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I don’t think I need to say this, but what the hell I will. Smackdown was 10 times better than Raw. I mean it wasn’t even close. And part of the reason for such a good show was the lack of bathroom jokes. I guess that’s because Smackdown doesn’t have Raw’s head writer Brian Gewirtz. Bathroom jokes are Gewirtz’s specialty. It was a breath of fresh air watching last night’s show and I can’t wait to talk about it.

I had a feeling that the Edge and Vickie break up last week wouldn’t last and they would be back together, but I didn’t expect them to reunite after one week. I have to admit I don’t understand what the purpose of last week’s split was. But other than that I thought Edge was awesome with his opening promo and Vickie “excuse me” Guerrero entertained me like she does every week, at least since she’s been playing Edge’s love interest. I hope it’s a very long time before Edge turns face, because this guy is just a phenomenal heel and I really believe Smackdown IS Edge. He has been the anchor on this show since he returned in November and I don’t see his act getting old at all. Oh and again JR brought so much to the show. Last week I never posted a Smackdown column and I remember the first thing that I wanted to say was when Smackdown opens and we hear JR’s voice it’s like wow Smackdown is no longer the B show. This show really means something now. JR and Mick Foley are doing a hell of a job on Smackdown and just to repeat my self this show is coming off like WWE’s flag ship show and it’s about time.

The first match of the night I was crazy about. I’m talking about Matt Hardy vs. Shelton Benjamin. You know for many years I have read or heard on hotline reports that Shelton Benjamin is his own worst enemy. And because he doesn’t push himself, and go that extra mile management is somewhat sour on him. I have to wonder if these rumors are true because every time it looks like Shelton is getting that big push, it seems like out of the blue he’s either working on Heat or you don’t see him. And I like this guy’s ring work so much that I would love to see things turn around for him and maybe that’s why I am so excited that he’s working with Matt Hardy. As I said I liked the match very much and I am hoping that this is going to continue because I think we would get some terrific matches out of both of these guys.

Okay so we saw a backstage segment with Hawkins and Ryder kissing up to Vickie about the terrible treatment she’s been getting from Edge. I was more impressed with Hawkins mic work than Ryder’s but this all came together well and it set up a grudge match with Hawkins and Ryder vs. Jesse and Festus. But first we got Mr. Kennedy…Kennedy beating Domino with MVP sitting with Foley and JR. I thought Kennedy looked his best last night. He seemed very confidant and relaxed. And while I wanted to cry when Domino came out the match worked for me because Kennedy’s win made him look good and it was a way to piss off MVP. So this was another segment that I liked very much and the ending with Umaga making a surprise trip to the ring to take out Kennedy was also something that I liked. I’m a big MVP fan and if the Kennedy from a couple of years ago returns then we have something to look forward too, and then you add Umaga and it all plays out nicely.

I’m kind of on the fence with Chavo. I like the guy but I don’ t LIKE him like I used too. It’s not his wrestling that I’m not into; it’s his out of ring persona that I’m finding annoying. However, the backstage segment with Chavo and Edge along with Bam Neely was definitely one of Chavo’s better non-wrestling segments. Chavo was talking against Vickie and sucking up to Edge. And this came off well because after Chavo played up to Edge, we then saw Chavo and Neely run to Vickie and Chavo did the same thing with Vickie. He made nice with her and this time he threw Edge under the bus. Only Vickie wasn’t buying Chavo’s loyalty and she set up Chavo vs. Hunter. Now this was a match that I wanted to see. As I said earlier in the ring Chavo still has it. But first we got another match with the Miz and Morrison vs. Finlay and Hornswoggle. I thought when that started I wouldn’t be interested but I have to say I really did like the match. I’m not saying that I want to see many more with these four, but last night’s match really came off well.

And WWE Champion Triple H vs. Chavo was another solid match. I had read the spoilers and one of the posts said that it was another Triple H squash so I figured it would end as quickly as it started, but I found it to be more than a Triple H squash. Chavo got some offense in with the help of Neely and I really thought Hunter and Chavo worked well together. This match came off so much better than what I expected. I could not get over the tremendous reaction that Hunter got from the Baton Rouge crowd. Along with JR coming over from Raw along with Mr. Kennedy and Jeff Hardy, drafting Hunter there was a nice shot in the arm for the show. As for the majority of the Smackdown fans? I think it’s something that the fans wanted to see happen for a long time, and now that he’s there it just makes Smackdown an even better show.

