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JMO: Saturday Night's Main Event review - 10/88 RRC: 11/7/05 iMPACT: 11/05/05 OTC: Smackdown Grades for 11/04/05 OG: Our Pet Peeves
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SmackDown Review: Smackdown Grades for 11/11/05
by: Oratory Television Council on: 11/13/2005 11:26 am est  Please note that this was written before the passing of Eddie Guerrero, which has now been confirmed on WWE.com. John: We got three writeups this week, including yours truly for the first time in many months, and then Bob Davis brings us home as usual with the Oratory forum section. Off we go. John C. oratoryjohn@gmail.com I'm not going to be THAT detailed with this recap, but I will try to go over everything and give some thoughts on the major happenings. I missed the first five minutes, but basically it was a pep talk by Long to the locker room about Survivor Series. I'm cool with that. Apparently he announces that Batista will be part of the Smackdown Survivor Series although now that he's hurt, who knows about that. Orton vs. Mysterio was our first match of the night with the winner joining the Survivor Series team. Pretty good back and forth action although their match a couple months ago was a bit better. Plus this had the screwy ending. The end with Bob Orton pulling Rey's leg as he was about to springboard is a bit weak. It's alright, though. I'm fine with no clean finish in this match because they're probably going to meet down the line at some point. The ending with Hardy coming out to attack Orton worked well, I thought. Got a new feud there, I guess. Backstage, Orton threatens revenge on Hardy. That's good of him. Next was a filler segment as MNM came out to make fun of some chick from America's Top Model. That show is still going on? Then the Mexicools, who are babyfaces for some reason, come out for the save. Well, at least that will make a nice match in the future. Video package of Lashley was next. Awesome. I love this guy already. You can tell they're going to want to book him as simply Lashley. I guess because fans are too stupid to remember two names. Lashley creamed Orlando Jordan. I like it. Lashley impresses the hell out of me, so I'm interested in seeing how WWE books him now that he'll be wrestling with and against top guys in the Survivor Series match. I still haven't been that impressed with OJ. Lashley, on the other hand, has main event potential. That's an understatement. Edge tries to get out of the street fight with Batista. Long says he can get out of it, but only if he can convince Batista. This was fine. Next up was Guerrero vs. Mr. Kennedy…Kennedy. I love Kennedy too, just like Lashley. People that don't watch SD are really missing out by not seeing these two talents. The end was terrific. The writeups in spoilers don't do it justice. Both guys were just perfect. Robinson is down, Eddie gets a chair, sees Robinson getting up, slams the chair on the mat to make the crashing noise and then tosses it to Kennedy as Robinson sees Ken with it, then rings the bell. Eddie's laughing, then Kennedy just drills him hard in the head with the chair. Very well done. Again, if this is a tease for a future feud between these two guys then that's for the better. I don't mind two matches ending in DQ like that. Backstage, Eddie's got a concussion it looks like, so he won't be able to help out Batista should there be trouble. Next we got a midget match. This is just filler. I'd rather see an attempt made at a cruiser division than this stuff. But I've been complaining about that for years, so that's nothing new. We got Edge telling Lita he's going to see Batista. Then just as Edge leaves, the Boogeyman appears behind the couch. Then I laugh. I'm supposed to be scared, but I only laugh at how bad this gimmick is. I can't wait until he's in a match and I can laugh some more. Edge talks to Batista, but big Dave says the match is on because he is a man of the people, or something like that. Edge says it's a big mistake. He was right! We meet the Dicks for the first time on Smackdown. Lots of dick jokes. Great. I'm sure to somebody as immature as Vince McMahon it's hilarious, but to us normal people it's something that may get old fast. Or it may get hard! Get it, I'm just so hilarious! JBL/Benoit was about 15 minutes or so and was the last match to determine who was on the SD Survivor Series team. I thought it was good. Plodding