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GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THE 5/18 EDITION OF SMACKDOWN

•After a wretched Raw and the perplexing announcement that Raw is making the move to three hours full time, it’s very difficult to be open minded about WWE programming, but I’ll try my best. One quick comment on the three hour move, I don’t mind the move. I always start the show an hour or two after it begins anyways so I’ll just continue to fast forward. My concern isn’t me though, it’s the masses and I don’t see this being a great strategic move when it comes to the broad audience. Vince is really going to be testing the loyalty of his audience with this move and I could see it having a WCW type impact
What this show must accomplish?
•CM Punk is on Smackdown. I think it’s a little too late, but hopefully they do some serious work to promote his WWE title defense with D. Bry on Sunday
•One theme. Push the pay per view. Raw on Monday lacked focus as we had the attempted push of Cena-Laurinaitis thrown off by the antics of John Cena. We had the firing of Big Show and a confrontation between Heyman and HHH, both of which had nothing to do with the pay per view
•Less is more. WWE blitzed us last week on Smackdown and attempted to fit a whole lot into one show. I don’t mind that every now and then, but hopefully it’s not a consistent reoccurring theme
Show Breakdown

1. Watching the opening video package recapping the nonsense that was the end of Monday Night Raw just sent my blood pressure through the roof. Is Cena this insulated in the Vince McMahon bubble that he doesn’t realize how obnoxious and annoying he comes off?

2. Quite amusing hearing Laurinaitis say he’s nearing 40, can bench press 250 and run a mile in six minutes. Nobody corrected him so I guess they want us to believe that. Punk makes the material work, which is more than I can say for John Cena, but still he’s really made out to be just another guy under the corporate umbrella using words likes “WWE Universe” and having to endorse John Cena as the savior of the world.

3. I’ve been noticing that Michael Cole has been playing it more straight on Raw, but continues to still do the heel character on Smackdown. You know what that equals? An inconsistent product, which is fine for Vince McMahon, but I don’t think it resonates with an educated viewing audience something Vince doesn’t seem to care about.

4. After that last segment on Raw and having to relive it during the opening video package of Smackdown not even this Make a wish package that makes Cena look like an angel can help him garner points with me. WWE better be careful, I know they love to cram things down our throats, but they’ve showed us this video three times now, I think twice was enough. Too much John Cena is never a good thing and that’s one huge concern I have with Raw going to three hours.

5. Good to see WWE gave a graphic to the tag title match at OTL as oppose to just having Cole mention it in passing. I expect that will be a good to great match!

6. I have no idea why WWE is booking the up and coming tag team of Titus and D. Young in a match with the tag champs prior to the pay per view.

7. WOW! I really don’t get this company sometimes. What asinine booking! Have they already given up on Young and O’Neal for them to be losing in five minutes clean to Truth and Kofi? I like that Truth and Kofi got a win heading into their title defense, that’s surprising since WWE usually doesn’t do that with their champions, but this match should never have taken place. Young and O’Neal have been getting some solid development on Smackdown and this was just stupid. I assume WWE hasn’t given up on them and this is just what happens when you have 50 people sitting in on a production meeting.

8. I guess it would be too much to have Ziggler and Swagger come out for even a brief stare down

9. WWE really in over corporate drive tonight as we just had a Cena MAW video package and now we have a BAS video package where Stephanie can show off how far she’s come. I know the NBA does this alot as well, so I can’t really get on WWE for it, but space it out a bit!

10. Why is Mark Henry in a bullying video package talking about how he was bullied yet he portrays a bully on TV! This company...

11. Love the package on Ryback.

12. Damien Sandow. I go back and forth on this character. For the adults, I don’t think this guy can garner any heat, because like Lord Tensai nobody buys it. You can’t do over the top characters in 2012, because at this point a mature audience has seen it all. As it relates to the kids, I think his verbiage is just so over the top that they probably just tune him out or get bored. Will see, but I’m looking at the audience as he walks to the ring and I just don’t think they give a crap.

13. Yoshi Tatsu doing the chicken? Who’s laughing? Oh yeah the 67 year old owner of this company with the maturity level of a six year old.

14. On point #12 I questioned whether Sandow would work with the WWE Universe, but I must say once again after the segment was done, I enjoyed it and thought he delivered again! The pink tights are interesting for sure.

15. A part of me wishes WWE could find away to tell this story between Orton and Sheamus without going to a one on one match since that should be saved for a money match at a pay per view, but the other part of me says if they weren’t doing the match we’d have to sit through a 15 minute overly scripted verbal exchange between two guys who’s strengths don’t lie in talking.

