Hey everyone and welcome to this weeks edition of Chris Reviews Smackdown. In this weeks edition I will discuss my thoughts on No Way Out, The Heavyweight Title match at Wrestlemania, The problem with having the WWE tag champions on ECW, Stevie Richards latest match and more. Please leave some feedback via the comment board or email me and as always I will get back to you.

First off I just want to say I hope you all enjoyed The Talent Exchange predictions blog that myself and Aaron wrote. It was fun doing so and I hope we can continue to joint predict our PPVs from now on. Predictions wise I did ok predicting 3 out of the 6 results correctly. 4 if you include the fact I said Chavo would retain although I was expecting a DQ.

No Way Out was a 5 star Pay Per View in my opinion. Every single match was phenomenal and apart from the RAW elimination chamber, every result went as I hoped it would.

The ECW match was a great way to open the show, both Chavo and Punk excelled themselves in the shot amount of time they were given. I was both surprised and happy to see Chavo pick up the clean win against Punk for the first time. What struck me most was that the crowd were really into Chavo which was nice to see. I felt sorry for Punk getting booed when he went for the three amigos, I am sure this was not his choice, rather something he was told to do but it provoked a very hostile reaction.

The Smackdown Elimination Chamber was everything I had hoped for and more. It was superb from start to finish. Major props to MVP for taking that huge bump of the top of the pod. I was so surprised to see Big V and Khali not start the match but their time in the match was short and they worked well against Batista and Undertaker and I felt they brought a lot to the match. What impressed me was that both Finlay and MVP both showed they are more than capable of handling themselves in a main event match. They both worked incredibly well and whilst I feel age may be against Finaly, MVP once again showed he is one for the future. The set up for the finish of the match was nothing short of amazing and although I was fully expecting Undertaker to win, it was great to see it done in such a unique and entertaining way.

The Flair match went as expected. I enjoy how Kennedy is really developing as a top heel. He just makes you want to hate him. I wonder if now Vince seems to have taken himself out of the Finlay angle if it will indeed be Vince vs Flair at Wrestlemania or will they go with HBK? One way I would make this angle interesting would be for Vince to say if HBK does not beat Flair the HBK must retire to stop him just rolling over for his friend. I think I would prefer to see Flair beat HBK and Batista and possibly Kane on upcoming shows and for Vince to get pissed and say its him vs Flair at Westlemania and then Flair defeat Vince and then announce his retirement saying he has beaten everyone and proved he is still the man. Woooooooooo!

The Heavyweight title match was short as expected. I have to give it to Mysterio for wrestling with a torn bicep, that must have hurt! As it was the Rated R Era continues as expected. I was a bit miffed as to why Edge did not beat down Mysterio rather than the Returning Big Show. I feel this would have given Edge more momentum leading into he feud with Undertaker. Big Show could still have called out Mayweather regardless. But anyway I am not a fan of these celebrity angles, I understand why WWE does it for publicity but as an Englishman and a boxing fan there is no way I will ever get behind Mayweather after he beat Ricky Hatton and was so cocky about it. I hope Big Show destroys him and this match and storyline does not dominate TV too much.

I was so pleased that WWE did not put the belt back on Cena at No Way Out. I was dreading his seemingly inevitable victory. However this was a smart move by creative and I am hoping and praying he does not get the belt at Wrestlemania. HHH is due a lengthy title run. Cena needs some time away from the belt, still in top card feuds but just give the title picture some fresh faces and contenders. If HHH turns heel as expected Jeff Hardy and possibly Jericho and maybe even HBK should be going after the belt. I would like to see Cena in long feuds with the likes of Kennedy and maybe Batista if he gets drafted. That way the fans may start to like the man a bit more if he is not constantly in the title picture. Speaking of Jericho where was he on Monday? Some bizarre booking going on there!

