By Lee Stevens, Torch specialist

Thank you for joining me as put Smackdown "Under The Microscope." This is not a complete recap of Friday's show, simply a closer, slightly offbeat, look at the broadcast.

As sure as my name is Rim Joss

Just days away from one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year, I can excuse a professional like Jim Ross stumbling slightly over his words, just as he did before the first match of the night. "Can history (pause) strike twice? Lightning strike twice?" As Ross corrected himself, Todd Grisham added "history repeat itself."

It's an easy mistake to make and it stands out only because he rarely has that problem. As for lightning striking twice, Central Florida has the shocking distinction of seeing more bolts than any other spot in the United States. A stretch from Tampa to Orlando, called "Lightning Alley" features as many as 50 strikes per square mile per year. Other common spots include the Empire State Building, which is hit an average of 23 times each year and was once struck eight times in just 24 minutes.

Roy Sullivan holds the unenviable honor of surviving seven different lightning strikes in 35 years.

The Tampa Bay Lightning struck just once, winning the Stanley Cup in 2004.

Lightning is often accompanied by thunder, especially in World Wrestling Council, where Thunder & Lightning have held the Tag Team titles 19 times.

Bad Boys From Boston

During that same bout, Chris Jericho kindly took time out of his busy schedule to walk over to the broadcast table to proclaim his team's dominance. If you didn't quite understand what he was saying, Grisham translated, "Chris Jericho has asked that we inform our viewers that The Big Show is handling JTG like a rag doll."

It was accurate and a nice tie-in to Summerslam as "Rag Doll" is the title of a popular song by Aerosmith, who also provided the theme song to the pay-per-view. "Rag Doll" had nothing to do with the way The Big Show was treating JTG, although certain lyrics from the song, which was featured on the album "Permanent Vacation," certainly could apply.

"I'm rippin' up a rag doll, like throwing away an old toy."
"give it all you got 'til you're put out of your misery."

The lyrics which don't work nearly as well include,
"Hot tramp Daddy's little cutie"
"You're so fine they'll never see ya leavin' by the back door"
"Rag Doll, baby won't ya do me like you done before"

That's a hardcore match for which I'm not quite ready.

Royal-T

Congratulations to the loyal Kansas City fan in attendance who had put his money where his allegiance was as he proudly wore his KC Royals shirt to Smackdown. I didn't recognize #23 at first glance, but anything other than George Brett's #5 would have required a closer look for me. Fans of the Royals who are more loyal than I am would have quickly identified the number as belonging to starting pitcher Zack Greinke. Greinke has rebounded from several setbacks, included bouts with depression, to win 11 games this season. He was the pitcher of the month in April of this year.

...connected to the thigh bone

I'm not sure if most women would consider it a compliment, but feel free to try this one. "Melina's body looks like it's made completely of cartilage."

Obviously, the compliment stems from her incredible flexibility and not an actual body scan. Cartilage is found in many, although not all, areas of the body, including the ear and nose. Unlike other connective tissues, cartilage does not contain blood vessels, so if Melina would actually be made completely of cartilage she would not be a friend to the Red Cross, but she would be undefeated in "First Blood" matches.

Is that your final answer?

Jim Ross seemed extra excited to see the Divas in action, causing a slight game show gaffe. "Layla and Maria starting it out. If this was Jeopardy, we'd be loaded with vowels." Todd Grisham quickly stepped up and offered, "Isn't that Wheel of Fortune?," which prompted J.R. to snap back and sarcastically call Grisham "Game Show Master."

Although Layla and Maria give us a credible share of vowels, it's "Wheel of Fortune" where that usually comes in handy and not "Jeopardy." Even if we were on "Wheel of Fortune", Layla and Maria would only provide the "a" and the "i." "E" is actually the most frequently used vowel in the English language and it holds the same distinction in other languages such as Latin, Swedish, and French.

On "Wheel of Fortune," if Layla and Maria didn't produce enough vowels for your liking, it will cost you $250 to buy another one.

If time is running out in the game, the host will give the wheel a final spin and consonants will be worth that amount. Vowels have no value with that final spin.

