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Now that WWE is allowing a free flow of superstars between RAW and Smackdown, I’m not sure this makes a big difference. However, about ten days ago, WWE officially moved Kane from the Smackdown roster to the RAW roster. This kind of explains why he was set up to feud with John Cena after a return to the ring following an absence since last summer.

Kane was injured by Mark Henry and his english riding boots, which caused him to be written out of TV while he rehabbed. It was widely expected that upon his return, Kane would feud with Henry, possibly over the World Title. But with the storylines going where they’ve gone, Henry nursing a real injury of his own, and other changes, Kane’s shift to the RAW roster gives Cena someone interesting and fresh to feud with until his big WM match against The Rock.

In the post-Thanksgiving atmosphere, following Survivor Series but before the TLC PPV, WWE has announced the air date of their next live WWE Smackdown Supershow; the SyFy episode will hit airwaves on Tuesday, November 29.

The show will be broadcast from Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina and looks to be a blockbuster. The current card advertised locally suggests a six-man tag match with announcer Booker T as the special guest referee.

Smackdown shows have been heating up lately. A few months ago, tickets were moving so slow, offering premiums with lower-level tickets, like Ford Expedition custom floor mats, was not out of the question. Now, business has picked up, as good ol’ JR would say.

It’s not clear whether it’s a one-week experiment to hype the live SmackDown this Tuesday, or a permanent change, but storyline WWE COO Triple H announced on last night’s RAW that the brand split between Raw and Smackdown has come to an end, with superstars from both shows now free to appear on both shows.

Of course, this sets up a potential roster-trimming for the future, meaning some WWE superstars could be headed for physician assistant jobs soon. After all, the brand split was created so that the top-tier names wouldn’t dominate the screen time on both shows; now that the brand-split is ended, it is likely that both shows will give a majority of screen time to the top names, leaving less room for legit midcarders.

While it might sound like great news for some folks, rest assured, this will lead some lower-level wrestlers straight the the soup kitchen lines.

You need to buy network cable if you don’t have it already, to be sure you don’t miss a huge WWE event on SyFy.

On Tuesday, August 30, Smackdown will air live on SyFy instead of airing pre-taped in Friday. (The Tuesday episode, entitled “SuperSmackdown” will re-air on Friday in its usual slot.)

The event is being heavily promoted by WWE and SyFy, and it could be that it is a water-testing moment for the companies to see if Smackdown would draw better ratings if aired live on Tuesdays instead of pre-taped on Fridays. Either way, it means back-to-back nights of WWE action at the end of the month.

Keep your eyes peeled and your DVRs set!

The lineup for the Smackdown brand’s Money In the Bank ladder match involved the following eight superstars: Sheamus, Wade Barrett, Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara, Cody Rhodes, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, and Kane. Each participant got their shot without having to be issued special William Arthur Invitations (though that might have been nice).

Here’s my breakdown on this lineup. Sheamus is a dark-horse favorite but is part of the main event scene with or without the suitcase. Wade Barrett could use the win for fueling a mini-relaunch of his career after losing a lot of momentum when he moved over to the Smackdown roster. Sin Cara is too new to get the win, while Kane would make for a boring repeat winner, and neighter Justin Gabriel nor Heath Slater would prove credible.

That leaves two people who could be “refreshing” winners. Cody Rhodes has been gaining heat as a mid-level heel on Smackdown and a briefcase win could launch him into the upper tier as a challenger to Randy Orton. And Daniel Bryan would certainly have the skill set to sell the win, though his momentum right now is near zero, and he’d need to hold onto the suitcase until an Orton heel-turn or until someone more heelish holds the title.

In the end, WWE’s most likely bet for this match would seem to be Rhodes.

In one of the shorter and more unjust title reigns in recent memory, Smackdown’s Christian, who became World Heavyweight Champion at Extreme Rules 2011, lost the title on last Friday’s Smackdown to Randy Orton – all without WWE turning Orton heel again. It’s a bit baffling, and a transparent case of WWE doing short-term planning and then re-setting the table after the WWE Draft.

Extreme Rules’ card was set by the time the WWE Draft occurred. Orton, who was destined to move to Smackdown after the draft to replace the recently-retired Edge, was already booked to face CM Punk in a storyline ending match, while Christian had been booked to face RAW-bound Alberto Del Rio for the vacated World Heavyweight Championship title.

