By Lee Stevens, PWTorch specialist

Thank you for joining me as we put Smackdown "Under The Microscope." This is not a complete recap of the show. This is a chance to take a closer look at the broadcast, including what was seen, what was heard and anything else of varying degrees of importance!

Joe's gonna pass you

The fan of the night is the gentleman wearing the Joe Montana 49ers jersey who appeared several times throughout the show. It's an appropriate way to close out the week during which Brett Favre retired. Both men had hall-of-fame careers and both men finished up their careers with teams other than the ones with which they played the majority of their careers. Montana closed out his playing days with the Kansas City Chiefs and Favre finished up with the Jets after more than a decade with the Green Bay Packers.

This is a trend common in every sport and it even touches our "Smack of the Night" sponsored by Just For Men. Before helping you work out the gray hair, Frazier led the New York Knicks for ten seasons before ending his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers. His sidekick Keith Hernandez made his name with the Mets and St. Louis Cardinals, but actually closed out his career under contract with the Cleveland Indians. We've also seen Cowboys great Emmitt Smith promoting Just For Men. The NFL's all-time leading rusher gained most of those yards with Dallas, but played his last game with the Arizona Cardinals.

Chain of command

Just as I was ready to ask the question, they gave me the answer. As Edge was complaining about his participation in the brutal Elimination Chamber match, I was thinking, boy, if he only had a good working relationship with someone in charge, like the General Manager. Just at that moment, they cleared it up by insisting that he would have to take up his complaint with the WWE Board of Directors. Granted, the corporate structure is just as confusing as ever, but at least they attempted to explain why G.M. and Mrs. Edge, Vickie Guerrero, was powerless in this situation.

Worst vacation ever

"I was literally sent to hell" --Edge

History lesson

It was a pleasant surprise to hear the name Bobo Brazil on the broadcast, even if it was during a plug for WWE 24/7. Brazil was one of the more important men in the history of wrestling as he broke many racial barriers through the years. He was managed by James Dudley, who also shares an important place with Brazil, as Dudley was the first African-American to run a major arena in the U.S. Both men are in the WWE Hall-of-Fame.

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During the Miz & Morrison vs. Carlito & Primo match we heard a reference to "The Million Dollar Knee." This isn't the first time Jim Ross has made that call and it would be very easy to assume it was a tribute to "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. While just about every move DiBiase made was worth a million bucks (at least to his character), I believe "The Million Dollar Knee" was first attributed to Mr. Wrestling II.

Welcome back

As Jeff Hardy returned to the arena, some obvious friends were there to greet him. Jimmy Wang Yang and R-Truth were the first to welcome him and they were also two of the first to check on him after the pyro accident several weeks ago. Eve and Maria provided a brief welcome home along with the surprise member of the welcoming committee, The Great Khali. At first you may not think the two have anything in common, but if you look closer, Jeff Hardy was born on August 31, while Khali was born on August 27.

So, they were either talking about peridot as the birthstone, or discussing the fact that August is the only month without a major religious or federal holiday. Either way, they have plenty to catch up on now that Hardy is back.

Mouth of the ouch

It was a rough night of memories for Jimmy Hart. During the flashback to WrestleMania III, "The Mouth of the South" was nearly on the receiving end of a pair of animal assaults. At WM 3, he narrowly avoided Damian as Jake "The Snake" Roberts faced The Honky Tonk Man and The British Bulldogs' Matilda tried to take a bite out of Hart. Despite getting up close and personal with some of the members of the the wild kingdom, WM 3 was a winning night for Hart. The Hart Foundation beat the Bulldogs, and HTM defeated Roberts. Hart's only loss of the night came in a "Hair vs. Hair" match with Roddy Piper shaving Adrian Adonis.

