The-One-And-Only-Smackdown-thread-for-6/13/02

[Guest cabbageboy]

The show tonight sucked hard.  The whole SMDN side of the KOTR is pathetic, which makes Taz's rants about how awesome SMDN is compared to Raw look really bad.  I was also pissed when Taz stated that SMDN has more Tough Enough people than Raw, and is therefore better.  Funny, I thought the exact OPPOSITE was true!  

 

I did like the tag match tonight....I think they should put the titles on Storm and Jericho.  Not like they are doing anything else.

[Guest]

And guys- the WWE has had the faces punk out the heels completley for a long time now. When was the last time we had a heel who could hold his own against a face?

(Fall 1999-May 2001)

 

Same thing I was about to refer to.

 

He didn't have piped-in pops besides when the WWE wanted them to pop for a certain thing, and they didn't. The rest of the pop, including the extended "Triple H" chant, was obviously real, fucktard. And I was at MSG for his return, and he sure as hell didn't need any piped-in pops there.

 

That's because he was returning from an 8 month hiatus.

 

Anytime a popular wrestler returns after an extended length of time, of course there's gonna be a huge reaction. Since then, what's happened? His pops have been dwindling. Ratings, buyrates, all that crap, have gone down in the same time he's been in the main picture. Obviously it's due in part to the bad storylines, but your main guys have to be representative of the company at that time, and beginning from then on he's been overexposed, much too overexposed.

 

At Wrestlemania, he won the title when he obviously wasn't ready to hold the belt, leading to a title change every month since then. At Judgment Day 2002, he got a win over Jericho in the HIAC, which he didn't even need. He had nothing at all to gain from it. I'll keep defending that Jericho got the shaft at JD. Anyone could see that JD was bad booking, after which Jericho came out looking worse for it... You can't tell me that Triple H didn't have some amount of say in that feud, or his WM win for that matter... Not enough that he could've rewritten the entire storyline, of course, but enough to say that Jericho should go over on himself.

 

About Smackdown comments.

 

That Triple H opening segment took up over a half an hour... Obviously that's fucking shit, and no opening promo or the effects felt thereafter should take up that long. Seeing Triple H go nuts with the sledge was cool, but still much too long.

 

At least it looks like Storm has an actual gimmick now, returning to the proud Canadian thing. I can't say that I like his or Kidman's new music though.

 

The last match was certainly crappy, what with Triple H able to play the big babyface. I reckon that babyfaces have pulled off this hero act since the dawn of pro wrestling, I agree with that, and have no problem with it. But it SHOULD NOT FUCKING HAPPEN WITH THE MAN INJURED, AND FACING OFF AGAINST THE WWE CHAMPION AND KURT ANGLE....

 

The two biggest heels on SD, for that matter...

 

*sigh*

[Guest converge241]

Im dying to see what the rating is for the 30-40 minutes of HHH and the Hammer, a new sitcom coming to UPN this fall.

 

Hurricane was pretty good in his Nidia promo, and the test match wasnt that bad. How many casual fans from far away seats must have thought Knoble was Brian Christopher?

 

Michael Cole ludicrous overselling of the week:

"i have never seen such carnage before as the rampage we just witnessed"

 

what break monitors?

hello Bret Survivor Series in Montreal

what, broken cameras?

hello Shawn vs Sid Survivor Series + Royal Rumble 96-97

what, broken tables?

ummmmm pretty much all the time

also did MC miss Taker-Foley HITC or something?

 

If they really wanted to get the point across just get some indy jobbers to play "security" and have them bump and blade like crazy.

[Guest]

I taped Smackdown like I usually do, and watched almost immediately after it ended. Had I known that The Triple H Show was going to last a fucking HALF-HOUR I would've set my VCR to start recording at 8:30, but oh well. I FF'ed through all that shit anyway.

 

Other random observations, that, as far as I know, have been made repeatedly by now:

 

-Storm and Kidman get new music; Storm's is an improvement, but I prefered Kidman's old theme.

 

-Kidman's new tights were a little too tiny for my comfort. It's approaching Chuck Palumbo-levels of ass exposure.

 

-More on Kidman: Hurricane and Tajiri were treated like jobbers, but Kidman is made to look credible. I'd personally prefer Tajiri to be pushed in such a manner, but I like Kidman, so it's all good.

 

-Michael Cole: "Test has a bright future in the WWE." Oh dear lord, THIS again.

 

-To Cole and Tazz's credit, they managed to spend most of the night talking about the matches themselves, and not mindlessly hyping the main event. Maybe they figured the opening thirty minutes spent establishing the ME was more than enough time.

 

-You know, it's geting to the point where I can't tell the difference between real crowd response and the canned kind when watching this show. Some of it I could tell was genuine--like the pop Kidman's SSP got, or the Hogan chants in the ME--but given the amount of screen time that's been spent on people who aren't over and probably never will be--like Test, Bob Holly and Val Venis--the fake heat is becoming so commonplace on Smackdown that sometimes I don't know what's real and what's Memorex.

 

I could talk about other things, but I've said enough.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

You know good and damn well that there were what chants whenever Angle talked. Angle was pausing whenever he said something and you could tell seomthing was missing.