The RAW Elimination Chamber was a quality match no doubt about it. All 6 guys gave it their all and I loved every moment of it except the finish. When Jeff kicked out the pedigree I was on my feet only to slump back down a few seconds later. If WWE want to establish Hardy as a main event star then he should have won this match no question. It is true that he will now probably win MITB but that makes the most exciting and unpredictable match at Wrestlemania a little too predictable. I am a big HHH fan but also a big Hardy fan and I just want to see WWE start to push a couple of guys up to the next level. They have done it with Orton and I think certainly Jeff and maybe Kennedy should defiantly be in main event by Summerslam. Having the same guys around the title all the time gets dull to watch. But still No Way Out was an amazing PPV and I fully recommend checking it out if yo have not et seen it. You will not be disappointed!

Stevie Richards continued his ECW return this week with another easy victory over a local jobber. Although a fairly short match it was good to see Stevie once again and I hope this push continues. I would really like to see Stevie participate in MITB and although I know he would not win it a strong showing would do wonders for his career. Just look at CM Punk last year. I watched Barely Legal again the other night and was reminded just what a talented performer this guy is. WWE need to give him a chance. He deserves at least one run with the ECW title.

So after that fairly long discussion onto this weeks Smackdown, usually the show after the PPV is pretty lame and after a poor RAW on Monday I was not expecting much. However as tends to be the case the majority of Smackdown was highly enjoyable and entertaining.

The show opened with world heavyweight champion Edge and the Edgeheads coming to the ring to gloat. Edge got some major heat in Rey’s hometown. Edge was superb on the mic as always. Edge really knows how to get a response from the crowd. Undertaker came out and cleaned house, I was hoping to see Undertaker on the mic but instead he did what he does best and kicked some butt causing Edge to turn tail and flee. One issue I have is that Edge is NOT undefeated at Wrestlemania. He did not win the MITB match last year so therefore he was defeated. It is not streak vs streak it is streak vs title and I will not hear differently. Edge should not have been in MITB last year in WWE wanted t keep his streak going. Unfortunately the person with the next best streak after Undertaker is John Cena 4-0. Lets hope in 10 years time that it is not John Cena 14-0! Anyway this was a great way to start the show and begin the feud for Wrestlemania and I will be interested to see how this heats up over the coming weeks.

Next up was Shelton Benjamin making his bid to qualify for this year’s MITB. As soon as his opponent was announced as Jimmy Wang Yang I knew we should have a better match than the 2 squashes on RAW the other night. Coach made me laugh, Shelton is favorite in a match featuring Jeff Hardy and Kennedy??? Erm ok. Coach is THE worst commentator ever in WWE fact. This was an enjoyable match and what a MITB qualifying match should be. Although Shelton was favorite Yang still got plenty of offensive moves. The top rope leap and suplex was phenomenal. I was not expecting Yang to kick out of that! Shelton picks up the win and qualifies for MITB

Following this Jesse and Festus were taking on Deuce and Domino in tag team action. Good to see a proper tag team match back again this week. I was hoping that these guys would get a decent amount of time to work a good match. Jesse and Festus are an entertaining tag team and I enjoy seeing them in action. Very unique double team move by Festus slamming Jesse on Deuce. There is no doubt these guys could have a good feud for the titles. These teams have a lot of chemistry together. Looks like Jesse may have joined the WWE broken nose brigade after Domino’s kick to the face. This match epitomized everything that a tag match should be and was thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. The only problem is that the WWE tag titles are currently residing on ECW with Morrison and The Miz so these Smackdown teams are currently not competing for anything. Team Morrison seems locked in a feud with Team Dreamer and I presume this will end up with a title shot but why? That angle could be done without the WWE tag titles involved. These need to be on Smackdown being competed for by proper tag teams. Edge promised the Edgeheads tag team gold back at Armageddon but this may be a long time coming as they will not be feuding with Miz and Morrison. Team Morrison should have lost the belts to Team Yang a couple of months back during their feud hat way keeping the Smackdown titles on Smackdown.

