Smackdown Thoughts

My reactions as promised to SD are not many-fold; mainly some disappointment and some pleasant surprise. My main disappointment is the lack of Edge on the program. I understand he took a beating from Undertaker at Summerslam and went to 'hell' when he was dropped through the ring, literally, into a fiery pit. But he's been the strongest performer on the show of late, and to have him take a sabbatical right now - howsoever appropriate according to storyline, is perhaps not the best judgement call WWE could have made.

Pleasant surprises, though, include just about everything about the Championship Scramble. Vicki Guerrero took a better crack at explaining the rules of the Scramble match than Mike Adamle did, and I have to say I have gone from an all-time low opinion of this concept - on Tuesday, when I was under the impression that the title could change hands ad-nauseum through the 20 minutes of the match, and then found out Smackdown was doing the same kind of match on Raw and thinking this was all WAY too much - to being at least cool with it.

Mainly, the title doesn't pass around with the pinfalls, but the last person to score a win in the match becomes the next champion - so you won't have, for example, Brian Kendrick becoming champion for two minutes on the way to a thirteenth (or fourteenth?) title reign for Triple H - which I thought this was a cheap excuse to create. This gives a great chance, for example, to give a young, solid midcarder like Kendrick a neat little sneak win over a main eventer like Triple H, or even MVP or Jeff Hardy, without giving him a title reign, which like him as I do, he isn't deserving of just yet.

I'm also thrilled with the names of the SD Scramble entrants - Brian Kendrick, Shelton Benjamin, Jeff Hardy, MVP and Triple H should put on an awesome match that contrasts well with the Raw bruisers (and CM Punk) in the Scramble on the Raw side. I'm still skeptical about having two of the same kind of match on the card, but hey it worked for the Elimination Chamber, and now that I'm less dubious about the match setup, it should actually be entertaining. And having the qualifiers for the Scramble to unify SD with WRESTLING, instead of the (however-well-executed) La Familia storyline, was great. Another awesome offering from the SD side, way to go.

Also - award for interaction of the night:

Ken Dykstra: "My name is Kenny ..." (interrupted with a Triple H wallop)
Triple H: "Hi Kenny." (walks away)

Classic.