"Ribs??"

As noted in last night’s Tweetfest from the WWE Smackdown tapings at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, after Smackdown finished taping, Mark Henry entered the ring to his theme music, appearing to replace at least one half of the advertised dark match main event, Randy Orton vs. Christian. Orton, though, took a belt shot from Christian moments before, so it would have looked bogus to the live crowd for him to wrestle. And Christian had already beaten Henry earlier in the night.

As Tweeted here, Henry’s music played for a good three minutes, and then Henry was left in the ring to jaw-jack with the remaining ringside fans. (About half of the 5,000 or so in attendance left after Orton vs. Sheamus.) Henry tried to use three different microphones, but each one cut out on him. (Har har.) Still, no music and no opponent. Ten minutes of this horse shit went on before Carly and I could stand no more and took off. While leaving, we saw referee Scott Armstrong flexing a double bicep pose for the handheld camera. OK, kill more time.

But, according to Prowrestling.net, who called the whole thing a rib on Henry, here’s what happened after we left the arena:

After 15 minutes had passed since Smackdown had gone “off-air,” Tony Chimel made an announcement stating that while fans waited for Mark Henry’s opponent, WWE wanted to thank the fans for attending.

Finally, Mark Henry’s music started back up, and fans thought they were finally moments away from a hopefully decent dark match. After a couple of minutes, Mark Henry’s music stopped, and Hornswoggle’s hit. However, we got no Hornswoggle. A couple of minutes later, Hornswoggle’s music stopped, and Great Khali’s old music hit, yet again, no Khali.

Finally, Khali’s music stopped, and Mr. McMahon’s music hit. Again, no show from the Chairman. Finally, Mark Henry had gotten tired of waiting for an opponent, and walked backstage, ending a nearly 20 minute wait for a dark match opponent. Needless to say, the fans were not happy with the outcome of WWE’s promise of a dark match.

So Des Moines nearly sells the building out for Monday Night Raw in 2010, we still buy 5,000 tickets (well, who knows how much of that was papered) to your shittily promoted Smackdown tapings, and this is how you thank us? Awesome. Bring us Raw or go somewhere else with your janky B-show. -Eric