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While I scratched my head over the fact that we didn't have more Royal Rumble qualifiers (or appearances by people who have already qualified, like Kane), Smackdown did a good job of pushing the big event with Undertaker and Batista obviously emerging as favorites, at least from this brand. They continued to build up Mysterio-Edge for the Rumble, added some heat to Chavo-Punk on ECW this Tuesday and set up another Finlay-Khali match for next week's Smackdown. They continued the Noble-McCool-Palumbo storyline, and gave Shannon Moore & Jimmy Yang another win. All in all, a job well done by Smackdown in setting up things for the future.
However, if you only have time to watch one thing on Smackdown this week, watch the MVP-Ric Flair segment. If you didn't record Smackdown, find someone who did and watch it at their house. It's that good.
Onto thoughts on this week's show.
Plusses:
I liked that WWE messed with the usual format of the show, opening with the recap of Undertaker winning the Royal Rumble last year and then going right into his entrance, and saving the "what happened last week" package for later. Taker's promo was very effective, simply because it is rare for him to ever say more than a few words on a show. The Striker & Big Daddy V interruption made sense, and Striker was great on the mic.I'm glad Striker told us Big Daddy V is in the Rumble, because his name isn't on WWE.com's list of entrants yet. The brawl was brief, with Striker having Big Daddy V retreat as Undertaker got the upper hand. Nice opening segment, and a good way to put emphasis on the Rumble and Taker's intention to win it two years in a row.
Yang & Moore vs. Deuce & Domino was a solid match, although not nearly as fast paced as the Yang & Moore vs. Miz & Morrison matches have been. However, you can't do the same match every week (well, unless it's CM Punk vs. Chavo Guerrero). D&D were a lot better off here than they were last week when Kane was squashing them. If you looked carefully, you could see Deuce doing the old Razor Ramon toothpick throw at Moore. Speaking of Moore, he did a great job bumping on the floor and setting up the hot tag to Yang, who was great on offense before hitting the moonsault for the win.
I liked the showing of Batista-Cena at Rumble 2005 prior to the Batista vs. Mark Henry match. Smackdown definitely did a good job in pushing the bout this week between Batista and Undertaker. As for the match itself, I liked the trash talking prior to Batista going to town on Henry. Once they were outside the ring, Batista sold Henry's headbutt huge, and it is very obvious that Batista has greatly improved when it comes to selling his opponent's offense. The finish made sense, with Henry unable to connect with his big moves (V-Bomb, avalanche, splash) and Batista muscling Henry up for a spinebuster for the win. Good bout, Batista has his momentum going for the Rumble, and Henry lost again, although he wasn't made to look like a jabroni this week, so I guess that's an improvement.
The VIP Lounge segment with MVP and Ric Flair was without a doubt the highlight of the show. Heck, other than Jeff Hardy's dive on Randy Orton, it was the highlight of WWE's week. Two performers who are great on the stick going back and forth, just a fun segment to watch. I loved how MVP brought up their Vengeance match, and Flair's response of it being a "blemish" on his career. Flair took MVP's "Half-man, half-amazing" tagline and reminded MVP that he is "the man" while MVP came up with his version of the "kiss stealing, wheeling dealing" bit. This segment was just so well done, I highly recommend checking it out. They put each other over, while at the same time built up some heat for their match. Of course, Flair offers to go right now, while MVP declines (ticking off the fans, like a good heel), and we end up with Flair chopping MVP over the couch. Flair struts out, MVP looks angry, and I am really looking forward to seeing this match next weekend.
After last week's fantastic angle, I was wondering if WWE was going to pull the trigger on Chuck Palumbo's heel turn. Apparently they are going to hold off a bit longer, as Chuck apologized to Michelle, while Jamie Noble is suspicious of him. Now, there's a lot of ways they can go with this storyline, especially if Chuck and Michelle are "just friends" and Chuck becomes jealous as that charming Casanova Noble steals Michelle's heart. Or it could just turn into cheesy comedy spots. Or Chuck could become a violent monster heel. There's options here, and that's part of what makes this a good storyline, since you want to see where it goes next.
Vickie Guerrero's insincere "good luck" wish to Rey Mysterio was so well done. Vickie has really become a fantastic heel, just in the way she delivers her lines to Rey and Theodore R. Long.
The main event was a good, albeit short, match. They opened hot, with Punk & Mysterio getting the advantage, then hitting stereo dives to the floor. Then the heels took over, and I liked the continuity of Chavo and Edge working on the arm that was weakened on ECW. Punk sold, and set up his comeback, which culminated in a nice sequence where Punk hit his jumping knee, Edge shoved off the bulldog attempt, but then Edge missed the spear. At the end, Rey was about to hit Chavo with the springboard, but Edge blasted him with a chair. Yeah, it cost the fans a clean finish, but more importantly, it set up Edge injuring Rey, obviously continuing their build for their Rumble match. Punk tries to make the save, but he is outnumbered as the Edgeheads joined in, and Chavo hits the armbreaker on Punk, setting up their match next Tuesday on ECW. Edge hits a spear on Rey, and we end with the heels standing over the fallen heros. Great ending to build heat for ECW and the Rumble.
Minuses:
So, once again there is talk about Vickie and Edge having a kid? I really, REALLY hope that we're not going to have some sort of angle where Vickie gets pregnant or something along those lines. As for Chavo making them a "big happy family", well, everyone holding hands made me think I was watching the end one of those bad Lifetime movies my wife would watch.
Could Vince McMahon overact any more than he did during his backstage bit with Finlay? I know Vince is supposed to be disingenuous and over-the-top, but he is just ridiculous in his delivery. Finlay didn't seem to have any reaction, positive or negative, to getting a Belfast Brawl match with Khali next week.
A Mixture Of Both:
I was glad to see that they left Eddie Guerrero's name out of the recap of last week's Vickie-Edge-Rey-Chavo angle. There was a much more distasteful path they could have gone down with this storyline, but it appears that won't be happening (at least not yet).
Great Khali vs. Fit Finlay was pretty much what you would expect at this point in the feud. Finlay has gotten the better of Khali lately, so the big guy needed a win here and a reminder that he is a monster. Finlay selling Khali's nervehold was very well done, and I've noticed that when Finlay works with Khali, they stay away from Khali's bad punches and stick to bodyslams and holds. In other words, they let Finlay carry the match. Still, it was a Khali match, and there's only so much that can be done with him. Hornswoggle got the pop for punching Singh, but the main thrust of the match was giving Khali some heat back.
Michelle McCool vs. Layla was pretty good for a Smackdown women's match not involving Victoria. McCool hit a nice dropkick out of the sunset flip, and Layla did some nice leg work. Definite improvement being shown by both ladies. However, towards the end of the match, it was obvious that Michelle was off with her spots, which is funny, because she was working pretty snug earlier in the match. Camera work helped to cover some of it, but it was obvious she wasn't close to connecting with some things. However, the Pedigree/Angel's Wings variation was a nice finisher, and won back the crowd.
What To Make Sure And Watch If You DVR'd The Show: Flair-MVP. Absolutely. Actually, the whole show is pretty good and worth watching, and you can always fast forward through the various recap packages. But, if you are pressed for time, Flair-MVP is at the top of the list.
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