"WWE Friday Night SmackDown!" Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

Mick Foley's SmackDown debut as part of the WWE announce team is starting right now! Backlash (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=209853) saw a title change and title retention on the SmackDown card. The Undertaker is still the World Champion, but Matt Hardy is now the United States Champion. Those two titles plus the WWE Tag Team Champions of John Morrison & The Miz will be on the line tonight!


http://library.toonzone.net/talkbacks/wwe.jpghttp://library.toonzone.net/talkbacks/smackdown.jpgChampionship Friday
May 2, 2008

Atlantic City, N.J., is the gambling capital of the east coast, and when Friday Night SmackDown rolls in this week, there will be a lot of wheeling and dealing on the boardwalk.

This Friday is "Championship Friday", as all three SmackDown titles – the World Heavyweight Championship, the United States Championship and the WWE Tag Team Championship – will be on the line for a blockbuster edition of Friday Night SmackDown!

Ever since winning the gold from Edge at WrestleMania XXIV, World Heavyweight Champion Undertaker has forged a path of destruction through WWE. But, this Friday he will face the 7-foot-3 behemoth, The Great Khali. The Deadman has battled many giant Superstars over the years, but what will happen when he tangles with the Punjabi giant?

At Backlash, United States Champion Matt Hardy finally got what he wanted – revenge against MVP, and in the process, the United States Championship. With a chance to regain the title this Friday night, what will SmackDown’s Franchise Playa be willing to do? As reigning champion, how tenaciously will Hardy fight to keep what is finally his?

In the remaining championship battle, WWE Tag Team Champions The Miz & John Morrison will defend the gold against Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore. The champions have defeated Moore & Yang in a pair of non-title matches this month, but just last week, "The Redneck" defeated Morrison on ECW and "The Reject" pinned The Miz on SmackDown. With the title finally on the line on SmackDown, which duo will come out on top when it really counts?

For weeks now, Colin Delaney has been vying for a coveted WWE contract. He gets another shot next Tuesday night on the 100th edition of ECW when he faces ECW General Manager Armando Estrada. But before that battle, Estrada has brokered a deal with SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero to have the young upstart face undefeated superpower Vladimir Kozlov this Friday night. With Kozlov crushing all of his opponents, what kind of shape will Delaney be in after he crosses paths with the powerful Russian?

And, after debuting on color commentary for SmackDown at Backlash, "Hardcore Legend" and three-time WWE Champion Mick Foley will be coming to Friday nights for good.

Don't miss Foley's debut, three championship matches and much more on a special championship edition of Friday Night SmackDown, 8/7 CT on The CW Network.

[VCXZX]

I thought Foley was pretty good his 1st week. Already the 2nd best commentator in the past decade behind the great JBL. He put both faces and heels over, like the Miz and even Borat Kozlov. That's what I liked about JBL that very few commentators did, put over even faces in a way that makes them stars. London and Kendrick come to mind. Hopefully Foley falls in the same vein as JBL.

As for the shocking angle, I'm guessing Poppa Vince shows up and restores order to RAW Smackdown and ECW with the GMs running amok. I see Taker regaining the title as quickly as possible.

Overall, a decent Smackdown.

[Jin Kazama]

You know what will make the World Title respectable again despite everyone and their mother either handing over or relinquishing it over the past 3-4 years?

Let's strip the title off the champion and vacate it! Woo!

Hell, I'd much rather have the entire locker room interfere and a fast ref count screwjob ending than have the friggin belt vacated again.

I'd like to say that there should be a tournament for the next champion, but they just did one with KOTR, and the WWE never does the darn things, much less twice in two months.

Which means yet another Smackdown World Title Battle Royal for the belt. And we all know how the last one ended. :rolleyes:

[RedNinja84]

Why do they have to vacate the title? That's really stupid and makes no sense. I mean when a title is vacated is usually over an injury or controversal ending.(see Summer Slam 98) There is no way faster to make a title lose it value then vacating it for no reason.(see WCW late 99-2000)

[The Penguin]

I was late to commenting last week and then when I got around to almost doing it after Backlash, I looked back and not he much really happened, so then I just closed the window. To this week…

Mick Foley was immediately impressive as the new color commentary on SmackDown. I’m excited to see/hear him every week. Once again, SmackDown has the best team simply because of its color man.

