(Sidenote: Sorry this is late, and that there was no 10 Thoughts last week, had a couple of emergencies come up. Also, I have not read the results for Night of Champions yet.)
Welcome to another edition of 10 Thoughts on Smackdown! Tonight is being billed as “Edge Appreciation Night”, and seeing as how Edge is one of my favorite performers of all time, I’m going to be paying close attention tonight, and perhaps a little more critical than usual. Just a heads-up, so…
Here…we….go!
1. WWE proved this week that they must feel that Daniel Bryan doesn’t need any kind of momentum since he has the Money in the Bank briefcase. However, the cheers that he got in his introduction tell me that Bryan’s getting over with the fans…which is really good, in my opinion. All he needs is a few good wins, then he will be a more credible threat for the World Heavyweight Championship. Sin Cara v. Sin Cara…I think Sin Cara’s going over in this one! No, seriously though…I don’t know if I’m crazy about this “feud†or not. It didn’t work well when Undertaker did it, nor when Kane did it. The only reason I can think of for Creative to do this is to gauge fan reactions: is Mistico worth keeping around? It’s almost guaranteed that Hunico has a job waiting for him if they want to give him his own character…seems like it’s Mistico’s job on the line here.
2. Michael Cole’s becoming more and more of a detriment to the commentary team. I don’t know if this is WWE’s direction for him, if it’s discomfort in a three-man team position, or if it’s just him working too hard (or intentionally messing up), but whatever it is…it’s hurting the presentation.
3. Did anyone else have flashbacks when Trish walked in? As in a few years ago when HHH had her in a similar position?? That was the ONLY thing that made the segment watchable, otherwise it’s another way to get Aksana on TV. Does ANYONE know if she can go in the ring, or is she just another piece of eye candy????
4. Question for the smarks: Is it possible for a Diva to become a JTTS? That’s what it looks like AJ’s going to become. Kaitlyn isn’t too far behind either. But wait…if they’re making certain Divas to be jobbers…does that mean WWE’s going to start caring about the Women’s Division again?? Hmmmmm….
5. Of course there had to be some Edge/Christian interaction. From what I saw, it looks like Edge might be making some more appearances to work an angle with Christian…I don’t see it being a match, but I’d bet anything that this is going somewhere…
6. Great…now Sheamus is spouting off LIMERICKS! HA! It hasn’t changed his work in the ring, and fans are still taking him seriously, but it’s still taking some time getting used to his change in attitude…and did Booker name drop the Big Boss Man?? NICE!!! The tag team match was as formulaic as it gets…kind of bland, but it sets up for some possibilities for all four participants. Sidenote: I think Christian’s being booked the way he is because they’re trying to make Christian hated. This just hit me as I heard some “Christian†chants after the match when he tried to ambush Sheamus. Would anyone else mark out if someone name dropped “CLB†to Christian???
7. So the Jinder Mahal/Great Khali experiment ended this week…good. That pairing was getting zero heat, as no one seems to care about Mahal. It will likely end up extending a program with the two against each other, but I don’t think it’s going to go so well, in the ring or out of it.
8. The Cutting Edge showed that Edge can still be as smarmy as they come, and it also showed a good brawl to end Smackdown, and I think it shows that Mark Henry may just be ready for the main event. I could be wrong, but as I’ve said over the past few weeks, he’s improved greatly.
9. Is it just me, or does Booker T say “Oh my goodness!†almost as much as Vince McMahon used to say “Unbelievable!�
10. Joe’s Food For Thought: On Raw, HHH said that all it took for a wrestler to be successful was to get over with the fans, which CM Punk responded with, “Are you listening right now?†The question is…is HHH right? This is actually a twofold question for this week for you all to consider: is he right, and is CM Punk right? If indeed all one has to do is to be over with the fans, is WWE listening? My opinion? If they were, John Cena would have been either turned or bumped down the card a long time ago, for example. At the same time, they seemed to be listening at Money in the Bank, as that pay-per-view got more hype than most others have in recent years. I think they do at times, but at times they drop the ball on that part. I’d like to get some other thoughts on this…
I was kind of disappointed with this episode, but the ending was good. I felt like some of the matches could have been a little better, but it’s nitpicking. Maybe it’s just that I liked Edge so much that I’d raised the bar a little higher than usual, but if it wasn’t billed as “Edge Appreciation Night”, I would have been okay with this episode. All in all, an okay send-off into the Night of Champions PPV.
Until next time…
