What happens next? How about shipping Billy Gunn, Chuck Palumbo, and D'Von Dudley over to RAW to complete the tag division, and then have Vince McMahon get pissed off about the confusion made from the talent raids. Vince could put an end to the raiding, thereby setting the rosters in place. With Benoit and Guerrero there, the Smackdown roster will provide some great wrestling, with the exception of Rikishi and Albert, two large wastes in the WWE today. God damn, could you imagine how great the faces will look now that they have the option of wrestling Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, and Chris Benoit? Those Ohio Valley Wrestling guys just have to be happy now!
Having Guerrero and Benoit makes Smackdown the DO NOT MISS show of the week, while RAW you can just say "eh" with Triple H and the Undertaker probably going to hog lots of television time with their boring promos and declining abilities. RAW has now become the show of yesterday, while Smackdown is now the show of the future. Let's hope that the WWE doesn't get bored with the current rosters and shuffle them again.
Ah yes, it's time to review the Smackdown, and I've got a big smile on my face in doing so. On to the PDC.
Next, we had an angry Kurt Angle coming down to cut a GOOD promo. Angle is such a great talker, and he's many miles ahead of, say Triple H from RAW or even the Rock anymore. Awesome promo on Brock Lesnar, dogging him about having more NCAA titles and Gold medals. That would prompt Hulk Hogan to come out, the two would confront each other, and eventually, Stephanie McMahon would set up a match between these two for the right to fight Brock Lesnar. Very good talking segment here, as the RAW creative team should take note of it. Oh wait, they don't have Kurt Angle.
I couldn't help but laugh at Eric Bischoff in Stephanie's office/room. He's such a great personality to now have around, as opposed to a stale Vince McMahon character.
Next match was Brock Lesnar versus Mark Henry, the Next Big Thing against the World's Strongest Man. This match was made because of the events of last week, so it made sense. Plus, given the odd push that Henry has been getting as a nearly invincible guy with lots of power, this was a good opponent for Lesnar. That was proven by the nice vertical suplex that Henry did. Nice belly to belly suplex by Lesnar in this match, and then the F5 to finish the match. Perfectly acceptable.
I really liked the extended backstage segment the WWE had last night. First, they had Brock Lesnar walking to the back, finding Hulk Hogan. Lesnar isn't that bad of a talker, and using him in very limited situations is the best for him. Then, he'd walk by Billy and Chuck, arguing about the tag titles now on RAW. Rico would address this, and as Chuck and Suck walked away, John Cena had some words with Rico. Their confrontation would prompt Rico to walk to Stephanie's office, which Kurt Angle was walking out of. Rico bumped into him, and Angle would eventually walk over to Brock Lesnar, who hoped Angle would win hte match. I thought this was put together nicely.
Kurt Angle vs. Hulk Hogan was next. About as good as their King of the Ring bout. I can't say it was a great match, as you just can't pull something innovative or mind-blowing out of the Hulkster, as if you ever could, but this match was more ENTERTAINING than anything, which is what you get with Hogan now. I personally like Hogan lately. Cheap DQ finish here, but acceptable, as it keeps Angle strong while not making him face Lesnar just yet. Next week, Hogan will put over Lesnar to make him into a strong heel, going into Summerslam. It's amazing how quickly Brock has made progress on Smackdown, as opposed to nothing really working on RAW.
Next, it was Rikishi vs. D'Von. Yuck, talk about suckfest, 2002. Simple as this: put Rikishi on Velocity, make him be the star of that for all I care. Secondly, give up on the Reverend gimmick and have D'Von get stolen by Bischoff to be on RAW to reform the Dudley Boyz to rebuild the tag team division there. Then, you could push Bautista as yet another fresh face on Smackdown, the show to watch anymore! Didn't care for this match, as it's the only strike I could think of against this show!
Well, the next segment was somewhat of a strike, but Nidia is quite the hottie. Jamie Noble came down and cut a promo, calling everyone rednecks and trash, although that's exactly what he's trying to portray himself as? It's strange that someone would pawn their "queen" off to kiss other men. We could have done without this segment, but it's not like it angered me or anything, like say a lame Rock promo that we saw on Monday.
Man, after reading Triple H's comments a few weeks ago about guys not paying attention to their own show, wasn't it just eery to hear Stephanie yell at Billy Kidman, Bob Holly, and Mike Awesome for watching RAW, not paying attention to their own show. Ha! So dirty of the WWE to do that...
John Cena vs. Rico was next. Why did they have Rico bottled up as a manager for all of this time? He's quite the talented wrestler! He did some very nice kicks and some spots, and worked well with Mr. Cena. Someone is training these guys well over at Ohio Valley Wrestling. Jim Cornette's worth would be great to any upstart fed trying to develop their own talent. I'm sure he's making a nice upper 6-figures salary to keep molding wrestlers into something special. Good midcard match, and afterward, Chuck and Billy attacked Cena. Maybe that's putting over Chuck and Billy in preparation for their RAW debut, if that happens, this Monday?
Gotta love the "I bought the ticket, therefore I have a right to be here" thingy that's been done many times, but never gets old. Eric Bischoff had a front row ticket for Smackdown, only to be very embarrassed with the Smackdown debuts of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. YESSSSSSSS!
Our main event was changed from Edge vs. the Rock to Chris Benoit/Eddie Guerrero versus Edge/Rock. Oh darn, I have no problem with that change. Good, good tag match between these 4, as Eddie and Benoit are just nasty as a tag team, and Rock and Edge are as good as it gets when it comes to an opposition. But the ending was FANTASTIC! Chris Benoit had the Rock in the Crippler Crossface when Rocky was distracted by Lesnar. Then, Brock came down and stared Rocky down while he was in the vicious submission hold, and the Rock tapped out!! Holy clean win over the Rock by Benoit! Can't believe my eyes that someone of the Rock's status actually tapped out to the Crossface.
LAST WORD: Wow, wow, wow! What a show! Aside from the two negatives, the Rikishi vs. D'Von match and the wasted time segment of Jamie Noble, this was some show. Matches were good, promos were good, and the backstage segments were the best in a long time. But the two strikes only give this show an A... but wait a second. I'm only doing Daily columns here until September, so screw it... This show gets an
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