ProWrestlingViews.com

Archive for the ‘Smackdown’ Category

According to numerous online reports, Jim Ross has suffered another attack of Bell’s Palsy and, at least for the time being while he recovers, is out of action as the Smackdown play-by-play announcer. His role will temporarily be filled by Matt Striker as color commentator while Todd Grisham takes over play-by-play.

Ross is said to be waiting on test results to determine the severity of this latest attack; Ross has suffered from Bells’ Palsey for years, but has overcome previous attacks to return to his announcing role in WWE. If he is unable to continue in an announcing role, one would hope the McMahons would offer him a choice of jobs in administration of WWE matters, as they often due with WWE greats past their prime.

But who knows? Perhaps Ross can overcome this attack, also. Time will tell the tale.

For my money, the best roster move coming out of the recent WWE Draft is the move that shifted Chris Jericho from Raw to SmackDown. While some folks could see this as a demotion for Jericho, the truth is that Jericho has very nearly been the WWE’s most valuable player over the past year, providing the most “match of the year” candidate matches of anyone on a WWE roster, except perhaps for Shawn Michaels, his feud partner throughout most of 2008.

Truth is, Smackdown has been a worst of WWE’s three weekly broadcasts for some time now, but with Jericho now on Smackdown, that has the potential to change; he immediately becomes the most important member of the SmackDown roster and could easily carry the top title with honor, though to be honest, he doesn’t need it to enhance his drawing power.

While commercials hawking Fenphedra have often been more entertaining on Friday night than Smackdown’s main event matches, that now has a chance to change.

WWE is still under contract with MyNetwork TV running through 2011, but the risk is great that the network could falter before then; already, the network is rebranding itself to cut costs, forging agreements to air reruns of popular shows from bigger networks, rather than running original programming.

SmackDown is safe at the moment, despite MyNet’s status smelling of moth traps, but WWE recently announced a deal with WGN that could give SmackDown a broadcast home if MyNet goes the way of the dodo.

Looking to change his image, Adam Copeland, who wrestles under the name Edge, debuted his new look on Smackdown this past Friday. Sporting a full beard and mustache, and a shorter, less-glam-rock hairstyle, Edge ended up looking like a cross between Triple H and Big John Studd.

A little acne treatment might have been a bigger help. Don’t count me as a fan of Edge’s new look; his old look made him stand out from the crowd while the new hairstyle does nothing but help him blend into the crowd. Big thumbs down.

Recent episodes of Friday Night Smackdown bear out the notion that although it is the number two show in WWE’s stable, it is the better destination for fans of in-ring action. While Smackdown features a less-star-studded lineup than Monday Night Raw, the average two-hours-and-overrun broadcast of Raw features 30-35 minutes of in-ring wrestling action.

By comparison, recent episodes of Smackdown have featured about 45 minutes of in-ring action. According to Jim Ross, play-by-play man on Smackdown, this is a result of a cost-saving measure on Smackdown during the run-up to WrestleMania; the company is doing one taping every two weeks on Smackdown, with enough wrestling to fill two weeks of shows. Raw, meanwhile, is still broadcast live most weeks out of the year.

Even laptop memory is not sturdy enough to remember the last time Raw or Smackdown featured this much wrestling and so little “entertainment,” but old school wrestling fans are sure to be in for a treat if they tune in.

On October 3, WWE Friday Night Smackdown will be moving from The CW to MyNetwork, and WWE is hoping they won’t need the help of moving services to get the message out to their fans.

Of course, only the biggest markets in the nation have MyNetwork affiliates in their area, though satellite subscribers usually won’t have to worry about that hurdle. The important thing to keep in mind is that there will be a channel change for Smackdown fans a week from Friday.

The UK Sun is reporting that once Mick Foley’s WWE contract expires at the end of this month, he will make the jump to NWA-TNA, WWE’s only potential competitor, and will become a part-time wrestler with a schedule similar to Sting’s. The article charges that Foley is not content being in an announcing or non-wrestling role at WWE.

But hold your horses! On his blog, good ol’ JR, Jim Ross, claims all of this speculation is a lot of hooey, and he plans to talk to Foley soon to “see how things are going.” That’s WWE-speak for trying to talk him into staying with WWE, of course.

Just like some Web sites that sell auto insurance compare rates from other companies before you buy, I’d hope Mick thinks long and hard about moving to TNA. At this stage in his career, it’s a move that cannot be undone in the eyes of the McMahon family, who would almost certainly lock him out of the WWE Hall of Fame or any potential return to WWE later on.

