N&A: WWE News and Notes

WWE SMACKDOWN ROUNDTABLE

Kurt Angle came out to start the program in a wheelchair with Luther Reigns. He struggled into a ring with a crutch and said that people can do amazing things, and explained again that he won a Gold medal with a broken freaking neck and did what he needed to do to save SmackDown from another Guerrero reign. He said he would fire Guerrero if he didn’t beg for his job. He then made ring announcer Tony Chimmel beg for his job and then fired him. He was angry at Chimmel because he smiled when he announced that Guerrero beat him and retained the title at WrestleMania this year.

Trevor: I don’t know about the premise of the segment but I thought it was executed well. The idea that Angle was going out of control was too obvious to hold the hold the whole show together and the interest or anticipation in seeing McMahon fire him just wasn’t there.

Eddie: Good segment to open the show. This was one of the few good promos Angle has had as General Manager.

1. Spike Dudley beat Chavo Guerrero and Jamie Noble for the #1 contendership to the cruiserweight championship. So, next week it will be face vs. face for the title. The Divas complained that they were being under-utilized on SmackDown, which must be an inside joke. Kurt Angle agreed and gave them a lingerie match.

Trevor: The match wasn’t memorable but it did the job. I hope the push of Spike Dudley doesn’t go the way of Shannon Moore’s because I think he has something to offer that has been overlooked as part of the ECW syndrome. I’m not saying I want him bleeding all over the ring like he did in ECW, but it would be nice to see him used more within the cruiserweight division.

Eddie: I was very happy to see Spike Dudley win this match. Not so much because of the whole issue that he has going with the Dudley Boyz, but for the fact that someone new and fresh is introduced into the cruiserweight division. They have breated new life into the division by having Spike wrestle each week, and I’m enjoying all of the in-ring action here. I am not so sure where the Dudleyz saga is headed, but I’ll give it time.

2. Bubba Ray Dudley beat Billy Kidman. The Dudleys will get a rematch for the tag titles next week against the anonymous tag champions, apparently. Kidman went up to the top rope but the interference that Michael Cole hinted at happened as D-Von knocked him down. Paul London chased D-Von out, but the damage was done, Bubba hit the Bubba bomb and got the pin. Booker T was then promised the US Title next week where it would formally be presented to him. Funaki argued that giving Booker the title was not fair, as that is only reserved for Triple H. Funaki was fired for butchering the English language.

Trevor: Speaking of ECW. There was no point to doing the tag title switch the other week because it only got people talking for a day or two, now no one could care less. Traditional formulaic match here.

Eddie: This was the expect return match following the D-Von/Paul London bout last week. I’m glad that they put the tag belts on Kidman and London, because at least now there’s a storyline involving the straps, and two new faces have been introduced on SmackDown. Let’s hope their push will remain strong, and something will be made out of that team, especially seeing as how WWE doesn’t have a handful of tag teams right now. I strongly disagree that “no one could care less.” No one could care less when the Dudleyz were tag team champions, and were getting their asses kicked by one man in the main event of WWE’s worst PPV in the last four years.

3. John “Bradshaw” Layfield beat Mike Kruel (jobber). Clips were shown of JBL visiting the Philadelphia stock exchange and showing everyone his title. No comment. He did a promo dissing the Eagles, the 76’ers, and the Flyers. This was a Rocky challenge. After he won, he said that no one worthy can face him at SummerSlam and there was an Eddie Guerrero chant, so the Undertaker came out. Bradshaw was scared and announced that his opponent was Shannon Moore because he was good-looking (somehow I didn’t follow, but it was all a sneaky segue into a joke about the homosexual fans that cover the business. Undertaker took him out. Meet the new champion.

Trevor: Somehow, these segments manage to make JBL look worse as champion, because he isn’t facing high caliber opponents. Hand picking jobbers is sooooo 1980s. Even Triple H, who in the past has been portrayed as a cheap heel, has always had high caliber opponents to defeat. Obviously, JBL is thought of as champion the same way we think of him.

Eddie: I found it funny that the “Italian Stallion” they had picked to work against JBL seemed to have more of an ability to sell inside the ring than JBL did. Very good jobber. JBL is doing the best he can with his gimmick, whether you like it or not, and of course most don’t. I can’t blame you. I don’t like the idea of The Undertaker challenging for the belt, or winning it. That would be very bad, because they can’t count on a guy who doesn’t show up on all their shows to carry the brand by being a champion, and burrying everyone in his path. I hope if they go with ‘Taker, they put some creativity into it, and we all know how creative they are (not) on SmackDown.