To avoid having Del Rio carry Smackdown’s title to RAW, they booked Christian to win, but it was clear by shipping Orton to RAW via the draft who WWE wanted as Smackdown’s standard-bearer. When Teddy Long came out and asked the crowd who they wanted to see face Christian for his first title defense – with two heels (Mark Henry and The Great Khali) and one face (Orton) to choose from, the crowd naturally chose Orton.

From that point, the intent was clear and predictable, so much so it set smart phones like the Android-based new Incredible S ablaze; Smackdown immediately books Orton to take the title from Christian without so much as a PPV match to make it interesting. Thus, Orton became champion while remaining a face.

It’s a blown opportunity. I have to believe an short program between Christian and Orton leading into the next PPV would have sold, and made Christian’s reign at least passingly legit. Besides, Orton works better as a heel anyway; that’s when he’s at his most effective.

Look for Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio to be the underdog match of the entire Extreme Rules PPV; both workers are solid, and with Del Rio drafted to Raw, there’s a solid chance for Christian to gain his first solo World Title reign, in light of the retirement of his former tag partner, Edge.

Christian has proven his ability to be a credible solo champion over in TNA, and while he’ll probably be a transitional champ until they put the belt around Randy Orton’s waist, where it will likely stay until Wrestlemania, don’t be surprised if Christian’s run is at least entertaining. He’s one of the guys on the roster who is always undervalued and therefore doesn’t need to look for Columbus jobsprior to every PPV.

Teddy Long returned to SmackDown and ended the show by firing Vicki Guerrero, a nice payoff to a long-standing feud between the two. Of course, I don’t believe for a second she’ll be gone that long; her character is great at drawing heat with her “Excuse me” screech. But giving her some time off and bringing her back later this year would freshen up her character quite a bit.

Sure, she may need to look into some weight loss pills for women, but she has some definite heel magnetism and is usually quite entertaining in the way she draws heat.

With CM Punk now in control of Nexus, Wade Barrett has been sent to SmackDown, where he’s likely to become the show’s top heel … or just about. Barrett enjoyed more success from the Nexus storyline than any individual member, to the extent that he no longer needs that gimmick to draw heat.

There’s no question who drew the biggest round of boos on SmackDown this week; Barrett drew them by the textbooks-full, in his first appearance on the new brand.

Let’s hope it’s the beginning of something good, that will launch his career to the next level, and not the beginning of a downward-momentum spiral that sometimes happens to RAW stars who get moved to SmackDown.

In a match with Rey Mysterio last week, Undertaker reportedly suffered a concussion and facial lacerations; when it was determined he wouldn’t recover in time for the PPV event, WWE wrote Taker out of the match on this week’s episode, citing Taker being found in a “vegetative state” after an attack by an unnnamed assailant.

Mysterio will take ‘Taker’s place in the Smackdown World Heavyweight Championship match, which will also involve C.M. Punk, Jack Swagger, and the Big Show. Losing Taker from the four-way is an example of quick weight loss, considering Mysterio’s diminutive stature.

Still, it should be an entertaining match.

WWE Women’s champ Beth Phoenix suffered a torn ACL during a WWE Superstars taping this week, and initial assessments have her out for as long as six months before she’ll be ready to return.

This creates a huge hole in the Smackdown brand’s women’s division, where both Mickie James and Maria Kanellis were recently released. Of course, it will provide an opportunity for some current B-list women’s talent to step up, but at the moment, Phoenix’s injury leaves Smackdown’s women’s division sorely lacking in top-flight talent.

Maybe some of their younger women wrestlers, working in Ohio and hawking the best acne treatment, can provide an infusion of talent. Hopefully some of them are ready.

If the angle had involved Vince McMahon, it would have felt like a stale retread; but Friday’s Smackdown, which opened with a very strong segment featuring an altercation outside the ring between IC Champ Drew McIntyre and Matt Hardy, felt fresher and more energetic that anything that’s aired on Smackdown in quite some time.

The show opened with Hardy coming to the ring to challenge McIntyre, a standard storyline on many wrestlers’ resumes-, and when McIntyre responded by coming to the ring and engaging Hardy in an unsanctioned altercation, the authority figures, including Teddy Long, showed up to try and put things in order.

McIntyre ignored Long’s orders to story in a matter of minutes went from champ to suspended to fired and stripped of his title. Sure, it’s a storyline and it’ll be interesting to see where things go from here as Hardy was given an injury angle to play up as a result of the conflict with McIntyre, but kudos to WWE for relying on someone other than Vinnie Mac to sell this angle. Well done.