The John Report: WWE No Way Out '06 Recap
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Before I get to the recap, I thought I'd use this space to let you know that I plan on reviewing every WWE PPV this year. Obviously I missed New Year’s Revolution, The Royal Rumble and No Way Out live. The NWO recap is here and the other two will be recapped soon. I’m starting with No Way Out because it’s the most recent WWE PPV and it’s fresh in my mind. The difference between this one and future ones is I know the results of this show, so there’s less of that live feel to it. Still, I did the play by play recapping style as well as the post match analysis that hopefully will make it an enjoyable read. To answer the questions that I know are coming, I can tell you that I will be recapping WrestleMania 22 live as well as every other WWE PPV this year. That’s the goal. The main reason I stopped last year was simply because I couldn’t afford to get every PPV, but now that I’ve bounced back on my feet in that regard I’ll be able to do recapping again. Enough blabbering. On with the show. ---------------------------------------------------  WWE No Way Out 02/19/06 in Baltimore, Maryland It started with the usual great video package mostly focused on the world title. At ringside, the announcers set up the show and we met the Spanish table dudes. The hilarious thing was when talking about famous matches in Baltimore, Michael Cole actually brought up Vince vs. Stephanie McMahon. Cruiserweight Open Match starts with Helms ducking out of the ring while the other eight guys start pairing off. Helms is out for a full minute as London & Kendrick hit a double dropkick to take Scotty out the floor. London and Kendrick then get tossed over the ropes by the Mexicools, who then jump on them on the floor. Kash misses a moonsault on Funaki in ring, so Funaki counters with a bulldog for two, which is broken up by Helms. Scotty, Funaki, Crazy, Nunzio and Psicosis go five on one on Helms. London with a hurricanrana on Psicosis, Crazy with a missile dropkick on London. Kendrick misses a dropkick, Mexicools double team Kendrick. Funaki gets two on Nunzio elsewhere. Funaki dropkicks Psicosis out of the ring. Scotty with a big back suplex on Kash. Helms with a death valley driver move into a knee smash. Now Helms and Kash square off as Scotty sneaks in for a two count on Kash. Helms get tossed out by Kash, Scotty sends him head first into the turnbuckle. Scotty does a flip off the apron onto Helms on the floor that we never really see. In ring, Psicosis misses a charge on Kash out on the floor, so Kash hops over the top and plants him with a hurricanrana. Nunzio, meanwhile, gets a Sicilian Slice for two. London launches Kendrick into Nunzio and Funaki. Then London and Kendrick each nail splashes off the top onto the floor on three guys. In ring, back elbow by Helms on Crazy, Shining Wizard misses and Crazy gets a spinning heel kick to the face for two as Kendrick breaks it up. Kendrick hits Sliced Bread #2 on Helms for two. London comes off the top with a double stomp on Helms chest for two as Scotty breaks that up. Whip into the ropes, Scotty hits a superkick on London sending him out. Scotty hits the bulldog on Helms, then sets up for the WORM while everybody else fights on the floor. He hits the chop, but Psicosis pulls him out. Kash comes in to fight with Psicosis, Kash gets a kick to the head and then hits the Dead Level brainbuster. Crazy hits a moonsault on Kash as he covers Psicosis and Helms sneaks back in the ring to pin Psicosis for the three count after just about 10 minutes. Analysis: **1/4 Good action, but it was hard to follow at times since it wasn’t a traditional match. The story was good, though, because it got Helms over as a chickenshit heel and I’ll all for adding character to the cruisers. That’s what they need. Backstage, Booker and Sharmell are complaining to Teddy Long about having to wrestle Benoit because of his groin injury. They literally get down on their knees to beg to him to get out of the match. He says he either wrestlers or he loses the belt. More backstage as Kristal Marshall is talking. Finlay interrupts, saying he wants a fight, so he picks up Kristal and carries her to the ring. Apparently picking up a woman and carrying her to the ring is reason to play his theme music too. Bobby Lashley’s music started to play and he charged down to fight Finlay. Finaly gets a knee to the groin and some stomps on the head. As Finlay beats him down, JBL’s limo arrives and he hurries to the ring to take advantage. Lashley tosses Finlay with a suplex and the match now begins. JBL w/Jillian Hall vs. Bobby Lashley Analysis: *3/4 Just okay. It was too slow at times, but Lashley’s comeback was really nice and got the crowd going, so that’s encouraging to see. Not sure if this was the best way or best time to end Lashley’s winning streak. It’s over now though. The announcers tried to put over his work saying he almost beat a former WWE champion. They announce a surprise appearance as