I might be more of a Raw fan than a Smackdown fan but Smackdown was definitely the better of the two shows. We were given some nice matches, one very strong non wrestling segment with a veteran and his young counterpart, a title match set up for the Survivor Series and really nothing that horrible to watch. And what I thought stunk I won’t even bother talking about. This was a good Smackdown and I’m excited to write about it today.
Lately I have been getting a few emails complaining about Booker T. Many of you are tired of the gimmick, or tired of his long title reign or both. While I’m ready for King Booker to lose the title I have to say for more than a year he’s really come through for Smackdown. I liked the opening with the Champion of Champions promo and I totally enjoyed watching the “ham” take pictures with his wife. Sure there are times when I get tired of the “royalty” stuff but there other times when Booker and Sharmell make it a lot of fun. Let’s see, last week I thought having Batista play body guard to Booker and Sharmell was absolutely ridiculous. But I feel a little differently about that now since Theodore Long came out during the opening and set up the World Title match with Batista vs. Booker T at the Survivor Series. Long said this was to reward Batista for taking care of Booker. Okay I can live with that. At least that gives me a decent enough reason for Batista to do what Long asked of him knowing that he would get a title shot. So a good opening and then a good match with Booker defending his title against Bobby Lashley. I mean I’m sure none of us expected Lashley to win but there were times when it looked like Lashley just might pin Booker. Lashley and Booker have had good chemistry from the start and maybe that’s why I enjoyed this match so much.
I have to be honest with you, while at the beginning I was cool with MVP, last night I watched him and thought this guy is done, either re-invent him, or send him back down. I have no interest in his character and I’m not sure about his Street Fight with Kane next week on Smackdown. If Kane can get a lot of offense and violent offense in then it should be good, but if MPV is given more to do I’m concerned about his one. While I missed London and Kendrick I couldn’t have been happier with the Matt Hardy/Jimmy Wang Yang vs. Gregory Helms/Sylvan match. Even though I said that Yang’s redneck gimmick was a dud, it doesn’t seem to matter because when he wrestles he shows a lot and that kind of makes all of it work. I was so happy that Matt Hardy got the pin on Helms and so far the show gave us back to back top matches. Now earlier I said there was a non wrestling segment with a veteran and a younger guy that came off so well and yes I’m talking about Mr. Kennedy….Kennedy and The Undertaker. Again Kennedy did a smooth job on the mic and the thing that really made me like this was that Mr. Kennedy viciously attacked Taker and left with Taker struggling to get back up. You don’t see that often and I was so pleased because after watching MVP and Kennedy against Taker and Kane last week, it left me feeling like both MVP and Kennedy were made to look really weak. So what a fantastic way to build the guy up then by having him leave basically victorious over the Deadman, this was one hell of a segment.
Chris Benoit vs. KC James I will admit didn’t exactly put a smile on my face. I would have preferred someone with more of a name against Benoit. But I will say it was nice to have a match with Chris and I’m very excited about the Survivor Series match with his IC title on the line against Chavo Guerrero. It’s great to have Benoit back and I’m hoping Smackdown focuses on this man more and more. The next match with the Boogeyman vs. T.J. Dalton was quick but not exactly painless. Now I’m sure most of you know I’m a huge Boogeyman fan. I can even handle him eating worms, but I will say last night with the worms stored in his mouth and then slowly coming out of their onto his opponent was just a little too much for me, that’s right it was kind of sickening, yet I wouldn’t want the worms to stop but maybe just not see him with a mouthful just waiting for a perfect time to let them out.
And finally the main event with Batista vs. Finlay came off very well. Before I get into the match I liked the way they showed highlights of this feud throughout the show. I thought that showed how important the main event was going to be. I’ve missed not seeing Finlay or very little of him, so it was great to have him in this one. The match started out strong with Batista looking tough, and then the tide turned with Finlay and my favorite little person Little Bastard going after Batista’s knee. Batista looked alive in this one and it all worked for me.
As I said this was a very entertaining Smackdown and now I’m really hoping for a much better Raw on Monday night from Manchester, England. You know you can always count on a loud group when they tape in front on a U.K crowd. I will leave you with a few words about Monday’s column. Monday marks the one year anniversary of the death of Eddie Guerrero. Right after Eddie died, I wrote a column that was supposed to be used but it never was. So I would like to share it with all of you to mark the anniversary. I’m grateful to my friend Wade for saving it since I could not find it at all and I really thought I kept it all this time. So I hope you will look for the column on Monday.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com