DaveyBoy’s Wrestling Menu – SSlam Predictions, JBL + Defending SmackDown
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 2:25 AM EST






THE WRESTLING MENU #189

Welcome one and all to the 189th edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.

Oh man, I’ve done it again; I’ve changed the topics included in a column at the last minute. And once more, it has meant that a topic relating to the cruiserweight division that I have had pre-written for a while has been put on the backburner. Oh well, maybe next week. But I just felt the need to defend SmackDown this week. I’ll explain why in the ‘Main’ section of today’s column.

Away from professional wrestling, things are hotting up once more in the world of sports. The AFL (Aussie Rules Football) finals are approaching, although my team is out of the hunt. The English Premier league soccer season kicks off this weekend as DaveyBoy looks to go back to back in the LOP Forums predictions contest. It should be very competitive this season & it’s a shame that the actual premier league competition won’t be as competitive, with Chelsea red hot favorites to take the title. Meanwhile, over in the States, the NFL & NBA aren’t all that far away either. Losman or Holcomb? Pennington or Ramsey? Don’t know or don’t care?

Ok, it’s going to be a long column today, so let’s get back into the world of professional wrestling & where better to start than with the self-proclaimed “Wrestling God”…..


APPETIZERS – JBL’s New Role

Before I begin, I do realize that fellow LOP Columnist Big Brother wrote about this topic about 3 weeks ago, but I was always going to address this topic & I just wanted to wait a little while longer in order to get my thoughts a little clearer. It’s obviously concerning JBL’s new role as color commentator for the SmackDown brand & his effectiveness in the position. I will begin with my conclusion as such & state immediately that JBL is doing a very good job in the role & consequently improving SmackDown. That’s not a knock on Tazz either. It’s just that variety can be the splice of life & this phrase holds true when it comes to commentary also.

I must say that I admit that I was quite surprised when seeing the initial reaction to the announcement that JBL would take over from Tazz on SmackDown. In fact, it was a little like JBL’s segment at the One Night Stand pay-per-view; Most people thought it was a poor decision, while there were a few (including myself) who thought it could be a mini stroke of genius. You see, I have never been a great fan of JBL. Even during his WWE Championship reign, I felt his mic work was nothing special, while others thought it was single-handedly keeping the title around his waist. Don’t get me wrong, I felt he was getting good heel heat, but it wasn’t anything special that was worthy of being the company’s major titleholder.

Following JBL’s title loss, I think it’s fair to say that the WWE struggled to find his correct position on the card. It almost looked as if he could fall below the midcard for a time there, but ultimately settled in the US Title division, which I think was the correct decision. All the while though, something was occurring that many fans missed. JBL was tweaking his character ever so slightly with each passing week. It was so subtle that it allowed him to practically experiment with a few things. If he felt an idea didn’t work out, he would simply ditch the idea as he had not totally changed his character.

I think there were 2 main objectives that JBL wanted to achieve. Firstly, he wanted to get the fans to listen to him more, as some of his routine was undoubtedly getting a little monotonous. Secondly, he wanted to achieve that first aim without turning face. And I really do believe that he achieved both of these objectives successfully. On occasions, he would make us laugh, but still do it in a way that would keep us hating his character. That is clearly a trait which the best mic workers in the business can have & still to this day, I think he has these 2 aims in mind when sitting at the announce table next to Michael Cole.

JBL took his mic work a step further 3-4 months ago in his short-lived feud with Rey Mysterio. I don’t care what anyone says; JBL earned my respect during those weeks by partially getting Rey over on his own merits (if not through the actual wrestling). It was a combination of backhanded compliments, Eddie Guerrero comparisons & plain truths that got the job done. And it’s even arguable that Mysterio’s title reign may have not lasted as long as it did had it not been for JBL’s mic work during that feud. And it was this that gave me fewer doubts when it was announced that JBL would be doing color commentary due to a storyline which hides a nagging back injury of some sort.

