I hate bringing this up again, but my results from the biopsy now won’t be in until Monday, I have to admit I’ve been a nervous wreck since I had it done on Wednesday and doing a column was just not on the top of my list. I feel terrible that I’ve been so inconsistent with my articles and as I said last week I’m hoping that things start to get back to normal. Today I would like to talk about Taboo Tuesday, although I’m a little late on that one, I also want to talk about Smackdown and Impact. Even though I haven’t written a thing since Tuesday trust me I’ve had a lot on my mind as far as these three shows go.
First I was very pleased with Taboo Tuesday. As much as I thought the voting might hurt the show I was wrong. It definitely added to the show. Having the crowd vote and then getting the results from the internet was different and it really seemed to work. While the rumors are flying that the voting was fixed there is really no way for anyone to know except Vince and his staff. I for one can’t say it was or wasn’t but having Shelton Benjamin face Chris Jericho for the opening match was a good way to start the show. As much as I liked this match and Shelton winning I found the crowd to be dead during this one and basically throughout the night. As bad as the crowd was the show still won me over. After the Benjamin/Jericho match we saw Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit and Edge with Coach waiting to see who would face Triple H. It was a badly injured Shawn Michaels that won, but what really shocked me was that Edge came in second and the voting was close. And Edge’s loss no matter how close it was set the tone for what was to be the best of Edge. I’ll get into that in a little bit.
The next match was the women’s Battle Royal with Trish vs. Jazz vs. Stacy vs. Victoria vs. Molly vs. Nidia vs. Gail Kim. All I can say about this was that even though the women were dressed up in school girl outfits it was really a let’s look under the skirt match. Panties and thongs seemed to be the theme and truthfully with the talent of the majority of the women in that ring it was a rather wasted match but at least Jerry The King Lawler seemed to be loving every second of it. Kane vs. Snitzky in a Chain Match definitely entertained me. I found Kane excellent in selling just about everything Snitzky did. Kane put Snitzky over as one hell of monster and I’m not so sure I like that since this guy just came up but Kane did his job well. And Kane losing? Whoa I did not see that coming. As I said this was booked well although having Lita out there was rather lackluster but all in all I enjoyed this.
Now here is where Edge shines and this is just the beginning. Backstage Edge was interviewed by Todd Grisham. Edge was burning that the fans didn’t vote for him. And his anger was so apparent. Now that he and Chris Benoit would tag together against La Resistance Edge was put out that he was now going for the tag team titles, he has been there done that and wants bigger and better things. Edge cut a super promo and I actually was interested in him and wanted to see more. Okay I have to be honest with you I don’t even remember Eugene vs. Uncle Eric. But what I do remember is Vince coming out and waking the crowd up. I totally enjoyed watching Vince humiliate Eric and the Coach. Vince is so good at putting people down. But because of Vinny this segment again worked for me. Now this is when I could really feel Edge’s pain. He walked into the dressing room where Shawn was getting bandaged for his match. Edge was fuming that Shawn didn’t take himself out of the voting since he was hurt. Edge then continued that this was his time and Shawn took it away from him. He then called HBK a selfish son of a bitch. Oh yeah I could feel Edge’s pain and so far Edge finally grabbed me well not literally okay seriously I love this side of him and I was very curious to see how he would work with Benoit. Their match was next against Rob Conway and Sylvan Grenier. And this was your pretty basic tag team match that is until Edge got pissed off and first walked up to some fans yelling at them. Oh this was great, all Edge could think of was Shawn taking on Hunter instead of him. Once Benoit got him back in the ring the match went on a little longer and then Edge decided to split. He walked out and walked out of the building leaving Chris to take on La Resistance on his own. Again a good match and we all know what a hard worker Benoit is so seeing him make Conway tap out was a total thrill for me. So as of now there are new tag team champions but part of me says that Eric will do what he can to change that or Edge will get in there and make sure they lose it. Whatever happens again this was another nicely booked match. By far the worst thing on the show had to be Carmella vs. Christy. In fact the pillow fight was so pitiful let’s just move on.