A segment aired. “Heidenreich! Heidenreich! Heidenreich! Heidenreich! Heidenreich! Heidenreich! Heidenreich! Heidenreich!” Funny thing is, it’s company policy to continually mention the full name of WWE superstars on TV, for instance Tazz should say “Eddie Guerrero” instead of him or “Eddie” to get the name ingrained in the minds of viewers. I think this segment managed to overkill though. We should have a poll on TBL on what feud will kill house shows for good, I think Heidenreich/Suzuki would rank high.

Trevor: They still have time to make me care.

Eddie: This was done well. If there’s one man who can make Heidenreich look important, it’s the same man who sold Big Show as a legitimate monster. Heidenreich is probably still very green, but with a dose of luck and Heyman’s mouth, this could work into something.

4. Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie vs. Miss Jackie vs. Sable ended in a no contest. Everyone stripped and Kurt Angle came out and fired all the Divas before they embarrassed themselves. He called them useless. Out of all the moves that Angle has made, I think Tazz and Cole found this the most absurd. Anyway.

Trevor: This will be reversed later so it didn’t matter.

Eddie: Simply done to get heat on Angle. Good segment.

5. Rey Mysterio beat D-Von Dudley. Bubba interfered by London and Kidman ran in to prevent anymore dastardly deeds from being done. Rey hit the 619 and a splash to win.

Trevor: Unfortunately, this was another unspectacular match.

Eddie: I personally enjoyed the London/Bubba match more, but this was a good bout as well. There’s a very few people who can’t work with Rey Mysterio. I liked the booking here, when it came to mixing up the storylines. Bubba is hilarious as a heel.

6. John Cena beat Luther Reigns. Nothing of note happened.

Trevor: Forgettable.

Eddie: I disagree, once again. This match was good. It will not go down as the best of the year, nor the best of the month, nor the best of the week, nor even the best of the night, but forgettable is not a good word to describe it. I like that Cena got his heat back this week, and the Booker interference was well done. Luther Reigns needs to improve greatly. He has the potential, though. They MUST stop with the poop jokes when it comes to Cena.

Kurt Angle told Eddie Guerrero to come out, so Vince McMahon came out, with a strut that cannot be put into words. Vince said that he was up for a humanitarian award for hiring a cripple (those things are really easy to get these days) but that now it was revealed that Kurt was faking, he wouldn’t get it. McMahon asked Kurt for his resignation but Kurt got on his knees and begged for his job. McMahon fired Angle and then chased him around the ring. He put Angle back on the active wrestler list and made Angle/Guerrero for SummerSlam. Guerrero came out in his low rider, Vince danced, and they left in the low rider.

Trevor: Good finishing segment.

Eddie: McMahon was very strong here, and so was Angle. Very solid segment to end the show. I thought they would do a tease, as in “Tune in next week to see the new GM,” or something of that nature, but maybe by leaving us in the dark, they expect us to return next week and see what is up. They did announce two title matches for next week’s show after all.

Overall thoughts

Trevor: 5.5
This show was a few angles stretched out to be a full show and very little was accomplished, but what was accomplished was done logically. I followed the show well, but a lot of people thought it was boring (endless) and that was the reason. The Kurt Angle stuff, as I mentioned, was far too overdone to get the point across. Either WWE feels that everything has to be done repeatedly to be made clear (when actually it just has to make complete sense the first time) or they had nothing to fill the time with, and considering the state of SmackDown, it was probably a mixture of both. Plus, most of the wrestling was booked well, but just forgettable. However, these shows have been a vast improvement from Smackdown over the past several months and its obvious that they are trying to make a booking effort to recover. When its all said and done, the SmackDown contribution to SummerSlam will probably be good, save for JBL/Undertaker, but they are still not a strong brand standalone.

Eddie: 7
Another solid show from the SmackDown crew. I’ve growned to enjoy the show more. The in-ring action has been on a higher level in the past three weeks, and the storylines have been presented much better. Once the Undertaker/Paul Bearer crap ended, things took off. The introduction of some fresh faces has helped the show. They need to bring Charlie Haas back into the game, and they can’t afford to waste RVD on Velocity.

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