WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 30th May 2008

After an entertaining Raw I was hoping this week Smackdown could provide a bit of entertainment. Normally the episodes of Smackdown that are just before the PPV’s are the most exciting ones so I’m normally not disappointed.

Good Points

Great build up for TLC

The build up for the match between Undertaker and Edge was brilliant. With the show kicking off with a great Edge promo on how it was going to be the last time the fans saw the Undertaker on Smackdown which was followed by a great end segment. The end segment saw the family put Undertaker in a coffin just for the lights to go out and for The Undertaker to appear right next to Edge at the top of the ladder.

Building for the future

Was a good move by the writers to start building for after One Night Stand with Batista stating his intentions of going after the heavyweight title after he beats Michaels on Sunday. His match with Hawkins and Ryder was instantly forgettable but at least it saw Batista getting involved with Vickie Guerrero and some of the family.

Jamie Noble

Was involved in some funny backstage segments with MVP and Vickie Guerrero that guy should be given better storylines.

Bad Points

Too Many matches

Normally on an episode of Raw we get five matches tonight on Smackdown we had seven matches. In a two hour show seven matches is far too many it is better to invest time in a smaller number of guys and give them more out of ring time than having seven matches.

Guys in need of something to do

Now I may not be the biggest fan of Chuck Palumbo but WWE need to give him a decent storyline which involve a PPV match and see what happens if they don’t he is just wasting TV time. Other guys that need better things to do are Finlay, Jamie Noble, Big Show, Chavo Guerrero and MVP who isn’t even on the PPV.

Overall

A nice edition of smackdown which managed to keep me entertained and get in the mood for One Night Stand.

WWE Raw Review - 26th May 2008

I was looking forward to Raw tonight with one Night Stand only a week away I was looking forward to see how the headline feuds would develop and get us in the mood for the PPV.

Good Points

Lots of Vince segments

I think Mr. McMahon is one of the best on screen characters in the WWE so to see him heavily featured was great. He proclaimed that tonight was going to be Fan Appreciation night which lead to many funny backstage segments with wrestlers coming to Vince and telling him what he should do to show appreciation to the fans. This culminated in the end with Vince saying that he is going to be giving away some of his millions in the coming weeks on Raw which has never been done before.

New Wrestler Debuts

Was great to see WWE legend the Million Dollar Man introduce his son and latest addition to the Raw roster who is also called Ted Dibiase. Immediately he laid down a challenge to the tag champs and set the wheels in motion for a feud with Holly and Rhodes.

Finally Burchill has a feud

After Mr. Kennedy getting William Regal fired last week Burchill this week decided to blindside Mr. Kennedy after his match with Carlito and after he had been distracted by Katie lea. I just hope they handle this properly and make it a good feud so that Burchill can get some regular TV time and a PPV match.

Bad Points

Lack of build for One Night Stand

Besides the first ten minutes which had a face off between HHH and Randy Orton little was done to build the main event matches for ONS. The last match of the night was Jericho vs. HBK when you also have Cena / JBL or HHH / Orton who should have been part of the last match. The show was then ended by a great Vince McMahon segment but in my opinion this should have been saved for the episode of Raw after One night stand.

Silly Roddy Piper segments

Now I know they want to give Roddy something to do and that the involvement with the Jimmy Kimmel show is great publicity but I can’t stand these segments with Roddy getting involved with the people on the show. If they were to be having a match with either Roddy or the guys from the show on One night Stand then it would make sense but at the moment it just provides a throw away segment every week.

Overall

The complete opposite of last weeks show, last week was heavy on the build for ONS but light on the entertainment whereas this weeks show was light of the build for ONS but heavy on thee entertainment.

TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 22nd May 2008

After missing Sacrifice and two week’s worth of iMPACT I was looking forward to see where TNA’s product was at and what had happened since I last tuned in.

Good Points

Faction Wars

It’s great to see some factions start to develop in TNA. We had Booker T’s continuing decent in to the heel world as he struck a partnership with team 3-D to look out for each other. Then we had the show ending with Booker T, Team 3-D, Tomko and Kurt Angle laying the beat on AJ Styles.

The Kurt and Karen storyline

TNA have played out this storyline brilliantly over the last few months and it finally came to head on iMPACT as Karen asked Kurt for a divorce and left Kurt pleading to save his marriage. Then at the end of iMPACT when Karen came in to save AJ Kurt hit the ring and when you thought he was going to help protect Karen and AJ he then levelled AJ with a chair leaving AJ and Karen in the ring. One of the best endings to iMPACT ever.

Branding

Was great to see more video promo’s throughout the show. Loved the TNA Knockouts video package. TNA are also branding their Cross the Line idea brilliantly and really getting it across to the fans.

Bad Points

Silly out of ring segments

After weeks of watching Jay Lethal and Val going on dates this week we were treated to Eric Young in Nashville trying to find Elvis. I think if you are going to try and push emotional storylines and heated angles and then run segments like this as it takes away from the rest of the show.

