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THE CYNICAL VIEW - ATTENDING WWE SMACKDOWN IN BELFAST

Live Report:

The Cynical View

WWE: Smackdown In Belfast 4-12-07

Welcome back to “The Cynical View”, where I Michael Campbell just love botching articles almost as frequently as Kane falls attempting to do his top-rope clothesline. Tuesday night, I had the pleasure of attended a Smackdown house show in Belfast. Here’s the observations

-The Odyssey arena was sold out (Bar perhaps a few random seats), and had a hot crowd, who for some reason, had their signs and banners removed by security on the way in. There was quite a few of them..

Lot’s of “WHooo” chants rang out prior to the beginning of show 

This was a really basic match. Armdrags and backdrops aplenty. Kenny was bizarrely introduced under his real name. McIntyre didn’t have an awful lot to do, and the crowd largely had no idea who he was. Festus was way over with the crowd. Not a bad opener, but nothing of note whatsoever. The baby faces scored the victory of course, and the kids in the arena went nuts.

Chuck Palumbo vs. Jamie Noble

This was really strange, as Palumbo came out to a surprisingly big pop, only to turn heel by cutting a promo on Irish fans. Pretty good stuff, but it placed Jamie Noble as the default face. He was great in the role, but it was definitely a head-scratcher for some folk. Despite the role-swap, the fans were into this one start to finish… really hot. And it was actually a pretty decent showing, with Jamie fitting the baby face in peril role much better in this feud. Near falls towards the end saw the crowd really pop, but Palumbo got the unpopular victory.

This was a poor match that saw Wang Yang get the victory following the moonsault. A phoned-in offering for sure, that even lost the interest of most fans for a fair portion if it.

The crowd noise dulled somewhat further for this. This was as awkward and unexciting as you could imagine. And Neidhart’s counts were way too slow. Waste of time. Instead of going out every night on house shows and working the same match, these girls need a chance to improve in areas beyond their comfort zones. Rubbish indeed, with McCool winning with a lame big boot. Afterwards, Neidhart turned on McCool, and the two heels slapped the tar out of her.

This was as basic, and formula as you could imagine. Decent response to Dreamer, also mostly silence for Thorne, who the crowd seemed unfamiliar with. Dreamer, as usual, gave it 100%, but the majority of fans just aren’t interested. He picked up the surprise victory with a DDT. Thorne now looks like a mixture of Sean O’Haire and Colt Cabana, but his selling is still ridiculously terrible.

Khali vs. Finlay

Khali received a huge pop as he first appeared, which was completely unexpected. Finlay’s of course, was even louder, as the fans respect and admire him here to an enormous length. Finlay was beat down in this one, which was largely nerve hold city! He was effective as an underdog face, as the crowed were totally absorbed in the “action”. It’ll be interesting to see the reaction that he receives against Khali at the PPV a match that could be surprisingly entertaining.. This was all pretty basic stuff (though not too bad) apart from Palumbo doing a run in, for the disqualification, setting up their match the following night.

I don’t have the time, or the energy to explain this one. I also doubt I’d have differing words that essentially mean, “absolute tripe“. That’s what this one was. Kane won with the chokselam, following a couple of chair shots. The crowd were lively for it. Kane almost fell off the top rope attempting a clothesline, as usual.

The fans popped hugely for Punk, which was nice to hear. At first though, they didn’t seem actually so interested in this ECW match (says it all really). But these three busted their asses in a great effort, putting together an athletic, exciting, and at times, fresh battle. It was almost formula, in the sense that it generally only featured two guys in the ring at any point, and the usual assortment of spots. However this was well paced, with great timing, and as it developed, increasingly had the fans more and more behind the action. It was a classic example of a match that had enough time to develop and drew the fans in purely through in-ring prowess.

This was the match of the night undoubtedly, and better than their previous three-way PPV effort. Punk picked up the win with the Go to Sleep on Miz. The last few minutes of this were great.

MVP & Edge vs. Undertaker & Batista

On the way to the ring, there seemed to be some sort of scuffle between MVP and some fan who stole his hat. MVP came out first, to something of a “star” heel response. Edge got a bigger pop though, but was soon heckled. The reactions to Batista and Undertaker were of course insane. Dave came out first (despite being the champion, argh!!!!!!! He was followed by ‘Undi” who took approximately eight days to make his way into the squared circle.

This was a basic enough bout, that featured a lot of stalling, and an abundance of cowardly heel antics. For the longest portion of this, neither of the heels would actually go in an lock horns with Taker. And when he was in, after getting the illegal advantage, they double-teamed and cheated their way through an extended heel period. The Belfast audience lapped this up though, and they weren’t disappointed, as it built to the feel good face win, with Big Batista getting the pinfall victory over MVP following a Batista Bomb. Pretty enjoyable, but not something that would maybe be acceptable as a main event if you had seen Smackdown live a few times. Taker actually sold a leg injury (very well too) for much of the encounter, further slowing the pace.

Overall, this was an enjoyable show. I hadn’t seen Punk, Undertaker or Edge in person before this, so that was a real bonus. However I think if you’re in the business of attending Smackdown live events at any regular times, then this perhaps would have felt like a bit of a chore, as a couple of bouts on the first half were a waste of time. That said, the card was well spaced out, with a good sense of flow, that peaked in all the right places. It felt like more of a coherent overall effort than some of their shows that I’ve attended. Additionally, their were just enough top stars from the two brands, that even omissions such as Rey Mysterio shouldn’t have left anyone too disappointed. The Best match of the night (by far), The ECW title match was eye-catching and at times, thrilling, with Punk looking specially good. Also, the Main event was enjoyable, if slow and lacking in much serious, competitive action, perhaps as a result of Edge being barely in the ring throughout. Otherwise, the best encounter was Noble/Palumbo, a fact I can’t believe I just typed. Elsewhere, there wasn’t much to see, other than the novelty of a hometown hero in Finlay, taking on the hilarity, and calamity of Khali.

On a par with the Raw crew’s last visit here. Or at least, very close to it.

-The Undertaker

-Finlay

-Batista

-CM Punk

-Edge/Khali

If you have any questions, or comments about the “Cynical View” column, feel free to email me at bazilalfonso@hotmail.com.  Thanks for reading!