I admit, I’m a sucker for gimmick Pay Per Views. Royal Rumble, old-school Survivor Series, King of the Ring, and the blood-filled Hell in the Cell.
Tonight the WWE brings us Tables, Ladders and Chairs from Baltimore, with a decent-looking card. With four title matches, and a surprisingly John Cena-free card, this even could be a real sleeper.
Let’s go over the card in my predicted order.
1. Dolph Ziggler (champion) defends his United States Championship vs. Zack Ryder
Zack Ryder is at the highest point of his WWE career. He’s a callback to the 90s, with about 3-4 moves of doom, catchphrases the crowd can chant along to, and a finisher that can be hit against most wrestlers, and is looking better and better with each match. He got a chance at this match after John Cena sacrificed his shot at the WWE title. Cena then helped Ryder defeat World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry to give Ryder the title shot.
Ziggler is probably the best all-around “superstar” in the WWE right now, as he’s being allowed to do more with the mic, and always has one of the best matches on the card. He is the next big thing in wrestling, and a future multi-time World Champion. It’s hard to believe he was once “NICKY!” of the Spirt Squad (http://youtu.be/WklKOk4z1HA).
WHO SHOULD WIN: Zack Ryder. Dolph Ziggler’s road to bigger and better things is almost completely paved. He just needs to start taking the next steps. Ryder would make for a good babyface champion, with it still being amazing that his theme music invoked X-Pac heat (read: complete and utter silence from the crowd). Now folks look forward to doing the fist pump with him, shouting the “WOO WOO WOO”, and taking care while spiking their hair.
WHO WILL WIN: Zack Ryder. Please. Same reasons as above. A win for him would do good for both men. Plus there’s a 75% chance John Cena will show up to ensure Ryder wins.
In what can only be described as a MAJOR DEAL – World Wrestling Entertainment is moving Friday Night Smackdown from MyNetwork TV, a network television staple for eleven years, to Syfy, a cable network, according to the Los Angeles Times publication THIS October.
Syfy will be paying 30 million dollars for Smackdown. We expect an official announcement made by WWE and Syfy later this week. Syfy already airs Tuesday Night’s WWE NXT program. Smackdown has never been on a cable network, so this is a first. As it stands, Smackdown is the final “original” program on MyNetwork TV and the first episode, back on October 3rd, 2008, scored a 3.2 rating – the highest in network history.
Update April 13th, 2010: According to F4WOnline.com, NXT will be cancelled in the fall and Smackdown wi ll remain the network’s only wrestling programming.
Here is the footage of Jack Swagger winning the World Heavyweight Title from Chris Jericho to open Smackdown this week. Please be aware that WWE does not allow any kind of video taping of their product, so it is VERY likely that this footage will get pulled by WWE. So if it vanishes – you now know why.
Jack Swagger has gone from the Ugly Duckling to the Swan.
Usually, Smackdown isn’t a newsworthy show. It’s just a good wrestling show heavy on the matches and not as heavy on the angles. But come Mania time, Smackdown can be just as newsworthy and angle-worthy as Raw, in addition to having the strong wrestling. Last Friday’s show was really good in this way.
They were able to keep the intrigue alive of who Edge was going to challenge, as he teased spearing The Undertaker at the end of the show. He also went face to face with Chris Jericho, giving Chris Jericho the “how dare you?” for being happy that Edge was injured and unable to continue doing his childhood dream. Edge was in total babyface mode. CM Punk was also made strong as he danced with Jericho, Edge, and Taker in the main event segment.
The other intriguing angle from Smackdown was Dave Batista losing to Punk in the match to be the participant in the Smackdown Elimination Chamber. After showing footage of Batista attacking John Cena after Raw went off the air, Batista walked out of his match and was counted out, taking him out of the chamber match and adding more intrigue to the John Cena/Vince McMahon/Bret Hart storyline. Why did Batista opt out? Did Vince want him to opt out? We got a little bit of progression on Monday when Vince admitted that he paid Batista to attack Bret Hart, but it’s not yet transparent.
Now that both Elimination Chambers are set, here are the main events for the formerly known as No Way Out PPV. Continue Reading »
Usually, Smackdown isn’t a newsworthy show. It’s just a good wrestling show heavy on the matches and not as heavy on the angles. But come Mania time, Smackdown can be just as newsworthy and angle-worthy as Raw, in addition to having the strong wrestling. Last Friday’s show was really good in this way. 
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