Waking up this morning and reading an email from my friend informing me about the death of Chris Candido was not only a shock but something that really hit me so hard. Even though I haven’t watched TNA in a while, I had checked the updates from their pay per view on Sunday and read about the injury to Candido’s ankle. So every time there was an update from Lockdown, I would check it out. Chris seemed to be doing well after his surgery well, and all seemed good. So it’s really hard to grasp that this man died and died at such a young age, 33. I want to send my thoughts out to his family and I’m very sorry that something so routine ended so tragically. Okay now I would like to talk about Smackdown. The show was another winner last night. The Birmingham crowd again was on fire and it was just a terrific show.
What better way to get things going then by starting off with Carlito’s Cabana. Not only was Carlito a riot. He immediately turned all those cheers into jeers by insulting England, the Queen of England and Prince Charles and Camella. Carlito was totally on his game and so was he guest, Kurt Angle. You know Kurt not only is coming up with great lines like he used too, but you can see even in his facial expressions that it’s the Kurt of old. Kurt seems as happy as I believe most of his fans are that he’s back and back in a big way. Angle mentioned a few of his accomplishments of late and it turned out that like the host these accomplishments were COOL. Like Angle beating Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania, or like Angle beating Eddie Guerrero a few weeks ago and finally how cool it will be when Angle wins the fatal four way match later in the show to take on John Cena for the WWE title. Yeah it was Carlito’s Cabana with Carlito Cool and Kurt Cool. All is cool until someone walked out and interrupted Angle. It was Steve Lewington from Great Britain, and he was there to accept the Kurt Angle Invitational.
This played out so well. Annoying Angle wasn’t going to be bothered with that challenge, not when he had this big match coming up later in the show. After Angle threw the kid out of the ring, he continued on the mic telling each participant, Booker, JBL and Big Show that he would win and as he was talking Lewington came from behind and attacked Kurt. Kurt then gave Lewington a low blow and then the famous ankle lock was put on Lewington. Kurt and Lewington made this fun and Carlito taking it all in was icing on the cake. So a very cool opening and it definitely set the mood for a very cool show. I know will leave my Carlito impersonation and go right to one of the best matches of the night. I will ignore the part where Torrie Wilson came out as the ring announcer, and pretend she didn’t talk. It was Paul London vs. Chavo Guerrrero for the Cruiserweight Title. This was done so well, London looked very good out there as did Chavo. Again they just showed how special this division is. The ending saw London on the top rope, but Chavo pushed Paul so hard that London flew out of the ring, and was “knocked out.” In fact he never made it back to the ring and was counted out. Chavo got the win, and he also thought the title was his and he took it with a big Chavo smile and started to leave. The ref then grabbed it off his shoulder and informed Chavo that he won the match but the title doesn’t change hands on a count out. Now wouldn’t you think Chavo would have been well aware of this?
He seemed rather upset and surprised by the decision. As I said this was an excellent match and it’s really nice seeing Chavo back as a heel, that face turn he took a few months ago never took off. Were any of you surprised that John Heindenreich was on? Okay did you notice he didn’t wrestle? You did? Then did you notice that he read another worthless poem and added nothing to the show? Yeah I figured you all noticed that, so let me go to Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero. Eddie did his best to get Rey to believe how much he cared about their friendship. But it didn’t take long for Chavo to stick his two cents in there and try to get the tag team duo questioning each others loyalty. Chavo did another nice job with Uncle Eddie and Rey, and this whole segment was very appealing to watch. By the way Eddie managed to make Rey see the light and they managed to put the past behind and their main goal would be to get their tag team titles back from MNM. This was another match that I totally enjoyed. I felt MNM gelled a lot better this week, and I like watching Rey and Eddie as their opponents. I don’t know I kind of see it as Mysterio and Guerrero as MNM’s teachers kind of like their project and they are doing all they can to get a good match from this new team. It was a good match and it also might have started the Eddie heel turn. After Rey mistakenly knocked Eddie out of the ring, Eddie couldn’t seem to shake that accident off, and you saw a very serious and angry Eddie walking away from the match. After some thinking Eddie went back and stood on the apron. All seemed well, like Eddie was ready to help out whenever Rey was ready to tag him. However when that moment came, Eddie totally ignored Rey, Rey ended up getting pinned and Eddie just watched. Then Melina gave Mercury and Nitro the attack sign and they grabbed Rey and threw him out of the ring. While they were getting ready to go after Rey MNM kept checking on Eddie. I guess they wanted to make sure that he wasn’t going to stop them and that’s just what happened.
Once Rey was thrown out of the ring, Mercury and Nitro continued to go after Mysterio and they finish things off by throwing him into the ring post. The thrilled champions left and so did Eddie. As Rey was moaning and calling for Eddie, Guerrero walked away and the fans that earlier where chanting Eddie’s name now were booing Eddie. I definitely rate this as one of the top matches on the show. This was a match that not only kept a great pace, but it wasn’t rushed it really was a pleasure to watch. I have to say John Cena vs. Renee Dupree wasn’t bad yet it wasn’t my cup of tea. The last guy I want to see out there with Cena is Dupree. I had read that he was going to be off and repackaged, which I was so glad to hear. But last night he came out with the flag and he was the same old Renee. I will say that Cena looked okay out there and the crowd was definitely into this because of Cena. Not a horrible match but my least favorite of the night. And then you have the Matt Morgan segment. As much as I want to give Matt Morgan the benefit of the doubt, they definitely need to dump the stuttering gimmick as I said last week, and dump the jobber. Like Chris Masters on Raw this jobber stuff isn’t cutting it with me. I want to see Morgan vs. a mid to top card wrestler on the roster. Then I can kind of get an idea just what he brings to Smackdown. But this jobber stuff is leaving me ICE COLD.
And finally the main event, a fatal 4-way with JBL vs. Big Show vs. Kurt Angle vs. Booker was a worthy main event. Maybe it’s just me but Show seemed very off last night. Slower than usual. But JBL, Book and Angle came through. I loved this because it showcased a lot of positives with all three guys. And honestly as far as Big Show goes I had no problem with him. Anyway I loved this main event and what really made me happy was that it all ended with JBL pinning Kurt angle. Why did that make me happy? I’ll tell you why. Because it was Booker T that was eliminated by Kurt thanks to a chair-shot, and Book repaid Kurt with one right to the head which let JBL pin Angle for the win. So I’m happy because now Kurt vs. Booker will be a new feud and I think since both guys are so out there it should be worth watching. And before I forget, Booker really looked good in the main event. I’m telling you wives really can make a big difference. See that was for my benefit. This was my kind of main event and a great way to end the show.
I was very pleased with both Raw and Smackdown again this week and don’t forget Sunday is Backlash and I will have my predictions up that day. Start sending me your picks, I have received a few so keep them coming. I have to go now and study after all I want to have every prediction right. I laugh as I type this because Backlash isn’t so predictable at least for me it isn’t.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
