Yo. I hope all of you had a great week, and especially a good weekend. It was a long week for me, so now I’m finally catching my breath, but you didn’t click on the link to read about this, so away we go with the latest in the wrestling world…
WWE presented that one show they call SmackDown! on Thursday night. Whereas RAW was really good this past week, SmackDown! was a thumbs down show for me, as it focused way too much on the Mr. America / Vince McMahon storyline. There were some pretty good matches on the show, but the value of it just didn’t amount to what I’ve been used to in the past from the SmackDown! brand. Highlights included Vince McMahon not being able for the second week in a row to prove Mr. America is Hulk Hogan and getting Stephanie McMahon involved in the storyline in the process. Elsewhere, Brock Lesnar was given less TV time then Hogan, as he continued his “feud” with The Big Show, resulting in a Stretcher Match between the two at Judgment Day. Sable and Torrie, and Team Angle and Los Guerreros continued their storylines. SmackDown!’s rating is in and the show scored a 3.2 rating, which is what it usually does. It looks like SmackDown! is stuck in the 3.1 – 3.2 margin as I don’t remember when was the last time it scored a different rating. Pretty sad.
You can’t help but wonder what WWE is thinking with Hulk Hogan these days. Yes, the crowd pops huge for him, and yes he’s a legend, but they just can’t afford to constantly have Hogan and McMahon be the focus of their show. This was the main problem with SmackDown! this past week if you ask me. Like I said last week, the Mr. America storyline is corny and too surreal. It works for a week, heck, it will work for two, but it will only work from there on if it’s not the main focus on the show, but rather an addition to it. WWE doesn’t seem to agree as not only did they give even more TV time to Mr. America, but they also involved Stephanie McMahon into the storyline, which makes it even worse, as you have three people who can’t wrestle and talk way too much all together. Either way, it looks like they’re going for a Hogan-McMahon 2 match, which is also sad. I guess if Sean O’Haire was still involved in this storyline I could at least say OK, they’re using Hogan to elevate youngsters like O’Haire, but with Piper and O’Haire absent from SmackDown!, it leaves me scratching my head to think what they’re doing with this. Anyway, let’s hope next week is better.
Brock Lesnar, the WWE Heavyweight Champion who has had very little TV time as of lately, is now confirmed of defending his WWE Championship at Judgment Day in a Stretcher Match against The Big Show. I’m not exactly looking forward to that one and I know that many of you aren’t either. With Kurt Angle out, WWE is stuck finding opponents for Brock, and after doing an OK job with John Cena, they’re now pushing Big Show back into the main-event picture. I am one to criticize only when needed, but I feel that saying “Kurt Angle is out, we have no other choice” is no excuse. It’s really sad that Big Show is getting PPV matches and main events, as well as wins over Chris Benoit, when Chris Benoit, one of the best wrestlers they have on SmackDown! at the moment, is getting completely buried as a face since he didn’t have a match for Backlash, he probably won’t have one for Judgment Day, and has jobbed to both Cena and Big Show now. It’s my firm believe that it would have been much better to simply turn Benoit heel and have him challenge Brock rather waste him like that. It just boggles my mind when Vince and Co. do that sort of thing, but then again, Chris Benoit is not 6’8″ tall, so tough luck I guess. As far as the Judgment Day goes, I don’t think that there’s any doubt Brock will win, we’ll just have to see what type of stretcher is big enough to fit The Big Show.
SmackDown! thoughts… Los Guerreros and Team Angle continued their storyline this past week. I don’t like the whole Lie, Cheat, and Steal deal, but it sometimes gets me laughing and since this is the one area of the show where WRESTLING happens, I enjoy it… It’s nice to hear Rey will be back next week, now I want to hear that his feud with Matt Hardy can continue or that something with Ultimo Dragon can happen (see next paragraph)… Rikishi and Tajiri had a very solid match as a tag team, which was very weird, but entertaining to me… Like I talked in the past, WWE is already the wrong thing and they’re jobbing Cena out to everyone. Instead of giving Rhyno the win this could have very well been a PPV match, but I don’t take it as a negative because they’re working on a Spanky/Cena program so it’s all good. Word Life… Several people bring out a good point — since we’ve seen both Sable and Torrie naked, who the hell cares they’re gonna a bikini challenge? … I watched FBI on Velocity. I can’t believe these guys aren’t a part of a storyline where they get to actually fight. Palumbo and Stambolli have picked it up big time in the ring and ECW fans now that Nunzio is very talented… Where the hell is Bill DeMott??? … I haven’t mentioned this in a while, but in my book Michael Cole and Tazz are the #1 announce team WWE has right now. The will and love they have for what they do really makes me feel better about the future of the company, though I fear to think what it will be.
