I was not too impressed with the latest edition of SmackDown, shown last night on TV which was taped this past week from Italy. The show was built around two things, which was the team of London and Kendrick losing their tag titles to the underwhelming team of Deuce & Domino, and two beat downs of the show’s biggest stars – Taker and Batista, by Kennedy and Finely. I have issues with both moves, and thought they dropped the ball with this show all the way around.
First the tag title switch. I think that the WWE has seen over the past two months that both Deuce & Domino are simply not ready to go out week after week and be top wrestlers. They had already lost a ton of matches to London and Kendrick, and I think the whole thing with the champs being on this roll of having the belts for close to a year was pretty cool. They did a great job with the belts, and I understand the companys thinking of having them go from being the hunted to the hunters, but losing the belts to Deuce & Domino to me was the wrong thing to do. We’ll now see a long series of matches with these four, but I for one really hope they don’t break up London and Kendrick, a move they teased for a portion for 2006.
The other big story line, with both Batista and Taker taking seperate beat downs in their matches, I think really puts a damper on the whole title match that Batista and Taker are set for at Backlash. They are having a “last man standing” match at the PPV, and here on regular TV they are looking weak against Kennedy and Finley. I understand them building up the two heels, but they should have not done it against the two biggest stars on the show, one of which is the champion.
The rest of the show was blah at best. I guess Michelle McCool is now a face, as she beat down Jullian Hall, who last week attacked Ashley. I guess we’ll see a match between these two shortly, but I hope they don’t waste it on PPV, as that is one match I can see myself fast forwarding through. The Hardys & Chris Benoit vs. Chavo Guerrero, Gregory Helms & MVP was the best match on the show, and despite the faces winning, I still think we are going to see a US Title switch soon.
William Regal & Dave Taylor vs. Kane was a waste, and it just was a filler of time on a show that really didn’t do it for me. I hope they refocus since we have this big match with Taker and Batista on the PPV next week.
