Unknown
06-18-2004, 03:05 AM
This weeks SD for the most part was entertaining. There were a lot of things there that worked and other things that just left me wondering what the hell the WWE is doing. Anyways, the show was about as good as last weeks episode. While not as good, they did make a few smart decisions.
The tag title bout was entertaining. It was smart of them to finally get the belts off of Rico and Haas setting up a feud between the pair where Haas inevitably ends up in the US title hunt. I can’t say how happy I am that they dropped the belts because they weren’t doing anything for me. Anyone else notice Rico not doing any of the gay antics but seeming to get over more? He can work as a serious face and a feud with Charlie Haas is just the thing to convince people of that. I see Jackie going with Haas already. I just have a feeling that she will. I think it will be good for Haas as long as she stays as his valet and doesn’t overshadow him. Now is the time to give him a Bret Hart/Chris Benoit heel character with a vicious streak. Jackie could be the thing that makes him step the intensity up that much more. Someone could try and harm her which would cause him to snap and beat the hell out of them. Now, hopefully he’ll get a chance to showcase his wrestling skill along with his submission the Haas of Pain, which will go a long way in establishing his character as the sharpshooter, did for Bret Hart, the Crossface for Benoit, and the Ankle Lock for Kurt Angle. The only thing that didn’t sit well with me about this match was the finish. Two Dudleys shouldn’t have to cheat to pin Rico. A 3D would have been more appropriate given the circumstances. Cheap finishes shouldn’t be overused like that and should only be used if absolutely necessary because they take the energy out of a match and make it seem pretty anticlimactic. I am looking forward to see what they do with this tag title run. Now that an established team has the belts, they just need to push the teams that SD has to make a credible division. They can work an excellent story with teams trying to climb the tag team mountain but being knocked off of the mountain so to speak by Heyman and his stable. This will add an excellent story to the division giving them something to gain other than the belts. On a sidenote, The Dudleys are as fresh as they’ve been in a while but they are in dire need of some new entrance attire and maybe even music to go with their fresh characters. It really makes a difference in the way they’re perceived.
Paul Heyman’s promo had my eyes glued to the TV. Boy does he know how to use the mic or what. I am looking forward to seeing how this match with the Dudley’s and Undertaker will play out at the Great American Bash PPV. The only thing I see wrong with this whole thing is the importance they place on Paul Bearer. Granted that he is Taker’s manager and all the WWE has only had him speak once since coming back. They didn’t establish how important Bearer is to Taker before starting this whole storyline. I guess this is one of the things we’re supposed to remember about the past of the WWE. Geez, make up your minds guys. Anyways, chances are that some of the new fans don’t know much about Paul Bearer so building him up as such an important figure is ok but without something to base it on what’s the point of it all. I like this storyline though because I want to see how they’ll work the cement angle at the PPV and if Taker will officially turn heel/tweener. SD needs him right now on a full time basis and not as the Taker who doesn’t put anyone over but the Taker who will do what HHH has been doing on Raw. If he does feud with Eddie as rumored they need to make Eddie look just as strong as Taker and go over cleanly in the feud because Eddie hasn’t gotten a clean win over a big name since becoming WWE Champion which is one of the things that is hurting his title run the most. Taker needs to do the right thing for SD and put Eddie over cleanly. He won’t lose anything from it and it will give Eddie the steam back that he lost in feuds/matches with Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar.
