WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 27th February 2009

With Cena promising to turn up on Smackdown and the development of the Hardy Brother feud on paper we had what looked like a promising night of action ahead of us.

Good Points

Old storyline but with a twist

Now the brother feud storyline has been done before in the WWE like with Bret and Owen Hart. This time round it is the Hardy Brothers who are feuding and this week on Smackdown used the age old formula of having one brother wanting to fight the other but the other that being Jeff backing down from any confrontation. Of course Matt playing the heel is doing all he can to bait Jeff in to a fight but being a good guy Jeff will never fight his brother. Like I say this is old but the way that Jeff played at the end getting the fans to get on their feet to applaud his decision was something different. Normally the fans want to see the heel get taken down a peg or two so are annoyed when the face won’t fight so it’s a nice little twist.

Cena on Smackdown

Was great to see Cena on Smackdown after two years away from the show and he cut a nice little promo to kick off the show talking about how things have changed since he last was on the show. In typical cowardly heel fashion Edge won’t fight Cena but by using Vickie Guerrero as the one to block any match between the two it keeps Edge strong. In the main event we had Cena vs Big Show in which Edge distracted Cena so the Big Show could win but Cena still looked strong. This was good oslid booking by the creative team.

Bad Points

Giving away matches before Mania

Having Kozlov fight Undertaker when next week he is going to be on Raw fighting for the right to face Undertaker at Mania made no sense. With Kozlov picking up the win against Taker it now looks like it will be Kozlov vs Undertaker at Mania as now Taker has something to avenge.

Four matches is not enough

On a two hour show you should be getting in at least five matches, the matches were good and I enjoyed them but needed one more. Two matches continued on smackdown storylines that being the hunt for the US Title and the tag team feud between both tag champs but these are feuds which probably won’t even get a match at Mania. I thought it would have made more sense to have like on Raw a qualifying match for Money in the Bank.

Overall

Was a good show by Smackdown standards at least now with all the cross brand storylines it is helping the quality and big name draw power on Smackdown.

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 20th February 2009

After all the developments from Raw it was now Smackdown’s turn to build their feuds for Mania.

Good Points

Jeff and Matt get ready to get it on at Mania

After a little lull in the Matt screwing Jeff storyline this week Edge was used as the decoy to push the feud. All show had been building the main event between Edge and Jeff after Jeff teased Edge about beating him in three minutes. After a solid main event Matt came down and got the match thrown out after he delivered a Twist of Fate to his brother and left him lying. The way they used Edge in this storyline makes me think he will on his way to Raw in the draft.

HHH shows the Smackdown crew about intensity

His pre-recorded interview with JR only lasted one question and a couple of minutes but HHH showed intensity on a crazy level which made the storyline fee believable. These two could tear the house down at Mania. The thing now is that with the level of intensity HHH has set they now need to maintain it five or six weeks.

Booking for next week

I liked how they started hyping matches for next week’s show on this episode of Smackdown the build also involved some hilarious segments which were filmed at the valentines date with The Miz, Morrison and The Bella Twins.

Bad Points

Kozlov in the Undertaker mix

On Raw both JBL and HBK were touting themselves as opponents for The Undertaker at Mania but this week Vickie said it was going to be Kozlov who gets the nod. All I can say is that I hope isn’t going to be Undertaker vs. Kozlov as rumours have it as Kozlov should be no where near Mania or no where near doing a programme with Undertaker. I think he needs to go to ECW.

Not much wrestling

Like Raw not much wrestling again this week with the only thing decent besides the main event being the US title feud match. To have only four matches in two hours is unacceptable to me as a wrestling fan.

Overall

Unlike Raw this show featured on two storylines and built them well which I found more interesting to watch than Raw’s scattergun approach. The only thing with the whole Orton / Stephanie thing is the fact that HHH is champion has been overlooked.

WWE Raw Review - 16th February 2009

Afer a surprising and eventful No Way Out tonight was time to make sense of it all and see where we were going in the run up to Wrestlemania.

Good Points

Cena speaks

Finally Cena got some in ring mic time now that he isn’t the champion, go figure. Cena and Edge opened up the show with a great war of words which set the wheels in motion for their feud.

Great segment from Roddy

Jericho continued to build his Mania appearance and was then cut off by Piper who gave an emotional promo about the Hall of Famers to which Jericho retaliated by beating him down. WWE still look a bit uncertain on whether Rourke is going to be fighting at Mania but with or without him they are doing a great job of building the heat for Jericho.

Bad Points

Too much talking

It was like the WWE creative team wanted to set up the entire Mania card in one night. The little wrestling they had was poor and most of which had nothing to do with current feuds or build for Mania.

What’s the point of the Draft?

The Draft is next week but already we had Edge, Vickie Guerrero, HHH and Jamie Noble from Smackdown on the Raw show this week and throughout the year we have seen many stars show up on different brands. The Draft use to be major but now that anyone can turn up at any time on any show it has lost it’s appeal.