like all JBL matches are, but the crowd was into it and Booker T's guest announcing with Sharmell was very good. I'm digging them as heels, suckas. The US Title has some meaning now, which is great. I also notice that I like JBL a LOT more when he is not around the world title. Once again, I liked the booking here. Nothing clean, but at least we got a winner with JBL moving. So the Smackdown team is Batista, Eddie, Rey, JBL and Lashley. Now we know Batista is probably out, but we'll have to wait to find out about that for sure. Main event saw Edge never actually wrestle Batista. Kind of ironic how Edge was hurt and they booked around that, then Batista ended up getting hurt. Masters attacked Long backstage, then the other four guys on the Survivor Series team chased after him in JBL's limo and then Kane and Show came out. They beat up on big Dave, the Smackdown jobbers came out to get them, but it didn't work. Yes, Smackdown hates Raw so much that they will send short guys after them. Feel the hate, Raw! Feel it! Where were the freaking midgets? Geez! Way to be a part of the team. Okay fine, they did send Holly, Animal and Heidenreich, but it would have been nice to see more people. I also love how they attack them ninja style, one guy at a time. Has that ever worked? Nope. Ah well. It's the thought that counts. Anyway, the show ended with Kane, Edge and Show standing over a fallen Batista. For those that are wondering, they did not mention Batista's injury on the show. It wasn't that noticeable either. Overall, this was an above average edition of Smackdown with smart booking, good matches and a strong finish that will make people actually remember it come next week. Things are clicking really well on Smackdown right now. I feel it's the better show of the two right now. Next week should be fun with Batista vs. Orton vs. Guerrero for the title. My guess is Orton wins the title and feuds with Undertaker over it. I wouldn't mind Eddie winning, though. I think he deserves another shot as champion. As for this show, once again, a big thumbs up from me. 7.5 Matt Seagull oratorbirdman@gmail.com Segments 1-2: Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio I keep saying this is the Wrestlemania Main Event for Smackdown, but if they keep showing this on regular TV, I'm going to start having to re-think my pick. Luckily, this match was awesome to watch on TV, and there wasn't a real winner. I was hoping Rey wouldn't beat Orton because they can't play up the fact later on that Rey can't beat Orton. So Rey wins, goes on to the team, but still can't beat Orton. Phew. And I'll repeat it now. Orton is GOD on Smackdown. What a great move so he's not lost in the shuffle of all the other heel stars like Angle and Hunter on Raw. ***1/4 Segment Grade: A- Segment 3: Top Model Blah Blah Blah Looks like Orton and Hardy are going to feud. I love this. They're actually giving Orton a feud that doesn't involve The Undertaker! Depending on whether or not Batista will be healthy enough to compete in the Smackdown vs. Raw match at Survivor Series, I think Orton vs. Hardy would have been added to the card, and would make for a killer opening contest. The Top Model interview was bad. Ran on for way too long. Total waste of MNM for the week. Wrestling fans (surprisingly) don't care about Top Model. Not even the Mexicools could save it. Segment Grade: D Segment 4: Bobby Lashley vs. Orlando Jordan Lashley is OVER! Good god. You stop watching for a couple weeks and look what you miss! Fun, entertaining squash. I don't really know what purpose Orlando Jordan serves anymore. Segment Grade: B Segment 5: Eddie Guerrero vs. Ken Kennedy Looks like Eddie is back to his old "Viva La Raza" theme and Titantron. Oh well, so much for that heel turn. This was a great match, although the ending got kinda wonky. Charles Robinson turned too soon and plainly saw Eddie throw the chair to Kennedy and fall backwards. Kennedy was the real star, though. After braining Eddie with the chair, he yelled "Disqualify THAT!" Looks like we've got ANOTHER feud with Eddie vs. Kennedy, which is awesome. *** Segment Grade: A- Segment 6: Junior Division Bullshit Okay, this was bad. How much longer is this possibly going to go on for? This is only the second match the junior division has and I hate it already. Only thing I enjoyed was Pierrothito's elbow drop from the top rope to finish. That was impressive. Just can it with