Eddie’s in ring promo was pretty good. I am happy to see Eddie go back to his old ways and to actually look more credible as champion. At the same time, they have to be sure to allow him to play a serious character too. They shouldn’t overdo it with the comedy. The Basham’s interrupting Eddie had me marking out. These two are one of my favorite teams on SD and I was glad to see them. Danny’s match with Eddie was pretty good for the short time given to it. I like the way they had Eddie have a hard time with both men but not too hard of a time taking care of them. He should go over them as they haven’t been built well and he is the champion but he shouldn’t beat the crap out of them because they need some sort of credibility. I would like to see Eddie go against a guy higher up on the roster though. This is another one of the differences between Raw and SD. Raw has those guys who you can have one on one matches with while you can only work with tag teams, midcarders, or jobbers. Hopefully he gets more of a chance to wrestle a main event level talent on SD. As for the Basham’s, they showed a personality last night and both men have mic skills so they just need to be injected into the tag division now to help it get over. Even if it means a face turn seeing as SD has nothing but heel teams other than the gimmickless Holly/Gunn pairing. They certaintly have the skills to get over as faces and a tag feud with the Dudley’s will do wonders for their careers. Hopefully they get more of a chance to prove themselves because when they were champs (I felt they were damn good champs at that) their title reign was overshadowed by Shaniqua. They need a chance to show their personalities because their in ring talent is good enough to get them over as a Los Guerrero’s type tag team (not the lying cheating stealing part just the big face team part).
The backstage segment with Angle and Cena was entertaining. The US title is getting some credibility back now and that’s a good thing. Booking Cena to overcome the odds will make him seem as if he’ll do anything to keep the belt. There’s hope yet for fixing his character. Good job WWE but there is still work to be done before the badass Cena is back. It’s obvious that they’ll end up going with a Cena/Kurt match sometime down the line when Kurt steps back into the ring. They should do it with Cena not having the US title because of Kurt costing him it so that Kurt doesn’t feud for the belt and then the two can feud once again where hopefully Kurt can help Cena establish himself as an upper midcarder/main event level talent. I don’t want to sound like a broken record but I hope they have something planned to get Kurt out of the GM role soon because he is just so uncomfortable playing it. Guys like Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman play the role well not only because there isn’t the expectation that they’ll wrestle again but because they just focus on the show as a whole and make it theirs. Kurt just uses his power to try and settle vendettas, which causes his character to get pretty old fast. Shane McMahon or even Theodore Long as Chazz has in his SD bookings right now can be the SD general manager. No matter how great Kurt is, he just can’t make this role work for himself which isn’t his fault.
The Kenzo Suzuki match against Spike Dudley was fair for what it was. I like this guy and see him as an asset to SD but he has got to show us more than he is right now. His mannerisms are good and him using the Death Grip on Spike seemed very devastating but squashing jobbers is doing nothing for him. It’s time for Akio and Sakoda to align themselves with him. He doesn’t even need to talk on the mic much. Tajiri is the perfect example of what Kenzo should be doing in his heel role. He should be having competitive matches with equals so that he can be established as a credible superstar. The leg sweep finisher is pretty good the way he does it. Even if he has to cheat to win maybe by sneaking in a low blow every now and then or using his kicks and kicking his opponent low. Right now he is going nowhere squashing jobbers and should be heading into a feud that will help elevate him into bigger and better things.
The Bradshaw promo was very effective and nicely delivered. The man is very talented on the mic. I don’t think he understands the reason the majority of the fans don’t take to his push. He is capable of main eventing but right now he needs to do more than berate the fans and praise America. He needs victories over superstars. He hasn’t gone over anyone to warrant being the #1 contender which is what’s wrong with his push. It’s like the exact opposite of Shelton Benjamin’s character. Benjamin is proving himself in the ring but he hasn’t been given a chance to establish his character through mic work and actions. Bradshaw needs to establish the in ring realm of his character to be more over. I was skeptical about him working as a main eventer (and I still am) but I like the character. He just needs to wrestle more on SD in competitive matches with main event level talent (not that SD has any). If he goes down the card a bit after the GAB and holds the US title for a few months while proving himself in the ring then he’ll do much better as a main eventer. Eddie’s interjection was a nice touch to this segment. I like this feud more than I did a month ago because they’re not using Eddie as a tool to get JBL over but rather seeing that they have made mistakes and trying to book him as more of a credible champ. Good job WWE.
