SD and Behind the Scenes Thoughts

So ...

First I want to say that I miss Mick Foley already. Not that Tazz is bad, or that he and JR didn't work well together on last night's Smackdown. But WWE let Ric Flair go, and now Mick Foley is expressing displeasure at his announcing role (which surprises me, as he is really good at it and receiving much respect for it). WWE also let a whole bunch of wrestlers go yesterday - in particular I'm thinking of Shannon Moore, who was on my screen on SD as I read online of his dismissal. Interesting stuff, and almost makes what's going on on TV irrelevant at times, as you notice when we talk about things as we did on ITVR this week, such as Stephanie McMahon's nomination as best writer for the CableFAX awards ... or Tyson Tomko's dismissal from TNA.

That said, it is the onscreen product that brought most of us to be wrestling fans to begin with, and commenting on SD's onscreen offering was the point of this entry. Therefore, without further ado ...

This week's show was actually really good. I was pleased with them teasing and suggesting it was the Undertaker going after La Familia, to have it turn out to be a newly aggressive and re-invigorated Edge, no longer tied down by his friendships or his love for Vicki on his quest for his One True Love - the WWE Title, and revenge against the Undertaker. Edge plays a truly spectacular crazy heel, and it was interesting last night, as it was last week, to watch him develop back into a character he's shied away from recently.

The attacks on La Familia created a continuity through the show, and the show otherwise had great action; Ryder and Hawkins had a decent match, and the Jesse vs. Vladimir Kozlov match, while nowhere near technically sound, served its purpose. Shelton Benjamin vs. Jeff Hardy was tremendous, and it's unfortunate after a long, strong matchup that MVP had to interfere, but it makes sense - it protects two wrestlers who are currently on a similar rung of the ladder, while furthering the ACTUAL feud being peddled right now, between MVP and Hardy (presumably, the winner ends up going after Triple H, the loser after Shelty).

I was dreading the Triple H-Khali armwrestling match, but they made it interesting, and made Khali a credible threat - a facet he's been lacking as we've all been downplaying and underexcited about this match. The intrigue level for me just went up a notch or two. Which speaks to the whole show - very strong, intriguing, forwarding the plots just enough to keep them fresh and interesting without giving away too much. Even the women's match was a decent short match with which to start the show. Strong offering from SD, amidst a lot of the aforementioned backstage shakeups in personnel which have been the story of the week. SD in my opinion has become WWE's flagship program in terms of quality of late - and that is no knock on Raw which has also been strong ...

In fact, I take that all back. The truest statement, is while both shows have different things going for them and different strikes against them, for the first time since the Brand Extension created SD and Raw, both brands in my opinion have actually achieved parity. They are not the same, as they strived to be for so long which simply resulted in SD being Raw-lite; they offer different types of entertainment and different vibes - primarily due to Raw's being live providing it an edginess and an 'anything can happen' feel, while SD's pre-recorded status allows it to be a bit more clean and polished. WWE was attempting to create its own competition in creating the two brands; two different products which would compete for audience, and ideally pull in the same audience for different reasons. And I finally believe they've accomplished that. Wrestling is stronger than it has been, in my opinion, since WM XX's magic ending, and I hope they keep it up. Way to go WWE - now with all due respect and love ... don't fuck it up! ;)