If you win the game and you reach the bonus puzzle, Pat Sajak will give you several letters, including an "e" for free. He's good people.

As for the game shows, both were developed by Merv Griffin.

Boo?

As we head into Summerslam, one of the best laid out feuds has been C.M. Punk and Jeff Hardy. As we have discussed before with The Microscope, past drug suspensions have received cheers, while encouraging people to live clean lives has prompted angry screams from the crowd. You can add another interesting exchange to the file from Friday's show as Hardy talked about the recent beating at the hands of Punk.

"I've never been one to follow doctor's orders" (Cheers)
"And I don't plan on starting now!" (Louder cheers)

What do we think about ignoring sound medical advice from a trained professional with years of experience? I could not only shorten my career, but also my life! Thank you, good night!

Carry the 5...

Last week, we took Chris Jericho's challenge of he and Big Show being "the only tag team with 40 titles between us" and proved that D-X fell just short and combining Ric Flair with just about anyone would qualify them for the list.

Microscope reader Craig Bursch also took the challenge and shared his thoughts. "My first thought was that Edge + Hulk Hogan would have to be over 40 major titles, but by my count, Edge + Hulk Hogan "only" have 35 major titles between them...not 40.
My second thought was that Edge + Chris Jericho must have more combined titles than JeriShow?

By an earlier count, we had 27 for Jericho and Edge would send us over the top just with tag team belts.

14 Tag Team Championships, combining the World Tag Team Titles and the WWE Titles
1 U.S. Championship
5 World Heavyweight Championships
4 WWE Championships
5 Intercontinental Championships

29 more for Edge pushes our count to 56, which would fit perfectly into Edge's eventual return. The more Jericho boasts that he and Big Show are the "only" team with that many titles, it will just give Edge more storyline incentive to come back with a new teammate of his own. That sound you hear is Christian fans getting excited.

Thanks for the research and the time, Craig!

The people have spoken

Thank you's also go out to everyone who voted in this week's Smackdown Microscope poll. More people were excited to see the Hardy family reunion this week, so we'll take a closer look at the "Happy Hardys." Jeff acknowledged the return by insisting that "Me and my brother are at peace" and while many of you wrote in to complain that the peace talks didn't take long enough, I was pleased that there was at least some recognition of the past strife.

This most recent exchange wasn't the first time the brothers have gone against each other as The Hardy Boyz split in 2002 over Jeff receiving a shot at Rob Van Dam's Intercontinental Championship while Matt felt that he deserved the opportunity. Despite what could have been a bitter family split, Matt went to Smackdown, while Jeff stayed on Raw. Matt eventually moved back into the good graces of the fans by taking on Kane before being released from WWE.

Matt would return to Raw, taking on Edge and former girlfriend Lita before eventually reuniting with his brother in 2006 without much mention of their past problems.

That jealousy seems minor now when you consider the events of the past year, when Matt took responsibility for a beating which prevented Jeff from competing for the WWE Championship, a pyrotechnics accident which nearly killed Jeff, a vehicular accident which nearly killed Jeff, a fire at his trailer which nearly killed Jeff and did kill Jeff's dog.

Matt's apology and subsequent acceptance by his brother sets up two possible scenarios. One, Matt is sincere and will take at least part of the "good guy" role vacated by Jeff if he decides to limp away. Two, Matt is playing his brother for the fool again and the fans will be even more rabid when he eventually turns again. Either way, I like it. Using their old entrance video and music was a strong little touch too.

It may have worked better if Matt begged for forgiveness during the next month, but it doesn't appear that WWE had that kind of time to wait. Considering the limitations based on Jeff's future with the company, I think they made the most out of the situation. I have complained in the past that they didn't make the most 'on-air' use of a 'real-life' situation such as Mr. Kennedy, Umaga and The Brian Kendrick. In this case, they merged the two quite well.

If we could only go back in time, Kizarny.

Lee Stevens examines Raw and Smackdown with "Under The Microscope." He misses the comments section. E-mail him at GLStevens.Torch@gmail.com

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