If I was asked to rate Smackdown with 10 being very good, then I would have to give it a nice solid 9. I could not believe how fantastic Friday’s show was. Even the one segment that I normally despise played out well. From the time the show started until the ending Smackdown was a very solid show. This is a Smackdown that I wanted to talk about yesterday but because I wasn’t around too much I had to just wait it out until today. In my opinion this really was one of the very best Smackdown’s in a long time.
The opening match with Batista vs. Domino did just what it needed to do. It got the fans going and it definitely set the tone for the rest of the show. While I’m not into the fifties gimmick you can’t say that Domino doesn’t deliver in the ring. And I’m certainly enjoying Batista coming out on top with his matches against these guys. Dave is going into Summer Slam with a lot of momentum. I don’t know if it was working with Taker that turned things around, but Dave Batista has really shown me a lot in the last few months. I enjoyed this match very much and the Youngstown Ohio crowd was just off the charts last night. I had such a good feeling about Smackdown because of this opening match.
I had no idea that while Rey Mysterio was rehabbing his knee injury for the last 9 months that he also grew. Okay so it was Chavo Guerrero doing his best to imitate Rey. Chavo sounded a little like him, and I got a kick with Chavo adding Spanish to some of the promo like Rey would do. I am a big Chavo Guerrero fan and anytime that he gets TV time let alone mic time I’m a happy person. And what really surprised me was Chavo vs. Eugene. This was an awesome match. Listen I know Eugene is a good wrestler, but he’s been screwed around so much that I lose interest when he’s out there. But I didn’t feel that way Friday night. I was amazed by the way Chavo and Eugene worked so well with each other. This was a short match, yet it was one that I’m so glad I watched.
We got another Mark Henry squash against Sterling Keenan. While that was redundant just like Henry said the Undertaker video was just excellent. My son who is not the avid wrestling fan that he used to be was on the computer and he happened to watch this segment and could not get over how “cool” this video was. And I have to say I had to agree with him. And the druid walking from the ring making footprints as he walked to the ramp was kind of cool as well. It sure is looking like Taker will be back at Unforgiven, which surprises me since I was under the impression that Taker’s injury to his biceps was very serious and it would take many months for things to heel. Hopefully when Taker comes back he will bring to Smackdown what he brought to the shows while he was World Champion, a lot of entertainment.
I have to say that Victoria and Kenny definitely have chemistry. I liked their little lovey dovey segment backstage. And her match against Torrie Wilson again worked for me. It seems like Torrie has really worked hard to get something going in the ring. I have been quite impressed with her performances since she went back to Smackdown. And as I said last week I am quite pleased with the Jimmy Wang Yang and Kenny Dykstra feud. I’m glad that these four are continuing, although it now looks like Michelle McCool is going to be Victoria’s next opponent. Hopefully this will be another feud that will come off well. Okay now the next segment with JBL and Michael Cole talking about how the Wellness Program discovered a very serious heart problem with MVP was done perfectly. In case you don’t know this was not a work, this was the real thing. MVP had a medical exam as part of the Wellness program and it was discovered that there was an abnormality with his heart. The disease is called Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome and it can be fatal if not detected in time.
Thankfully MVP’s prognosis is very good due to a very serious procedure done to correct it. That’s why I am happy that this problem was written into the show. I also want to say that one of my readers and friend Brian emailed me after he saw this and told me that he too had this disease, but like MVP he is doing fine now thanks to the doctors discovering it in time. I want to move on but MVP, JBL, and Michael Cole all did a super job with this. And this segment led to a very hot match. Yeah I’m talking about Finlay vs. Matt Hardy. What a hard worked match this baby was. I was totally into the match and I have to give it to Jamie Noble and Hornswoggle for adding some very nice humor near the end of this. While I’m not one for matches that end in count outs that after I saw what followed backstage with Finlay I then had no trouble with the way the match ended. And I’m talking about Finlay going ballistic on Noble for interfering with the match. Noble was with Shannon Moore and Funaki when Finlay approached him. After he verbally attacked Noble, he then violently knocked a cup out of Shannon’s Moore’s hand. This is when things got good. That spilled cup of whatever ended up in Kane’s face and Kane totally went nuts and attacked Finlay. So I’m guessing we will have Finlay vs. Kane feud and I think this definitely a good thing.
And since Kane was so riled up he took his anger out on Sylvan. Hey guess what I guess Sylvan is now in his third gimmick. At this right he’ll have 10 gimmicks before he’s 30. Of course this match was made to show Kane’s anger and strength, so it was fine for what it was. I was surprised that Sylvan wait what his gimmick again? Well anyway I was surprised that he got so much offense in, I really expected Kane to destroy him in seconds. Okay now you all know that I can’t stand the Master-Lock challenge. You all know that it just bores me and leaves me cold. But Friday’s version I didn’t mind at all. For a change Chris Masters interacted with the crowd and I liked that. And I really enjoyed how he brought up this huge guy to take the challenge. And when he asked the man why he though he could break the lock the guy listed a few impressive facts. Like he played football, and he was the captain of his wrestling team. But the best line was that he was just released from prison on manslaughter charges. I thought that was hysterical and of course Masters decided that this wasn’t the guy he wanted. He then pulled out a young kid and made a rag doll out of him. But I liked this because it just wasn’t a wrestler coming out and losing immediately to the Master-Lock.
The main event with Ric Flair vs. Khali was nothing I didn’t expect. I’ll tell you this crowd was hot for this match and I think they just made it that much better. Now one thing that killed me was JBL making a comment earlier in the show that no one man can beat Khali. I guess JBL has a very short memory since Cena beat Khali a few months ago in back to back pay per views. Oh wait he said no one man, that’s right I forgot it’s the Amazing Cena that did it, and he’s not a normal mortal man. So Khali look unbeatable by taking Flair out. I know that sounds funny since flair is what 57, but that was the idea and then Khali showed just how “unbeatable” he is by putting the same claw on Batista when Batista ran out to help Flair. So there was enough excitement at the end of the match to really cap off a very hot show.
As you can see no matter how weak some parts were it didn’t matter to me because there were so many excellent matches and backstage segments to over shadow everything else. Smackdown flowed beautifully; there was never anytime where I lost interest. Now it’s on to Raw, and if all the rumors are true Hunter returns tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden. So if he’s there I hope you will all think of me. I will be smiling and totally in my glory. And I’m looking forward to not only Triple H’s return but to see how the McMahon’s illegitimate kid angle is going to go. But remember HHH returns well supposedly he returns and after waiting nearly 8 months you can bet that I will be glued to my TV.
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