Batista gets introduced to a huge ovation. He’s here for three reasons, he says. First reason is because he wants to see Angle vs. Undertaker for the title. Second reason is because he misses it, he misses the crowd. He says it’s hard watching Smackdown on the couch every week. Crowd chants his name. Third reason is his torn tricep isn’t torn anymore. He’s in rehab every day and sooner rather than later he’ll be back. It doesn’t matter who the champ is because he will be back and he will reclaim his world heavyweight title. After the speech, he hugs some people around ringside as well as Tazz, Cole and the Spanish announce table. Pretty cool moment if you were there live I think. Good to see Batista again. Backstage, they show Angle in his locker room watching the TV. Orton walks into the room talking to Angle. Orton says he’ll be the world champion when Batista gets back. Angle says he’s focused on the Undertaker. They show JBL backstage talking to WWE.com. Non Title: MNM w/Melina vs. Matt Hardy & Tatanka Back in the ring again, they double team Tatanka. Mercury hits a knee drop for two. Melina does her scream that I love. Nitro hits a running knee in the corner. “Cole, you’ve never heard a girl scream like that unless you asked them on a date.” I love Tazz sometimes. Tatanka’s comeback attempt fails as he gets beat down and they make a tag again leading to a double elbow. Really loud Melina yell again. I’m with Tazz on this, I like it too. Tatanka tries another comeback, but Mercury hits a reverse neckbreaker on him. To the top, Tatanka catches him on the leap and hits an atomic drop. Nitro off the top with nothing, Tatanka chops him down and he gets the hot tag to Hardy. Matt hits some clotheslines and a tilt a whirl sideslam on Mercury, then a bulldog/clothesline combo on both guys. Slam on Mercury, then the middle rope elbow. Sloppy Side Effect to Nitro. Twist of Fate to Mercury is shoved off as Nitro hits a superkick on Hardy. Double whip in, Hardy gets a double clothesline again. Tag to Tatanka who comes off the top with chops to each guy. Tatanka with a Samoan Drop on Mercury, Hardy with a Twist of Fate on Nitro and Tatanka scores the pin after 10 minutes. Analysis: *1/4 It was alright. I wasn’t a fan of Tatanka being on the receiving end of punishment for much of the match because his comebacks were pretty weak. The fact that it was non-title pretty much confirmed the finish too. It wasn’t a bad match, but it was nothing special either. WrestleMania 22 is Big Time apparently. United States Title: Booker T. (c) vs. Chris Benoit Before the match starts, Booker cuts a promo in ring saying he’s made up his mind. He says there will not be a US championship match tonight. He asks Teddy Long to come out there. He says he can beat Benoit when he was healthy, but tonight he’s not healthy. And here comes Long. Booker says he’s going to forfeit the US Title. Then he goes to walk out of the ring, steps through the ropes and is on the floor as Benoit grabs the microphone starting a “Coward! Coward!” chant that the crowd picks up on. Benoit says there is no way in hell he’s going to take the title by forfeit, so he wants Booker to get back in there and take it like a man. Sharmell blames Benoit for Booker’s injury and slaps Benoit three times as Booker comes in from behind with a forearm. Match is on. Booker pounds on him in the corner. Benoit fights back with the usual array of chops and punches. Benoit dumps him out to the floor, then follows him out there with some more nasty chops. Back in the ring, Booker gets in a few boots to the ribs. Benoit blocks a suplex, then hits a snap suplex of his own. Back suplex gets two for Benoit. More hard chops in the corner. Booker goes for a rolling cradle out of the corner, Benoit counters it and punches him in the face. Baseball slide by Benoit sends Booker out to the floor. He works on the back by ramming Booker back first into the apron and then the shoulder by whipping him hard into the steel steps. The camera closes in on Booker as he tells Charles Robinson his groin hurts, Benoit gives him some time and Booker tosses him knee first into the steps showing he was faking his groin injury at that moment. In ring, standing sidekick gets two for Booker. Wristlock by Booker, then a go behind takedown as Benoit tries to roll away. Benoit trips him up with his leg as Booker sinks in a full nelson. Or is it a Bookerlock? Now a hammerlock by Booker is countered with elbows by Benoit and then a release German Suplex. Crowd is pretty quiet for this match, but they pick up with Benoit’s crossface attempt that Booker rolls out of and hits a nice spin kick to the mush of Benoit that gets two. Booker whips him in the ropes and catches him with a sleeper hold as the crowd starts up a “Let’s Go Benoit” chant. Long sleeper hold, the arm drops twice and Benoit keeps it from going down a third time. Shocking, no? Back Suplex by Benoit. Back up with both guys staggering, Booker hits a stun gun. Love that move. Suplex by Booker and then another gets him