They couldn't follow up the storyline from Raw because Smackdown was taped last week, before Raw happened.

RESPONSE FROM KE: You're right. Thanks.

wow. I can't believe you thought Matt Hardy's promo was on the money. I am usually a very positive wwe fan, but I was thinking how poor it was the entire time. Another thing I didn't like was Jim Ross announcing their match instead of one of the Hardy's making a Wrestlemania challenge last night.

I thought I had read somewhere that Smackdown is being taped two weeks in advance which would explain why there was no Vickie or Big Show moment in front of the crowd. It would have given away last weeks Raw stories.

"I was not happy to see Finlay defeat The Brian Kendrick to grab the final spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match."

I was pleased that Finlay overcame Ezekial's repeated interference, but your point about the Money- in-the-Bank ladder match is a fair one.

I am glad that there was no follow-up to the affair storyline, for if that had been on the show, the competitive match between Edge and Kingston would likely not have taken place.

Perhaps R-Truth won't come through the crowd anymore due to a safety issue. When he is in such close quarters with the fans, it's not inconceivable that someone could suckerpunch him. Also, WWE may fear that he will inadvertently cause someone to spill their pop, thus leading to a lawsuit.

Here's a response to your stated, implied, and rhetorical questions....

-Vladimir Kozlov has worked matches with better ring generals lately, so he should be improving vastly (much like Cena did after he became a headliner) but I think the credit for the matches is mostly due to his opponents.

-R Truth didn't come through the crowd for the same reason Edge doesn't anymore. It's a fresh way to introduce new guys (yeah yeah, K-Kwik in 2001, Kevin and I know) but it isn't designed to stay fresh long.

-If the Bella Twins don't have a fear of commitment, then I think they have a different preference of partners -- if you know what I mean.

-It seemed there was no follow-up to the Vickie/Big Show affair, or maybe there was so much so that they didn't even make it to Smackdown!

-I'd buy Evan Bourne as a contender in a Money in the Bank environment. I'm surprised to see three grounders in the match, but it makes me think Kane has a half-decent shot at winning.

Good report, and I'm glad you enjoyed the Hardy segment. I felt insinuating that Matt may have caused the fire was a bit desperate for heat (no pun intended) but if you didn't, then I'll conclude that WWE gave it the right amount of controversy.

I thought it was a good show from start to finish. Most of the matches I think were very predictable. Always great to see Maryse in the ring. Matt cut a very good promo and I think Jeff made good rebuttal if you want to call it that. I was glad to see some phyiscal action between them to build their match up at WM25. Since the UT was at Raw I thought maybe Shawn Michaels might have shown up at Smackdown to build their match up also. Edge/Kofi match was good match to start the show after several near finishes Edge pulled it off as expected. I think R-Truth made his way down the entrance was probably due to time constraints.

I hope Morrison has a match at WrestleMania. There is no reason to have Mark Henry, Finlay and Kane in Money in the Bank and not him.

I thought TBK look very Chris Jericho circa '99 2000 with his hair in a ponytail last night.

Just saying...

Kevin good review of last night's show...I agree that Matt did great work to put himself over as the heel leading into the Hardy's WM25 match. Could make for one of the best matches of the event.

As for the whole follow up to the Vickie-Edge-Big Show thing, didn't this Smackdown tape prior to Raw? They would have ruined the Raw surprise if they had a follow up on this particular show.

It is only a matter of time before fans starting singing "you suck" when R-Truth asks "what's up?"

You know, Matt never actually said he did all that stuff to Jeff. When Jeff came out and said he couldn't believe Matt did all that stuff to him, it seemed kind of dumb.

I personally would have loved to have seen Kendrick in the Money in the Bank Match. Why are all these fat guys in the match?

I'm a big Finlay fan, but I think the smarter call is Evan Bourne (who I'm sure would cleared by Mania).

Kingston did deserve at least some build up. Slow match but Kingston did look as if he had star potential.

The Hardy fued is finally shaping up...maybe I will order it.

The Colon - M&M mactches are pretty good but I still think that Calito never received the right push.

I agree that Finlay winning over Kendrick doesn't make sense. There are only three heels in the MITB match - Kane, Mark Henry and Shelton Benjamin.

Kendrick hasn't been winning much of late and it makes one wonder if he is in the doghouse.

I don't know about you but I like Ezekiel Jackson and can see him as a main event star. But if they bury Kendrick then they bury Ezekiel.

Cliff: "Why are all these fat guys in the match?"

First off, I laughed at that.

Second off, it's because they have been loyal to the company and the company wants to give them a Mania paycheck. And they need some "fat guys" to catch the little guys when they fall. I agree that three is too many, though. Henry I thought would be okay because he would add another dimension to the match (could you see him lifting up a ladder with somebody on it?), but Finlay is boring to me and Kane is redundant.

