SmackDown Discussion Thread - 19th December 2008

[G2G]

Preview:

Venue:
The 1st Mariner Arena - Baltimore, Maryland

TV Schedule:
UK: Sky Sports 3 at 10pm
USA: MyNetworkTV at 8/7c

The Fallout From The Armageddon PPV

[G2G]

Spoilers:

Credit:
wrestlezone.com

WWE taped this week's edition of SmackDown from the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. SmackDown: (Airing Friday) * SmackDown starts off with the new WWE Champion Jeff Hardy being introduced. He comes out to a huge pop with a spectacular pyro and confetti. He talks about finally being champion. Edge comes out to interrupt. He tells Jeff it takes more than just a day or two to be a true champion and that he stole the title from him. Edge then says Vickie has announced two matches for tonight: Matt Hardy vs. Edge and Jeff Hardy vs. Vladimir Kozlov. Jeff then asks Edge if he's done and hits the Twist of Fate. * Hurricane Helms & R-Truth b. Shelton Benjamin & MVP - Helms get the win via pinfall on Shelton. * John Morrison b. Festus - Morrison gets the win the moonlight drive after The Miz hit Jesse with the bell making Festus comatose again. * Matt Hardy cuts a promo backstage before his match with Edge. He's receiving a huge pop from the live audience. * Edge b. Matt Hardy - Hardy comes out to a huge pop while Edge comes out to big heat. Edge gets the clean win after hitting Hardy with a spear. * Ezekiel Jackson b. Carlito - Ezekiel gets the win via pinfall. Both The Brian Kendrick and Primo Colon are at ringside during the match. * Maryse b. Maria - The winner will get a future match for the Divas Championship. Michelle McCool is at ringside. Maria slaps Maryse to start the match. Maryse gets the win via pinfall after hitting a DDT. She taunts Michelle who is sitting with Jim Ross and Tazz. * Ken Kennedy promo with MVP promoting his Behind Enemy Lines DVD movie. * The Great Khali is interviewed. Rajin Singh says Mae Young is Khali's soul mate. Khali smiles. * The main event is up next. Vladimiz Kozlov comes out to big heat while Jeff Hardy comes out to another huge pop. * WWE Champion Jeff Hardy b. Vladimir Kozlov - Hardy gets the win after Edge interferes. Kozlov and Edge double team Hardy until Triple H comes to the rescue. Kozlov runs away when Hunter gets his the sledge hammer. This concludes SmackDown.

Dark Match:

* Lawrence Knight (Stu Bennett from FCW) b. Kung Fu Naki

[ShaolinHandLock]

* The Great Khali is interviewed. Rajin Singh says Mae Young is Khali's soul mate. Khali smiles.

Yuck. Ewwww. Disgusting.

[DC]

I smell a feud with Mark Henry.

[Jimmy Redman]

I heard something happened with that Jeff guy.

We start by, obviously, recapping Armageddon. God damn did they ever make it seem like the biggest deal in the universe. You really cannot fault their video guys. We segue from that into the WWE Title, which Jeff lowers to reveal his painted face. A 'Hardy' chant starts in the time it takes for him to say "Here I come."

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the NEW WWE Champion. Jeff's reception was UNBELIEVABLE. He got a huge standing ovation, and it went for minutes and minutes and minutes. Probably my favourite face pop ever. They went the whole nine yards with it, tonnes of pyro, confetti, and just leaving Jeff to celebrate for ages. I implore you to watch it because it was absolutely great to watch such a genuine, heartfelt reaction. He cut a promo. In the shock of all horrors, Edge interrupts. He seems a bit pissed. Edge cuts a boring promo in the ring to pretty much no reaction, and after the reaction Jeff just got, it just goes to show you what being over is. In case you didnt catch my drift, Edge slightly isnt. Edge then mentions Vickie, to huge heel heat. Vickie, on the other hand, slightly is over. Edge calls Jeff "lucky" and stuff, and there was a perfect retort about Edge's MITB wins. I really hate it when I can think of obvious retorts for babyfaces, but they say nothing, it makes them look very stupid. Anywho, Edge announces Edge/Matt and Jeff/Kozlov. One of those sounds good. The other is a Kozlov match. In the end, Jeff kicks Edge and Twist of Fates him. So in conclusion, Jeff Hardy.