a two count. With both guys standing up again, they have a chop contest that Benoit wins. Whip in, charge and Booker counters with a boot to the face. Kick to the gut, Scissors Kick misses, more chops by Benoit, then the running back elbows followed by the rolling vertical suplexes (Three Amigos) as the crowd cheers loudly for the two count. Booker counters a whip, then hits a jumping spin kick to the jaw. Booker to the top, Benoit headbutts him to weaken him and hits a superplex that gets a good nearfall. Benoit charges in, Booker catches him and hits a hard spinebuster. Booker up top, Harlem Hangover! Benoit moved. Been a long time since Booker has done that move, that’s for sure. They just called it a front flip. Way to know your history, boys. Benoit hits the three rolling German suplexes. To the top for the headbutt, Sharmell is on the apron and Booker crotches Benoit. Scissors kick by Booker, he’s a little slow to cover and Benoit kicks out at two to a huge pop. Great nearfall because that’s Booker’s main finisher these days and the fans didn’t expect a kickout there. Into the ropes, Booker does his rollup out of the corner move, Benoit rolls through that and goes for the Sharpshooter. Sharmell’s on the apron, Booker shrugs Benoit off and he goes into the ropes knocking Sharmell down by accident. It looked a bit too choreographed, but it was effective anyway. Kick by Booker misses, Sharpshooter by Benoit in the middle of the ring. Booker’s about to tap, Benoit drops down and slaps on the Crossface as Booker taps out rather quickly to that after 18 minutes. Huge pop by the fans for Benoit win. Cole and Tazz put it over as pretty big too. Analysis: ***1/4 I love when these two wrestle. They have such great chemistry together that they always are going to pull off a three star match if they get over 15 minutes of ring time. It is my hope that one day they get a lengthy match with a gimmick attached to it because that’s what they need to have a match at an even higher level. As for this one, I really enjoyed it, especially the finish with Benoit dropping from the Sharpshooter into the Crossface. Also, props to Booker for having such a good match after being out for a couple months. Backstage, Rey Mysterio gives a hug to Chris Benoit. Teddy Long congratulates him as well. Then other Smackdown babyfaces are there to congratulate him as well, even Pat Patterson. Then there’s Chavo Guerrero and Vickie Guerrero, Eddie’s widow, are there to hug him. Benoit tells Rey that he’ll see him later after Rey beats Randy Orton. He says he’s doing it for everybody there, as well as Eddie Guerrero. #1 Contenders Match: Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio Lots of “Eddie” chants as the bell rings. They start slow with Orton getting the physical advantage on Rey in the early going. Rey takes him down with a side headlock takedown, into the ropes and he hits one of his crazy face first bulldogs for two. Rey pounds on him in the corner as the crowd chants “619” for him. Springboard crossbody by Rey misses due to Randy moving out of the way. Knee to the face by Orton in the corner, then a boot and some forearms to Mysterio’s back. Hard cross corner whip sends Mysterio down hard getting a two count for Orton. Another “Eddie” chant as Orton mocks one of his Eddie’s signature dances for some heat. Tilt a whirl headscissors by Rey sends Orton out to the floor. Rey charges on the apron, he leaps, Orton catches him and slams him side first into the ringpost. Ouch. Orton tosses him back in the ring, then works on the arm with a standing armbar. Rey fights out, kick to the face, Orton blocks a comeback, puts him on his shoulder and drops down with a neckbreaker. Cool move. Obviously he can’t do that against just any opponent and Rey sold it great. Mysterio tries to fight out with kicks, Orton hits the arm, but Rey finally hits a hurricanrana off the ropes as he continues to sell the arm injury. Orton stomps on Rey’s shoulder as Michael Cole goes over the top with his criticisms of Orton. Meanwhile, Orton uses the steps to injure Rey’s left hand and arm. Back in, he gets a two count. Orton uses the bottom rope to stretch Rey’s arm underneath it. Orton goes for that neckbreaker again while Rey fights out of it with an arm drag. Flying forearm by Mysterio and then a drop toe hold to slow Orton down. Mysterio to the top, Orton puts him on his shoulders, steps on the middle ropes with him in an electric chair position and Mysterio counters it into a sunset flip powerbomb for two. Great move. Whip in, Rey gets a dropkick to the knees, then the springboard seated senton off the top followed by a rolling necksnap for two. Crowd is getting into it now. Mysterio with a kick to the knee, springboard moonsault attempt is caught by Orton and Rey reverses into something that I’d call a reverse bulldog. Randy slows it down with a thumb to the eye, Rey comes back with kicks. He goes up top for a crossbody, but Orton hits a beautiful dropkick. Orton goes for an RKO, Rey counters with a dropkick