Smackdown

So only saw bits & pieces of Smackdown on Youtube etc. as last night I had a rehearsal for a play I'm directing which is going up in a couple of weeks - but there was some interesting stuff going on.

• First, goodbye to the retiring Victoria - you have had an awesome career, and with you goes the last of the Divas who made the North American women's wrestling scene credible again. Yourself, along with such names as Trish Stratus, Lita, Molly Holly and so on will be sadly, sadly missed.
• Secondly, congrats to MVP for his win over Big Show! Sure this was not clean - in fact, heavily assisted by Triple H - but a win was a win and breaking his slump, as well as that key moment being buffered by two perennial main eventers such as Trips and Show, *I* believe means a key push on its way for MVP. My only question is whether or not it will be as a face - his war of words with Ken Kennedy seems to indicate not, but the sympathy gained by his run of bad luck, and being helped by one of the biggest faces on the SD roster, would suggest so. It will be interesting to see just what role MVP gets shaped into.
• Jack Swagger, new ECW champ, takes the pin for his team - boo! This isn't as bad as losing a non-title singles match, but still; it was his first match as champ, even if they weren't going to give him a victory, he shouldn't have had to eat the loss.
• Jeff Hardy's pyro backfiring and singing him was an interesting twist - new, sabotaging things seem to happen to Jeff every week, and it seems more than certain that the returning Christian, along with crony Edge, is responsible since TNA owner Dixie Carter has finally gotten around to confirming Christian's parting of ways with her company. Now if WWE were really smart, they'd tie these in to the accidents that began with the set falling on Vince McMahon and the chaos that continued on Raw until the appointment of Mike Adamle as GM which Stephanie and Shane McMahon so wanted to avoid, and reveal that Christian, as a 'competition operative' had been terrorizing the WWE for months. Too smart and complex, however? Yeeeaaaaah .... probably.

Also wanting to wish Bob Holly the best in his future endeavours, as he was released this week. "Hardcore" was never a 'nice guy', and to me represented almost everything wrong with the industry from a hazing/bullying perspective. Instead of using his locker room stance to look after his fellow vets and the young guys coming up, he used it to instill fear and keep the young guns in their place. Nonetheless, the man was a loyal and staunch warrior for the WWE since 1994 - the second longest continuous guy on their roster to the Undertaker, and a perennial midcarder in an era where such journeymen often get delusions of grandeur and jump ship to the nearest competition when they feel underused. A good soldier who fought a tough, legit style; while the locker room might breathe a bit easier now, he will be missed onscreen.