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Chair Shots
10-11-02
Smackdown
Run Down
I was expecting the Undertaker to completely squash Matt Hardy
at the top of Smackdown and was presently surprised when Matt
got in more than his fair share of shots. Hardy needs a major
feud right now to elevate him to the upper mid card. "Mattitude"
got him out of the tag team ranks but without good follow
up, he's going to end up like Christian.
No one's
career has been more adversely affected by the sudden departure
of Stone Cold Steve Austin than Eddie Guerrero. Not too long
ago, Eddie was on the verge of the biggest feud of his life
and now he's feuding with Rikishi and tag teaming with Chavo.
Eddie's talent hasn't changed and neither has his popularity.
But at
least FUNAKI IS BACK! All is right with Smackdown.
How is
it possible that John Cena wears gayer wrestling trucks than
Billy and Chuck? Real men don't wear purple and peach trunks
with matching boots.
The Angle
vs. Benoit feud overshadowed their tag match vs. Kidman &
Cena, which is how it should have been. The writers are doing
everything they can to make this old feud seem important again.
I like
the little highlight packages that they have been showing
for the mid-card wrestlers. Matt Hardy got the royal treatment
last night. It's pure filler material, but it does the job
of making the mid-card wrestlers seem cooler than they are.
Other
than getting to see another hot WWE babe, I don't understand
what the point of the "Tracy" segment was on Smackdown. I
was hoping that Smackdown was immune to this new push by the
WWE to have more silly storylines, but I guess not. Her speech
about having an affair with Taker adds nothing to the Lesnar
vs. Taker feud. Isn't the championship and title of "Head
Badass" enough to fight for? Breaking Undertaker's hand wasn't
enough to make him mad. Lesnar has to get him in trouble with
his wife. Now it's personal!
As much
as I raved about Torrie's bikini last week, I'm going to rave
about Dawn Marie's lingerie this week. In a word: hot! Stocking
are my weakness. Hubba hubba hubba. I hope this feud continues
for a few more weeks. Dawn Marie needs to align herself with
a wrestler though. Since neither girl can really wrestle,
this feud needs to culminate in some sort of… ahem…climax.
Too many
instant replays last night. We saw it the first time!
I love
the interaction between Lesnar and Heyman. Whoever writes
their section of the script is doing an awesome job. Given
his experience and age, I never would have thought that Lesnar
would be as good a champ as he is, but he entertains the heck
out of me.
Lesnar's
position in the company is so high right now that he seems
out of place in the ring with Edge, Tajiri and Mysterio. Nonetheless,
I enjoyed their match. Ok, I admit that sometimes my memory
isn't a good as I pretend it is in this column, but I can't
remember what happened to the previous tag champs. Are the
belts vacant? Is that why Smackdown is having a tag tournament?
Someone write in and tell me because I can't remember what
happened to the last champions. Maybe I was out of the country
or maybe it's too much Diet Coke.
Another
good week for Smackdown that was leaps and bounds above Raw.
If Raw would trade RVD, Stacy Keibler and Booker T for D-Von,
Chavo and Mark Henry, Smackdown would be perfect.
Ratings
Good news for Raw this week as the ratings was up .2 to 3.8.
The show scored 3.6 the two previous weeks. It is important
to remember that the rating doesn't mean that the "Kane murder"
angle was a success, since that plot point was revealed at
the end of the show.
This is
more a reflection of the improvement that Raw has steadily
made from one show to the next over the last few weeks. My
guess would be that the rating will drop a little next week
from the backlash of the end of this week's show. Anyone want
to place bets?
Bass
Trial Gossip
I'm a little sick of talking about the Nicole Bass harassment
trail and even more so now that it's over, but there was some
juicy gossip that came out following the verdict.
The jury
foreman spoke out against Bass after the jury ruled in WWE's
favor this week. "I think this kind of stuff belittles all
those valid arguments by women. Her and many of her witnesses,
we felt were not telling the truth."
WWE defense
lawyer Jerry McDevitt also took a shot at Bass. "I think Nicole
Bass miscalculated. I think she thought the WWE would buckle
under. We don't pay blackmail and we won't ever." Let that
be a lesson to you terrorists out there thinking about capturing
Ted DiBiase and holding him for ransom.
Ignoring
the jury's ruling, Bass referred to the verdict as a "personal
victory," and claimed to have lost 16 lbs. during the trial.
"I stood up for women. I stood up to a huge corporation. I
stuck to my guns. It was very much an ordeal for me, to have
to go through this process." Hmmm. There is a gold mine to
be made in some kind of phony lawsuit / weight loss management
program. I'm sketching out the details now.
After
the trial concluded, one juror admitted to being a wrestling
fan. "It was tough not being able to ask for their autographs,"
said 44 year old juror Cliff Hasey. I wonder if he's reading
this. Hasey did manage to get an autograph from Steve Lombardi
that said, "To Cliff, Thanks."
To Reader,
Thanks.
OXOX
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