of his own. 619 by Rey, Orton ducks out, schoolboy, ref counts, one…rope is grabbed…two…three. Orton wins in about 18 minutes. Post match, Orton grabs the microphone to say he’s going to the main event of WrestleMania. Then he asks Rey where he’s going. Analysis: *** Much like some of the other matches on this show, the outcome was predictable. Still a good match, though. I think they were saving a lot of the more intense stuff for a future match because they worked a pace that was slower than I would have expected. Plus, finishers didn’t even connect. I wasn’t a huge fan of Rey selling the left arm, but he did a pretty good job doing it. Good match. I just thought it would be better. And I know that next time when they wrestle it will be better. With Randy gone, they show Rey in ring struggling with his emotions as everybody is quiet. Of course, we all learned on Smackdown the next week that he was in the main event anyway. The best thing would have been to not have Rey put the stip up for grabs and just say if Orton won he’d be added to the main event because everybody knew what the outcome was going to be. Rey makes his way to the back while the announcers talk about the missed opportunity by Mysterio. They show Rey backstage as he meets up with Chavo and Vickie. He says sorry. Chavo tells Rey to pick his chin up, gives him a hug and tells him he didn’t let anybody down. He hugs Vickie, she tells him it’s okay. Then he walks down the locker room to see the other Smackdown babyfaces who don’t really know what to say to him. I actually like when they show stuff like that. It’s effective. Lots of video packages to hype the main event. They show Angle winning the title in the battle royal and follow it up with video packages on both men. Very well done. The announcers did an awesome job of making this seem big time by calling it arguably the greatest match in Smackdown history. World Title: Kurt Angle (c) vs. The Undertaker He stomps on Undertaker on the mat, Undertaker tries to grab him so Kurt punches him in the face a bunch of times. Angle works on the knee some more using the ropes for help. Undertaker manages to shove him out of the ring through the ropes. Taker gets some high knees to Angle’s mouth, then after hanging Angle on the apron again he boots him in the face. He goes for another legdrop on the apron, but Angle blocked it. He caught Undertaker’s right leg and turned it into the Ankle Lock on the floor. The ref is counting them out. Angle breaks it, then goes out again and puts it on the bad left knee now. The ref is at eight, Angle breaks it again and rolls Undertaker back in. Loving the strategy of this. Loving it! Angle works on the knee some more with stomps and kneebars. Undertaker uses his right leg to break the hold, but Angle is relentless with a double leg takedown leading to some fists to the head. Angle gets off him a bit, so Undertaker hooks the head and arms of Angle into the Triangle Choke. Angle breaks it by getting to the ropes, then he rolls out to the ropes. Taker follows him out to the floor, then chucks him into the ring announcer Tony Chimmel. He punches him in the face, then throws a kick to the mouth. He takes off the stuff on the English announce table, then rolls back in, scares the ref and comes back out only to be caught by Angle into an Angle Slam into the Spanish Announce Table causing that to break. What a great counter. Did I mention I am loving this match? I am. A lot. When Angle finally gets back into the ring like a minute later the ref counts again. He gets up to nine and Angle tells the ref he doesn’t want a countout win. He wants to beat him 1, 2, 3 in the ring. He throws in a couple swear words while doing it too. That’s just more reason to love Angle. Angle goes to toss him into the steps, Undertaker counters and Angle crashes shoulder first into them while also hitting his throat on a piece of wood from the table. With Angle back in the ring, Undertaker went to the top. At least Michael Cole pointed out Undertaker never does that. Kurt catches him up there, but his superplex attempt is blocked by Undertaker who shoves him off. Undertaker balances himself, then Angle hits the pop-up superplex for a very good nearfall. They stagger up to their feet punching eachother, but Taker wins that thanks to a right boot to the jaw. Undertaker sets him up for a chokeslam again, Angle counters with a roll through and puts the ankle lock on the bad left leg of the Undertaker. Throughout the match the announcers mentioned that neither guy has ever tapped out in their career. Undertaker counters the ankle lock by rolling out and putting the Triangle Choke on again. Angle rolls through that into another ankle lock. Man, this is awesome. Just freakin’ awesome. Undertaker gets out of that, hits a chokeslam and is a bit slow to cover due to the leg. One…two…no! Awesome nearfall. Tazz was yelling “new champ” the whole time and some of the crowd booed when Kurt kicked out. Kick to the gut, Last Ride powerbomb, Angle rolls through THAT and