Although not always successful, JBL is doing a great job of putting over wrestlers in the ring. I especially like the way he puts over a wrestler’s main strength, while not totally ignoring a possible weakness. Doing this also gives fans the impression of a genuine competition in the ring, and if the WWE still wants to give the impression of some sort of “sports” action taking place, then this is a very good thing. What JBL is doing is using his own recent in-ring experience to outline a wrestler’s strengths. He then tops this off perfectly by using research of a wrestler’s past achievements. It seems simple enough, but is actually not that easy to perfect.

Furthermore, I really like the way JBL is remaining true to his character. He is a heel. That is simple. But when another heel character such as Sylvan, has his gimmick clash with JBL’s character, then there is no blurring of the lines. He calls it straight down the line & berates the so-called ambassador of Quebec. I like this fact. And I can also see what JBL is doing when going over the top in his commentary sometimes. He seems to have a good grasp of knowing when to almost play a situation for laughs.

This last point is interesting in fact, because it’s a risky game that JBL is playing. It sometimes comes back to bite him on the a$$, because he can sometimes go over the top (whether it be for comedic or berating purposes) & it simply comes off as corny. But here lies a positive that many fans are quick to forget; Commentating professional wrestling successfully is not an easy task… JBL has been doing it for all of 2 months. Just like we all learn from our experiences, I’m confident that JBL is doing the same. JBL is doing a very good job right now as SmackDown’s color commentator… But the great thing is that he will only get better!


MAIN – Defending SmackDown

From time to time in the world of professional wrestling, some opinions can tend to be followed blindly by fans. I think we have all been guilty of it at one time or another and it usually surfaces with a topic that one may not care too much about. But there have been other higher-profile examples in the past such as bashing Triple H, thinking Paul Heyman was a booking genius that could do no wrong, or believing it was a bad thing for Vince McMahon to be an on-air character. I’m not taking sides on those issues by the way, I am simply stating that they aren’t as cut & dried as what some people would have you believe at a particular point in time over the past 5 years.

The latest so-called popular belief is that “SmackDown is a horrible show & simply not worth watching”. I find this statement incorrect & I plan to take this past week’s episode & show you why. Now don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few things wrong with the SmackDown brand right now, and not all of those things have to do with injury & suspension. But the show is still very much worth a watch. In fact, in a way, I believe it to be a more “interesting” show to view than Raw! What annoys me though is that I have this strong feeling that many people stating their opinion that SmackDown sucks, don’t actually watch the show!

In the interest of fairness (oh my goodness, Vince’s vocabulary has worked its way into mine), I must state that I have always been partial to SmackDown over Raw. I’ve just felt that the quality of matches has been better for the most part, while the existence of the cruiserweight division (no matter how badly it is booked) has always been a bonus for me. Of course, this opinion has always been helped by the fact that some of my favored wrestlers such as Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio & Kurt Angle have spent more time on SmacxkDown than on Raw since the brand extension. If only HBK could have worked his way over to the blue brand!

I’m not going to take a detailed look at Raw over the past week & a half, but I will say that it has been rather solid, without staking claims for greatest episode of the year. What I will do is take a look at the SmackDown episode that went to air on Friday the 11th of August. This episode started off with an in-ring segment involving Daivari, The Great Khali & The Undertaker. It was pretty much standard fare leading up to the match we all know we must suffer through. It was kept short & to the point though, so it wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately, Khali did not talk, which is a bad thing for mine. He cracks me up every time that he speaks his mumbled English.

The opening match of the show proves my point quite well. It was a contest between cruiserweight champion Gregory Helms & Tatanka. On paper, no-one cared about this bout. In fact, neither did I. On paper, the quality of the bout also looked rather average. But I’m here to tell you that this was actually a touch above average, especially since there was no real reason for the match-up. Helms stepped up his pace at last, while Tatanka seemed to combine with him rather well. Helms hit one of the most impressive looking missile dropkicks I’ve ever seen, while Tatanka’s chops/thrusts to the throat of his opponent looked as if they would hurt a lot more than Ric Flair’s versions.

