Have I got a lot to say about Smackdown and Impact. As far as TNA goes there have been some major decisions made, I will talk about these decisions on Sunday, but for now let me get right to Impact and then it’s on to Smackdown. One thing about Impact it’s promoting the TNA Wednesday show so well that I think it’s made Impact not as good as it was. I’m starting to lose interest in the show and that’s something I really hate to say. Let me explain.
I believe every match except today’s main event was no more than 2-3 minutes and one was like 30 seconds long. And for all the great young talent that Impact offers I don’t like that. I also don’t need to see Jeff Jarrett and Pat Kenney open the show with a 90 second match to show how “BAD” Jarrett is. First I could care less about Kenney; I don’t care for his so called gimmick at all. And to see Jarrett on Impact takes away from the guys that could be out there. So right off I was disappointed. Now the next match Jerelle Clark and Mikey Batts vs. Kid Kash and Dallas had definite potential but it was too short to really get into it. I again felt a little gypped. Here you have some guys that can make an impact on Impact yeah I’ve used that before but the match and truthfully the rest that followed were nothing but teasers to try to make you order the Wednesday show. Petey Williams looked very good against Eddie Villa but this was a no brainer I knew Petey would take care of him in with a blink of an eye. And tell me this; is it necessary for Dusty Rhodes to add himself to all of this? The answer for me is NO. Alex Shelley and Abyss taking on two guys that I really like America’s Most Wanted shined for me, probably because Harris and Storm looked so good out there and also won, even with the worthless Goldilocks out there, Harris got the win. I did like this match a lot. I don’t like Goldilocks and I can’t understand why they feel she needs to appear on TV. Monty Brown quickly defeated Dimitrius; in fact it was so quick I don’t remember what happened. The main event again is the reason that Impact is something I don’t want to give up. Having AJ Styles, Ron Killings and Jeff Hardy taking on Kazarian, Michael Shane and Jason Cross was brilliant. This match is what Impact used to be about. Excellent matches with up and coming young talent. I’m sorry to sound so sour about today’s show but there’s a pattern that’s beginning to develop and it’s not a good pattern. They are wasting precious times with senseless interviews like todays with Larry Zbyszko and Jeff Hammond. Hammond I can’t stand anyway, they definitely don’t need him. Then you have loud mouth Shane Douglas interviewing Vince Russo in another wasted moment, and it’s just taking too much time away from what this show should be about. I’m definitely not quitting on Impact yet, but if this continues I might be less anxious to make sure I catch it. I have no problem about the hyping for Wednesday’s shows, but let’s get back to longer matches with the talent that HAS IT! By the way, did anyone notice how dead the crowd was? I sure did.
Now for Smackdown. I liked the show last night. I thought the matches were all good, in fact there was very little that didn’t please me so let me get into that right now. First let me start off by saying from all the things that I’ve read about the low to mid card wrestlers being paid very poorly due to low house show attendance I cannot understand why in the hell the next Tough Enough winner will be paid one million dollars. First Vince is throwing away money on the diva contest, and now this. Okay I’m not on the WWE payroll but my God for the all the work that these men and women give Vince and the fans yeah I’m really very angry about this new prize on Tough Enough. Also why the hell are they going to ruin Smackdown by incorporating Tough Enough into the show? Vince seems to be obsessed by doing reality shows; it’s too bad he doesn’t realize his reality shows of late stink.
I thought JBL coming out with that horrendous neck brace and the cowboy hat resting on the prongs of the brace was GOLD. That’s right GOLD! Watching JBL try to smile through all this pain was even funnier. I enjoyed this; however, they could have cut the segment and made it maybe 10 minutes if that. I loved the first few minutes of it, JBL came off so damn good, but it just went on way too long. Oh and how nice of Taker to show up for a few seconds to scare off Bradshaw. Listen Taker is dying with this gimmick, give the man a stable of creepy freaks and make this whole gimmick mean something. Because right now it’s just Taker making strange faces and coming out with this dark side music. It’s not working.