16. And on cue we get a backstage face to face promo exchange with Orton and Sheamus. It was brief and it wasn’t bad in attempting to hype their pay per view match. Del Rio and Jericho are really beginning to look like afterthoughts! As for Orton’s statement about “We all know where nice guys finish” my response to that is  - John Cena’s been on top for eight years now Randy

17. I’ve been on a pretty big rampage tonight and it’s going to continue right now. Just seeing Zack Ryder infuriates me, this guy was so over a few months ago and WWE has chosen to destroy him and it irritates me to no means. I’d rather not see him on television even if it is against the greatest performer in WWE right now in Daniel Bryan.

18. At least WWE is giving guys who are competing at the pay per view victories tonight except for the guy on the pre show, but he hasn’t mattered in forever anyways.

19. Punk vs Tensai on Raw, Punk vs Kane on Smackdown. Who’s Laurinaitis trying to punish, the fans or Punk? I guess both.

20. Daniel Bryan on commentary already doing wonders to elevate his match with Punk at OTL. “Punk kicks hard, I kick harder. The Anaconda Vice is a devastating submission. The YesLock is more devastating”.

21. One thing WWE has been consistent with and that is Bryan’s heel tactics and they continued tonight by getting Kane to destroy Punk with the chair.

22. Santino beats Cody clean with the cobra. Vince needs another toilet dunking. I’m sure Booker T is happy he put Cody Rhodes over earlier in the year. I don’t have it in me to rant on this.

23. Fast forwarding through the video package recap of Laurinaitis and Big Show as it was meaningless segment after what John Cena did in the last segment of Raw.

24. “Randy Orton has been the franchise player on Smackdown for a while, but Sheamus is the World Champion so I think he hears the footsteps” – Michael Cole. It’s good to know that when your World Champion that doesn’t turn you into the franchise player.

25. Sheamus beats Orton clean; Orton hits the RKO after the match. It’s not what I would have done, but it some form of pay per view hype.

What this show accomplished?
The Good
•Pay Per View Hype. It wasn’t great hype and alot of the booking was questionable, but they managed to stay focused on the pay per view
•Ryback video package. Sadly this was probably the best thing on the show
•Daniel Bryan on commentary. This was a nice touch and Bryan was able to promote his match and put over Punk and himself in the process
The Bad
•Terrible and illogical booking. Cody loses again and clean to SANTINO, Titus and D. Young lose about a month into their run. Orton loses clean to Sheamus. I don’t want to rant so I’m just bunching this all together. Bottom line, no foresight whatsoever.
•Ziggler, Swagger, Jericho and Del Rio. Where were the heels tonight? You couldn’t have Ziggler and Swagger at Smackdown to even have a stare down with the tag champs they will be facing at OTL? More importantly where was Chris Jericho and/or Alberto Del Rio? They had done solid hype for the four way and that was basically all for not with this show being focused solely on Orton and Sheamus
•Corporate WWE. On Raw, WWE followed up Big Show’s firing with Brodus Clay as happy as can be. On Smackdown WWE basically gave us back to back video packages on John Cena’s Make A Wish commitments and Stephanie’s be a star campaign. Spacing, Pacing, Formatting would all be nice here.
Overall Thoughts
•This has to be the worst week of WWE television in 2012 and all this on the heels of the announcement that Raw is going to be three hours
What needs to happen next week?
•Logical booking would be nice and perhaps have some foresight in the decision making process
Over the Limit predictions
•Kane over Ryder. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was shorter than Bryan vs Sheamus at Wrestlemania
•Truth and Kofi retain. I think this can be good. This isn’t where I’d use Dolph, but he’s slotted.
•Layla retains against Beth. I hope WWE gives Layla new theme music for this show and I think they can probably delver a quality match if they get eight to ten minutes
•Sheamus retains. You’d think that with Sheamus beating Orton clean that Orton might be getting the title at OTL, but I think it’s too soon to end Sheamus’s reign, but will see. You can’t put it past WWE
•Punk-Bryan. I hope this or the World Title end up headlining the show, but I doubt it. Punk has had a pretty lengthy reign by normal WWE standards and I wouldn’t take the belt off him just yet, however Punk blowing off AJ on Raw makes me question if we are about to see a Daniel Bryan WWE title reign. I’m going to predict Bryan takes the title, but I’m not sure it’s the best move
•Cena-Laurinaitis. If you had asked me last week I would not have wanted John Laurinaitis off television, but they managed to ruin it all this week. I hope Cena wins and that they do away with the authority figure storyline once and for all, however I’m sure Laurinaitis will win and maybe the fired Big Show will get involved. It’s the only thing that makes sense, because Show can’t stay a babyface after Monday, however because it makes sense I could see WWE trying to swerve us
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