Our second match on the card was an interesting & entertaining non-title tag-team match pitting Paul London & Brian Kendrick against Idol Stevens & KC James. While not exactly a match of the year candidate, this was the perfect television tag-team match. London & Kendrick were in overdrive at certain stages of this bout, while they also did well to successfully mesh with a rookie team. London & Kendrick are the type of wrestlers that can take an “entertaining” match one step further & make it “exciting”!

And I really see great potential in the rookie team of Stevens & James. They don’t work perfectly together as a team as yet & I’m unsure if there has been any interaction whatsoever with valet Michelle McCool in their 2 matches thus far. But in my opinion, both appear to have a future. Stevens reminds me so much of Edge about a year or two after he began in the WWF. He may not have the aerial moves of Edge, but appears to be a very good seller with a decent offensive repertoire. While James looks like a perfect tag-team wrestler & reminds me a lot of Ricky Morton & Jeff Jarrett. Maybe he will be TNA champion one day!

The Diva Search competition was up next & it was admittedly terrible. But it was so bad that it actually had me giggling. I think this is a similar theory to the Zombie wrestling that week in ECW. When JT attempted to start the same sentence about 5 times, I couldn’t help but pi$$ myself laughing. I must admit though that this segment was best viewed on videotape with the trigger ready on the fast-forward button.

Our 3rd match of the night was a surprisingly good clash of styles between Rey Mysterio & Ken Kennedy. I really thought that these two would put together a boring resthold-filled bout, but to my surprise they worked some entertaining spots into what was a very competitive & rather entertaining match. The ending involving Chavo & Vicki Guerrero was disappointing, but predictable in that their match at SummerSlam had to be further built up.

Sylvan vs Vito was up next & I must admit that this was a filler bout that is almost forced upon us due to the absence of the likes of Benoit, Super Crazy & Noble/Kash. I can put up with it for now as long as it’s kept short. This was followed by Sylvester Terkay vs an unknown jobber. I really have my doubts that Terkay is going to get over on the SmackDown brand. I would say he would be more suited to both Raw & ECW. My guess is that the WWE will have him run through jobbers until Benoit makes his re-appearance & gets a decent bout out of him. I did like the way that Elijah Burke worked the match instead of Terkay the week before though. Burke looks decent in the ring & we can only hope his refusal of being a member of The Spirit Squad doesn’t derail his push too much.

We also got a solid television main-event pitting Bobby Lashley & Batista against William Regal & Finlay. The face team was at their explosive best, while the heels held up their end of the bargain well. It still amazes me how Finlay (after all his time off wrestling) seems to get an above average match out of any style of opponent. Adding to this bout was the rather entertaining, (if a little distracting) commentary from Booker T, JBL & Michael Cole. Booker T not taking a breath at times was humorous, while I thought JBL & Cole worked well around him.

So taking a look at the overall show, we had 6 wrestling matches, of which I felt that 4 of them were above average for television! In comparison, I can’t recall the last time that Raw had 4 good matches on the 1 show. In fact, if you need a second opinion on that, let me quote LOP’s very own Raw recapper Chad Matthews from just 2 days ago; At the end of the day, we can’t get a good match on Raw anymore…everything has to be a set-up to a predictable run-in or a lead-in to a promo segment.

I must admit that the non-match segments included within this episode of SmackDown were not up to the standard of that on Raw, but it’s hard to compete against the likes of Foley, Flair, HBK, Cena & Edge when it comes to mic work. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that the quality of actual wrestling on SmackDown is still worth watching despite the lack of relative attention given to the brand compared to Raw. Furthermore, I find watching the newer talent (& cruiserweights) interesting & entertaining to watch in a different way.


