SMACKDOWN COVERAGE
Well, it was better than the Bash. The first SmackDown after the horrible PPV last week didn’t give the SmackDown brand the fresh start we were all hoping for, but the show was better balanced and improved this week than it recently has been. On the overall, if you ignore the streak of bad shows on Thursday nights though, this wouldn’t be a show you would call “good.” In fact, far from it.
SmackDown opened with one of Kurt Angle’s better promos as a GM. He explained the ending of the WWE Championship match at the Bash, which put him over well as a heel. JBL was introduced. Layfield then cut a promo on his champion status, and gave a different persprective of his character by shaking hands with people at ringside, and kissing a baby. That quickly was used later in his promo to gather some good heel heat. This segment was good to start the show. It’s obvious that a lot of people, including me, aren’t happy with JBL being champion. Whether you’re happy or not, though, you have to admit that he’s done as good a job as he can with his new role and character. The problem is that he shouldn’t have been given that role in the first place. He promised to be a fighting champion, and said he will defend the WWE Championship later in the show against a wrestler of his own choosing, other than Eddie Guerrero, that was at the Bash PPV.
Booker T defeated RVD and Rene Dupree in a triple threat for the #1 contendership for John Cena’s US Championship. The match was OK, with all wrestlers carrying themselves rather well. Dupree has been burried as of late, and WWE needs to quickly get him out of the US Title picture, since they can’t give him a win there. Van Dam is over big time. It still confuses me how someone who is so over with the fans (and has been for years) and who you can build a tremendous story around to win the Championship isn’t fighting for it, but someone like JBL is. Booker faced Cena next week. This storyline has pretty much been the only one on SmackDown that hasn’t been bad. They’ll probably end up putting the belt on Booker, which is a shame, because he’s recently had a nice streak and will make a good contender for the WWE Championship. I think they might put him in that position later down the line when he turns face.
Luther Reigns was backstage, telling Charles Robinson that he made a horrible mistake at the Bash when he counted the pin in the Torrie and Sable match. Luther played the tape and said Robinson will ref the rematch tonight, and he better not make a mistake. Well, this was good and bad at the same time. It was very good that they acknowledged the fact the pin was horrendous with Torrie’s shoulders not even being down, and they did something about it to follow up, rather just forget it. However, what they did was bad because it was illogic. If Angle was able to go an Instant Replay at the PPV for the main event, why didn’t he come out after the women’s match to show an Instant Replay and continue the match? He doesn’t care for Torrie and Sable? And in the future when there’s such mistakes like that on purpose (to back up a heel), they will not go to an instant replay, so what happens then?
Again backstage, JBL had several wrestlers gathered. He announced that he will wrestle a Dudley later tonight for the belt, as D-Von and Bubba celebrated. JBL then said his pick was actually “Spike Dudley” and left.
Mordecai had his first OK match on WWE television when he lost to Rey Mysterio. They put him in there with the right person, and Mysterio carried him well. If they had only done that at the Bash. Mordecai even did a good job of selling Mysterio’s moves, and for a large man that isn’t so easy. It’s obvious that he’s still green, and not ready for WWE. (More on that in the news section below).
Michael Cole and Tazz then let us all know that Paul Bearer suffered severe injuries at the Great American Bash including great damage to his lungs, and it is very unlikely that we will ever see him again. No comment.
They showed footage from the Bash and Bearer’s incident. Why pay the money for PPV if they’ll show it on SmackDown? Heyman came out to talk about having control of The Undertaker until the Dead Man showed up on the screen saying now that he’s gotten rid of his only weakness (Bearer), he will go after Heyman. One of the main points of this storyline was to keep the intrigue of what Undertaker will be like (face or heel) with Heyman running his life, and they killed that one show after the PPV. Wow, what a garbage. Undertaker told Heyman to Rest In Peace. Something I wish this storyline could do when it comes to WWE TV.
Torrie beat Sable, and this time the pin looked better. The match looked better as well, as the two tried to wrestle. It was no classic women’s bout, but it was OK, and much better than the Bash.
Angle decided that since the Olympics aren’t for another month, he can be mean to Charles Robinson and make him fight Luther Reigns. Little Naitch took his shirt off and waited for Reigns to come down. He was saved, eventually, by Charlie Haas. I still don’t know what to make of Luther Reigns, formerly knows as Horshu. He’s not a good worker, but he’s no Mordecai or Kenzo Suzuki either. He has his moments, and he also has good charisma. Hopefully he will prove he was worthy of his push.
