WWE Journal

Smackdown. Written by Kevin Dunn and Stephanie McMahon, and overseen by Vincent Kennedy McMahon. A deranged, insecure, irrational mind. And Vince McMahon.

There was a time when Smackdown was the 'in' show. Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie and Chavo Guerrero, Rey Mysterio and Edge would steal the show every Thrursday night in a series of matches that blew away anything on the HHH-patrolled RAW. While Monday night featured implied rape, racism without a punchline and negrophillia, Paul Heyman led Smackdown to some of its greatest shows, and produced ratings that the McMahons would pray for today. Not that Vince would find solace in praying, since he "beat" God in that tag match. Anyway, Brock Lesnar was getting over as Champion, and thanks to an inspired angle involving (of all people) the Big Show, Lesnar's mic work, in-ring presence and believability began to soar. How times change.

Angle is battling through unimaginable pain to prepare for a showdown with Mark Henry. Benoit is on Velocity. Eddie has passed away. Chavo is resting while WWE work out how to exploit him next. Edge is getting his progress blocked by Triple H and after his lawsuit Lesnar is, shall we say, not welcome at Stamford.

And then there's Rey Mysterio.

Measuring in at about 2"4 tall, Mysterio was always up against it. But after years in Mexico, Japan, ECW and WCW (where, I'm led to believe, he regularly stole the show only to be overshadowed by Kevin Nash's expanding ego), he finally made it to the promised land of the WWE. The Cruiserweight Division was a waste of his popularity, due to the company's inability to book them. So after the tragic death of Eddie, the company installed him as the new top Mexican babyface. Nothing wrong with that. The problems started when WWE lost all sense of logic and started booking Randy Orton as an anti-Eddie heel, referring to the Latino legend as "no saint" and saying he was in hell rather than heaven. Rey, defending his honour, just had to stand there and say, "I'll wrestle you anytime". Someone in WWE had the insane theory that this would get Orton over as a heel, and that the fans would turn on him, not the company who clearly scripted his heinous lines in the first place. No Way Out promptly flopped, as the show struggled to draw over 200,000 buys. Smackdown PPV's usually draw about 230,000-240,000 buys, so you do the maths. Not exactly worth exploiting Eddie's name for -20,000 buys, was it?

So they decided to change direction. Instead of fighting for Eddie, Rey would become the underdog champion, taking on all comers. One problem. The hardcore fans, those rather annoying types who still think John Cena isn't a worthy champion (*yawns*) turned up at WrestleMania ready to boo anyone who wasn't cool. After being booked as a squeaky-clean babyface who couldn't even beat Orton, Rey had suddenly become uncool. And the man who was so popular the week before that Kurt Angle was booed, found himself receiving a nasty reaction from the Chicago crowd. The proudest night of his life was somewhat soured by the petulent crowd reaction.

So what did WWE do next? Establish him as a winner? A credible champion? A draw? Why bother, they said. So they proceeded to job him out to Mark Henry and the Great Khali. To put it bluntly, Henry's wrestling outshines Khali's. And my goodness, that says a lot. But these weren't any old jobs, oh no - these were old school squash matches. The type usually reserved for lower-midcarders in the late 80's. Or Funaki. But here was your World Heavyweight Champion, the chief representative of the Smackdown brand, getting stood on by a man whose wrestling is more inept than BBC News 24's security. They were quite embarassing to watch, and made Smackdown look inferior, minor-league and irrelevant in today's WWE. But then came the coup de gras.

May 19th.

Of all the ways to bury Smackdown formulated over the years, this will take some beating. JBL introduced Rey's mystery opponent, none other than Kane. Good move, and an ideal way to publicise the release of See No Evil. The fact he's a RAW superstar should have been given a better explanation, but that was a minor detail. No, the problems arose when Kane chokeslammed Mysterio clean in the middle of the ring. At least Rey had some offence this time. But when JBL entered proceedings, accidentally blurted out "May 19th" and was subsequently chokeslammed to hell, all logic went with him. Kane just left the ring and walked out. Our Smackdown Main Event for Judgment Day lay in the ring after being decimated by a RAW upper midcarder - ONE RAW upper midcarder - 48 hours before the PPV. They couldn't have come up with a better way of destroying Smackdown's credibility if they'd tried. Who's going to buy Judgment Day now? Even more damaging, perhaps, was JBL's match commentary. As the crowd chanted for Eddie, Layfield bellowed: "These people don't care about Rey, they long for the glory days of JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero". Wonderful way of putting it, sir. And a wonderful way of ensuring that no-one's going to give a frig when you step into the ring with Rey on Sunday.


Kane: Bigger than Smackdown

Smackdown had problems before this angle started. It's in the toilet now. Difficult as it is to believe, it used to draw better ratings than RAW. Now it struggles to claw its way to a 2.6, as RAW basks in regular 4.0's. I know they've had an injury crisis, but a draft lottery would solve all thse problems. Oh I forgot, they tried that before, and they handicapped Smackdown even more. At least when WCW died, you could see they were running out of ideas, big names and money. But when one unified company is leading RAW to its most successful period in 4 years, and simultaneously running Smackdown into the ground, you just have to shake your head. And then cough up $35 every few weeks. As Coldplay would say, that's the hardest part.

Get well soon to Stacy Keibler, after her seizure on Tuesday night. Leaving WWE was the best move for her career and health, but not if the insane publicity schedule pushes her too far. Nothing is worth risking her health.