WWE has signed Ultimo Dragon to a contract, and he has already let the Japan media know that he’s headed to the WWE. He was saying that he’ll be on the Judgment Day card, but it’s been revealed that he’ll probably be backstage, meeting up with the wrestlers, and talking with officials. I still think there’s a possibility he might be on the card, as Rey Mysterio is set to return this week on SmackDown!, and the rumor has it that Ultimo Dragon will be paired up with Rey, either with him or against him in a storyline. These two will have some unbelievable matches, and you can look forward to that! Legion of Doom will also be getting a tryout at Judgment Day. Scary.
I guess that’s where I’m going to go ahead and take a look at the current status of the SmackDown! brand. I’ve seen many discussions lately on that topic, and I’ve mentioned it here, in this section. We have the best wrestler in the brand currently injured in Kurt Angle. We have the WWE Champion Brock Lesnar being fed opponents left and right, with everybody knowing that he’s going to destroy them at the PPV sooner or later. We have guys like The Big Show and A-Train getting TV time and in Big Show’s case, PPV matches, while we have guys like Chris Benoit, Rhyno, and Matt Hardy without a PPV match (Backlash). We have Eddie Guerrero, a man who after having a struggle of a life and going back through hell and rehab returned to WWE to showcase the best of his abilities, and is stuck in a tag team storyline when at one time he was set to feud Steve Austin, and was giving us the best singles matches against RVD on RAW, and against Edge on SmackDown! later on. We have the best cruiserweights in the world in Rey Mysterio, Matt Hardy, Tajiri, Brian Kendrick, Shannon Moore, Jamie Noble, Billy Kidman (to return soon), even Crash, and no storylines involving the cruiserweight title since WrestleMania (Hardy vs. Mysterio, which never continued). We have Hulk Hogan, Sable, Rody Piper, and Jimmy Snucka making recent appearances, and not only that, but in Hogan’s case getting tons of TV time and in Sable’s case being engaged in absolutely worthless storylines with no point to them. Do I need to even start saying what’s wrong with SmackDown! ? The only part of the brand that is good remains the tag teams division but only because Team Angle are that damn good, and because Eddie Guerrero has made the best out of his team run. FBI has also showcased some good talent in tag team action, but they’re not given TV time there.
Now think back just several months ago, when Paul Heyman was the head writer for the show. We had Edge vs. Eddie Guerrero in a 30-minute “ECW” style match. We had new guys like John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Rey Mysterio step up and be introduced in a much better way (they had the abilities) than current superstars like Nathan Jones. You had Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit feuding as a SECONDARY feud for Christ’s sake. The main event was Undertaker and Brock Lesnar and they were doing good. We had started on a tag team titles division which didn’t have too much behind it but helped progress storylines. We had a cruiserweight match each show and it never disappointed. Guys, it’s really obvious that SmackDown! has gone downhill. But instead of saying “This sucks!” or “The writing sucks,” I just thought that I’d lay it down plain and simple to show what I mean. Paul Heyman may not be liked by many and his ways may not be the best, but the man knew what he was doing, and now that there’s nobody to step up to McMahon’s ideas and writing, the show is more on the bad side of things. It’s no wonder that ratings haven’t moved from the 3.1 – 3.2 (3.3 max) margin. When Heyman was around, there were points at which SmackDown! outbeat RAW or tied them up in the ratings with a 3.8, or a 3.6 score, and back then we considered a 3.5 a bad drop for SmackDown!. I think Vince McMahon should wake up for once and see what’s happening. But like I wrote two weeks ago, Vince is simply outdated, and has outplayed himself, so I won’t look for it to happen. Someone needs to step up to him, and I’m afraid it’s at the point where we can only pray for Linda and Shane McMahon to do their duty and take over. We need something new and fresh! Then again, to quote Sean O’Haire, I’m not telling you anything that you don’t already know.
Eddie