The Cruiserweight title match was what I expected it to be which was ok. Once again, another safe choice for a champ. While I think he should be moving into the US title hunt, they need him now more than ever to put the cruiserweight division back on the map. They shouldn’t rush into a feud heading into the Bash. This is what I’d do. I’d have Rey come out and say that now that he is the champ that real cruiserweight action will return and the cruiserweight division will be full of excitement and high flying action. To get that started off, at the Great American Bash, there will be what I like to call the Cruiserweight Invitational Part 2. All cruiserweights are welcome to enter. This will be an over the top rope battle royal with the two men left in the ring fighting it out in a one on one match. So that means that it can even come down to me not being in the final match. The winner of that match will leave the Great American Bash the cruiserweight champion. I’d then have the two final men in the ring being Rey and Chavo with Rey getting the win. Chavo would of tried to cheat to win but Paul London would come back out and stop him from cheating thereby costing him the title. This would lead to a Chavo/London feud where I feel London could gain a character and finally get some much deserved TV time. I’d then have Rey feuding with Jamie Noble over the belt heading into Summerslam. He would be the fighting champ type meaning that Rey would defend the belt on SD atleast every other week so that the cruiserweight title will get back some credibility. I’d then have him drop the belt to Noble who would then have a long run with the belt. Noble was undergoing a character change when Nidia left SD and they just dropped it. I think they could easily pick up Noble’s becoming civilized type character they had going.
The Mordecai vignette was dull. This gimmick will not get over today in the WWE. It’s about 20 years too late. They should just cut their losses and repackage him hoping that no one will notice him being gone. I certainty wouldn’t miss him. They could give his spot to Jindrak and Orlando Jordan so that they can develop their characters. These two men have more of a chance of getting over than Mordecai ever will.
The Luther match was a pretty good squash match. He is huge! I like the gimmick they have with him doing the GM’s bidding but it would work better with another GM. It just makes Kurt look weak that he can’t fight his own battles. He’s in a wheelchair yes but they shouldn’t draw attention to that aspect of his character. I could easily see Luther being Shane McMahon’s enforcer. It would bring back the days of the Shane/Big Show alliance. Shane would play off of it much better than Kurt does.
The divas hosting the GAB, do I care? No for those of you who had to question that. Torrie does nothing for me. The SD divas are intended to be eye candy so I guess it’s ok as long as they don’t get a match. Leave the wrestling to the Raw divas with actual wrestling talent.
One of the glaring differences between Raw and SD was displayed by the main event. Boy have the tides turned. The main event was ok while it was going. I don’t like how they use angles to end shows rather than a strong main event match. That just shows how much SD is in need of talent. Taker’s interference was ok but would have been better had it not been guys who are hyped for one of the top matches on the PPV. Chances are that they’ll never get their steam back from Taker knowing the WWE so what was the point? They should have had him destroy Rico or something. That attack was a good plan in theory but the execution was completely wrong. I guess they wanted to make sure that each man looked like a midcarder and nothing more and boy did they do that.
I give this weeks SD a 6 out of 10. The show was ok but it the lack of a main event to end it was very anticlimactic. This show was an indication of the exact problem with SD. You have only one main event face, one main event heel, one main event tweener, and nothing else. Meanwhile you have guys like RVD and Booker T in the US title race when it’s obvious that SD isn’t very top heavy. Rhyno is a very much needed addition to the SD roster also seeing as he is doing completely nothing on Raw right now and I fear that they will make the dummest release yet in firing him. I hope that never happens as Rhyno will be a main eventer within a month of letting him go in TNA. Please WWE just put the man back on SD. They need him so much more. The US title division should have more Charlie Haas’s in it right now than Booker T’s. The younger/less over talent needs that division more. Guys like Jindrak, Orlando Jordan, Rico, Charlie Haas, Rey Mysterio, Kenzo Suzuki, A-Train (bring him back on SD where he actually had a little bit of a thing going for him), and John Cena (for a little while longer) should be in that division. Chuck Palumbo is also needed to reform his team with Johnny the Bull so that they can head for the tag titles while Nunzio conquers the cruiserweight division. No matter how good they try and make SD, the lack of a strong, balanced card of superstars along with the show not being able to end with a strong main event is what is hurting it badly. Something has to be done to fix this problem because this along with questionable booking decisions are the only things keeping SD from being a good show.