Mick hasn’t held the WWE Tag Team Titles with anyone and to date, Moore & Yang haven’t either. Morrison & Miz don’t have undefeated records since they won the titles, but the Tough Enough alumni always come through when the chips are down.

So does Colin Delaney count as Kozlov’s first Superstar opponent? Somehow I don’t think that match will help Estrada as much as he is planning on it.

Jim Neidhart got a lot of play during the Diva match. I think Papa Anvil would be proud.

Bringing the Big Show with him didn’t help Nunzio get a win, it just saved him from more of a beating. It looks like they’re just going to match Show up against all the big guys after his loss to a little guy at WrestleMania.

Matt and MVP always have strong matches solidly focused on wrestling and their rematch met that standard. Since he had to take time and then return I feel Matt won the belt too quickly. We’ll have to see if things continue from here.

Yeah, so after the Batista promo I don’t care about HBK-Batista anymore. They had their match, that’s all I was expecting. “Did Shawn fake an injury?” is not a good basis for a second month of this feud.

Ryder & Hawkins are starting to establish their identity outside of Edge and each other. While not brand new, they’ve got their own theme song plus ring attire that no only doesn’t match Edge, but doesn’t match each other. They are well on their way and a win over Jesse & Festus can’t hurt either.

Julio Dinero was not money in any language against Finlay with a little help from Hornswoggle. No dance for Mick and I bet no contract for the former ECW star.

I was a little happy to see Vickie take that choke away from The Undertaker, but taking the belt away was not what I had in mind. Plus we had to wait forever for her to get to the point which is never fun. I thought Show would do it, but I guess Taker got to take out Khali. I’m sure that video was giving him credit for Big Daddy V too. I just hope the belt isn’t simply given to Edge either literally or basically next week.

[hobbyfan]

I was a little happy to see Vickie take that choke away from The Undertaker, but taking the belt away was not what I had in mind. Plus we had to wait forever for her to get to the point which is never fun. I thought Show would do it, but I guess Taker got to take out Khali. I’m sure that video was giving him credit for Big Daddy V too. I just hope the belt isn’t simply given to Edge either literally or basically next week.

I'm sorry, Pengy, but I respectfully disagree.

Vicki Guerrero is acting in the best interests of just one person, not an entire locker room. She is misrepresenting her office, and that needs to be addressed ASAP. She was wrong to strip Undertaker of the title. The only reason she did this was because Edge lost the title and couldn't win the rematch. What is it going to take to stop this nonsense? They need to take her out of office yesterday. This is how it gets done.

Since we're in Canada this week, you can bet Vicki will try to pull a Bischoff and present the title to Edge. Vince comes out and says that is not allowed. The title must be won in the ring. Also, the Board of Directors has reviewed Vicki's actions the last 6 months, and has found her guilty of insubordination. Vicki is fired. Undertaker gets the title back and beats Edge again. Teddy Long reclaims his rightful place as GM.

Will they do the right thing? Hmmmm, wellllll, of course not!

[JShaggy]

I'm sorry, Pengy, but I respectfully disagree.

Vicki Guerrero is acting in the best interests of just one person, not an entire locker room. She is misrepresenting her office, and that needs to be addressed ASAP. She was wrong to strip Undertaker of the title. The only reason she did this was because Edge lost the title and couldn't win the rematch. What is it going to take to stop this nonsense? They need to take her out of office yesterday. This is how it gets done.

Since we're in Canada this week, you can bet Vicki will try to pull a Bischoff and present the title to Edge. Vince comes out and says that is not allowed. The title must be won in the ring. Also, the Board of Directors has reviewed Vicki's actions the last 6 months, and has found her guilty of insubordination. Vicki is fired. Undertaker gets the title back and beats Edge again. Teddy Long reclaims his rightful place as GM.

Will they do the right thing? Hmmmm, wellllll, of course not!
I was thinking the same thing that they will simply give Edge the World Title back, but I doubt Vince will intervene in all of this. I do think that Teddy Long will likely step down as Assistant GM pretty soon, depending on how far this "La Familia" angle goes.

