SMACKDOWN THOUGHTS
Hey folks. I didn’t get a chance to see SmackDown today until several hours ago, due to the fact that the show was pre-empted in the Los Angeles market. Because of that, I couldn’t provide you with my usual SmackDown coverage. However, here’s another bonus for you all, and another example of what you will get if you subscribe to our Newsletter. Below are Trevor Hunnicutt and your truly’s thoughts on this week’s SmackDown.
WWE SMACKDOWN THOUGHTS
Trevor: 7.5
This marks the first Smackdown in months that the show has managed to be both entertaining and a booking success. Secondly, it is the second show that has notably improved from the one that preceeded it. For seemingly recognizing some of their problems, Smackdown deserves applaud. Where has this thought been in the past? Problems remain, but luckily they are minimal/effectively minimalized by the writers. Eddie told me that Rob Van Dam was on Velocity, which makes him a good candidate for the Jerry Lynn award that Rhyno has worked so hard for. Watching the main event, it became apparent again how bad JBL is. I’m not sure why they chose to go with a long match, when they could’ve used some of that time to include more from others. Aside from that, the angle with Kurt Angle as El Gran Luchadore was well done and good (with the exception that JBL keeps the title, which was awful in the first place). I hope his credibility hasn’t taken too much of a hit since the GM character, which has been awful for him. As much as they are trying to put Cena over as uber face, it just isn’t working to the degree that it should, due to the fact that fans just aren’t buying into the character as much as they were before. Cena remains charismatic, but there’s only so much he can do with such a limited realm on Smackdown. Both he and Rene Dupree could use something drastically new. Also, both could use programs with good workers, but they put Suzuki in there with Cena and now they are going for Reigns next week. But the angle in itself was promising. Heidenreich coming in is as unspectacular as it seems, I was telling Eddie earlier, why take out Mordecai and then put someone in whose worse.
Eddie: 7.5
I’d like to apologize that we’re not providing you with our usual SmackDown coverage, but that’s due to the fact that the show was pre-emtped in Los Angeles this past week, so I couldn’t see it until a few hours ago. At any rate, I thought this week’s program was another solid show that continue the trend of improvement that last week’s show did. The main event match was good, but I don’t understand the logic behind going as long as they did, seeing as it’s not good to expose JBL. However, I’ll go on record to say it was the best Eddie/JBL match in my opinion that we’ve seen so far. Kurt Angle’s “Grand Luchadore” deal was done well, as well, and it leaves a lot to look forward to from Angle, who’s been having a rough time with injuries and the horrible GM gimmick. The cruiserweight action on SmackDown is enjoyable, and the more time they give them the better. London and D-Von had a good match as well. I like how the Dudleyz play off to the crowd, although they’ve been a done deal for a while now. I like what they’re doing with John Cena, but at the same time I know it’s not going to lead anywhere. Cena needs to move to RAW, where he will be a hot character. It’s a shame to not have Rob Van Dam on the program. They are making a huge mistake by not using him. Overall, this was the right mix of storylines and wrestling, and SmackDown needs to be given their credit, because it’s due. It’s funny how on the one show that everyone loves, we didn’t see The Undertaker, and his storyline was involved with all but one minute of TV time. I am willing to give Heidenreich a chance, so let’s see if there’s any improvement.
WWE RELEASES RIKISHI
Rikishi Phatu, former WWE Tag Team champion, has been released by the company. As probably most of you are aware, Rikishi has been out of action for quite some time now due to an ankle injury. He received a lot of heat for milking the injury for all it’s worth, and refusing to return to action at an earlier date. It should be noted that he had a very high downside guarantee on his contract, so whether he stayed home or was working with the company on the road, he would have made his money. Another factor that added to his release from the company was that they wanted him to lose weight so they could come up with a new gimmick for him, and he never did. To top it all off, Rikishi recently appeared on an independent show that relatives of his put up, without having cleared it with WWE. They also felt “played” when he said he was injured to work for them, yet he worked another show. There have been talks of him getting released for quite some time now, and it became official yesterday. Rikishi has been with WWE since the early ’90s on-and-off. He was most popular with the Too Cool gimmick, where he joined up Scotty 2 Hotty and Brian “Grandmaster Sexay” Lawler into a dancing routine. Phatu was given a huge push in 2000, mainly thanks to his relation with The Rock and the fact that McMahon always had liked him. Rikishi was given the gimmick of being the “mystery person” who ran over Steve Austin at Survivor Series. The push resulted in him main eventing Armageddon 2000’s 6-Men-Hell-In-A-Cell match, alongside The Rock, Triple H, Kurt Angle (champion), The Undertaker, and Steve Austin. He was also given a main event match at the Survivor Series PPV, where he fought The Rock in one of the two main events (Steve Austin vs. Triple H being the other) for the evening. Rikishi Phatu is now accepting bookings alongside Brian Lawler, and long-time friend Haku at BabyFaceBookings@aol.com. Quite a story.
OTHER NEWS
In a ratings update, SmackDown did a 3.3 broadcast rating this past week on UPN. It should be noted that the show was pre-empted in Los Angeles, which would have added at least another 0.1 or 0.2. That’s a better score than what it recently has done. Following SmackDown, the RAW Diva Search on SpikeTV scored a 1.1 rating.
WWE has been doing great in Japan, and although they didn’t sell-out their shows, the very high ticket prices, as well as their earnings from merchandise sale will definitely help them make a lot of money, with them perhaps grossing over two million dollars. This is good news for everyone.
Eddie Guerrero injured his hamstring during WWE’s tour of Japan. He worked through it the second night, and he was smartly booked in the main event of the night (a tag team match) so that he won’t have to be in the ring for too much.
In more injury notes, RVD and Jamie Noble were complaining of back pains, backstage at today’s Tokyo show. Noble is reported to have felt an injury occure during his match, whereas Van Dam complained about his back pains after the show. We wish both of them well.
For all our UK readers, WWE will put tickets on sale tomorrow for the October 11 and 12 Raw and Smackdown tapings at the Manchester Evening News Arena in the UK.
Thanks for reading.
