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I don’t know where to begin. I kind of feel like this column is going to be close to what I said about Smackdown last week. The show wasn’t outstanding, but it wasn’t bad either. Smackdown Friday night was a decent show but I feel like Smackdown could and should be a lot better. There is one feud that is doing nothing for the show, and another feud that isn’t exactly helping Smackdown either. But even with those two angles Smackdown focused on one star and that focus was just what the show needed. Without me going through the whole show let me tell you what is kind of putting me too sleep and what kept me wide awake. Also I want to mention some other parts of Smackdown that I liked and certain segments that made me wonder who is coming up with this stuff? You’ll see what I mean.

I still cannot get into the Big Show/Taker feud. Yes they had a fantastic match at Cyber Sunday, but when they are Smackdown the feud goes nowhere. This main feud has been basically putting me to sleep week after week. I find it all boring. In my opinion Big Show and Taker do not click and because of that I just can’t get excited about watching these two. Plus I am baffled that they had Big Show come out before the Taker vs. Kozlov number one contender match and challenge Taker to another Casket Match at Survivor Series. First, how did Big Show know that Taker would lose and be free to face him at the pay per view? And second, we just had a below average casket match last week with the Undertaker vs. Chavo. So why in the hell would I want to see another one, especially on a pay per view. Yeah, the sooner Big Show and Taker end this feud the happier I will be.

And Triple H now facing Kozlov kind of leaves me flat as well. I don’t know maybe they should have had Kozlov face some credible opponents instead of Funaki, Shannon Moore and other guys in that category. I’m having somewhat of a problem seeing Kozlov in such a high profiled match. And in all honesty it’s not a match that I feel deserves my money in two weeks. I might not be giving Vladimir enough credit, and I’m not intentionally trying to make nothing out of Kozlov, but I am not feeling any kind of star power with him and because of that this matchup for the WWE title is leaving me kind of cold. It’s sad because Smackdown is focusing on these two angles, and believe me it’s not making Smackdown a must see show. And maybe I’m in the minority but the Kozlov vs. Taker match did nothing for me. I read some reviews where they said the match was solid, or it was excellent. I sure didn’t feel that way and the Orlando, Florida crowd didn’t exactly seem into it either. This is just another case where BIG rules as far as Vince McMahon goes, and that’s the reason for the Kozlov push. There have been plenty of rumors that it would not be a big surprise should Kozlov beat Hunter and become the new WWE champion at the Survivor Series. Now in the past I would have said no way is he going to win, but if they could give Khali the title believe me a Kozlov reign is not out of the question.

I promise I have some nice things to say about the show, but let me just get out the other parts that I don’t get. For instance they build up R. Truth for weeks and weeks with very solid vignettes. Then they bring him in and the crowd is eating out of his hands, not only because of what they have seen to get us ready for him, but because he comes out in the crowd, rapping and getting them to react. And while all this is coming off really well they have this very good feud going on between R Truth and Shelton Benjamin. And for a few more weeks we get mic work from Benjamin and all is looking good. And then it all starts to go the opposite way. These two are stuck on WWE.com in a U.S. title match before Cyber Sunday starts. And they weren’t on Smackdown last week, but this past Friday night there’s no mic work from the U.S. champ and even though R. Truth does his thing in the crowd it all seemed rather lackluster during the match and after. It just felt no importance was put on what was going on in the ring. Again it’s so typical of McMahon. He pushes the new guys that the crowds are into and then with a snap of the finger all the hype starts dying down fast. I have a bad feeling that it’s going to happen to Evan Bourne and even The Brian Kendrick. So while the Benjamin vs. Truth match was decent I guess I just wanted more.

While this is probably very petty on my part I was so turned off with the backstage segment with Michelle McCool and Eve. Since when did McCool become such a wrestling Goddess? Creative had MICHELLE telling Eve what she needs to have to make it in this business. I didn’t know that this woman was such a veteran and expert when it comes to wrestling. I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Now the part where McCool was knocking Maria I didn’t mind because that was her way of attacking her friend and hopefully turning heel soon. So part of McCool’s segment was okay the other part was just ridiculous. And here I go repeating myself again, but I still get a kick out of Khali and his actions during the Kiss Kam, but what I don’t get a kick out of are the women that they keep bringing into the ring. Could Vince be more demeaning week after week by leaving the hot young girls out and bringing in women that are the total opposite? I wish Vince could move on and do something with class. Oh wait that’s not going to happen I’m talking about Vince McMahon.