DESSERT

SummerSlam Predictions

REY MYSTERIO vs CHAVO GUERRERO: This is the feud that most of us have known was coming for months. I feel the inevitability & predictability of it all has probably dampened the effectiveness of this whole feud, and that’s not even mentioning the fine line that the WWE will probably take with regards to Eddie Guerrero. I just hope that Vicki doesn’t do a full heel turn. It’s much harder for non-wrestlers & non on-air talent to successfully pull off a heel turn & it usually just bogs a feud down. What this feud does have in its favor is 2 extremely talented wrestlers, and those that have viewed their bouts in the past will predominantly agree with my opinion. In fact, these 2 hardly need a feud to go out their & put out a quality bout. Let’s just hope that the storyline adds intensity to this particular match & doesn’t take it in a silly & distracting direction. If these are allowed to go at it, this should be the opener. If this is more a storyline bout, I can see it taking place later on the card. As for the result, I think it’s much of a muchness as the feud will continue no matter what. But history suggests that a wrestler coming off a title reign tends to lose some matches when sent down to the midcard. Winner: Chavo Guerrero

RIC FLAIR vs MICK FOLEY in an “I Quit” Match: I’ve never been a huge fan of “I Quit” matches, as I feel they tend to send a bout in one direction. The same goes with Last Man Standing & Submission Matches. But I will admit that when they are done correctly, they can be a real treat. As this match-up clearly has enough intangibles that could make this a very good match. I have really liked this feud due to the quality of the promos delivered by both men. They are making great use of a real life situation & it’s undoubtedly helping the quality of the feud out. It’s probably lacked some combat action between the 2 just to put the icing on the cake, but that could very well make the bout more effective once they get in the ring. I expect the intensity to be high here, with an interesting combination of technical & hardcore wrestling. Pure & simply this match is to be anticipated & I am really interested to see how it plays out. The safe money would suggest Foley will win here to even up the series, but I’m going to suggest that Flair may be the one with the greater intensity, motivation & submission repertoire. This should get him over the line. Winner: Ric Flair

THE BIG SHOW vs SABU for the ECW World Title: Obviously, I will be pretty interested to see this bout as I don’t get to watch the weekly ECW show. But I must agree with the majority here & question why the WWE didn’t go with the triple-threat (or one on one) #1 contender’s ladder match here instead. I guess it was partially due to increasing tv ratings & not wanting to outshine other bouts scheduled for SummerSlam. I’m unsure it mattered who was facing The Big Show here, and if anything, Sabu may be the better choice for some variety on a WWE pay-per-view. It’s hard for me to tell how good (or bad) the match will be, but I’m guessing it will be booked entertainingly enough. I’m also not in the greatest position to judge who will be the winner here, but I’m guessing that The Big Show is doing well enough to retain his title for a little while longer. Of course, with Heyman, RVD & Angle all possibly interfering in this bout, anything could happen. Winner: The Big Show

HULK HOGAN vs RANDY ORTON: Seriously, I don’t know what to think of this match-up. On paper, it makes sense. But something has been missing from the feud that just doesn’t have me looking forward to this bout with any great anticipation. I’m unsure if it’s the average build-up of the feud, the fact that it’s randy Orton stepping in HBK’s shoes from last year, or the possibility that I’m getting tired of Hulk Hogan wrestling on ppv only once a year. But it’s just lacked something, if not a combination of things. In the ring, this could undoubtedly be a train-wreck. I see a lot of stalling taking place in what should be a rather short match. And that should be a certainty now that Hulk Hogan apparently has a knee injury. One thing I will say is that I find the result a little more unpredictable than usual when it comes to a Hogan bout. I’m wondering if he is willing to take a loss for the good of promoting his daughter. I’m 50-50 on this one, but will side towards Hogan due to the possibility that Orton may get disqualified attacking his knee with a foreign object or not letting go before a 5 count. Winner: Hulk Hogan

KING BOOKER vs BATISTA for the World HeavyWeight Title: The obvious main-event match-up on the SmackDown brand with both men being booked as the number 1 heel & face on the blue brand respectively. The quality of this one will be very interesting to view & I must say that I don’t have the greatest confidence that these 2 will be able to pull off an above average match lasting at least 15 minutes. Booker has played his part of late, but hasn’t exactly carried an opponent, while I’m not totally convinced Batista is back to 100% following his injury. So I can see this bout being filled with interference to pad it out. The positive is that both men do have the ability to step it up when required & I think it may be necessary here. While this is yet another bout that could go either way, I really feel that the slow build-up works for Batista. It worked for his face turn & will work with regards to him chasing the title. So by hook or by crook, I royally declare that….. Winner: King Booker

