OK - Deal Time

So in case you didn't notice, no, I didn't publish my thoughts on SNME or Smackdown this week. That's not out of laziness, it's just because I didn't have many. Smackdown seemed like a solid but not particularly forward-moving show after the last few weeks - which is fine; they've pushed forward plot-wise quite frequently lately and it was a big week for Raw, so having some breathing space doesn't bother me. I question having Shelton Benjamin lose a match so quickly after winning the US title but since he came up with an excuse and it sounded like an interesting match etc. there might be more there story-wise, and that's kind of cool.

I'm generally against making champions look week and having them lose a lot of non-title matches, or lose matches by DQ or countout (see CM Punk, and Rey Mysterio Jr. before him) - but (a) it doesn't bother me as much with heels and (b) if an explanation and discussion is provided and that becomes part of the story, it's not quite as bad. That's why Punk's flukiness has bothered me less than Mysterio's non-stop losing. With him, they didn't even acknowledge they were making him a paper champion.

As for SNME - I'm not going to bother getting into too much of it. Because we're past the days of WWE Superstars and WWE Challenge - their syndicated weekend shows full of squash matches which used to predominate in the early-90s, where you'd only see the big names wrestle one another on Saturday Night's Main Event or PPV - it's not as urgent that we have a special focusing on the big names in wrestling. It's already difficult coming up with 5 hours of weekly TV, plus 3 more on PPV weeks - then you add SNME is network television, thus faced with more restrictions than Raw or Smackdown is, and all of a sudden you have a show which is a shadow of what it used to be. Also, being on network TV and taking the place of Saturday Night Live every few months, it gets more casual fans tuning in for other shows, than Raw or SD might, so it's geared to them.

Which is fine, and has a place - most of their matches are tags building up to an upcoming PPV, and they shill for everything from Raw and SD to charities to their PPV, which is all good, and this is a great mini-showcase to garner new fans. I'm not complaining. But it doesn't offer a whole lot of important, meaty stuff for people 'in the know' enough to be seeking out and reading wrestling blogs online, etc. to sink their teeth into. Especially as it's not live, and taped at the same time as Raw, there's a whole week's worth of storylines they can't address by way of spoiler risks. So while SNME this week had some star power in the form of Jenny McCarthy and other celebs supporting her Autism charity, and probably gained some positive mainstream recognition for the WWE, and as such was successful, I don't have a whole lot to say about it from a wrestling standpoint.

Unlikely for that to happen with Raw tonight however! With Mike Adamle's first full night on the GM job, with Summerslam opponents Batista and John Cena teaming up together vs. Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase Jr., and I'm sure a whole other host of unpredictable, live Raw goodness, it should make for an ... interesting, anyway ... evening. Look forward to my comments on that here late tonight, or else tomorrow morning first-thing ish. :) Have a nice day!