Nick Avila and PWInsider.com

I have never sent in a report so here goes. These are results from Smackdown in San Diego to air this Friday Feb. 23.

We got there right before ECW was on the air so I don't remember exactly who was in the dark match, but it was a 6 man tag and Jimmy Wang Yang was on one of the teams, and his team won the match.

Smackdown opened with footage of NWO, and then went immediately to the ring where Batista came out and talked about Undertaker, what happened at NWO and their match at WrestleMania.

6 Man Tag match was next with Matt Hardy & Paul London & Brian Kendrick beating the team of Joey Mercury & Deuce & Domino. Great action from all involved.

Next they show Kristal interviewing Vickie Guerrero. I didn't catch what she said but the segment was short and sweet, ending with Kristal hugging Vickie again. They didn't show Teddy Long at all during the show.

WWE Cruiserweight Champion Chavo Guerrero beat Scotty 2 Hotty. The end came with Chavo rolling up Scotty and hooking the ropes with his legs for the win.

Kristal interviews King Booker about his Money in the Bank qualifying match against Kane.

King Booker beats Kane in the Money in the Bank qualifying match. This match was no DQ and falls count anywhere. Match went kind of long. Great Khali comes out and beats up Kane, with Booker taking advantage of this and pinning Kane outside the ring for the victory.

They had a rematch from NWO with Little B, and Boogeyman vs. Finlay and Little Bastard. This match had some funny moments as Little B. beat up on Finlay for a bit, then Little Bastard got involved. Finlay and Little Bastard won when Finlay pinned Boogeyman.

They showed a HOF package, first announcing Dusty Rhodes, then announcing Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig as the latest inductee. Nice response from the crowd.

The biggest pop of the night came when Rey Mysterio came out. It was very loud in the arena when Rey was announced then showed up. He said that his rehab is way ahead of schedule and that he'll be back in the ring sooner than expected. He was then interrupted by Mr. McMahon who came out, talked about his "match" with Trump at Wrestlemania, then asked Rey who he thought would win. Rey says "you're a loser Vince" then Vince brings out Umaga. Umaga goes on to beat up on Rey, ending with a splash from the top rope to Rey's legs. Rey gets carried out on a stretcher.

The bonus match saw Batista beat Mr. Kennedy. A lot of the fans left after Mysterio was taken out of the ring. Batista beats Kennedy with a Batista Bomb. As he is celebrating, more fans are leaving, then we hear the "bong" of the Undertaker, lights go out, then they come back and Taker is behind Batista. Batista turns around and Taker choke slams him, grabs the World title belt and raises it, then leaves. Batista gets up a few minutes later, then goes on to pose & celebrate for a few before leaving and ending the show.

Overall the crowd was pretty into the whole show. But like I said the biggest pop came when Rey Mysterio was introduced. It was VERY loud lol. Well that's it for my report, hope this helps.

No Benoit again, wow.

I kinda wish they'd just figure out who he's fighting at Mania and move on already.

So Misterio came back only to play an injury angle right away. That makes no sense to me. Hopefully that means he's TNA bound soon.

I wish they'd just say fuck it and give us what we want.

Benoit vs. Rey

I hate to say it but I don't even want to watch that anymore. Benoit has really lost a step in my eyes and I'm sad to say I don't get the same enjoyment out of his matches anymore. It's been that way for a couple of years now. His title run was really his last hurrah as being an everynight best worker. Now, you just get flashes of what he once was.

It's also fucking sad that Helms had something like a 13 month title run and it was mostly because they forgot about him. And what a waste of Chavo. He should be well above that title by now. He's basically a step ahead of where he was in WCW at this point.

Dude, Benoit is fine. Sure he isn't the same Benoit from NJ in 1994, but he's still a top tier worker for the most part.

I still enjoy Benoit's matches for what they are. He's getting near 40 now, isn't he? It is only understandable that he'd be slowing down in the ring, especially after a 20+ year career. At this point, I just like seeing him on television.

Oh for fucking christ sake...

KANE VS KHALI AT WRESTLEMANIA MAYBE!?!?

I had thought that they'd just drag out his feud with MVP or move him over to a feud with Kennedy. Kennedy really needs the rub of a big win right now.

I also have to add that I fucking love the MNM/Hardys feud. It's an old school feud built the right way and it's awesome.

Kennedy and Benoit feuding over the US title with Kennedy going over in the end would be perfect.

They really need to do something with Kennedy. That's the main problem with Smackdown right now. None of the heels are strong and it's hard to make them legit threats against Batista, Kane or Undertaker.

Ahem... Kane is buried beyond the point of returning as a credible threat.

Fucking WWE. (continues the RAW/SD/ECW Boycott)

While Kane has been buried immensely, it brings back up an old topic.

Does Kane have un-killable heat? I think so. It wouldn't take too much work to make him back into a contender.

I kind of agree. They really blew it with the unmasking back in 2003. He was proving to be a ratings draw until Shane McMahon ruined him. They should've built to him beating Goldberg for the World Title at Wrestlemania instead. I'm dead serious when I say that too. Goldberg/Kane could've done some huge business had HHH put his ego aside even for six months.

