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GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS – LOOKING AT SMACKDOWN 2/3/12

SMACKDOWN – 3/2/12
What this show needs to accomplish?
•Sheamus. They strapped the rocket to Sheamus with the Royal Rumble win and after months of squandering him in a feud with Jinder Mahal they now need to make us want to see him go for the title at the biggest show of the year
• Natalya farting and Drew McIntyre being fired. Its Wrestlemania season and the lower card silliness dedicated to making The Bubble laugh needs to end
•Establish the Smackdown side to the Elimination Chamber
Show Breakdown

1. I wish Smackdown took a different approach than Raw for announcing who their Elimination Chamber participants will be. Also Teddy seemed to be having trouble memorizing the overly scripted dialogue to tell the crowd who probably didn’t understand what he was saying the rules of the Elimination Chamber.

2. I’m surprised Mark Henry was allowed to use the word “book” in regards to having a match with the World Champion. I wonder if that will go on the list of words not to use next week.

3. Nice way to write Mark Henry off television so he can heal up and smart way to put some more gas behind Sheamus heading into Wrestlemania.

4. Good promo from Cody pointing out his accomplishments at the Royal Rumble and talking about winning the Elimination Chamber. I like building things and I think that qualifies! Bonus points for taking a shot at The Warrior, I assume this will lead to a 20 minute video insulting Vince, Cody, Dusty and threatening a lawsuit from our good pal Warrior.

5. Sheamus really shouldn’t play the pal of the General Manager role. Maybe it won’t have an effect on him, but if the fans begin to see this as the John Cena corporate push, I could see them turning on him.

6. That’s a dumb “new finishing maneuver” by Sheamus. Once again The Bubble doesn’t get it. The two hottest up and comers so to speak in WWE of 2011 were Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler and both jobbed out clean this week. I get that they aren’t the ones getting pushes as we head towards Wrestlemania, but there is such thing as protection. The Bubble is so insulated in their own world that they can’t ever look at things long term or their so arrogant that they just don’t worry about these things. I hated Cody jobbing clean to Sheamus and just like Miz on Raw; he has this long run at the Royal Rumble, and then cuts a promo about it followed by a clean loss. Way to go sixteen person writing team...way to go.

7. Ah Justin Gabriel is out and Cody hasn’t gone to the back. I assume this is their way of letting him get some heat back even though he shouldn’t have been in this position to begin with.

8. What’s with the music playing while Hunico is cutting a promo? I’m glad they gave him mic time, but the annoying entrance song did him no favours while he’s trying to establish his character.

9. Why throw Hunico down the drain for The Great Khali? Why even bring Khali back? Did WWE all of a sudden fear the TNA India project so they figured they needed to put Khali back on television and in the main event of the next pay per view? I understand that certain guys need to act as the enhancement talents to get other guys over, but I don’t agree with the early segments here wasting Cody and Hunico.

10. Teddy fired Drew two weeks ago and Drew has continued to lose yet Teddy now isn’t firing him, but continues to scold him. I’m assuming someone on that massive creative team wanted to do something with Drew and this is what they’ve come up with, but it is in fact predictable television as Teddy just said.

11. Too much Teddy on this show and I still have no use for Aksana. What a flat show so far.

12. The first good part of Smackdown with Rosa on screen and the new outfit made me stop typing and just watch. Sometimes I miss the days when Mattel wasn’t around.

13. Commentary has been terrible tonight btw.

14. Booker just said Duggan shouldn’t be in the ring yet here he is working over the tag champs. If that doesn’t tell you that Vince McMahon truly believes this is more about the entertainment than the sports then I don’t know what does.  

15. I said a while ago that my fear with Santino becoming the Assistant to the Smackdown General Manager is that we’d get too much comedy and were starting to get to that point.

16. WWE uses their creative license for almost any storyline where it suits their need, but on Michael Cole and Daniel Bryan they refuse to drop it. They just had the perfect out, which would have given Bryan even more heat by having him shake Cole’s hand and he refuses.

17. Bryan is entertaining, although this promo hasn’t been his best stuff. I assume Vince in the back thinks this vegan material is great for heel heat and maybe it is, but I zoned out. Also Bryan wants to take his case to the board of directors? Is he Christian now? This seems a tad recycled.

18. Also the fact that Bryan, Mark Henry and Cole have all mentioned Laurinaitis being future endeavoured has to be a red herring for Raw and Laurinaitis possibly remaining as Raw GM.

19. Strong segment with Show and Bryan. I like AJ with Bryan and I hope they somehow turn her heel as oppose to having her see the light on Bryan and turn on him, although I think that would be entertaining television as well.

20. I’m really disappointed at myself, as sadly for some reason I chuckled at Santino’s reaction to the fart smell that being said this is sad television on par with the Mickie James pig storylines. There are just certain storylines you don’t go down the road with for women. Vince is such a child for getting off on this kind of nonsense.

21. Good to see Beth continue her dominance, I assume this is leading to a showdown with Kharma. Naturally Natalya has to be killed afterwards. Is Vince upset at the Hart’s again?

22. Vince must really want to punish us by putting Great Khali in the Elimination Chamber match. I can only hope that they do an injury angle at the show and Mark Henry can take that spot back.

23. I really enjoy this John Cena video package that being said the one guy who says “I use to hate Cena myself, but after years of what he’s done, he’s earned my respect like nobody has earned my respect before”  that one line from that one guy annoyed me alot. I don’t know what it was, but he rubbed me the wrong way.

24. Interesting that they put The Rock video package on Raw and the Cena package on Smackdown. I wonder if they’ll switch that up next week or if that’s just the way they decided to do it and if that’s the case, while it makes sense I’m shocked that they’d put The Rock’s package on the A Show and put their guy so to speak on the B show. I have no problem with the way they did it myself.