Hunter vs. Shawn was next for the World Title and as much as Shawn looked to be in a lot of pain he along with Hunter put on a very good match. I loved watching Hunter go after Shawn’s knee continuously; in fact my knee was hurting just watching what Shawn was going through. And to add to Shawn’s misery, he had to lose thanks to Edge. Yeah the man that the fans just didn’t want to see against Hunter ran in speared HBK and Hunter was able to take advantage of that spear and get the win. I thought this was the match of the night. I say that because Hunter and Shawn have great chemistry and the story that was told in the ring was just terrific. The main event which turned out to be a cage match with Randy Orton vs. Ric Flair was my second favorite match. Sure it was a short match but maybe because Ric and Randy gave it their all I didn’t feel gypped at all. Watching both men staring at each other after Randy’s win and then shaking hands and hugging naturally won me over. I loved the ending because it’s making many of us wonder if Ric will be tossed out of Evolution for buddying up to Randy OR if Ric will just walk out on Evolution. The last two matches did it for me and made me very happy that I ordered the show. By the way I only got four right, Snitzky and Benoit winning really did surprise me. I’ll have to do better with my Survivor Series predictions next month.
Here’s what I want to say about Smackdown. First as much as Edge really appealed to me Tuesday night that’s how much Booker T appealed to me on Smackdown. He seems to be turning face and I can’t tell you how much I liked him finally getting up there and interacting with JBL. This again was written so well that I think so many of us are looking forward to next week’s show to watch Book and JBL continue where they left off. It was nice having Chavo Jr. back and he was able to make Billy Kidman come off pretty damn good as the heel without any feelings. This was another segment that worked. Thumbs up for Carlito Caribbean Cool’s opening with Torrie Wilson. While her voice is like finger nails scratching a blackboard watching CCC do his signature move which is spitting an apple in someone’s face and that someone being Torrie was just another way to show what a cocky SOB Cool is. And as far as Torrie goes I say they really need to repackage her and work on her mic skills. Paul Heyman was a little to low keyed for me Thursday night and watching his client Heindenreich wear a straight jacket to keep him inline was rather goofy, but again Heindenreich came off like a total freak and I would say John is really into this character because he plays it so well. I was sorry to see Shannon Moore in this match because you knew he had no chance in hell. And I was even sorrier to see another week without Taker. But naturally Taker vs. Heindenreich will happen at Survivor Series. Let’s see if Undertaker shows up at all before then. I won’t hold my breath. Eddie Guerrero seemed pretty sharp out there against Mark Jindrak, but for some reason I’m not into this feud with Jindrak and Luther Reigns it’s leaving me cold. The main event with Booker/RVD and Rey Mysterio vs. JBL, Kenzo Suzuki and Renee Dupree got a thumbs up from me. RVD really needs to move up but that’s not going to happen so he and Rey are making a very nice tag team pair. I was happy the way they put Book in there not knowing what side he was on and JBL thinking that Booker T was with him made for a good laugh. It was great seeing Booker beat JBL and as I said this is a feud we may all enjoy. Okay here’s where I was totally put out, angered and bored.
I had a big problem with Tough Enough taking up almost 30 minutes of Smackdown. This is a show that I watch for the wrestling and I certainly don’t want to watch a watered down version of a show that used to have its own timeslot. If Spike TV didn’t want to put Tough Enough on then it should have been dropped. I hope to God that in the next 8 weeks Tough Enough isn’t going to run as long as it did the other night. We all know the Diva contest did nothing for Raw and if Tough Enough runs 30 minutes each week Smackdown and the fans are really going to suffer. I’m very anti Tough Enough this time because there is no room on Smackdown for this show.
I’m sorry this column has been so long but let me just say a few things about Impact. I have to hand it to the company; they are doing a great job promoting Victory Road. Friday was one of the best shows I’ve seen maybe because I saw one hot match. Kazarian and Shane Michaels vs. Chris Saban and Sonja Dutt. I can’t tell you how much I loved this one. Watching this I was thinking wouldn’t it be nice if all four of these guys were in the WWE? I then it hit me if they were they would be buried or relegated to Velocity so for now they are at the right place.
Team Canada-Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Ruffy Silverstein- vs. AJ Styles & Ron Killings & Jeff Hardy was the main event and anything with AJ Styles has to be good. And this was. I totally enjoy Team Canada they always come through and make things interesting. Even with Jeff Jarrett and Monty Brown having their usual squash matches I really have to say I totally enjoyed Friday’s show. Let me leave it with one more thing, Steve Williams (Dr. Death) who is battling throat cancer had a very serious operation done on Friday to repair a hole in his throat. This operation was to take up to ten hours. He has since put up a message on his site saying that he is hurting but doing okay. I wish him the best and my thoughts are with him and his family. Okay tomorrow night Raw is in Ames, Iowa and we are going to see the backlash from Taboo Tuesday. I want to see just where they are going with Ric Flair AND I’m also looking forward to the future story lines of Chris Benoit, Y2J and Edge. Tomorrow night’s show could be HOT real hot.
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