The only reason I see to leave Miz, Morrison, Rey, Bourne, and Kendrick out of the MITB match is if they are already going to be in another match. So how does this sound: Miz/Morrison vs. Rey/Bourne vs. Kendrick/Ezekiel vs. Carlito/Primo in a iron team tag team title unification match. Give them twenty minutes, perhaps under Tornado tag rules, and you have a potential show-stealing match that I would maybe rather see than the MITB given the participants.

You would think giving someone a lengthy promo, who is not great at promos in the first place, would be a bad idea, but somehow it wasn't.
Either Kozlov is getting better or Taker is the best at carrying anyone through a match, honestly I don't know which it is.
Why isn't Kendrick being pushed, a few months back when he received a bit of a push he was one of the highlights of Smackdown, what happened?
With Kingston's persona do you think he'll ever be elevated to world championship status?

Watched WWE in HD for the first since landing here.... You helped in following on the storielines all the way back in India!!! Thanks Dude... Glad to say that I am now up-to-date [In India; it's usually a month behind on the storylines; so your blogs were a neat spoiler for us back ther!]

Anyways..... think i got here to watch these interesting storylines in HD!!! I especially cant wait to see the promos by Undertaker and Shawn Michaels for their WM match!! Any ideas/thoughts on how that would be built up????

I have diverging trains of thought on the Matt Hardy promo. First, it almso seemd like he was conflicted in his emotions while delivering his promo. There were times that he seemed to be truly feeling for Jeff while showing that he was jealous as well.

My other thought, is that Matt is trying to get Jeff to care again. There was a fair amount of emphasis on the fact that Jeff was not at WM24 because he didn't care but Matt wasn't there because he was hurt. That Jeff has been more concerned with his music and his art and Matt with wrestling and the WWE.

The HB's necklace was clearly displayed around Jeff's neck and this could eventually lead to a darker HB's in the future. While its nice to see a fued between Matt and Jeff, like you said above, the WWE needs a good tag team and why not have the HB's back. They can still go after singles belts, but as the tag champs. Weirder things have happend in the WWE.

I have diverging trains of thought on the Matt Hardy promo. First, it almso seemd like he was conflicted in his emotions while delivering his promo. There were times that he seemed to be truly feeling for Jeff while showing that he was jealous as well.

My other thought, is that Matt is trying to get Jeff to care again. There was a fair amount of emphasis on the fact that Jeff was not at WM24 because he didn't care but Matt wasn't there because he was hurt. That Jeff has been more concerned with his music and his art and Matt with wrestling and the WWE.

The HB's necklace was clearly displayed around Jeff's neck and this could eventually lead to a darker HB's in the future. While its nice to see a fued between Matt and Jeff, like you said above, the WWE needs a good tag team and why not have the HB's back. They can still go after singles belts, but as the tag champs. Weirder things have happend in the WWE.

Just disapointed in half the selction of the MITB match.

R-Truth, Morrison, Mysterio and Evan Bourne or Kendrick should be in there. It makes sense to have at least one big man in there, and Kane would be it over Mark Henry who belongs in a dark match or a battle royal. Finlay definetly does not belong there.

That said, I think a tag match between Morrison and Miz and Carlito and Primo will be very entertaining, though it won't mean much. I feel bad for Mysterio who by all reports will be stuck with JBL for the IC title. The upside of that is that Mysterio could be the man to make the title meaningful as his matches are off the charts., (though Punk could have made the belt meaningful too if they had bothered)

The Hardy segment was actually the worst part of the show this week. Other than that everything else was solid if you discount the divas match.

What a terrible segment it was. Neither Matt nor Jeff can cut a good promo. That flaw gets highlighted in a feud like this, in a major way. With all the material Matt was given, he could have cut a decent promo, but his mic skills aren't good enough for him to handle a feud of this caliber. Which is why it should have been bleeping Christian whose promo skills were good enough that he could cut a promo on a PPV.

Partially, the reason why Hardy can't seem to deliver a good promo. A good heel promo constitutes a heel actually believing what he is saying (Jericho is the best example). I believe a majority of people wouldn't be able to use their brother's house burning down as an inspiration to do a heel promo.

Also, a couple of weeks ago Matt mentioned that he has had a mediocre career. Matt Hardy hasn't exactly lit the world on fire, but his career is far from mediocre. I think any eprformer would have trouble in saying that their career is mediocre.

Or maybe it's the fact that Hardy just sucks at delivering a promo

The opening match between Edge and Kofi was the best match of the night. It's nice to see that they even gave Kofi the opportunity to have a match against Edge. There was some good storytelling in the match from the beginning. It started with Kofi's entrance as he dimmed down his happy go lucky attitude. The match psychology was pretty decent too with both guys playing their respective parts well. Add to the fact that it was a high paced match, and you can see why I would call it the match of the night.

