2/20 WWE Smackdown Reax

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (7.0): Best: Jeff vs. Edge (in ring and on mic); Vickie promo. Worst: Umaga vs. Goldman; "the date." How many days is it till WrestleMania again? Raw at least mentioned Money in the Bank (though no follow-up); there was no mention at all on ECW or Smackdown. It makes sense to unify the tag titles with the nearly non-existent division they have. The date segment was completely stupid, and did no favors for anyone involved. All that work with Miz and Morrison is starting to get diminishing returns from Creative. The booking wasn't all that better for the MVP-Benjamin/Guerrero match. The wrestling was okay, but the finish was pretty lame. It allowed Shelton to save face for the loss if nothing else. The crowd is accepting Umaga as a monster face, but already he's spinning his wheels in the role. (See also: Khali, The Great) And he squashes Scotty Goldman on Scotty's way out. Scotty "coulda been a contender" if Creative wasn't so lazy. (See also: Williams, Petey; MVP; Benjamin, Shelton.) ECW is in desperate need of roster, so why not move him there instead of dropping him? Gotta love the way Vickie rolls with the boos. And she said something in the promo that made all kinds of sense: Undertaker is Smackdown property. I liked that she trashed Shawn and JBL as unworthy of a Taker challenge (pride for her brand) and plugged Kozlov into the mix (reasonable doubt against the various rumors). I'm also glad that the decision was made to just let real life be the backstory for Triple H's interview. All that is really left to smooth out the story (for those who don't dig deep) would be to explain how their storyline breakup somehow lead to them getting back together. It could be something as simple as lingering feelings that didn't go away. However, in bringing Hunter into the McMahon-Legacy they're burying Randy's Rumble win and title shot. It's almost being forgotten. Edge and Jeff showed great chemistry on the mic in the opening segment, and the main event in the ring. I was concerned about Matt's lack of involvement until tonight. Looks like the priority was to set the titles up on Sunday before taking the Hardys feud wherever it's going to lead. It's looking like Matt and Jeff will blow off their feud at WrestleMania or Backlash with match one of the series next week. Meanwhile, it's looking every bit that Edge needs some time off before his left knee makes him take it. Who knows why it's bothering him, but it's getting more noticeable.

Alex Roberts in the U.K. (6.5): Best Match: Edge vs. Hardy. Worst Match: Umaga Squash. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not but the WWE painted Smackdown as completely irrelevant this week. Edge opened the show with a rehash of his Raw opening and was interrupted by Jeff Hardy instead of John Cena. In fact Edge barely mentioned Cena so presumably we have to wait until Raw to see that WrestleMania angle advance and have to make do with a filler Jeff Hardy match on Smackdown. Triple H's interview was intense and the best-delivered promo he's given in years, but the major advancement of the Orton feud was teased for Raw. Kozlov is thrown into the race to end The Undertaker's streak and then teases advancement of that on Raw as well. As far as I can tell the only notable WrestleMania angle that really advanced on Smackdown this week was the Hardy vs. Hardy feud and that wasn't exactly a compelling or important advancement. Not that Smackdown was especially bad this week. I really enjoyed Miz and Morrison's "date" with the Bella twins and am quite enjoying this Colons vs. Miz/Morrison feud. It remains to be seen whether the WWE has the guts to pull the trigger on a long overdue Tag Titles Unification match at WrestleMania or not but signs are good. The Benjamin/Guerrero vs. MVP/Truth tag match was enjoyable. I guess some kind of triple threat for the U.S. Title is brewing. Amazingly, the Smackdown Divas had a surprisingly enjoyable match this week as well. Gail Kim's debut video was awful though. Like fan-made YouTube video awful. On the not so good side, Umaga gets another pointless squash victory. He needs a feud or some kind of direction. Personally I'm hoping for a Money in the Bank win. All in all, a relatively uneventful show that highlighted the problem of spreading three major WrestleMania angles across both brands.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for a "WWE Smackdown Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on SD, click here.

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