Is there still a marketing advantage for the split rosters? I thought that was partially the whole point way back when. You know, when they actually had the completely seperate ppv's and all(until that concept died).

Maybe it's just a morale thing that if the shows are seperate, then they seem equal (or at least wrestlers could control trying to get them equal)?

They sure can't say it's a travel thing since most talents get mixed each week and on tours anyway. They'd just have to actually write things out ahead of time to see who didn't need to travel on what dates.

I totally agree though Kev, I think if you went through the press release wehn they started this thing you could rip it apart line by line. Talk about suspending disbelief though.

I think they'll return to brand exclusivity after Backlash. Everything seems so mixed up at the moment and I hope everything straightens out soon. It would be nice if they used one PPV for Raw v. Smackdown v. ECW.

I was suprised but happy to see Ziggler win. I'm not so sure he can reach his full potential with his current gimmick. I'm sick of him introducing himself every week. He's billed from Hollywood so I think it would make sense to do a gimmick surrounding that fact.

Nothing major, just thought i would point out, J.R said when the Batista Ted Dibiase match was first advertised, that this was a chance for Batista to get retribution on Dibiase for sidelining him, or something along those lines. Wasn't Dibiase sidelined at that point after Orton had punted him in the head? If so, guess the best can make mistakes.

I actually thought that the music during the HHH-Orton exchange added something good. Sure, we had to suspend our disbelief in order to appreciate it, but we have to do the same thing everytime someone's entrance music hits during an "unexpected" appearance.

To the surprise of no one, Batista got a clean win over DiBiase, but I think that he actually put young Ted over. DiBiase looked like Batista's equal for most of the match. It was a far cry from Super Trips' destruction of Cody Rhodes on Raw, a few weeks ago.

All in all, it was a solid episode of Smackdown. There were some good television matches and, like on Tuesday's ECW, no annoying Raw recap.

That RAW invasion was kind of annoying to me.
Doing the draft when there are still so many storylines happening it's a bit dumb, because then shows like last friday make the draft seems pointless.
Rhodes and dibiase sure would have looked strong in their fights, if they had won a single match in the last three months.
I think the whole legacy thing treading water right now, as the only one who has impact is Orton, and only due to surprise assaults (Vince, HHH, Stephanie), or beating non-wrestlers (Shane).
And in top of all these, if Orton wins the title at backlash, it would be anticlimatic (you know, the guy winning a single title in a tag match is sort of....odd,to say the least).
Jesus, the show was so RAW based that my comment is full of RAW mentions.

I see a bit of Mr. Perfect in Dolph Ziggler.

I totally agree with the bizarre booking for the Smackdown show. It didn't make sense to let Helmsley get face time on Smackdown, but Edge, who along with the Undertaker, is the top performer on the Smackdown isn't even on the show at all. If Batista and Dibiase had wrestled, but with a combination of Smackdown talent, it would have seemed a little less weird, but two have two people from another show wrestle each other one on one is ridiculous.

A rare occurance this week , a thumbs down review of WWE , and a thumbs up review of TNA . ( not to say that TNA's usual thumbs down are not sometimes warranted ) .

Hi Kevin.

I live in Dublin in Ireland and went to see a brilliant WWE show on Thursday night.

Jericho took on CM Punk in a bout that had the 10,000 strong crowd on the edge of their seats. The heat Jericho got was incredible and was only comparable to the pop that Punk recieved. They put on a great show and have real chemistry together. Hopefully Jericho will be the mechanic that gets Punk over.

In the main event... Edge and Big Show fought Rey and John Cena, very entertaining and it sent the crowd home happy.

Earlier on the Colon's took ona tag team consisting on Kane and Mike Knox, have to say...I was really impressed with the Colon's, Primo in particular.

Hope that info lets you know why none of the big Smackdown stars were on TV Friday.

Big news on the night which most people missed was that tickets went on sale for 2 tours in October and December.

A DX : In your face tour. And an Undertaker: Rest in Peace tour.
I guess Michaels and Taker are retiring at Wrestlemania...

Just wondering, isn't this DiBiase's first singles match? All of the matches that I remember DiBiase participating in have been tag matches, handicaps and a battle royal

I have liked Ziggler from day one. I'm not sure if he should have went over MVP this soon without more of a build up. MVP need not loose many matches if they expect to have him as one of their top stars one day. To be honest I think the WWE has already dropped the ball.

Morrison should have went over R-Truth clean. I think they made the right call on this one. All they (WWE) needs to do is build the proper Micheals/Morrison storyline which first begins with Micheals going over but finally with Morrison going over on the larger stage. But let the final retirement match be a tag match in which Morrison takes the torch.

Stop with the Hardy losses already! Hardy is blessed to be a wrestler who dosen't major damage from his losses but lets not get crazy now!

I completely agree with you about the draft....even though I didn't agree last week when you were complaining about the mix in shows leading up to Mania.

I don't see why they would hold the draft so quickly after Wrestlemania when they are still finishing off feuds from Mania (hardys, hhh/orton, etc..) The draft should have been the monday after Backlash in my opinion.

Am I the only one that thinks it's strange that the announcers are saying Backlash is Triple H's chance for revenge? Didn't Triple H get his revenge at Wrestlemania?

ever heard of a 'send off' kevin?

RESPONSE FROMK KE: Sorry, don't consider anything that happened on Smackdown a sendoff. Anyway, how does that explain a Batista-DiBiase main event or a Orton-Triple H confrontation?

Kevin, I think the major reason for a lot of "Raw" guys on Smackdown was because on Tuesday a combined roster of mostly Raw talent but also some Smackdown talent (like Edge, CM Punk, etc.) went overseas for a tour... so that explains why they weren't at the Smackdown tapings. Pretty simple explanation, and I think you'll see everything back to "normal" next week and especially after Backlash. There's a reason for everything.

Spot on about the draft, Kevin.

In the early days it was exciting, both because it was new and because it meant something.

Now it's totally meaningless because wrestlers regularly appear on both the main shows, without explanation.

I like Gail Kim, but her new finisher is awful and that match was well below average.
Hopefully he's just working off her ring rust, but the WWE Gail Kim so far isn't a patch on the TNA version.

kevin all i'd say about smackdown this week is that a lot of the superstars that appeared (Maryse, HHH, MVP, Big Show) were obviously making their 'final' appearances on smackdown this week (as the draft was only done this week), in the same way some of the RAW superstars that are moving to Smackdown did on Monday. In terms of Batista - he needs ring time before next sunday, and his involvement with legacy needs as much time as possible to work up a sweat before backlash. that might be the reason

Kev, isn't smackdown taped on tuesdays? which would mean the supplemental draft hadn't been done yet technically. I'm probably wrong but i thought that was one possible reason.

Yes, Smackdown is taped on Tuesdays -- with the overseas tour and the supplemental draft on Wednesday, the creative team probably had a little trouble putting together Smackdown as well as ECW.

I live not too far from Vienna, Austria and went to a great WWE show there on Sunday night that included Smackdown and ECW stars. Most of us were there to see Triple H (among others) who was traded to Raw in the most recent draft. Imagine he had pulled out because of the draft! So, as Scott and Willie said, the wait was likely at least partially due to the European tour.