OAO Smackdown Thread. 5/25-26 Thread.

[Slickster 0]

It's amazing to see SmackDown! lose its US Champion, its top tag team, and one of its top singles competitors all in one week...with no sign of getting anyone in return.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Note that they mention for Smackdown. Now, if he still wrestles, there's two possibilities:

 

1) He goes to Raw (probably getting lost in the shuffle)

 

2) He goes to ECW, and becomes one of their top heels.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I can see it now. When they turn Chavo heel, they will say that the chairshot from JBL messed with his head, while Chavo will say that it knocked some sense into himself.

 

While he was knocked out cold (for the short time maybe he was..) he had a vision of Eddy and Eddy told him he was pissed at Rey.

 

That'd be fun.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

It's amazing to see SmackDown! lose its US Champion, its top tag team, and one of its top singles competitors all in one week...with no sign of getting anyone in return.

 

are they bothering with a draft this year?

[Downhome 0]

I can see it now. When they turn Chavo heel, they will say that the chairshot from JBL messed with his head, while Chavo will say that it knocked some sense into himself.

 

While he was knocked out cold (for the short time maybe he was..) he had a vision of Eddy and Eddy told him he was pissed at Rey.

 

That'd be fun.

 

 

I hope they do that, just for the pure stupidity of it.

 

Right now, JBL is being booked to RAW. However, at this SD taping, JBL was telling people that he was just going to retire since he has a bad back and is pretty well off.

 

Some thinks that he just doesn't want to go to RAW to lose some of his power, since HHH doesn't really like him.

 

I think he shows up on RAW though, but that's just me. I don't think we've seen the last of him, even if JBL says so.

[Just John 0]

Well, with back to back wins against JBL (combined with the clean win on Orton), it looks like Rey's title run might be close to escaping "worst ever" territory. That Khali squash, though... *shakes head*

 

That sucks that Johnny Ace finally got that damn leprachaun on tv. Luckily, Finlay saved the segment with his "this is so stupid" looks and working a little stiff on the midget. Why can't he just kill it like he did to those midgets a few months ago?

 

I like how L/K look as a team. Too bad there's no competition.

 

I don't understand why JBL had to be jobbed out throughout the show. Can SD really afford a lack of credible ME'ers now?

 

I really do not like the looks of the impending Mark Henry push. Note to Vince: If you give him the title now, he's still a waste of money.

 

Booker T is great. Hopefully he gets the title push instead.

[Guest Hotbutter Spoontoaster]

Note that they mention for Smackdown. Now, if he still wrestles, there's two possibilities:

 

1) He goes to Raw (probably getting lost in the shuffle)

Your new Raw GM...John Bradshaw Layfield. To keep those young crazy punks, who call themselves "DX", under control.

[Downhome 0]

You know, a part of me hopes that they do give Mark Henry the title. They put the guy through so much, trying their best to just get him to quit, so I bet he'll be laughing his all all the way to the bank if they end up giving him the freakin' world title.

 

I can't wait to hear a Mark Henry shoot after his WWE career is finally finished. I bet it'll be one hell of a listen.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Note that they mention for Smackdown. Now, if he still wrestles, there's two possibilities:

 

1) He goes to Raw (probably getting lost in the shuffle)

Your new Raw GM...John Bradshaw Layfield. To keep those young crazy punks, who call themselves "DX", under control.

...that...

 

would be BRILLIANT!

[daileyxplanet 0]

I must agree, that would be entertaining.

[Guest wildpegasus]

JBL may be retiring. Nothing's confirmed but the word is out there.

[Hawk 34 0]

I still think it's a power play, JBL knows he can play hardball and actually could survive without the business. If he threatens to leave the company, Vince might be forced to give in. McMahon, is high on JBL. While HHH might wield some power, getting in with the boss means more then being HHH's crony (for the time being).

 

It's not like top shelf names haven't thrown the retirement card around before, it's usually always a power play.

[Just call me Dan 0]

I think we were all fairly certain Booker would be retired a couple of years ago.

 

I don't think he'll go anywhere.

[Guest Princess Leena]

JBL can't retire...

 

If anything, just keep the guy around as a mouthpiece or an announcer. He's too damn good to let go.

[Just John 0]

Remember guys, it's just his SD career that's over.

 

I'd say the Raw GM theory is looking very possible, especially since WWE.com has announced that the GM will in fact be named on Monday.

[Guest Princess Leena]

I think the most likely case is JBL plays heel in ECW...

 

It would work well, but now he's dropped from the B-show to the C-show. Which I hate to see. JBL is THE best heel in the company.

[Guest Cataclysm911]

I still like Edge but I'm definitely not going to argue against JBL. Although a lot of his heat is obtained through cheesy, cheap tactics.

