Tonight Smackdown will be headlined by a match for the World Heavyweight Championship, but it's not a 1-on-1 match. Instead, Edge teams with Kelly Kelly to defend the Title against Dolph Ziggler and both members of Laycool.
Read on for my thoughts on this show as it unfolds.
Matt Striker doesn't get to call Smackdown in his home state? Interesting. Kind of a sudden replacement. I wonder what the story behind this is.
Wow, Kelly's issues with Vickie were rather sudden. I guess maybe Drew looked through her stuff and blamed Vickie or something? Heck, maybe it was one of Kaitlyn's pranks. Hopefully there's more explanation for this sudden turn of events. Pretty good opening segment, even though Kelly's not a great promo.
At least The Corre has a (somewhat) more menacing, heel-like entrance theme now. It's not as good of a song, but it fits better. This match was just so-so. Booker's good on commentary so far though. I like Matt Striker, but as a more experienced wrestler, Booker can fit the "King" role on the team. It would be kind of weird seeing Booker and King on the same team at PPVs since they had a notable feud a few years back.
Ziggler getting a bye pretty much gives away that Edge's winning tonight. You'd think that Vickie would say something like that the Chamber match is when "Edge gets his contractually-obligated rematch because Ziggler will beat him tonight".
Heh, "Kelly Kevin". Kevin Kelly was a backstage interviewer for WWE back in the Attitude Era. Another sort of inside reference is when Vickie called Kelly "Barbie", which in addition to the Mattel doll is her real first name.
Kingston and McIntyre can always be counted on for a good match, and Michael Cole can always be counted on to be annoying on commentary and take away from it. Interesting interaction between Kofi and Del Rio.
Rey Mysterio vs. Jack Swagger was a really good match. They told the story well of violent technical heel vs. smaller never-say-die veteran face.
If this was TNA, Teddy Long's attacker wouldn't be under contract and they'd re-write the angle at the last minute.
At least we didn't have to sit through a long Hornswoggle-Mendes segment. Del Rio beating up a defenseless mascot, and crowd favorite at that (at least with the kids) is a classic heel technique. I guess maybe Hornswoggle was too small to do the Cross Arm-Breaker on. It looks like we're getting Kingston vs. Del Rio at the Elimination Chamber, which should be a pretty good match. I don't think I'd mind if they put Del Rio's title shot on the line to add to the feud.
Hey, Chavo's in the ring. You know what that means. His opponent's getting a win! This was an ECW Championship match at WrestleMania once and lasted all of 8 seconds.
I really hope that Barrett wins this one. Big Show has reached the "saturation point" with me I think after seeing him for so long. But, he's a credible former World Champion who's easy to put in a program, so I can see why he's used so much. At least Barrett and Jackson got to look good here. Maybe we can get Barrett and Jackson vs. Show and Diesel at WrestleMania? If Nash doesn't want to lose clean, Gabriel and Slater (if not also Tarver and Sheffield) could get involved.
So it's 3 Attitude Era veterans and 3 up-and-comers in the match at Elimination Chamber. I can live with that, especially since we're also probably getting Del Rio vs. Kingston. They can't just flood new people into the main event scene (and expect it to work) so they're using the veterans strategically. Also it's an even mix of faces and heels.
That was an odd ending to the show. Then again, with that match stipulation it'd almost have to be. Kelly being fired is probably part of some sort of set up for a Drew McIntyre face turn. Someone online with "inside sources" says that Kelly really got fired. Because Divas get main event pushes right before they're fired, right?
Normally I'd be against 2 World Title matches 2 weeks in a row on free TV but obviously Vickie's going to want to do just about anything to get Ziggler the gold. (I guess she's required to do an Elimination Chamber match for the PPV because of some edict from higher up on the corporate food chain.)
That's all for my Smackdown thoughts. I'll be back on Monday for thoughts on Raw. Have a nice weekend, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment