WWE Smackdown thoughts, 2012-03-16

I've got no internet so I'm typing this on my phone. Google's Android browser seems to hate Google's Blogger interface, so I'll keep this relatively short.

Very 'meh' night on Smackdown. Sheamus vs. Chris Jericho was fine, but nothing special. MOTN was probably Big Show squashing Drew McIntyre, face Big Show dominating people is fun and Drew sold it really well. Mark Henry squashing Yoshi Tatsu wasn't even substantive enough to be fun.

- Santino cowering in fear from Kofi's pyro was a great bit. The Rudos of Raw vs. Teddadore's Army is still my favorite feud going into Wrestlemania, though I remain unimpressed with Team Long so far. I like Kofi but he doesn't set my world on fire, and unless they're going to be having a Verbal Debate I could care less about R-Truth. (Man oh man, I would pay money to see an R-Truth vs. David Otunga verbal debate.) They have three more spots on Team Teddy, I hope they fill it out with some interesting folks, like Zack Ryder, Hornswoggle, the Funkasaurus, a surprise return, or a face-turn.

- The best character work going on right now in WWE is the Daniel Bryan-AJ storyline. It would be so easy to go overboard with something like this, and play Bryan as an over-the-top angry abusive piece of shit. Playing it more subtly like this is far more effective, IMO. Bryan was suuuuuuper creepy in that first promo segment. This storyline was the best thing on the show, until AJ and Nikki Bella tried to wrestle a match. OMG that match, I think they both botched about 90% of the moves they attempted. I don't remember AJ being that bad in the ring last summer when she was teaming with Kaitlyn and Natalya.

- They showed surprisingly little of the Rock-Cena stuff from Raw. I'm glad they did because I thought it was crap, but I wonder what their reason was for downplaying it like that?

WWE Smackdown thoughts, 2012-03-09

Santino, Santino, Santino. Santino Marella is a revelation. His push the last month has been amazingly entertaining. He is the most entertaining part of WWE's most entertaining angle right now. And he's having good matches, his cage match with Jack Swagger was clearly MOTW this week, with Swagger playing an adequate straight-man to Santino's antics. I really, really hope they keep Santino near the top of the midcard for a while. I don't think it's out of the question for him to even move up the card, with good in-ring work and great character work, why not?

One other quick note on that cage match: Wow it looked like Vickie really nailed Swagger with that cage door. He managed to have his head in just the right spot to get brained by the steel bar on the edge of the door instead of the flexy chain-link mesh. You don't really see headshots like that in WWE anymore, thankfully, though Jack Swagger has a history on the receiving end of them.

- Teddy Long is still totally owning this GM storyline. Johnny Ace is a great stuffed shirt character, but I love T.Lo with a bit of attitude. He's also now undefeated in in-ring competition, having twice defeated the Raw GM: Eric Bischoff at Survivor Series 2005 and John Laurinaitis tonight.

- AJ is now my favorite participant in the Sheamus-Daniel Bryan feud. Her expressions during promos are fucking golden. Bryan's promos are still really good, but they're not as good as her reactions. The way she looked abashed and ashamed when Bryan told her to shut up was spot-on perfect. I really hope that when they eventually decide to break them up, they do a whole storyline where Kaitlyn does an intervention or something.

- Not my favorite part of the feud: New and improved Sheamus, now with more misogyny! Daniel Bryan is a pathetic little pipsqueak, BTW don't be a bully be a star! Oy tonight was not a good night for Sheamus.

- Mark Henry beat the hell out of Ezekiel Jackson. I'm a big fan of Mark Henry beating the hell out of people.

- Whatever they're doing with Drew McIntyre, I wish they'd do it already. I'm a fan of the guy, but this whole trying to save his job thing is getting old.

WWE Smackdown thoughts, 2012-03-02

Two posts in a row?! I used to do this back when I posted here, here's some random thoughts about last night's episode of Smackdown:

- Dolph Ziggler bumps entertainingly, but nobody in WWE sells anything better than Mark Henry selling Big Show's knockout punch. Tat is a thing of freaking beauty.

- BTW, though neither of them is going to get into a big match at Wrestlemania, Henry and Big Show are still having the MOTW every week.

