With the Draft on Monday pulling most of Smackdown's talent towards Raw, I knew that this episode would be a precursor to what can only be the demise of Smackdown. Smackdown's always played second fiddle to Raw, but has always maintained a stable of decent stars. With the Draft sending Edge and Jericho to Raw and replacing them with the likes of Christian and Kofi Kingston (you know the one who is from West Africa and seems to be proud of his Jamaican heritage whilst speaking with an obviously American accent).
Apparently, Smackdown is to move from it usual channel in the US to SyFy, which is where WWE's bastardised version of ECW was until this year and where the biggest example of a missed opportunity resides in the NXT borefest. It's quite obvious that WWE are moving their biggest pulls over to Raw before Smackdown gets demoted further in October.
I thought that this week's show had a lot of potential, on paper anyway. After all, the stars who had been drafted to Raw are still on Smackdown until Monday, but the stars from Raw had already moved across. In this unique crossover event we saw great moments that will stand like lighthouses in the stomy waters of wrestling history... well, not quite.
Does anybody else remember when Jericho used to be good? I'm pretty sure he's been in the business a few years, won a few matches, earned a few belts... so why the fuck was he a jobber for Kofi Kingston? It seems he can hold his ground with someone like Edge in a steel cage, but can't beat a mediocre 'superstar' like Kingston?
The rest of the episode was equally dull, with Punk being interupted by MVP who wants to bring the party back to Smackdown. Big Show was throwing a few punches, knocking a few people out, as you do, and for some reason became number one contender for no real reason. Throughout the night we got to see little vignettes of Jack Swagger talking about how great he is - he went to university and was really good in scouts. I'm getting tired of this lispy, arrogant prick; I don't dislike him because he's a heel, I dislike him because he's a complete ball bag. I loved to see him get punched by Big Show, it made such a great noise, I hope it really hurt him.
The highlight of the night was seeing Edge and Christian back in the ring together. Unfortunately, there was no death defying leaps from ladders, just a nice old fashioned mic spot. Edge was saying how much he loves Smackdown and how much he loves the fans and how he doesn't want to go. All really emotional stuff, Edge is such a great guy. Then Christian comes out and accuses Edge of being a liar. Edge can't be a liar, he such a great guy (see above). In perhaps the least shocking turn in wrestling history, Edge admits to being a liar and hating everything that he just said he liked, "you didn't see that coming, did you?", he said pulling his best heel face... well actually, Edge, if that is your real name, we did see that coming and most fans have wanted you to go heel since your return. And the award for the least convinced heel turn 2010 goes to...
So, with Smackdown pretty much redundant and Raw looking in better shape, I'm hoping over the coming months that CM Punk, Undertaker and Brian Danielson go over and all of the rest of Smackdown roster drift into obscurity (that includes you Rey Mysterio).
- Socko
No comments:
Post a Comment