Bancorp South Arena
Tupelo, MS
May 25, 2002
Its the debut episode of Velocity! With WWE Sunday Night heat being the B show for Raw, they launched Velocity to be the B show of Smackdown. Its pretty much the exact same format as WWF Metal, Shotgun & Jakked was with recaps centered around syndicated matches. Al Snow and Michael Cole are your commentary team for this inaugural episode. Tonight's main event is a.....bra & panties match.....yeah....for the Women's title between Trish Stratus & Stacy Keibler
Commentators: Al Snow & Michael Cole
Match 1
Jerry "The King" Lawler vs Albert
This was a dark match shown just to fill out the card for the show. This was never recorded but Lawler got the victory.
Winner: Jerry Lawler
Match 2
Shannon Moore vs Jamie Noble
This was another dark match to fill out the card and this was pretty much a tryout match for Shannon Moore. For those that don't know, Moore was a long time friend of The Hardy Boys and was 3 Count partners with The Hurricane in WCW. They were taking a look at him to see if he could go. Noble got the win but they must have liked what they saw from Shannon.
Winner: Noble
Match 3
Michael Shane vs Sonny Siaki
This was the third and final dark match and basically a try-out match for both guys. Michael Shane was Shawn Michaels' younger cousin and graduated from his wrestling school. Siaki was a WCW Power Plant graduate that left WCW because he didn't like how he was booked. Shane got the win
Winner: Shane
Now that that's over, let's get to the actual show.
Match 4
Tajiri vs Billy Kidman
We're shown highlights of Tajiri covering up Torrie Wilson's bikini from the previous Smackdown and wouldn't you know who won the pony, Wilson's real life husband Kidman is his opponent. Kidman and Tajiri circle before they trade go-behinds and takedowns. Tajiri locks in a chinlock but Kidman rolls into an arm-bar. Tajiri then locks in a rare crab lock before Kidman rolls out of it. Tajiri reverses an arm-bar into another takedown followed by a chin-lock. He tells the crowd "Shadduppppp" as Kidman hits a jawbreaker. Kidman hits a snap-suplex and Tajiri sells it hilariously. Kidman locks in an arm-bar as Cole stirs the pot of asking what Tajiri thinks of Torrie dating Maven. Tajiri drops a knee and taunts the crowd before running into an arm-drag. Kidman hits a frankensteiner to send Tajiri bailing to the outside and Billy goes upstairs. Tajiri spots him and walks away but Kidman runs and hits him with a baseball slide. Al at the commentary table says "careful guys" as Kidman heaves Tajiri inside. Cole says a victory would be huge for these guys to get a Cruiserweight title shot. Kidman hits a springboard legdrop for a two count and rams his head into the buckle. Kidman walks right into a buzzsaw kick before Tajiri sends him into the ring post to the outside. We come back from commercial with Tajiri standing on Kidman on the bottom rope. Tajiri hits another buzzsaw kick outside then taunts the crowd again. Tajiri stomps away on Kidman and locks in a nerve hold. Kidman wpins out of it but eats three straight buzzsaw kicks before Tajiri yells at referee Mike Sparks. Tajiri works over the arm on the top rope but Kidman hits a crossbody for 1...2..nope. Another buzzsaw kick and a dropkick drops Kidman and Tajiri covers for 1..2....nope. Tajiri taunts the crowd again as Cole calls him a moron. Al takes offense to calling him a moron as Tajiri counters a backslide with an armbar before chopping Billy in the corner. Kidman whips Tajiri into the corner but gets caught in the tarantula. Kidman powers out of it and shoves Tajiri onto the apron but is snapped off the tope rope. Billy rolls out of the way of a springboard moonsault and fires away with right hands. Kidman lands a clothesline and covers for two but Tajiri nails a big DDT. Tajiri covers for 1....2...nope. Tajiri goes for a frankensteiner but Kidman powerbombs and covers for 1...2..nope. Tajiri hits a buzzsaw kick out of nowhere and covers for 1..2....nooooo. Tajiri kicks the arm of Kidman but Billy counters the springboard back elbow with a dropkick to the back. Tajiri locks in the tarantula as Torrie Wilson walks down the ramp causing Cole to cream his pants. Kidman rolls up Tajiri for two but Torrie grabs his leg with the ref not noticing. Kidman hits the face buster and covers for 1...2....3 and that's it. Damn good match even if the babyface needed the distraction to win. Torrie nods her head at Kidman and leaves as Tajiri is mad.
Time of match: 11:16
Winner: Kidman by pinfall
When we come back from commercial we're shown the recent life and times of Kurt Angle. We're shown him getting his head shaved at Judgment Day by Edge and sporting a ridiculous wig on Smackdown. Maven comes out and tells Angle to just run with the baldness like he does. Kurt challenges him to take the wig off and Maven rushes him only for Edge to join in....until Christian stops him thus leading to the main event tag match between Edge & Maven against Christian and Angle. Maven pins Christian to win the match and Angle gets away with the wig intact....for now. Onto the next match.
