SmackDown Discussion Thread - 6th July 2007

[wyndorf 389]

Chuck Palumbo has been wrestling for 10 years! Time does indeed fly. He's a BIG dude. Not sold on his gimmick, but I like his smash 'em hard style. I'd have been much more convinced if they'd had him play the role of a detective - under the guise of Chuck Columbo. That would've have been glorious.

 

MVP vs Matt Hardy was wonderful. I leapt up from my chair and squeeled like a pig "TWIST OF FATE!!!!!" - which goes to show by just jazzing up a finisher ever so slightly, it has a HUGE impact on the wrestler performing said finisher. Little things like that are what make Superatars.

 

Finlay is the perfect opponant for Ric Flair. He's not super fast - he's slow and painful! Flair doesn't look too good trying to run around the ring, so by slowing the pace they're using him well. Pretty damn entertaining.

 

The Major Brothers need a gimmick. Maybe they could be the Major Detective Brothers....

[Nimf 324]

Hands down my favourite SD! ending in a VERY long time! I am a massive Kane fan and got so excited, I almost fell off the sofa... Oh I hope he kicks Edge into next week at the GAB!!!

[Guest Kanenite]

I thought Smackdown was decent this week. MVP/Hardy I missed half of but what I did see impressed me, both of them have had great years so far. In terms of building stars I thought it was quite a productive show, Masters actually looked good, Palumbo looked alright, decent big man look, Major Bros seemed alright and Dykstra didn't do much but he shouldn't have lost if they're going to push him which I hope they do.

 

Kane being the Cutting Edge guest was great, haven't seen him in a while so i'll be looking forward to his match with Edge, hopefully a feud would be nice as I remember their brief feud in 2005 which I enjoyed.

[TPIB 62]

I can't help but think that Rey Mysterio was originally slated to be Edge's guest (which I read was the original plan for GAB was to have Edge Vs. Rey for the World Title). I would love to see Kane win the World Title, but I don't think it would happen.

 

Does anyone else feel that Matt could make the step-up to the plate to challenge Edge for the World Title? They seem to be close to the same size and with some gradually better matches, I could see it happening. Possibly at SummerSlam (it would be the two year anniversary of their match after Matt's return)?

[Guest PowerPlay]

I liked Smackdown this week.

 

MVP vs Matt Hardy - Great match. Back and Forth action and it really shows how WWE wants to push Matt Hardy as a future main eventer. I like the way Matt always does his Twist of Fate out of nowhere. MVP did some really nice moves there, like the top rope belly to belly, very impressive. I hope they get another match soon. ***1/2

 

Chris Masters vs Jimmy Wang Yang - Not a bad match, but I'm just curious to see what they want to do with Masters' character. Since he lost numerous times against Super Crazy on Raw, he's nothing. Average match. *1/4

 

The Major Brothers vs Jeremy Young and Mike Fox - This match was just put there to show what the Major Brothers are capable of and it was a nice showing. They're a great dynamic young tag team with some really good tag team moves. They remember me some young Hardyz during the 1999. Not a bad match again. *3/4

 

Fit Finlay vs Ric Flair - Old school match. The crowd was really into it with everybody doing the classic "WOOS". A nice psychological match like Finlay's match usually are. It was the greatest Flair match in a long time and I hope these two feud soon. Good match. **1/2

 

Kenny Dykstra vs Chuck Palumbo - Kenny should team with an established wrestler like Edge so he could get more Mic work and more character developpement, he's got great skills in the ring, Palumbo did some nice power moves but I'm curious to see what they'll do with him. Ok match. *1/2

 

Batista accepting the Great Khali's open challenge (Btw the great Khali's backstage segment was really good) is a good idea to me, because it will refresh Batista as a character and it'll be good that we don't see him in the main events for a little moment. A feud with somebody else than the champion is not a bad idea itself.

 

The Cutting Edge was really good and a nice idea to start the Edge/Kane feud. It's been a long time since Kane has gotten a big feud with somebody else than jobbers. It should be a great feud with Edge. The segment itself was good with Edge trying to do the nice guy with Kane. I've always liked the demoniac laugh of Kane.

 

Final thoughts: A really good show that is really worth seeing. 8/10

[Murph 93]

Ric Flair vs. Fit Finlay

 

Yeah, Smackdown really does have the best youth in wrestling today.

[Guest Telf]

Another solid Smackdown

 

Yet another Hardy match that was given enough time to deliver the goods. I'd say it wasn't one of the best matches V1 has pulled out recently, but it was still damn good. I see absolutely no reason why he shouldn't be rewarded with a US title run towards the tail end of this year

 

Batista and Khali will inevitably be horrible, but it still has that big fight feel to it

 

I struggled to think of who might challenge Edge for the WHC now that Batista is out of the picture, and with Taker still sidelined, i think Kane is probably the best bet. There'll undoubtably be pessimists about how this will all turn out, but the last time these two worked each other on Raw a couple of years back, they had an awesome match at Vengeance. Nice Cutting Edge segment where the champ did a good job of getting Kane over

 

And oh dear, Palumbo is back

[Guest thequietman]

JBL's commentary during Dykstra/Palumbo???

