For those of you that get Smackdown over the weekend make sure you watch it. Trust me there is so much that you don’t want to miss. For instance, matches that are totally worth watching, a super backstage segment with two of Smackdown’s top stars, plus a few other backstage segments that worked very well, and someone has a new theme song. Just an all around strong show. WWE should be extremely proud of themselves for giving their fans two hot shows this week. The road to Wrestlemania is definitely going in the right direction so far.
Most of us got to see Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels show their stuff on Raw this past Monday night, and last night Marty Jannetty showed me that WWE should think of signing him. Marty still looks good he doesn’t look like those veterans that are so out of shape and dated, no he has a look that still holds up today. And more importantly than all of that, Marty can still do it in the ring. Kurt Angle had a very worthy opponent and Kurt and Marty made the most of it. This was a fabulous match, and as I said a match that showed me WWE would do right by signing Jannetty. I would put him on Smackdown and just let him do his magic in the ring. As I said this was my favorite match of the night. I was so impressed with both of these men that if they would put Kurt and Marty in ppv match I definitely would pay to see it. Also what made me love this match was that Shawn did not come out to help Jannetty, this was a clean victory with no interference for Kurt, and it just made this all so much better.
How funny was JBL busting in on Theodore Long who was just about to talk about John Cena’s punishment for giving Teddy the F’U? JBL came in all smiles just waiting to hear what Long had planned. I got such a kick out of JBL’s facial expressions. JBL was looking for Long to suspend Cena. That didn’t happen; the punishment Long decided on is that Cena is not to touch JBL unless they are in a match together. If Cena should go after JBL then he will lose his title shot at Wrestlemania. This little announcement totally killed off JBL’s smile. And things got even worse for JBL when Long made a JBL/Bashams match against Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero and yes, John Cena. So this was the first of many segments that were written well. Another one was Chavo paying a visit to Uncle Eddie. It’s nice to have the troublemaker Chavo back. This time he was getting in Eddie’s ear about Rey holding him back, that Eddie should be in singles matches and that Eddie was disgracing the Guerrero name by teaming with Rey. Good stuff by Chavo and Eddie came through as very pissed and fed up with the crap that Chavo was coming up with.
Booker T came out to a nice reaction by the Savannah, Georgia crowd. They seemed to love Booker, and so did Sharmell, Booker’s wife. It was nice seeing her again, and I’m wondering if the reason they focused on her so much is because she is going to somehow get written in with Booker. But anyway he took on Luther Reigns, and I will tell you right now, Book and a lot of enthusiasm during this match. Luther I can’t say was bad but as Theodore Long would say I’m just not feelin him in the ring Playa. Booker I will credit for making this a good match. My only beef was that John Heidenreich had to be a part of this. Listen I’m not going to say much about Heindenreich’s appearance just that it sounds like he’s changing his character. I have no idea what that’s about and I don’t really know if this will make a difference. I just didn’t care for Heidenreich being out there, but otherwise I liked this match.
So Randy Orton made it to Smackdown for his contract signing with Taker. While this wasn’t the contract signing of all times, it came off well. Eric Bischoff popped up and joined Theodore Long in the ring. Naturally Bisch took over or at least tried. It was nice to see Eric come out and put more emphasis on the importance of this inter-promotional match. Did you all notice that Randy lost his energy and big smile with the crowd. He had that stern, tough look and Taker did his usual which was fine. The crowd’s reaction to Undertaker was great. Taker looked grim and eerie and Orton acted like the Deadman is going down at Wrestlemania. Orton gave a short promo about Taker being 12-0 at Wrestlemania and that he would end his run. And then Randy slapped the poor guy across the face, that’s when things got real creepy. Taker took off the hat and I guess shook in anger and the lights went on and off and static hit the Smackdown screen, and Orton got the hell out of there. I guess you don’t slap Taker and get away with it. This did just what it needed to do; it got things rolling with Orton and Taker.
It was so nice to see Billy Kidman back. For months I wondered why he wasn’t being used and finally I had read that he was injured. See this is what I wish, I wish when someone is going to be out like that, WWE would inform the fans what’s going on. Kidman and Paul London naturally put on a super match. These guys have chemistry and it was so good to see them go at it again. It’s been a while and I’m very glad that Kidman is remaining a heel. Now that he’s back I hope they put him out there more because before his injury he was doing a good job with his character as a heel, I really want to see more with him, and London on Smackdown. Carlito Caribbean Cool had me smiling with his laid back attitude while helping out behind the concession stand. Oh my God he’s such a creep I love it. All this guy has to do is open his mouth and immediately I’m laughing. I bet the fan that got hot dog spit in his face cherished it so much. I mean how cool would it be to get involved in a skit and be spit on? It’s Carlito doing the spitting what a treat that would be. Okay I’m sure I sound weird but truly I thought it was neat seeing the boy and the older kid taking part in this. And Carlito came through as being the self-centered jerk he is.
Hey did any of you truly buy in to Big Show hyping up his Sumo match with Akebono? I didn’t, in fact the more he talked the less I care to see this match. So let me go right to JBL and Orlando Jordan plotting against John Cena. JBL remembered that Cena is out at Wrestlemania should he go after JBL unless it’s a match. A light bulb went off in his head and Orlando and JBL left to put JBL’s plan in motion. But before we see what JBL has up his sleeve, during the show a few divas were out with the fans to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The only part that I liked was Dawn Marie mingling with the fans and then eyeing Michelle McCool. That set Dawn off and Dawn went after Michelle and they began to brawl. Sure this wasn’t the segment of segments but Dawn is coming off very well lately playing a bitch. She’s been given a little more to do and she’s coming off very natural. I’ll give Michelle and Dawn credit for making this come off pretty entertaining.
Okay now this was the backstage segment that really grabbed me. JBL doing all he can to piss off John Cena. Cena knowing that he can’t touch him had to hear JBL make fun of Cena’s mother. It was non stop taunting by JBL and the more he went on the more Cena was getting angrier and angrier. This was a very strong segment by both JBL and Cena and it was Cena that stopped things, by informing JBL that Cena would take care of him in a few minutes during their match. Boy did they backfire on JBL. Finally it was time for the main event. And while the crowd was good there were moments when they would be quieter then others. However, during this match they all came alive. This main event with JBL and The Bashams vs. Eddie, Rey and Cena was excellent. So alive so fast moving, I loved it. Also John Cena came out with a brand new entrance theme. While I liked it I missed his other one but I’m sure I’ll take to this one right away. As I said the crowd’s reaction to this was amazing and Cena was so over. In fact so was Eddie, the Eddie chants were nice to hear. This was a great main event, and I was so glad to see Rey get the pin on Danny Basham. The ending was also extremely good. After JBL missed a chair shot on John Cena, it was Cena that got the chair and held it over JBL who was down on the ground. JBL smiled more and more knowing that if Cena hit him with the chair Cena was out at Wrestlemania. You could just see the frustration in Cena’s face. But what was even better was that Cena turned his frustrations out on Doug Basham and blasted him with chair shots, one after another. After the beating, Cena bent down by JBL did his famous You Can’t See Me gesture, and left. This was the perfect way to show a violent side of Cena but it also showed a very controlled side of him as well. He did what he had to do without laying a hand on JBL and getting kicked out of Wrestlemania. A fantastic ending to a really excellent Smackdown.
Wow what a great week of WWE programming I’m so hyped for Wrestlemania that I can’t wait to see what in store for us next week on Raw and Smackdown. I’ll be back on Sunday so please check out my column.
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