Okay so as you can see I have plenty to say about what bothered me on Smackdown, but here’s what I liked. Okay while the losing streak that MVP has been on seems so wrong, in many ways this could be a good thing, because finally I see MVP back in a storyline dealing with his streak. It was nice to have the VIP Lounge on again, and hear him talk, and even though we all knew the streak would continue when he had to face Khali, it’s that losing streak that is now being talked about by GM Vickie Guerrero and I liked it that MVP also kept acknowledging what’s been happening to him. Maybe a couple of weeks ago I would have made this streak one of my major negatives of the show, but right now I think things are going to turn around and MVP will be back to being one of the main guys on the show. Finally we got Bri Bella’s twin out in the open. I thought it was kind of cute how Victoria pulled Bri’s hands from under the ring, and on the other side Natalya pulled her legs. Bri looked like a Stretch Armstrong doll. And finally the other twin came out and now the heel Diva’s stupidity can disappear. I thought Vickie was again on her game Friday night, and that is because just like last week she had very little to do with Big Show. And Friday night the little that she had with him was Vickie insulting Show, and she did that so well. I didn’t mind Jimmy Wang Yang vs. Ezekiel, but I would have much preferred another match with The Brian vs. Yang. Of course Yang didn’t stand a chance, but with Kendrick right there watching and then adding to Yang’s loss by hitting The Kendrick on him this segment really worked for me. Of course I’m saving the best for last. Let me start with Jeff Hardy and Triple H vs. The Miz and Morrison. This match was a good match with Hardy the doing most of the work against Miz and Morrison. Friday’s show was not centered on the WWE champion Triple H which was absolutely fine; it was centered on JEFF HARDY. And that was a really good thing. Instead of Hardy just kind of taking a step or two back from the title picture thank God creative now has Jeff Hardy so desperate to go after that title that he will do anything extreme to impress Vickie. I absolutely loved watching Vickie and Jeff Hardy talking and Hardy pleading for another title shot, and Vickie throwing insult after insult by telling Hardy he’s better in tag team matches. That’s when Hardy promised she would see the EXTREME side of him.

And that started by going after Miz and Morrison with chair shots while the match was going on. Okay granted chair shots aren’t extreme, but in Hardy’s case this was a side of Jeff we haven’t seen. I liked the stare down Hunter gave Hardy at the end, it was like what in the hell did you do that for, you cost us a win. This was the start of more to come with Jeff Extreme Hardy. Hardy again talked to Vickie about that title shot, but she told him she already had a deal with Kozlov. But that answer wasn’t going to stop Jeff Hardy. While the main event was going on, Hardy made his final appearance. Taker had Kozlov in the Devil’s Triangle; Hardy ran out and started beating Kozlov with a chair, which gave Kozlov the win due to a DQ. Hardy didn’t leave Taker out; he also got a nice chair shot as well. And once Taker sat up Hardy ran out of the ring right into Vickie’s office and told her he did something that Kozlov couldn’t do, he took Taker out. And because of that Vickie made Taker vs. Jeff Hardy in an Extreme Rules match for next week’s show. Smackdown was Hardy. I really believe that Vince hasn’t given up on Hardy; he is just taking it slow with him because of things from the past. I’m stoked over this and because of the Hardy angle I would say Smackdown even with all my complaining was a good show.

Okay tomorrow Raw will be taped in Manchester, England, and with just two weeks to go before Survivor Series I’m sure we might get another match or two made for that show. Look for Shawn Michaels to get stuck with JBL and have a match at that pay per view. And who knows with HBK in there this could be one of JBL’s best feuds of all time. We know that John Cena will be facing World Champion Chris Jericho, but I’m wondering if Batista vs. Randy Orton will take place in two weeks. Maybe we will find that out tomorrow night. I will be back on Tuesday or Wednesday with my Raw thoughts and I when they are in England the crowd is usually off the charts so that could really put Raw over the top.

Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com