this shit already. More time could be used to showcase...you know...actual wrestlers. The only thing that saves this segment from D-ville is the Boogeyman cutting a promo and scaring Lita. Seriously, if all this guy does is come out every week and go "I'm the BOOGEYMAN, and I'm coming to GETCHA!" I'll be one happy camper. Just don't have him wrestle. Please. Segment Grade: C- Segments 7-9: JBL vs. Chris Benoit Funny Dicks promo. They should have included something about "measuring up" to the Dicks. If the rumors are true about WWE lowballing Benoit for his contract extension, somebody should be fired over this, and not Benoit. He carried JBL to JBL's best match on Smackdown. Easily. This was a tremendous match. And to JBL's credit, he bumped his ASS off for Benoit's offense. Looks like Benoit vs. Booker is a lock for Survivor Series. What an excellent midcard feud they're having. ***1/2 Segment Grade: A Segment 10: Edge vs. Batista...sorta This final segment was excellent. The set up was brilliantly done, and I got a kick out of all the Smackdown faces piling into JBL's limo to chase after Bischoff. The segment with Kane and Big Show on Batista was well done, except for the fact that Batista hurt his back legit. It was weird seeing Edge and Kane on the same side after all they went through, but I think this is one time where forgetting about something that happened a couple months ago is a good thing. So it looks like Batista vs. Eddie vs. Orton next week for the World Title, and there's a good possibility that Batista will drop the belt. Putting the belt on either Eddie or Orton would be fantastic, but my heart is pulling for Eddie. Segment Grade: A Top 10 Smackdown Style World Champion: Batista 1. Eddie Guerrero 2. Randy Orton 3. Rey Mysterio 4. JBL 5. Bobby Lashley 6. Ken Kennedy 7. U.S. Champion Booker T 8. Chris Benoit 9. Matt Hardy 10. Hardcore Holly Final Thoughts: This show was amazingly good. Three ***+ matches is an amazing feat for only two hours of TV. Three feuds were established/furthered (Orton/Hardy, Eddie/Kennedy and Booker/Benoit), and the ending was tremendous. The only things that brought the show down were the Top Model bullshit and the midget match. So I can't in good conscience give the show a 10. Can the extra crap, and let's just stick to wrestling, shall we? 8 Leon Thomas trophar@lycos.com This speech is my recital. I think it's very vital... --Introduction-- This will have to be an abbreviated version of my portion of the OTC this week. Sorry, folks. Long story. Hopefully I won't be flying solo tonight. Teddy Long gave some Braveheart-like inspiration to his troops. Backstage, the entire Smackdown locker room listened to the GM as he prepared them for battle. It sounds exciting, but it was mostly just MNM and Simon Dean giving goofy faces and Randy Orton acting like a jackass. Long announced several qualifying matches for the Survivor Series team. The winners represent Smackdown. Batista, however, was allowed on the team instantly. --Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio-- So, is this really going to be the Wrestlemania main event? I think Batista vs. Orton is more likely, but what do I know? Anyway, pretty good free TV match between Mysterio and Orton here. They seem to have good chemistry. Orton locked in his devastating chinlock, blah, blah, blah. Okay. The chemistry wasn't THAT good. Cowboy Bob interfered, which cost Randy the match. Mysterio advanced to Survivor Series. --Cross-Promotional Garbage-- No, I don't mean Raw on Smackdown. I mean America's Top Model or whatever the funk that show is called. MNM was in the ring and they introduced one of the show's models. It was a terrible bit of advertising that the fans clearly didn't like. The model took offense to something Melina said about being a D-list celebrity. As a beatdown was about to happen, the Mexicools of all people made the save. --Orlando Jordan vs. Bobby Lashley-- Pfft. This does not deserve its own double-hyphenated section. Lashley won and advanced to Survivor Series. NEXT! --Eddie Guerrero vs. Ken Kennedy-- Kennedy acted dishonorably. Cole said it was wrong. Eddie acted dishonorably. "Vintage Eddie Guerrero!" he said. Whatever. Eddie threw Ken a chair, the ref saw Mr. Kennedy with the international object and called for a disqualification. Eddie advanced to Survivor Series. Not as good as Orton/Mysterio but it ended in DQ as well. This isn't exactly the Gold Rush Tournament. Post-match, Kennedy hit Guerrero with a chair. --Midgets-- Stop doing this. Midget A lost to Midget B. I have little to say about midget matches, so this description about midgets is going to have to be very short. Tiny, even. --Chris Benoit vs. JBL-- Here's a fun fact: Sharmell was the best and worst thing about this segment. The best because of her crown and sassy heel talk and the worst because it was so distracting from the match itself. Booker T stuck his nose in to spite Benoit, which allowed Bradshaw to take advantage and hit the Clothesline from Hell. JBL advanced. --What If They Booked a Match and Nobody Came?