SmackDown Thoughts, RAW Preview
August 10, 2003

Hey everyone, and thanks for checking out News & Analysis. I'd also like to thank all the great fans out there who read "The Story Behind Triple H," a commentary I posted on the site earlier this week. Thanks for the great feedback to all our readers! With that said, let's get to the weekend's edition of N & A...

WWE presented SmackDown on Thursday night. Over the past couple of weeks, the program has definitely become better in quality and has been worth watching. This past week on the show, we saw a lot of wrestling, which is a good thing, but storyline progression was also present. When you combine these two and they're done in a good way, you usually end up with a good product. Wow, what an easy formula for success. Highlights included Brock's turn as he joined forces with Ted Turner's worst nightmare -- Mr. McMahon. The duo took out Kurt Angle in what is the start of a program between Angle and Lesnar that will lead into SummerSlam. Elsewhere on the show, John Cena defeated The Undertaker in their Vengeance re-match after an A-Train interference. Eddie Guerrero and Rhyno continued to deal with Tajiri and Chris Benoit, while Matt Hardy and Shannon Moore were busy with Zach Gowen yet again. SmackDown's rating is in and the show scored a 3.0 final score, which is lower than usual. I should note that the event was pre-empted in the New York area.

It was last week, here, in this section, that I said WWE could go ahead and turn Brock heel for SummerSlam. I think that Brock's turn has been due for a long time now, as his babyface persona had taken several turns and twists over the past few months. His feud with The Big Show was probably Show's best work in WWE, and it also allowed Brock to turn around completely, but his character had lost by that point some of its old roots. Brock did debut as a monster, destroying everything in its path, and something that peple feared. His original face turn was done well in my opinion, but they milked it for all it's worth (which isn't necessary a bad thing), and in the process he lost some of his momentum. Hopefully the turn will bring for a fresh start for Brock, and with Vince in his corner, I'm sure we'll see something new and interesting on SmackDown.

In a bit of a toss-up question, I'm just guessing that Stephanie McMahon will end up teaming with Angle against her dad and Lesnar, but isn't now the perfect time for WWE to bring Paul Heyman back as Angle's agent possibly?

It should also be noted that there are the plants for a little stable being created, as Vince McMahon has Brock Lesnar under his wing, and also A-Train it seems. Maybe McMahon will lead a group of heels to cause all hell on SmackDown, and bringing Heyman in will help out the faces. Then again, it's more likely that Stephanie McMahon will be in that role, but I just thought I'd throw that idea out there.

It sems like every week when I discuss SmackDown, I say that Eddie Guerrero is amazing. Nothing different this week. I'll just say that I'm enjoying his current program and they have indeed done what I talked about last time -- distinguish Eddie as more of a heel. It was really the Canadian audience in BC that did that, but either way it worked out for the better. Tajiri deserves to be in that program as well, because he's probably one of the solid performers on SmackDown that hasn't been used so well.

On another front, Zach Gowen is still to get a win in a one-on-one match in WWE. Tenacious Z is in a program with Matt Hardy at the moment, which I think is doing an okay job. Although they still have Hardy make fun of Zach's handicap, at the same time they're bringing in the element of reality. (What Hardy said while commentating -- Unlike Zach, it took him 10 years of bumping to get to where he is.) I'm afraid that this losing streak of Zach ain't doing much and WWE is going to have him win over Matt. It's not that it's a bad thing, I'm all for it, I just feel that Hardy should be in a higher position on the show. I'm sure that this will happen eventually though.

I thought that Cena getting the win over 'Taker was the right move to do. I wasn't happy with the way they did it though. At one point during the match, I thought while counting three, the ref will hit 'Taker in the crotch, or a piece of equipment will fall on his head. It looks like that's the only way he could lose. Anyway, I won't bitch about it, because this is how 'Taker does the job, and after all, Cena did pin him.

Other SmackDown thoughts/questions... It's very nice to see Jamie Noble as a face. He needed a change in character or something new, and he got it. Let's see how it'll work out... Do you kind of wish they don't have to break Mysterio and Kidman up next week so we'll see some more great tag action?... This time around, Kidman made it longer than I expected as a face before his probable turn next week on SmackDown... Can you believe Stephanie hasn't been on the show for two weeks now?... Isn't it hard to say who's the #1 guy on SmackDown when you have people like Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, and Chris Benoit working one show?... Where was Big Show? :( ... So Billy Kidman is on his honeymoon, yet when Billy Gunn comes out alone, nobody knows where Torrie is, right?... Al Wilson was at their wedding by the way, and he seems to have come back from his death... How great is Tazz?

This Monday night, WWE presents RAW. I think I'll start giving a small preview for the show in my weekend edition.

I'm looking forward to the program tomorrow, as I feel that WWE will have the opportunities to advance their storylines, and maybe fix some of the mistakes they made last week. I hope that things will heat up. The four things to look forward to are: 1) What will the participants of the Elimination Chamber match have to say/do? 2) Will Kevin Nash get a haircut this Monday or soon by Jericho? 3) What's next for Kane? 4) Jim Ross will hopefully be back, calling the action. At least, I hope so. I really do. Oh yeah, I'm also guessing Booker T will be back, and hopefully someone will step up and challenge him for his IC belt at 'Slam.

I have the feeling that we'll find out another SummerSlam match tomorrow, so stay tuned! I'll say goodbye by giving you the latest rumored SummerSlam card. It's likely that these matches will occur, but as you can see, plans change in WWE over night:
- Triple H (c) vs. Goldberg vs. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Kevin Nash vs. Randy Orton -- Elimination Chamber match for the World Championship
- Kurt Angle (c) vs. Brock Lesnar -- WWE Championship match
- Eddie Guerrero (c) vs. Chris Benoit vs. Rhyno -- US Championship match
- La Resistance (c) vs. The Dudleyz -- World Tag Teams Championship match
- Molly Holly (c) vs. Victoria vs. Gail Kim vs. Trish Stratus -- Women's Championship match
- Shane McMahon vs. Eric Bischoff
- Kane vs. Rob Van Dam

Thanks for reading. See ya.

Eddie

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