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I can’t get over how Raw and Smackdown are like night and day. I know I didn’t do a Raw column this week because I shared my experience with all of you about my time at Judgment Day. But honestly I thought this week’s Raw was absolutely HORRIBLE. So I was very happy that I passed on posting a column about my thought since they would have been very negative. But again Smackdown the A show was excellent, and this is the kind of show that I can’t wait to talk about. I’m so happy that WWE is giving me one really good show to get excited about.

What a difference Edge’s character has become without Vickie by his side. Edge is back on top and his mic work has been fantastic, along with facial expressions. Edge is one of the key parts to what’s making Smackdown such a great show. I loved the opening with Edge bragging about being the FACE of Smackdown. His reasoning was at Judgment Day CM Punk lost his match, Jericho lost to Rey and of course Jeff Hardy was defeated by Edge. So Smackdown is now “Edge is Smackdown”, well if you go by what he says it is. Edge does such a great job of playing the Mr. Superior role. As he was talking Theodore “HOLLA” Long came out and had no intentions of taking the win away from Edge but he made sure to let Edge know that the win was in part due to Matt Hardy’s interference. Long pissed off the face of Smackdown by granting Jeff Hardy a rematch. That was the last thing Edge wanted or needed. Edge told Long that he had more heart, and determination than Hardy. I liked it when Edge said that Jeff wasn’t World Championship material, and then he called Jeff Hardy a failure. Of course Edge did a super job with all of this, and after his last remark Jeff Hardy came out.

My God is Hardy over, Jeff did a very nice job with is mic work and interaction with Edge. He agreed and said that everything Edge said was true, but one thing that Hardy is, is a competitor. And then the plug for the next pay per view happened. Hardy said that the Extreme Rules show is all extreme matches and he wants to have one with Edge. Jeff suggested that they have a match later and the winner names the stipulation for that show. Long asked the hot Cincinnati crowd if that’s what they wanted and of course they popped like crazy. So the main event would be another hot Hardy vs. Edge rematch with the winner picking the stip. As you can see with everything I just talked about this was an awesome way to get things going. Just this opening outdid anything that Raw gave us on Monday night. Okay the first match was a very nice tag team match with Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas and wait for it, Ricky Ortiz vs. John Morrison and yo yo yo Cryme Tyme. Listen I will not lie to you, Ortiz is one of those guys that I just don’t like watching. I remember saying back in January if Vince is going to continue to push this guy on TV then turn him heel. And that’s now what he has done. Now I promise I will give him a chance, I mean maybe something good can come out of the change. I thought he held is own out there and the only thing I might do is knock that rally round crap out. The match was a good one and it was the first of many solid matches of the night. I’m thrilled that Benjamin and Morrison’s feud is still going on; it’s a good one.

The next match was a mix bag for me. Michelle McCool vs. Gail Kim was probably one of the best women’s matches Smackdown has given us in a while. I mean this one was done so well because both women killed themselves out there. Okay this was for the number one contender for the women’s title. Now I know Melina is a face but I really wasn’t happy to see McCool beat Kim for that title match. I keep waiting for Gail Kim to bust out, and I don’t mean out of her top, but I want to see her become one of the TOP women on Smackdown. So this was a very good match, with McCool’s win somewhat a disappointment to me. Oh and speaking of Melina, and I did earlier, she had a backstage segment before this match. I don’t know what it is but she comes off a little too over the top with her mic work. Her facial expressions are kind of over done. I would like to see Melina act a lot more natural with her interviews. During this one, Alicia Fox interrupted and had a message from McCool to Melina. The message was that soon the title would be McCool’s. Then Melina responded with a nice slap to Alicia’s face. Now that part I enjoyed. At least with Melina in the ring I think it’s safe to say that the road to the title match should be a good one.

I was kind of on and off with Rey Mysterio’s interview with JR. Now don’t get me wrong this guy came off very pleasant and upbeat for the fans. But I have seen better interviews with him. This one seemed to be a way to “pardon the expression” get the fans to rally around Mysterio. He had them chant 619 a few times. And there was also a tease for all of us about how important wearing his mask was. Rey wanted to give others in the locker room a chance to go for the IC title. He said that he wanted to honor those who wore that title in the past by being one of the greatest IC champions ever. During this statement he mentioned Eddie Guerrero, which of course got a great reaction. Here comes the tease. JR asked Rey about his mask. Rey said it was tradition in the Luchador community. He said he earned the right to wear the mask and it would be a dishonor should it ever come off. Ah does that mean that could happen at the Extremes Rules pay per view? I don’t know, but this wasn’t a bad interview just not one of Rey’s strongest.

Chris Jericho another guy that has brought so much to Smackdown and CM Punk, yes another star that is making Smackdown so good had maybe the match of the night. Well it was close to the match of the night. Now we don’t get Superstars until Sunday morning, but I read that these two put on a 0UTSTANDING match on that show. Well thankfully I got to see them do it again last night. I can’t even go into how much I loved this one. It seems like every time Jericho and Punk have a match it’s a 5 star match. This was a match that could have gone on forever, well maybe for a few more minutes. And of course we got another run in from Umaga who is obsessed with Punk. Umaga hit Punk with a strap, then kicked him and tied Punk with the strap and continuously hit him with the belt. And then we got something different. Umaga grabbed the mic and challenged Punk to a Samoan Strap match at the Extreme Rules pay per view. I was so surprised that they had Umaga speak so well. I guess I was expecting Umaga to speak a couple of words at a time. So this was a cool surprise for me. Hopefully the strap will match will prove to be brutal. I’m a little leery when it comes to anything with belts or straps.

R Truth vs. Dolph Ziggler was an okay match. It was a short match but I thought these two looked good at there. I’m really starting to like Ziggler, and believe me I didn’t expect too. Moving him to Smackdown was the best thing that they could have done for him. I would like to see more put into Truth, I find his wrestling to be good and I wish Vince had more faith in him. After the match, which Ziggler won, Khali came out and was going after Ziggler, but Ziggler escaped. Hey I don’t even mind the Khali/Ziggler feud, I really don’t. And finally we got the Jeff Hardy vs. Edge rematch. And yes it was the match of the night. I really will miss this feud after Extreme Rules. In a way I think this was even better than there match at Judgment Day. We got a match that was a good 15 minutes long and believe me it went by so fast. It looked like Edge was going to win, but Jeff Hardy defeated the World Champion and took the mic and announced that their extreme match would be a ladder match. Well of course the crowd went nuts and the look on Edge’s face was great, he wasn’t going nuts for it. You talk about two guys working their asses off, that’s just what they did in this main event and they are a big reason why Smackdown is the show not to miss.

Can Raw bounce back on Monday? I’m not sure if it’s possible since the theme seems to be all about the Denver Debacle. For those of you that are not aware of what this is about. I will try to sum it up. Raw was supposed to be held in Denver at the Pepsi Center, but unknown to Vince McMahon, it was double booked by the Denver Nuggets who are in the playoffs. According to Vince they were told this was going to happen and Vince has been all over TV complaining about what Stan Kroenke the owner of the Nuggets did to WWE by double booking. I have to say Vince is 100 percent right, and I feel so bad for the Denver fans that bought tickets for Raw because unless they go to Los Angeles Monday night they won’t get to see the show live. It’s sad that it’s come to this and now Vince has made it the theme of Raw. If you go to WWE.com you will see what is planned for Monday night. Hey maybe this will be a blessing and it will turn things around and Raw will be a better show than it’s been in weeks. I will be back Tuesday or Wednesday and share my thoughts about the show.

Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com