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, instead it's a closer look at the some of the things that were said or seen during the broadcast.

TCB TLC

The announcers correctly complimented Christian on his TLC experience going into the Money in the Bank Ladder Match, despite this being just his second MITB. Although almost everyone has more experience than Christian in the MITB, he could have a potential advantage with his time on the ladders in other matches. The match was created as a result of several table matches and ladder matches until the combination of Tables, Ladders and Chairs was put together. Christian teamed with Edge to face The Hardy Boyz to determine who would receive the managerial services of Terri Runnels in a Ladder match. The Dudley Boyz were thrown into the mix and the three teams combined for a Triple Threat Ladder match at WrestleMania 2000. The three teams would meet again in the first TLC match at SummerSlam later that year.

Christian appeared in the first four TLC matches as did Bubba Ray Dudley. The last three versions of the match have been singles matches with Edge beating Ric Flair, John Cena beating Edge, and Edge downing The Undertaker. All told, Edge has been in six of the seven matches with Christian and Bubba Ray in second place with their four times competing.

Christian's other TLC experience involves watching "What Not To Wear" and downloading the song "No Scrubs," although I don't think that will help him at WrestleMania.

Shhhh

Jim Ross claimed Finlay is the WWE's version of Sean Thorton, or "The Quiet Man." Fans of John Wayne will recognize the reference as it pertains to the movie from "The Duke," in which he portrayed an Irish-American who returns to his homeland and finds love and his share of fights. I'm not sure who the love interest is for Finlay, but the Irish fighter certainly rings true. The movie won an Oscar for Best Director for John Ford.

Wayne is the only member of his family who liked to fight. He is the great-uncle for former boxer Tommy Morrison. Morrison won the WBO Heavyweight Title and is also known for his role in Rocky V, where he portrayed Tommy Gunn, the protege of Rocky Balboa who later turns on him in an attempt to forward his career.

C is for cookie

Jim Ross had the right idea comparing the continuity and teamwork of the MITB teams to that of the United States squad in the recent WBC, he just missed the mark on the final letter. Ross called it the "World Baseball Conference," when the "C" actually stands for Classic. The WBC also can stand for World Boxing Council and the World Backgammon Championships, although I'm quite sure that Ross wasn't thinking of the board game at the time.

Ross was referring to the fact that other countries, including Cuba, Korea, and eventual champion Japan, train for a longer period of time as a team, while the U.S. takes a break from Spring Training to compete. As a result, the U.S. team has yet to win the WBC. Tazz countered that he was rooting for the Netherlands, which was the surprise team of the most recent tournament, knocking off the powerful team from Puerto Rico.

How can we miss you when you won't go away?

Ross quickly moved from the diamond to the gridiron as he commented "as unwanted as Jay Cutler in Denver." In case you haven't been following the NFL off-season, Cutler was discussed in a potential trade for the rights to Matt Cassel. Although the deal never went through, Cutler found out about the potential swap and apparently he was less than thrilled. Now, Cutler has demanded a trade and even put his Colorado home up for sale. The Broncos have since emphasized that Cutler is their quarterback and they have no intentions of trading him.

Ho

An interesting note on Cutler is that he was born in a town called Santa Claus, Indiana, which isn't our only Christmas reference of the night. Earlier we talked about the movie "The Quiet Man," featuring John Wayne. Wayne's love interest in the movie is played by Maureen O'Hara, who also starred in "Miracle on 34th Street," which features a little girl trying to prove the existence of Santa Claus.

St. Nick makes another brief appearance, at least in spirit, during the boyhood memories of Matt and Jeff Hardy. The brothers are shown on Christmas morning with their new gifts, a Wipeout car track and the classic Connect Four. Pretty sneaky, sis.

Woof

If Matt wants to bring a pooch to his promo, that's his business, but I certainly hope he doesn't drag the dog to the ring at WrestleMania. It certainly wouldn't be the first canine to be ringside.

Top 5 Wrestling Dogs:

(5) Pepper--Al Snow's best friend. Met an untimely death at the hands of The Big Boss Man, who used him in a recipe. Really, could you blame him? The recipe called for pepper, he used Pepper. The feud culminated in the famously bad "Dog Kennel Match."

(4) Chloe--Torrie Wilson's Chihuahua had a much more successful WWE experience. First, she wasn't used as an entree and second, she gets to live with Torrie Wilson.

(3) Hillbilly Jim's coon hound--Had the honor of training Hillbilly Jim for his future WWF career, despite nearby distractions of moonshine and jug bands.

(2) Matilda--Escorted The British Bulldogs to the ring. High point--nearly biting Jimmy Hart. Low point--being dog-napped by The Islanders.

1. Pepe--Let's review: Al Snow listening to his dog makes sense, because Snow was supposed to be deranged. Torrie Wilson was going for a Paris Hilton look, so we need a dog as an accessory. Hillbilly Jim was also going for the Paris Hilton look, so a coon hound works and The British Bulldogs having a bulldog is obvious. Pepe gets the #1 spot simply because it was so random. Steve McMichael was a former defensive lineman in the NFL. He played on one of the most dominating defensive teams of all-time in the 1986 Bears. He would later join a revamped version of The Four Horseman as the "muscle" of the group. So why would he bring his dog Pepe with him to the broadcast booth? Who knows? For the record, that's three chihuahua's on the Top 5 list. Well done.

(also receiving votes: Dirty egg-sucking dog, Dirty Yellow Dog, Junkyard Dog, Road Dogg, Mad Dog Vachon, and Jerry Lawler's puppies)

Black or white

I enjoyed the visual of Shawn Michael's Undertaker slowly walking to the ring with his back-up Druids. It reminded me of a short-lived character back in the early part of the decade who would appear in the audience dressed in all-white. I believe it was Vic Grimes, who was briefly called "Key" in a feud with The Godfather. If I am remembering correctly, Grimes would later wrestle as one of "The Baldies" in ECW.

As for the most recent man in white, Shawn Michaels shared the opening words of The Bible by quoting Genesis, chapter one. He actually took us through the first five verses of the first chapter of Genesis before eventually breaking into classic Heartbreak Kid. If The Undertaker cares to respond, he could certainly use the same book, just a different chapter. Instead of starting at the beginning, he could go to the end and use Revelations. Although any number of verses would serve his purpose, Revelations 6:12-17 seem to fit.

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come."

I'm sure he would know when to insert the appropriate eyes rolling into the back of the head and assorted Dead Man gestures, but it seems to work. I'm certainly not advocating using The Bible to promote a pay-per-view, so if you object to such things, Shawn Michaels started it...at least this time.

Finally

As for The Undertaker sneaking up on Michaels despite HBK being escorted to the ring by similarly clothed protection--you simply can't get good Druids these days.

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

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