-- Throughout the show, Edge tried to get out of the match. As the match was about to begin, we saw what was happening backstage. Eric Bischoff argued with Teddy Long until the Smackdown GM was jumped by Chris Masters. Bisch and Masters escaped in a limo. Lashley, JBL, Mysterio and Guerrero went after them in JBL's limo, which made for the classiest, most expensive car chase ever. Edge conducted traffic at ringside. Batista was furious. Kane and Big Show appeared to do Edge's dirty work. They double chokeslammed him. That appears to be what caused Batista's injury. --Final Score-- I don't think I liked this show as much as those in the thread. It was good. It was not great. 7 THE NUMBERS - By John C. The overall grade for this week’s show is… 7.5Another very good score. In the last five weeks the scores have been 6.25, 7, 8.31, 6.75, 6.75 and 7.5. Those are VERY impressive numbers right there. An indication that Smackdown IS on the right track. Last week: 6.75 2005 SD Average: 5.6 (+0.04) 2005 SD High: 8.31 (October 21) 2005 SD Low: 1.13 (May 19) All-Time Highest Smackdown Grade: 9.58 (September 18, 2003) All-Time Lowest Smackdown Grade: 0.83 (May 6, 2004) THE NUMBERS – READER’S TELEVISION COUNCIL According to Oratory readers in the forums the grade for this week’s show as of 11amET Sunday is… 7.95That's 0.45 higher than what the OTC gave it. Last week: 6.06 Low Score All-Time: 2.31 (May 6, 2004) High Score All-Time: 8.79 (September 18, 2003) Oratory Forum Reader Comments by Bob "bestlurker" Davis Traditionally, November 11 is a day of remembrance. We remember those who have passed on in the line of duty, fighting for the freedom that we enjoy today. We also pay tribute to those surviving heroes, those men and women who lived through the horrific battles in the first half of the 20th century. I humbly ask that you take a moment to remember those war heroes and heroines. Thank you. The purpose of this portion of our program, however, is devoted to remembrance of a different sort. We are here to remember, and pay tribute, to this week’s edition of Friday Night Smackdown. Our devotees of good wrestling, those wacky forumites, dissected each and every moment of the show, and posted all of their frivolous thoughts into our weekly Smackdown thread. If you remember, I am here to present you with the cream of the crop, the best comments from the show that was. Speaking of remembrance, have you ever had the feeling that you are forgetting something? Well, let’s get rid of that nasty feeling, shall we? This week’s theme happens to be: Things you might be forgetting! Car keys: Pre-show ramblings Soulless: “Midgets plus Boogeyman, if they're on the show, could sour that but their segments will probably be kept short!” Julio Guerrero: “I think Smackdown is B-A-N-A-N-A-S” The kids: Locker Room and Friends. Macphisto: “Yeah, Randy Orton really looks like he cares.” Gravy Train: “Orton vs. Mysterio? Cool. I really dug their first match.” smashmouth: “One thing that is not changing is Randy with the chinlock.” Leon Thomas: “Yeah, good job, Cowboy. Stick to hitting people with plaster.” smashmouth: “Holy shit, Matt Hardy is the Killer of the Legend Killer.” Anniversary: MNM and a top model. Macphisto: “Melina's face is looking much better these days. I wonder if she's had any work done.” D.W.: “Holy fuck. She's a toothpick.” Zero Signal: “I guess Juvi loves Top Model....” gennet: “I think most women dream that that their knights will come riding in on lawn tractors.” Wallet: Lashley/Jordan, Guerrero/Kennedy gennet: “I predict that the black guy will win this.” Leon Thomas: “Lashley needs some good entrance music if he's going to be the NEXT next big thing.” Arach: “I'm probably wrong but I think that's the first time they've called it the Dominator isn't