Friday Night Fallout

At the end of a week that saw no John Cena, the announcement of a King of the Ring, the Brothers of Destruction taking on MnM, and a TNA tag team title debacle “SmackDown!” would seemingly have a surprise or big match as well.

Cherry would make her WWE in-ring debut, Big Show would be in action, a Highlight Reel was scheduled, and Undertaker was booked against Batista. This show promised to be so good Edge, Hawkins and Ryder even bought front row tickets for it.

Seriously though, the show wasn’t a show of the year or anything, but I wasn’t too disappointed. The Highlight Reel wasn’t great, but it was intriguing. Where the hell was the IC belt though? Jericho has now been superkicked by Michaels and laid out by Batista. I was already interested in seeing Michaels vs. Batista at Backlash, now I really want to see it.

With Jericho involved it’ll add a little more excitement. Since he’s not on the side of either Michaels or Bati he’ll be a major X factor. It also opens the door for a feud featuring Jericho and Bati or Jericho and Michaels. We seaw Jericho and Michaels at Mania XIX, and it was a hell of a match.

Batista has shown in the past that he can be carried to a really good match by guys like Hunter, Edge, Taker and MVP. Michaels will most likely be no different. Their match has emotion which will add something else, so I fully expect Michaels and Batista with Jericho involved to be the show stealer at Backlash.

MVP for some unknown reason was set to wrestle Tommy Dreamer. I understand that MVP needed to be in a match to get Matt Hardy out on commentary like MVP was on commentary for Hardy’s match against Palumbo last week. I just think that the match would have made more sense had MVP’s opponent been someone within or around the title hunt.

The Finlay/Hornswaggle 20 second backstage gimmick was, well, entertaining. I thought maybe Hornswaggle was trying to give birth or something, but apparently he was only getting amped up for his match. Seriously though, it was pretty damn funny.

Matt Stryker is pure damn gold on the mic. The guy is very impressive as a manager and mouthpiece, but until Big Daddy V loses weight he’ll just have to be a great mouthpiece in a single’s wrestling role. His Masters of Educational Psychology and by the way, “Dude, I got a 186 IQ” are enough for me to approve.

You know, Moppy managed Saturn, Head managed Al Snow, Pepe managed Chavo, so dammit why doesn’t a box of Lucky Charms manage Hornswaggle? It appears to me that the E is going back after Super Soaker as a sponsor with all the damn water guns. Matt Stryker hurt his knee trying to break one and then he popped himself in the face with one while trying to throw it over the top.

Chavo was in action against Jamie Noble, which makes me wonder why it’s so easy for the E to forget about Jamie Noble. The Cruiserweight title is gone and Jamie Noble is once again a guy used to get people over. Seems to me there is a simple equation to make them both relevant again.

Chavo’s new bodyguard got the name Bam Neely. Now to me, Kerwin White would have been the perfect name for him, but it didn’t go that way. Instead his name is Bam Neely and he has the gimmick of being a former Border Patrol Officer. Latino Warrior managed by Border Patrolman, wow, I bet Michael Hayes and his guys are chuckling. The Border Patrol gimmick would have served better as a manager for JBL when he was feuding with Eddie.

Chavo and Jamie put on a damn good match. I will hardly, if ever complain about a match that either of these guys is in unless they’re out there with dead weight. Coach was dead on in his put over of Noble by the way. Chavo won with a Frog Splash and Bam Neely got in a half nelson slam to send a warning to Kane, at least the half nelson slam was put over that way.

Mark Henry vs. Big Show was probably the one thing that disappointed me the most, but only because I know that Show is going to have to do his damndest to make his match with Khali at Backlash passable. When V gets back and hopefully loses his weight maybe he and Henry will team back up. Too many guys with nothing to do.

Cherry finally made her in-ring debut against Victoria. Cherry is damn sexy, but that’s neither here nor there, so I’ll just talk about the match. Victoria making fun of Cherry walking down the ramp was one of those things that adds something to a heel vs. face match.

In a match that Victoria pretty much dominated Cherry didn’t really get to showcase what skills she has. I haven’t seen her stuff on the Indies to be honest so I don’t know how good or bad she is. I did like the way Victoria talked through the entire match. Cherry got the token underdog rollup win meaning that we haven’t seen the last of her in action against Victoria. We'll probably get Cherry/Michelle vs. Victoria/Natalya soon.

Batista and Taker was one of those matches that will certainly not go on the classic list, but it wasn't bad. Their rematch next week will most likely be better, but it'll have a schmoz finish. I don’t know if it’ll be Michaels, Jericho or Edge but I do expect interference next week. I’m guessing that Batista will get back in the title hunt after his program with Michaels as well, so to that I say, SaveUsY2J.

DJB’s What to Watch:
The Highlight Reel >
MVP vs. Tommy Dreamer
Hornswaggle vs. Matt Stryker >>
Chavo vs. Noble >
Big Show vs. Mark Henry >>>
Cherry vs. Victoria >
Leroy Kincade vs. Vladamir Kozlov >>>
Batista vs. Undertaker

Tha Results…
*MVP def. Tommy Dreamer
*Hornswaggle def. Matt Stryker
*Chavo def. Jamie Noble
*Big Show def. Mark Henry via DQ
*Cherry w/Michelle McCool def. Victoria w/Natalya
*Vladamir Kozlov def. Leroy Kincade
*Undertaker vs. Batista ends in double countout

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