Smack Down Overtaking Raw
The move of Triple H and the WWE title along with Jim Ross to Smack Down was perceived as an attempt to make this the top brand, especially with the upcoming network switch. After watching last nights show this has been made very clear. Overall the show was excellent, except for the last two matches, and most of the night really didn't even deal with hyping the upcoming pay per view. This is a great move on the part of the WWE as they will make their free TV broadcast the best and be able to reach more fans. If the stats they run on every show are correct Smack Down is the most popular network show on Friday for male viewers, which is their top demographic.
First we had another great ending with the revaluation of who was taking out all the member of Edge/Vickie family. The knocked out members were left with a black rose on their unconscious bodies, indicating it was the Undertaker. But in the ring at the end of the night we found out the true identity of the attacker. It was Edge who would give a conchairto to Chavo and dump Vickie out of her wheel chair as he showed his new side. This maniacal Edge has come about for his preparations for the Hell in the Cell match against the Undertaker. Again Edge has successfully risen his level as a top heel in the WWE and the match at Summer Slam has all the makings of a classic. Right now you would have to consider him as the top performer of this year as he keeps evolving his character to fit the moment and always delivers the big payoff.
As for the matches it started off OK with a six diva tag match featuring Michell McCool, Cherry and Maria against Natalia, Victoria and Maryse. All the ladies did pretty well except Maria and Maryse. Maria was expected to be bad, but I was surprised how off Maryse looked. She has had decent matches against McCool and Cherry but looked off the pace last night. Despite her bad performance Maria still got big pops from the crowd. I guess that's what happens when you take your clothes off. We forget about how bad a performer you are for some cheap thrills.
We had a decent tag match of Hawkins and Ryder against Jimmy Wand Yang and Shannon Moore with the champs getting the win. As we posted yesterday Moore has been released and I'm sad to see him go. Watching this match makes me think of the lost potential the WWE had with Moore and Yang. Their bouts with the Miz and Morrison were the most memorable the former tag champs had. I know Moore really never established himself since we already have one tattooed punk rocker in CM Punk and a whole host of high flying risk takers, but the guy had some talent. Look for him to end up in TNA in their X division.
I think the real Sheldon Benjamin has finally arrived. The past two weeks he has shown a great technical side to his performance along with his superior athletic moves. He demonstrated that once again in his match with Jeff Hardy. Both of these guys put on a solid match for being on network TV and really didn't hold much back. Hardy was poised for the win but MVP took to the ring and kicked Hardy in the head as the match was called off for the interference. I would love to see a program of Hardy and Benjamen for the US title. Heck since he's involved now with Hardy, throw MVP into the mix. Can you imagine the two cocky heels in Benjamin and MVP exchanging trash talk. That alone would be fun, no to mention what type of dynamic you could have with all three guys in the ring. There's lots of potential there and lets hop we see some of it.
We had a little Summer Slam hype as Triple H faced Khali in an Indian Broken Glass arm wrestling contest. There was some verbal exchanges before but it really lacked any punch as we can't understand Khali. Verbal taunts don't work when you need an interpreter. And what is this fascination with arm wrestling? Is Vince planning a league for this sport as we have at least seen this gimmick 3 times in the last 6 months. Well we didn't get a winner this time as Khali attacked Triple H and put him in the vice grip. So basically we saw all Khali has to bring to their match at Summer Slam. Hopefully this match will be a quick one in Indy.
The other two dull matches saw Kozlov keep his undefeated streak alive against Jesse. Yes I said Jesse. Festus would have been the better opponent for Kozlov's style, but either way the match still would have been terrible. Once Kozlov losses we will no longer hear of him and he will find himself firmly entrenched as a mid to lower level card guy. Andin the other match we saw once again Brian Kendrick put on another so what performance. This week it was against Super Crazy. The sad part about this match is that Super Crazy looked as good if not better than Kendrick. And they really limited Crazy's offensive time. And if you can't establish yourself against Super Crazy than your hopes of being a top level talent are all for not.
First we had another great ending with the revaluation of who was taking out all the member of Edge/Vickie family. The knocked out members were left with a black rose on their unconscious bodies, indicating it was the Undertaker. But in the ring at the end of the night we found out the true identity of the attacker. It was Edge who would give a conchairto to Chavo and dump Vickie out of her wheel chair as he showed his new side. This maniacal Edge has come about for his preparations for the Hell in the Cell match against the Undertaker. Again Edge has successfully risen his level as a top heel in the WWE and the match at Summer Slam has all the makings of a classic. Right now you would have to consider him as the top performer of this year as he keeps evolving his character to fit the moment and always delivers the big payoff.
As for the matches it started off OK with a six diva tag match featuring Michell McCool, Cherry and Maria against Natalia, Victoria and Maryse. All the ladies did pretty well except Maria and Maryse. Maria was expected to be bad, but I was surprised how off Maryse looked. She has had decent matches against McCool and Cherry but looked off the pace last night. Despite her bad performance Maria still got big pops from the crowd. I guess that's what happens when you take your clothes off. We forget about how bad a performer you are for some cheap thrills.
We had a decent tag match of Hawkins and Ryder against Jimmy Wand Yang and Shannon Moore with the champs getting the win. As we posted yesterday Moore has been released and I'm sad to see him go. Watching this match makes me think of the lost potential the WWE had with Moore and Yang. Their bouts with the Miz and Morrison were the most memorable the former tag champs had. I know Moore really never established himself since we already have one tattooed punk rocker in CM Punk and a whole host of high flying risk takers, but the guy had some talent. Look for him to end up in TNA in their X division.
I think the real Sheldon Benjamin has finally arrived. The past two weeks he has shown a great technical side to his performance along with his superior athletic moves. He demonstrated that once again in his match with Jeff Hardy. Both of these guys put on a solid match for being on network TV and really didn't hold much back. Hardy was poised for the win but MVP took to the ring and kicked Hardy in the head as the match was called off for the interference. I would love to see a program of Hardy and Benjamen for the US title. Heck since he's involved now with Hardy, throw MVP into the mix. Can you imagine the two cocky heels in Benjamin and MVP exchanging trash talk. That alone would be fun, no to mention what type of dynamic you could have with all three guys in the ring. There's lots of potential there and lets hop we see some of it.
We had a little Summer Slam hype as Triple H faced Khali in an Indian Broken Glass arm wrestling contest. There was some verbal exchanges before but it really lacked any punch as we can't understand Khali. Verbal taunts don't work when you need an interpreter. And what is this fascination with arm wrestling? Is Vince planning a league for this sport as we have at least seen this gimmick 3 times in the last 6 months. Well we didn't get a winner this time as Khali attacked Triple H and put him in the vice grip. So basically we saw all Khali has to bring to their match at Summer Slam. Hopefully this match will be a quick one in Indy.
The other two dull matches saw Kozlov keep his undefeated streak alive against Jesse. Yes I said Jesse. Festus would have been the better opponent for Kozlov's style, but either way the match still would have been terrible. Once Kozlov losses we will no longer hear of him and he will find himself firmly entrenched as a mid to lower level card guy. Andin the other match we saw once again Brian Kendrick put on another so what performance. This week it was against Super Crazy. The sad part about this match is that Super Crazy looked as good if not better than Kendrick. And they really limited Crazy's offensive time. And if you can't establish yourself against Super Crazy than your hopes of being a top level talent are all for not.
