John
01-01-2011, 07:16 PM
This is the first ever edition of “John’s Blog”, and I welcome you to this thread. I will produce a blog every few days, reviewing the latest wrestling event and giving my thoughts on some other topics. In today’s edition I will be reviewing the latest episode of WWE Smackdown, giving thoughts on the current scenario with TNA, Bravo and Sky, and commenting on the, currently, tough schedule for Striker, Mathews and Cole.
Firstly, I would like to comment on an area of Smackdown that, in the past, has been ignored, but looked amazing this week – The IC Championship division. With a good promo kicking off Smackdown and a, what looked promising, main event between Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger, I hope that this is the beginning of WWE actually starting to care about the IC division. In recent memory, Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger have both had claims to challenging for the gold, and the old motto of leaving everything behind as a new year starts rings true to this as Teddy Long decided to book these guys in the main event; a move that Vince can be glad was made. Undoubtedly, the true main event (At least, being promoted as one) was the Kane and Alberto vs Edge and Rey match, which aired during the middle of Smackdown. Personally, I believe that WWE did this because Dick Clarks New Years Rockin Eve was about to begin, during the middle of the show, and WWE wanted a strong bout to be placed in the middle of the show to keep viewers tune in. With Bryan Danielson and his belt receiving less attention than most of the wrestlers on Raw, I can only hope that WWE continues to push these young guys and decides to give someone (Most likely Ted DiBiase, or even bring Drew McIntyre over to Raw) a chance against Bryan, and put that match in the main event of Raw. Obviously, with the main players on Raw (Orton, Cena and Miz), I doubt that this will happen and they will be given the spot between the two hours. I have to admit that I am delighted with the move of Ziggler, Swagger and Kofi into the main event and I hope that WWE continues this, possibly by moving Ziggler into the main event scene.
Teddy Long announced that, next week, Smackdown will have two massive main events: Kane vs Edge in a Last Man Standing bout, and Alberto Del Rio fighting against Rey Mysterio in a 2/3 falls match. The 2/3 falls stipulation agrees with their feud, as it shall prove which of the men is the superior one. Honestly, I could care less about the Kane v Edge match, and I am not a fan of the Last Man Standing stipulation due to the possibility of somebody appearing and attacking Edge, leading to Kane regaining the championship. I believe that the bout would have been better in a cage match. However, this is a classic case of how to end two storylines; by placing a stipulation in a match, that increases the attraction for the match, and unlike in TNA (where they start feuds with a stip), signals that the end of the feuds are clearly soon. With that said, some potential feuds are Del Rio against Edge as Mysterio is requesting time off, according to Wade Keller and Dave Meltzer. I’m excited to see some new feuds on Smackdown, as the Edge/Kane and the Del Rio/Mysterio ones seem to have been transpiring for months.
It was interesting to see how Drew McIntyre was used on the card. Starting his night off by looking at Kelly and promising a change of character, he then went to the ring and beat up Trent Baretta. This completely disagreed with him changing his character as he delivered an impaler DDT (Such a heelish move). Is he a heel or turning face? Despite the confusion, the way that Drew was used gave me hope on his future and I would love to see him win a championship in 2011 (He guaranteed it).
The commentary this week focused more on what occurred outside the ring, as Michael Cole, Josh Mathews and Matt Striker discussed a variety of “Off-Topic” issues, regarding: Matt Striker’s cats, Michael Cole’s social life, how Cole spends his new years with his dogs, how Matt Striker was screamed at for talking so much, how Mathews has taken over WWE and he commentates on Raw sometimes, why Grisham was taken off Smackdown and how incorrect Mathews is for saying “Happy new years eve”. With Mathews doing so much commentary this week, he had to sit through 4 hours of shows on Tuesday (NXT, Superstars and Smackdown) and he was obviously tired as Smackdown was reaching its end. At one spot, you can see Mathews day-dreaming as Striker waffles on. Sat next to him, Cole can be seen yawning. I couldn’t believe what I had just seen. I sat with my mouth open, as to how WWE had not edited this moment out. Maybe, WWE kept it in as a way of trying to put them down (The moment that I’m talking about it during the main event; the Ziggler match). Tuesday is a busy night for Cole, Mathews and Striker as they are involved in NXT, then they have to wait a while until they commentate Smackdown (Striker stays out to do Superstars) and I’m suggesting that WWE relax their schedule because it comes off as though it’s too much for them, and especially during a main event, we need commentators who are jumping out of their seat with enthusiasm. Generally, throughout this show, Mathews seemed very annoyed with Cole and Striker when they supported the heels. He even delivered a line saying “Let me tell you something, Cole.. On this show, we actually try to talk about the stars...” Wow.
Speaking of commentators, my support of Jack Korpella and Scott Standford grew as I watched Superstars this week. Scott came off as a guy who loves wrestling, and can easily be the next JR of WWE. He told us the name of every move, and even shared a few jokes with Mathews, but he kept his focus on the wrestlers, as he showed, in my opinion, that he could be moved onto Smackdown (To replace Cole) in a move that I would support.
Regarding the current TNA-Sky-Bravo situation, I hate to say that it looks as though us UK fans will no longer see TNA iMPACT (I know that alot of you shall be celebrating, right now..). Rumours of iMPACT being moved to Sky Sports are simply rumours, and I will tell you now that TNA won’t be moving to Sky Sports, due to the contract that WWE has which states that they’re the only wrestling (Sports entertainment) company who has a show on Sky Sports. I believe that this is why they created the Wrestling Channel, a few years back. Due to the fact that I am a heavy user of torrent sites, and my brother owns a wrestling media site, I am fine but Dixie claims that she will fix the issues, so more information could be available soon. As of today, the Bravo channels are no more and have been taken off the air (Meaning that several of the programs that I like are no longer available for me).