TRIPLE H & SHAWN MICHAELS vs VINCE & SHANE McMAHON: This is another bout that we always knew was coming. Practically from the reformation of D-Generation X, this tag-team bout had been slated for SummerSlam. While the DX segments on Raw have been inconsistent, I actually feel the WWE did a decent job of stretching the feud out this long. I just hope this is indeed the culmination of this feud & the face duo move on following this bout. There are enough ingredients here for this to be entertaining & we all know that HBK can make any bout at least partially entertaining, so I’m certain this bout will be fine. Plus, it’s odds-on that a ladder will be brought out at some stage during the match. With the McMahons getting the upper hand a few times over the past month, I really can’t see DX losing here. Winners: Triple H & Shawn Michaels

EDGE vs JOHN CENA for the WWE Championship: It should be noted that Cena will be awarded the title if he wins this match by disqualification. And while this stipulation may appear minor, I do feel that it can (a) add some variety to the story of the bout, and (b) adds a little more unpredictability to the result of the match. I’ve listed this as the main-event of the night & it will be interesting to see if the WWE goes with it as the final bout. Because while this feud has been pretty good & built up well, it does seem to be missing something that screams out ppv main event. Maybe the missing ingredient is a sensational match & we can only hope that occurs here. These guys do have the ability to step it right up, I just hope they are allowed to on a card that already includes bouts that have been given high priority in booking & promotion. With regards to the result, it wouldn’t surprise me either way, but I feel Edge has successfully added even more layers on to his character & deserves a longer run with the title. Winner: Edge

So that is what the 2006 version of SummerSlam looks like as of right now. Seven matches have been officially announced & I’m guessing we may get an 8th. I’m not really sure what it will be though. Maybe Finlay vs Lashley for the US Title, The Undertaker vs The Great Khali or another ECW match. On paper, the card looks quite good & has been built up well enough, even if that build-up has been terribly biased towards the Raw brand. So the interest & anticipation is there, but will the card be any good on the night? The answer is “yes”, but how good remains to be seen. The undercard should be entertaining & of a rather high quality. Rey vs Chavo, Flair vs Foley & DX vs The McMahons (if that bout can be called an undercard match) should all deliver what they promise. But the real barometer of this ppv event is going to be the 3 title matches. They all have the potential to rate an 8 out of 10 or better… But they also all have the potential to fail. Not only could this ppv rely on the participants of these bouts, but so to could those wrestlers’ short-term future main-eventing their respective brand.


Ok, that’s another one in the books & I hope you all enjoyed it. My computer is currently in the shop to be hopefully fixed, so I still have limited access to my email. But if you would like to email me your feedback on any one of the 3 topics I have written about today then my e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com. Please note though that I will not have internet access between Thursday night & Tuesday morning, so you may have to be really patient awaiting your reply. More preferably, if you are an LOP Forums member, it would be much appreciated if you could leave feedback on my thread at http://www.lopforums.com/showthread.php?p=384987#post384987

Presuming that I can post a column next Wednesday, I will have my review of SummerSlam up for all to read. I might also take a look at 2 of the WWE’s lesser divisions, as I must finally post that cruiserweight topic that I keep pushing back from week to week, while also taking a brief look at the current state of the Women’s division. If you do see a column, it will be at the same Wednesday time on the same LOP channel Until whenever, this is DaveyBoy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.


DaveyBoy’s Wrestling Menu. 2002-2006

Exclusive To LordsOfPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com












***DIRECT LINK*** Hot Shots of WWE's Other Milena, Milena Roucka! WOW!

• Quick Links -
  [Back to LOP] [News Archives] [Results] [Columns] [Forums]