What was the point

After a heavily billed no holds barred match at No Way Out tonight Shane and Randy had coincidentally healed in order to main event Raw in a non sanctioned fight which set up a feud for Orton and HHH after Steph was on the receiving end of an RKO.

Overall

After the controversial booking of no Way Out WWE followed it up with a Raw that made matches that happened at No Way Out pointless and future shows like The Draft pointless. With the amount of weeks we have before Mania the WWE don’t need to rush what they are doing which they seem to be doing at the moment.

WWE No Way Out Review 2009

With two Elimination Chamber matches and a well built Shane McMahon / Randy Orton match I was looking forward to No Way Out especially as this was one of the few PPV’s we get for free in the UK.

Good Points

A major push for Edge

After being the top draw on Smackdown for some time WWE furthered his gimmick of being the Ultimate Opportunist when after he lost the Smackdown Chamber interjecting himself in the Raw Chamber match and winning the title in a move reminiscent of when Jericho interjected himself in to the title scramble match many moons ago.

HHH back on top

It is great to see HHH back as champ. Hopefully they give him a long run with the title. After a few years of losing Mania main events it will be interesting to see if he can go in to Mania as champ and leave as champ although if Orton decides to challenge HHH it could be a short reign.

JBL / HBK storyline over

Was glad to see this storyline put to bed with HBK getting the win and I the process getting himself out of his contract with JBL hopefully this will free him up to have a good feud for Wrestlemania.

Bad Points

Orton pushed to the side

After winning the Rumble and his feud with Shane McMahon which built to their match at No Way out I thought his win was very much overshadowed by everything else going on and their match didn’t deliver on the build. Shane didn’t do any bumps better than what he has done in the past and I didn’t feel the intensity which this match needed was there.

Too many last minute changes

Now the odd last minute spontaneous change is good as it adds to the unpredictability factor but it just seems to becoming too commonplace and making the show hard to follow and hard to predict. A good swerve is when you don’t predict it is going to happen but when you look back on it you are kicking yourself for not seeing it coming.

Overall

A wild and entertaining night by the WWE but by having an Elimination Chamber match as the first match out it rather killed the next hour or so of matches before the other chamber match.

TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 12th February 2009

After in what was in my opinion one of TNA’s poorest PPV’s to date last weekend I was hoping TNA could get back on track with a good iMPACT.

Good Points

The falling apart of MEM

With the frontline now a distant memory it’s now up to MEM to have inner conflict to create some main event matches. TNA are now doing the old classic of having two big draws Angle who wants to be the leader and Sting the champion getting angry with each other and falling out. This is great as it leaves the potential for a swerve by the MEM or for the members to pick sides in a proper inter faction war.

Solid Card

Besides from the usual TNA dusty finishes the actual card was very strong. We had three strong tag matches featuring, Beer Money, Team 3D, Angle & Sting, Lethal Consequences, MCMG and more. On top of this there was a great women’s match and a strong Steiner / Petey Williams match.

Bad Points

Hardcore History 101 with Mick Foley

This is a new segment where Foley talks about his favourite hardcore matches. This section is pointless as most fans won’t have a clue what he is talking about when he relives old matches and TNA don’t have any rights to his footage to show what he is talking about so it just turns out to be a pointless five minutes.

The Frontline

After what could have been a great faction war which could have run and run The Frontline aren’t even mentioned any more as over night they disappeared. If this was only ever intended to be a short feud they could have at least given it a proper ending and send off.

Overall

The MEM is the only interesting storyline at the moment on the show but it is a great storyline. They just need to invest in proper feuds and storylines down the card.

WWE Smackdown Review - Friday 13th February 2009

After Raw’s limp effort earlier in the week and with the poor use of Christian in his return on ECW this week I was hoping that Smackdown could do something to get me excited for No Way Out.

Good Points

Push for the chamber

Was great to see a whole show geared around the Elimination Chamber something that Raw should have been doing this week. The show started with Edge talking about the chamber and then Big Show telling him he wasn’t going to walk out of it with the title. Then we had HHH doing a backstage interview talking about his experience in chamber matches and the show ended with a Fatal Four Way featuring four of the combatants in the Smackdown Elimination Chamber which ended with Edge getting involved and causing the match to be thrown out.

Good Jeff Hardy promo

Was great to see Jeff back in the ring giving a promo verbalising what has been happening lately. He sent an emphatic message to Matt and the entire audience that he will be winning his title back.

Bad Points

No Matt Hardy

With the return of Jeff it would have been great to see Matt somewhere on the show to build that storyline. Also I would have put in the chamber with Jeff so they could have teased what their in ring feud may be like but not throw it away too quickly as there are so many other people in there.

No lower card match

Now I loved the time that was given to the chamber but there were three matches on the show which had no bearing on No Way Out. I think Smackdown could have done with having one undercard match as they have built a nice programme with Shelton Benjamin, Chavo Guerrero and MVP or another match could have been Carlito and Primo against Miz and Morrison so there were options there.

Overall

Best show of the week for WWE by far and it has got me excited for their chamber match as I could actually see Edge losing his title but on the Raw chamber I don’t think Cena is any danger of losing his belt.