Smackdown

An interesting SD, though a bit of a letdown ...

They never explained why Edge and Vicki Guerrero, who when last seen were HIGHLY estranged spouses, worked things out enough to have been in cahoots at the Survivor Series. I get Vicki's concern as GM about Jeff Hardy's reliabiilty; I get Edge recognizing an opportunity when he sees one. But then just say that - 'we don't like each other or trust each other but we have common cause right now so we'll deal with it'. I can totally see those two people, as they've developed their characters so far, making deals with the devil like that. It's a simple explanation that would leave everyone and everything a bit less confused.

Conversely, I always enjoy Beat the Clock setups - especially in this situation where I'm quite tired of the Smackdown Title being defended in Triple Threat Matches, and I actually agree with Vlad Kozlov when he says 'no Triple Threats'. A smart way to deal with that ... and the tournament was even entertaining in terms of Matt Hardy simply running and ducking and weaving with Kozlov to run out the clock for his brother, and Triple H having a great match as well ... except for the time expiring at the same time as the ref's hand hit the mat for Trips' three-count. A tie is an interesting way to go here, as I don't think that's ever happened in a Beat the Clock scenario and it's kind of interesting ... but does this mean another Triple Threat? I mean at least Edge can carry his weight a bit better than Kozlov but ...

I'm personally hoping for a stip more along the lines of Wrestlemania X, where one challenged Edge while the other guy gets his own match, and faces the winner later in the evening. Perhaps they'll do something like that, or else have Jeff Hardy and Triple H fight for the spot ... especially since they made a point of acknowledging the way too frequent use of Triple Threat Matches of late. We'll see - I'm just tired of saying that. There's only so many times one can say that before having to acknowledge 'OK y'know what? They don't know what the hell they're doing either'.

Some good points? Again, match quality - especially the divas 6-woman match. Michelle McCool teasing a heel turn is interesting on the one point, except almost all the girls who can actually wrestle are heels; it was nice having her and the Bellas as faces to counteract that. Because what next then ... Maria's thrown in as the third 'face'? Boo! Still a great match though, with some good moves and good intrigue. I personally also enjoyed Miz and Morrison vs. Jesse and Festus, and the messing with the bell - apparently this has been done a lot, so perhaps it's better because I haven't watched a whole lot of Smackdown but *I* was entertained. :) So some definite good points - but the Vicki Guerrero/Edge relationship, and the world title picture, both leave some situations to be resolved, and which shouldn't be left hanging too long.