Happy Fourth of July everyone! I hope all of you had a great holiday and got to rest up yesterday, as well as today. I wish you a great weekend! I also thank you for checking out N & A yet again, as the 40th edition of this report comes your way.
I absolutely loved SmackDown!. I thought the show was great in all aspects and there wasn’t one segment which I didn’t like. Even A-Train’s match with Orlando Jordan had me entertained. This week, there seemed be to a bit of a switch happening. SmackDown! became the show that was either good or bad (good in this case), and RAW was the event that was sort of in between the gist of things. This brings some good memories, and I hope WWE will start somewhat of a trend when it comes to wondering which show will be better. This week, SmackDown! was the one in my opinion.
Zach Gowen looked well inside a wrestling ring. I must say it feels very weird and a bit awkward to watch a one-legged man jump around and get beat the way he does. To be honest, I found myself shaking my head at some places. I did, however, enjoy the main event and the way they built to it. I also was very happy that they had Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar give the rub to Zach and at the same time start their program with The Big Show for the upcoming Vengeance PPV. If you remember, last week I mentioned on here that I won’t be surprised if WWE made the main event a Thriple Threat with Show, Angle, and Lesnar. There’s something that these three manage to bring out of each other that just really puts them over. At least I feel very entertained and satisfied with the programs they put up. As far as Zach goes, we’ll see where it goes from here. I might be dreaming, but I think it’ll be best if Vince stayed off of him for a bit, and maybe even stayed off TV, now that Hogan’s gone too. Well, I’m only hoping. We’ll see what they have instored for us.
Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle started their new program which will lead up to Vengeance. If you missed the point of it, the two are basically acting as two very good friends, who at the same are very competitive and always want to outdo each other. Eventually, I would expect for Kurt to “outsmart” Brock proving that he’s the better guy. This will also lead to the one-on-one encounter between the two at SummerSlam. Also, don’t be surprised if they continue as friends, fight at SummerSlam, then remain faces until WrestleMania next year. Either way, I found the stuff they did funny and I definitely enjoyed it. Though the focus has been shifted elsewhere in the past couple of weeks, I think that Kurt Angle’s presence will slowly start playing a huge role on SmackDown!, and we’ll soon realize how great it is to have him back.
WWE went ahead and gave the tag team titles back to Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. I feel that this is a great move because these two will definitely become the leading tag team on the program, and if you ask me, they’re indeed the Best Damn Tag Team Period. There’s no words to describe how much they have progressed since debuting, and there isn’t a week in which I haven’t enjoyed their stuff. Haas is also very strong on the mic; Benjamin is pretty good as well. These two will be the backbone of the tag team division, and feuds with the APA, and maybe FBI won’t be out of the question.
WWE shot two birds with one shot, as in the same match, they pretty much put an end to the Eddie Guerrero/Tajiri tag team by having Eddie turn on Tajiri. While the reason for it was a bit silly, I must admit that this was a brilliant move with a lot of potential behind it. The fans love Eddie and they have showed that on many occassions, but the bottom line is that WWE is in the need of a strong heel right now, and now that he’s back to singles competition, I think Eddie will be great for the job. Tajiri on the other hand will remain face it seems, and this is also good as WWE evens up then number of heels and faces in the cruiserweight division. They have three strong faces in Mysterio, Ultimo Dragon, and Tajiri, and three opposing heels in Billy Kidman (soon to turn heel in my book), Shannon Moore, and Jamie Noble. I don’t know what they’ll do with Chavo Guerrero upon his return, but that’s not happening soon. The future of the cruiserweight division never looked any brighter.
Other SmackDown! thoughts… The Jamie Noble/Nidia storyline is picking up nicely. I wonder where it’ll go from here… It’s very nice to see Undertaker play the role of a midcarder and try his best to help out with the young talent. Feuding with Cena is a great move, and I would expect for the Dead Man to get bashed by John more. It’d be also nice if Cena picked up the win… I can’t figure out what do people have against A-Train. I really can’t. I think that if he’s in the ring with the right person, he can have a great match… Orlando Jordan is yet to find something unique for himself, but so far he’s doing well. I expect WWE to stick him with Undertaker… The Basham Brothers still don’t do much for me. They are good guys wrestling-wise, but their gimmick isn’t all that good. Did Benoit like what Shaniquah did? God!… I give credit to WWE for bringing back the IC belt, but they STILL have not shown any brackets for the tournament… Did they really expect us to believe that the tape of Mr. Ameica unmasking was from last week? HA! Good one!… My idol, the founder of Mattitude, wasn’t on SmackDown! :'(
Hulk Hogan and WWE have parted ways once again. TBL has offered a good coverage of that on our newsboard, and you also might have read Shawn Stinson’s column which talked about this. If you haven’t, it’s a great read and I encourage you to take a look at it HERE. There’s many reasons Hogan left the company. From the fact that the Mr. America storyline didn’t pick up the way he wanted it to, all the way to a recent piece of news stating that Hogan wasn’t happy with his WrestleMania payoff. He’d make more money working in Japan and from recent indications that’s where he’s headed. I don’t have much more to say besides one thing, and that is that Hogan is leaving on good terms, and will probably make one more comeback later on. I do truly hope that it’ll be the last one though. I think Hulkamania’s glory is now over.
In other news, WWE released Crash last week. Aww! The former WWE Hardcore Champion had been working as a bouncer for local clubs in the past, since WWE couldn’t find anything for him. His addition to the Mattitude team didn’t quite work out, and the company saw no need to keep him around. We wish him the best in his future! I have one question though — Does that mean there’s an open spot for a new M.F.er?!
That will do it for this week. I hope you enjoyed reading N & A and make sure to come back next week for more! Have a great weekend!
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie
