Smackdown Workrate Report 3/15/2008

Eh, why not?

WHAT WORKED:

-Morrison vs. Miz was a pretty sharp little match. Really evenly worked, as you would expect from tag champs facing each other, and very energetic. Both of these guys got so good over the past year, hopefully they get even better this year. Only problem was that they didn't need to point to the WrestleMania sign 800 times during the match. Yes, we're aware of the stakes. We figured it out the first time you guys pointed to the sign. Now stop pointing and start fighting.

-Finlay's attempts to approximate Archie Gouldie's sadness over his fake son getting beaten up were not quite as good as Gouldie's, but they served their purpose in making me even more amped up for Finlay/JBL than I already am.

-Is Phil going to do a MOTY list this year? I'm inclined to think both this week's MVP/Batista match and last week's merit consideration. This probably would fall off by the end of the year, and I actually kinda preferred last week's match, but this was boss. I was an early adopter of MVP, on the basis that he was a guy who would die for my pleasure and make me interested in Kane matches for the first time since....well...ever. Kinda dug the meta-ness of his act, essentially working a heel version of Masao Inoue's "sucky guy who is in way over his head" gimmick. Then he started wrestling Chrazy Chris, and started getting booked as a legit talented wrestler. And while he was still good, it just wasn't the same. But in the last few months, he's kinda found a happy medium as a reasonably talented heel who still needs to cheat like a motherfucker to get by. Here, he initially tries to out-wrestle Batista, fails, and then promptly pulls out his gaudy necklace and uses it to deliver a nice KO shot to Batista. He then spends most of the rest of the match building towards a steel chair attack, which Batista manages to deftly avoid, only to fall prey to MVP's trickery, settting up the steel chair shot, etc. And it builds to a fever pitch, where you're just ready for that steel chair to get wrapped around someone's skull, but when it finally comes, all MVP can manage is a few tepid jabs to the ribs from an odd position outside the ring. Then Umaga runs in, and the match is over, and you want to see the rematch, but you know they could've done more here. Still, what a ride to that finish, even if said finish was anticlimactic.

-Kane/Noble vs. Khali/Palumbo was a fine little match. The Noble/McCool/Palumbo stuff has quietly become one of the best angles in wrestling, and these are both guys who can deliver the goods in the ring. Kane has become a totally serviceable wrestler out of nowhere, and Khali is about as good at what he does as he could possibly be expected to be. Noble is a really good fired up underdog, and takes a beating like nobody's business. It's been a million years since the Kane/X-Pac tag team, so I was a little surprised by Kane rushing the ring to save his little buddy at the end, but I liked it. Honestly wouldn't mind seeing this evolve into a tag feud.

-A lot to like about the main event. For one thing, Shawn Michaels was tied up for most of the match. For another, if there's one thing I've learned from all those Royal Rumbles and WarGames is that when you get a bunch of people in the ring at once, any really cool stuff they do will stand out, while the crap get buried in the background. For yet another thing, Flair was in the ring with Shawn Michaels, and seemed to decide "Fuck it. If they'll let one creepy aging lump of flesh beat the crap out of four guys at once, I don't see why I can't, too," and he proceeds to just lay into everyone with punches and chops in between getting bounced around by the heels. Edge's heelishness felt more in line with his great RAW work than his shitty Smackdown work here, which was good to see. Finish made no sense. Why would that be the time for Taker to run in? Why does Edge still win as the focus shifts to that feud and Flair and Michaels fall into the void? This is a show with two long matches that had great bodies and shitty endings.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK:

-I really dig the Noble/McCool/Palumbo angle, and I really dig the older-than-old-school nature of the Diva Contests. Also, this is includes the rarely seen proper use of text message polls by a major wrestling company, which is nice. That said, outside of the angle it's building to, and the WWE's realization of how to use text message polls, not actually anything interesting about the contest itself. At least last week's segment had sex appeal. I mean, if you found the women sexy, anyway. This was just kinda dull.

-There was a lot to like about the main event, but not a whole lot to like about the angle around it. Flair is Michaels' mentor? He's his best friend? Since when? I've got no problem with promoters lying about history to advance an angle, but this seems baffling at pointless. It's not like the "Flair wants to be retired at WrestleMania by 'Mr. WrestleMania'" angle that set up the match didn't provide enough justification. Not like it didn't stroke Michaels' ego enough. Did they feel that alone wasn't getting enough interest in the match? Cause suddenly springing this on people won't help there. Do they think that a deeper storyline connection with Michaels will reflect Shawn's glory back upon him? Vice-versa? It's nitpicking, but this angle feels colder than
cold anyway.

-Speaking of cold WrestleMania angles, what's the deal with Show/Mayweather? They did the double turn on Raw, which I'd think would be the one thing they could do at this point to save it, but now here's Show squashing Yang and Moore in a handicap match while the announcers talk up what an underdog Mayweather is. They did a double turn, but nothing else about their roles have changed? Show is now a bullying, dominating babyface, and Mayweather is a gutsy underdog heel fighting the odds? Or did Meltzer and I just misinterpret the Raw segment? Good God, this is Invasion-level blown.