411’s WWE Smackdown Report 02.20.03

411’s SmackDown Report for 2/20/03
Taped from Indianapolis, Indiana on 2/18/03
By Jeremy Peeples

First off, let me introduce myself since this is my first wrestling-related
piece for 411. You may know me from the gaming section of 411, but I’m just as
much a fan of wrestling as I am gaming. You’re not going to see star ratings
from me, because I respect wrestlers too much to equate their hard work in the
ring down to a rating. I’ll simply give you a match recap, do my best to add
some flavor to it, and say if I found the match or promo enjoyable or not.

The Rock comes out and delivers an electrifying promo… after a minute or so of a
mixed reaction from the crowd that is. The Rock’s sportin’ a new, huge tribal
tattoo on his left arm that looks quite awesome. The Rock is booed after saying
“Finally”, then he paces about a bit, places the mic to his lips, and the fans
boo again. Thr Rock does this routine once more before opting to finish his
catchphrase. But not before turning heel by saying “Finally, the Rock has come
back to Indianaaaaa… who cares about this crap?” The Rock cleverly covers this
up, and turns face again, but then turns heel again by saying that no matter
what, love him or hate him, the Rock will ALWAYS be the most electrifying man in
sports entertainment today, which the fans take exception to. The Rock says he
can’t understand why the fans are booing him, he’s committed to them, and to
WWE. Hold up, the Great One has to answe his cell phone call from his personal
assistant, the Rock will only be one second. The Rock says he doesn’t have time
for all the hicks in Indianapolis… whoa whoa whoa, don’t get the Rock wrong, he
didn’t mean the fine folks in the arena, he meant the hickory trees outside.
Yup, sure did. The Rock is taken aback by the fans’ decision to boo him. The
Rock then shuts up those who say he sold out by saying he worked his ass off to
get where he is, damn straight Rock. The Rock’s acting cool and cocky tonight,
and few do it better than the Great One. The Rock says that he’s going to
confront Hogan when he appears tonight, and tell him what the Rock has in store
for him at No Way Out. The Rock then goes to finish up his promo, but says that
since the fans decided to turn on him, sing along with the Rock is over.

Angle and Lesnar’s tale of the tape is shows- WWE had the gaul to list Angle’s
hardcore title win as an accomplishment

Chris Benoit vs. A-Train

Well, here’s to hoping this week’s rematch lives up to the standards set by
their match last week. Your God and mine, Chris Benoit comes out first, wearing
an awful “Toothless Aggression” shirt. A-Trian comes out next and rushes the
ring, unloading on Benoit and pushing him into the corner, where he continues
his assault. Benoit counters with some chops, but they have no effect as
A-Train lifts him up and drops him into a modified Muscle Buster. Youch. That
only gets 2, oddly enough. A-Train makes the mistake of taunting Benoit, and
gets locked in the crossface for his efforts. Train does everything he can to
escape, and finally does. But the rabid wolverine locks it on from the other
side. A-Train then lifts him up over his head to break the hold this time, but
Benoit, who’s always thinking, rolls up A-Train for the three count.

Funaki, Smack Down’s #1 announcer, tries to score an interview with the Rock,
but the Rock’s personal security force prevents that from happening.

Rikishi vs. Johnny “The Bull” Stamboli

The Big Kish enters first, and then Stamboli comes down with the rest of the
Family. Rikishi jumps Stamboli before the bell. Press slam by Stamboli after
he recovers from Rikishi’s assault. Gets a two count. Springboard legdro
follos that up, which also gets a two count. Stamboli assaults him in the
corner, Rikishi turns the tide and then samoan drops him as he walks out of the
corner. As Stamboli rises, he is met with a super kick by Rikishi, which gives
him the win. The Family comes out to avenge the loss by beating the daylights
out of Rikishi.

Angle and Shelton Benjamin are shown in the back doing amateur wrestling stuff
while Charlie Haas shouts words of encouragement to Angle to prep him for his
match with Brock tonight. Angle then cuts a nice promo on Brock.

We come back from a commercial break to a Los Guerreros segment (complete with
comedic opening with Eddie and Chavo’s heads bopping up and down in a cartoon
low-rider.) They’re in Beverly Hills and BS their way into distracting a woman
so they can steal her wallet and her rolex. Their motto is “If you’re not
cheating, you’re not trying.” They make a shirt of that, and I’ll buy ten. The
Beverly Hills stuff reminds me of Bobby Heenan, which is always a good thing.

Kidman & Rey vs. Shannon Moore & Matt Hardy version 1.0

The Ex- Filthy Animals come out first, followed by team OMEGA.
Matt Facts- Matt is miserable when dieting, and Matt finds Shannon very hard to
teach. A pre-taped segment of Matt being weighed is shown. He strips down to
his birthday suit to make the 220 lb. Weight limit, and then hugs Shannon. Poor
Shannon Moore, dude just can’t get a break. Shannon and Rey start, and exchange
tons of flip-flop moves. Kidman tags in and pounds away on Shannon. Matt then
tags in Shannon out of desperation and pounds on Kidman to return the favor.
Matt locks Kidman up in a front chancre, and grinds it in until Kidman gets out
with a set of elbows and a dropkick. Tag to Rey by Kidman. Rey knocks Team
OMEGA out of the loop, and sends Shannon to the floor. Rey dropkicks Matt into
the middle rope and delivers a 619. He goes to deliver the West Coast Pop, but
Shannon pulls him down. Rey then climbs in the ring and lets Kidman toss him
outside the ring onto Shannon. This would prove to be the team’s undoing since
Matt hits Kidman with a twist of fate second later, and scores the pin because
Rey was distracted on the floor with Shannon.