puts the ankle lock on the left leg again. Wow. Undertaker gets close to the ropes, so Angle pulls him back out. Undertaker uses his right leg to power out of that. Clothesline attempt countered into the Angle Slam for the one…two…th…NO! Another tremendous nearfall as each guy is kicking out of finishers. Angle pulls the straps down, Undertaker sits up. Crowd is going nuts. Hell, I’m going nuts just watching it and I already know what happens! They trade punches, Undertaker wins that and sets him up for a Tombstone piledriver. Angle counters that for one of his own maybe, but Undertaker wins that battle and Angle using his hands crawled down Undertaker’s leg to slap on the ankle lock on the left ankle again. Holy shit, what a tremendous exchange that was. I’ve never seen a counter to the Tombstone like that before. I know I sound like a lame announcer, but that was amazing. Angle drops down on the ankle lock this time. Not many have gotten out of this position. Undertaker is close to tapping, crowd is going batshit, Undertaker turns to his back and uses his right foot to boot Angle in the face enough times to break the hold. Angle pops up again with an Angle Slam, goes for another ankle lock, but Undertaker counters into the Triangle Choke. Angle’s left arm is close to tapping as Kurt’s head is turning red, the arm gets lifted twice, but Kurt rolls forward into a bridge for a pinfall for the one…two…three after 30 minutes of fantastic professional wrestling. Post match, there’s a lot of confusion as the referee tells Tony Chimmel that Kurt Angle wins by pinfall. Undertaker is shocked. He goes to Angle, picks him up and puts him in the corner. He leans in to say he’s not done with him yet and that he’s got his number. This of course led to a rematch on Smackdown a couple of weeks later. Analysis: ****1/4 Wow. That was money. Just a fantastic match that elevated the World Title to a really high level. I loved how each guy worked on a body part although I would have liked to see Undertaker work on Angle’s arm more in the second half of the match. That’s just a very minor gripe, though. Angle’s work on the leg was perfect because it makes sense considering that’s going to make his finishing move easier to apply and also because he’s the smaller man. The best way to describe the match was that it was a smart match. It’s about as “real” as a WWE match is going to be. These are two guys that obviously are big on keeping it real with Angle having the amateur background while Undertaker is a huge fan of MMA as I’m sure you’re all well aware. This was one of those matches where all you can do is tip your hat to both guys for a job well done. I knew Angle had it in him because great matches is what he does. I wasn’t sure about Undertaker, but he proved it here. Given the opportunity with the right opponent he can still go. It's early in the year, but we've got our first Match of the Year contender right there. Three Stars of the Night 1b. Undertaker – Over the years most of my “hate mail” has come from Undertaker fans. This is the time for me to say to them that on this night I loved this man. It’s not like that every night and at WrestleMania it’ll likely be different due to his opponent. However, this was quite frankly one of his best matches ever and I’ll be the first in line to give him love for that. 1a. Kurt Angle – What else can you say? He’s already one of the best. With this performance, he just added another match to his legacy. Final Thoughts With the Orton/Mysterio match, as I said earlier, I got the sense that they were saving themselves for future matches, probably when one of them is holding the World Title. It was a good preview of what’s in store for later in the year though. The Benoit/Booker match was fine. I also said here that it’d be nice if they got to have a gimmick match just once because then they’d be able to do something above their usual three star regular match. The rest of the show was your usual undercard fare. Nothing too memorable, but nothing horrible either. Still, with two matches three stars or higher and a four star main event this is a show that is definitely above average. Let’s hope that all of the brand exclusive PPVs this year will be more like this. The bar has been set. Let’s see if it can be matched. 7.5 out of 10. --------------------- I’ll be back in the PPV capacity next weekend for a little thing called WrestleMania 22. I’m also going to try to get back to writing about wrestling regularly again. We’ll see how that goes. Before I go, though, I’d like to plug a new venture of mine along with my brethren at the Oratory. It’s something we call The Sports Oratory where we cover the world of sports the way we cover the world of pro wrestling. It just started a week ago so make sure you bookmark it and check back daily for content. Have a good week. See you for WrestleMania. There “may” be a preview this week. There will definitely be a For Love or Money column and maybe more. I'll see what I can do. Smell ya later, Links to check out: |