I enjoyed Maryse and Natalya vs. Cherry and Michelle McCool. This was a nice fast paced match, and I’m very happy that we got to see the new Women’s title belt and I’m really looking forward to Natalya vs. Michelle at the Great American Bash. I have to say that Natalya’s deep voice and laugh is rather creepy, but I say that in a good way. There were two videos that I liked very much last night and I’m talking about Jeff Hardy’s and Hunter’s. They were both done extremely well and again they give Smackdown importance. And speaking of videos, I have been meaning to talk about Maria since she posed for Playboy, but of course I keep forgetting. I was anti Maria when WWE first started using here, but her ditsy routine started to win me over and I became a fan of hers. But you know how they talk about the Playboy curse? You know once a diva poses for Playboy the ego gets big. Well I think that has definitely happened to Maria. Or maybe I should blame creative. It started before Wrestlemania when she became her “own woman” and dumped Santino. Now maybe it’s just me, but the airhead Maria was a good character this independent Maria is too full of herself for me. I’ll try to keep an open mind about this Maria, and maybe on Smackdown the “new” Maria will turn out to be a good thing,

Jesse and Festus vs. Hawkins and Ryder never finished. That’s because the Edgeheads had a plan and the plan was to get counted out, have the bell ring and have Festus go back into his catatonic stage. And that’s just what happened. Once Festus was back to the Festus that acts like a zombie, Hawkins and Ryder ran into the ring and attacked Festus and Jesse. The attack went on for a short time but after Jesse was thrown out of the ring, he used his noodle and managed to get up and ring the bell and Festus came back to life and along with Jesse they took out the Edgeheads. I saw that one coming with the count out, but hell I liked the way this came off anyway. Hey Vladimir Kozlov has entrance music and he took on Stevie Richards. Talk about the crowd getting very quiet, you could hear a pin drop. Putting a guy like Richards against Vladimir is not my cup of tea and the match was just about what I thought it would be with maybe one surprise, Richards got some offense on Mr. Undefeated.

Before the main event, Chavo, the Edgeheads, Bam Neely and Edge were all complaining about Vickie. Edge said that Vickie screwed them all, yet this also confused me because she did everything that was asked of her by Hawkins and Ryder but they were right there agreeing with the others, so that kind of threw me off. But Vickie came in and threatened to fire anyone that came out to help Edge in his match against Big Show. And then Vickie told Edge to take his beating like a man. So I guess it’s fair to say that this main event was all about punishment because Edge broke off their engagement. During the main event Vickie was wheeled out to watch the match up close. I enjoyed what was going on in the ring and even though Chavo and the Edgeheads along with Neely were told they would be fired if they came out to help Edge I figured they would be there for him and help him defeat Big Show. But for once they all listened and they never showed up. As the match went on it finally came to Edge grabbing two chairs and hitting Show with one on the back. And just as Edge was ready to hit a one-man conchairto on Big Show, Show got up and choke slammed Edge. And then, Show was ready to do his version of the one-man conchairto and oh look who got out of her wheel chair, none other than Vickie and she quickly yelled for Show to stop. And then the love bug hit, and Vickie laid on top of Edge to protect him and all of a sudden Edge and Vickie start getting mushy and they say I love you to each other, and Edge proposes again and she says yes and guess what Vickie and Edge are back in love and together. And already many of my readers want to scream.

I’m glad that the over the top couple are back together, but as I said I don’t get the quick make up session, but it doesn’t matter because I thoroughly enjoyed the show. I love the feeling of Smackdown since the draft and just wait until the Undertaker returns, and then Smackdown will be even more fun to watch. I did miss Jeff Hardy not being on the show but hopefully he will be back next week. I will be back on Tuesday with my thoughts on Raw, and I hope we get a major improvement from what we got this past week. Remember this is the final Raw before next week’s GAB so I think we might get a decent show. The website forum TheWrestlingAsylum.com has recently just re-opened after some severe technical difficulties. If you’ve ever wanted to join an online community and be part of a wrestling forum, now’s the time to jump in. TWA is an acclaimed wrestling forum that has some of the best wrestling discussions out there in addition to many interactive features such as our matches of the week, wrestling pool, et cetera. Currently, TWA is holding an interactive feature where members will vote on their favorite wrestlers of all time and in the end, TWA will count down the top 100. People who participate in this contest will receive a free DVD-R of some famous matches of the top 10 or 20 wrestlers on the list. In addition to all of this, TWA also has a very active Off Topic section of the site for random discussion, movies, music, graphics, and of course, TWA has an ever-growing multimedia section on all wrestling and all other media as well. TheWrestlingAsylum.com is just waiting for you to make it’s mark on it, so why not join up today?

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