Amazingly, despite posts from internet wrestling columnists and message board posters, there hasn't been much media criticism about some of the stuff that occurred on Smackdown. I take it that the mass media has decided to ignore the WWF at this point, even if it had content towards the terrorist attacks, or they are just blind like Phil Mushnick is.
Anyway folks, let's get on to the PDC to discuss some wrasslin'.
Shane McMahon arrives, and good ol' Steven Richards introduces Kronik to Shane. They are in the alliance now, and Shane gives Kronik a match with Undertaker/Kane this Sunday. Joy. I guessed Hurricane versus Jeff Hardy, but I was off, as it will be Lance Storm vs. Jeff Hardy. Not bad on the prediction. Hurricane offered Storm a role as a sidekick, I suppose. RVD was shown in Steve Austin's dressing room, attacking the veggie tray. RVD is getting a lot of segments with Austin, which can only mean good things for RVD right now as far as his continued elevation is concerned.
By seeing the Slam of the Week, I wonder where the injury angle of Kurt Angle went? Was it just dropped all together, as Angle looked quite healthy on Smackdown?
Jeff Hardy vs. Lance Storm is the next match, as on paper, it should be good, given the proper time to develop.... like the first match. Know what's funny? Seeing the fans in the crowd checking out Lita on the outside. Some wicked moves done by Jeff Hardy. He's so talented, the WWF doesn't even know it. Awesome finish, as Storm countered Hardy's top-rope Frankensteiner with a Maple Leaf. Clean win, too. Is Storm getting a push? Good match between the two, as the WWF gave them a little extra time than they normally would.
Shane is with the idiotic Stephanie McMahon, backstage, and he's questioning why she's putting herself in handicap matches against the Rock. I'll tell you this much: leather doesn't work for Stephanie the way it did for Chyna. Stephanie looks great in anything else. Tazz then comes in, and Shane gives him a match for later.
Shawn Stasiak has some theme awesome music now. He fought Perry Saturn in the battle of the goofballs. Stacy's only 21, by the way... That's Tito's age. Oh wait, we're talking about Stasiak vs. Saturn. Saturn proved to be the smarter of the mentally challenged, as Stasiak tripped on the leap frog. After the match, Terri, with her jugs hanging right out, is with Raven by a wood-chipper. Oh wow, they just ripped off WCW when Norman Smiley destroyed Chavo Guerrero's riding horse, Pepe'. So sad...... Raven was funny, though, when he was acting like Moppy was screaming at him.
Stephony is shown backstage, and RVD shows up. RVD seems to be setting himself up for a complete face turn by undermining a few Alliance members. This conversation was used to make Jericho vs. RVD at Unforgiven. Molly Holly was stretching, when Hurricane comes in and offers her a sidekick job. Use the Hurri-signal? Oh my. Tazz is fighting Booker T and Shane O Mac. Good stuff so far in this show, as far as backstage segments go.
Booker T/Shane McMahon vs. Tazz is next..... Shane looked quite crisp in this match, as he could easily pass as a wrestler. He's that good. Shane and Booker T just dominated Tazz, with one exception of a fury of offense by Tazz. Very entertaining match here, as Shane and Booker T showed some good chemistry when pounding on Tazz. Booker T is in dire need of a finisher, though, cause he missed his little mini-Harlem Hangover. Maybe he's slowly bringing back the top-rope Harlem Hangover???
Wow. TheCoolspot.org is running commercials against underage drinking on WWF programming now. After all of the commercials aimed at cigarettes, I'm amazed that it took this long to do a negative ad against alcohol.
Backstage, Christian gloats about the audience and talks trash about Edge. He announces that he has a title shot against Tajiri, tonight. Did William Regal sanction that?
STAND BACK! There's a HURRICANE Coming Through! Hurricane gets better each week. His opponent is Spike Dudley, who has been losing a lot lately. Remember when he was main eventing a few months ago? I bet WWF fans would really catch on to Spike if he brought back his drug references, like the fact that Little Spike Dudley is shortened to LSD or that his finisher is called "the Acid Drop". Hey, WWF fans got off on the Godfather's drug references, so why not with Spike? Hurricane won after Molly Holly "accidentally" dropkicked Spike. That's the first of the slow break up between the couple. Decent match.
On the Starburst commercials, why are the kids fighting over the pink chews? Yuck, those are the worst ones. I like the orange or the red ones, myself. Yellow is not bad, too. But pink is the worst.
Torrie Wilson is shown in the back.... Shane questions why she's helping Tajiri, and how she'll help screw Tajiri down the line out of his US title. She has that look of love on her face, though. Uh oh. In the Michael Cole interview, they basically blew over the injury angle on Kurt Angle. Oh well. Angle says he'll win the WWF title, but he's interrupted by RVD. Angle points out that "USA" chants will be louder than "RVD" chants. Way to play off the terrorist attacks, WWF. Dickheads.
Next match was Tajiri vs. Christian. It's a good thing that Debra got pissed at Torrie for trying to suck up to Steve Austin, because if the rumors were true about what Ms. Wilson did with Kevin Nash, then a marriage could have been in jeopardy. One of the better DQ endings with Tajiri accidentally spraying Charles Robinson. It's STILL a DQ finish though. Christian was attempting to kill Tajiri with a ConChairto, but Edge FINALLY came back to get revenge on his brother.
Whoa. During the break, Rhyno just destroyed Tajiri! He gets a US title match at Unforgiven. That show just got better.
Why can't Stephanie come out to Test's music with Test? Oh wait, she's a McMahon, therefore, she only cares about herself. My bad. Speaking of music, when is Test getting his new ring music? I know some metal group was working on one for him, and that was a few months ago. Rock vs. Test/Stephanie was better than the RAW encounter, and it was even better because it had some Booker T - Rock interaction at the end. Nice screwjob ending, too, and I'm sure Stephony is proud of pinning the Rock. Great match, with Rock working very well tonight. Here's a question: what will Test do at Unforgiven?
The main event was next, and it was Rob Van Dam/Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle/Chris Jericho. 3 Fan favorites in one match. Awesome tag team match!! 4 great workers, lots of excellent drama.... However, does the clean win by Kurt Angle over Steve Austin signal the outcome of Unforgiven?
LAST WORD: Wow, what a great show. Want to know why? Because the WWF had a full show of wrestling, with good backstage segments in between. No long interviews, and each match was at least watchable, with some very good. We'll go
-Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle
-Booker T/Shane McMahon vs. the Rock
-Chris Jericho vs. Rob Van Dam
-Edge vs. Christian
-Matt Hardy vs. Hurricane(??)
-Tajiri vs. Rhyno
FINALLY, some interaction between Rock and Booker T/Shane McMahon, and also Edge and Christian. For Smackdown, I really hope that the WWF pushes the RVD vs. Chris Jericho feud because that match will be killer at Unforgiven. As of now, Unforgiven looks great on paper.....
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@That's it for today's PDC. I hope to be back, tomorrow, with more.
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