Linda's Thoughts - Smackdown A Definite Winner

Posted by Linda Robin on 09/04/04 at 02:50 AM

Smackdown was one great show last night. I can’t complain about anything that I saw. I don’t know what happened but the two hours just flew by and with a super main event this by far was THE best Smackdown in long time. Before I talk about Smackdown this is another Friday that Impact here was pre-empted for a football game. I’m not happy about this at all. I will catch the show on Tuesday but it’s just not the same for me. Okay let me get right into Smackdown

Last night was the first time that I could actually find any interest in John Cena’s feud with Booker T. I liked Booker T opening up the show and showing footage from Sydney Australia of his victory over John Cena in there best of five match. Yeah Book won not fairly but he won. As Booker was talking Rey Mysterio came out and challenged Booker to a match. Now see this I liked. As one of my friends mentioned the other night it’s time for Rey to leave the Cruiserweight division. I totally agree. Rey definitely can work against big men. Look at his feud with Kurt Angle when he first came to WWE. So I was very happy with Rey getting in on this last night. But it didn’t end with Rey, Kenzo Suzuki showed up calling Rey a liar, yes our new American “friend” even said liar liar pants on fire. No this wasn’t a highlight for me but having Rob Van Dam jump Kenzo from behind was, and then Renee Dupree rounded things out. After all of this Theodore Long made a match right then and there with Rey, RVD and John Cena vs. Booker, Suzuki and Dupree. Now as Long was making this match he introduced this man, and Cena’s music hit and I haven’t gotten chills with that music for a long time. The introduction worked very well last night.

The match was a winner. Why? Because Kenzo’s part was minimal. RVD, Booker, Rey and Cena were outstanding. But I will say that Dupree still gets on my nerves and he’s still doing his miserable prance. But thanks to the others he fit in okay. This was a super match to open the show and yes it definitely set the tone for what was to come. Theodore Long is still consistently good. I enjoyed his interaction with Paul Heyman. Heyman wasn’t on long but he came through like he usually does. Long was fining Heindenreich for last week’s vicious beating of Josh Matthews. Heyman informed Long that Heindenreich didn’t have that kind of money Long gave Paul the okay to pay the fine. Only Theodore wanted Heyman to pay with cash money. Ah Long is very entertaining. Once Heyman walked away from Long, He unlocked the door to the room where Heindenreich was being kept. What a nice way of making Heindenreich look anything but human. Okay here’s something else I really liked. First they really played up the Chavo injury last night. After the show one report said that Chavo’s concussion was not as serious as they were having us believe on Smackdown. That they are just keeping Chavo out for safety precautions. I hope that’s true but I found the angle quite interesting. I loved Jamie Noble playing mind games with Billy Kidman. Getting it into his head by blaming Kidman for maybe ending Chavo’s career all because of that Shooting Star Press. Granted Kidman saying that the move is probably one of the most dangerous moves in wrestling might have been over stated but Noble got the point across very well. And once Noble left London got to talk too. Yeah he did, he tried to tell his buddy that Noble was just messing with him.

It’s nice to give London and Kidman especially London some mic work and a storyline to work with. And their match against Johnny Stamboli and Nunzio was another good one. Before the match Nunzio built up the danger of the Shooting Star Press even more by talking to Stamboli. It’s unfortunate that Chavo had to be put through hell to get something of interest going with these guys. As I said this was a very good match and the mind games that Jamie played with Kidman worked. As Billy was about to do his signatures move on Nunzio he thought about it and stopped. Meanwhile you see Paul London questioning his thinking and doing all he can to talk Kidman in too going through with the press but it didn’t happen. Billy then tagged London in and Paul still looking at Kidman got the surprise of his life when Nunzio rolled London up for the win. Now London is even more agitated and that’s when things take a whole different turn. Heindenreich shows up from God knows where and does to London what he did to Josh last week. I actually didn’t mind this at all. It worked very well and the only thing that I didn’t get was where was Kidman? Not once did you see him try to get to London. But other than that Heidenreich gets no complaints from me. Heindenreich’s next victim was my favorite guy (only kidding) Michael Cole. But Cole got away. Listen last night even Cole didn’t get on my nerves. So London is totally out and that’s the Heindenreich segment for the night. It was now Orlando Jordan vs. Charlie Haas. This was a good match and JBL sitting with Cole and Tazz did a good job on the mic. JBL BS’d about Haas getting the number one contender slot for the WWE title if he won. Yeah like that was going to happen. Haas lost thanks to his head hitting the uncovered turnbuckle. That was done by Jordan earlier in the match. As JBL came in the ring to congratulate Jordan, the WWE champion first gave Haas the Clothesline from Hell. And then JBL and Jordan smiled and posed.

The next match was short but again it came off very well. It was Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von vs. Bob Holly and Billy Gunn. Of course that big bad Spike Dudley accompanied his brothers. I had to laugh when Spike got things going by slapping Holly’s face. My he has so much self confidence. I liked this and naturally the Dudley’s won and watching Spike I sometimes think he’s going to ditch his brothers for bigger and better things. Before I hit the main event. I will say that Torrie Wilson still can’t act. And Big Show will return in three weeks. And Long made sure Show took anger management courses. Hey they seemed to have worked since he seemed very low keyed and kind while standing next to Ivory and
Linda McMahon at the Republican convention. And finally Carlito Caribbean Cool? Yeah I’m looking forward to his debut. Since so many of you have emailed me with nothing but good things to say about him. And now for the main event. It was everything that I expected. It was awesome. Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero put on one hell of a match. Eddie again showed me a lot not only with his wrestling but he was able to add his wonderful humor into this one. Kurt again looked very good. This main event delivered. However, Luther Reigns interfering to cost Eddie the loss didn’t exactly sit well with me. But I will get into that at a later time. The match was a great way to end a terrific show.

I will give Smackdown the edge over Raw this week. It’s been a long time since I’ve said that. It’s always nice to have nothing but good things to write about. Now Sunday there might not be a column. If I can I will get one out if not I will definitely have my Raw thoughts on Tuesday.

Email lvaccarp@hotmail.com

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