Match 5
Hardcore Holly vs Val Venis
We follow up a damn good opener with a mid-card match right out of 1999 but at least there's some backstory. Stacy Keibler was flirting with Randy Orton so Vince McMahon, who was smitten with Stacy, had Orton punished by putting him with the rookie hating Holly. Holly and Lance Storm doubleteamed Orton and Venis made the save to set up this match. They lock up and Holly executes a waistlock takedown. Venis reverses and they exchange go-behinds. Holly eats a shoulderblock and a clothesline as Cole hypes up the Tough Enough 2 finale coming up. Holly boots and chops Val in the corner but Val springboards over Holly to deliver some chops of his own. Val hits a double underhook suplex but a cover only gets two. Val drops Hardcore with a back elbow smash and an elbow drop before punching away. Holly fires back with a belly to belly suplex and covers for a deuce. Holly sets up and hits the Holly Nad Kick then delivers a clothesline. Holly hits a vertical suplex and covers for 1...2...nope. Holly charges in the corner but eats elbow before clotheslining Val down anyway. Cole continues to babble on about Tough Enough as Val executes a powerslam. Val covers for a deuce and nails a shoulderblock. A graphic on the screen shows Tough Enough 3 is taking applicants as Val executes a backdrop. Val's fisherman suplex gets 1...2....nope. Holly walks into a Blue Thunder Driver but kicks out at two. Holly rolls up Val for two but eats a spinebuster. Val goes for The Money Shot but Holly rolls out of the way. Hardcore hits a dropkick right to the chin and covers for 1...2....3 that's it. Snow calls it the best dropkick in the business and its effective for sure.
Time of match: 4:24
Winner: Holly by pinfall
After the match we get another graphic for Trish vs Stacy and a hilarious commercial where Rob Van Dam shills 7-11 Cups with his likeness on it instead of The Rock's while wearing a singlet with jeans over it. We then get highlights of the main event scene where Hogan dropped the title to The Undertaker at Judgment Day. Then on Smackdown Hogan claims he's going to retire (HAHAHAHAHA!) and Vince McMahon says he can't do that because he owns him. Let that be a lesson to all bosses out there, if you don't want the old geyser working for your company to retire, you can simply deny him retirement. Anyway this causes Hogan to beat up Vince much to the crowd's delight until The Undertaker makes the save. Hogan rallies and sends Taker out of the ring then poses. Hogan reportedly behind the scenes wanted the belt again so let's see how this plays out on Smackdown moving forward. Back from commercial its time for the main event.
Match 6
Stacy Keibler vs Trish Stratus for the WWE Women's Championship in a Bra & Panties Match
To cover up Stacy's lack of wrestling ability, they had her in matches like these where the goal isn't to pin your opponent but to strip them. Stacy attacks Trish at the bell and stomps on her as Cole brings up how Vince stacked the deck against Trish by putting her in a match where her skills are negated. Stacy slams Trish on the title belt and rams her head into the buckle. Stacy chokes Trish with her boot and does a snapmare before trying to rip Trish's top off. Trish kicks her off, ducks under a clotheslines and unloads with forearms. Trish slaps Stacy and goes for Stratusfaction but Stacy counters by throwing her into the ropes. Stacy gets Trish's top off to expose a pink bra as the male fans cheer. Trish then rips Stacy's top off while Stacy is celebrating to expose a blue bra. Trish slugs away with forearms but walks into a spinning heel kick. Stacy goes to rip Trish's pants off but Trish victory rolls Stacy and rips her shorts off to win the match. Cole "Trish wins!" Snow "We all do! God bless Vince McMahon". Stacy goes to slap Trish after the bell but Trish ducks and hits the chick kick. Cole signs off happily with Stacy rolling around in her underwear. B & P matches were awful to begin with but they served their purpose....for the time period.
Time of match: 1:54
Winner: Trish (still WWE Women's champion)
Well that show started out great then fell off a cliff for the main event. Still, I'd chalk that up to a product of its time since matches like that were common. Still, Smackdown highlights and cold matches were what to expect and thankfully Smackdown was about to be the cream of the crop within a few months. As for this show, you got to know about the main plots of Smackdown with bald Kurt Angle and Hogan hot on The Undertaker's trail along with Holly as Vince's enforcer & Stacy as his current plaything. Tajiri vs Kidman was damn good, Val vs Holly was okay and the main event....yeah. Hopefully next week will have a better main event. As for now, its time to switch gears to the Raw side of thing because Sunday Night Heat is next. See you there.
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