25. Randy Orton – “I’m back more venomess than ever...” – who says that? This is what your sixteen person writing team came up with?

26. The new Wade Barrett music is worse than the last. Is it me or has Wade’s different theme songs gotten worse as they change it on him every couple months.

27. Now Josh is using venomess too...

28. Pretty strong match with Orton and Barrett. I usually find Barrett a bit unorthodox in the ring, but this was one of his better efforts. I’m sure it didn’t hurt to be working with one of the better workers in WWE.

29. I guess that blows off the Orton-Barrett feud on television no less.

30. Pretty comical ending with Bryan going into the ring and celebrating for no reason before taking his exit again.

What this show accomplished?
The Good
•Orton-Barrett had a strong match
•Daniel Bryan-Randy Orton advertised in advance. I hate that they are going to give their first match away for free, but at least they gave it one week’s worth of hype
•Beth continues her dominance. I like that Beth continues her dominance, it’s too bad it was overshadowed by the burial of Natalya
•Teddy Long standing up to Mark Henry. I like this as well; it’s a rare case of WWE having the babyface authority figure look respected. Bonus for WWE finally giving Mark Henry some time off to take care of some of his injuries
•John Cena video package. I love the Cena and Rock pages. I don’t mind if they show them again next week, but after that I think we will have seen them enough
•Bryan/AJ-Show. I liked this segment alot. Bryan continues to develop a great heel persona. AJ plays her role well and it will be interesting which side you ends up on in the end. The way they are telling this story now, I assume she’ll eventually turn on Bryan, but it’s compelling television for now. Show plays his part well as well
•Elimination Chamber focus. I thought we saw some good focus on the Elimination Chamber, which is good for WWE who usually doesn’t put any emphasis on pay per views on the television following a pay per view
•Rosa Mendes’s outfit. This deserve its acknowledgment. I don’t think anyone has ever looked hotter in the PG era than Rosa did tonight, that was a Wrestlemania worthy outfit.
The Bad
•Natalya farting and Drew’s firing angle continues. The Natalya angle is just mean to me. Maybe she is okay with it or maybe I’m just a big fan of hers, but I just find this storyline to be a potential career killer. The Drew firing angle continues to go nowhere, perhaps Teddy telling him to prove himself in other ways will lead to something, but I assume it just leads to Drew getting squashed by someone else
•Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett job out. WWE continues to disrespect their heels and this is why I`m very apprehensive about the Daniel Bryan heel turn. Miz and Ziggler job out clean on Raw and Rhodes and Barrett job out decisively clean on Smackdown and all four men are in The Elimination Chamber. I don`t know why WWE can`t have other people taking these loses and protect the talent they want to push in the next pay per view main event. I can kind of see the Barrett loss since he and Randy have had an extended feud, but in no way should Cody have jobbed out so strongly to Sheamus even if the rocket is strapped to Sheamus right now. I look at something like that and I say to myself Vince McMahon used to know the wrestling business, and maybe he still does, but, I`m not sure the sixteen writers understand it though and it`s amazing that something like this slips through the cracks and often. I guess that`s what happens when the man at the top is spread so thin and he`s working with people who aren`t experts on the business
•The Great Khali in the Elimination Chamber. The man can barely walk and I can only hope this is an angle, but I have this weird feeling that were dealing with The Great Khali throughout Wrestlemania season. We have more than enough giants right now and this guy really doesn`t contribute much
•Santino. The comedy with Santino is very hit and miss, this week was fine, but if they do it again next week it`s very possible they will strike out
•Overly scripted promos. This of course has been one of WWE`s Achilles` heel for probably ten years now. Teddy Long having to memorize exact verbiage on the Elimination Chamber rules in the opening segment was about as bad as it comes and Randy saying the that he is more ``venomess `than ever was about as lame as it gets
•Sheamus new finishing move. Very weak. I`d be careful with Sheamus, I think there is a portion of the audience who didn`t want him to win at the Royal Rumble and WWE is going to have to be very delicate with the way they handle his upcoming mega push. With all that being said I liked the way he was used in small doses on television this week, you don`t want to jam him down the viewers throat ala John Cena
•Too much Teddy Long. I liked Teddy in the opening segment with Mark Henry and I thought he was played out the rest of the way. I like that Smackdown has had a stable GM for years in Teddy Long, but I`m also a proponent of having someone else take on this role perhaps following Wrestlemania
What needs to happen on next week`s show?
•Continued Elimination Chamber promotion.  It’s time to make everyone look like they are a threat to win and that includes Cody and Wade who were both made to look inferior to their challengers this week
•The end of the Natalya storyline and move along with the Drew story. I know I’m wishing for something that isn’t going to happen here, but still I thought I’d mention it
•Rosa Mendes in the exact same outfit
•Turn down the Santino comedy and the appearances by Teddy Long. I’m pretty indifferent to the storyline of Santino finding a different partner each week to challenge the tag champs, but at the same time if this was a sport Santino’s time in the ring with the tag champs would be over and sometimes WWE needs to look at things from that perspective instead of the entertainment aspect of it
•Daniel Bryan-Randy Orton. An interesting development, on the one hand I shake my head that were going to see this first time match for free on television, but WWE has been doing this for over ten years. I can recall them giving away the first Rock-Jericho match away for free on Raw so this is nothing new for this company. I’m hoping we get a great match instead of an angle. The fact that they are giving this match away for free on television and Bryan talked about how he might lose the title at EC makes me think that we aren’t going to be seeing these two together in the World Title match at Wrestlemania
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