SmackDown 11/17 & News and Notes
I thought that the Friday Night edition of SmackDown this past week was mostly a mixed bag of just filler around the main event push of Survivor Series between Batista and King Booker. I still don't quite get the push for this match, as we have seen it from SummerSlam to free TV to now on another PPV. You would think that if Batista was ever going to get the belt back, this would have to be it, but from everything I read, that is not going to happen. Most of the latest SmackDown & ECW house show lineups still have Booker as champion. It's not real tough to change those cards, but if the overall tone is that of Booker as champion, which it is, I would think that he keeps the belt again.
Another tease that they pushed on the show was the breakup of London and Kendrick, which I basically said would happen about two months ago. London lost a match to William Regal when London on accident hit Ashley, who was outside the ring. Kendrick was looking after her when Regal hit London with a knee for the easy win. The tease of a breakup came after the match, and it looks likes it will be over who wins the affection of Ashley, which is such an overused storyline, but this company is well known for going back to the well.
I thought the MVP-Kane street fight was okay at best. I didn't really get the Kennedy interference, but then again, its all about building the match for Survivor Series with Kennedy and Undertaker, which they did with Kennedy getting involved in this match. The match itself was mostly MVP taking a beating, and by the end the win for him after tons of interference really didn't mean all that much. The loss for Kane sort of sets back any sort of momentum he had, but we all knew that in due time that would be coming anyway. The two will do it again next week, this time in a cage.
That was really it for this show, as stated above it was just a push for the PPV upcoming, and nothing much else came of it. As for some other news:
* Word is that Undertaker is suffering bad from a rib injury over in Europe, and that his match with Kennedy at the Survivor Series will likely be one in which he is very limited. It's just amazing to think about the amount of physical punishment that this man has taken from being in a WWE ring since 1988. With a little one at home, maybe its really time for him to start thinking about hanging up the boots for good.
* Another wrestler that was suffering so bad he had to have surgery was that of Roddy Piper. Reports are that Piper left the U.K. Tour early and had to have surgery for what was said to be a disc problem. He is out of the Survivor Series match involving the Legends Team, and word is there will be a replacement named maybe as early as tonight on RAW.
* Speaking of RAW, the only match that I have seen for tonight is that of a ladder match for the IC title between Jeff Hardy and Nitro. These two have had some of my favorite RAW matches in 2006, and this one should be another classic. This could be the series of matches that pushes Nitro to the next level, like the Edge-Kurt Angle matches did for Edge back in 2002.
* Tuesday's ECW could be a must see, as it looks as if they are going to have both Matt and Jeff Hardy together on the show to promote Sunday's Survivor Series PPV in which they are on the same team. The Hardy Boyz tag team as they were known have not tagged together in about 5 years, and while I am sure that Tuesday nights show will be nothing more than a way to get them on the show for a beatdown, it should make for interesting TV.
* As of this moment, there are no tickets available for WrestleMania 23 April 1st in Detroit. Tickets went on sale the 11th and were quickly snatched up by those in Detroit and around the country. Don't fret if you didn't get a ticket or tickets now, as they will release more once the stage set up and production is finalized in about 2-3 months. Last year you could get tickets for WM 22 in Chicago on the day of the event through Ticketmaster, so there will be duckets available.