Another segment that started out strong and again just went on and on was Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero’s. Now don’t get me wrong I’m loving these two going at it, and as I said this segment definitely had its moments, but why it had to just keep going when all could have been said and done in half the time, I just don’t know. You know lately I’ve noticed that the more the top stars do their promo’s that just go on too long, the worse they come off. I blame that on the writing team, lately; Smackdown’s creative team seems to be lacking CREATIVITY! And finally, the last two things that just don’t sit well with me? How the hell did Rob Van Damn get stuck with Kenzo Suzuki? Oh my God, I cannot believe that Van Dam now has to carry Suzuki’s butt for this feud. I guess on the bright side it gives RVD a feud on Smackdown, and gee maybe he will get a match at No Mercy, instead of a Heat match before the show. And John Heindenreich debuts next week. Do I care? Not at all? He can have Paul Heyman right by him and this push is totally underserved and too fast. As I have said before you want to bring him up? Fine, put him on Velocity and then see if he can make it on the main show.
So there you go things that just weren’t quite right last night. But as I said I saw matches that I just enjoyed so much. Like Spike THE BULLY Dudley taking on Scotty Too Hotty and winning thanks to Spike’s big brothers, Bubba Rey and D-Von. The cool thing with all of this is, Spike is shining as the top dog of the Dudley’s and it gives Scotty a feud that finally interests me. I’m enjoying these two it’s new and working just beautifully. And watching Spike show up during John Cena’s interview with Josh Matthews and kicking him below the belt out of the blue just made Spike even more fun to watch last night. As Cena grabbed Spike by the neck Bubba and D-Von came to Spike’s rescue and took care of Cena. I love how the Dudley’s have become the school yard bullies on Smackdown. All three of these guys are coming alive since they got traded to Smackdown and it’s definitely a bonus for the fans. Back to the matches. Billy Kidman and Paul London took on Chavo Jr. and Jamie Noble for a super match. There’s not enough I can say about the four of these guys, but this definitely was my match of the night.
Holla holla holla, I feel you playa. Theodore Long is doing a nice job so far as the GM for Smackdown. He’s keeping a low profile yet doing superb on the mic. Long announced that Big Show is returning. Now I hope to God he’s a heel and they don’t turn him back to a face. I’m kind of anxious to see what they do with his return. I’m not really crazy about this best of five series between Cena and Booker. I don’t like the way it’s being dragged out. I don’t feel any excitement with the whole thing. But Booker sat with Tazz and Michael Cole, whom by the way bugged me so much last night. Cole for some reason seemed to have quieted down lately but last night oh did he get on my nerves. Anyway Book watched Cena take on D-Von Dudley. There was no run in by Book which I liked and the match was good not outstanding but good. I was happy to see Cena pin D-Von, only because with Bubba Rey out there I really expected D-Von to win. So in a few weeks Smackdown will be celebrating five seasons on UPN. What better way to celebrate then by showing clips from past shows. Last night it was Hunter vs. Rock for the WWE title with Shawn Michaels playing referee. I sure remember that one, it was Smackdown’s first show and who would have thought at that time that Shawn would give Rock Sweet Chin Music to make sure Hunter won and retained the title? I look forward to see some of the past highlights of Smackdown and believe me there were many. Renee Dupree dump the gimmick you are done. Not only did he lose his match against RVD on Heat last week but he lost again last night, and to make matters worse when Kenzo ran out to attack RVD, Dupree just rolled out of the ring and disappeared. WWE did a horrible job on this guy. There is no doubt he can do the mic work and he definitely can wrestle but they have just about killed him off week after week with that crappy gimmick. This was another good match until the Kenzo appearance. I really liked the main event because not only was Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero in it but Rey Mysterio was a part of it after he helped Eddie when Kurt and Luther Reigns threatened to take Eddie out during that long segment earlier in the show. Now this was good but I have to be honest with you the Luther push, I’m not sure I like that. Again it came so fast so soon; I am just not into watching him wrestle. I will say this I would take him over Heindenreich any time but I think Luther needs to start maybe from lower mid card status before he ends up where he is now. We saw Angle get the hell out of the ring before the finish and how nice it was to see Eddie low blow Luther and Rey get the pin. Angle did return and poured paint on Eddie’s car to end the show. This could have been more exciting but for some reason, it was a sub par way to end the show. The matches definitely made Smackdown worth watching. Remember Smackdown doesn’t have a pay per view until No Mercy in October. So you just know that these next few weeks are probably not going to be the most exciting since there is no build up for the pay per view. I hope I’m wrong because the fans deserve to see top shows. I guess we will just have to wait and see how things go. I’ll be back on Sunday to talk about a lot of different things, like my friend Brock Lesnar. I guess he just wants to forget all the great things wrestling did for him. I definitely have a few things to say to Brock.
PLEASE NOTE: The links contained in the ads above (beside 'Advertisement') were inserted by the reporter or advertiser and may take you to an outside website which we do not control.
