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4.05.2008

Tha SmackDown! ThrowDown

This has been a great week for WWE. WrestleMania proved to be better than expected, then they followed that up by having one of the best "Raw" episodes in quite some time. Then, on ECW, Kane comes out and immediately pops the crowd, showing that it was a good decision to put the title on him. Last night, it was the turn of "SmackDown!".

Overall, I can't say that "SmackDown!" was a bad show. However, I will say with certainty that this week, it was the weakest of WWE's televised offerings.

Vickie Guerrero does not have it, folks. It's simply the truth. I realize that she is the widow of one of the greatest talkers in the business, but she does not share that talent. Having her as the GM of "SmackDown!" is brutal.

Also, I know that criticzing WWE for being inconsistent is like criticizing Donnie for being tall, but this was a blatant mistake on the part of creative. ECW has a GM, so why is Vickie Guerrero booking matches for the ECW Championship? I realize that Kane and Chavo are both "SmackDown!" superstars, but it still seems like this would be the call of Armando Alejandro Estrada.

Not only that, last Tuesday on ECW there was a hot main event which left the main event picture wide open. Punk and Benjamin both stated their intentions on chasing the title along with Chavo. Apparently that got thrown out. WWE, you're breaking my balls here.

MVP and Matt Hardy's match last night was incredible. These two work very well with each other, and although the final payoff couldn't be at WrestleMania, I'm still hopeful that we'll get a hot payoff match at an upcoming pay-per-view.

I don't get the thought behind having Festus in singles matches lately. I think he and Jesse should be utilized in the tag team division to help rebuild it before they decide to use Festus as a monster in singles competition. Also, The Edgeheads are still bland and uninteresting to me. Having them directly rip off Edge's gimmick really didn't work to make them any less vanilla.

Vladimir Kozlov finally made his in-ring debut, going over on Matt Bentley. I wasn't overly impressed by Kozlov, but he could also be a lot worse of a worker. What I did like, though, was the use of no entrance music for Kozlov. I realize this will change in a week or two, but I think it helps his character. Think about it-he's supposed to be this big tough guy, no razzle-dazzle, nothing flashy. So why wouldn't his entrance be the same way? Nothing flashy, just him walking to the ring looking angry.

I was shocked last night at how good of a promo Batista cut. I echo the sentiments of Donnie, I think he'll be much more servicable to WWE as a heel instead of a face. He's already shown that he can cut better heel promos than face promos. Plus, then we won't have to see him in a damn turtleneck ever again.

I'm still not down with Miz and Morrison as tag team champions. However, if the Cruiserweight division is gone for good, I don't mind Moore Wang as a tag team. It's really the only place where you can use them at the moment.

Undertaker vs. Kane. We've seen this before. I think the run-in was done too early, but I do like the fact that the champs were standing tall at the end. They just won the title, so make them look strong coming off of that before the heels get the upper hand the following week. Hopefully Undertaker and Kane will both have title reigns of respectable length, because even though they don't need the titles, I think both titles could stand to have a little shine added to them, and this is a good way to do it.

Tha Results:
Matt Hardy def. Montel Vontavious Porter
Festus def. Zack Ryder
Vladimir Kozlov def. Matt Bentley
The Miz & John Morrison def. Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore
*Undertaker vs. Kane (No Contest)


7 comments: on "Tha SmackDown! ThrowDown"

Anonymous said...

Are my eyes deceiving me? No mention from Tha O Staff on the long awaited debut of Natalie Neidhart?

Andrew Gray said...

Nice ... a South Park reference.

Christopher Casúr said...

metal god-
I'm honestly not one bit excited about Nattie Neidhart debuting on "SmackDown!". There's really nothing for her to do on that show. Not to mention, she's still related to Bret, whom the E hates, and Owen, whose blood Vince still can't get off of his hands, and the E won't forget about that. She won't get used properly.

Anonymous said...

Fair enough, Casur. I guess my mistake is assuming that each writer is part of The Collective. Maybe she'll get drafted to Raw and beat a personality into Beth Phoenix.

Anonymous said...

I honestly believe that Neidharts debut should still have been mentioned, regardless of whether or not your excited about it or not!

If your covering smackdown surely you should be covering the whole show.

I've been reading the Tha O Show for almost a year now and haven't commented because I have been a mark for most of my life and only recently have I began to get an understanding of what really goes on behind the curtain.

I like the way that all you guys handle the reports and although I don't agree with MANY of your comments I do agree with just about the same amount.

As far as this weeks Smackdown goes I almost totally agree with Mr Casur. Especially when it comes to Mrs Guererro and Armando Alejandro Estrrrrrrrrrrada.(I don't care if the E dropped the ball with that gimmick I'm stickin with it!) Estrada is being wasted on ECW he gets no camera time and does little with his so called GM status except make April fools jokes and matches the get relegated to free webcasts. Whatever the writers are doing it's not really making any sence when it comes to Armando.

Christopher Casúr said...

metal god-
No, trust me, I'm a Neidhart mark. I've seen her work on the indy scene before. Even got a kiss from her after a match one time. I'm just not holding my breath on what the E will do with someone who has ties with the Hart family.

Shammy-
Truth be told, I wrote this article Saturday afternoon. I was going from a few notes I had jotted down during the show. I didn't write down the Neidhart incident, and so I had forgotten about it while writing the article. That's the real reason why there's no mention. My bad on that one. Also, thanks for the kind words, it's good to know that my work is appreciated by the O-sters.

Anonymous said...

SD not a bad show like ECW, if RAW is good this week then maybe WWE has turned a corner, keep getting it right and all three brands will be back to form once again!