Smackdown didn’t do it for me last night. I can’t think of that many highlights, because for the most part I found the show to be a little dull. I was thinking about the show this morning and it hit me that for the most part the matches were nothing special, in fact the majority of the matches were nothing. Maybe Vince is to focused on Raw Homecoming and let this show slide. I promise to end on a positive note; I have a feeling that this column won’t have very many highlights. So let me get rid of the things that didn’t appeal to me and I’ll try to find some bright spots from the show.
You have no idea how badly I want Smackdown to succeed on Friday night. In my mind UPN wants Smackdown off and would love to see the show fail. Well after the opening segment with JBL bashing the Mexican population of Texas, I’m thinking oh yeah this is a great way to get the fans into a storyline. First why was it necessary to bring up more than once that they were in Laredo, Texas and right across the bridge is Mexico where 12 millions enter the United States from Mexico each year? Oh I know why it was to open the door for JBL to start his shtick about illegal immigrants. I was livid. This was done already over a year ago against Eddie Guerrero. This is another case where I believe that the whacky group called the creative staff just went back to the files and dug out an old promo that was used before.
I was very disappointed that they couldn’t come up with something more original. JBL bombed with me last night, and I do not blame him at all, that blame goes to Vince for being too lazy to come up with something new and worth listening too. Okay so I might not have liked the promo, the tag match with JBL, Mr. Kennedy, KENNEDY, (I just love doing that) vs. Bob Holly and Rey Mysterio I liked a lot. I thought it was a nice match. Kind of a different type of match for me (trust me I’m being sarcastic); since good tag team matches seem to be so rare in the WWE. This was my match of the night and again Holly proved that he should just keep his mouth shut, and wrestle. He did a great job. Rey was right up there and JBL along with Ken Kennedy did nice jobs as well. So this match helped make me forget about that JBL promo. This was another week that I just loved Eddie Guerrero. It’s so nice to have the Eddie back with his sneaky sense of humor. I love the chemistry between Eddie and Batista, I am so happy for Batista to be in a program with Guerrero. Their short backstage segment with Batista taking Eddie’s food from him because he didn’t want him to get sick like last week was funny and it just showed how well these two play off of each other.
I was happy to see Christy Hemme and Melina have something going. Melina comes off very well as a super bitch and watching her look very put out because Christy’s motorcycle was so loud was a perfect way to get these two in the ring. Their match was okay, I really have nothing bad to say about it. Christy has proved over and over again that she’s there to wrestle. I have read that wrestling was something she really wanted to learn and Christy has never taken the easy way out of a match. I have been waiting for a long time to see Melina in the ring; I’m not going to count that mini match she had with Michelle McCool. I really have high hopes for both women that we might just get a very good women’s match going as the weeks go on. Melina naturally cheated to win thanks to her guys, Nitro and Mercury. But it didn’t keep Christy from going after Melina. So the following set up a six person tag team match at No Mercy. With Mercury and Nitro all set to give Christy the Snap Shot, it was Animal and Heidenreich that came out and stopped MNM. Now I am disappointed in the upcoming match, because I was really hoping that it would be a tag team match for the title. I think it’s time to remove the titles from Animal and Heidenreich and give it back to MNM. But then I think about that situation and wonder who the hell would be MNM’s opponents? That’s how bad the tag team division is on both shows. Anyway it was a good match with Melina and Christy. The Bob Orton vs. Taker match with Randy Orton running in and taking out Undertaker for me was so bad I won’t even go into it. I will say one thing, after No Mercy it’s time to send Cowboy Bob home. Bobby Lashley vs. Russell Simpson was nothing more than a match to show just what Lashley is capable of. This match was a squash but it was Simon Dean coming out to inform Lashley that they will have a match at No Mercy. Now I found that more interesting than the match. Don’t get me wrong I’m still very impressed with Lashley but I would like him to wrestle a full match with a known WWE superstar. So his match against Dean at the pay per view might not be a bad thing. Dean definitely has the skills so it could be a good one. Now for a long time I have really been happy for the most part with Sharmell. Bringing her in with Booker has given Booker life; he’s been totally on his game. But I have to say I think Sharmell is starting to get to me. Maybe that’s the way the creative team wants it, I’m just finding her taking over too be too much, and now I feel enough is enough. The Peep Show with Christian did what it needed to do; it not only set up a match with Orlando Jordan, Booker and Christian which I liked, but it also brought out the U.S. champion Chris Benoit to set up his match at No Mercy. I want to congratulate my reader and friend Tim, for calling this fatal 4-way match weeks ago. It’s now going to be Benoit vs. Christian vs. Orlando Jordan vs. Booker T for the U.S. Title. This should be one of the best matches at No Mercy.
It was nice of Vince to show up on Smackdown to hype the Raw Homecoming, but I think it would have been even better had he come out to the ring. But either way it was a decent segment and we now know that Rey Mysterio, Batista, Chris Benoit, JBL, Eddie Guerrero and Christian will all be at Homecoming on Monday in some kind of surprise match. Hey did any of you notice that each time Theodore Long mentioned a name Vince seemed impressed, yet when Christians name was brought up, Vince didn’t look all that impressed? Maybe that’s the idea I don’t know but that sure got my attention. I said I would end on a positive note, okay so let’s see if I can do it. The main event was Guerrero and Batista vs. LOD. It was nice to see Eddie and Batista work so well together, but the match itself wasn’t exactly a great main event. However, things really improved with MNM ran out and took out LOD and then Eddie did his thing and the ending was not only fun but very clever. MNM took out LOD with chairs. Batista was all ready to help LOD but Eddie with a chair hit Batista smack on the back. Eddie panicked and as Batista was getting up tossed the chair to Mercury and fell to the mat immediately.
Batista looked around and to see who was holding the chair and Joey Mercury was a dead duck. Batista hit Mercury with a spine-buster and I’m laughing while all of this going on. Batista then went to Eddie to help him up and they hugged. Now see I don’t buy it for a minute that Batista thinks Eddie is loyal to him. I think this will all play out sometime next week, where Batista’s true feelings about Eddie will come out. But I loved the way this all played out. So now it’s on to the Raw Homecoming. Don’t forget it will be on an hour earlier and it will run for three hours. I’ll be back on Tuesday for what I hope will be a very upbeat column.
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