it?” Macphisto: “I think Lita buys out the supply of double-sided tape in every town she goes to.” Julio Guerrero: “who wins, EDDIE or KEN-EDDIE?” gennet: “Kennedys only flaw is that he looks like Billy Gunns and Hardcore Hollys lovechild.” smashmouth: “Holy shit, he's gained another pound since last week.” TheDragon: “Oh boy, vintage Latino Heat.” Macphisto: “I'll never get tired watching Eddie do that.” Valentine’s Day: Filler stuff Leon Thomas: “Palmer Cannon finds the juniors at the bottoms of rainbows and under bridges.” smashmouth: “Talk about placing yourself perfectly for the small elbow. This was definitely not subtle” Macphisto: “That was the best segment The Boogeyman will ever be in. Ever.” Arach: “Beat em, wack em, pull em, jerk em, blow em, yank em...” Leon Thomas: “When I watch wrestling, there's nothing I like seeing more than two huge guys and a couple of Dicks.” Zero Signal: “Let me guess: The Dicks' entrance music is Cumin' Atcha by Tesla?” Overdue library books: JBL/Benoit. Leon Thomas: “I'd like to see Benoit with a really heavy beard.” smashmouth: “She's a real screamer in the corner.” JayBrodson: “God, I'm getting so sick of that finish sequence. If Benoit would let Booker land one fucking punch, he could have won by DQ. Lame.” Medical appointments: Main event Kippy: “Limo chase!!!” Leon Thomas: “So Edge and Kane are chummy now?” Kippy: “Batista's in trouble! Somebody, send out the cruisers!” smashmouth: “Now this was a gore.” Prescriptions: Final thoughts J Marv: “There was a lot of good on this show, and a lot of bad. I think in the end the good outweighed the bad by a little bit. 6.” Julio Guerrero: “Smackdown gets a 7, the atmosphere seems to have changed to me, I was more suprised by the Hardy run-in than anything I've seen on RAW lately. It just seemed like a big deal...........that's a good thing.” Macphisto: “I gave the show an 8, it was a very good show from top to bottom. All the Survivor Series qualifying matches were good (Lashley did a good squash of OJ), and it was cool to see that Smackdown wanted their superstars to earn their spot on the Smackdown team (except for Batista), whereas Bischoff named three of the five people on the RAW team. The segment at the end with Kane and Big Show doing the run-in was pretty cool. I think Batista got hurt after Kane hit him with the boot, because when he fell to the mat he started reaching for his back. I hope Batista isn't out for a long period of time.” Jay Bower: “What a fun show. A solid 9. Its crazy to think how good Smackdown could have been if they would have been able to hold on to Hassan and Christian. I loved the entire show top to bottom, and the Raw vs. Smackdown thing has really been a nice change of pace as of late. Great effort from the Smackdown crew, it seems like they have really been energized and have been taking some real pride in their product with all of the "B-show" talk as of late.” A decent show for this fine Remembrance Day long weekend. It seems that our fine feathered gurus on the forums thought so as well; seeing that the 19 votes cast as of 4:30AM ET on Sunday show nothing below 7. Throwing in the individual scores, the forumites had a tough time swallowing segments involving the Juniors, the Boogeyman, the Mole and the Dicks. The forums also found themselves slightly ticked with the disqualifications in some of the matches; however, the majority thought the wrestling was stellar, and the good on this show, in general, far outweighed the bad. Our crew on the OTC featured a comment by Mark Price that was very ironic, considering the events of the past couple of weeks. His comment was, “I never thought I’d hear Joey Styles’s trademark “OH MY GAAHHHD” on WWE television. That DVD is going to kick ass.” I don’t think you need help remembering that Mr. Styles has now replaced good ole JR as the voice of Raw. Unfortunately, that fine caption is the only reference we have time for this week. The remainder of the OTC for November 11, 2004, can be found at the link above; and the forum comments from that date are available here. We have a thread going nearly every Friday night. Make sure you stop by and find out if you got your name in lights. One more thing – the last one out needs to hit the lights and lock the doors. Talk to you next week. Thanks for reading. Until next time, we’ll smell ya later. Oratory Television Council |
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