I’m writing this column in between very severe weather. I had planned on talking about Smackdown yesterday but we were getting hit on and off with very bad thunderstorms. In fact we got it again today and things just cleared up about 20 minutes ago, however we are not out of the woods because more bad weather is on the way. But I was just so thrilled about Smackdown that I wanted so badly to write about it. All in all with Raw, ECW and Smackdown I think with two out of three shows shinning (ECW/Smackdown) we had a nice week of WWE programming.
I know so many of my readers can’t take Vickie and Edge, but wow I absolutely got a major kick out of them on Friday. The heat that Vickie gets reminds me of when I started watching back in 1998 and Vince, Rock and the Corporation got that kind of reaction. The Los Angeles crowd rocked when it came to reacting to Vickie. And I said this when I was at Smackdown back in March you can just tell that Vickie eats it up. I’m so damn proud of where Vickie is compared to where she was about a year ago. As I have said many times, this love fest is so over the top, and so “campy” that’s why I just enjoy these two so much. I find myself saying EXCUSE ME in that annoying way Vickie does more than I want too. I think my husband and son are ready to tombstone me. I thought Vickie and Edge were just outstanding Friday when they opened the show. And Batista just added to one entertaining segment.
The first match of the night with Finlay vs. Slash Palumbo was a Belfast brawl and a damn good one. I’m still turned off by Palumbo’s character but I as far as his performance in this match? I would have to say he did a very good job. Maybe they should continue to have Finlay oppose him and then who knows maybe I will be able to get past the bland motorcycle character. I really did like this match very much and I found it interesting that after the match MVP was sitting all by himself in a Skybox. I guess they don’t know whom MVP’s next feud should be with. What do you want to bet he’s going to be drafted to Raw? Now I was very surprised to see Big Show on Smackdown because of the serious eye injury that he sustained at One Night Stand. Wow did that eye look bad, but Show’s mic work came off well and I see that’s it’s still ON as far as a Mark Henry/Show feud goes.
I guess I figured since Big Show was facing Kane at Night of Champions, Mark Henry was a thing of the past. But Henry made his way out and cut a promo on the injured Show. This wasn’t a bad segment at all, but I’m not so sure I need a Big Show/Mark Henry feud to be honest with you. Not only was I surprised to see the Big Show, but also I was even more surprised that The Great Khali returned so soon. I was under the impression that he might be out for a while because of knee problems. Khali squashed Deuce and Domino in a matter of minutes for his return match. I just didn’t get this; because after a year without a win, D&D finally beat Jesse and Festus two weeks ago and Friday Khali takes them both out, go figure. As I said this was nothing more than a quick squash. Vickie called the Smackdown divas into her office telling them how she is a woman of power in a male dominated business and sees herself as the Fabulous Moolah. This was a good segment because finally Smackdown will have woman’s title. Later in the show we would get a Golden Dreams match to determine the first competitor. As I said this is just what Smackdown now needs. They definitely have some talented divas on the show and I can’t wait to see who ends up Smackdown Women’s champion. Before the women’s match we got Santino vs. Cousin Sal. Now this didn’t exactly come off as I thought it would. Let me explain. I saw Santino on Jimmy Kimmel’s I want to say Wednesday night or Thursday night. He was in the audience and started to throw insults at Kimmel. I noticed that the guy that makes us laugh so much on Raw was kind of bombing with Kimmel’s audience. The laughter wasn’t exactly something that you could hear. And the match Friday night wasn’t as out there as I expected. I liked Piper and Kimmel being there but all in all the match really wasn’t good or bad it was just there. And I’m wondering if this is going to continue. If it that’s the case, creative needs to get REALLY creative and come up with some better material.
We then got back to back to back segments backstage. We got one with Eve interviewing Kimmel and Cousin Sal and then Big Show putting Sal in a headlock, which was done all in fun. There wasn’t much to this segment. But I did like watching the Dirt Sheet guys, Miz and Morrison picking on Hornswoggle but backing off as soon as Finlay showed up. And finally we saw Edge ask Chavo to be his best man. Oh I forgot to mention that at the beginning of the show Vickie and Edge set their wedding date. That’s right mark this big day July 11th on your calendars. So now we know Chavo will be Edge’s best man. Thankfully all three of these out of ring segments were short, very short, and now it’s time for the Golden Dreams match with Michelle McCool vs. Victoria vs. Layla vs. Cherry vs. Kelly Kelly vs. Natalya vs. Maryse. The object of this match was to get the star off of the pole. Granted the gimmick was cheesy but this came of okay. It did what it needed to do and that was to get things going for a women’s title match. Natalya won which made me quite happy and now I cannot wait to see whom she will face.
Squash match number two took place with no entrance music Vladimir Kozlov vs. Jimmy Wang Yang. I guess we saw that coming when Yang’s tag team partner Shannon Moore got it last week. And finally we got Edge, Zak Ryder, Curt Hawkins and Chavo vs. Batista, Funaki, Colin Delaney and Nunzio in an eight-man tag team match. Vickie made this match during the opening and said that Batista HAD to win to receive a title shot. And during this segment Vickie told Batista that he would be facing Edge, Chavo, Hawkins and Ryder and that she would choose Batista’s partners. So there you have it that’s how Funaki, Nunzio and Delaney got in here. I’ll tell you this was a lot of fun to watch, it certainly worked for me. Batista did win and with Taker “retired” it looks like we are in store for an Edge vs. Batista match at Night of Champions. Yeah I’m a big fan of Batista’s but each week he gives me more and more and I thought this match was a perfect way to end a very good SmackDown.
Sure there were too many backstage segments, yet there was just something about the show that won me over immediately. I liked Friday’s show much better than Raw and as I said at the beginning of my column, ECW Tuesday was a hell of a show. Okay I will be back on Tuesday with my thoughts on Raw, oh and if I win tomorrow night I will still do a column. I’m a riot aren’t I? Remember not only is the money going to be given out tomorrow night, but also I can’t wait to see where the Jericho character is going. And hopefully the Cena/Hunter feud will come off well and not like something we’ve seen so many times in the past. It feels so weird to leave without giving my predictions for a WWE pay per view, but it’s a good weird feeling if you get my drift.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
 |