Wait, what? I’m writing a SmackDown Review? Yes I am. When I saw the card for the show I thought about it and then once I woke up and was bored out of my mind I decided it would be a good way to kill some time. If other SmackDowns in the future have good cards I think I may write about them, but we’ll see. That’s the one good thing about SmackDown being taped, is that you can see the matches that are on the show before hand and decide if it is something worth watching or in my case, writing about. Let’s get to SmackDown.
Chris Jericho vs John Morrison
This is what I love about SD. We start the show and there is no bullshit talking we just get 2 great wrestlers in the ring for what should be a great match. I was discussing the current state of WWE with someone who hasn’t watched since the Attitude Era and he asked me “Who is the next big guy?” My response was immediately John Morrison. I feel 2010 is the year for him, if he is not the WWE or WHC by the end of this year I’m probably going to stop watching WWE. Let’s see if he takes a step in that direction in this match. As for Jericho, he’s sporting some nice makeup on his face where he got “punched” by Mike Tyson on RAW. See, i wrote my little preamble there when I saw Jericho walking to the ring, we did get some talking, but at least it’s from Jericho and not these idiot guest hosts. I guess he’s not trying to get on RAW anymore as he makes no mention of it and says he’s the face of SmackDown and then he said just like 20 other guys are going to in the next 2 weeks, that he’s going to win the Royal Rumble. The difference between Jericho and those 20 other guys is that it sounds believable coming out of his mouth. A minute into this match, the Intercontinental Champion, Drew McIntyre comes down the ring and we go to commercial. We come back and it seems Drew’s did little to distract J Mo as he’s in control. Jericho is able to take control when he pushes J Mo out of the ring when he was attempting the Flying Chuck Kick. Things start to pick up a bit after J Mo breaks out of a submission attempt and both guys go back and forth using their athleticism. Great Spot when Jericho locks in The Walls of Jericho on J Mo and J Mo looks like he might be done, Drew gets up out of his seat and taunts J Mo with the IC belt, this inspires J Mo to crawl towards Drew and get to the ropes. Things don’t stay J Mo’s way for long as after Jericho breaks the Walls, J Mo stares at drew just long enough to allow Jericho to get up and hit the code breaker for the win. Not exactly the great match I thought it was going to be. They were working a little slower pace then we’re used. The win is good for Jericho as he needed one after being treated like a fool since the TLC PPV. As for Morrison, I guess a rematch with Drew is in his future, but he should be in the Rumble match and winning it.
Winner- Chris Jericho. **1/2
CM Punk and Luke Gallows are out to the ring. Punk is trying to recruit more members to his straight edge cult. Gallows talks and says he doesn’t need pills anymore because he has CM Punk. They pull some guy out of the audience and do the same thing they did last week by shaving his head. This was another great Punk promo up until that point. I could do without them pulling these plants out of the audience and shaving their head. If they do it to guys that are going to be members of Punk’s crew that’s one thing, but as we saw last week, there’s no carry over.
Fatal 4 Way Match to become #1 Contenders for the Unified Tag Team Championship- Great Khali and Matt Hardy vs Cryme Tyme vs CM Punk and Luke Gallows vs The Hart Dynasty
Talk about a random pairing, Hardy and Kahli? Did they really want to make this a 4 Way that bad that they stuck these two together? This one broke down the way all Fatal 4 Ways do after about 3 minutes. That leaves Punk and JTG in the ring. JTG looks like he might have the win but Punk made the blind take to Gallows who hits The Gallows Pole, I think that’s what they’re calling it, for the win. This was a very RAW like match. Since this is SD, I was hoping for them to give it some time and make it a fun match. Punk and Gallows vs D-X? Ok, I guess. I would have preferred Punk vs Christian, but I’ll take it.
Winners- CM Punk and Luke Gallows. *1/4
Backstage, Josh Matthews interviews Batista, but Batista says he’s got nothing to say and scares Matthews away.
