Dark Matches

(1) Dupps beat the Haas brothers. Haas brothers looked OK, including hitting a neat La Magistral/diving headbutt to groin double team move. Crowd didn't chant boring, which should count for something in a dark match.

(2) Joey Abs beat Vincent Goodnight. Joey Abs was without the sweater vest for this show, which might indicate a possible gimmick change soon, or it might indicate that he didn't feel like working in a hot sweater vest. Draw your own conclusions.

Sunday Night Heat tapings

(1) DX (Road Dogg & X-Pac) beat Low Down (D-Lo Brown & Chaz) after X-Pac broke up a D-Lo pin attempt on Road Dogg and hit the X-Factor. OK match, crowd was into the DX interest but didn't seem to care about them once the bell rang. Road Dogg appeared to be hurt after the match was over and did not accompany X-Pac to the ring for his match later in the show.

(2) Dean Malenko beat Just Joe (the guy they've been building on TV as being something of a backstage snitch). Since they tape the Heat vignettes after the fact, I'm assuming this will be built with some sort of backstage confrontation. Technically, a good match, but the crowd chanted "Boring!" and didn't seem to appreciate it. Joe had a video during his entrance that showed him snitching on various wrestlers.

(3) The Hardy Boyz beat Right to Censor (Goodfather & Bull Buchanan). Jeff got the pin with a sweet Swanton Bomb. Hardyz did a decent job trying to get a good match out of two guys that are almost impossible to get a good match out of. Kaientai (Taka Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki) come out and do a promo in alleged broken English saying that nobody will hurt them because they have hired the Acolytes Protection Agency to help them. APA (Bradshaw & Faarooq) then come out and inform Kaientai that their checks have bounced and that they have a bet going about which member of Kaientai they can make bounce higher than their checks. They then proceed to kill Kaientai with all of their stiff offense (spinebuster, clothesline, powerbomb...typical APA stuff).

Big Bossman comes out and cuts a promo about why he's targeting Crash, saying he hates little people or something. Crash comes out to attack Bossman, but Bossman ends up coming out the better of the situation.

Smackdown tapings

Lillian Garcia then comes out and sings the national anthem, and we start Smackdown.

Typical long promo sets up the show. Mick Foley comes out and reiterates that he said that the person who gets their hand raised in the three way from Raw gets to be the #1 contender. Kurt Angle (w/ Shane McMahon) comes out and states his case for #1 contendership. Then, Triple H (w/ Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) comes out and states his case for #1 contendership.

Foley then announces at SummerSlam, the main event will be a three way involving Rock, Kurt Angle, and Triple H. He then asks Stephanie how her back is. When she goes to respond, he says "It doesn't matter how your back is!" to a huge pop. He then tells Triple H and Angle that they better start getting along, since the main event for the show would be a Triple H/Angle tag team match against Undertaker and The Rock.

Before going to commercial, Val Venis and Trish Stratus are seen arriving, with Chyna making a crack that Trish needs to get the wrinkles out of her face using a power sander, and then Eddy jumps Val, prompting a pull apart.

Edge then promotes his upcoming appearance in the next Highlander movie. Members of the cast were in attendance. He mentions that they heard his side of the Wrestlemania title win in the ladders and tables match with the Hardys and the Dudleys, but they haven't heard Christian's side, which prompts Christian to start telling the tale.

(1) Val Venis (w/Trish Stratus) & Chris Benoit (w/Shane McMahon) beat Eddy Guerrero (w/ Chyna) & Chris Jericho (w/ new hockey jersey - might have been a Jericho jersey?) in a pretty good little match. Eddy had the win with the Frog Splash, but the ref won't count the pin since Val isn't the legal man, and then Benoit hits the diving headbutt for the clean pin. Afterwards, Eddy and Chyna double on Val with Albert (no Test) coming out for the unsuccessful save, and Jericho put the Walls on Benoit first, then Shane, but Benoit gets up and puts Jericho in the Crossface and lays him out.

(2) Rikishi beat X-Pac clean with the Banzai Drop. Not much to this one. Edge & Christian continue to bore the Highlander cast with stories of WM, while all they want to do is meet the Rock, so they kind of ditch Edge & Christian. This is followed by a Highlander commercial. Edge was featured prominently in the commercial.

(3) Perry Saturn & Terri beat Al Snow & Kat when Saturn pinned Al with a Northern Lights suplex. Really boring match.

(4) Dudleys (Bubba Ray & D-Von) beat Edge & Christian by DQ when Edge ran in with a chair. Edge and Christian promote Highlander more with the five second Oscar pose, with Edge doing the pose. Afterwards, the Hardys ran in and carnage ensued. The Hardys grabbed two ladders, while the Dudleys grabbed a table, and the Hardys did a double legdrop off the ladders onto Christian, while Edge took a powerbomb through the table, courtesy of the Dudleys. Crowd went wild for all of this.

(5) Tazz vs. Crash never started. Tazz came out and jawed with Lawler, and hit him with an object. Lawler juiced from the blow. Crash then came out, but before they could have a match, Lawler and Tazz got into a pull apart brawl. Crowd was crazy for Lawler. Lawler missed the next match getting treated in the back.

(6) Right to Censor (Goodfather & Bull Buchanan) beat Too Cool when Bull hit the ax kick on Sexay. In the back, Joe told Kurt Angle to beware, that the boys in the back said that Angle need not worry himself with Rock or Undertaker, but with Triple H.

(7) Steve Blackman beat Albert to retain the WWF Hardcore Title. No Test at this taping. Afterwards, Val ran in and he and Albert doubled on Blackman. Neither tried to win the Hardcore title afterwards, so I guess the 24/7 thing is out.

Joe then told Triple H in the back not to worry about Angle, but to worry about Shane, who he warned would screw him in the end to help Angle get the gold.

Then, Jericho ran into Mick Foley's office, where he was practicing shovel shots, saying he was "reminiscing of (his) turn in 1993." Jericho then demanded a match with Benoit that night. Foley promised him a match at SummerSlam. Jericho promised to try to keep from going crazy until then.

In the back, Shane and Stephanie said they were going to stay away from ringside during the main event to keep things from getting out of hand. Tension was teased between Triple H and Angle.

Rock then did his usual interview. He was hilarious, responding to one of Kevin Kelly's questions by asking if he had two sets of working genitalia. He then said that Kelly asked a ridiculous question on par with Rock asking a question of whether or not he had two sets of working genitalia, and then for the rest of the interview, Rock called him "Hermie," short for hermaphrodite.

(8) Undertaker & Rock beat Angle & Triple H. Stephanie came back out during the match, and when Rock went after her, Triple H made the save. Triple H walked out on Angle after Angle accidentally bumped into him. Taker hit the power bomb on Angle for the pin. Afterwards, Rock teased hitting Steph with the Rock Bottom, but Triple H ran in to save her, only to get chokeslammed by UT and then Rock followed with the People's Elbow.

Notes:Overall, a decent show which was effective in building towards the SummerSlam PPV at the end of the month.










With thanks once again to Rajah WWF for providing these results