This won’t be earth shattering news to the majority of you, but Smackdown just didn’t have it last night. While the Royal Rumble and Raw were both sizzling, Smackdown wasn’t even lukewarm. To be honest with you the way the shows have been lately I really wasn’t expecting much, but I did expect Smackdown to have some life in it after Sunday and Monday’s show, but it didn’t.
When John Cena and JBL stood in that ring and interacted I was so impressed. It all started when Teddy Long entered the ring and declared that there would be a number one contender tournament staring this week on Smackdown, you can smell it in the air that this is the tournament Cena is winning and then it’s off to Wrestlemania. Of course Teddy did add the following, should Batista come to Smackdown then that match will turn into a triple threat match.This brought out a disgusted JBL and the fireworks started. JBL has come such a long way since becoming the WWE champion. His mic work has been consistently strong and watching him last night work against one of the very best on the mic, Cena was a total treat. Both of these men put on a hell of a non wrestling performance. Watching the San Jose crowd react just made this so much better. I thought because of this super segment which included Cena giving JBL the F’U that Smackdown would come off well. I saw this as setting the tone for a good show, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
I will say that Kurt Angle vs. Nunzio had the potential for being something to see. I loved it that Nunzio had enough balls to go out and challenge Angle after Angle stole Nunzio’s number in the Royal Rumble. I just wish that Nunzio would have been allowed to really give Kurt a run for his money. Don’t get me wrong Angle wasn’t going to lose but just having these two work a longer match with both getting some good moves in would have appealed to me so much more. It’s more obvious week after week that Kurt is not doing well physically. I didn’t notice this but many of you did and emailed me that on Sunday Kurt was moving his fingers after Shawn Michaels threw him over the ropes. I’m reading more and more that Kurt’s neck isn’t good and that he has lost feeling in his fingers. When you think of it, it was back in late March or early April of last year when Kurt became the GM for Smackown, and how many months due to the “broken leg” did he not wrestle? Then once he got back in there he wrestled at pay per views but basically that was about it, and then the Kurt Angle Invitational took place. Angle is working less and less, and I really miss not seeing a Kurt Angle do what he does best, WRESTLE! I’m hoping that with so little time in the ring all these months things will fall back into place for Kurt.
As far as watching Kurt and his merry men, Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak plan out their strategy against the Undertaker in his match with Renee Dupree I felt nothing. The stable doesn’t click. There’s no name, Angle as the Triple H of this group isn’t working for me at all. I would rather see Angle on his own then leading these two guys. Although Reigns is definitely made for a heel role there’s just something lacking with these three. So when they get together and try to be evil is just turns out to be anything but. As far as Carlito Cool, my guy? Not one of his best nights. He wasn’t bad but he really had nothing to work. His job was to inform Theodore Long that Teddy would not be traveling to Japan. That’s because Cool’s petition was so important that Long will be talking to the Board of Directors. Two backstage segments that weren’t especially outstanding.
The first real match of the night finally was Rey Mysterio vs. Mark Jindrak. This was good and I will even say the match of the night. Jindrak held his own, but Rey was totally the star in this one. Rey has been on a roll in the last few months and it’s nice to see that Vince is using him on a regular basis. I was thrilled that Mysterio didn’t get screwed out of a victory by Jindrak. All was good here. Okay here we go, here’s when things really get bad. Amy and Joy, and a cleaning bill, that’s about all I will say with that. And Big Show defeating The Bashams was blah; in fact all I can remember was seeing Big Show do head butts. I can’t take his head butts anymore, he comes off so clumsy like a cartoon character when he does them. This was by far the worst match of the night. Another match that wasn’t that bad but had a crappy ending was Taker vs. Renee Dupree.
I’ll tell you I’m so sick of Renee that I would love to see him in a different gimmick because this one has gotten the best of me. Taker worked hard and so did Renee but you just knew when Jindrak and Reigns came out it would be curtains for Taker. As I said up until Angle’s guys came out this wasn’t bad, but when the match was stopped for a double count out that did it for me. Taker had Dupree down and was just about to get back in the ring when Luther held his leg down which kept Undertaker from stopping the count. So goes the double count out. I guess with Taker not there often they weren’t going to let him continue on for the number one contender spot. And Dupree I guess they feel like I do enough already. So a good match but disappointing ending.
Okay I never EVER thought my Royal Rumble commercial could be topped, but last night Hunter and Ric Flair did one hell of a job in spoofing Braveheart and Shrek. I never imagined I would find it as funny and as clever as I did. Hunter was brilliant with his so called Scottish accent and with his humor, and Ric? My God Ric still knows how to sell Hunter, by telling Triple H that Mel Gibson has nothing on him. And watching Ric face to face with the mule doing his famous WOOO, was GOLD. This was so good that I found a link to watch it and if anyone is interested all you have to do is email me and I will be glad to give it to you. I didn’t care for the Forrest Gump one, but this one was so good, that I can’t wait to see what’s next. Okay back to Smackdown, I think most of you know that I like Booker and I am a major Eddie Guerrero fan, but last night watching them in the ring for some reason fell flat. I don’t know what it was, but this was definitely not the best either guy has ever done. I totally expected more from Book and Guerrero, I mean you have two excellent wrestlers in there yet this one just didn’t take off.
So as you can see Smackdown had its moments but there were not enough of them. Before I end this I am very pleased by the way they announced the new inductees for the Wrestling Hall of Fame. I would be lying to you if I told you they all deserve it because I’m sorry to say I have never seen any of these guys since I didn’t watch wrestling then. But there are more names to come and this was all done very nicely. Okay I will be back on Sunday, let’s see no pay per views so that means no predictions but there’s plenty of news and rumors going around. So check back here on Sunday.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
