Okay so picture this. I have been sick for the last few days. I believe my son decided to share his bronchitis with me. So yesterday is not one of my better days. I’m uncomfortable and tired. Honestly I didn’t know if I would be able to watch all of Smackdown or just tape it and watch it later. But not only did I last for the whole show, I really liked what I saw. I will admit with Kurt Angle and John Cena no longer on, Smackdown right now is lacking star power. But the show delivered and believe me the only segment that didn’t work for me was I think you know, but I’ll get to that part in a little bit. Other than that, Smackdown came through.
I wish that ECW would have played a major part of the show, instead of just having them mentioned in JBL’s opening promo. Smackdown could use so many of the guys from ECW, and just incorporating ECW with Smackdown I feel would be a success, so it bothered me that the invasion angle didn’t continue. Also where were the Dudley’s? I figured they would return, but I figured wrong. I read today that the reason that they were not on was because the creative team has nothing for them right now. Now if that’s true how pathetic is that? With such a weak tag team division you’re telling me that Vince could not find a way to bring the Dudley’s back and get them into a storyline immediately? Hey maybe if he wouldn’t have thrown MNM in with the miserable segment with Heidenreich and the diva’s, MNM could have a nice storyline going with the Dudley’s. Yeah that was the segment that I despised. Well maybe despised is a strong word, but Heidenreich coming out with chocolate on his face and looking for friends bombed with me again. The diva’s added in there just made it even worse than it was. Okay my thinking is, that MNM being brought in there is now a way to bring back Eugene and team him up with a man that doesn’t seem to know how to wrestle, yes I mean Heidenreich. Well I guess Eugene will be carrying Heidenreich’s ass for awhile.
Okay enough of my rant on to bigger and better things. First let me say that JBL’s promo was good, however I thought he talked way too long I think he could have bashed ECW in less time. However I didn’t dislike his promo and I especially enjoyed the part when wonderful JBL wasn’t able to tell which Basham was Doug, which was Danny. But that didn’t bother JBL since he said that all look the same anyway. I was so pleased the way they made Benoit look like the star of the show last night, which is the way it should be. When he came out and interrupted JBL, I just looked at Benoit as being the man that is going to carry the show. I thought his match against Doug Basham was excellent. I never doubted the Basham’s talent in the ring, and Doug showed a lot against one of the best in the business. I was thrilled Benoit beat Doug since they are always so good at switching each other to prevent a loss. The after match was very effective. Benoit was attacked by the guys, with JBL still singing his own praises. All of a sudden the lights went out and Undertaker showed up in the ring. He cleared the ring out and it was Theodore Long that made Smackdown’s main event with JBL vs. Taker in a no DQ match. This really got the crowd going and it was all played out very nicely.
I totally loved the Eddie Guerrero match against Paul London. I’m telling you this was too short for me. I could have watched this one all night. As much as I like the Mysterio, Guerrero feud and I do like it a lot, I would love London to be the next guy that has a feud with Eddie. This was a beaut, but I was sorry to see London tap out to the Texas Coverleaf, I would have much preferred Eddie cheating to win and not making London look weak by tapping out. But that was minor because London definitely looked good out there and all I ask is that WWE puts these two in a program together. Like Benoit earlier, Paul London suffered a beating by Guerrero. It was Rey to the rescue by clocking Eddie on the head with a nice chair shot. But Rey managed to slam Eddie two more times on his back with the chair. And then it was “ON,” both guys were outside of the ring and it was Eddie that was thrown into the ring-post. This was a hell of a post match segment. But wait once we got back from break, Eddie and Rey were taking it backstage. Mysterio tortured Guerrero with a ladder and steel fencing and then Rey got this great idea to close the loading door only Eddie was smart enough to roll underneath it and get out while the going was good. Next week it’s Rey vs. Eddie, which I would imagine will be their last encounter. I like the