[Just John 0]

Cheesy and cheap? That's putting it mildly. All of JBL's heat from the Rey feud came from insulting Mexicans and Eddie Guerrero.

 

Of course, if HHH or Orton were to either insult a certain race or Eddie, then they're the worst people in the world.

[Guest Human Highlight Reel]

Edge is better than JBL, IMO.

If Triple H were to insult Mexicans, he'd then beat the crap out of a Mexican before giving him the pedigree and pinning him 5 minutes later for the win. Also, JBL never insulted Eddie.

[Dark Age 0]

Cheesy and cheap? That's putting it mildly. All of JBL's heat from the Rey feud came from insulting Mexicans and Eddie Guerrero.

 

That and being a good heel, yeah.

[Just John 0]

Also, JBL never insulted Eddie.

 

Maybe he wasn't as blunt as "Eddie's in hell," but he said things like "I'm going to beat you just like I beat Eddie." If you think that's designed to do anything except get heat by putting himself over a dead guy, then I don't know what to tell you. Not to mention him doing the 3 amigos and Eddie shuffle/chest pound taunt.

 

Whenever he feuds with a Mexican, it's always "You people this, you people that" with JBL. That's how it all got started when he feuded with Eddie and that's pretty much what he's doing now. I find some of it funny and don't take it too seriously, but some of JBL's stuff a lot more blatantly racist than HHH's feud with Booker T that he got so much flack for. The hypocrisy is astounding.

 

He's a fine heel and I enjoy him when he's feuding with white guys, because then he doesn't resort to the cheap, racism heat that he doesn't need.

[Guest Human Highlight Reel]

Maybe he wasn't as blunt as "Eddie's in hell," but he said things like "I'm going to beat you just like I beat Eddie." If you think that's designed to do anything except get heat by putting himself over a dead guy, then I don't know what to tell you. Not to mention him doing the 3 amigos and Eddie shuffle/chest pound taunt.

It was never "Eddie sucked, I beat him", always "I beat a great champion like Eddie Guerrero, I can beat anyone". As for the 3 amigos and chest taunt, the two were pretty much friends, right? JBL did the chest taunt on the Eddie memorial show too, it's really in tribute to him, even if it's portrayed as dastardly JBL mocking Eddie. Mocking Mexicans and stuff like that, that's JBL's gimmick, he's a rich white jackass, who hates everyone but rich, white jackasses, and in the end, he always gets beaten. I don't recall Triple H ever having the character of a racist, plus he did squash Booker.

[Just John 0]

It was never "Eddie sucked, I beat him", always "I beat a great champion like Eddie Guerrero, I can beat anyone".

 

Sure. That's why he only started saying that when feuding with Benoit and Rey. He was using Eddie to get under the skin of Eddie's friends. That's cheap heat at the expense of Eddie.

 

As for the 3 amigos and chest taunt, the two were pretty much friends, right? JBL did the chest taunt on the Eddie memorial show too, it's really in tribute to him, even if it's portrayed as dastardly JBL mocking Eddie.

 

They were friends in real life, not kayfabe. And it is portrayed as JBL mocking Eddie. Why do you think Cole bitches about it? WWE is trying to show that JBL is a bad guy because he's making fun of Eddie.

 

Mocking Mexicans and stuff like that, that's JBL's gimmick,

 

Only when he's feuding with Mexicans. I never see him making a scene about it when he's feuding with a white guy.

 

he's a rich white jackass, who hates everyone but rich, white jackasses,

 

Which would explain his long term partnership with Orlando Jordan.

 

and in the end, he always gets beaten. I don't recall Triple H ever having the character of a racist, plus he did squash Booker.

 

Always gets beaten? I assume you mean post 10-month title reign, where Eddie never did get any real revenge on him. I'm not going to defend HHH squashing Booker or anything else about that feud. The point I was making was that a lot of HHH's comments were very similar to JBL's comments, but one is frowned upon, while the other has lots of spin put on it to make into "great heel work."

[Guest Human Highlight Reel]

Sure. That's why he only started saying that when feuding with Benoit and Rey. He was using Eddie to get under the skin of Eddie's friends. That's cheap heat at the expense of Eddie.

Well, he was saying that Benoit was a great technical wrestler, but he beat great technical wrestlers like Eddie. With rey, it's hard not to touch on the subject of Eddie when's it's so entrenched with Rey now.

 

They were friends in real life, not kayfabe. And it is portrayed as JBL mocking Eddie. Why do you think Cole bitches about it? WWE is trying to show that JBL is a bad guy because he's making fun of Eddie.

It does't matter how it's portrayed, he's not insulting Eddie, because the two were friends in real life

 

Only when he's feuding with Mexicans. I never see him making a scene about it when he's feuding with a white guy.

Because it would make no sense to insult Chris Benoit by insulting Mexicans. Remember that video during the Great American Award presentation where he tossed Mexicans over the border?