 

After watching this match on Fridays Smackdown, did anyone notice the bewildering commentary that came from Mr Layfield?

 

Dykstra cut a promo at the start at the match where he insisted that he was a future hall of famer even though he was only 21, does this not qualify as an opportunity for JBL to push this prospects potential and gloat about his arrogance/confidence? This then leads the way for Michael Cole to enter debate with JBL, insisting that the kid needs to prove his worth and not talk about it.

 

Although JBL's commentary has been entertaining since he swapped the trunks for the headset, there has been a lot of incostincies in some of his calls. He continually promoted the potential of guys such as Kennedy and MVP, but when someone who is need of it, ie Dykstra, he takes an impartial stance.

 

By the way, don't like Dykstra's chances if he's jobbing to stale gimmicks such as Palumbo's new one.

[Guest MastersGonads]

For me this is what has made JBL on commentary such a success.

 

His regard and disregard for Heels and Faces alike, has often made me laugh, but you have to remember, alot of what JBL says is true, and he genuinely has a disregard for many of the younger brasher stars like Miz and Dykstra

[Guest Wolverine]

And oh dear, Palumbo is back

 

By the way, don't like Dykstra's chances if he's jobbing to stale gimmicks such as Palumbo's new one.

 

Eh? Palumbo is awesome. Much better than Dykstra anyway. He does throw some beautiful punches.

[Kam 243]

For me this is what has made JBL on commentary such a success.

 

His regard and disregard for Heels and Faces alike, has often made me laugh, but you have to remember, alot of what JBL says is true, and he genuinely has a disregard for many of the younger brasher stars like Miz and Dykstra

He was the same when MVP made his debut also, but he soon changed his mind :)

[Naitch 207]

I like the whole JBL deal where you have to prove yourself to him. I think it's more effective for the heel announcer to dislike a guy then have them slowly grow on them week-by-week until the announcer starts putting over how good the heel is becoming and then eventually how great the heel is. MVP is a perfect example of that, had he come into Smackdown and JBL started performing verbal fellatio on him for no apparent reason other than the basic fact that he was a heel, I don’t think it would have been as effective as JBL hating and then slowly growing to love MVP. It’s a good juxtaposition of MVP’s improvement in ring in the fans eyes. Here is a guy brought in, given billion trillion dollar contract, wasn’t setting the world on fire to the point where even JBL disliked him, then he started kicking 18 different kinds of ass and even grumpy old JBL had to admit ‘You know, this guy is getting pretty darn good’. I think it legitimises him more in peoples eyes than it simply being the age old ‘heel announcer HAS to love the heels’ deal.

 

You know the old saying ‘If God was a wrestler He’d be Ric Flair’? Well if God in 2007 could choose the perfect opponent, it’d be Fit motherf’n Finlay. Finlay was the absolute cat’s pyjamas in that match, tearing apart Flair’s leg like it had the cheek to back talk him. Flair can still be used effectively, he may have had the temerity to grow old and the body is breaking down but he still knows how to work. Terry Funk, Jerry Lawler, Tully Blanchard et al, they’re all older than the hills and this ain’t 1986 anymore but I would pay money to see Funk or Flair over 95% of the people in wrestling right now. Flair still does all the little things well, his chops are over like rover and probably still the best looking/sounding/hurting in wrestling, his punches were always underrated and he’s probably top 3 or 4 in WWE in that regard and the Figure 4 is over. If you use him in ring once or twice a month, he doesn’t really have to do any more than the Chops-Punches-build towards Figure 4-Figure 4. It’s always funny to me when people complain about the lack of moves in a wrestling match, Flair can very easily have a perfectly effective little wrestling match with just those 4 things. He spent most of the Finlay match on his back selling the submission and he does that really effectively, biting his finger, shouting, swearing like a drunk sailor and whatnot and if you book his matches to be him taking an ass kicking for most of the match before the super fiery, crazy Flair comeback with the chops and punches chopping the guy down, leading to Figure 4 attempt, it’ll still be fun. Flair to Smackdown has so far proved to be a really good move for him and me. I'm a huge Flair fan but I haven't enjoyed him as much as I have on Smackdown last few weeks in quite some time.

 

Mark Henry is the greatest thing in wrestling right now not named Finlay…or King Booker…or MVP…or…ah, you get the point, the guy is amazingly amazing and I was up running to the toilet all night after having nightmares about him threatening to kick my ass like he does the poor, unfortunate sons of bitches on Smackdown in those video packages. Just off the top of my head, I’d put maybe 4 or 5 wrestlers in the WWE ahead of him on the ‘me likey’ list right now.

[Guest Telf]

Eh? Palumbo is awesome. Much better than Dykstra anyway. He does throw some beautiful punches.

 

I actually don't think he's that bad at all in the ring

 

I've just held a grudge against him ever since i met him at a Meet and Greet in Manchester, in which he acted like an arrogant and uninterested prat :lol

[DC 536]

I actually don't think he's that bad at all in the ring

 

I've just held a grudge against him ever since i met him at a Meet and Greet in Manchester, in which he acted like an arrogant and uninterested prat :lol

To be fair, he was meeting you.:P