By Lee Stevens, Torch specialist

Thank you for joining me as we put Smackdown "Under The Microscope." If you're a new reader, this is not a complete recap of the show, instead, it's a closer look at Friday's broadcast.

Uh oh, Dad used your middle name

As the #1 contender made his way to the ring, Jim Ross gave him the full treatment, introducing him as Jeffrey Nero Hardy. History majors should recognize Hardy's middle name as being shared with one of the more famous Roman emperors. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ruled from 54 to 68 and was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero could have been a fan of WWE as he ordered the building of theaters and promoted athletic games. If he wasn't a fan of yours, you didn't have to guess. He is known for a number of executions, including his mother and adoptive brother.

The famous phrase "fiddled while Rome burned" was likely prompted by the "Great Fire of Rome" in 64. Reports vary about the extent of the damage of the fire and the level of Nero's reaction. Some stories have him singing, while others have him playing a lyre while the fire raged on around him. Despite the discrepancies, the phrase has become known to describe a situation which is falling apart, but the leader doesn't show the slightest bit of concern, even to the point of denying the existence of a problem.

Just in case you sense any similarities between him and another famous leader, Vince McMahon's middle name is actually Kennedy.

Can you see better now? Or now?

The dueling eye injuries continued as C.M. Punk stated his case by sharing his prescription medicine, while Hardy went with the eye patch to cover up his optical illusion. He joins a long list of wrestlers who have worn a similar accessory, although most have donned them with the same deception of Hardy.

Carl Ouellet is one of the few to actually have a medical reason to do so as he lost the use of his right eye when he was 12 as a friend accidentally shot him with a pellet gun. He has wrestled as Pierre Ouellet and Jean-Pierre Lafitte.

Finlay, Scott Riggs, Homicide, and Colonel DeBeers are just a few of the men who have sported the eye patch.

Night of Champions

Todd Grisham emphasized the importance of the upcoming pay-per-view as he boldly proclaimed that "every title WWE has will be defended, the only night that happens." So far, the WWE Championship, World Heavyweight Championship, ECW Championship, Unified Tag Team Championship, and Divas Championship are officially on the card for the July 26 event. Not yet scheduled are an Intercontinental Title match, The United States Championship, and the WWE Women's belt.

Although there is still time for those titles to be added, the following titles will likely not be defended, despite Grisham's claim. Mark Henry's title of "World's Strongest Man," Brian Kendrick will not have to face any other Brian Kendrick for the title of THE Brian Kendrick, and Curt Hawkins will not have to face Jim Duggan for the title of "Yes, I'm still on the roster. No really, go ahead and check. I'll wait here."

And if that didn't work, we'd wrestle a bear

Jim Ross provided an interesting take on the Kane vs. Jeff Hardy match. After Kane applied a body scissors hold on Hardy, Ross reminisced about how "in the early 1900s, wrestlers trained using body scissors on bags of wheat."

He also witnessed Kane lying behind Hardy with his arms draped around Hardy's midsection. Ross called it a "modified bearhug." My wife looked up and called it "spooning," which I've also practiced on bags of wheat.

Hey bro

Cryme Tyme's thoughtful discussion on "bromances" included the pairing of Siegfried & Roy, which marks the second time in less than a month that the famous Las Vegas act has been mentioned on Smackdown. June 19's broadcast featured Edge questioning John Morrison's long, glittery robes as he asked "are you Siegfried or Roy?"

Although Shad and JTG listed several of their examples, some famous ones they missed include Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Georgey Clooney and Brad Pitt, and Lance Armstrong and Matthew McConaughey.

I've got your Blu ray right here, pal.

Todd Grisham clearly doesn't respect his elders as he slammed Jim Ross for his age and technological challenges. Ross insisted that he owned the John Cena film "12 Rounds" and has enjoyed it. Grisham added, "Is that your first color movie?" He paused before tacking on, "They've got 3-D now too."

I can only guess about Ross's DVD collection, but for historical purposes, the first color movie was "A Visit to the Seaside," an eight-minute short film showcased in 1908. As for Grisham's second dig about 3-D movies, the technology has changed throughout the years, but the first 3-D film could be "The Power of Love," which showed at the Ambassador Hotel Theater in Los Angeles in 1922.

and the winner is

Todd Grisham made an interesting analogy as he watched the John Morrison vs. Dolph Ziggler match. "It's like two Heisman Trophy winning quarterback's meeting in the pros to find out who's better."

It's a fair comparison, but not one which has had much chance of happening in the recent past. Of the last 22 winners, 13 have been quarterbacks, but only Carson Palmer of the Bengals, by way of USC, has had considerable success in the NFL. Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow are still in college, but looking back, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback has had much of an opportunity to showcase talents against a player with the same college credentials.

1989 winner Andre Ware played parts of four season with the Detroit Lions before finishing his career in Canada. Ty Detmer followed in 1990 and he actually lasted 14 season in the NFL, including starting 11 games for the Eagles in 1996. Gino Toretta won the award in 1992 and was on an NFL roster for five seasons, although he threw just 16 passes in that time.

Former Florida State QB Charlie Ward has some of the best professional statistics of our Heisman winners, playing 12 seasons and leading his team to the playoffs. His team was the New York Knicks as Ward turned his back on the gridiron and focused on the hard court.

Danny Wuerffel, Chris Weinke, Eric Crouch, Jason White all left the NFL with little fanfare and Matt Leinart and Troy Smith are serving as backups for the Cardinals and Ravens, respectively.

Back to school

Staying with the college game, when Eve and Michelle McCool faced off, it was correctly mentioned that it was Southern Cal vs. Florida St. in the ring. In the Heisman race, USC leads the way with seven winners (an honor the school shares with Notre Dame and Ohio St.), while FSU has two.

