This week’s episode of SmackDown saw a continuation of the hype for the SmackDown Scramble Match and continuing The Undertaker’s storyline where Vickie Guerrero wants forgiveness.
Speaking of The Undertaker, the show begins with him coming to the ring for a promo. I know that opening-show interviews have been a staple of WWE’s weekly television for the last ten years, but Undertaker appears rarely enough that he’s a special attraction, so surely if he’s going to come out and cut a promo about wanting to kill the General Manager, maybe that’s something that should have been hyped.
Vickie and La Familia were all shown backstage watching this while Taker talked about capturing Vickie’s soul so that she burns in hell, and the La Familia members all left her dressing room and locked her in, so Vickie did a great freakout when she realised.
The final R Truth vignette is repeated, and then he comes to the ring for his SmackDown debut (well, re-debut but they’re not mentioning that).
Kenny Dykstra cuts a promo about how he’s a great athlete not some convict so the hype should all be about him. Fine in theory but most fans look at that as a complete joke because Dykstra has been a jobber for his entire WWE career. That pattern continued here as R-Truth picked up a win in a short basic match with the ax kick.
Not exactly an inspiring debut but hey at least it was better than Braden Walker.
Michelle McCool is backstage doing a photoshoot, when Maryse interrupts to say it’ll be her last shoot as Divas Champion. Michelle McCool says Maryse will never be Divas Champion because she has no talent. Pot, kettle, black. That sets up a divas tag match where Maryse and Natalya beat Maria and Michelle McCool with Maryse pinning Maria.
I hope they don’t put Maryse v. Michelle McCool on PPV and expect people to treat it as anything other than piss-break. It’s sad that Natalya is being downplayed for yet another bikini model type, but that’s how things go in WWE.
Maybe she needs to go to TNA, become the biggest ratings drawing babyface in the company and then when it comes to contract renewal time she’ll get an offer from WWE that trebles what TNA offer her.
Jeff Hardy cuts a promo talking about how MVP is just an obstacle on his road to achieving his dream of winning the WWE Title. Vickie Guerrero tries to phone for help, but the line is dead so she panicks and throws the phone at the wall - well, at a poster of The Undertaker on the wall, which was a cool touch. It’s 2008, surely she has a mobile?
The long match of the week was MVP v. Jeff Hardy, and it was really good. These two mesh really well in the ring together, and I really think they could be main eventing PPVs for the WWE Title against each other this year and draw decent buyrates.
They did a good job of playing up the basic story of MVP waiting for Hardy to make mistakes. I love that, it’s what both of them have cut promos about for the entire feud, then when it comes to match time they actually remember that there’s a storyline involved and it’s not just two guys going out there doing moves, and they use the match to play off the build. Jeff even managed to stop himself on a dive to the outside and outsmart MVP who had already ducked to avoid the move, and that’s played up throughout the match as Hardy is always one step ahead, and MVP’s viciousness when he finally cheapshots Hardy and gets on top is really good at showing his frustration.
In the end they tease their finishers and Jeff wins clean with the swanton, but Shelton Benjamin comes in to lay him out with the Pay Dirt postmatch, then lays out MVP with the same move.
Jesse and Festus v. Hawkins and Ryder doesn’t get started because The Big Show comes down and beats the hell out of everyone, then cuts a smiling happy babyface promo. Dude needs a heel turn soon, and I see it coming during the SmackDown Scramble at Unforgiven. Then Vickie is shown having a panic attack backstage.
Victoria lost clean to some new bikini model called Brie Bella, who won with a small package, so at least it was portrayed like an underdog fluke and not “this new girl who doesn’t look the least bit tough just beat Victoria” like all those Victoria v. Torrie Wilson matches did.
The Brian Kendrick is backstage with Ezekiel. He is reading the book “The Art Of War” and says he’s going to redefine the rules of warfare in 9 days at Unforgiven when he walks out as WWE Champion by crawling the fine line between genius and insanity. It was good, and if he can incorporate more of that into his character then I would get why they’ve been pushing Brian Pillman comparisons so hard.
Shelton Benjamin v. Triple H is the main event, and they made an effort to make Shelton look strong in the main body of the match, as he was able to use his athleticism and his mat skills (which are legitimately good apparently, but you’d never know that from watching him in the WWE because he never does any of it) to good effect. Then comes the ending and you realise the reason he had to look strong was because he was portrayed as such a loser at the end.
Triple H makes his comeback and is running through the usual when Great Khali’s music hits. With anyone else in wrestling ever, this would mean getting distracted and using that as a get-out for losing when your opponent attacked you whiel you weren’t looking. But not Triple H, no. Here, Shelton used the distraction to attempt the Pay Dirt (the move that laid out both Jeff Hardy and MVP earlier, don’t forget) but the distracted HHH is still able to avoid the move and hit the pedigree to win.
After the match, Khali and HHH have a staredown, and Shelton hits Hunter with the belt, so Khali lays the champion out with the Tree Slam to end the show.
This show needs Edge.
Source:
http://www.wwepreview.com/2008/08/wwe-smackdown-tv-report-airdate-august-29/