- I can't get over how awesome AJ has been in helping sell this Daniel Bryan storyline - her fear whenever Bryan talks about her being threatened, or whenever another wrestler so much as looks at her, is great. But even better is how the more douchey Bryan is in his promo, the more turned on AJ looks. I don't even watch Bryan during his promos anymore, I just watch AJ's changing expressions.

- The Sheamus promo to open the show was nothing. He should skip that whole mess and just beat people up.

- I am thrilled beyond thrilled that they seem to be doing Randy Orton vs. Kane at Wrestlemania. I was terrified that they were going to shoehorn Orton into the title match with Bryan and Sheamus. Plus Kane and Orton had an awesome match together on Smackdown last summer. Granted that was face Kane, generally face Kane is entertaining and heel Kane sucks. But maybe it'll be good, and at least Orton won't ruin the title match.

- I like how the show has to become more focused now that they're doing the hard sell on all the Wrestlemania storylines. And of course by "more focused" I mean no fucking DeBiase-Hunico match.

- I said this before, if this Laurinaitis-T.Lo thing does lead to an eight-man or ten-man tag at Mania, assuming Team Laurinaitis is the four guys who came out to support him on the PPV and Team Long is lead by Santino Marella, I hope they use these team names: Team Laurinaitis should use the group name Alberto Del Rio used back in the fall when he was rounding up people to beat up John Cena: The Rudos of Raw. And Team Long should use a group name based on what Santino calls him: Teddadore's Army.

WWE Smackdown 2010-05-14 - Not-Quite-Liveblog

I basically did this last week, except I didn't post it live. I'm about 20 minutes behind to start, I'll catch up as we get commercial breaks. Whenever I have a thought, I'll post it.

- Oh, great, we open with ANOTHER rerun of the Drew McIntyre - Matt Hardy beatdown. Was that only last week? Cause I've already seen this video package at least six times.

- Smackdown is in Buffalo, New York. I haven't had any buffalo wings in a while. Mmmmm, buffao wings.

- Christian and Kofi know each other's wrestling styles because they were both in the 27-man MITB clusterfuck? Great insight there, (whiever is yelling in the ear of) Todd.

- Scott Norwood callout by Striker. I guess I should have expected that. Have I mentioned that Matt Striker is the best thing on commentary since JBL?

- BTW, spellcheck of earlier thought:

• Kofi = Kori, Kodiak, Sofie, Sofia, Korrie.
• MITB = MITE, MITT, MITZI, MITTY.
• Clusterfuck = clustered, clusters, cluster, lackluster.
• Spellcheck = spell check, spell-check, spellbound, spellbinder, spelldown.
• Whiever = whoever. :)

- So does this count as an Intercontinental Title reign for Kofi?

- So I guess the whole "Teddy long on probation" thing is still going on, even if Vince can't be arsed to show up on Smackdown.

- Christian-Kofi was a good back-and-forth match, I thought. Somehow it just wasn't as good as it was trying to be.

- Shad Gaspard vs. Jesse Guyver? This should be just as good!

- Ah, they're rerunning the clip with Rey's family and Eddie Guerrero's son Dominic.

- And now rerunning Edge-Orton from RAW. Feels like that was six months ago because of how many times I've seen the clip.

- MVP-JTG? There-s so much going on in that team - the utter failure to do anything with MVP, the uselessness of breaking up Crime Time just to stick JTG in another team, the incongruity between MVP's life redemption background and JTG's role in a team called Crime Time. So much to unpack in that team.

- Wow, Trent Baretta and Caylen Croft still exist! And they're called the Dude Busters now. Lots of ECW folks showing up on TV lately.

- Ooohhhh! Our Savior is on! Everybody put your hands to the screen - ten minutes ago. Unless you're on DVR like me.

- These twenty-minute Swagger promos are interesting, not sure it's getting him more heat but he has the mic skills to pull off 20 minutes in the ring alone and still keep it interesting. Also like the tactic of taking a commercial break in the middle of the promo to make it seem even longer.

- Did I mention before that I have absolutely zero interest in heel authority figures? Plus, I thought she resigned as GM of Raw?

- I would be shocked if this was actually the first 2-on-1 Women's Title defense.

- I almost wish I wasn't spoiled on this match so I could experience the true shock and horror of Layla as Women's Champion. At least they mentioned her last name. She's also the second Diva Search winner to win a title.

