Tha SmackDown! ThrowDown

On a night that I thought would feature three standard title matches, with the champs all retaining, we instead got a massive swerve at the end of the night. For the third time this week, WWE goes off the air with a dope cliffhanger!

For those of you who didn't watch, I'll explain what I mean in a bit. But I want to run the entire show's recap first, because last night's show was incredibly solid from start to finish.

Show opens, bam! Tag team title match featuring MNM 2.0 and Moore Wang. I used to bag on these guys for not being legit tag teams, but the E has done a very good job of building them both into respectable teams. They all understand for the most part how tag team wrestling works (as three of the four competitors in this match have spent large amounts of time in tag teams), and it shows in the ring.

The other thing that I love is that John Morrison finally has a name for his finishing move. I mean, the guy was ECW Champion for three months and they still didn't really have any formal name for it; they just kept referring to it as a Corkscrew Neckbreaker. I don't know who came up with the name Moonlight Drive, but they're brilliant. I popped when Foley called it that upon Morrison executing said move to win the match.

Colin Delaney is still dope, and I've even changed my mind about Vladimir Kozlov. At first, I thought he was doing the standard "big guy" thing and trying to do a bunch of kicks to the head and not getting enough height. But then, in last night's match, I realized that those were intentional. They're building him up as a martial arts wiz, and consequently, he uses a bunch of takedowns and side kicks. I O'd like a motherfucker at one point in the match when he punted Colin Delaney, who was straddled on the ropes in the corner, then caught him in mid-air and hit him with a fall away slam. I don't ever see him as a main eventer, but SmackDown! needs midcarders right now anyway.

Speaking of the midcard, Matt Hardy defended his title against MVP last night in their Backlash rematch. At the risk of being unpopular, I'm going to state why I believe it's a great thing for Hardy to be the US Champion.

Is Matt Hardy ever going to be a main event draw? Probably not. But him being the US Champion doesn't mean he's a main eventer. That United States Championship is a midcard title. Sorry, but it's true. So, if SmackDown! has virtually no midcard right now, and Matt Hardy is an over veteran and a career midcarder, wouldn't it make sense to try and build up some sort of midcard around him?

Mark Henry is still bad, folks. However, he's not the worst wrestler ever, and I think Big Show could at least pull a respectable match out of him. I guess the E is currently dead set on having Big Show feud with every big guy in the company, but I'm down with that. To marks, Big Show looks like a guy who can physically hang with the big guys. For smarks, Show is one of the best big man workers of all time, so he could possibly help pull something entertaining out of all the big muscleheads that Vince is in love with.

Speaking of big muscleheads...Batista. I haven't been down with this guy since 2005, and I'm still not, but I think a heel turn is best for him. Everybody's booing him anyway, and his wrestling style would be better suited for a heel. I mean, he'll still suck either way, but as a heel, it might be less noticeable.

I said prior to WrestleMania that the JBL/Finlay angle would be bad for Finlay, as he would be left to the wayside and stay in the midcard on "SmackDown!" in the aftermath. It's worse than that. They seriously have no idea what to do with him, so now he's going out and squashing jobbers. I at least give the E credit for still getting this guy on TV. He's over, little kids love Hornswoggle, and "SmackDown!" is generally watched by little kids and marks as opposed to the die-hard smarks, so it's a smart move. I do think, however, that on that particular show, Finlay would be good for the belt.

The Divas, there's not too much to say. There's only a few of them so they generally interact every week. I have this strange feeling that now that creative has decided to move Cherry separate of Deuce and Domino, that the Greasers' days in the E are numbered, which would suck because their gimmick was great. Just to keep this thing from getting too long, let me also commend Festus on a terrific sell job of the throat last night. I still think Hawkins and Ryder are bland, so the E's new challenge is to get fans to buy into the Edgeheads, I suppose.

Now, back to the cliffhanger. Let me paint the picture for you. Undertaker comes out for his title match against The Great Khali. We all know that if the match happens, that Undertaker's going over. So, instead of that happening, Vickie Guerrero comes out to inform Undertaker that chokeholds are illegal in WWE (pertaining to his Death Sentence chokehold), and that she is stripping him of the WWE Championship. Undertaker refuses to relinquish the title, so she sends Khali down to get it. Taker jumps Khali and locks him in the Death Sentence, but while doing so, the Edgeheads come through the crowd and into the ring, grabbing the title and quickly slipping back out.

It was so magnificently done that I think Chris Jericho should have another awards ceremony next Monday in its honor. Even though the jaded smark in me says that Undertaker's going to get the title back anyway, the little kids and marks (again, the target audience for that show) only think he'll get it back. Either way, no announcement was made on what will happen with the title, leaving a massive cliffhanger for next Friday.

As a final note, I would be remissed if I didn't make a comment about Mick Foley. No, he's not the next Gordon Solie or the next Jesse Ventura or even the next JBL. But he shows a great deal of promise as the color guy. He has a basic knowledge of wrestling, and adds a dimension to the matches that was greatly lacking when Coach donned the headset. I'm hoping that Foley will only improve over the coming months, because I think the tandem of Cole and Foley could do a really dynamite job calling matches.

Tha Results:
The Miz & John Morrison def. Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore
Vladimir Kozlov def. Colin Delaney
Victoria & Natalya def. Michelle McCool & Cherry
Mark Henry def. Nunzio
Matt Hardy def. Montel Vontavious Porter
Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder def. Jesse & Festus
Finlay def. Julio Dinero

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