Okay this is not Sunday duh, but there are few wild rumors going around about Sunday’s Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania. So I to plan to talk about last night’s Smackdown but I also have to talk about what’s out there and if you are anything like me I think you will find the rumors most interesting. But first on to Smackdown.
I liked the show much better than last week’s edition. Sure there wasn’t much wrestling but the three out of four matches that I saw are what made Smackdown enjoyable for me. I’m just going to go down the line mixing the good with the bad. First and foremost I absolutely disliked (noticed I didn’t say hated) JBL and Angle and their stables being so buddy buddy. It definitely came off forced and unappealing. As I’ve said before Angle’s stable is going nowhere and the more they put them out there the less of an effect that have on the show. At least JBL’s cabinet has something going but to watch them all working together was just plain stupid. But things improved quickly, when Eddie Guerrero, Booker T and Rey Mysterio took on Orlando Jordan, Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak. It was Eddie, Book and Rey that made this one hell of a match. The other three guys should kiss their feet since they made each of them look decent out there. This was my match of the night and I really would love to see Eddie get that WWE title again, in my books he deserves another go at it.
After the faces won, I had no problem with Reigns and Jordan going at it, after Jindrak was taken out. This at least made sense. And having Angle and JBL come out to back up their guys was also okay. This was a fun little segment with JBL knocking Bill Clinton to the Arkansas fans and it all came off very well. Now I was leery when Theodore Long made a Last Man Standing Match between Angle and JBL, only because how good would it come off on free TV. Naturally that match will be talked about in a little bit. But as I said the Angle/JBL showdown wasn’t bad at all. The next match John Cena vs. Kenzo was nothing to write home about and I’m really hoping this was the last time these two work together. But the match wasn’t the main part of this. No it was the Chain Gang reacting to their hero John Cena. The man is so over so loved that all he has to do is stand there and look at them. Could Cena be the man that wins the Rumble on Sunday? If you go by crowd reaction only then yeah I would say he is a shoe in. Cena took that whole segment and made it worth watching because of the reaction that he gave the crowd, and because of the reaction the crowd gave to him.
The backstage segment with Eddie, Rey and Booker was nothing more than to get us ready for the show on Sunday, with each guy so sure that they would be the one who wins that match. It was fast but I want to say one thing, Book, Eddie and Rey have given the fans so much in the past week, first with their wrestling and second with some outstanding mic work. I can honestly say that they can take a very blah Smackdown and perk things up when they are on camera. Now I don’t mean to sound like a bitch, even though I am when it comes to this, but again the whole Heindenreich/Taker segment last night bored me. In fact I was going to change channels but I didn’t want to miss something else. I could care less about Heindenreich and his poems. At first John and his poems were funny but not anymore. This thing has dragged out for so long it’s absolutely a waste of time. And even though Taker and Heidenreich had a match for the live crowd, which was fine, not putting Taker on TV right before the Royal Rumble just goes to show you how bad this feud really is. Another good match last night was Paul London vs. Funaki vs. Shannon Moore vs. Spike Dudley. You remember Spike don’t you? He was the guy that turned heel after he won the Cruiserweight title and seemed to have the fans interested when he would come out and give orders to his brothers Bubba Ray and D-Von. And when he wrestled he definitely had the fans interested. Oh wait that’s probably why he’s just used once in a while, that character was over and I forgot he wasn’t Heidenreich, or Snitzky, or Tomko or any other big man, so Vince took a good thing and just let it die. Okay back to the match, this was a qualifying Royal Rumble match, and all four of these guys did a magnificent job. It’s too bad Vince doesn’t realize just what this division can do for Smackdown. As I said this was one terrific match, and I’m very happy London won but let’s face it he’ll probably last two minutes, because one of Vince’s big men will take care of him.
How many of you knew that when Kurt Angle first went to Long to plead his case about not being the Last Man Standing Match, and then JBL did what he could to get out of it, that Big Show was in the dressing room? Well I did, as soon as Long stepped out and refused to let both men in his office I just knew Big Show was right inside. And I figured it would be Show that would come out at the end and take care of Angle and JBL.
Let me say as leery as I was about the Last Man Standing Match, that’s how good it was. Angle and JBL gave 110%. I dreaded seeing how much time was allowed for this but it was all filled up beautifully. I want to compliment both JBL and Angle for giving Smackdown something it needs, a super main event. Even though both men collapsed and there was no winner, the fans definitely won watching this. And yeah Big Show did make an appearance but from backstage. It turned out that it was Show’s idea for the Last Man Standing Match and he looked right at the camera and warned Angle and JBL that he would be at the Rumble and that he would be the next WWE champion. This was all nicely done. Smackdown did a good job hyping up the Royal Rumble.
Okay now the rumors. There is one more spot opened on the Smackdown roster for the Rumble and it’s being reported that the spot is going to Brock Lesnar. It’s not definite but it’s one hot rumor. Let’s face it its inevitable, Brock will return, I just am a little surprised if it’s on Sunday. And one more Brock rumor, he will win the Rumble and face JBL at Wrestlemania. See that I would hate, he’s gone for just about a year and gets a title shot? That is one rumor I hope remains a rumor. Okay the next one, HBK will win the Rumble and take that victory to Smackdown and challenge Kurt Angle, It’s believed that Kurt will have that title before Wrestlemania. Okay HBK on Smackdown? I definitely could live with that, Smackdown could use Shawn without a doubt. Here are the final two rumors about Wrestlemania. Rock vs. JBL and Rock wins. Again like Brock I don’t go for that the man hardly shows up and letting him carry the title is even worse than Hunter winning all the time, hey at least Hunter shows up on a weekly basis. And finally the last rumor it’s going to be John Cena challenging JBL for the title at Wrestlemania. I could see that happening. Isn’t this great all these rumors and trust me before Wrestlemania happens there’s going to be so many more. One final thing, RVD had reconstructive knee surgery yesterday and will be out about 6 months so I want to wish him a very speedy recovery. Okay there you have it and please check out my picks Sunday for the Rumble and for those of you that sent me your predictions thank you so much. Just keep them coming I’m finding a pattern where there are three matches that have different predictions. They would be the Rumble itself, Taker/Heindenreich, and Edge vs. HBK other than those three things seem to be pretty much unanimous. So Sunday I will have my winners for the show.
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