Tonight's Smackdown is headlined by Edge defending the World Heavyweight championship against Dolph Ziggler, with Vickie Guerrero as the special referee. Will we have a new champion going into the Elimination Chamber in 9 nights? Read on for my thoughts on the show as it happens.
Booker T. and Michael Cole yelling at each other to start Smackdown isn't really something I care for.
Not a bad promo by Del Rio. Kingston's wasn't as good. He kind of made up for it by destroying the party, though.
I kind of wished they'd save their match for PPV. There are only so many fresh and somewhat important matches, so they need to use them strategically. They also need to not have them be this brief and end in a tapout so soon. I think that either Del Rio should have bailed after Kofi got the other hand or got a tainted win somehow to set up a rematch at the Elimination Chamber. I also wish that Del Rio had another finisher that wasn't submission-based so he didn't have to win by having his opponents give up all the time.
You'd think that the Master Manipulator would at least have an inkling of how to get around the referee situation.
Someone online joked that the Packers should have gotten Jeff Hardy's title belt. I think TNA should at least make that offer, saying that their company's title is more prestigious or something. Not that I think that's true or anything.
Go ahead and book The Corre vs. Santino and Kozlov for next Sunday. The further in advance that you name a PPV match, the more it can be promoted. I wouldn't mind The Corre as champions. They should do the Freebird Rule for them too. But, they're a fairly new team so I'm iffy on them being champs so soon.
If that isn't McIntyre's real accent, I think he should drop it. I think it's kind of harder to take him seriously with him. I liked this match, but would have liked to seen it go longer. Masters has noticeably improved since his first WWE run. It will be interesting to see where McIntyre's character goes from here.
Rey Mysterio vs. Wade Barrett is another one of those "fresh, important" matches that I mentioned earlier. They already have a main event for tonight; they can save that one for another time.
I wonder if we'll see Cody Rhodes cost Rey Mysterio the Elimination Chamber. Rhodes vs. Mysterio is one of those "building new talent" matches that Vince McMahon hinted at in the conference call. Del Rio vs. Edge, Barrett vs. The Undertaker, and John Cena vs. The Miz would also fit that mold.
A heel could have cut the same promo that Rey Mysterio did with a different opponent and been jeered for it. Odd words to come from such a clear-cut babyface.
I wonder if we'll get any mentions of Booker T.'s past with the nWo when talking about The Corre. At least then he'd be making references to people that modern wrestling fans know about.
WWE's done a good job of keeping the members of The Corre relevant after being switched to Smackdown. At least 3 of these guys seem to have good futures if used right. I'm still not sold on Heath Slater's post-Corre chances though. Ezekiel Jackson suplexing Big Show was a heck of a sight.
It looks like we're getting another dose of "guy in the ring when they come back from commercial's getting crushed". Like we needed another reminder of how dominant Kane is. The visual of the referees scattering at the fire was nice.
Could Layla become a fan-favorite if Michelle turns on her? She seems to fit better in this heel role. I'm guessing that we get a Fatal 4-Way rematch at the PPV with 2 referees. That's a stab in the dark though. I don't know if that stipulation's ever been used. Add Eve to the list of people who've surprised me with their improved ring-work. This is someone who had trouble with dropkicks in her first batch of TV matches. If she's really doing jiu-jitsu classes, they're working out for her.
Maybe Booker T. can team with Jerry Lawler to face Michael Cole and Alex Riley at WrestleMania. Otherwise I think the Booker-Cole bickering will drive me crazy.
Vickie Guerrero was pretty good as the heel referee here. I particularly liked the foot-on-the-rope spot and the failed spear. That was a pretty unique ending. At first I thought it was bad, but then realized that they WEREN'T ignoring that Vickie was the actual ref. It's just going to be settled next week instead of now. I wonder if they'll vacate the Title or anything then. It'd be kind of weird having it vacated for 2 nights, then going right back to Edge (for an 11th World Title win).
That's all for my extremely late Smackdown thoughts. I had internet trouble and I apologize for that. I'll be back for a look at Against All Odds tomorrow, and coverage of the event on Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment