No cheesy initials here, folks. DJB got into a fight with his internet connection, so he called in the cavalry, and yours truly answered the call. So, O-sters, prepare for the inaugural edition of...Tha "SmackDown!" ThrowDown!Before I get into the action itself, I have to bring up what has been the proverbial elephant in the room for the past few weeks. Jonathan Coachman is in way over his head in being the color commentator of this show. He's no JBL; he's not even as good as Tazz was on Friday nights. Coachman does much better to be the third guy in a group, or to just be backstage interviewing as a heel.
Going from one black guy to another, as excited as I am about seeing MVP and Ric Flair square off at Royal Rumble, I could not get into their segment last night. To me, it seemed like two masters of the microphone largely no-selling what the other had to say. I think that these two could cut some dynamite promos to build the anticipation for this match; however, they would have to cut these promos without the other person in the ring.
Screw it, let's stay on the topic of black guys. Big Daddy V hitting the ring steps may be the nastiest sight I've ever seen in my life, and this is coming from a guy who's been flashed by Fronte in a bar before. I don't ever see V being a main event player (and I'm pretty sure that Undertaker will just bury him sooner or later, so to speak), but for now, they are doing a great job of making V seem like a legitimate threat, as opposed to where he was at this time one year ago, when he was jobbing so much, he actually came out to the ring one time to "We'll Probably Kill You."I'm guessing right now fans are supposed to be wondering what exactly the "deal" is that was struck between Mr. McMahon and Finlay. Personally, I don't really care, but I'm hoping that this does, as I said earlier this week, lead to Finlay being pushed to main event status. Finlay is one of the better workers on "SmackDown!", and knows how to play his gimmick as either a face or a heel. You can't really ask for more from a prime time player.
Hey, Deuce and Domino are tagging on my TV again! And...they're jobbing to the hodgepodge team of Yang and Moore. Damnit. "SmackDown!", if you can't do a tag division right, don't do it at all. I'm serious. Move all your tag teams to one show, consolidate the belts, and have all the tag teams just compete on that one show, because you clearly cannot handle having three shows with tag team wrestling.
Edge and Chavo Guerrero took on CM Punk and Rey Mysterio in the main event. Okay, here's a real simple question, and I'm hoping that somebody has a simple answer. CM Punk and Chavo Guerrero have a match for Punk's championship this Tuesday on ECW. Okay. But Royal Rumble is just five days later. Wouldn't it make more sense to have this match happen on pay-per-view?The card for Royal Rumble isn't horribly crowded. There's only four matches, plus the Rumble itself. This match could easily be slid in there, especially since I can't see one of the matches, Jericho vs. JBL, taking too long because of JBL's still sore back.
Tha Results:
*The Great Khali def. Finlay
*Shannon Moore & Jimmy Wang Yang def. Deuce & Domino
*Batista def. Mark Henry
*Michelle McCool def. Layla
*Rey Mysterio & CM Punk def. Edge & Chavo Guerrero by DQ
3 comments: on "Tha SmackDown! ThrowDown"
The E have absolutely no idea what to do with the tag team division. It would take me a minute or so to even remember who the champs are. Damn. Who are the champs? Seriously. I dont know all of them. The team of "Moore Wang" is interesting...when they are competing for the cruiserweight strap! Not as a team. Stop it.
Khali vs Finlay? Why put this on before the PPV? Oversaturation is not cool, guys. As for the deal Fit made with Vince, I can only assume it involves Horny getting fed to Khali and left for dead. Hopefully Finlay has a change of heart before we all stop caring.
"The Shaminal" vs "The Silverback Gorilla" (as Black Prophet put it) is just an accident waiting to happen. Why put these guys in the same ring before an important PPV? That's like having Flair vs Abyss and hoping no one bleeds.
McCool is way too damned skinny! Its kinda scary. Her finisher was nice. Mad at the cameramen for not having the good shot of Layla entering the ring. And when did Chuck Palumbo become such a horrible actor? And if you're gonna have flowers delivered to a chick wouldnt you have a card on it? And why would you have it sent to the parking lot? Think, man!!!
This match looked good on paper but seeing Punk/Rey vs Edge/Chavo felt kinda flat to me. Dead silence from the crowd to end the show. Not the "Oh My God!" silence either. But good old fashioned WCW "What the fuck am I watching this for?" kinda silence.
This show is leading to maybe the second biggest PPV that the WWE has and this is what they are feeding us.
SmackDown has many a time been called the B show and it's no wonder. They have about 10 good workers and about 10 guys that are over. No problem there, right? Wrong. The problem is that there are about 4 names that appear on BOTH lists. Of course you want to have a match between two guys that can work and of course you have to make the fans care about the match. This above all else is why the Cruiserweight division bombed so badly. They have tons of talented guys that can flat go in the division, but without time being put in to help elevate them the fans - smarks included - aren't really going to care about them.
Like Dante said, the main event was great on paper but didn't really pan out. It's because Rey isn't over anymore, Punk isn't as over as he could be because ECW isn't over and Chavo has never and will never be over. I'll probably get shit on all over the place because of those comments but they're true.
Rey could be an awesome US champ but the main event is done with him. CM Punk could be over huge if they had moved him to Raw or Smackdown just after his undefeated streak, he was never hotter and that could have boosted him to an upper midcard position. I still think they can use Punk properly and have him main event but at this point ECW is NOT over and the champ can only be as popular as the brand itself and granted they are taking steps in the right direction by bringing established guys in like Shelton to chase the title. Chavo however, I will NEVER buy as a main eventer. Chavo doesn't have a main event look (See: Chris Jericho), he is decent on the stick and in the ring but he's no Eddie and will always be seen as a Guerroro and an inferior one at that. Without a break from TV and a complete repackaging he will never be a compelling character.
Ya dig?
They did repackage Chavo, remember? And look at how that crap panned out. The best of Chavo was seen in WCW when he had a toy horse named Pepe and acted like a lunatic. But that was 10 years ago and he has flopped since.
And I think your comments are true. The longer Punk remains on ECW the lower his chances of rising on either of the other shows gets. Rey is a non-issue for me now. I used to really like the guy but since he has returned he is just so one dimensional. Chavo will NEVER be taken seriously as a champ or contender in my opinion. Not in a "All he needs is a chance" way. Never.
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