The tag title bout was entertaining. It was smart of them to finally get the belts off of Rico and Haas setting up a feud between the pair where Haas inevitably ends up in the US title hunt. I can’t say how happy I am that they dropped the belts because they weren’t doing anything for me. Anyone else notice Rico not doing any of the gay antics but seeming to get over more? He can work as a serious face and a feud with Charlie Haas is just the thing to convince people of that. I see Jackie going with Haas already. I just have a feeling that she will. I think it will be good for Haas as long as she stays as his valet and doesn’t overshadow him. Now is the time to give him a Bret Hart/Chris Benoit heel character with a vicious streak. Jackie could be the thing that makes him step the intensity up that much more. Someone could try and harm her which would cause him to snap and beat the hell out of them. Now, hopefully he’ll get a chance to showcase his wrestling skill along with his submission the Haas of Pain, which will go a long way in establishing his character as the sharpshooter, did for Bret Hart, the Crossface for Benoit, and the Ankle Lock for Kurt Angle. The only thing that didn’t sit well with me about this match was the finish. Two Dudleys shouldn’t have to cheat to pin Rico. A 3D would have been more appropriate given the circumstances. Cheap finishes shouldn’t be overused like that and should only be used if absolutely necessary because they take the energy out of a match and make it seem pretty anticlimactic. I am looking forward to see what they do with this tag title run. Now that an established team has the belts, they just need to push the teams that SD has to make a credible division. They can work an excellent story with teams trying to climb the tag team mountain but being knocked off of the mountain so to speak by Heyman and his stable. This will add an excellent story to the division giving them something to gain other than the belts. On a sidenote, The Dudleys are as fresh as they’ve been in a while but they are in dire need of some new entrance attire and maybe even music to go with their fresh characters. It really makes a difference in the way they’re perceived.
Paul Heyman’s promo had my eyes glued to the TV. Boy does he know how to use the mic or what. I am looking forward to seeing how this match with the Dudley’s and Undertaker will play out at the Great American Bash PPV. The only thing I see wrong with this whole thing is the importance they place on Paul Bearer. Granted that he is Taker’s manager and all the WWE has only had him speak once since coming back. They didn’t establish how important Bearer is to Taker before starting this whole storyline. I guess this is one of the things we’re supposed to remember about the past of the WWE. Geez, make up your minds guys. Anyways, chances are that some of the new fans don’t know much about Paul Bearer so building him up as such an important figure is ok but without something to base it on what’s the point of it all. I like this storyline though because I want to see how they’ll work the cement angle at the PPV and if Taker will officially turn heel/tweener. SD needs him right now on a full time basis and not as the Taker who doesn’t put anyone over but the Taker who will do what HHH has been doing on Raw. If he does feud with Eddie as rumored they need to make Eddie look just as strong as Taker and go over cleanly in the feud because Eddie hasn’t gotten a clean win over a big name since becoming WWE Champion which is one of the things that is hurting his title run the most. Taker needs to do the right thing for SD and put Eddie over cleanly. He won’t lose anything from it and it will give Eddie the steam back that he lost in feuds/matches with Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar.
Eddie’s in ring promo was pretty good. I am happy to see Eddie go back to his old ways and to actually look more credible as champion. At the same time, they have to be sure to allow him to play a serious character too. They shouldn’t overdo it with the comedy. The Basham’s interrupting Eddie had me marking out. These two are one of my favorite teams on SD and I was glad to see them. Danny’s match with Eddie was pretty good for the short time given to it. I like the way they had Eddie have a hard time with both men but not too hard of a time taking care of them. He should go over them as they haven’t been built well and he is the champion but he shouldn’t beat the crap out of them because they need some sort of credibility. I would like to see Eddie go against a guy higher up on the roster though. This is another one of the differences between Raw and SD. Raw has those guys who you can have one on one matches with while you can only work with tag teams, midcarders, or jobbers. Hopefully he gets more of a chance to wrestle a main event level talent on SD. As for the Basham’s, they showed a personality last night and both men have mic skills so they just need to be injected into the tag division now to help it get over. Even if it means a face turn seeing as SD has nothing but heel teams other than the gimmickless Holly/Gunn pairing. They certaintly have the skills to get over as faces and a tag feud with the Dudley’s will do wonders for their careers. Hopefully they get more of a chance to prove themselves because when they were champs (I felt they were damn good champs at that) their title reign was overshadowed by Shaniqua. They need a chance to show their personalities because their in ring talent is good enough to get them over as a Los Guerrero’s type tag team (not the lying cheating stealing part just the big face team part).
