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It's
a crazy world...
have fun with it.
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Chair Shots
12-20-02
Smackdown
Run Down
All I want for Christmas is my two hours of Smackdown.
It's
difficult to critique Smackdown week after week after seeing
Raw only three days earlier. On one hand, Raw is often so
bad that it makes Sunday Night Heat look like an HBO original
series. On the other hand, Smackdown occasionally makes such
obvious mistakes that you wonder who the hell is running that
ship.
For example:
The Torrie Wilson/Dawn Marie angle has just gone horrible,
of course. While it is one of the consistently highest rated
segments of Smackdown (never under estimate the drawing power
of primo jerk material), we've gone from chicks wrestling
in bikinis to heartfelt confessions via live satellite. Smackdown
will soon need a Jerry Springer type character to sort through
this mess.
Albert,
pardon me, A-Train's push was derailed this week with a loss
to Edge. If Choo Choo never shows up on TV again then I'd
consider his push successful. Give him heat for a solid two
weeks and then have him lose his big feud for a huge pop on
free TV. However, if he's back next week, he'll go right back
to sucking.
Have
you noticed they never let him near a microphone? First off,
let me say that I like Bill DeMott and think that he deserves
the chance he's being given to sink or swim with the fans.
But why book him in a tag match vs. Nobel and Nunzio and have
him completely squash them circa 1988 Saturday Morning Superstars?
Nunzio
debuted last week and this was his first official match. Isn't
the jobber spot for the next big monster heel reserved for
guys like Tajiri and not the guy who DEBUTED LAST WEEK?
This isn't
even Wresting Booking 101 anymore. It's stuff you learn in
Wrestling Booking Elementary school. You never debut a guy
and then have him lose his first match in the ring if you
have any intention of getting him over with the fans.
Nunzio
got several weeks of build-up before his debut with Nidia
and Nobel, only to be killed in the ring. What a waste.
Shannon
Moore = Macaulay Culkin. His reaction to Matt Hardy last night
was straight out of Home Alone. I'm glad Brock nearly
killed him.
I said
a few weeks ago that I missed the old style managers that
led a stable of wrestlers rather than just one wrestler. Hooking
Paul Heyman up with Big Show and Kurt Angle is a great idea.
Even though the logic of the scheme against Brock Lesnar has
more holes than Swiss cheese, the end result works for me.
However,
Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle should never wrestle each other
again unless it's for the World Title at WrestleMania. I swear
that we've seen these two wrestle each other more times than
Triple H vs. The Rock. Their storyline of mismatched tag team
partners was thrown right out the window and after months
of buildup, the end result was an okay match on Smackdown.
Enough already. Make a blood pact or something.
Ratings
WWE Smackdown finished with a 3.3 rating and a 5 share this
week. The rating placed UPN in 4th place for the night, behind
CBS, NBC, and ABC.
Angle
Update
Hey, remember on Tuesday when I said that Kurt Angle would
miss Smackdown and return next week? Oops, my bad. Angle actually
did film an injury segment on Tuesday but it did not air.
Instead, he wrestled Benoit again. He did undergo knee surgery
yesterday in Birmingham. It is expected that he will return
to active wrestling shortly before Royal Rumble in January.
Mrs.
Dust
Dustin Runnels and his girlfriend of a year and a half, Milena,
were married Wednesday in Florida. Dustin's first wife Terri
Runnels was known as Marlena in her early WWF years. I find
it odd that their names are so similar but have no proof that
of a larger conspiracy.
Triple
H Injury
one of the side effect of steroids is that the muscles get
so big so fast that they often tear. In other news, Triple
H once again has a quad injury. This injury is not as serious
as his previous quad injury, which left him out of action
for most of 2001. Instead, he tore the quad in the other leg
and is expected not to wrestle for 2-3 weeks.
"I just
hit my leg," said H. "I had a charley horse, nothing major.
It's something you get all the time. It was right in the front
of my thigh. It wasn't bad at all. I just didn't train my
legs for a week; I figured I'd give it a little bit of rest.
But it wasn't bad. I didn't even think twice about it."
HHH worked
house shows before Armageddon, but felt the injury getting
worse headed into the PPV. "By the time I drove two hours
from Ft. Myers to Ft. Lauderdale (the site of Armageddon),
I could barely get out of the car. My leg was completely locked
up. It felt like I had a softball under the muscle."
After
surgery, Triple H was shocked to learn that it was not a softball,
but one of Stephanie McMahon's breast implants gone horribly
astray.
Rock
and Austin to Return in 2003
Quote from the Jim Ross Report today, "I'm really looking
forward to the New Year. As Vince McMahon has said publicly,
we expect to see the return of The Rock, and we certainly
also hope to see the return of Stone Cold, in the early part
of 2003. There certainly are no firm dates etched in stone.
But it's our hope and belief that we'll have those two back
with us at some point in the early part of next year. One
would assume that if that were to occur, they'd be involved
in the march to what we hope to be a hugely successful WrestleMania.
Not entirely
unexpected news, but Jim Ross at least confirms it. I'm curious
as to how fans will react to the returning superstars. Rock
was getting some boos in his last match because fans knew
he was leaving to go film his next movie. Will he get the
hero's welcome or be seen as a traitor to the industry? Even
if he is welcomed back with open arms, what happens when he
leaves again, and again, and again?
Austin,
on the other hand, is an interesting kettle of fish. In addition
to flat out walking out on the WWE, his spousal abuse incident
has been widely reported. Austin will have to deal with a
betrayed management, the other wrestlers who may view him
as a diva, he may possibly have heat with Eddie Guerrero,
who was set to feud with Austin, and the fans who now largely
perceive Austin as a wife beater. Can a man who admits to
hitting his wife ever be the fan favorite he once was?
It didn't
stop my Uncle Tony.
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