I thought I would wait until today to talk about Taboo Tuesday, because this weekend I’m going to be out more than I’m home, so I won’t be able to do a Smackdown column. Now I did horrible on my picks, I can’t believe I didn’t go with Batista and Trish, but what the hell, I’ll just have to bounce back with the Survivor Series. Taboo Tuesday turned out to be a very good show. In fact I’ve re-watched a few matches since Tuesday night that’s how good they were. The San Diego fans were good they definitely had their moments. So let me get right into the show.
Heat kicked things off with Kerwin White and Matt Striker vs. Shelton Benjamin and Val Venis. The only memorable thing about this match was having Joey Styles introduced. When that ECW music hit and he came out oh yeah I got goose-bumps. Joey always made ECW shows so exciting. That was probably because of his passion for the business. So Joey coming out and sitting with Lawler was the highlight on Heat. I will be honest with you this match and a match on Taboo Tuesday didn’t even register for me. Even though I sat and watched it, I could not tell you what went on with either match. I’m just very upset that Benjamin has become the Christian on Raw. Week after week after week his being buried, and again it just angers me very much.
As far as Taboo Tuesday as I said it was a very good show. Things got off to a rocky start when Lita announced that “her man” Edge wasn’t going to wrestle. Then Edge bad mouthed the match and said he wouldn’t gain a thing by beating Hardy again. Of course Edge was out of the match because of the injury I believe to his pec so this was a perfect way to get him out of there. However when it was announced that Gene Snitzky was Edge’s replacement I was not happy what so ever. In the back of my mind I’m thinking this is the match that Shelton Benjamin should have been in. He should have been Edge’s replacement. But of course that wasn’t happening. So it was Snitzky and Chris Masters vs. Rey Mysterio and Matt Hardy. Before I get into this match, I was so sure that once it got out that Christian quit the voting would go his way, but again that didn’t happen.
I don’t know if it was just me but, watching Christian stand next to JBL, Mysterio, Bob Holly and Matt Hardy he just seemed out of place, he didn’t look relaxed out there at all, which I could understand. Okay so back to me being upset about Snitzky being put in here. Well Gene Snitzky I owe you a big apology. Snitzky along with Masters, Hardy and Mysterio put on one hell of a match. It was so good that I didn’t even miss Edge. I was amazed with what I was seeing out there. Of course Rey and Matt were their usual outstanding selves, but Masters and Snitzky were just as good and this was one of my top three matches of the night. Chris Masters proved to me that you cut the bull with his Masterlock crap and he can hang with the best, as I said this was one excellent match. It got Taboo Tuesday off to a great start. Okay this is the next match that all I can say is, I have no idea what went on, that’s how weak it was. It was Eugene and Jimmy Superfly Snuka vs. Rob Conway and Tyson Tomko, by far this was the worst match of the show. So let me just get to Carlito vs. Mankind. I was glad that Mankind won and yes I voted for that character. Now I read a bunch of feedback blasting Mick and Carlito. I have to disagree; I thought this match was fine. My God, no it wasn’t the match of the night, but it entertained me. Foley has been out of action for 18 months, and as we all can see he’s totally out of shape. But he tried, and Carlito was fine in there. I had absolutely no problem with this match. Would I like to see Foley wrestle immediately again? Sure I always find Mick worth watching, he never slacks off, he always gives his all. So this match was a nice comeback after that legends match that took place before this one.
I thought the backstage segment with Vince yelling at Eric for the Raw loss was so bad, so unnecessary. It was another way to get Vince on camera, and demean Eric Bischoff. Now many times that works but it didn’t on Tuesday night. Vince is showing up way too much and he’s not helping the product at all. Also I had to laugh when this is a major Pay Per View and Vince walks in late and tells Eric he can’t wait to see the Raw vs. Smackdown match. Now wouldn’t you think that since Vince is the owner that he would have been on time? It was all just a waste of time for me. So we found out that Shawn Michaels was going to be in the WWE title match with Kurt Angle and John Cena. That meant it was Kane and Big Show vs. Cade and Murdoch. And you know what? This was another match that I liked. I have to say Kane and Big Show seem to have nice chemistry and I really enjoyed watching them work together. I believe because of those two that’s what made this match good. Okay here’s another match that got a lot of negative feedback. Batista taking on Coach and Vader and Goldust. Again I disagree. This match is just the way I thought it would be. What did people expect? Batista got thrown into this one at the last minute and worked against an announcer, a guy that has been out of action for a while, and another wrestler than has not only been out of action for a while but is so out of shape he makes Foley look thin. So why would anyone expect this to be great. Batista did his all out there and he made this work for me. I don’t feel it hurt him by getting stuck with these three guys. At least he go the win, even though I was stupid enough to go with Coach. Batista will be fine this isn’t going to do any damage to him. Now I totally liked watching Angle talking Shawn Michaels into working together to get rid of Cena and then just have the match between them to prove which one is the best in the business. I liked this a lot. Angle looked like a guy with a mission and HBK seemed to be going right along with Angle’s thinking. Just a cool segment to set up their match against John Cena.
The divas did one hell of a job in their lingerie. I have to give it to each one of them, Candice, Maria, Ashley, Mickie James, Victoria and Trish Stratus. These women wanted to give the fans more than just their looks they really worked hard out there and this match believe it or not was one of the most entertaining of the night. Mickie James is doing a good job as Trish’s number one fan. She was there to help Trish win and when Trish was being interviewed about her victory, I liked how Mickie just got right in there and took over. Watching Trish react to this woman was great and I just like the way this storyline is going so far. My match of the night? The Cage Match with Triple H vs. Ric Flair. I’m telling you have to give it to Flair for what he does out there and Hunter was totally on his game. This match started slowly but that was okay because it told the story of two close friends ready to rip each other up. I just loved this and I feel this was worth my $35.00. I had no doubt that Flair was winning and his win just capped off one super match.
The main event was very good my second favorite of the show. Angle and HBK carried this one, which didn’t surprise me. This match reminded me of the Vengeance match with Chris Jericho, Christian and John Cena. Jericho and Christian were phenomenal and made Cena look good and HBK and Angle did the same thing. This wasn’t a match out of the ordinary but it was still very good. I noticed the boos for Cena and I feel so many are starting to realize that this face character needs to come to an end. I also want to add this. I can’t stand Cena’s shtick, and I’m talking about that 5 knuckle shuffle crap. You know have him do that when the match has humor in it, but when he’s working against top guys like Angle and HBK it just cheapens the match and makes him look ridiculous. I know it’s all apart of his character and so many of the fans wait for it but it’s a total turn off to me. I had no doubt in my mind that Cena was winning. And I had no doubt in my mind that this would be a good one thanks to Kurt Angle and HBK.
So a good Taboo Tuesday, with two excellent matches. And how can I forget Joey Styles. I thought for a while Joey was a little nervous, but once the show got going and especially during the Cage match and the main event, Joey was excellent. I really hope that he will now being doing Raw if they have no intention of bringing JR back. Okay I want to say that I forgot about the two hour Impact special but I did catch that fantastic X Division number one contender match with Petey Williams vs. Chris Sabin vs. Matt Bentley and I saw Jeff Jarrett vs. Rhino which was a very good match. See you let Jarrett wrestle a full match and take the mic away from him and he comes off fine. I still do not like their announce team they sound so cheesy so unprofessional. But those two matches gave me an hour of total enjoyment. I’ll be back on Tuesday with my Raw thoughts and I sure hope they are very positive Raw thoughts. Don’t forget tonight is Smackdown and I hope that this show is as good as the shows have been in the last few weeks. Have a very nice weekend.