[Guest Shadow]

For those who said "Triple H 1999-May 2001"- bullshit. Yes, he was still perceived as tougher than your average heel, but when it came down to it, what happened in his big wins (besides the two involving Mick Foley at Royal Rumble 2000 & No Way Out 2000)? Let's take a look:

 

-Night after Summerslam 1999: Defeats Mankind for WWF World Title because of screwy refereeing on the part of Shane McMahon and interference by Chyna.

 

-No Mercy 1999: Retains WWF World Title against Steve Austin because Rock misses attempted interference, hitting Steve instaed of Hunter.

 

-Wrestlemania 2000: Retains WWF World Title in Fatal Four Way after Vince McMahon turns on Rock to cost him the match.

 

-Judgement Day 2000: Wins the last fall in the Iron Man Match because Undertaker chokeslammed him for a DQ.

 

-Fully Loaded 2000: Okay, admittedly he beat Y2J clean here.

 

The Angle & Benoit victories at Unforgiven & No Mercy 2000 do not count because he was basically playing a face at the time.

 

-No Way Out 2001: He won because of the sledgehammer. Austin still came out looking stronger.

 

-Backlash 2001- He and Austin defeat Undertaker & Kane to win the WWF World Tag Team Titles thanks to help from Vince McMahon.

 

There. Proof that while Triple H was still percieved as being tougher than your average heel, he still had help in winning most of his big matches, so that point is mute.

[Guest bcu1979]

For those who said "Triple H 1999-May 2001"- bullshit. Yes, he was still perceived as tougher than your average heel, but when it came down to it, what happened in his big wins (besides the two involving Mick Foley at Royal Rumble 2000 & No Way Out 2000)? Let's take a look:

 

-Night after Summerslam 1999: Defeats Mankind for WWF World Title because of screwy refereeing on the part of Shane McMahon and interference by Chyna.

 

-No Mercy 1999: Retains WWF World Title against Steve Austin because Rock misses attempted interference, hitting Steve instaed of Hunter.

 

-Wrestlemania 2000: Retains WWF World Title in Fatal Four Way after Vince McMahon turns on Rock to cost him the match.

 

-Judgement Day 2000: Wins the last fall in the Iron Man Match because Undertaker chokeslammed him for a DQ.

 

-Fully Loaded 2000: Okay, admittedly he beat Y2J clean here.

 

The Angle & Benoit victories at Unforgiven & No Mercy 2000 do not count because he was basically playing a face at the time.

 

-No Way Out 2001: He won because of the sledgehammer. Austin still came out looking stronger.

 

-Backlash 2001- He and Austin defeat Undertaker & Kane to win the WWF World Tag Team Titles thanks to help from Vince McMahon.

 

There. Proof that while Triple H was still percieved as being tougher than your average heel, he still had help in winning most of his big matches, so that point is mute.

 

What's bullshit is the fact that Triple H continues to get pushed down eveyone's throat as this GOD-like wrestler at the expense of everyone else in the company.

 

Triple H was the first heel to ever win in the main event of Mania. Yeah, Vince interfered but Triple H still came out looking good because he won and it really took the shine off Rock since he came off looking like he could not beat Hunter.

 

So the Angle and Benoit victories don't count because he was a tweener? Why was he a tweener in the first place? Isn't it funny how back in the spring of 2000 everyone was saying that Jericho, Benoit and Angle were the next three guys to move up to the main events and look who beat all three of them decisively in the span of 4 PPV's? And all three ended up looking worse after their encounter with Triple H.

 

Jericho was sent back to the mid-card to wrestler X-Pac.

The triangle was blown off with a lame ending that no one wanted to see and made Angle look like a pussy.

Benoit went up from going toe to toe with Triple H to being Triple H's lackey after Triple H turned back heel so he could cash in on Austin's return.

 

And the finish at NWO 2001 was Triple H falling on top of Austin for the clean pinfall. Triple H pinned Austin clean after masterminding the plot to run him over and take a year out of Austin's career. Some payoff.

 

But through it all, Triple H was always portrayed as being on the same level as Austin or Rock or Taker or whomever his opponent was. Unlike Angle and Jericho, he was never portrayed as being inferior or outclassed. That is the problem with this argument that it's okay for Angle or Jericho have to cheat to beat heatless midcarder because they are heels.

 

People will not accept heels that they don't believe have a credible chance of actually winning. Triple H was always portrayed as being good enough to win - we were supposed to boo him because he cheated to win. Angle and Jericho were portrayed as needing to cheat to win because they weren't good enough to beat a Rock or a Austin - we were supposed to boo them because they had to cheat.

 

There is a world of difference in those two mindsets.

[Guest]

Tazz has become another WWE corporate shill... what a pity.

[Guest El Psycho Diablo]

..I don't like it when anybody gets 'crammed down our throat'. I didn't like it when HHH was getting it, and I didn't like it when Austin did in early/mid 2001. In my mind, giving someone so much exposure just forces them to keep their character fresh, and we've seen how good people have been at that.

 

-Shiro

[Guest]

Sorry if someone else already asked this, but is Faarooq now the leader of the Nation of Masturbation?