To see how far the WWE has changed since that night, WM 3 featured six different full-time managers. In addition to Hart, there were Bobby Heenan, Mr. Fuji, Miss Elizabeth, Johnny Valiant, and Slick leading people to the ring that night. Alice Cooper, The Fabulous Moolah, and Dino Bravo also joined wrestlers at ringside.

Proving that it was a good night for animals, George "The Animal" Steele also stood in someone's corner that night, helping Ricky Steamboat get past Randy Savage.

As a comparison, last year's WrestleMania featured Santino Marella standing alongside Beth Phoenix and Hornswoggle was in the corner of Finlay.

Triple T

Triple H gave us a little bit of everything during his interview promoting "No Way Out." If you like his blatant sales pitches for WWE merchandise, you received his promotion of his new T-shirt. If you enjoy his serious promos, you had a nice glimpse at his serious side. Between making fun of Vicki Guerrero's size and his infomercial delivery on products, it's easy to forget that he can delivery a solid interview when he's not too far over the top. He produced a well thought out argument for why he should be the favorite at Sunday's Pay-Per-View.

While he does have more experience that anyone else in his Chamber, I would respectfully disagree with his math. I believe I heard him say that he had been in six Elimination Chamber matches. By my count, this Sunday will be his fifth EC match. He competed in 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2008 before this weekend's event.

As for his T-shirt, "eversoris" is defined as "one who destroys or overthrows."

Bow your heads

During the broadcast, we saw a sign for Vanessa 3:16 and during the look back at WrestleMania 13, Austin 3:16 and Hitman 3:16 were prominently featured. They weren't the only biblical references during the show. In fact, Smackdown was full of the battle between good and evil. It started with Edge reminding us that he was "sent to hell" by The Undertaker and later the announcers referred to The Elimination Chamber as "Satan's structure" and a "demonic structure."

Jim Ross proclaimed Matt Hardy's treatment of his brother as a "betrayal of Biblical proportions," an obvious reference to Cain and Abel. We did see Jake Roberts's snake Damian and Michelle McCool countered with a well-placed cross on the back of her ring attire.

The WWE has often used similar inspiration through the years with some famous and not-so famous characters. Brother Love is perhaps the most well known as he preached the power of love during his segment in the late 1980s into the early '90s. He was an obvious take-off on the televangelists who were so popular at the time.

D-Von Dudley became Reverend D-Von after the Dudleys split because of the WWE draft. D-Von walked to the ring alongside another faithful figure, a man named Deacon Bautista. Batista would drop the Deacon and the "u" in his name before becoming a main eventer.

Before Mosh and Thrasher became The Headbangers, they dressed as nuns and went by the names Sister Angelica and Mother Smucker. Later, they would drop the habit, but kept the skirts. At one point, they were even managed by Brother Love and were dubbed "The Sisters of Love."

No discussion of wrestling and religion would be complete without bringing up the epic battle of Vince McMahon vs. God. In 2006, McMahon battled with Shawn Michaels, who had returned to the squared circle with a new attitude credited to his new found faith. When Michaels defeated McMahon at WrestleMania 22, the Chairman belittled the victory by insisting that it was simply "an act of God." Was this just another cliche? Not for McMahon as he used it as a rallying cry for a future match. He teamed with Shane McMahon to face Shawn Michaels and his tag team partner at Backlash. Michaels's partner was God.

The night of the event, Michaels entered the ring alone, at least to the naked eye. If you prefer a deeper discussion, perhaps God was indeed with him, but for actual visual people in the ring, you had a pair of McMahons, Michaels, and a referee. To McMahon's credit, he insisted that the ref check God for foreign objects before the match started. With the help of The Spirit Squad, the McMahon's were able to get the win.

So, if you were upset that Shane McMahon has been getting the best of The Legacy, it's been worse. In 2006, Shane and Vince beat God. I'm pretty sure he has a rematch clause. Just be patient.

Lee Stevens goes "Under The Microscope" for Smackdown and Raw. You can leave comments below or e-mail him at GLStevens.Torch@gmail.com.

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