Thankyou for reading, and I’ll be doing another issue soon, either tomorrow or on Tuesday (With a full review of Raw). Please post comments and feedback, and I will reply to each comment.
Firstly, I would like to comment on an area of Smackdown that, in the past, has been ignored, but looked amazing this week – The IC Championship division. With a good promo kicking off Smackdown and a, what looked promising, main event between Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger, I hope that this is the beginning of WWE actually starting to care about the IC division. In recent memory, Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger have both had claims to challenging for the gold, and the old motto of leaving everything behind as a new year starts rings true to this as Teddy Long decided to book these guys in the main event; a move that Vince can be glad was made. Undoubtedly, the true main event (At least, being promoted as one) was the Kane and Alberto vs Edge and Rey match, which aired during the middle of Smackdown. Personally, I believe that WWE did this because Dick Clarks New Years Rockin Eve was about to begin, during the middle of the show, and WWE wanted a strong bout to be placed in the middle of the show to keep viewers tune in. With Bryan Danielson and his belt receiving less attention than most of the wrestlers on Raw, I can only hope that WWE continues to push these young guys and decides to give someone (Most likely Ted DiBiase, or even bring Drew McIntyre over to Raw) a chance against Bryan, and put that match in the main event of Raw. Obviously, with the main players on Raw (Orton, Cena and Miz), I doubt that this will happen and they will be given the spot between the two hours. I have to admit that I am delighted with the move of Ziggler, Swagger and Kofi into the main event and I hope that WWE continues this, possibly by moving Ziggler into the main event scene.
Teddy Long announced that, next week, Smackdown will have two massive main events: Kane vs Edge in a Last Man Standing bout, and Alberto Del Rio fighting against Rey Mysterio in a 2/3 falls match. The 2/3 falls stipulation agrees with their feud, as it shall prove which of the men is the superior one. Honestly, I could care less about the Kane v Edge match, and I am not a fan of the Last Man Standing stipulation due to the possibility of somebody appearing and attacking Edge, leading to Kane regaining the championship. I believe that the bout would have been better in a cage match. However, this is a classic case of how to end two storylines; by placing a stipulation in a match, that increases the attraction for the match, and unlike in TNA (where they start feuds with a stip), signals that the end of the feuds are clearly soon. With that said, some potential feuds are Del Rio against Edge as Mysterio is requesting time off, according to Wade Keller and Dave Meltzer. I’m excited to see some new feuds on Smackdown, as the Edge/Kane and the Del Rio/Mysterio ones seem to have been transpiring for months.
It was interesting to see how Drew McIntyre was used on the card. Starting his night off by looking at Kelly and promising a change of character, he then went to the ring and beat up Trent Baretta. This completely disagreed with him changing his character as he delivered an impaler DDT (Such a heelish move). Is he a heel or turning face? Despite the confusion, the way that Drew was used gave me hope on his future and I would love to see him win a championship in 2011 (He guaranteed it).
The commentary this week focused more on what occurred outside the ring, as Michael Cole, Josh Mathews and Matt Striker discussed a variety of “Off-Topic” issues, regarding: Matt Striker’s cats, Michael Cole’s social life, how Cole spends his new years with his dogs, how Matt Striker was screamed at for talking so much, how Mathews has taken over WWE and he commentates on Raw sometimes, why Grisham was taken off Smackdown and how incorrect Mathews is for saying “Happy new years eve”. With Mathews doing so much commentary this week, he had to sit through 4 hours of shows on Tuesday (NXT, Superstars and Smackdown) and he was obviously tired as Smackdown was reaching its end. At one spot, you can see Mathews day-dreaming as Striker waffles on. Sat next to him, Cole can be seen yawning. I couldn’t believe what I had just seen. I sat with my mouth open, as to how WWE had not edited this moment out. Maybe, WWE kept it in as a way of trying to put them down (The moment that I’m talking about it during the main event; the Ziggler match). Tuesday is a busy night for Cole, Mathews and Striker as they are involved in NXT, then they have to wait a while until they commentate Smackdown (Striker stays out to do Superstars) and I’m suggesting that WWE relax their schedule because it comes off as though it’s too much for them, and especially during a main event, we need commentators who are jumping out of their seat with enthusiasm. Generally, throughout this show, Mathews seemed very annoyed with Cole and Striker when they supported the heels. He even delivered a line saying “Let me tell you something, Cole.. On this show, we actually try to talk about the stars...” Wow.
Speaking of commentators, my support of Jack Korpella and Scott Standford grew as I watched Superstars this week. Scott came off as a guy who loves wrestling, and can easily be the next JR of WWE. He told us the name of every move, and even shared a few jokes with Mathews, but he kept his focus on the wrestlers, as he showed, in my opinion, that he could be moved onto Smackdown (To replace Cole) in a move that I would support.
Regarding the current TNA-Sky-Bravo situation, I hate to say that it looks as though us UK fans will no longer see TNA iMPACT (I know that alot of you shall be celebrating, right now..). Rumours of iMPACT being moved to Sky Sports are simply rumours, and I will tell you now that TNA won’t be moving to Sky Sports, due to the contract that WWE has which states that they’re the only wrestling (Sports entertainment) company who has a show on Sky Sports. I believe that this is why they created the Wrestling Channel, a few years back. Due to the fact that I am a heavy user of torrent sites, and my brother owns a wrestling media site, I am fine but Dixie claims that she will fix the issues, so more information could be available soon. As of today, the Bravo channels are no more and have been taken off the air (Meaning that several of the programs that I like are no longer available for me).
Thankyou for reading, and I’ll be doing another issue soon, either tomorrow or on Tuesday (With a full review of Raw). Please post comments and feedback, and I will reply to each comment.