Hey everyone. Man, what a hectic week here at TBL! As you probably know, we’ve been dealing with some technical difficulties as of late, and it has really changed things around. No doubt though, with the Forums and Newsboard returning next week, we should be just fine. Since our newsboard is down, I’ll try to do more news reports until we get it back up. But today is all about the SmackDown brand…
WWE presented Vengeance this past Sunday night and it was SmackDown’s first solo PPV, after RAW had Bad Blood the month before. Kurt Angle became the new WWE Champion after pinning Brock Lesnar in a great triple threat match that also featured The Big Show and served as the main event. Elsewhere on the program, Vince McMahon defeated Zach Gowen in his debut match on PPV, while Eddie Guerrero became the US Champion thanks to a Rhyno heel turn. The PPV saw some great in-ring action as Guerrero-Benoit, and Kidman/Mysterio-Benjamin/Haas had great bouts. Main event was great.
As WWE is headed towards SummerSlam, the SmackDown brand has now focused on building up their main event, which is supposed to be Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship. Next week, Brock takes on your and my favorite punching bag — Vince McMahon — in a Steel Cage match with Kurt Angle as the special guest referee. If Brock wins he’ll get a shot at the belt. Folks, don’t get hooked up on this one. I have a feeling that by an “accident” or something like that, Angle will help Vince win and Brock will have to go through miracles again to get a title shot. Then again, maybe it’s just me, and WWE will job Vince clear to Lesnar who’ll get this shot now. I’d rather have Brock lose and then go through even bigger obstacles to earn his shot, because that way they’ll really set up the bout better, as he’ll be the “unstoppable monster” again. The tease and tension is already there, so they’ve done a good job of building it up.
Then there’s also the possibility of Lesnar turning heel, which some Internet rumors have suggested. I can’t help but wonder if WWE will really go this route, though I have some doubt about it. A very interesting twist (if done well) in this story would be Lesnar turning on Angle next week inside the Steel Cage, and then pairing up with McMahon to take Angle out. I think that will do the trick, but I don’t think that the fans will prefer that program better. There’s something about Lesnar, his drive and power I presume, that just draws you towards him and gives him that baby-face feeling. An athlete of his caliber is amazing, nonetheless. I’d rather have the two go at it at SummerSlam as faces, but that’s just me.
Eddie Guerrero’s character continues to bewilder me. Eddie is one of the best performers in the brand, and putting the US Title on him was a great move. I’d also like to give him praises on his awesome match with Tajiri on SmackDown. However, there’s a problem here that WWE needs to do something about. They have to distinguish that Eddie isn’t cutting it as a heel right now. The fans love him so much that his gimmick (as heelish as it is) has catapulted him in their minds as a top face, because there’s plenty of little things that are entertaining about it and the fans love to see.
For those who don’t know it, SmackDown was recently said to be the #1 show watched by Latinos in the teenage and young adult demographics, even beating George Lopez’s program on ABC. WWE needs to turn Eddie Guerrero face, or slightly change his character so that he’s an obvious heel. People boo him as it is now, but he gets a lot of cheers and mixed reaction as well. The crowd was quiet at times during his match with Tajiri if you noticed, because they wanted to cheer for Tajiri but at the same time also loved Eddie.
Zach Gowen is amazing. They did a very good job of not exposing his true wrestling skills until Vengeance and this week on SmackDown. It looks like he’s headed towards a feud with Matt Hardy which I’m sure will be great. The only minus there is that Hardy will probably have to job to him, which I won’t like. Matt needs to be fighting for the US Belt right now, or have a program at the top of the card.
Other SmackDown thoughts… I can’t believe Stephanie and Sable actually wrestled a bit. Steph did seem to have worked out and trained for the match, so I give her praises for that. They kept it short at six minutes, so I’m fine with that… A-Train is back baby! YEAH!!!. Ugh… Can you believe they killed off Ultimo Dragon?… I’ll go grab a beer and call it an Eddie Invitational Brawl. Nice waste of PPV time… Glad to see Chris Benoit in a fairly good program. He deserves it. He’s not US Title material, he’s WWE Championship material… My favorite weekly SmackDown characters are Bill DeMott and Dawn Marie! I love seeing them every week! … Isn’t SmackDown a bit better when Hogan isn’t around?
All right folks, that will do it for this week. I expect to be back again shortly, with a news update, probably as early as this weekend! Have a great weekend and thanks for your support when it comes to TBL!
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie
