SmackDown 3/23
WWE SmackDown on Friday night was better on TV than it was in person in Cleveland on Tuesday, when it and the ECW shows were taped. At the live taping, there was a huge gaffe in which they basically had to re-do the ending of the Tables match with Bobby Lashley vs Randy Orton and Ken Kennedy. At the taping, the table in which Lashley tried to powerslam Orton through didn't break. They did it twice, and the second time the table actually collapsed. It looked awful, and they ended up putting another table in the ring, and he then powerslammed Orton through the table, making it look good for TV.
The rest of the show was built around the Undertaker vs Batista match for Mania, and they did another good angle in which this week they had Batista throw Booker into Taker as both men were set to do power bombs during a tag match with Batista and Taker vs Booker and Finley. They now are at a point where these two are not really touching other, instead they are just using other guys, like last week when Finley was thrown in Batista. Its an effective angle, and should be a solid build towards Mania in two weeks.
Again, the show live was pretty lackluster. The Jimmy Wang Yang vs Chavo match was okay, with Yang getting a win. As of right now, they are not planning on having a cruiserweight match for Mania, so Yang getting a win here doesn't really do much, unless they change plans at the last minute and do have a match at Mania, possibly using other guys as well, like Gregory Helms, but truthfully I don't see that happening. They also did a match with Helms and Benoit, in which Benoit gets the clean win, building towards his match at Mania with MVP for the US Title.
They also had a tag match for the titles with London and Kendrick vs MNM. There was some thought they would let MNM get the win here, but instead they allowed London and Kendrick to have the clean win, and again, it looks as if we won't have these two long regining champs at Maina, which I really think is a shame. I think that next weeks TV in Grand Rapids for SmackDown had better deliver, because I think this last week was a small step back for this brand as they head into the biggest show of the year.
The rest of the show was built around the Undertaker vs Batista match for Mania, and they did another good angle in which this week they had Batista throw Booker into Taker as both men were set to do power bombs during a tag match with Batista and Taker vs Booker and Finley. They now are at a point where these two are not really touching other, instead they are just using other guys, like last week when Finley was thrown in Batista. Its an effective angle, and should be a solid build towards Mania in two weeks.
Again, the show live was pretty lackluster. The Jimmy Wang Yang vs Chavo match was okay, with Yang getting a win. As of right now, they are not planning on having a cruiserweight match for Mania, so Yang getting a win here doesn't really do much, unless they change plans at the last minute and do have a match at Mania, possibly using other guys as well, like Gregory Helms, but truthfully I don't see that happening. They also did a match with Helms and Benoit, in which Benoit gets the clean win, building towards his match at Mania with MVP for the US Title.
They also had a tag match for the titles with London and Kendrick vs MNM. There was some thought they would let MNM get the win here, but instead they allowed London and Kendrick to have the clean win, and again, it looks as if we won't have these two long regining champs at Maina, which I really think is a shame. I think that next weeks TV in Grand Rapids for SmackDown had better deliver, because I think this last week was a small step back for this brand as they head into the biggest show of the year.
