WWE presented SmackDown this past Thursday night on UPN. Overall, it was a solid show that had a lot of good wrestling on it, mixed with storyline progression. Whether you like the storylines pushed last night or not is a whole different deal. Some weren’t happy with the involvement of the McMahons, others (like me) by this point have learned to care about that only when it matters. Instead of bitch about it, I’d rather focus on the positive end of things. The final rating is in and the show scored a 3.1, which is down from last week’s 3.2. I can’t say I’m surprised, as Friends made its TV return this past Thursday night, and so did other shows all over the 1029381206 channels in the USA.
The Undertaker will face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at No Mercy. I think it’s a great idea that they decided to announce the main event for No Mercy so early. I’ve always said this in the past, but giving a match more time to develop and building up towards it as early as possible usually brings in better showing overall. Brock vs. ‘Taker. Well, it’s been done before. About a year ago. In a way I mind it, and in a way I don’t. Things are changed a bit, and from a fan standpoint it’s a great clash! At the same time, you got to wonder why WWE isn’t pushing younger people to the top.
I also don’t mind it because it finally allows Kurt Angle to leave the main event level for once. A lot of you will argue with me on that, but hear me out. Kurt Angle has always been an MVP as far as I’m concerned, but I think that he couldn’t really shine in the past up until the roster split (for obvious reasons). Think about it. Kurt Angle became big not when he was fighting Lesnar as a heel. He was huge before that, when he wasn’t in the main event. A year ago on SmackDown, Lesnar was feuding ‘Taker, while Angle was having amazing matches with Chris Benoit, and even Rey Mysterio. Kurt is just amazing inside the ring and has the ability to put other guys over. That’s priceless in this business.
With that said, Angle seems to be headed to a match with John Cena at No Mercy. I am really hyped over this one. It was against the very same Kurt Angle, that John Cena made his debut in the WWE on SmackDown. A year after his debut, Cena has become a legit superstar and one of the youngsters the company managed to get us interested in. So if you think about it, just because Brock/Taker is for the belt, it doesn’t mean it’s the top match, or the match to expect the most out of. One thing I’ve learned from Paul Heyman’s booking on SmackDown is that just because you are unhappy with your main-eventers, it doesn’t mean you have to throw the rest of the show away. Heyman certainly wasn’t jumping in happiness when he had to insert Big Show into the title mix. Not only did he do a good job of making Show credible for a bit, but he would build a great card around it with Angle/Benoit, Edge/Guerrero, etc. It’s amazing how we’ve forgotten the fundamentals of the business sometimes. A good writer or even booker isn’t someone who decides how to use his/her top stars in the main event. It’s someone who makes the best out of what he’s given to work with by upper management, and how he handles things around it, as well as the rest of the feuds on the program. Paul Heyman is very missed in that area, as he was a genius at this. What I am trying to say is, if you’re told that Big Show and Brock Lesnar have to be the main event, don’t bitch about it. Instead try your best to make Show look credible (I honestly feel that Heyman succeeded in that last year), and spend more time working with the rest of the card, so you can have at least two or three more topnotch feuds that people will care about. That’s how I look at Undertaker/Lesnar. Yes, it is the top match on the card, but it’s not THE match on the card.
How great is Eddie Guerrero? Watching him in action has become a must on my Thursdays. It’s a huge shame that he can’t win the WWE Championship right now, because he would make a great champion. I would safely say that Eddie is at his peak right now (has been for a while actually), and WWE should use him as well as they can. At this point in time, there’s just no place for him in the main event as they’re focused on other guys (again, that’s a shame), but WWE is still trying to utilize the “usage” of Eddie. Having him wrestle twice made the show even better. I still believe that it’s not a problem he has two belts on him. The tag teams championship gives him something else to do and an opportunity for the writers to still use him if they can’t come up with a singles opponent for him. I give credit to WWE for that.
I think both Matt Hardy and Shannon Moore deserve to be put into a program on SmackDown, whether it’s with Los Guerreros or anyone else. They both proved this past Thursday that they’re great competitors and have a lot to offer. Hardy has been getting the short end of the stick on several occasions now, and I think that’s really slowed down his momentum. I hope they’ll find something for him soon, and a feud against Eddie would be a great start, as Shannon and Chavo could be dealing with each other as well.