Carlito and Primo vs Miz and Morrison was alright. Maybe, I have just come to expect a solid match between these guys. I felt several of their earlier matches were beter. Perhaps, they are toning it down in preparation for their Mania match.

Kozlov vs Undertaker was decent enough. I though their match a couple of weeks ago was better.

Finlay vs The Brian Kendrick was underwhelming. I was looking forward to this match with the contrasting styles of Finlay and Kendrick. Too bad they only gave them 4 minutes, which isn't nearly long enough for a good match.

Golden Standard and Kirwin White vs Truth and MVP was solid. It progressed the storyline well enough, and it was a good match.

Mark my words on WM25....

Christian will win money in the bank match.

Later that night, Edge will win cleanly in the triple threat match.

Christian will cash in the case and defeat Edge.

This is going to happen. They have not done much with Christian and I think it is almost on purpose...they need to have a reason for him to win the title, coming out and defeating his former friend would set up a huge and long rivalry.

Totally agree with the money in the bank point! The match is basically an unashamed spot fest and I can't see how Henry, Kane and Finlay fit in on those grounds.

I'm pretty confident Bourne will now return to feud with Jack Swagger, hopefully with an ECW title match at WM25. That would be nice little preview of the future of the WWE and would be a fitting way of selling ECW as the 'Rising Stars' brand, featuring probably the two best products of the 'New Superstar Initiative'.

Hopefully Christian will win MITB and I can see him being drafted to Smackdown or Raw on the draft show as Mr. MITB. I think the only reason why he's on ECW now is because everyone else on the top two shows was building to WM angles when he returned.

I thought the whole Hardy promo/confrontation was poor.

Matt lacked emotion in his promo because he was obviously so focused on remembering all his key points.
It ended up coming across like a Sting promo, that being a 'forced read' feel rather than a true, angry rant.

Jeff was just as bad, with acting more wooden than you'd see on a women's soap opera.

The whole 'dog' thing was some real cheap heat, too.

Their 'physical' confrontation was also terrible, with Jeff slapping Matt in a very feminine manner and Matt just sitting there taking it.

Horrible performances all round.

Joe,

I thought about the tag team idea, too. That would really be awesome.

Although Kozlove losing clean to Taker and HBK were the right calls for their build up to Mania, it severely diminshes his credibility. Where does Kozlov go from here? I can see a scenario similar to last year - Battle Royale between superstars not in matches - winner faces JBL @ Mania for IC belt. One would think Kozlov would win that and possibly win the IC belt as well. If not, he is even worse than Kane and Umaga.

Christian simply has to win the MITB ladder match in my opinion.

There is no chance that Kane, Mark Henry or Finlay will win. The WWE would not dream of putting either of the two main straps on those guys. Shelton Benjamin has talent but hasn't really developed much in recent times (not necessarily his fault).

CM Punk was seen as a failure as a world champ, hence moving back to the IC strap, which after a world title reign is a huge indication that the company just doesnt believe he has what it takes as a true headliner.

Kofi Kingston and MVP would also be decent shouts to win but I think the WWE knows it has genuine a headliner in Christian and will give him an almighty push (beginning with a win in the MITB) before his ECW stint begins to affect his momentum.

As much as I like the Hardys, I did not get Matt Hardy's promo the other night. It seemed to be all over the place. He didn't truly admit to the previous attacks on Jeff and then he mixed real world events like the house fire into the promo. Why? If you had nothing to do with Jeff's house burning down then why bring this up?!

When Jeff came out and said "I can't believe you're behind all this", it didn't really make sense. Matt alluded to responsibility but didn't flat out confess to the attacks. And now there's a match set for these two at WM25. Really? Jeff seemed somewhat remorseful for giving Matt a beat down last Friday. He seemed reluctant to fight still and then Jim Ross just announces Hardy vs Hardy at WM25. Am I to believe that Jeff has all of sudden completely changed his mind about fighting his brother because Matt pulled out a PetSmart dog collar?! Bad writing on the WWE's part.

I recently re-watched the Hardys 2001 match against one another at Vengeance. It was sort of a mess. At one point you can blatantly hear Matt giving the calls of "Russian Leg Sweep" to Jeff because the crowd was so eerily silent. Let's hope the boys fare better at WM25 but I've got reservations about this one.

Lynelle, considering that Matt didn't flat out confess to the attacks, I think that WWE is reserving the right, so to speak, to reveal that the stalker was someone else. Maybe they will do so; maybe they won't. Matt wants a match against Jeff, so he alluded to some bad things that have happened while hoping that Jeff would take the bait.

i think submission, and technical wrestling in general, suffer heavily from the mentality that submitting is a sign of a character's weakness. it used to be that having a sleeper, crossface or sharpshooter was instead a way to build the other wrestler up.

I read that Vince perceived Christian to be the personification of vanilla, so I wouldn't be so confident in a big Christian push.