Storytelling in Smackdown, part deux

Continuing on with what I started last week, I'll take a look today at a match that featured some really good, simple storytelling: Domino vs. MVP.

Now, this match is a continuation of two seperate stories: The conflict between Tag Team partners Matt Hardy & MVP, and their conflict with Deuce & Domino. The conflict between Matt & MVP is a classic: the tag team partners that hate each other. As usual, it's one heel and one face, but the difference here is Matt Hardy. Much like Sting was in WCW, Matt plays the crowd favorite babyface who tries to turn his heel opponent by using positive tactics & re-inforcement. MVP, of course, is the cheating heel who wants nothing but to win. The twist comes as MVP and Hardy were feuding for the United States Title before they were Tag Team partners, and MVP has repeatedly insisted that he was better than Matt.

In their match, their conflict takes a great turn. After MVP "sneezes" and ruins their game of chess, Matt informs MVP that he has a match against Domino, right about... NOW! In the match, Domino starts to get the upper hand on the hardly prepared MVP (Who wrestles most of the match in suit pants and an undershirt) and Matt tries to rally the crowd with a chant of "M-V-P!" The crowd, not liking MVP nor afraid to show it, adds "SUCKS!" to the end of each and everyone of Matt's chants. Matt is doing his best to make sure MVP fights a clean match, and even tries to keep Deuce and Cherry honest, which leads to MVP yelling at Matt to stay out of the match. This distraction leads to Domino getting the school boy roll-up for the pin. Matt & MVP argue in the ring while Deuce & Domino celebrate on the outside. The story of the conflict between Matt & MVP continues, as MVP will most likely blame Matt for the loss. The story between Matt & MVP and Deuce & Domino continues, as Deuce and Domino now have more bragging rights over Matt & MVP in spite of the fact that MVP was distracted when Domino got the pin.

Now, we can complain about the fact that Domino got the pin over the US Champion, but MVP isn't wrestling in his capacity as United States Champion in this story. He's wrestling as Matt's partner . Matt did a wonderful job trying to get the crowd to cheer for MVP, and regardless of where MVP goes from here, it gets over the point that Matt is behind his partner. It makes Matt a better face, gets us to ask "Is MVP gonna start trusting Matt?" and lets us see that Deuce and Domino are sleazy heels by getting a win without "earning" it. All in all, I think that's some incredibly good storytelling by Matt, MVP, Deuce & Domino, and by WWE.

P.S.- I can't help but be amused by Deuce & Domino's characters... They're amusing, to say the least.

You can tell JJ how you find Deuce & Domino entertaining here

Join in on the Friday Night Smackdown! discussion here

Storytelling in Smackdown...

This past Friday, I sat down in my living room and watched Smackdown for the first time in a long time. As I've mentioned before, I have had a lack of interest in televised wrestling since the "Benoit Incident." So for me to be flipping on the TV to the CW (Channel 4 here in East Tennessee) is something of a big deal. It's a means to me slowly getting myself back into the mix.

So what did I think? What's going through the mind of the Mad Scientologist of Pro Wrestling (Is that as bad a joke as I'm starting to think it is???) as he's watching the supposed B-Show of WWE? Well, to be honest, I was entertained. The segments and matches on the "B-Show" did something that I thought WWE was currently incapable of: They told a story, and they did so without being completely outrageous.

Now, before I get lambasted, I want to interject that the story wasn't completely outrageous for Smackdown and its wild assortment of characters. It won't work on a show like Nash Bridges or ER, but for WWE's Friday Night show it's acceptable. I'm going to take a peek this week at how acceptable they really are by reviewing three different segments.

Today, I'll take a look at the Shannon Moore-Jamie Noble match up. Before the matchup, they give us a video that summed up the "animosity" between Noble & the Cruiserweight Champion "Little Bastard" Hornswoggle McMahon. The video itself was a good brief recap of the feud and shows fans, like myself, that Hornswoggle has been tormenting Noble for the past few weeks. The match itself is a Cruiserweight #1 Contender's match between Moore & Noble, which turns out to be fairly competitive. Moore and Noble try to hash it out in the ring, and Noble has the upper hand between the two. Once Moore realizes this, he utilizes the fact that Noble is paranoid about Hornswoggle costing him a match and lies to the ref about seeing the Little Bastard coming out from under the ring. Noble, not about to let Hornswoggle get him again, tries to see for himself and gets rolled up in a school boy pin. Moore wins the match.

What does this match tell us? Well, for one we see that Noble is technician enough that Moore resulted in cheap tactics to win the match. Secondly, we see that Hornswoggle has messed with Jamie Noble enough that Noble can no longer handle it. It puts over both Hornswoggle and Jamie Noble in one segment, proving that Hornswoggle has some credibility as Cruiserweight Champion. Is this credibility related to his in-ring ability? No. That’s a weakness in the feud, and one I’m afraid won’t be fixed. But Hornswoggle wouldn’t be the first person to result to mind games out of the ring to get an upper hand in the ring, would he? Nor would he be the first limited in-ring competitor to hold a title. I mean, at least he’s not David Arquette.

Later this week I’ll take a look at the two other segments I found entertaining on Friday Night: Domino vs. MVP and the Mark Henry-Undertaker segment. I’ll break them down much like this one and try to explain why I think they worked, and what I think needs improvement. Feel free to speak up until then.

