Carlito Misses Last Night's SD Taping, DH Smith's Prospects On SmackDown, Haas

sources: www.f4wonline.com, Wrestling Observer Newsletter

— Carlito missed last night’s Smackdown/ECW taping because he had to fly out to Santiago, Chile for the Raw brand’s tour of South America, which started earlier today. Prior to his switch from Smackdown, he did publicity in the market promoting today’s show. Also, there was a lot of negative local publicity in Lima, Peru with the promoters being upset that they built all of their promotion around Triple H coming to the country as the big star, and then being told that he wasn’t coming due to the draft move. The feeling is that WWE should have told the promoters in advance and given them the courtesy of building up others as the big attractions of the tour. WWE pacified the promoters by sending SmackDown stars Carlito, Triple H and Jeff Hardy on the tour. Both Triple H and Jeff Hardy are currently en route for tomorrow night’s show in Peru, and will head back home afterward.

— SmackDown head writer Michael Hayes is said to be high on DH Smith, who was moved over to SmackDown in last week’s Supplemental Draft. Hayes has reportedly been high on him since his start in the company just over two years ago. The belief is that Smith will at least get an opportunity to shine on his own merits on SmackDown, a sharp contrast to his treatment on Raw. After his return from suspension late last year, Smith worked a grand total of three television matches on the flagship show and was mercilessly pummeled in every single one of them. Smith was massacred by Umaga in a total squash match that lasted two minutes on the 2/25 Raw. On the 3/17 Raw, Smith appeared in the Cena & Orton vs. “The Entire Raw Roster” match. Cena defeated Smith in about 30 seconds with three of his trademark moves, and wasn’t able to get a lick of offense on him to boot. And of course, there was his match with JBL on the 5/5 Raw in which he was pummeled by JBL. Smith was carried off on a stretcher following the match. It also marked Smith’s final appearance on the Raw brand, and he hasn’t been seen in a WWE ring since. He’s been working developmental shows in the meantime.

— Monday night on Raw in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Charlie Haas was announced as being from Dallas, Texas instead of his usual Edmond, Oklahoma because they wanted him to work as a heel for his dark match with the returning D-Lo Brown. Later in the show, Haas did the “Kiss Cam” segment during a commercial break, and acknowledged being from Oklahoma.

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