- And now I'm caught up live.

- Rey Mysterio is wearing sleeves but no shirt.

- Rey-Punk was good again, but it's starting to get worn. I hope Judgement Day is their last match for a while.

WWE Smackdown livebloggish thoughts - 2010-05-07

I'm watching Smackdown (almost) live for the first time in a few months. After this awful week, particularly today, particularly today from 4:15 to 6:15, I could use some entertainment and some levity. Can Smackdown provide some? Let's find out...

- Geez, how often do they change the Smackdown theme music? About as often as I watch Smackdown, it seems.

- Matt Hardy shaved the sides of his head so he looks like RVD now. I wonder if that's intentional.

- "You heard what Teddy Long said!" Damned skippy! T.Lo is the man! "Josh, I gotta roll." Always the best, now the only, General Manager in WWE. What ever happened with the whole probation storyline? Did that just go away when Vince didn't feel like showing up on Smackdown anymore?

- Luke Gallows wrestles in camouflage pants and a tank top. Another who looks less like a wrestler than does any NXT rookie.

- So at whatever the hell they're calling Judgement Day now they're going to have the match I originally thought they were having at whatever the hell they're calling Backlash now: join the SES vs. shave Punk's head. I'm obviously rooting for Punk, but I'm not optimistic.

- Ever since he turned heel, every single time Punk talks, it's golden. Fucking awesome, every time.

- A Michelle McCool match. This makes me glad I'm not quite live yet - I can fast forward through this.

- Dolph Ziggler's face is the color of Sheamus. The rest of his body is the color of HHH. And my disinterest in Dolph is greater than the sum total of my disinterest in HHH and my disinterest in Sheamus.

- Holy shit! A Prince Nana call-out on Smackdown! And they didn't edit it out! I love Matt Striker on commentary, he's the best they've had since JBL. Like how he calls it the World's Heavyweight Championship like Gorilla Monsoon used to.

- Ziggler-Kofi was surprisingly entertaining, considering Dolph Ziggler was in the match.

- Now they re-run the video package they just ran an hour ago, which itself is just a re-run of the end of last week's Smackdown. People wonder, how can WWE put on five hours of television every week? Cause an hour or two of it is reruns and recaps.

- And now I'm caught up live, can't fast forward through the commercials.

- Cody Rhodes has another ridiculous fake tan. Christian too. What is it with wrestlers and comically awful tans? Trust me, that's not what made Hulk Hogan as popular as he was.

- It occurs to me that this is really more of a liveblog. If only I had posted it at 8:30 and updated it with each bullet. Oh, well. Maybe the next time I watch something live.

- Christian and Kofi are fighting for the Intercontinental Championship, meanwhile Jack Swagger is WHC. I'm really pulling for Big Show in that match, but again I'm not optimistic.

- Oh, Joy. Another video package. Followed by an ad for the Wrestlemania DVD, which is essentially another video package. Then after the commercial break, it's time to rerun the Drew McIntyre firing from the beginning of the show. It's video packages all the way down.

- "When I was taking on the world and winning, where was Big Show?" Um, back then, Big Show was WWE Champion. Don't think you've got him beat there, kid.

- Why are commentators always surprised when people come down to join them on commentary? You'd think the third chair and third headset would be a clue.

- I've always liked face Big Show. He's a very likable, charismatic guy, when they let him be. He was great on commentary tonight.

- I love how, after Big Show chokeslams Swagger through the table, the referee runs over, waving his arms for him to stop. One, Swagger is twice your size, and Big Show is twice his size, so WTF do you expect to do to stop them? Two, dude, Swagger is already lying insensate amid the ruins of a table, and Big Show is already walking away. You're just a bit late with your exhortation for them to stop fighting.

- God, that title looks so small when Big Show is holding it. I remember when Rey Mysterio wore that belt, it was basically full-torso body armor. When Big Show holds it it looks like a trinket.

All in all a good show, minus the reruns, video packages, and divas match. Maybe I'm being generous because the last wrestling shows I saw were Impact and NXT, but wev. I liked it. I'm glad I decided to watch Smackdown tonight, I needed some entertainment after today. Maybe I'll even watch it again next week.