Nathan Jones is interviewed by Michael Cole and says, in a soft demeanor, that
he’s done his time and just wants to be treated fairly. He then snaps and says
that he wants the WWE title just like everyone else. This is so much like the
Waylon Mercy gimmick, it’s scary. It should be a good gimmick though, as it’s
basically fool-proof, even more so since Jones has some in-ring talent.

A recap of the events between the Big Show and the Undertaker is shown.

The two gift boxes that were on the stage are now in the ring. Taker opens up
box number one and finds… a small puppy. How cute. He pounds the hell out of
the second box, but before he can fully destroy it, the Big Show comes out and
beats him down. He slams him into the remnants of the second box numerous
times, before finishing him off with a huge chokeslam. The Big Show leaves in a
limo during the break.

Nidia vs. Torrie Wilson- Paddle on Pole

This won’t be a classic, but it can’t be too bad. I think I spoke too soon.
Torrie and Nidia open the match with some pretty weak looking offense. The
highlight of it was a decent European uppercut by Nidia. Torrie hits her
swinging neck breaker, and knocks Noble off the apron. Dawn Marie comes down to
trip up Torrie, and Noble comes in and hit’s the slingblade on Torrie, which
enables Nidia to get the paddle and win the match. Funaki comes in and makes
the save for Torrie. Good for Funaki, here’s to hoping it leads to more
wrestling by him on SmackDown.

Hogan walks to the Rock’s dressing room, and is turned away by the personal
security. The Hulkster heads to ring.

Here comes the Hulkster down to the ring to address the Great One. Damn is it
ever good to see Hogan out there having fun. The Rock’s music hits and here
comes the Rock to stare down Hogan. The Rock is choked up by the mix of boos
and cheers he’s getting, and needs a drink of the People’s Water to regain his
composure. The Rock says he wants to clear the air, and says that an apology is
in order from Hogan. The Rock is seemingly offended because Hogan called him
the Rock of Jabroni. That was quite rude, according to the Great One. The Rock
says that Hogan’s entire comeback is due to the Rock, and all the Rock wants is
an apology. When he asks for it, Hogan responds with a resounding “HELL NO.”
Hogan says that it wasn’t the Rock who made Hogan’s comeback successful, oh no,
it was the Hulkamaniacs. Hogan gets pissed off at the Rock, who has decided to
mock Hogan’s mannerisms, all the while holding onto a water bottle, which is
strangely amusing. The Rock backpedals and turns face for the 13th time tonight
by saying that he was just entertaining, and that he loves Hulk Hogan. He then
spits in his face and turns heel again.

We get a recap of the Rock spitting water at Hogan. Then, we’re treated to a
recap of the No Way Out card. THEN, we get a recap of the Brock-Cena match from
last week. If there’s one more recap, it’ll be SummerSlam 91 all over again…
Oh thank God, it’s John Cena to stop the recap madness with the freestyle rap
about Brock injuring his knee. I loved every part in it but the one saying that
Cena would make Brock his prison bitch.

Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar

Here comes Brock Lesnar down the aisle to a thunderous ovation. Here comes Kurt
Angle along with Team Angle. Angle enters the ring and says that he will give
Brock the chance to face him, but only after he beats the tag team champions in
succession. Can Brock Lesnar overcome this gauntlet match? Read on to find
out.

Brock Lesnar vs. Charlie Haas

We get some nice amateur wrestling to start the bout off. Haas locks in a front
chancre, which is quickly countered by Brock into a sky-high backdrop. Lesnar
kills Haas with some clotheslines, and then destroys him in the corner. Belly
to belly suplex by Brock. Brock follows that up with a back breaker, which is
then turned into a press, which is then turned into an F5 on Haas. Brock
covers, and three seconds later, Brock emerges victorious. However, he still
has to get through his former teammate in the Minnesota Stretching Crew before
he can face Kurt Angle.

Brock Lesnar vs. Shelton Benjamin

Brock delivers a belly to belly and then tears into him with a delayed suplex.
Shelton gets up and takes the legs out from under Brock, and then goes for the
kill on Brock’s left arm. He slaps on a cross armbreaker, which Brock counters
into a modified powerbomb. More belly to belly suplexes by Brock, who is
hesitant getting up due to his bad arm. Shelton goes for the Dragon Whip, but
Brock counters it with a clothesline. Brock then slaps an on an Angle Slam to
Shelton to score the duke. Angle tries to back out of his match with Brock, but
Heyman psyches him up for competition.

Brock vs. Kurt Angle… never really gets going as Heyman comes in right after the
bell rings and smacks Brock with a chair. Angle then chokes Brock out. Brock
comes back and tosses Angle out of the ring, leaving him alone in the ring with
Paul Heyman, who Brock has vowed to F5. Team Angle comes in the ring to save
their agent from harm, and they decimate Brock, but before they can do too much
damage, Edge and Benoit rush the ring to help out their partner. Fantastic
ending to the show that really built up the SmackDown matches for the
Pay-Per-View.