Awesome Kong open challenge

It was like going back to the old carnival, fairground style of wrestling where wrestlers use to offer out fans for wrestling matches as Awesome Kong offered money to the fans in the iMPACT Zone to take her on the ring.

Overall

A great show and am glad to be back watching TNA. I just hope this isn’t a one off and that thy continue in this way as if they do their fanbase is just going to grow and grow.

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 Raw Review - 19th May 2008

After being away for over a week and missing TNA Sacrifice as well as all the weekly WWE and TNA shows I was looking forward to tuning in to Raw to see what had happened since I had been away.

Good Points

Good Start

The show started with a bang with the return to Raw of Jeff Hardy after his surprise appearance at Judgement Day. He has been thrown in to another programme with Umaga but at least it was an intense match with Umaga knocking out Jeff Hardy outside of the ring. This is also a good way to ease Jeff back in before he hopefully makes his way back up the card.

Setting up for One Night Stand

With only two weeks to go before ONS they used this episode of Raw well to get four matches announced for it. We had Batista beating Jericho to get a match against HBK at ONS, we had the team of Randy Orton and JBL beating HHH and John Cena so that they could both get rematches from Judgment Day and we had the returning Jeff Hardy beating pitted against Umaga. All of these are stipulation matches.

Katie Lea given some promo time

It was great to see Katie Lea given some promo time as she confronted Mickie James backstage. She is great on the mic and has some great character skills. That would be a big boost for her career if she was put in an ongoing storyline with the Women’s champion.

Bad Points

Lack of use of HHH

We had to wait nearly two hours until we saw the heavyweight champion on screen and his only involvement was a quick backstage segment followed by his match. A heavyweight champion is suppose to carry the brand and be the main reason that people tune in so to use him like this is majorly under using him.

All the time invested Regal gone to waste

Over the last few weeks Regal has been given more on screen time than ever before to build his character of the out of control general manager. All of WWE’s investment came to nothing this week as after he had to be suspended for his second drug violation. To get him off screen quickly he lost to Mr. Kennedy in a loser gets fired match which was all very rushed. I think that drug testing is positive for the company although it can play havoc with the storylines. If WWE is going to invest time in someone they need to make sure that they are clean.

Overall

A mixed bag in all. They did well setting for One Night Stand but they need to remember that to get pay per view buys you have to get people watching the free weekly shows and to do that you have to put on an entertaining show. So they need to learn to build for PPV’s in a way that is entertaining for the viewers although trying to build for a PPV in two weeks is madness.

No Blogs and Reviews for two weeks

hey guys,

Just to let you know that due to my work and life outside of wrestling there will be no blogs for the next two weeks.

Keep on enjoying Raw and Smackdown and I hope TNA Sacrifice is a great event.

WWE Raw Review - 5th May 2008

After last week’s shocking episode of Raw I was hoping to see some clearer direction in tonight’s show and two hours of understandable entertainment.

Good Points

Making the best of the bad situation

After Regal’s crazy moment last week of cutting the Raw feed the WWE have decided to run with the ball on this one. The show turned in to the Regal show as at numerous occasions he would interfere in matches by switching off the lights or changing commentators. From an entertainment point of view it works but from a visual point of view if I was to be channel surfing and I came across raw when it was in darkness I would probably keep on switching. Only problem was that too much time was given to Regal on the show.

Recent returns of legends

Last week Rowdy Roddy Piper made an appearance on Raw backstage which he followed up with another appearance this week which was added to by Trish Stratus featuring in a backstage segment with Trevor Murdoch. It’s great to see legends used in small roles and I think they can continue to add to the shows.

Continuing push for CM Punk

This week on Raw CM Punk got the chance to wrestle Randy Orton to add to his CV of main event stars he has wrestled. He was kept strong as the match went to a no contest after Regal turned the lights off which was good thinking by the creative team.

Bad Points

Who is in the main event for Judgment Day?

If it hadn’t been for the last moment of the show with Randy Orton delivering the RKO on HHH after his main event match teaming with Kennedy against the entire ECW roster I would have had no clue what the main event for Judgment was if I had just tuned in to Raw for the first time. Regal vs. Kennedy should be a great feud but it shouldn’t be pushed ahead of HHH vs. Orton.

Mix of reality in Wrestling

Finally the return of Calirto’s Cabana where this week he interviewed Roddy Piper following the Rowdy one slapping Santino last week on Raw. This was a great idea but poorly executed as Roddy had to bring up Santino’s recent brush with the law. It would have only been the internet wrestling fans that knew about this and the core of WWE’s audience those who don’t log on to internet forums all day would have been left confused so it was silly to bring it up.

Poor handling of Burchill and Katie Lea

With these two now getting a regular spot on Raw the creative team need to give them promo time and put them in to a storyline with someone and not just have them fighting against jobbers or guys who are rarely seen on TV each week.

Overall

A vast improvement from last week but that wasn’t too hard. I may not like the storyline with William Regal but it is good to see WWE committing to it and trying to make it work.