The backstage segment with Angle and Cena was entertaining. The US title is getting some credibility back now and that’s a good thing. Booking Cena to overcome the odds will make him seem as if he’ll do anything to keep the belt. There’s hope yet for fixing his character. Good job WWE but there is still work to be done before the badass Cena is back. It’s obvious that they’ll end up going with a Cena/Kurt match sometime down the line when Kurt steps back into the ring. They should do it with Cena not having the US title because of Kurt costing him it so that Kurt doesn’t feud for the belt and then the two can feud once again where hopefully Kurt can help Cena establish himself as an upper midcarder/main event level talent. I don’t want to sound like a broken record but I hope they have something planned to get Kurt out of the GM role soon because he is just so uncomfortable playing it. Guys like Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman play the role well not only because there isn’t the expectation that they’ll wrestle again but because they just focus on the show as a whole and make it theirs. Kurt just uses his power to try and settle vendettas, which causes his character to get pretty old fast. Shane McMahon or even Theodore Long as Chazz has in his SD bookings right now can be the SD general manager. No matter how great Kurt is, he just can’t make this role work for himself which isn’t his fault.
The Kenzo Suzuki match against Spike Dudley was fair for what it was. I like this guy and see him as an asset to SD but he has got to show us more than he is right now. His mannerisms are good and him using the Death Grip on Spike seemed very devastating but squashing jobbers is doing nothing for him. It’s time for Akio and Sakoda to align themselves with him. He doesn’t even need to talk on the mic much. Tajiri is the perfect example of what Kenzo should be doing in his heel role. He should be having competitive matches with equals so that he can be established as a credible superstar. The leg sweep finisher is pretty good the way he does it. Even if he has to cheat to win maybe by sneaking in a low blow every now and then or using his kicks and kicking his opponent low. Right now he is going nowhere squashing jobbers and should be heading into a feud that will help elevate him into bigger and better things.
The Bradshaw promo was very effective and nicely delivered. The man is very talented on the mic. I don’t think he understands the reason the majority of the fans don’t take to his push. He is capable of main eventing but right now he needs to do more than berate the fans and praise America. He needs victories over superstars. He hasn’t gone over anyone to warrant being the #1 contender which is what’s wrong with his push. It’s like the exact opposite of Shelton Benjamin’s character. Benjamin is proving himself in the ring but he hasn’t been given a chance to establish his character through mic work and actions. Bradshaw needs to establish the in ring realm of his character to be more over. I was skeptical about him working as a main eventer (and I still am) but I like the character. He just needs to wrestle more on SD in competitive matches with main event level talent (not that SD has any). If he goes down the card a bit after the GAB and holds the US title for a few months while proving himself in the ring then he’ll do much better as a main eventer. Eddie’s interjection was a nice touch to this segment. I like this feud more than I did a month ago because they’re not using Eddie as a tool to get JBL over but rather seeing that they have made mistakes and trying to book him as more of a credible champ. Good job WWE.
