It’s night every week when you can watch the first hour of Smackdown on WWE.com and then go to UPN for the second hour. I wasn’t sure if how this would work but I’m happy to say that it worked out very well, at least for me it did. I liked Smackdown in fact I liked it much better than Monday’s Raw. Smackdown seemed to be more about matches than usual and it helped make the show enjoyable to watch.
I was surprised, very surprised that the Tag Team Title Match went as long as it did. AND, I was even more surprised that John Heidenreich came off well in this one. I would say it’s about time that Heidenreich was put in a match that A. Lasted more than a minute. B. Where he did more than punch and C. Where there was no major interference to take up much of the time. I thoroughly enjoyed this match; even Animal brought something to it. The Atlanta crowd seemed to be totally entertained by what was going on as much as I was. MNM still looks damn good out there and I really wish Vince would use a lot of his energy to build that division up. This match really set the tone for a strong show. Even with MNM loss I still give this one a big THUMBS UP!
I happened to like the video recapping the Undertaker, Randy Orton feud. And Randy I thought was much more on his game last night. I’m just waiting for him to turn on Cowboy Bob and RKO his dad. I also found the segment with Taker coming out and Randy and his dad presenting him with his retirement check of $1,416.00 okay. It set up a rematch next Friday on Smackdown and I loved the lightening bolt but the check burning was very cool, very effective. Now, I don’t know how many of you have read about Paul London being in Vince’s doghouse, so let me give you a short version. Rumors have it that Vince wants the cruiserweights to tone down their high flying moves. And London questioned Vince about this and because Paul felt differently he paid for it. First by losing his title to Nunzio and second by making him a whining complaining heel. So last night watching London lose to Mr. Kennedy, Kennedy I didn’t expect anything else. I can’t say this match was anything special but Kennedy again has me hypnotized by his obnoxiousness. I’ll get into more with him in a little bit. But as far as Paul London goes, you have a talent here and because he spoke up he’s not being used like he should be. There’s got to be a better way to “punish” your workers than by taking away moves that they are known for.
I am still very happy with Paul Birchill. I have to admit I wasn’t able to hear everything that he said during his promo on Scotty Too Hotty, since the sound on my computer is not exactly loud. But the little I heard I found him to be quite comfortable on the mic. I also like what I see in the ring. I believe more than ever this guy has a future with the WWE. And as I said last week it certainly isn’t going to hurt him having William Regal guiding him along. I liked the match against Scotty, and I might bitch and complain about Scotty’s character being stale but when this guy can wrestle and if you take that WORM away from him I really like his work so much better. This was a very good match and Birchill and Scotty are benefiting from this angle. Now back to Mr. Kennedy. One of my readers was at the taping this past week and told me that Kennedy’s backstage segment with Sharmell was GOLD. Now he didn’t say gold but he said Kennedy’s segment was really over with the crowd. I have to say that not only did I enjoy Ken Kennedy trying to put fill Sharmell’s head against Booker T’s friend, Chris Benoit, because Benoit has not offered a U.S. title match to Booker, but I love the self confidence in this man. This WAS a funny segment and I have to hand it to Mr. Kennedy he certainly was made for the mic. So this was the end of the first hour and now it is on to UPN.
And Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio in a Steel Cage Match started off the second hour. I loved this match; this was my match of the night. Yes I’m ready for both men to move on to other opponents but you cannot deny that these two have fantastic chemistry in the ring. I also like the Eddie Guerrero that is barely alive since he not only lost his “son” Dominick but his wife and daughters, plus he’s never beaten Rey. Well maybe he did but we are supposed to think it never happened. So I’ll go with that. Now you have the down on his luck Guerrero just dying to take care of Rey. The only thing I had problems with during the match was that UPN cut it for two breaks. One is bad enough but this time it was two. However this still stood out as a super match and Rey and Eddie gave their all. Eddie finally beat Mysterio and I think that we have seen the last of this feud, only I’ve been saying that for a while so who knows. Chris Benoit did it again, he beat Orlando Jordan in record breaking time. Orlando tapped out to the Crippler Crossface in 22.4 seconds. I have to say I love watching Benoit smile and gloat each time he beats Jordan. I would like to think that there’s a reason for Jordan losing in seconds three times in a row. If there isn’t some kind of storyline coming up for him, then if I were Jordan I would look into going to TNA. The only match that kind of did nothing for me was the main event. Now JBL used those facial expressions of his to make this work and Batista did a nice job playing the World Champion. However, I can’t say I’m a big fan of the Bull Rope gimmick match. I thought for the most part it was kind of a silly type of match. Don’t get me wrong the match had its moments, but if it were up to me the Bull Rope match will never EVER show up on a WWE show again. With Batista’s win again I would think that JBL will be looking for a new opponent, I think this feud like so many others has run its course.
But all in all this was a good show; I just wish Vince McMahon would have shown up making their switch to Friday night something important. Okay I have to say I’m a little thrown off by this Friday move. I figure Saturday’s or Sunday’s will be my column with Smackdown thoughts. So I’m going with Thursday or Friday for my columns about the latest news, rumors or just something on my mind. But I still will do my prediction columns on Sunday the same day as the pay per view. Confusing isn’t it? I will be back on Tuesday with my thoughts on the last Raw before Unforgiven. Okay I have another request from a reader, if anyone can help you can email him at tomkingsbury@hotmail.com. Tom is looking for any TNA or WCW 97-01 pay per view DVDs. They must be able to be played on an English DVD player. In advance thank you all for your help.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
