Michaels & Triple H
- Kurt Angle over World's Greatest Tag Team by botched Lesnar interference
Unforgiven 2003 Card so far (9/28)
- WWF World Heavyweight Title: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Kurt Angle
- WWF World Tag Team Titles: World's Greatest Tag Team (c) vs. Edge & Christian
- Road To Redemption: The Rock vs. Undertaker
- John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels
- Eddie Guerrero vs. Triple H
- Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Raven