tension between JBL and his cabinet members. JBL showed last night that he’s definitely not a team player by telling Orlando Jordan that the Bashams would not be there for him against his match with Bob Holly for the U.S. Title. Mr. Smackdown needed the brothers with him when he faced Taker. Jordan wasn’t too pleased and even more upset were Doug and Danny. Again JBL didn’t know Doug from Danny. I loved their line about them being sick and tired of being JBL’s crash test dummies. They supposedly quit the cabinet. I wonder if these guys will be traded to Raw, but that’s another subject. Okay now it’s my guy Carlito and his Carlito Cabana. And his guests are Booker T and Sharmell. Again Carlito had some priceless facial expressions and again he started the interview off with the two on a positive note but managed to anger both Booker and Sharmell the more he talked. He brought up Kurt Angle being drafted to Raw and wondered if Booker was concerned that now that Sharmell is a Smackdown Diva that she could be traded to Raw and be on the same show with Kurt. Carlito came off so caring about the chance of poor Sharmell being on Raw with Kurt while Booker was still on Smackdown, and then Carlito ended with if that should happen that would be very cool. That was enough to get Booker going. But it was Sharmell that did the talking. She said that it could be there last night together and that they wanted to leave Carlito with something to remember them by, and Book went after CCC. As Carlito escaped Sharmell and Booker threw apples at Carlito. Maybe not the best Cabana segment but still good and Booker again came alive earlier when he said that he and Sharmell got their kicks out of beating Kurt Angle. Book again was just full of life when he talked about Angle. I guess we can now expect a Carlito, Booker feud, and that’s a feud I can definitely live with.
I unfortunately missed Carlito talking to Matt Morgan, but I did see Big Show take on Morgan. Okay I didn’t think Morgan looked bad in this one, but the more I see Big Show the more sluggish he’s looking. I watched this thinking maybe it’s time for Big Show to be what Batista was in Evolution. This way no matches for him, yet he can do some damage by taking out someone that is trying to destroy the guy he works with. Big Show just doesn’t have it, yet I wouldn’t want to see him off the show, I think he works hard but he just lacks speed. I liked the Holly vs. Jordan match, and I feel Holly brought the best out in Jordan and this was a very entertaining match. In fact it was one of my favorites of the show. And finally the main event with JBL vs. Taker came off surprisingly good. Taker has been gone since Wrestlemania and he seemed a little rejuvenated. I thought he worked his ass off last night. In fact both men worked very hard and maybe it could have been a tad shorter but it was a good match. And seeing Randy Orton come out and RKO Taker was a nice way to give JBL the win. Okay I didn’t do a Raw column on Tuesday but I really did expect Orton to go there this week. I figured with Kurt Angle being on Raw, Smackdown would draft a top heel, and Randy hit me right away. I think having Orton on Smackdown is a very smart move, and once he’s cleared to wrestle I think we can expect Orton to be the new top heel or at least right up there.
I liked Raw a lot this week; I thought Kurt Angle and Triple H had a fantastic segment. It brought back memories of the love triangle back in 2000. I was so happy to see Shawn Michaels return and Chris Jericho turning on Cena was expected but it still worked for me. And last night’s Smackdown managed to work very well with two of their main guys gone. One Night Stand, Raw and Smackdown made this a very cool week for wrestling. Wait I just sounded like Carlito. But it’s true all three shows came off very well, especially One Night Stand. Please don’t forget to watch Bang TV. This week it opens with a nice match with Big Mike vs. Murder One. The rest of the card is listed when you go to the site. I have my eye on a guy there named Blane Rage. He definitely has a cocky type of character going for him. It’s nice to view these shows, because you see they young talent that want it to so much that they are going to give their all to make it. If you haven’t checked Bang TV out really try too, as I said last week it’s so cool to see guys that could one day the future of WWE or TNA. You can watch it at http://www.dory-funk.com/bang-tv.html Okay I’ll return on Sunday, with my thoughts on a bunch of different things.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
