WEEKLY THUMBS
By Joel C. Croyle on 2/16/2008 11:56 AM
Hello wrestling fans! This week had some really great stuff in it and all three WWE programs gave complete “Go Home” shows for the WWE No Way Out PPV. It was hard to make the list this week because there were a lot of good moments on the television this week. On to my thoughts of the week…
Smackdown:
Smackdown definitely did its job this week promoting the No Way Out PPV and for that it should be commended. A lot of the matches were solid, in fact, none of them were abysmal. Batista vs. MVP was a nice opener. I thought it made sense to close with the Edge/Rey/Vicki angle because for Smackdown, it is what is the selling point of the Sunday PPV. Taker looked strong against BDV and they made sure not to weaken V at all by having Striker take the punishment. Finlay and Khali was fine for what it was but what it is, is very old at this point. The best match of the night by far was the 8 man tag and I hope we see more of all the teams again. Maybe I’ll even start doing “Tag Team Weekly” again if they keep this up. I hated the Palumbo angle this week…without Noble, it just plain sucked.
Raw:
By far Raw was the top show this week overall. All of a sudden I am fully enjoying the Vince/Horny/Finlay angle and I hope to all that is real that at NOW Vince interrupts the chamber match, takes out Finlay and it sets up either Finlay vs. Vince at Mania or Vince and Shane vs. Horny and Finlay. Paul Burchill’s debut was good and he is a fantastic in-ring performer. Both he and his valet though need work on the mike. John and Randy lit it up verbally and Henry and John Cena did the same in the ring. Jeff Hardy and Shawn Michaels had a terrific match. Santino….oh Santino…sorry fella, your luck is about to run out.
TNA
The Styles bits of TNA this week were fantastically funny. His kissing of Karen Angle at the end was really well done; nonetheless, I hate this “Angle Alliance” Angle and really want it off my TV. I thought Abyss leaving the Steiner match was inane and his “unmasking” is again reminiscent of every Kane angle that was ever done. I think Steiner had a great promo, one he certainly needed as of late. It was nice to see Rhino in the ring again. I liked how they set up a program between Gail Kim and ODB so quickly. It gives the women’s division another notch for their belts. I love that Booker is back to his old gimmick instead of the King thing. I really like Booker vs. Angle for next week’s show. Again, there were some hot moments on this edition of TNA but still the angle’s as a whole are weak and this company could be so much better than it is. As for the PPV last Sunday it was better than what it should have been but not good enough yet in my opinion to compete with the WWE.
ECW
Chavo’s promo was well written, well produced and really funny. It was nice to see Armando again. I hated last week’s “river” angle since it was way too familiar to Rock/Austin and not with as much chemistry. So, it was nice to see some regular matches. I thought Richards’ promo was fantastic as was his in ring performance. Kelly and Layla had a fair match, better than usual but again this is an old angle. I am not yet a fan of Kofi Kingston yet but I think he’ll prove himself. I love the Colin Delaney/Tommy Dreamer combo because it makes a lot of sense storyline wise. Tommy had a good match on top of it too. Henry and Punk were pretty good. I wish I knew what WWE was doing with Henry storyline wise. The ending to the match kind of blew but at least they put Punk over sort of. Not a bad show, better than the rest this year in fact.
Weekly Thumbs Awards:
Thumbs up male performer of the week – AJ Styles
Thumbs up tag team of the week – Yang/Moore/Festus/Jesse
Thumbs up match of the week – Michaels/Hardy
Thumbs up Promo/Angle of the week – Stevie Richards
Thumbs up female performer of the week – Kelly Kelly
Weekly Thumbs Overall Performance List
#1 – Styles, AJ
#2 –Hardy, Jeff
#3 – Michaels, Shawn
#4 – Batista
#5 – Scott Steiner
#7 – MVP
#8 – Gail Kim
#9 – Stevie Richards
#10 – Guerrero, Chavo