Which would explain his long term partnership with Orlando Jordan.

Point. He does hate everyone who isn't a rich jackass, though.

 

Always gets beaten? I assume you mean post 10-month title reign, where Eddie never did get any real revenge on him. I'm not going to defend HHH squashing Booker or anything else about that feud. The point I was making was that a lot of HHH's comments were very similar to JBL's comments, but one is frowned upon, while the other has lots of spin put on it to make into "great heel work."

 

Well, JBL only beat Eddie because Angle reversed the decision, and Eddie wasn't ready to be champ again. When ever JBL wins, it's obvious he was going to lose before whatever sneaky move allowed him to steal a win. Rey beat him twice though, and he has to quit now, apparantly. The problem with Triple H is that Booker never got any measure of retribution against Triple H, who just laughed, beat him, and got away with it all, and as I've said, with JBL, it's his gimmick.

[Just John 0]

Well, he was saying that Benoit was a great technical wrestler, but he beat great technical wrestlers like Eddie. With rey, it's hard not to touch on the subject of Eddie when's it's so entrenched with Rey now.

 

He didn't even bother to mention he had beaten Angle as well? And then they made Benoit act all angry about it which furthers the illusion that JBL's bad for using Eddie's name to piss off his friends. And I agree about Rey, though that doesn't make the heat any less cheap. Rey's getting lots of cheap face heat too.

 

It does't matter how it's portrayed, he's not insulting Eddie, because the two were friends in real life

 

It DOES matter how it's portrayed. Do you think 99% of people watching the show interpreted it like you? Probably not, because that's not what they were trying to show. They're trying to get the fans to boo JBL because he mocks Eddie. That is cheap heat. It sort of reminds me of the Hassan terrorist incident a year ago, when there were some who said that it was just a standard wrestling sneak attack, though WWE's clear intent was to make it look like a terrorist attack. You can spin anything you want, but I'd say this is a pretty cut-and-dry example of cheap heat.

 

Because it would make no sense to insult Chris Benoit by insulting Mexicans. Remember that video during the Great American Award presentation where he tossed Mexicans over the border?

 

I can understand this, and I'll give you the breif re-visitation of the Mexican ass-kicked back over the border (which I found quite funny). Although, that is such a small percentage of time spent bashing Mexicans, I don't know if you can call it a gimmick. Maybe you can, but that still doesn't make it any less racist.

 

Well, JBL only beat Eddie because Angle reversed the decision, and Eddie wasn't ready to be champ again. When ever JBL wins, it's obvious he was going to lose before whatever sneaky move allowed him to steal a win. Rey beat him twice though, and he has to quit now, apparantly. The problem with Triple H is that Booker never got any measure of retribution against Triple H, who just laughed, beat him, and got away with it all, and as I've said, with JBL, it's his gimmick.

 

JBL didn't go over as decisively as HHH, but again that's not the point. The point is he still made lots of racist comments that get excused, but HHH's didn't. Hassan's terrorist attack fit his gimmick of "stereotypical bitter America-hating Arab," but that doesn't make it acceptable.

[justcoz 0]

It DOES matter how it's portrayed. Do you think 99% of people watching the show interpreted it like you? Probably not, because that's not what they were trying to show. They're trying to get the fans to boo JBL because he mocks Eddie. That is cheap heat. It sort of reminds me of the Hassan terrorist incident a year ago, when there were some who said that it was just a standard wrestling sneak attack, though WWE's clear intent was to make it look like a terrorist attack. You can spin anything you want, but I'd say this is a pretty cut-and-dry example of cheap heat.

 

Yeah, it is cheap heat in the way that they want fans to respond to JBL's actions but it's obvious that JBL loved Eddie. Everytime he does the three amigos or mocks the Eddie shuffle strut he puts his fist to his heart and hits his chest several times meaning he's doing so with love. I don't think the casual fans are as stupid as people make them out to be. They do catch things like that. It's so much different than Randy Orton saying Rey is in hell or HHH saying Eddie could come back from the dead and it wouldn't matter. If there is anyone that I buy into the idea of 'keeping Eddie alive in memories' justification that WWE uses - it's JBL.

[BruiserKC 0]

JBL to ECW would make great sense at this point. Right now, it's obvious ECW has its top face (RVD) and doesn't really have a top heel to match right now.

 

Plus, JBL in ECW would be like when "The Franchise" was the top heel in ECW back in the day. Shane Douglas was different from the "extreme" combatants of EC Dub, but the gimmick he used as the best wrestler in the company made it work.

[Bruce Blank 0]

I agree with the logic, ECW does need heels to work - anti-ECW is the easiest sentiment to get heel heat from. Use that and then buil d up other heels through ECW angles

[Wrestlefreak 0]

An OK SD. Luckily, we were spared from Khali.