[The Penguin]

I'm sorry, Pengy, but I respectfully disagree.

Vicki Guerrero is acting in the best interests of just one person, not an entire locker room. She is misrepresenting her office, and that needs to be addressed ASAP. She was wrong to strip Undertaker of the title. The only reason she did this was because Edge lost the title and couldn't win the rematch. What is it going to take to stop this nonsense? They need to take her out of office yesterday. This is how it gets done.Just for clarification, I simply don't like the choke hold and don't mind it being take away by any means, I wasn't really signing on to Vickie's announced decision or her logic. And the belt getting taken away is stupid.

[hobbyfan]

I was thinking the same thing that they will simply give Edge the World Title back, but I doubt Vince will intervene in all of this. I do think that Teddy Long will likely step down as Assistant GM pretty soon, depending on how far this "La Familia" angle goes.

Have to disagree. Teddy was wrongfully demoted to assistant GM, when the main job rightfully is his. That plot hole needs to be filled yesterday, IMPO, but when Smackdown's head writer is under suspension, and his assistants can't go from point A to point B without tripping over themselves, well, stupid things will happen.

[bigddan11]

Have to disagree. Teddy was wrongfully demoted to assistant GM, when the main job rightfully is his. That plot hole needs to be filled yesterday, IMPO, but when Smackdown's head writer is under suspension, and his assistants can't go from point A to point B without tripping over themselves, well, stupid things will happen.
See, I disagree. After his "heart attack," Vince clearly stated he was making Vickie the acting GM for SmackDown! What does that entitle? It means she is the GM until Vince or someone else in authority removes her, meaning that Teddy was demoted by the correct means, Vince, and there is no plot hole to fill. I agree that she needs to be removed, but the means in which she became GM were legit, and Teddy has no claim to the GM position again unless Vince, or someone else with that authority, makes him to acting GM once more.

[The Penguin]

See, I disagree. After his "heart attack," Vince clearly stated he was making Vickie the acting GM for SmackDown! What does that entitle? It means she is the GM until Vince or someone else in authority removes her, meaning that Teddy was demoted by the correct means, Vince, and there is no plot hole to fill. I agree that she needs to be removed, but the means in which she became GM were legit, and Teddy has no claim to the GM position again unless Vince, or someone else with that authority, makes him to acting GM once more.And I disagree with you and agree with hobbyfan. Vickie was the Acting GM because the GM was on medical leave. When the GM returns, she should return to her previous position. Instead "acting" was dropped and she was made the full General Manager with Teddy being made the Assistant GM. It's not as if she was promoted because they didn't think Teddy was coming back, she was "acting" until Long returned. That doesn't make any sense.

Everyone keep the politicial wisecracks to yourselves, but if President Bush has surgery, Vice President Cheney is the Acting President because Bush is temporarily incapacitated. When Bush is back at full strength, he is President again and Cheney returns to his role, Bush doesn't become Cheney's Vice President. SmackDown may not have the U.S. Constitution to back up its chain of command, but that's what happened here.

[hobbyfan]

And I disagree with you and agree with hobbyfan. Vickie was the Acting GM because the GM was on medical leave. When the GM returns, she should return to her previous position. Instead "acting" was dropped and she was made the full General Manager with Teddy being made the Assistant GM. It's not as if she was promoted because they didn't think Teddy was coming back, she was "acting" until Long returned. That doesn't make any sense.

And that's the plot hole I was talking about. It's assumed that Vicki was made full GM after doing what Vince wanted (stripping Hornswoggle of the cruiser title at the end of September), and J-Me-L said something to the effect that Vicki was now the full GM. It's wrong, and Teddy could have a case because of all the power abuses.



Everyone keep the politicial wisecracks to yourselves, but if President Bush has surgery, Vice President Cheney is the Acting President because Bush is temporarily incapacitated. When Bush is back at full strength, he is President again and Cheney returns to his role, Bush doesn't become Cheney's Vice President. SmackDown may not have the U.S. Constitution to back up its chain of command, but that's what happened here.

Thank you very much.