The Cruiserweight title match was what I expected it to be which was ok. Once again, another safe choice for a champ. While I think he should be moving into the US title hunt, they need him now more than ever to put the cruiserweight division back on the map. They shouldn’t rush into a feud heading into the Bash. This is what I’d do. I’d have Rey come out and say that now that he is the champ that real cruiserweight action will return and the cruiserweight division will be full of excitement and high flying action. To get that started off, at the Great American Bash, there will be what I like to call the Cruiserweight Invitational Part 2. All cruiserweights are welcome to enter. This will be an over the top rope battle royal with the two men left in the ring fighting it out in a one on one match. So that means that it can even come down to me not being in the final match. The winner of that match will leave the Great American Bash the cruiserweight champion. I’d then have the two final men in the ring being Rey and Chavo with Rey getting the win. Chavo would of tried to cheat to win but Paul London would come back out and stop him from cheating thereby costing him the title. This would lead to a Chavo/London feud where I feel London could gain a character and finally get some much deserved TV time. I’d then have Rey feuding with Jamie Noble over the belt heading into Summerslam. He would be the fighting champ type meaning that Rey would defend the belt on SD atleast every other week so that the cruiserweight title will get back some credibility. I’d then have him drop the belt to Noble who would then have a long run with the belt. Noble was undergoing a character change when Nidia left SD and they just dropped it. I think they could easily pick up Noble’s becoming civilized type character they had going.
The Mordecai vignette was dull. This gimmick will not get over today in the WWE. It’s about 20 years too late. They should just cut their losses and repackage him hoping that no one will notice him being gone. I certainty wouldn’t miss him. They could give his spot to Jindrak and Orlando Jordan so that they can develop their characters. These two men have more of a chance of getting over than Mordecai ever will.
The Luther match was a pretty good squash match. He is huge! I like the gimmick they have with him doing the GM’s bidding but it would work better with another GM. It just makes Kurt look weak that he can’t fight his own battles. He’s in a wheelchair yes but they shouldn’t draw attention to that aspect of his character. I could easily see Luther being Shane McMahon’s enforcer. It would bring back the days of the Shane/Big Show alliance. Shane would play off of it much better than Kurt does.
The divas hosting the GAB, do I care? No for those of you who had to question that. Torrie does nothing for me. The SD divas are intended to be eye candy so I guess it’s ok as long as they don’t get a match. Leave the wrestling to the Raw divas with actual wrestling talent.
One of the glaring differences between Raw and SD was displayed by the main event. Boy have the tides turned. The main event was ok while it was going. I don’t like how they use angles to end shows rather than a strong main event match. That just shows how much SD is in need of talent. Taker’s interference was ok but would have been better had it not been guys who are hyped for one of the top matches on the PPV. Chances are that they’ll never get their steam back from Taker knowing the WWE so what was the point? They should have had him destroy Rico or something. That attack was a good plan in theory but the execution was completely wrong. I guess they wanted to make sure that each man looked like a midcarder and nothing more and boy did they do that.
I give this weeks SD a 6 out of 10. The show was ok but it the lack of a main event to end it was very anticlimactic. This show was an indication of the exact problem with SD. You have only one main event face, one main event heel, one main event tweener, and nothing else. Meanwhile you have guys like RVD and Booker T in the US title race when it’s obvious that SD isn’t very top heavy. Rhyno is a very much needed addition to the SD roster also seeing as he is doing completely nothing on Raw right now and I fear that they will make the dummest release yet in firing him. I hope that never happens as Rhyno will be a main eventer within a month of letting him go in TNA. Please WWE just put the man back on SD. They need him so much more. The US title division should have more Charlie Haas’s in it right now than Booker T’s. The younger/less over talent needs that division more. Guys like Jindrak, Orlando Jordan, Rico, Charlie Haas, Rey Mysterio, Kenzo Suzuki, A-Train (bring him back on SD where he actually had a little bit of a thing going for him), and John Cena (for a little while longer) should be in that division. Chuck Palumbo is also needed to reform his team with Johnny the Bull so that they can head for the tag titles while Nunzio conquers the cruiserweight division. No matter how good they try and make SD, the lack of a strong, balanced card of superstars along with the show not being able to end with a strong main event is what is hurting it badly. Something has to be done to fix this problem because this along with questionable booking decisions are the only things keeping SD from being a good show.