MVP, Shelton and Helms are already in the ring. Thats a good sign. Truth enters in the usual way. We are announced that Helms gets a US Title shot next week. The F*CK?! Man. Anywho, we have a decent enough short match. The story, somehow, is that Shelton doesnt want to tag in a loser like MVP. Lovely. To finish, MVP accidentally Yakuza kicks Shelton and Helms wins with the reverse Unprettier. Good call with the finish change. Helms wasnt in the match long enough to be sh*t, so it was all OK. Poor Shelton though.

Backstage, Vickie does not approve of Chavo's coffee offering and swats it away and yells at him. Edge comes in fuming and yells at Vickie. Nothing really interesting.

Biscuits and Gravy! They replay the Miz and Morrison bell-ringing shenanigans of a few weeks ago, which was brilliant, in case you missed it. Gravy faces Morrison. Miz is quick to try and steal the ring bell, but Jesse is quicker, and so he rings the bell to start the match. Gravy and Morrison wrestle for the usual 5 minutes, until Jesse tries to hit Miz with the bell but ends up whacking it against the ring post, which, you guessed it, makes a huge DING. Festus dies, Morrison hits the Moonlight Drive for the win. Afterwards, Miz takes a huge fart on Festus, and then pins him for good measure. Morrison surfs on his body. Miz and Morrison are great pr*cks, and I love the use of the bell, again.

We have possibly the last DX Christmas plug promo. They plug the IC Title and Summerslam DVDs, and then playfully argue over who had more IC Title reigns and who beat who at Summerslam, before they playfully fight, choking each other while still getting their lines in. Yeah, and Hogan's show exposed the business.

Eve is backstage with Matt. He promos. Decent, but he still needs to work on his interviews.

Matt comes out for your semi-main. Edge comes out doing his best "Grrr!" Abyss impression. Edge is usually very crap at being angry, and this is no exception. Matt takes him into the corner to begin with and he throws a tantrum. OK, that I like. Matt stays one step ahead of Edge until the break. Back, Edge is milking throwing Matt out of the ring. He also works the shoulder. Between Edge and Matt, we have some serious potbelly action going on here. This was a good match. Matt hit a very sloppy moonsault on a standing Edge. Side Effect near fall. Full Nelson Slam near fall, havent seen anyone bust that out in a while. Edge countered the Twist of Fate to ram Matt into the post for a spear for the clean win. Seems a bit strange to have Matt job clean to Edge here, for mine. As an aside, if all of this subtle burial of Matt for Jeff was leading to Matt turning on Jeff it would be fantastic.

Carlito, with Primo, is in the ring. He faces Big Zeke. Man, no matter how much JR and Tazz tried to put him over, he looks hilariously bad in his teeny tiny trunks. I dont know who the hell thought that it was a good idea for him to wrestle in them. Kendrick gets his fingers stomped, and then fails a Sliced Bread on the outside. Carlito slaps Zeke, Zeke is all "the f*ck?!" and murders him. Later on, Zeke uses a bearhug, JR mentions Bruno Sammartino and then buries him by saying that Big Zeke is stronger than him or something. Zeke wins with the uranage.

Michelle! Following on from Armageddon, she's back to being a face, which is bullsh*t. So much for the greatest heel turn of all the times. She sits ringside for the No. 1 Contender's match. I guess Maria and Maryse, and I guess right. Maryse is great, its a shame she wont win. Ahahahaha! Maryse fakes locking up and poses on the ropes. Fantastic. She fakes locking up again, so Maria SLAPS THE PISS OUT OF HER! Fantastic. Maryse is doing good here, but Maria is unusually sloppy, even by her standards, so the match suffered. Maryse does her backbreaker and the camel clutch. Maria sells the ankle coming off the top, DDT! Maryse! Maryse wins! Yes! Awesome. Maryse goes over to Michelle and strikes about a dozen different poses at her, no lie, before she touches the prestigious Divas belt and Michelle swats her away. Boo for face Michelle, but yay for Maryse!

