WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 7th March 2008

My expectations weren’t that high leading in to Smackdown this week after last week’s average showing but I was hoping they could put on a better showing than last week.

Jamie Noble getting a push

I am big fan of Noble and loved his backstage stuff and mic work when he first joined the WWE back many years ago when he had Nidia by his side and I also loved his in ring work whilst he was out of the WWE working for promotions like RoH. This week on Smackdown he got two backstage segments which were highly comical and then got the chance to fight Big Show in the development of on of the biggest mania matches. I hope the WWe continue to use Noble a lot better. I don’t think Noble vs. Palumbo is strong enough to be on Mania but I would definitely throw Noble in to the mix for ‘Money in the Bank.’

Batista made to look weak

After booking Batista way down the card for Mania in a strange turn of events this week they had him losing by a very weak count out finish to MVP who doesn’t have a match on Mania yet. I don’t understand the logic of having Batista lose like that when they should be building him as the top star to represent Smackdown. Again I start to wonder who he has annoyed backstage.

Why are they pushing Festus?

Festus continued his push this week getting the win for his team against the Smackdown Tag champs and the ECW champ. Out of all the guys to push in that match Festus wasn’t the one. I find the angle very cringe worthy and I don’t think it has any place in pro wrestling, the sooner it’s dropped the better.

Use of female talent

WWE needs to look at what TNA are doing right now with their Knockouts division. The women could play such a better and bigger part of the WWE and not used for throwaway segments and as part of the show which isn’t suitable for the WWE core audience who regardless of how they try to kid is the 5 – 12 age range.

Edge

Edge started the show strong with a great promo which when he mentioned about ending Undertaker’s Wrestlemania legacy there was a big pop is Edge going to eventually be the heel people love to cheer? I didn’t quite understand the point of him bringing Ric Flair on to the show to interview and then setting up a match between himself and Ric for next week’s Smackdown. Smackdown ended with much of the same as last week but this time it was an official 3 on 1 match with Edge and his two look-alikes battling the Undertaker. Again Edge let his two cronies take the beating to then spear Undertaker to get the win and then get out of there. The WWE needs to do something different with Edge and Undertaker as this is quickly getting boring.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 29th February 2008

After a well booked Smackdown last week I was looking forward to what the Smackdown creative team and performers had install for us this week. However this excitement didn’t last for long.

Too many big guys

Now last week I talked about Smackdown being heavy of wrestlers around the 300 pound mark or higher but this week it was evident. Now if you have too many big guys the answers is not to put them all in to two matches. First we had Kane & Batista vs. Khali & MVP and then we had Balls Mahoney vs. Big daddy V. Luckily the latter didn’t last long. There is a place on a wrestling show for big guys but they need to be used well and not all booked together.

Slow developing feuds

Now the idea of having a weekly TV show is to develop storylines ready for the next PPV. I know it’s harder at the moment as there are more episodes between No Way Out and Wrestlemania than normal PPV’s but to keep a viewers interest you can’t have a feud treading water. The feud which is suffering at the moment was Chuck Palumbo and Jamies Noble as they had a match which Chuck won but nothing happened in the match to develop the feud so it was a waste of time.

Who has Batista annoyed?

After being in the main event scene for as long as I can remember Batista has now confirmed that he is going to be representing Smackdown in the inter-promotional match at Wrestlemania. With the two title fights, Big Show / Mayweather, Money in the Bank and Falir’s retirement match this match isn’t even on the main event radar. The only good thing for Batista is that this feud could mean him going to Raw shows and Umaga the Raw representative coming to Smackdown shows which will lead to more TV time for Batista.

Larger than life storylines

For me Smackdown has always been a product more designed for young people than Raw with more larger than life characters and storylines. This is why the WWE are trying out the tag team of Jesse and Festus in Smackdown but I for one am not a big fan. Eugene had a similar storyline and he made it work as he endeared himself to the fans but for me Festus is used as a character just to poke fun at which I don’t think is right or fits with the fans base.

The Edge / Undertaker feud

I think the Smackdown creative team are doing a good job with this on the whole. As a great heel Edge will keep on putting stumbling blocks in Undertaker’s way and Undertaker being the face will keep knocking them down. This week it was time for Zack Ryder to be used as a pawn and just as it looked like Undertaker would get his hands on Edge he fled leaving his minions to take a beating. The only thing I would watch if I were the creative team was giving the Undertaker too much mic time as with Edge being such a great talker I think the feud works best if Undertaker lets his actions speak louder than words. The other thing is to not build Edge’s minions as I thought Undertaker’s match with Zack Ryder should have been a match to show Undertaker’s dominance not to build Zack Ryder which it did.

Overall I thought it was a solid show but there wasn’t enough storyline development for my liking.