Friday Night Fallout: The Usual Suspects

Sorry for the delay. The article was completed Friday night but due to connectivity problems the article could not be published until now.

After Monday night’s Draft and Wednesday afternoons Supplemental Draft, which have been both praised and lauded we were treated to “SmackDown” with their new roster, well sort of anyway. Mr. Kennedy was announced for next week while most of those drafted to “SmackDown” Wednesday will wait another week to debut.

Jim Ross kicked off the show, after Vickie’s teary eyed recap of Vince’s “accident” Monday night. Then Triple H really kicked off the show, an honor that before now has been Edge’s for the most part. Even though Kofi is on “Raw” could there already be trouble in paradise?

I don’t want to throw around accusations already but now Edge will only be the top heel, not the top dog on Friday nights. Triple H and Edge may have a nice feud, but there is no question who will come out on top time after time. With Edge’s interruption of Triple H’s promo and then Batista leveling Edge, it’s almost a lock that Cena will take the WWE title back to Mondays. Damn.

Kane and Big Show taking on Mark Henry and MVP was a match that didn’t really need to happen. Though with the ending as it was, Henry throwing MVP back into the match to have MVP lose doesn’t really leave us any token WWE clues as to who walks out of that match the ECW Champion, Mark Henry is a safe bet now that he is a Tuesday night titan.

One of my biggest problems with the entire night came rather early on. I know that Hornswaggle is a pretty big face, go ahead and laugh, but I see no reason to put the tag team belts on him and Finlay. Unless the plan is for Miz and Morrison to take them back and solidify themselves as a tag team this will achieve nothing. Finlay and Hornswaggle get no rub and the E wasted seven months.

I am also aware that Hawkins and Ryder are in Edge’s clique of chickenshit heels, but to have them beaten by Finlay and Hornswaggle in the fashion they were really does nothing for anyone. With Morrison, Miz and the father and son combo both on ECW maybe they drag this out a while longer, but Miz and Morrison do need to come out on the better end.

The past of Edge and Matt Hardy was well documented and not too many people have forgotten it. To put the two against one another on Hardy’s final “SmackDown” was brilliant. It makes sure Edge gets heel heat and ensures an even larger face reaction for Hardy. I don’t think anyone expected Hardy to get the win and when he didn’t I don’t think anyone was dumbfounded.

The match itself was a damn good match for free television and it wasn’t a one sided match. I don’t think either of these two is going to lose his gold Sunday but it’s possible that both part with their straps. My only problem with any of this was that it was so damn early in the card.

Directly following the Edge/Hardy match was a twelve titty tussle that nobody really seemed to care about. The Cherry/Maryse feud continues though with Maryse getting the victory for herself, Victoria and Natalya over Cherry, Michelle McUndertaker and Kelly X2.

Nattie, the way I understand it at least will be in a Women’s Championship match Sunday at NOC, but she won’t be facing Mickie James because Mickie James will be facing Katie Lea Burchill. Unless Nattie becomes involved in that match or defeats Katie Lea in a dark match I really have no clue what she’ll be doing.

Is anyone else entirely over Vladimir Kozlov? Maybe I’ve lost patience with the angle, or maybe it reminds me way too much of Snitsky from several months ago, either way I think they’re wasting entirely too much time. Pull the damn trigger and put him in something that won’t make me fall asleep or I’ll miss if I blink.

Rey Mysterio made his final appearance on “SmackDown” this week, at least his last appearance for a while. Word going around is that little Oscar wasn’t too thrilled about his move to Monday nights because the ever important Latino demographic watches more “SmackDown.” I think though that he can do something worth while on “Raw” within the mid-card range.

I had almost forgotten about the borderline homosexual relationship Rey and Batista shared some years ago, what with the holding hands and Rey sporting lipstick during the run, but apparently he and Big Dave are still really tight. They’ll be together on “Raw” and Batista will back Rey.

My immediate reaction to the booking of Umaga and Batista was something along the lines of, “Are you fuckers retarded?” Then however I changed my tune. Umaga is finally getting a break from “Raw” where he has been buried so many times it hurts to count that high. I thought that Batista would get a clean win over Umaga tonight, changing nothing.

Thank God I was wrong. It wasn’t a clean win for anyone, hell it wasn’t even an ending. The ending was a lot better than I could have imagined, at least for Umaga’s sake. Hopefully Umaga starts running through kids like Ex-Lax through the Shuffleboard League at the old folk’s home. Let’s just keep Umaga and Jeff Hardy separated, at least for a while.

The future for “SmackDown” looks pretty bright. With a network change upcoming they beefed up their roster, and their announce table. They have the star power to become the uncontested A Show again. They have the mid-card, they have the main event guys, and they have the mid-card guys on the cusp of the main event. Hopefully “SmackDown” won’t become last years “Raw” and lose some very good talents in the mix.

When Night of Champions concludes we’ll have a much clearer picture of what can happen on Friday nights. Triple H and Edge have been in the ring together before, but maybe this time around they can put on some classic matches. While I’m not a Triple H supporter, he can work, as can Edge, so the possibilities are certainly not limited.

Tha Results…
*Big Show & Kane def. Mark Henry & MVP
*Finlay & Hornswaggle def. Hawkins & Ryder
*Edge def. Matt Hardy
*Maryse-Victoria-Natalya def. Cherry-Kelly Kelly-Michelle McCool
*Vladimir Kozlov def. Domino
*Batista vs. Umaga ends in a no contest

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