Linda's Thoughts - Controvery/Gangrel and More

Posted by Linda Robin on 09/19/04 at 11:27 PM

I’m so sorry I didn’t get Friday’s column out. I really should have used my head on Tuesday when I did the Raw column and mentioned there might not be one on Friday. We celebrated my husband and his twin sister birthdays Friday night. I would have done a Smackdown column only and done that earlier in the day, but I wanted to watch Impact and I thought maybe I would get home early enough to write about both, but I didn’t and again I’m sorry. I won’t really get into thoughts about Impact or Smackdown because I want to touch on a few things that I noticed with Smackdown and then so much has happened this past week that I want to talk about all of that too. Let me just say Impact was excellent it was so nice to be able to have it back on my Fox channel on Friday’s. But as I said I want to focus on Smackdown and its very controversial segment. Also a couple of veterans returned AND there are a lot of news and rumors that all have to do with Smackdown so let me begin.

I found Smackdown to be a good show, I liked it a lot. But two things have stuck with me. The first has to be the returns of Gangrel and Viscera. Ah how well I remember those two when they were part of the brood and then the Ministry. And how well I remember these two when the Ministry was no longer and both of these men practically died in the company. So now they have been brought back, from what I’ve read for just two shows unless their match this week against Taker is really really good. My thoughts? First I can’t see why they brought them back especially if it’s just for two shows. Now if they plan to give Taker a stable then maybe that will work but if not and it’s just two shows then what is the purpose of all of this? Did anyone happen to notice that when Viscera and Gangrel ran out to attack Taker, Taker single handedly took care of them, but took care of them in slow motion? Oh my God when I saw that I couldn’t believe it. Is it time for Undertaker to retire? After that performance maybe. I don’t know but when he went after Gangrel and Viscera it was pathetic. And now there’s this handicap match set up for Thursday’s show. Now I don’t know about you but I can’t see this coming off favorably at all. If Vince wants those ratings to sore Viscera and Gangrel definitely are not the answer. This was one segment that bombed with me. But the last thing I want to say about Smackdown was the creepy and rather disgusting angle with Michael Cole and John Heindenreich. I LIKED IT!

While I have no desire to watch Heindenreich wrestle oh man did I like him Thursday night terrorizing Michael Cole. Granted what definitely looked to be extremely sexual and something you see on HBO’s OZ, both men carried this off so well. And having Tazz drop his broadcast duties during a match to try to rescue Cole just added to a great angle. Heindenreich reading
his poetry to Cole was priceless it’s definitely a sick story line but hell it’s no worse than the Katie Vick angle and so many others. Heindenreich has shown me a lot but I’m so afraid that once he hits the ring it’s going to be all downhill from then on. Well I loved what he and Cole gave us and again Smackdown worked for me. Okay let me get to the latest and believe me there’s plenty.

And all these rumors and news stories are from the Smackdown brand. If you watched the show many of you know that this week will be a very special anniversary show and advertised is Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Stephanie McMahon. It sure sounds like they are going to be there in person to talk about their favorite Smackdown moments. But from all reports, they will each videotape their Smackdown thoughts and as of now will not be there live; supposedly WWE already has taped Hulk Hogan with his thoughts. Now I could see Steph showing up live, but then who knows. Well whatever happens I’m really looking forward to the show. I can’t believe it’s been five years since the first Smackdown, we all know there’s a lot of Smackdown highlights and I’m sure this weeks show will show some good ones. And still on the subject of Smackdown today it was posted that another real life wedding is coming up. Charlie Haas proposed to Jackie Gayda. Hey if I can’t have him then I’m glad Jackie gets him. This was great news and I wish them the best. Now for the not so great news, WWE released Jamie Noble. I can’t tell you how shocked I was when I saw it on their site. There are two rumors going around why Vince let Noble go. They are that he offered nothing to the company, and the other one is that he filed some sort of insurance claim against WWE. As I said these are all just guesses. I don’t know what happened of course my theory is that he’s not a big guy and he’s a WCW guy and those are two strikes against him. But no matter what releasing him is a joke. The guy in the ring was excellent and we all know he had us laughing plenty with his mic work and some of his segments with Nidia and Torrie Wilson. I’m sure TNA will grab on to him and again he’ll come out ahead just being with that company. Now I guess you could say that I save the biggest for last.

Remember this is a rumor, it was reported that after the Smackdown tapings last week Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero got into it physically. This not only stunned me but really saddened me. According to the reports Eddie missed his move which Angle thought made Angle look weak. They made it through the curtain and then verbally took shots at each other. It then proceeded to get physical with Angle putting a face lock on Eddie and bringing him to the floor. Agents broke it up and things didn’t end. More continued when they made it to the back. Again they had to be separated. It all ended with Vince talking to both of them. Again rumors have it that Eddie hasn’t been the same since the concussion he suffered months ago and Kurt told him to get his head into the game. This kills me. First if Eddie is in such bad shape and I’ve talked about this before then it’s time for him to take some time off to get back into mental and physical shape. I can’t understand why Vince would continue to let him work with such major things going on with him. And if Kurt did make that comment then Kurt’s wrong too, Eddie has problems and while I don’t condone wrecking things for Kurt or for that matter any opponent it definitely seems to be accidental, it’s not like Eddie is trying to sabotage Kurt’s career. So this along with the Noble release was very disturbing to me. Let me try to end on one positive note.

Tomorrow the Diva contest ends. And who will win? My money is on Carmella, but I sure would love to see a major upset with Christy as the winner. Raw has announced that it will be Evolution vs. Randy Orton, Chris Benoit and Shelton Benjamin. Oh and if you don’t watch Bottom Line they announced that Lita did not lose the baby, oh I can hear you all cheering. The doctors are cautiously optimistic abut the baby. However it’s too soon for Lita to be released from the hospital, so I guess that’s there way of saying no Lita tomorrow and maybe for a few weeks. And, Kane was by Lita’s side all week; I’m wondering how we should take that piece of news. Finally tomorrow night Vince has that BIG ANNOUNCEMT. Raw has the makings of a hot show, after all it’s the first show of the new season, and seriously I hope it comes off FANTASTIC. I will be back on Tuesday I promise, I have no birthday parties to worry about.

Email lvaccarp@hotmail.com

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