By Lee Stevens, PWTorch specialist

Thank you for joining me as we put Smackdown "Under The Microscope." This is not a complete recap of Friday's show. This is simply a closer look at what was seen, what was heard and anything else that comes to mind during the broadcast.

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I appreciated the announcers making the best efforts to put perspective into the Edge vs. Kofi Kingston match. Jim Ross reminded us that Edge cost Kingston a shot at the championship by jumping him before the Elimination Chamber match and taking his spot. Tazz insisted that he had spoken to Kingston earlier in the day and that Kofi was very angry about the incident before the Elimination Chamber.

Both of those pieces of information would have been more effective if they actually came from Kingston. We haven't heard anything from him since Edge stole his spot more than a month ago. I liked J.R. and Tazz doing their best to give the match a degree of intensity, but Kingston's silence didn't help.

Thumbs up to Edge for breaking out a different finisher to seal the victory. Very few people were expecting to see the Sharpshooter and count me among those who didn't figure it would bring the final bell. Any time a wrestler can mix up the finishing sequence, it keeps their matches fresh and forces the audience to pay attention. It also gave the announcers a chance to drop the name Bret Hart, which was only the first of many references throughout the evening.

Roll Call

Tazz and Jim Ross went through their Rolodex during the Tag Team Title match.

"Shades of Mr. Wrestling II"
"Carlos Colon must be proud"
"Shades of Midnight Express"
"Channeling Pedro Morales"

Although all of the references made sense at the time, they seem to cross a wide range of the wrestling landscape, until you take a closer look. Carlos Colon (#2 on our list), who most know is the father of Carlito and Primo, won the WWC World Tag Team title three times, including a 1983 reign with Pedro Morales (#4). The Midnight Express (#3) defeated Mr. Wrestling II (#1) and Magnum T.A. for the Mid-South Tag Team titles in 1984. Ironically, only Morales spend a majority of his career with the WWF/WWE.

Jim Ross also called on his football knowledge for another reference. After Miz yelled out "All day long!," J.R. insisted that Miz must think he's Adrian Peterson. The Vikings RB is known as "A.D." and "All Day," not to be confused with Chicago Bears RB Adrian Peterson, who is most commonly known as "No, I meant the other one."

How was your week?

Ross obviously had the college game on his mind this week as he mentioned that Michele McCool wasn't doing well and it hasn't been a good week overall for her alma mater, Florida State. In case you're not aware of the bad week on the Seminole side, the NCAA has ruled that FSU must forfeit all of the games in which 61 ineligible athletes competed. It covers a total of 10 Florida State sports throughout 2006 and 2007. The school is appealing. Michelle McCool was appealing too, until she changed her hair.

Hey, it rhymes!

Apparently J.R. was inspired during the Divas match as he suddenly got in touch with his sensitive side.

"Raven hair and ruby lips
and sparks fly from Melina's fingertips."

Tazz ruined the romance with his response, "Is that a limerick?"

If my English teacher, Mrs. Hawkins, taught me correctly, a limerick is a five-line poem, with the first, second, and fifth lines rhyming and including nine syllables. The third and fourth lines also rhyme and are usually shorter than the other three entries, with just six syllables.

Limerick is also the third largest city in Ireland. Dublin is number one in that category, while Belfast is second and the city which provided Finlay to the world, according to his ring introduction. He was actually born in Greenisland, which is very near Belfast.

WMXX

Our WrestleMania flashback took us to Madison Square Garden and WrestleMania XX, including a Hall of Fame foursome in Gene Okerlund, Bobby Heenan, The Fabulous Moolah, and Mae Young. Ironically, there were a pair of "Fatal Four-Way" matches on the card that night, but not involved the romantic escapades of that group.

The legitimate "four-ways" including a tag match with Rob Van Dam & Booker T vs. Garrison Cade & Mark Jindrak vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. La Resistance. RVD & Booker T were the victors. A second tag match involved Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty vs. The World's Greatest Tag Team vs. The Bashams vs. The APA, with Rikishi and Scotty retaining the titles. Just five years later, the only wrestlers still on the active roster from those two matches are JBL, Shelton Benjamin, and Charlie Haas.

Also during this look back, we saw John Cena win his first championship in the WWE. He defeated one of his WrestleMania opponents to accomplish the feat, overtaking The Big Show in the opening match for the U.S. Title. It was the first time that championship was defended at WrestleMania.

What I remember most about the event was the battle between Brock Lesnar and Goldberg. Both were planning to depart the WWE soon after the event, which would have been fine if people had actually found out after the event. Lesnar would leave to pursue an NFL career and Goldberg's contract was expiring and more than a few fans in attendance that night knew of the wrestler's next steps.

Since neither wanted to risk hurting their post-WWE career choices, it was not a high-impact match, with the fans shouting their disapproval. The only cheers of the match went to guest referee Stone Cold Steve Austin. Although Goldberg won the match, Austin was the last one standing after a very popular Stone Cold Stunner.

Lesnar did have a tryout with the Vikings, although he didn't make the team. Goldberg's contract was not renewed after it expired a week later. (Skip to the 4:40 mark in the video below.)



We're going streaking!

I certainly appreciate the WWE's persistence with Vladimir Kozlov, specifically in regards to his winning streak. Even after losing a Triple Threat match, they revised his unbeaten streak to singles competition. After Shawn Michaels pinned him on Raw, you may have thought that any talk of a spotless record was gone. You would have been wrong. On Friday night, he was mentioned as having never lost on Friday night. Now that he's lost to The Undertaker, you should know that Kozlov is still undefeated on ECW, Thursday afternoons, and on Arbor Day. The Moscow Mauler rules Arbor Day.

Finally

Watching a replay of Triple H making himself at home at Randy Orton's place made me think that if they can't settle their issues at WrestleMania, this may be the best time to bring back the pay-per-view "In Your House." Maybe not.

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

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