WWE Raw Review - 23rd February 2009

No Way Out is now a distant memory as we start to only look forward to Wrestlemania. Although the creative team have more shows than for any other PPV to build it with they can’t afford to throwaway a two hour show so let’s see if the creative team used this week’s show wisely.

Good Points

Cena better as a challenger

I have always said Cena is a lot better when he is challenging for a belt. On Raw he went back to the Cena of five years ago that everyone loved as he poked fun at Big Show, Edge and Vickie Guerrero. Give Cena mic time and let him make fun of his opponents and he can get back some of those fans he has lost over the years.

HHH / Orton the hottest feud in WWE right now

This feud is going to transcend and engulf both brands. HHH showed his believable rage as he chased Orton and Legacy through out the backstage with his sledgehammer destroying things on his way until Orton finally escaped in a car. Orton is being a great heel by doing dastardly things and then running away instead of staying and fighting.

Jericho continues to build for Mania

With nobody still sure on who Jericho will be wrestling at Mania Jericho is doing a great job of hyping his involvement this week interrupting Steamboat after he was announced as a Hall of Fame inductee. Jericho left another legend lying cementing his position and his hate for the older breed of wrestlers.

Bad Points

Smackdown involvement

With the draft coming up in a month’s time and it continues to look pointless as this week Big Show and Chavo came to Raw. Big Show’s involvement was pointless as all he did was stand around during the Cena / Edge segment and then Chavo wrestled in the main event against Cena. To have a Smackdown guy in the main event and such a weak Smackdown guy it made the main event very poor to say the least and did little to build Cena.

CM Punk goes round in circles

After winning Money in the Bank last year at Mania CM Punk has qualified again. I thought it would make much more sense for him to have a single intercontinental title match at Mania to show how he has developed from last year’s MITB.

Overall

Both shows are now blending into one which I’m not sure at the moment if it is a good thing or not. I think they need to address who the champion of each show is as at the moment nobody is quite sure which belt belongs to which. There are al ot of great things happening at the moment but it could quite easily turn in to a mess so WWE need ot be careful.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 23rd May 2008

Smackdown

After an ok Raw this week I can’t say I was expecting much from the Smackdown crew. With only two Smackdown’s before One Night Stand though they needed to pull their fingers out.

Good Points

Solid Opening

With the first show after a Pay Per View I always feel that it is best to start with a segment which sets the wheels in motion for the next main event and this was they did. Edge and Vickie Guerrero came to the top of the ramp to announce that Edge would be facing The Undertaker at ONS in a TLC match which is great idea as the World heavyweight title has never been contested for in this manner and Edge has a good history in these matches.

Nice ending

They ended the show well with Chavo going up against the Undertaker. This was seen as punishment for Chavo but the family and his bodyguard came down to the ring to make it an interesting main event which made The Undertaker look strong as he still managed to pick up the win.

Bad Points

Everything in the middle

If something goes right on Smackdown it is usually the beginning and the end but if they want the fans to keep watching until the end they need to sort out the middle. In this day and age and on an entertainment TV station just trying to do a wrestling show doesn’t work you need backstage segments, strong storylines and to give characters time on the mic everything which Smackdown is light on.

Links with ECW

It seems that on the whole Smackdown does more work to link with ECW. The problem is now they are not just bring ECW wrestlers on to the show but thy are now carrying ECW storylines across to ECW. For those fans that don’t watch ECW it just becomes confusing.

Weak storyline of the week award

Goes to Smackdown this week. Teddy Long was a guest on the VIP Lounge and after being berated by MVP Batista came to leap to his defence to set up a match between MVP and batista for later in the show. Now MVP and Batista hav no major history together, Batista and Teddy Long have no real history and Batista is in the midst of a programme with Shawn Michaels. Great logic WWE creative team.

Overall

As expected not really much going on this week. They’ve got the wrestlers to entertain but until they get better writers and a better grip on what the brand should b then Smackdown will always be referred to as throw away TV.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 4th April 2008

Tonight was Smackdown’s chance to hit the ground running after Wrestlemania as they started their run to Backlash. After a very strong Raw I was looking forward to see wht Smackdown had to offer.

Good Points

Strong Opening

Edge’s crew started off the show in the ring with Edge and Chavo bemoaning the fact that they are no longer champions. Vickie Guerrero though helped the heel faction in to an upbeat mood as rematches for both titles were announced for Backlash but this wasn’t all as they announced a brother vs. brother / champion vs. champion match for the main event with Kane taking on the Undertaker. It was a great way to kick off a show.

Batista / HBK feud

It was predicted that these two were going to feud but how they built it on Smackdown was great. Shawn still trying to come to terms with retiring Ric Flair and making sense of the situation during an in ring promo was interrupted by Batista who went on to question Shawn’s motives. Batista got in to his head and got him doubting himself in a great piece of character interaction in the ring.

