by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

In the past, WWE has sometimes resorted to "safe arenas" in the northeast in search of larger, more responsive crowds.  But in this case, it seems like Bridgeport and Hartford's cards were pulled pretty much in the flow of a normal touring schedule.  Afterall, the crew had to be placed SOMEwhere along the east coast to facilitate the RAW roster's trip to India this week... and it's not like their doing every other TV taping in Lowell, MA.  

For those of you who don't want the rest of the week's TV results spoiled, hit BACK now.  Otherwise, here's what happened at TV tapings, as compiled from e-mail reports:

WWE Sunday Night Heat
(Taped Monday, Airs Sunday)

• Molly Holly beat Jacqueline
• The Hurricane beat Justin Credible
• Johnny Stamboli beat D'Lo Brown (?!?)
• Raven beat an unidentified local worker, and then assaulted a camera man after the match.

WWE Velocity
(Taped Tuesday, Airs Saturday)

• Chuck Palumbo beat an unidentified local worker
• A returning Bill "Hugh Morrus" DeMott worked as a heel and beat Danny Doring (late of ECW, and presently affiliated with XPW)
• Albert beat Crash Holly (Holly had some fun with "Shave Your Back" chants directed at Albert)
• For some reason, Tazz came out and killed a good 10-15 minutes in the ring with Funaki (Spinaroonie contests, push-up contests with referees, crap like that)... then finally Matt Hardy came out and beat Funaki in the Velocity main event.

WWE SmackDown!
(Taped Tuesday, Airs Thursday)

• The show opened with Rey Mysterio pinning Jamie Noble in a very good match.  Noble could not believe his bad luck (losing three times in a row to Kidman, including losing his Cruiserweight Title, and now a loss to Mysterio), and after the match, he told Nidia he was going to bring his cousin to WWE to help him get things back on track. [Could it be another really good SD! tag team is about to be born?]
• Backstage: Brock Lesnar arrived at the building, and when confronted by Matt Hardy (who told him he'd still be the champ if only he had more Mattitude), he tossed Matt into a wall.
• Chris Benoit beat Chavo Guerrero.  Eddie G. was evicted from ringside early in the match, which made it relatively easy for Benoit to get the win via submission to the Crossface.
• Backstage:  an upset Stephanie McMahon told Brock Lesnar that he was not to cause any more trouble or attack anyone else tonight, otherwise he'd be suspended.
• Billy Kidman's first cruiserweight title defense was a successful one against Tajiri.  Typical good-but-short TV match, with Kidman getting a pinfall win after a Shooting Star Press.
• Paul Heyman hit the ring and cut a big promo.  He mocks Lesnar for a bit, then brings out the Big Show.  After a big of building up Show, Heyman also announces that as Lesnar's agent, he did all the contract work for Survivor Series, and that he fixed it so that Lesnar does NOT get a rematch against Big Show. At this point, Lesnar came out, brandishing a steel chair.  Show and Heyman hightailed it out of the ring.
• Backstage: Steph told Lesnar she wouldn't suspend him for running at Heyman and Lesnar with a chair, but warned him to tread very lightly for the rest of the show.
• Kurt Angle beat Eddie Guerrero.  Like his uncle before him, Chavo was also ordered away from ringside early on.  But he returned eventually, managing to sneak a few shots in on Angle.  Benoit appeared on the stage, and seemed to mull  over going to the ring to even the odds, but decided to just stay there and watch.  Angle still beat the odds, pinning Eddie after an Olympic Slam.  Benoit applauded, perhaps sarcastically.  Four matches, so far, all good or better! 
• A Scott Steiner promo airs, promising that next week, he'll be the Special Guest of SmackDown!, just like he was of RAW this week.
• Rikishi beat John Cena in a yawner.  After the match, Rikishi prepared to deliver a stinkface, but Bull Buchanan ran out and saved Cena.  [Well, SD! couldn't keep batting 1.000 in terms of killer tag teams, I guess...]
• Backstage: Edge is interviewed about his title shot against Big Show, and Paul Heyman gets in Stephanie's face about dumping Lesnar if he dares interfere in Show's match tonight.
• Big Show beat Edge via disqualification, following interference from Brock Lesnar.  The usual brief affair with Show ended with Heyman egging him on to deliver chokeslam after chokeslam to Edge (without pinning him).  Finally, after three or four of them, Lesnar ran out and attacked.  He delivered another F-5 on Show, leaving him laying.  But Heyman sprinted away from the ring and into a limo before Lesnar could get his hands on him.

From the sounds of reports, this was a very well-received show.  The first four matches were all really good, and the Show/Edge main event did a good job of furthering the Lesnar/Heyman story (and featured the always-impressive sight of Lesnar F-5'ing the Big Show).  Pretty much a solid top-to-bottom show.

Check it out on Thursday night, or come on back to OO for The Cubs Fan's full recap afterwards!

E-MAIL RICK SCAIA
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Rick Scaia is a wrestling fan from Dayton, OH.  He's been doing this since 1995, but enjoyed it best when the suckers from SportsLine were actually PAYING him to be a fan.

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