Speaking of the next person to feud Eddie, I hope they’re not going with a Big Show vs. Guerrero match. That wouldn’t be pleasant. I’m not going to get into it yet because I’m not sure if that’s what they went with on Thursday, or if it was one of their “Stephanie-says-“be careful”-to-Triple-H-at-a-mixed-brands-PPV-even-though-they-are-divorced” type of segments.
The highlight of the night was Tajiri vs. Rey Mysterio, without a doubt. I believe I said last week that I was hoping for Tajiri to pull a win, so this feud could go on, and I’m really happy that he did. First off, Tajiri is one of my favorite wrestlers and I’ve followed his career since ECW days. Second, I believe that these two can never let us down. I mean, damn, they’re amazing! For weeks now they have gone out there and worked programs together and not once have they disappointed. Rey and Tajiri are able to bring out something new and fresh in their act every week, and they just tell a story in a great way. If there’s one person on SmackDown who should be able to defeat Mysterio for that belt, it’s Tajiri. The Japanese Buzzsaw is an international legend, and certainly someone with a lot of in-ring skills and experience. No offense to Jamie Noble, Billy Kidman, or even the now-infamous Ultimo Dragon, but Tajiri and Rey Mysterio are simply one level above all these guys. I remember writing in N & A a year ago that I can’t wait for Mysterio to fight Tajiri. Rey was just about to debut back then. Now you know what I meant.
With every other week, I seem to have nothing but positives to add to Shaniqua’s character. They’re bravely putting her out there and using her for all she’s worth. How they got Bradshaw to do that job on SmackDown I’ll never know, but at either rate, I enjoyed it. They should use Shaniqua to give the rub to the Basham Brothers, as those two can do a lot inside the ring from what I’ve heard and seen so far. I’m looking forward to seeing more of that trio.
You won’t hear any complains from me for the A-Train/Benoit segment this week. While I do believe that Benoit will be better off feuding someone like Matt Hardy, I enjoyed his altercation with A-Train. I still quite frankly can’t understand what is it about A-Train that people hate so much? I can understand that he’s not exactly the best wrestler ever. Hell, I agree with that, but I certainly don’t think that he’s “bad.” All the times he has fought with Benoit, Chris has always been able to bring that something out of A-Train that nobody else has, and I’ve enjoyed their matches. It’s the one mismatch of size that’s actually interesting, as Benoit’s mat-based wrestling can allow him to outwrestle A-Train, while A-Train’s strength can allow him to outpower Benoit. It’s a “strategy” feud, and their work together has been enjoyable, at least to me.
Then we go to the Father/Daughter I Quit match at No Mercy. I really don’t know what to say. You’ve probably heard the theories. “It’s good that at least they’ll be working together and waste only one match from the card,” or “It’s good Steph’s finally leaving,” all the way to “I can’t believe they’re doing this stupid storyline.” Folks, you need to get out more. Let it go. The McMahons have just decided that they need the spotlight for the time being. Is it the best thing to do? No. Is it the right thing to do? No. Are there people who actually enjoy their drama? As a matter of fact, yes. Do I care about it so much? Not really. What do you do? Go back several paragraphs and pretend you’re Paul Heyman. Always make the best out of every situation presented to you. If it really bothers you and you feel it’s that bad, then just ignore it and focus on something else. There’s no need to spend the time focusing on negativity when it’s really not needed. That’s how I feel about this topic. It’s just not needed right now. Let me know if you disagree!
RAW airs this Monday night, and since the brand’s PPV was last week, there really isn’t a whole lot to look forward to. I don’t know if we’ll see Triple H again, but I have the feeling that we won’t. I guess after last week’s beatdown, Shane will be all fine and dandy this week and he’ll be doing just fine. It’s Superman vs. Superman 2 with Kane and Shane, and no matter what you do, whether it’s Shish-Kebab out of Kane or fried eggs out of Shane, they seem to be just fine and dandy. I gave up looking for logic here a long time ago, yet I still enjoy the feud, whether it’s the goofiness at the times, or the cool “holy shit” spots like at Unforgiven. Elsewhere, I guess there’ll be more of Lita, probably the Dudleyz in action, and another episode of Let’s Bury Jericho by Feuding Him with Austin. Well, we’ll see how all of that goes on. I kind of have enjoyed some of it, to be honest!
You have a great weekend, and I hope everyone will be doing fine next week, when I shall return for more!
Thanks for reading. See ya.
Eddie