An enjoyable Smackdown
The first Smackdown since the Great American Bash and where RAW faltered with a disappointing show to follow the disappointing PPV, at least Smackdown was able to offer some small redemption. The big story of course was the announcement from the scorned Vickie Guerrero that her husband Edge would be forced to face off against a re-instated Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match at Summerslam. You could see it coming a mile off but Edges brilliant reaction still made it feel exciting. That should be a truly epic contest and despite his recent woes I wouldn’t write the Rated-R Superstar off just yet.
Elsewhere new US Champ Shelton Benjamin enjoyed a fairly routine victory over Jimmy Wang Yang, hopefully they will find someone for him to feud with leading into Summerslam because he deserves a proper title run. My suggestion would have been Jeff Hardy although he now seems set for a feud with MVP after their altercation. And besides I would want Hardy to beat Benjamin, which sort of defeats the object of giving him a decent title run. Maybe Mr Kennedy…
It seems Jesse and Fetus have been chosen as the team that will feud with Hawkins and Ryder over the tag belts after Fetus beat Hawkins in singles competition. Please god don’t let Jesse and Fetus win the titles, I beg of you…
Brian Kendrick seems set for a push, he’s found himself a new body guard called Ezeikel and enjoyed an impressive victory over Shannon Moore. With a bit more honing Kendrick could really become a good upper card heel. Wish I could say the same for Vladimir Kozlov. People might get behind the idea of his long unbeaten run if he was actually beating anyone worthwhile but a win over Stevie Richards, who let’s remember was a part of the J.O.B. Squad, just isn’t going to capture anyones imagination. Whack him in a programme with The Big Show or Umaga.
The biggest sour note of the night was the result of the Battle Royale to decide who would face Triple H for the WWE Title at Summerslam. The Great Khali? Are you kidding me? You are trying to turn Smackdown around from a faltering secondary show into a serious flagship programme and you decide the best way to do it is have Smackdowns biggest match of the night on the WWE’s second biggest PPV as a match between Triple H and Khali?! The guy can’t wrestle! His promos suck, his matches suck, his gimmick sucks, there is not one person who I have yet heard that is excited about this match. It is going to be terrible. The one saving grace is that Khali by his own admission is nearing the end of his career, his knees are giving up on him and it would make absolutely no sense to book him to win the title when he could get injured at any time. So we can expect a fairly standard Triple H win.
But there were some good guys in that Battle Royale…at one point I thought the WWE creative boys and girls were actually going to give the crowd a match they wanted to see for a change and give Jeff Hardy the win but as I’ve mentioned before Hardy seems destined to pay for his drugs suspension for a while yet. The crowd would also have gone pretty crazy for a Mr Kennedy victory but he seems destined never to compete for the big prize. MVP was never likely to win it but I’m surprised they didn’t give it to Umaga or Big Show…I don’t think either would have put on a classic with Triple H but the crowd would sure as hell be more into it than the shitstorm they are going to have to endure.