You can complain to JJ Dangerously about Noble being misused here

Better yet, join in the Friday Night Smackdown! discussion here

Draft Thoughts, part 2

Tri-Brand draft part 2: Friday Night Smackdown!

We’re looking at the draft again today, this time we’re looking at RAW’s broadcast network little sister, Smackdown.

Smackdown loses:

The Boogeyman, King Booker & Queen Sharmell, Chris Benoit, Ken Kennedy, Paul London & Brian Kendrick, The Miz, Daivari, William Regal, Jillian Hall

One brands gain is another brands loss. Specifically, Raw’s gain is Smackdown’s loss. The Friday night CW offering loses a large amount of talent in this year’s draft. Whereas I could actually say good things about some of the talent leaving Raw, I can’t say that about Smackdown. The move that will hurt the most is “The fastest rising star in Sports Entertainment” Ken Kennedy. Kennedy is money in the bank, and I’m not talking about his Wrestlemania win. The guy oozes charisma, and is one of the few stars that bleeds desire the way a young Stone Cold Steve Austin once did. That’s not even considering the built in Main Event feud with Edge that was waiting on a silver platter when Kennedy was healed up.
Losing Kennedy was bad enough, but Smackdown also lost 3 strong veterans that helped form the backbone of the brand. King Booker is a powerful loss that helps RAW, but provided plenty of entertainment with his faux British accent. Chris Benoit proved a valuable asset that could help the most mediocre talent look good. William Regal was the consistent heel who could provide any young up and comer someone to play off of. Any company or brand is lucky to have any one of these, and until recently Smackdown was lucky to have all three. With their departure, the job of seasoning the young talent falls more heavily on Finlay, Dave Taylor, and Chavo Guerrero.
Smackdown loses three talented cruiserweights in Paul London, Brian Kendrick, and Daivari. While Daivari has yet to find his place after giving up as the mouthpiece for Muhammed Hassan or the Great Khali, he could more than hold his own in the ring with any other cruiserweights. London & Kendrick, though, are the loss that will be felt the most on Smackdown. They’ve double teamed their way to the top of Smackdown’s tag division. With their departure, along with that of William Regal, Smackdown’s tag team roster basically consists of Deuce & Domino and the newly acquired Major’s Brothers.
Smackdown has also lost many of the characters which separated it from the other brands. With the departure of The Miz and The Boogeyman to ECW on top of Kennedy’s move to RAW, Smackdown seems short on over the top personalities. Throw in the departure of Brooke Hogan wannabe Jillian Hall, and it will be interesting who gets to showcase their character over the next year.

Smackdown gains:

The Great Khali, Torrie Wilson, Chris Masters, Ric Flair, Kenny Dykstra, Hardcore Holly, Brett & Brian Majors, Victoria, Eugene

What does Smackdown get in return for their 3 Upper Mid-card veteran talents? Well, if you ask me, not much. I’m not saying that there isn’t potential with the arrival of Kenny, Chris Masters & Hardcore Holly. I’m just saying it’s not really a fair trade off. If Hardcore Holly continues on the path he was heading down during his stay in ECW, he’s got a chance to fill in as a main event level foil for Batista or Kane, or as an elevater lifting Matt Hardy above mid-card. Masters could have the chance to grow, but there are so many heel talents working Smackdown right now, I don’t see any place for him to truly go. He could feud with Matt Hardy or Kane, and possibly a babyface Hardcore Holly, but I’m just not seeing it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him slapping the Masterlock on a debuting star and starting a feud out that way. As for Dykstra, he’s pretty much in the same boat. Although I’d really enjoy a Dykstra/Hardy feud, but I’m afraid we’ll see a renewal of the Spirit Squad/Eugene feud.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a feud between Batista and the Great Khali. It sounds like a disaster to me, but it’s fairly obvious that WWE would love to see the two big men go at it. Regardless of who Big Dave takes on, expect the Nature Boy to follow him. Flair’s not got much left in the tank in ring, but his managerial career could just be starting.
The Majors Brothers got an interesting start in ECW, but look for them to take on a more serious role in Smackdown’s now damaged tag team scene. If I were in charge, I’d be calling every tag team wrestler in the WWE system looking for some help with that group, but we’re more than likely to see the random pairings than the legit teams right now.
That leaves us with Eugene and Victoria. What I would love to see is Eugene start chasing Hornswaggle around. Something could easily come from that. But don’t expect it, as Finlay is one of the major stepping stones on the Friday night roster. What Eugene needs, though, is a sympathetic member of the Smackdown crew to take him under his wing and work with him. Make a team of the two. The question to ask in that situation is who would be that sympathetic to the mentally handicapped superstar? Victoria? I don’t see her doing much else, outside of the occasional women’s match. But Smackdown’s women’s roster isn’t as strong as Raw’s, and she’ll need something to do.

Smackdown, in my opinion, needs to make sure that next years draft has nothing to do with computers. The randomness of the brand’s acquisitions seems likely to hurt the brand for a while. The way it’s been going, though, I’m sure Smackdown, with what is possibly the best commentary team in wrestling right now, will come out ahead in the end.

Feel free to discuss this post at Da Wrestling Board