The World Heavyweight Champion, The Undertaker is in the ring. I don’t think he’s been on TV since the Christmas Day edition of SmackDown. He says he will continue to collect souls in this new decade just like he has in the past 2 decades. He tells Mysterio and Batista that whoever survives the cage match, won’t survive him at the Royal Rumble. Undertaker turns his attention to Shawn Michaels and his WrestleMania challenge. He tells HBK he’s coming to RAW this Monday to give him his answer personally. Typical Undertaker stuff here, which I enjoyed more than usual, I guess because I haven’t seen him in a few weeks.
Mickie James vs Beth Phoenix
The past couple of weeks each girl has helped the other during a post match beat down only to hit their finisher on the one they were helping. This is developing into a nice little story for the Divas. It makes me sick that they make Mickie out to be fat. Most girls would die to look like her yet WWE is making it out to be that there’s something wrong with her, that’s not cool Vince. This was more of a brawl than a wrestling match. Beth gets DQ’d when she ties Mickie upside down in the corner and won’t give a clean break. Michelle McCool and Layla come to the ring to attack somebody. Beth looks at them and leaves allowing them to beat on Mickie. Mickie tries to make a comeback, but the 2 on 1 advantage is too much. A pretty brutal beatdown of Mickie. As has been the past couple of weeks, the matches with the girls have been, eh. While the post match stuff has been good. I’m interested to see where this goes next.
Winner- Mickie James. 3/4*
Dolph Ziggler vs Kane
Before the match Dolph tells Matthews he’s going to beat Kane and guess what else he said? Can’t guess? He said he’s going to win the Royal Rumble, sorry kid, I don’t see that in your future. This is the 3rd week in a row these two have met. 2 weeks ago it was a draw as neither could beat the clock and last week Dolph won by count out. Kane dominates the match early, but when we get back from commercial it’s Ziggler in control with a side headlock. The point of this match seems to be the getting the sleeper hold over which Dolph has been using almost exclusively that last 3 weeks. This was kind of slow and boring until towards the end when the started going at it outside. A Kane chokeslam equals a win for the Big Red Machine. I thought after the beat the clock match, this mini feud would produce a couple of good matches, which it really hasn’t. What I do like is these mid card matches are given time on SD. they give the wrestlers a chance to work and tell a story, not like on RAW where it’s over in 3 minutes, how can you expect guys to get better when they work in 3 minutes matches?
Winner- Kane. *3/4
Annoying Josh Matthews finds Rey Mysterio walking to the ring for his match. Josh says this match must be a nightmare, Rey sees it as a dream come true.
Steel Cage Match to Determine the #1 Contender for the World Heavyweight Championship- Batista vs Rey Mysterio
My DVR says there are only 9 minutes left in this recording. I was hoping these guys could get 15 minutes. I really like cage matches, but like everything else, WWE PG cuts the balls off of the level of brutality these matches usually have. I really miss the old school cage with the blue bars, not really a fan of the fence-like cage. I’m also not a fan of pins being allowed in the cage. When I was younger you could only win by escape and I liked it like that. Story of the match was Batista using his power to dominate and punish Rey and when Rey had the chance to use his speed to try to escape. Batista is in total control of the match and goes to hit the Batista Bomb, but Rey uses it as an opportunity to climb to the top of the cage, Rey is almost out when Batista tries to go through the door. Rey kicks the door in Batista’s face and falls to the floor for the win. I thought we would get some simultaneous touching of the floor to set up the triple threat, but instead we get Undertaker vs Rey Mysterio, which should be a lot of fun. I loved Rey’s ring awareness that every time Batista held him up he used it as a chance to try and escape. The match was only 8 minutes, I would have really like another 5-7 to really make the ending better. The match was ok, nothing special.
Winner- Rey Mysterio. **
The show wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be when I saw the card, but what it was, was a wrestling show. SmackDown is a show based around wrestling matches and angles building toward wrestling matches. The backstage stuff is kept to a minimum and the focus is in the ring. If you are a WWE fan and you want to watch a wrestling show, SmackDown is the place. Nothing was great tonight, just a solid enjoyable show. This week’s SmackDown gets a 6/10.