MVP is backstage, being upset. Mr Kennedy sits down beside him. MVP doesnt seem to like this very much. In short, they plug the movie. It was better than it sounds, simply because its MVP and Kennedy talking, which can make the best out of anything.

Backstage, Eve is with Khali and Runjin. We recap the Mae Young kiss from Armageddon. No, I dont know why. Runjin basically says that Khali is in love with Mae. Man, if you ever want to bury someone..

Kozlov comes out for YOUR main event. We break. Jeff comes out again, with another monumental pop. Great stuff. Kozlov has a wound on his cheek which gets opened up in the first 30 seconds. Jeff bumps around for the useless lug, until he dropkicks Kozlov off the apron to go to break. Back, Kozlov beats on Jeff. He uses an ARMBAR. You know the thing where you lift the guy up by the leg and slam them down, knee-first? Yeah, well somehow Kozlov made that look like crap. Eventually Jeff hits two Whispers in the Wind, before Edge comes down for the DQ. They double-team Jeff as I beg for the Matt save, and not the HHH save. I beg wrong. HHH is shown entering on the tron, and they literally sh*t their pants and just drop Jeff cold. Way to put him over. Edge grabs a chair as HHH enters. Edge gets Pedigreed. Kozlov gets knocked down, he rolls out but HHH follows and jumps on his back. HHH gets all sledgy as Kozlov backs away. As they go up the ramp, Jeff Swantons Edge and celebrates to end the show. Apart from my obvious problem with them treating HHH like the star and almost jobbing Jeff out after they pulled out all the stops to make him seem like a big deal, it was fun stuff.

[DarkMatchJobber]

Eventually WWE might remember MVP has more personality and talent than most of the entire roster and treat him as such instead of punishing him like this. I don't believe for one second the crap that MVP is going to up and leave if he becomes a big star,it's not like he has the build to pursue a football or MMA career is it????

[Nimf]

Can I just say, that was a LOT of pyro for Jeff... A LOT of pyro!!!

[DC]

Originally Posted by MVP Eventually WWE might remember MVP has more personality and talent than most of the entire roster and treat him as such instead of punishing him like this. I don't believe for one second the crap that MVP is going to up and leave if he becomes a big star,it's not like he has the build to pursue a football or MMA career is it????

And maybe, just maybe, some fans will eventually realise that this is a wrestling storyline that, may, just may, be going somewhere.

[H}{H-Evolution]

If he was going anywhere, we'd have heard about it eventually...the lack of anything 'suggested/rumoured' about MVP in anything else BUT smackdown leads me to agree with DC on this one.

Hold tight, it'll get better eventually!

[DC]

Originally Posted by H}{H-Evolution If he was going anywhere, we'd have heard about it eventually...the lack of anything 'suggested/rumoured' about MVP in anything else BUT smackdown leads me to agree with DC on this one. Hold tight, it'll get better eventually!

What I was (and still am) hoping for was MVP to lose until he is pretty much broke. He is then tempted into his old lifestyle (real gangbanger sh*t, not the crazy Cryme Tyme parody) by someone from his past... who turns out to be New Jack (who has a legit rep on the streets as well).

New Jack comes in for a few weeks, does his usual run-in with weapons schtick to help MVP and draw him back to "where he belongs". This, in turn, leads MVP to do just that (and for New Jack to leave; job done). He becomes a thug who eventually renounces his old ways a second time (after at least a year) and turns babyface.

With the new PG-rated product, I doubt very much that it would happen, but with MVP's real-life situation (gangs, prison, etc), it would be, at the very least, believable.