By Shane McKinley, PWTorch Specialist

Be Sure To Watch As Smackdown Becomes Silly Town!

Call of the night was Jim Ross saying, "Now back to more serious business." Pretty much the whole show made me chuckle, but wrestling shows always have to vary themselves with the humor. It seems that on Raw and Smackdown nowadays, a good portion of the mid-card is devoted to "humorous" bits. I love humor in wrestling, but if you had to explain this wrestling week to a non-wrestling fan, you would be red in the face. Triple H's "I Know You Know What I Know You Know" bit left me in shock and awe. His whole promo was like "Ha ha Vickie is fat but now I am serious about the Undertaker but still Vickie is fat and I'm a hero for facing Undertaker." Santino definitely had the worst promo of the week, followed up by Booker's "Respect!" shout-outs. When Triple H labeled Joey Styles as a nerd a month ago, I wanted to point out that I like Styles more than Triple H. So when Triple H comes out and says, "Hey guys, what a nag that Vickie Guerrero is," it felt off. Because Vickie is not on this huge tear. And poor Triple H. Forced to fight the Undertaker. He should not fight anybody. And if he gets taken out, all of the precious WWE fan votes will be for naught. "I just can't let that happen!" Awww. The Human Suplex Machine Tazz hams it up in shelling the WWE mag (in 3D!). Good stuff.

Be Sure To Watch As Crazy Stuff Is Going To Happen, Because The Actual Content Itself Is Lame!

At least somebody understands that I do not watch WWE women's matches anymore. Really haven't watched a WWE women's match in a long time. So as I was fast-forwarding through their match, it was surprising to see Festus and a Mariachi band sing a love tune to Maria. Doesn't say very much for women matches if Hornswoggle or Festus keep showing up every week, but maybe somebody realizes that WWE women's matches are (shhhh) boring and meaningless.

Bam "Beer Gut" Nelly (although I like him) and Chavo get down to business. Carlito and Primo are bigger than Team Priceless, but it was an odd, clunky match. The Hurrapop also made its appearance. Gregory Helms in all of his smarminess.

Be Sure To Watch Kizarny! He's A Weirdo!

Although I can probably function without going through a Kizarny video package, perhaps Kizarny can have his own little gang of circus freaks coming to the ring. WWE could hire some local people from the circus (or downright hire some people). I mean, if Kizarny just comes out and beats up jobbers, not a lot of people want to see that. And wasn't Boogeyman supposed to show up on ECW? This has been a pretty bad week for wrestling fans. Were the writers of the show too concerned with the World Series?

Be Sure To Watch As WWE Tries To Be Like Happy Days, Full House, and Step By Step!

Did chuckle during the bit with Carlito and Primo bit (with the runaway Mariachi band chased by Festus). The comedy duo of Carlito and Primo reminded me of a lot of sitcoms I used to watch as a kid. Oh, Primo does not know that they are twins! Oh, the hijinks! Ooh, here comes the really big dude Khali! He says that Primo's got no game! Ha ha.

From this would you consider them wrestlers? Nope. Pretty official that these guys and girls are now "entertainers," "performers." More evidence shown by Kung Fu Naki getting a pin over MVP. Man, what they are doing with MVP is just cruel and sadistic. MVP, who we were thinking was on that next level, loses to The Karate Kid. Although I dig Funaki's music.

So if you like actual wrestling this week was not very kind for you. However, if you enjoy laughing a lot at silly bits, this week was for you. Sure, I chuckled. But there were some majorly embarrassing bits that I would not any of my friends (who don't watch wrestling) watching.

Stay Tuned As The Great Khali Actually Gets Cheered!

I like the Great Khali, so the whole Khali Kiss Cam was pretty fun for me. Yes, WWE can still not resist telling a gay joke. The Punjabi Playboy gets cheered from the crowd! Meanwhile, both Brian Kendrick and Super Crazy put out a quick stinker. Although Brian Kendrick is a heavy favorite in the 2008 Absurd Award for "Best Dance Routine." Yes, pretty sad.

Ok, we get it. Fans like humor in wrestling. But I don't agree with the fact that every match that is not the main event should have a dancing chicken and a kids joke. I understand that WWE is shaping their product nowadays towards a younger market, but in general this was a very bad week in WWE programming.

The Main Event That Was Standard WWE But Very Good

I think Kozlov would look good bald. You know why many wrestling fans boo short championship matches? It is because matches need time to develop so that the match can "wrap" fans into it. During this match I was "feeling it," meaning that I felt sucked in. Excuse me if I cannot feel the same way about a two-minute X Division championship. Love the headbutt to the chest that Kozlov does.

SMACKDOWN'S FINAL VERDICT: Very Absurd

It all depends on how you view wrestling. I like a good chuckle, but it was evident that if you skipped everything else but the main event tonight, you did not miss very much. MVP and Brian Kendrick are just spinning in circles. Festus having a crush on Maria so far is tough to digest. I just hope this is not an ongoing thing in both Raw and Smackdown, where there is nothing but comedic matches and people above the age of 13 will have to wait till the main event to see some actual wrestling content.

LEAVING YOU WITH MY ABSURD THOUGHT

In general, Raw and Smackdown did have some okay laughs, but the problem is that there is no really forward momentum. Fans get a quick laugh, but nothing can be built on such things. You would not put violent match after violent match on a PPV card, so why must comedy stuff overwhelm both Raw and Smackdown? The real, productive content is being discarded.

Email is mckinley.torch@gmail.com.

We suggest these recent related articles...

10/5 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Natalya vs. Paige, Owens vs. Cara, Stephanie McMahon, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods

COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The History of Foam Hands in Pro Wrestling

9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt