The streak is broken. While there were three matches that I really liked on Smackdown there was one angle that absolutely killed the whole show for me. Now before I get into Smackdown I have a few things that I want to get into today’s column. And since Smackdown is a show I really don’t want to spend too much time on I’ll make this are you ready? A partial Smackdown column and the latest rumors column. Wow I’m lighting up already. Now I want to start with something or I should say someone I forgot to give PROPS too in my Raw column this past Tuesday.
And that person would be Maria. As many of you remember I did make a list of all the things I wanted to get into my column and Maria was on it but for some reason my eyes missed it. Maria totally won me over with her out of the blue intellectual appearance during the Eric Bischoff hearings. While Marie has really has grown on me, I was the first one to bitch about her being such a dope. I was amazed well that might be a bit strong but I’ll go with it anyway, I was amazed of how she transformed herself into one bright diva. She did not miss one word and her words totally flowed. Maria was a total delight for me and I wanted to make sure I got this in.
As far as Smackdown goes, I loved the following matches, Chris Benoit vs. Booker T was another winner, and what really makes me get into this is that now Benoit needs 3 wins to tie Mr. Five time champion. Can it be done? Oh I think it can. Also Joey Mercury vs. Super Crazy was one hot match. And having Kid Kash run and in and take out Juvi was a very pleasant surprise. Bobby Lashley I am really starting to really get into his character. He did a nice job against William Regal. This match was good and Regal also gets a lot of the credit for it. I hope they keep throwing Lashley against named guys and then start building him up by giving him some mic work. And finally the main event with JBL and Orlando Jordan vs. Batista and Rey Mysterio took a while to get going but when it did it was a fun match. I was also very happy with JBL’s opening promo. The Boogeyman continued nauseating most of us with his worm eating gimmick but he even topped himself by spitting partially chewed worms on his opponents face. I now will start taping his segments, I figure he’s a great motivator for losing weight, watching him makes me lose my appetite. By the way, like Mr. Kennedy…..Kennedy, many of my readers are turning into Boogeyman fans. There is something about this character that seems to grab a lot of us and I wish I knew what it was. So all of the above worked very well on the show, but the whole Randy Orton/Undertaker angle totally overshadowed anything positive that Smackdown gave us. For a few weeks Randy made one nice comeback on the mic. He was starting to show a lot of life as a top heel and I liked what I was seeing.
But last night, it was all erased by some really bad segments all dealing with Orton being scared off by the Undertaker. Here’s what really really bothers me. Randy went from a very secure heel to a scared weak little boy. His promo was so poor that at times it looked like it was an effort for him to even be out there. I could say I was totally turned off by the whole delivery but that would be an understatement. As far as Taker goes, if you are going to put him in a major feud than damn it he should be on live each week. Undertaker has been resurrected hmmm what 20 times? This is really getting old. He works a few weeks either live or with voice overs or he’s “dead” and all of a sudden Undertaker is back from the dead. Please the entertaining factor is gone. The Hell In A Cell video was good but the fact that they focused on the late Big Bossman hanging lifeless left me a little cold. I guess if you are a big Taker fan this was all appealing. While I’m a fan and respect this man a lot I don’t like it that he is a part time player in a major feud. So as much as I liked so many things on the show it’s this angle that seems to be on my mind more than anything else.
Okay so Raw was the HOT show of the week and if you go to WWE.com you will see the preview. Not only will the show focus on a new GM, but there will be qualifying matches to see who will be in the Elimination Chamber match. Now as far as the GM goes the rumor is that Dusty Rhodes will be the new GM for Raw. I’m not sure about that one. I saw Impact collapse when he was the focus so I would like this to be a rumor and nothing more. Also I read that Eric Bischoff needed time off because he’s working on a reality show on Fred Durst, oh that should be a real thrill. I don’t know how many of you know but Tajiri was released it’s posted on WWE.com. I really like this guy in and out of the ring and I will miss him. Also Christy Hemme was dropped. Yeah that was a total shock for me. There are a lot of things being said but the latest that I’ve read was that Vince didn’t want to pay her what she was getting and tried to I guess ease her out so he sent her to OVW but Christy being the loyal employee that she is was fine about going. I guess Vince didn’t expect that so she was fired. Supposedly she is devastated which I can understand. Here is a woman that showed just what her job meant to her and I think most of us could see how much she improved in the ring. So like Tajiri this is another superstar I am going to miss. Now a reader of mine brought up a very good point. Without mentioning names in one of the top wrestling site news letters this journalist had an item about Matt Hardy and Ashley having an argument. And I guess the journalist found this newsworthy since he gave supposed details about it. Now my reader questioned and not in these words why the hell is that on a news-board? Now I know many ARE interested in news about Matt and Ashley which is fine but I also found this to be one silly item to print. It must be pretty dead to write about a couple arguing.
Also I watched the two nights of Rita Cosby’s show in Afghanistan with the WWE Raw roster and both shows were done so well. Each superstar showed nothing but class and they made me damn proud of being a wrestling fan. Also Raw was taped there and will be shown December 19th. I will leave you with a request from a reader. “I was wondering if maybe you or one of readers would have any information on where I could find an old ECW New Jack or Gangstas T-shirt.” Duanejones290@aol.com