Next up we had Big Daddy V facing Shannon Moore (who did not even get a poper entrance) This was a pointless squash. I guess now Big V is done losing to Undertaker he is going to go back to dominating everyone again until he comes up against a proper contender. Moore is such a talented wrestler and deserves much better than this. More idiotic commentary from Coach saying how Big V had improved so much over the last few months. In the last few months Big V has gone from destroying everybody to losing every week to Undertaker. So that is improvement eh Coach? Poor commentary does not usually bother me but this week Coach did an exceptionally bad job.

Following this was a rematch from last week Batista vs MVP. I knew this was going to be a good match and I was not let down. MVP was doing a good job of selling his injury from No Way Out. Batista showing intelligence targeting MVP’s back. If Matt Hardy is not going to make it back for Wrestlemania creative should have these two feud for the US title. It would give Batista a credible opponent and help MVP to come across as a main event player especially if he ended up retaining the belt. I just cannot express how much I enjoy seeing these two in the ring. This is a future Heavyweight/WWE title feud make no mistake. Batista picking up the victory via the Batista Bomb. This was a solid technical match that is so often lacking in WWE these days. Keep it up creative!

Next was Great Khali (minus the “injured” Singh) facing Kane for what must be the tenth time. However this is much better than a squash match by having two big guys go against each other. Whilst the match itself was not the best I would watch this over Khali or Big V squashing the talented cruiserweights any day of the week. A very interesting finish to this one with Kane pinning Khali while he had the vice grip locked in. This could be a new storyline for Khali with him losing and not understanding why due to the absence of Singh.

Next Up Chuck Palumbo was taking on a Matt Jackson (who?) Noble was still absent selling his injuries but the feud could have been continued in a better way rather than just have shots of Michelle backstage grimacing. True it helped show Palumbo as a dominant force but because he was facing a jobber no one really seemed to care. The crowd were not really into this. I think this would have been better against someone like Funaki who is at least a recognized face or even bring Nunzio or Balls Mahoney over from ECW. Chuck is beyond crushing jobbers a this point.

Following this Rey Mysterio comes out to a massive home town pop. I feel so sorry for Rey now he going to be out for about four months. I was hoping the injury would not be so serious and I wish Rey a speedy and healthy recovery. You could tell how hard it was on Rey to admit to his fans he would be missing Wrestlemania. Vickie minus Edge comes out to tell Rey that she does not care if he is injured and sets the Chavo upon Rey. I guess this answers Aarons question from his blog as to where was Chavo on ECW. Chavo went savage on Rey working over the injured arm. This helped build some good heat for Chavo as a heel champion. How could Rey even hit those moves with a torn bicep? Incredible stuff! Mysterio picked up the unexpected win for the hometown pop. However it did not end there for Rey as The Big Show came out to deal some more punishment to Rey. This was brutal stuff and really helped pile some heel heat on Big Show.

So overall a pretty solid show considering the usual standard of post PPV shows. The only segment I really hated was the Big V squash match. Palumbo should have been given a credible opponent and Coach really needs to work on his commentary which was exceptionally bad this week. But the rest of he show came of very well, the highlight for me being the Batista vs MVP match

This weeks Smackdown scores 7/10

That’s all for this week. I will be back next week with Chris Reviews Smackdown once again. As always please leave some feedback via the comment board and I will get back to you. I can be contacted on a_agreement_called_forever@hotmail.com and www.myspace.com/agreement_called_forever

Until next time The Rated R Era is still going strong!

Smackdown Power 10

1: Edge

2: The Undertaker (+1)

3: Batista (+1)

4: Rey Mysterio (-2)

5: MVP (+1)

6: Kane (+1)

7: Finlay (-2)

8: Chuck Palumbo (+2)

9: Jesse and Festus (NE)

10: Team Yang (-1)

Tags: Batista, Edge, No Way Out, SmackDown, Stevie Richards, Undertaker