He could go all the way

After Chris Jericho successfully caught Rey Mysterio in the middle of a move, it was suggested that "If Jericho was in the NFL, he'd be the league leader in interceptions." Just so he knows what his goal is, Baltimore's Ed Reed had nine last year.

In an interesting note, Charles Woodson led a group of defenders in second place with seven. Woodson won the Heisman in 1997 while he was at Michigan.

and I type 45 words per minute

As Chris Jericho reviewed his resume, the numbers were quite remarkable. His nine times with the Intercontinental Belt have been well documented recently, but we can't forget about his five times as World Champion and another four as a Tag Title holder. Although he grouped his World Titles into one group, he won the WCW Title twice, the WWE World Heavyweight Title twice and the WWF Championship once.

His title of "the very best and what I do" also will not be on the line at Night of the Champions.

I'm insulted! (At least, I think I am)

In what is quickly becoming a weekly feature, it's time to check the dictionary and take a closer look at Jericho's insults.

Recalcitrant--(adj.) resisting authority or control; not obedient; hard to deal with or manage.

For the record, magnacious is not officially recognized by Webster. He was referring to Rey Mysterio at the time, so I can't imagine it's anything positive!

The people have spoken!

Thank you to everyone who voted in this week's Smackdown Microscope poll. By a narrow margin, putting The Microscope "Under The Microscope" won for this week. Perhaps the best way to handle this is to focus on the questions my readers have written.

What makes you an expert on wrestling?

Nothing. I have never claimed to be an expert, but I have been watching the business for 30 years. One of my earliest memories is seeing Larry Zbyszko turn on Bruno Sammartino and I remember finding one of my Uncle's wrestling magazines featuring photos of a wild match with a very nice gentleman named Abdullah the Butcher. I was hooked. I will use historical perspective when possible because I am constantly amused that many things which worked decades ago still work now.

There are others who may know more about wrestling and I encourage you to correct me if I make a mistake.

What is the purpose of "The Microscope?"

I don't think you need another recap of the show, so I'm going to take a closer look at the broadcast. It could be something that an announcer said, or it could be something completely unrelated to the show.

My inspiration for "The Microscope" is equal parts of the old show "Pop-up Video" when random items related to the song or video would appear and could take you five steps away from the original intent and then bring you back again, plus Tony Reali on "Pardon The Interruption" who reminds the viewers of things they missed or makes corrections when needed. We need to throw in some "Cheap Seats" and "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" and that about covers it.

I take my portion of The Torch seriously, just not too seriously. Most of my loyal readers feel the same, but if you feel passionately about something, I certainly respect a complaint or disagreement and a respectful e-mail or comment usually warrants a response.

Why do you have to be so negative?

I honestly don't think I am as negative as many as others who write about wrestling. When you read "The Microscope," I hope you will read with an understanding that I do not know everything and I don't expect WWE to be perfect either. I am watching as someone who wants to enjoy the show and I will try my best to find something positive with the broadcast. If I feel the need to be critical about something on TV, it usually is obviously bad and I will still either use it as a comparison to something else or provide a constructive idea of how to make it better. I have never understood how someone could hate every aspect of something and then make sure to schedule time in their busy week to subject themselves to more of it!

Why can't you take the show seriously?

I laugh when I receive e-mails in the same day which accuse me of being too negative and too positive. I will attempt to keep the mood light with my work. If you want to read someone who simply hates everything and will give you alphabetized lists on what's wrong with the world, I'm sure you know how to find them. If I think something is funny, I'll share it and perhaps you'll get a laugh from it too. I will do my best to not go too far for a joke, but please consider this my apology in advance if I fail in that quest.

Why did Wade/Bruce/James write that?

I have no idea. There are weeks when I don't want to take responsibility for what I have written so please don't ask me to analyze their thought process. I agree with some of what they produce and disagree with other pieces of their work. It's a big world, so the least I can do is listen to another point of view. I am grateful that Wade gives me the opportunity to put my words out there and James helps in many ways behind the scenes. Bruce? I have no idea.

Are you the only one to write "Under The Microscope?"

I am the only who covers Raw and Smackdown and, for better or worse, every thought is mine. Curtis Shanks does a fantastic job of covering the smaller details of TNA and Michael Simmons has been known to take out the microscope for ECW. Each person has a different style and different format. No, I don't have meetings with the other Specialists.

Why is The Microscope so late this week?

I'm sorry for the delay. During some shows, I am furiously writing notes as I watch because there is so much quality information being thrown at me. If an announcer mentions a number, I immediately want to research it to see if it is accurate and maybe there is a common thread in the list. If I see a sign which mentions a wrestler we haven't heard from in quite some time, I want to find out where they are now. If someone compares a wrestler to a celebrity, I want to connect that person to wrestling in the fewest steps as possible.

Some weeks are easy, but some weeks the information is harder to research. I want to submit something which I would find interesting and want to read, but I also understand I need to do it in a timely fashion. If the show airs on a Monday, I'll try to have it finished by Tuesday, but sometimes we're lucky if we see it before January.

Why didn't you answer my question/complaint about...?

If you've been reading this long enough, you know that I will answer every comment or respectful complaint. Sadly, sometimes the answer is "I don't know," but please know that I appreciate anyone who takes even a few minutes to read my words.

I don't know exactly what happened to the comment section, but I am quite confident that it had nothing to do with "The Microscope." I am grateful that I have readers who leave constructive comments and I hope we can continue that dialogue soon.

I can't promise that every week will be worthy of an award, but I was a fan and a reader of The Torch before I was lucky enough to be a writer. I believe in leaving a place better than you found it. Hopefully I've helped improve the neighborhood.

If you were ever curious about "The Microscope," I hope this gave you a closer look at my thoughts on my part of this website. We'll take a closer look at other topics next week.

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

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