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Bow down before the power of Rey Mysterio...

Chairshots
7-26-02

Smackdown Review
Raw was better than Smackdown this week for a change. It wasn't by much, but the things I really liked about Raw on Monday didn't happen on Thursday's show.

Raw had several clean finishes in big name match ups. Smackdown had run ins with Brock Lesnar. Though it is good to see Lesnar being pushed a little more in preparation for his title shot against Rock, it's still not enough to prove to me that he's ready for the main event. Raw did a better job of making Lesnar seem interesting.

Both shows had matches I didn't really care about, Smackdown just had more of them. Rikishi vs. Albert and D-Von vs. Venis should be on their own WWE television show called WWE Time-Filler. Pointless matches with barely entertaining wrestlers do not hold my interest.

Mysterio!

Raw and Smackdown both had new wrestlers debut, and I will give Smackdown the clear victory in this regard. Rey Mysterio is just a blast to watch in the ring. If they can get him into an interesting storyline, which I can't off-hand recall anyone ever doing, then my world will be a happy place.

Stephanie is just more interesting as a screaming b***h. I know that she has to play the baby face between her and Bischoff, but I just don't believe her as the good guy.

Here's a rhetorical question for you: Why do I as the average fan care what show my favorite wrestler is on? When Stephanie signs Lesnar to Smackdown, am I supposed to cheer? Other than curiosity, why would I care who Eric Bischoff had in the limo at the end of Smackdown? When cows laugh, does milk come out of their nose?

Smackdown was still a good show but I enjoyed Raw better. Finally, some competition is starting to happen between the two shows and they are improving as a result.

The Rock may be rejected, but that doesn't mean squat to Mysterio

Rock Rejected
Add one less movie to the list that Rock will be making. The movie based on the life of Hawaiian King Kamehameha will no longer star The Rock. There had been some criticism from Hawaiians leveled at Rock being cast because he was Samoan. The studio has decided to give the top role to an actor who is actually Hawaiian (Don Ho?). Is the revenue the film would have made from local Hawaiians so large that it's worth the loss of a big star like The Rock? Oh, well. One less movie I need to worry about seeing.

Ratings
WWE Smackdown finished with a 3.3. That is down from a 3.4 last week. Wonder where all that momentum from Monday went… Was there a really good CSI on or something? This week's edition of Velocity scored a 0.8 cable rating. Confidential did a 0.9 cable rating. I'm always amazed how low cable ratings are in general. How does Lifetime stay on the air?

Chris Kanyon in Intensive Care
Kanyon was rushed to a hospital in Atlanta and had to go through emergency surgery on his shoulder which had caused an infection in his arm. He is now recovering from the surgery. No word yet on if this will further delay his return to WWE. I however will be delayed until next Tuesday. See you then.

Michael Goodson