True, but every time the dominos are set up, they get knocked down faster than you can say "through hell fire and brimstone!"

If you want, I can go into detail every time this has happend... of course, I would need a few cups of coffee and a frogurt to get through it all.

I agree with that, but the whole Goldgerg run was a Vince ego trip/ waste of money.

I like that Kane was unmasked, though the way it went down was pretty silly. Now I can't imagine him with the mask.

In my SSlam 2003 rant, I echoed the same sentiments.

Goldberg goes through everyone in the Chamber match without so much as breaking a sweat.

Kane takes out Rob Van Dam in convincing fashion, just weeks after assaulting the untouchable Linda McMahon and near-untouchable Steve Austin.

The next night on Raw, stuff happens.

The match would've sucked major dick, but my God, WWE fucked that one up royaly.

I think they could've pulled something decent off. Remember that Kane/Albert IC Title match that kicked ass when it had no right to?

Anyways. Go into the Kane rant. Make it a new thread if you would though. We could use the discussion.

That match had no right to be that good... yes, it's a BIT overrated considering the expectations, but dang.

And we got a (kinda) Hurra-KANE-rana! AHAHAAHA!

...


AHAHAHAHAAH! KAAAAAAAAAAAANE! (imitates pyro motion)

Goldberg was carryable, and Kane is a good worker if the match stays at a slow pace.

If Scott Steiner (post-mobile) and Goldberg could have a great match, anything's possible.

Steiner is another one who was soiled by his time in WWE. Everything else in his career has been great. And yes, that match was awesome.

Yeah, but much like the Goldberg feud it was fucked up by HHH proving that he can't carry a match better than your average midcarder.

Some things are debatable about HHH's politics, but there is no doubt in my mind that he was sandbagging Steiner in that match to intentionally make him look bad.

I think you could easily say the same thing about Goldberg too.

Steiner-Goldberg, in a "great" match?

I call bullshit. I don't remember a period of more overrating than Steiner's late WCW run in 1999-2000. He was fucking atrocious, and was wrestling Booker T, Sid, Goldberg, whoever else, and those matches were shit.

I remember seeing lots of *** and shit being dished out, but I thought he was absolutely horrible.

Nobody to my knowledge said anything about "great".

It's just the Steiner/Goldberg matches were some of the worst main event matches I've ever seen.

If Trips is some kind of ring general like most of the higher ups in the WWE think, then those matches should have been at least watchable.

Steiner during 99-00 was serviceable and one hell of a heel. Also, out of the three people you named that wrestled him during that time, the only one even remotely worth a shit was the Booker stuff. Sid and Goldberg couldn't carry shit with him and vice versa. It was just shit that should've never been booked.

I thought this was Scrooge saying they had a great match, but perhaps I'm misreading it. It could happen.

I wouldn't call the match in question "great" or anything, but I remember being blowed away by how good it was considering the participants. I think I pegged it at *** when I saw it a couple years ago.

I must have missed that. Oh, and even if he did say it....we're talking a guy that loves Hogan and Kane's matches.

So in short....I wouldn't take it THAT seriously.

The point is, Scotty can bust out the occasional good match, when he's motivated. Just look at Joe/Steiner.

It just takes a better worker than Hunter to pull it all together. The thing is, Scott and Hunter at the Rumble and No Way Out in 2003 wrestled two bad matches, but Scott didn't do anything remarkably wrong. His execution was solid and his actual physical work wasn't as piss poor as so many people say. It's only because Hunter wasn't the kind of guy that could pull the whole thing together that the matches didn't come across very well.

I don't remember the NWO 2003 match being that despicable either. The Rumble match was hilariously bad though, I swear Triple H sabotaged that one on purpose.

I'll straight up say it: That Goldberg / Steiner match was awesome. Just a brutal, stiff fist-fight between two big brutes. Noone had made Goldberg look at all vulnerable at that point, but Steiner was believable. It wasn't Jack Brisco / Dory Funk, but I loved every second of that match.

I'll vouche for the Steiner/Goldberg match. Easily Goldberg's best match other than the great one he had with DDP at a PPV that is escaping me.

I don't think he sabotaged it, but that's about the time I started thinking that HHH was just dialing it in for most matches. He tried to pull a Flair and go formula in his matches, but he's not half the heel Flair is/was. He'll never be

There were several news items at the time saying HHH made Steiner call the match which is very out of the ordinary.

Things like that are why I was so amazed when everyone was clamoring for HHH to bury Cena once and for all at WM22 last year. It had been a year since he'd been World Champion, and everyone had seemingly forgotten how awful and tedious the WWE is when HHH is on top, burying his opponents left and right. They had such mark-like hate for Cena that they wanted to see HHH apply his burying powers to someone they felt deserved it.

Triple H has entertained me quite a bit over the years, but he has also angered me and at times ruined Raw to the point where I have stopped watching for streaks of time. His 2002-2003 run has made it certain that I will forever have a level of hhhatred and distrust of him.

Watching Raw during HHH's highest days (2002-03) was like watching a show ran by the Nazi regime.