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2/29 WWE Smackdown Reax #1: "There wasn't even one word about Flair or any real thoughts on this match." Mar 2, 2008 - 1:05:58 PM
Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (7.0): Best: Palumbo vs. Noble. Worst: two days of horrible announcing. WrestleMania is well on its way on Smackdown, save for one match. Big Show vs. the two jobbers did its job to illustrate his dominance. He looked a tad bit rusty, as there are some moves he was doing before he left that weren't there yet, but give it time. The Make-A-Wish video was a nice one, but considering the bulk of the content featured Raw's roster, it should have played on Raw (which it didn't). Moore/Yang are back in business with a win over Deuce/Domino, and Jesse/Festus have now beaten Miz/Morrison. The card's already looking full, but I could see some room for a three- or four-corners match with the four teams for the title. At least Smackdown/ECW is trying to make the tag division look important. Palumbo-Noble was a very good match. Despite the loss, Noble came across as scrappy. But it needed a promo or something to get the build back on track since Jamie had been gone to sell their last encounter. Nice editing that it had, "The Dirt Sheet" was a stupid segment, enough said. Batista volunteered and was accepted by Vickie (in a face-like moment) to face You-maga. A promo would be helpful to explain Batista's motive to volunteer: brand pride, some sort of unwritten revenge, whatever. Come to think of it, Vickie also defused some of Edge's heelness when discussing their wedding and honeymoon, making the followup with the EdgeHeads coming up way short. Undertaker interrupting V-Balls match was a godsend ending what would have been a really lousy match and served to segues into his match with Zack. Zack looked pretty good for a while before Undertaker finished him off. I'm surprised that Edge and Curt didn't interfere as much as I expected. This is a good thing; something TNA needs to learn. But Cole and Coach have not learned a thing! Roberts announced Big Show as weighing 430, and Cole said he was 535. Even though he looked much heavier when he left, he was never billed as more than 500. Cole said he couldn't believe that Yang and Moore could be friends and partners. It's nothing a promo can't fix, but that should have been done a long time ago. Cole claimed that all four of Batista/Kane-MVP/Khali were in the Elimination Chamber, when Kane was in a pre-show match. At least the stupidity wasn't at full volume. And Diva Search winner Lena Yada gets more face and air time than winner Eve; what's the point of that? And all Eve did was introduce a replay. Find something for her to do, or please let's not have any more Diva Searches. The match missing build completely was Flair-Michaels. It is a Career-Threatening Match, but it is also interpromotional (Michaels representing Raw, Flair representing Smackdown). There wasn't even one word about Flair or any real thoughts on this match (the challenge was made and accepted just this past Monday) or his induction into the Hall Of Fame. The early mistreatment of a seemingly important match is almost criminal.
April of Virginia: (5.0): I don't get it anymore. You've got matches that don't make any sence or feuds that are way past their usefulness. MVP should not be fighting Batista; they're not in the same league. Big V fighting Shannon Moore last week was stupid. Did anyone actually think Moore would win? I find myself watching TNA much more than SD anymore. SD has a lack of everything at this point.
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