The UK Sun report claims Foley wants to help put TNA on the map; however, if WWE converts like Christian Cage, Jeff Hardy (before he came back) and Kurt Angle haven’t been able to pull that off, what could a broken-down Foley do for them?

Bad career move, Mick. Hope you don’t opt that direction.

Apparently, working as an announcer for Vince McMahon is an avocation that could lead you straight into needing a pulse oximeter, if Mick Foley is to be believed. Despite being only a few months into being Smackdown’s color commentator, Mrs. Foley’s baby boy has announced on his own Web site that, through mutual agreement, he will not be renewing his contract with WWE in a few weeks, when it expires on September 1.

“Creatively, the announcing job wasn’t working out too well,” Foley said.

Behind the scenes, it is believed Foley didn’t care for Vince’s treatment of him; the elder McMahon is apparently known to be very demanding with announcing talent within the company.

So Mick Foley takes a hike, and Mike Adamle gets promoted to Raw GM? Something smells rotten, and it’s in the vicinity of Vinnie-Mac’s trousers.

As new proof of the roster remix making both Raw and Smackdown must-see TV again, one need look no further than last week’s Smackdown and this week’s Raw. With both world titles around the waist of Smackdown wrestlers after the WWE Draft, it came as a pleasant surprise when C.M. Punk showed up on Smackdown to win out of nowhere and take the World Heavyweight Championship off of Edge and bring it over to Raw, while Triple H stays on Smackdown with the WWE Title.

It’s especially poetic because, both times Edge won the strap as a Money In the Bank winner, he won it in ambush fashion, just as Punk did to him. And to prove it was no trick of indoor lighting, Punk showed up on Raw with the world title around his waist and ready to take on all comers.

The result is that sometthing really important and can’t-miss happened last week on Smackdown, which makes the show essential viewing once again; and the other result is that Raw has a new title, a new champ, and a whole new set of rivalries and fueds to work with.

What could be better, for ratings, in the long term? I mean, what more could they do, give away a million dollars per episode? That’d never happen! Ha!

Last year, MVP was diagnosed with a potentially-fatal heart condition that was unearthed in testing conducted via the WWE Wellness Program. MVP credits that test with saving his life and says the condition has been corrected and he is back to 100-percent health.

Although MVP is hoping to land a spot or two in upcoming WWE Films movies, he’s not looking to pull a Dwayne Johnson and leave WWE for films any time soon. “WWE is my passion, so leaving the WWE to become a full-time actor, that’s not something I’m looking at right now,” MVP said in a press release.

Sure is good to see MVP praising WWE for catching a heart condition rather than the program catching a WWE superstar perusing a list of best diet pills.

It was like looking at the first version of WWE SmackDown on PS2 instead of PS3; it’s been that long since Triple H has been on the SmackDown roster and on Friday when he made his appearance on the show, it became obvious immediately why WWE chose to move Triple H over to the Friday show.

Simply put: it’s a move to save SmackDown as an entity, as it moves from CW to MyNetworkTV at the end of the summer. SmackDown has become a morose show over the past couple years, becoming a breeding ground for two potential breakout stars in MVP and Mr. Kennedy, but all too often filled with second- and third-tier talent.

That’s where this Triple H move comes in; he immediately adds watchable talent to the SmackDown broadcast and helps lead the rebalancing of the brands. Seeing Triple H opposite MVP, even if it was just for an in-ring interview, was something no one’s seen yet; certainly that has to appeal to Triple H, now the mentor of the entire SmackDown roster, far more than staying on Raw another year and reworking the same old feuds again and again and again.

People washing their hands in a glass sink shouldn’t throw… stones? Whatever; the point is that there are some big changes on the way for ECW that could conceivably improve that show’s standing in the ratings.

Traditionally, ECW tapings have been the “warm-up act” for Smackdown shows, ever since the WWE brought ECW back a couple years ago. However, the company recently unveiled a plan to move ECW tapings from Tuesday nights with the Smackdown brand to Monday nights with the Raw brand.

There are some natural fallouts of this strategy, of course. First, it means curtains for WWE Heat. Second, it means more cameos on ECW tapings by Raw-branded WWE superstars, and fewer by Smackdown-branded superstars.

This is a huge hit against the Smackdown brand; not only is it moving from The CW this fall to MyNetworkTV, a huge step down, but it is losing the extra draw the ECW brand brought to its tapings. While details like two ECW superstars currently holding the Smackdown-branded WWE tag team titles are sure to be worked out before the switch is made, one can only hope that the switch will also means Raw and ECW won’t brand-blend to the extent that Smackdown and ECW did.

For me, that diluted both brands. I’d hate to see RAW dragged down that path. No start-date has been announced just yet.