What’s probably been the better things on SmackDown lately was shown next, as the RAW Rebound aired.
Bubba and D-Von were backstage telling Spike that he had “won the lottery” by getting a title shot tonight. They were mean to little brother by saying they never ever fought for the title. I guess Reverend D-Von forgot his title match with Brock Lesnar an year and a half ago, and Fat Bubba forgot his little feud with Triple H in 2002 that resulted in a Table’s Match for Triple H’s title. They said they’ll have Spike’s back since they’re family and they know he’ll give thema title shot if he wins. Spike faced reality and thought logically since he’s a better wrestler than JBL on any warm day in Texas, and figured he’ll win this one on his own. Who could doubt that?
Kenzo Suzuki came out and did a promo in Japanese. Cena came out and started talking about poop once again. So much for the streak Cena was enjoying with the main event against ‘Taker and the successful defense at the Bash. McMahon must be proud.
Bradshaw saw Eddie’s car and acted surprise. Why would Eddie be at the show? He didn’t injure himself at the Bash, and he’s only the former WWE Champion. I mean, honestly, why would he be at the show? Ugh.
JBL and Spike actually had a good match. Spike did well, and JBL sold well himself, even with Spike hitting a Dudley Dog and JBL barely lifting his shoulder before three. That was done well. Guerrero came at the end and got in the ring to announce that in two weeks he faces JBL in a Steel Cage Match for the title. He said he had put in his contract a clause for a rematch long before Angle was GM. That, of course, didn’t make a lot of sense, since the previous GM Paul Heyman hated Guerrero just as much storyline-wise.
Overall, this show was better, once again, than recent showings. However, the most important point is that if you look at it without having seen the previous shows, it was bad. They need to focus on the people who are over with the crowd, and build more credible storylines with them. It just so happens that those same people — RVD, Booker T, and Cena just to name a few — can have good matches most of the time. It’s a combination they have to go to as soon as possible, but obviously that won’t be happening at least until SummerSlam.
MORDECAI BACK TO OVW, OTHER NEWS
Kevin Fertig, aka Mordecai, will be headed back to Ohio Valley Wrestling, as was the word backstage at the SmackDown tapings this past week. He will be headed there immediately, which probably explains the end of his “undefeated streak” on SmackDown when he lost to Mysterio. A lot of people felt that when Fertig was brought up to the main roster, he was still very green, and not ready at all for his spot. However, Vince McMahon’s affection towards bigger wrestlers (boy, does that sound wrong) helped get Mordecai on TV right away. The goal was to have him feud with The Undertaker, hence the horrendous gimmick he was given, but that never came through.
SmackDown scored a 3.2 rating up from last week’s 3.1. The overnight rating came in at 3.8 with a 6 share.
As mentioned in the SmackDown coverage, they decided to kill all suspense in the Undertaker storyline, although it was the one thing left to look forward to in this garbage. The reason for that is because ‘Taker insisted to be made clear whether he’s face or heel several times. They immediately went ahead and showed he’s face on SmackDown when they had him turn on Heyman.
Berian Gewirtz was responsible for the horrible John Cena poop promo on SmackDown. McMahon is known to love poop jokes. Good God.
According to WWE’s corporate site, this year’s edition of Bad Blood did about 260,000 buys on PPV. This isn’t a good number at all, and you can only imagine how bad the buys on the Bash will be.
There might be a storyline coming out of Sunday’s house show in Regina, as the RAW brand is plugging the fact that a camera crew will be present. This could mean anything or nothing at all, really, since they won’t be celebrating Independence Day there, so I’m not expecting anything concerning that. It could turn into a storyline, you never know.
As probably most of you know by now, Diamond Dallas Page and long-time wife Kimberly page have decided to separate. According to DDP’s message on his website, they separate with no ill feelings. DDP is currently living in Los Angeles with none other than Stone Cold Steve Austin.
AJ Styles didn’t work Impact as he found out backstage during the taping of the show that his brother had committed suicide. That definitely put a dark cloud over everyone at the show. We wish AJ the best in these tough times.
That will do it for this edition of N & A. Make sure to stay tuned to our site for Independence Day weekend, as we should have a TBL Soundoff up and running either tomorrow, or late Sunday night. I want to take a moment and wish everyone a great holiday and stay safe!
