There are two days and counting. Smackdown came through and entertained me. I’m so hyped for Wrestlemania, maybe it’s because Smackdown did a lot to get me in this mood. Two of Smackdown’s top stars had very strong segments, another oldie but goodie from the past showed up, we had another Raw crossover, a title change and two nice matches so let me get right into a Smackdown that definitely worked for me. Let me start with the matches and in ring segments first.
Eddie Guerrero vs. Danny Basham was the opening match. It was a match that wasn’t spectacular but good. It seemed like Eddie wanted Rey Mysterio anywhere but with him during this match. Could it be that Eddie didn’t trust his tag team partner? Anyway the match was good and naturally Doug Basham had to help out his brother, which in turn caused Rey to come out and help Eddie, But Rey “accidentally” took out Eddie which caused Eddie’s loss. So there’s Eddie trying hard to control himself yet you could see that Rey was not his favorite at that moment. The whole time you see Rey apologizing and telling Eddie it was an accident. It took a lot of convincing, but Eddie finally seemed to believe Rey and ended up hugging him. So as you can tell from this match the fun loving Eddie seems to ready to turn on Rey. We get a little more of that later on in the show. The best match of the night had to be the battle royal cruiserweight match with Chavo, Billy Kidman, Paul London, Akio, Scotty Too Hotty, Funaki, Spike Dudley and Nunzio. This match was really designed to get the title off of a very injured Chavo Guerrero. And it worked, in a matter of seconds all the participants managed to throw him over the rope. This match wasn’t rushed for a change and for the most part it gave the rest of the guys to show off their stuff. Paul London is now the Cruiserweight champion, and as I seem to say every time there’s a new champ, here’s hoping that he gets plenty of TV time on Smackdown to defend the title.
Did anyone notice that Luther Reigns seemed to take Heidenreich’s place in the Booker T feud? Last week Luther came out to agitate Big Show, last night he was in a match with Book. This was an okay match, but again Booker T’s wife Sharmell seems to be getting in on the angle and I will say this, she seems to energize Booker. He’s been a lot more alive since they added her in there. As I said the match was okay, I’m still not totally into Luther in the ring. We know he can handle the mic but in the ring he seems to lack something, but maybe the more he’s used the more he will improve. I had two favorite segments last night; one was with Undertaker, Cowboy Orton and Randy Orton. Bob Orton is another guy I never saw so it was a treat to see him last night playing the kind and caring father of Randy. He came off so nice and polite with Theodore Long, and his promo in the ring about Randy going overboard with the RKO on Stacy and disrespecting Taker by slapping him in the face was so touching. All Bob wanted was for Taker to go easy on Randy at Wrestlemania. Taker came out and there was Cowboy Bob on his knees begging Taker to listen to him. But Taker wasn’t listening. As Taker turned Randy came from out of nowhere and Taker got the RKO. Here’s what I loved about this. First Taker, Randy and Bob all did a neat job out there, but it was Bob that had me laughing. Once Taker got RKO’d, there was Cowboy Bob laughing and he laughed all the way up the ramp with Randy. I can see that this guy’s character must have been fun to watch. I would think he will pop up for Randy’s match on Sunday and I have to say I can’t wait.
Rey must have apologized to Eddie 20 times, Rey didn’t know what to do to make things right. But Eddie had an idea. Eddie G, playing all innocent told Rey it would be so nice if they could just have another match with the Bashams or if Doug and Rey could have a match and Rey immediately said he could have a match with Doug, that he would go to Long and set it up. And that was the next match. This time Eddie accompanied Rey and didn’t you all know that Eddie had a little plan of his own for this one? This was another okay match with the focus more on Eddie and what if anything would he do to Rey. As Rey was on the top rope to make his next move, Danny got on the apron and yeah Eddie got there too but hit the rope and Rey ended up falling on the rope and then fell into the ring causing him to lose to Doug. Eddie apologized and the two again hugged. Wouldn’t it be cool if Rey turned on Eddie instead of the other way around? Well I’ll get into that more with my predictions on Sunday. So we leave Eddie and Rey as friends and wondering just what will happen during their match at Wrestlemania. Okay my next favorite segment was Kurt Angle taking his frustrations out on poor innocent Josh Matthews. I really expected Shawn Michaels to show up, but this segment came off very well without Shawn there. Josh was backstage interviewing Kurt and he seemed to rub Kurt the wrong way with his questions and Kurt decided to pretend Josh was Shawn and beat the hell out of him. He brought Josh from backstage to the ring and continued to beat on him. Josh was able to go after Kurt for a second but it just angered Kurt more and as Kurt attacked him you could hear him saying how do you like this Shawn? This was a terrific segment and his match with Shawn at Wrestlemania is one that I think I’m looking forward too more than the others. After Kurt was done with Josh Kurt grabbed the mic and talked to Shawn, saying he knew Shawn was watching and at Wrestlemania this is what Shawn can expect. And then Kurt showed his video again. I can’t tell you how much I loved all of this. Kurt was able to look like a star without evening having a match. This by far was the best segment of the night, well at least for me it was.
The weigh in with Big Show and Akebono really didn’t do much for me. I don’t know how to take Akebono. He seems to be sweet and polite, but I don’t know what to think about him or the match. And the main event with John Cena vs. Carlito Caribbean Cool left me cool. I’m so glad that CCC is back wrestling. His segment with Theodore Long earlier in the show was okay. It wasn’t the best we’ve seen of Carlito but it was to show us that Carlito was given the okay to get back in the ring. John Cena really had very little to do which surprised me since he’s part of the main event on Sunday. This match never took off and yeah I was disappointed. I was also disappointed that they did the “let’s arrest Cena for vandalizing JBL’s car last week” angle. JBL and Cena were really not around much last night and I would have expected a lot more from both of them. But all in all a good show, a show that got Taker/Orton going even more, and it just heated the HBK/Angle feud up so well.
I’m ready for Wrestlemania and Sunday I will have my predictions. I have been getting a lot of your picks, so keep them coming. I have to say I don’t remember ever getting such upbeat email about Wrestlemania like I have so far. So many of you in fact the majority of you are as excited as I am about the show that it definitely comes through in the emails. Okay check on Sunday to view my picks, will they be perfect? Probably not but hopefully close to it.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