Great Main Event

The main event with Kane taking on Undertaker was the best Smackdown main event in some time. Great storytelling and some great back and forth moments as Edge and his cronies interfered to get the match thrown out. I can’t wait to see how they continue to develop this one.

Bad Points

MVP vs. Matt Hardy

After Matt’s return at Wrestlemania and his involvement on Raw Matt was on a big push with a ready made opponent in MVP to continue a great feud with. This could have been a great match for Backlash but instead the WWE creative team gave it away for free with no build up in a throw away match which Matt picked up the victory in killing it dead.

Handling of debutants

Smackdown saw two new faces appearing on Smackdown those being a yet to be named blonde Diva who attacked Michelle McCool and the Russian Vladimir Kozlov. With no build up Vladimir came out to no music and competed against a no name jobber. Ok the Blonde Diva segment I can kind of understand but if they are trying to make Vladimir in to some sort of unbeatable monster they are going the wrong way about it.

More time given to Jesse and Festus

Now WWE creative team I do want a return of Tag Team wrestling but if it means us having to watch Jesse and Festus every week I would rather not have any tag wrestling at all. I know I keep on harping on about Festus but I will continue to do so until the WWE creative team see sense.

Overall

Sloppiness on WWE’s part spoiled what was on the main a great show. To have two strong feuds Edge/Undertaker and HBK/Batista going on is turning Smackdown in to an entertaining show which you don’t want to miss an episode of.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 14th March 2008

We are starting to get the business end now with two weeks to go until the biggest show of the year. This is the time for tight well planned out TV shows and shows which entertain the casual fans in order to get as many people talking about it and buying the PPV a possible. So did Smackdown do its job this week in getting us ready for Mania.

Poor Start

Many people will say that the main events and the endings of weekly wrestling shows that are the most important thing but I disagree to me the opening segment of a show is the most important. Unless you are channel surfing the only way you are going to watch the main event is if the opening of the show hooks you. It may be very formulaic but I enjoy seeing a non wrestling segment opening a show to set the scene for the rest of the show. If a show starts with a match which has nothing to do with the rest of the card and if that match is not interesting you are going to be watching with nothing to look forward to and not enjoying what you are currently watching so you are going to switch over. So opening up with a divas segment which had nothing to do with the rest of the card or wasn’t built the previous week on Smackdown was not the right idea.

Building Big Show

They are doing well at building the Big Show as an unbeatable monster this time having him win a handicap match in under five minutes. The problem is now that they are building the Big Show as that unbeatable do we really believe Mayweather can beat him?

Morrison in ‘Money in the Bank’

In a match that made no sense pitting the tag champs against each other Morrison beat The Miz to win a spot in ‘Money in the Bank.’ The match was good for wrestling quality but made no sense, saying this though I am glad to see Morrison in the ‘Money in the Bank’ you know he isn’t going to win it but he could definitely add something to the match. This match just showed you how bad the tag team scene is at the moment in the WWE. The Tag Belts, the US belt and the Intercontinental belt do not change hands often enough for my liking and the reason there are long title reigns for the these belts is that talent is so thin on the ground.

Great Finlay promo

Promo’s in my opinion are just as important as matches for telling storylines and a great promo can really take a feud to another level. Finlay’s promo about Hornswoggle and the JBL situation was superb and should be a lesson for the younger guys in the business on how to cut a promo.

Batista vs. MVP

After being my least favourite match in recent history on Smackdown I wasn’t looking forward to seeing this again. Thankfully the match was a lot better this time and the ending was great with Umaga coming in to set up a win for MVP which gave him a push before ‘Money in the Bank’ and helped develop the feud between Umaga and Batista.

Great main event

If I wasn’t a wrestling fan I may have missed this main event as I would have turned off after the first five minutes. Going back to what I was saying earlier it don’t matter how great a main event is if nobody is watching it’s meaningless. The main event pitted HBK and Flair vs. Edge his two cronies and Chavo Guerrero in a steel cage. The action was great and the ending was superb with the lights going off and Undertaker appearing in the ring causing Edge to once again flee the scene but this time in the process winning the match. The only problem I have is with the HBK / Flair set up for their match. As HBK is inducting Ric Flair in to the Hall of Fame the night before you know they are going to continue to be buddy, buddy up until the match so there is no real excitement of it they are going to fall out or not.

Overall

The show was a good episode of Smackdown. The creative team just need to be careful to make sure that Raw guys don’t get too much time and attention in a Smackdown main event which they managed to do this time but it is a very thin line. This week I enjoyed Smackdonw a lot more than Raw and was happy not to see Jesse or Festus.