"It was nice to see WWE continue to develop Mike Knox’s new character by showing a pre-taped promo from him during his match with Finlay."

_________________________________

It was nice, but I don't think that Knox' beard should have been tied up like it was. The free-hanging beard makes him look crazier.

Smackdown continues to keep me riveted from week to week. Right now, it's the only "must see" program each for me, since ECW still hasn't hit its stride since the draft, and Raw varies wildly from week to week.

To tie this into the Jericho interview the other day - Do you think he was doing a bit of a shoot at how Raw is run with his remarks about the roster and the lack of developing stars there? The two shows are polar opposites of one another - Smackdown has done great at elevating the stature of Punk, Hardy, John Morrison, while on Raw, Rhodes and Ted Jr. barely win, and Swagger, MVP and Bourne have gotten lost in the shuffle after hot starts to their careers.

I'm kind of hoping that WWE considers doing a "new vs. old" angle for Raw. That could be good, with a faction of uneasy alliances between Bourne, Swagger, Legacy, MVP vs. the established Cena, HHH, HBK, etc., with Orton forced to pick a side.

My gut feeling is that Matt will indeed turn on his bro Jeff.I just not sure that it will be Sunday myself.If I was booking it,the Smackdown taping would be ideal tho it would be preferable on a live show.

Kevin, Todd Grisham said that Punk walks to the beat of his own drummer. Is that what Punk says he's against?

RESPONSE FROM KE: That's a great observation.

Fun Smackdown, although it was disturbing how many people cheered when Jeff said that he decided to ignore the doctors' orders, even if the so-called doctors don't even exist.

In any case, I'm sort of hoping Punk wins clean at SummerSlam, or at least as cleanly as you can get in a TLC match...

I read somewhere that Jeff will be returning to the WWE sometime in 2010. But that depends on MTV picking up his reality show. This is all speculation because I don't recall Jeff was even doing or attempting to do a reality show.

RESPONSE FROM KE: The Hardys have an online reality show.

The WWE obviously has no idea what to do with Matt Hardy. ECW, Smackdown, Raw, and then back to Smackdown...face, now heel turn so you can feud with Jeff...No, go back to being a face all of a sudden. It's ridiculous. The live crowd at the Smackdown taping was fairly indifferent during the Matt Hardy interview but the place went bananas when the Hardys came out together to their "old" music.

All these internet sites said Jeff Hardy was supposed to be gone months ago so I'm through speculating and getting worked up over internet reports. If Jeff is around, great. If not, I'll rock my armbands and wait in the psychotic fringes until he returns.

Steve's idea of the "new vs. old" would be very cool, but I think it runs too closely to the Main Event Mafia storyline. Then again, nWo and DX ran at the same time...either way, RAW needs to elevate its younger talent faster.

Jeff should really stop walking under ladders!

I guess it's easy for Jeff to forgive Matt when you compare Matt's actions to Kane's. I mean, Matt never put Jeff in a casket and set it on fire. Matt also never buried Jeff alive. All Matt did was burn Jeff's house down and kill his dog. Big whoop. I'd forgive Matt pretty easily, too.

I agree that Steve has a good idea, but I doubt that it will see the light of day, for it would mean WWE essentially admitting that the Raw poster boys are a bit too entrenched in their spots, and the A show is not the place to be if you are young stallion trying to establish yourself. After all, everyone should want to be on the A show, right? Of course, I have been wrong before. I wouldn't never have bet that DX would get a beatdown from Rhodes and DiBiase.

WELL THIS IS HOW I SEE IT, CM PUNK WINS THE TITLE AT SUMMERSLAM
AND THEN THE UNDERTAKER WILL RETURN TO CHALLENGE CM PUNK FOR THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP WHILE JEFF HARDY IS OUT OF THE PICTURE

Fun smackdown this week. Best show of the week as is the case nowadays. Really liked seeing the hardys bk together specially with their old music. Whether jeff is leaving or not it looked quite an emotional moment for them. Side note- I really like tyson kidd but hate his screaming. And I think morrison is immense but the crowd don't seem to be into him as much as he probably needs for a main event spot. He's not on the card for summerslam so maybe he'll have sum sort of cameo appearance in the tlc match that will get the fans behind him.

With the big story line potential that Matt turning on Jeff could've/should've been, doesn't it seem too soon to give up on it? I guess Jeff's hiatus has something to do with that?

The thing that I found interesting, even though it was minor was something that proves CM Punk gets it. Anyone else notice that his trunk colors were the Hart Dynasty colors as well.

Sure it's subtle, but hey, isn't that just a little bit of psychology for you there? That's just another reason as to why CM Punk is on top right now. He cares about the minute things.

I would be very surprised if Jeff was not on smackdown next week. It is the 10th anniversary since it became syndicated, and as Jeff was on the first smackdown, he should be on that.

Did anyone else think that Matt thought the Jeff Vs Punk set up was supposed to be on before his interview? Because in his interview he reference something "Jeff said earlier" which was shown later in the TLC hype.

I don't know why but I'm still skeptical about Matt Hardy's intentions...

One quick question to anybody who cares to answer:
How do you MAKE SURE that someone is a mark (yeah, there are still some out there) without telling them that wrestling is scripted and then watching their heads explode in shock?

XD

SD still is the best show that wwe has....Matt returning was well done and the suppose turn to face and nice with his brother was done well.....Punk to me still is not championship material, so y does he get more chances then anyone else but rey.....I like to see one more run of the Hardies as tag team vs The Heart Trilogy would be great for both teams....the new look Knoxx with the glasses and the clean look was genious, and his wrestling can only Improve by working with Finlay......He can make any wrestler look good....SD just keeps getting better everyweek.

I wonder if Hardy is really going to rest for a while because last Friday, I could have sworn that ads on TV here in Canada were featuring Jeff Hardy as a headliner in Canadian events in September.

Sorry, but that was not the best word up segment ever. It was funnier when Jessie was just trying hard to fit in with the crowd.

SmackDown has good booking, so Matt probably won't turn on Jeff. Swerves are for Raw and TNA (and I like Impact). Then again, the WWE likes swerving the IWC (see the Tommy Dreamer retirement angle), so maybe Jeff will be around after a couple weeks off for a well deserved vacation.

Another enjoyable episode of SmackDown, but I don't see how any good can come out of Matt's "face" turn on Friday. If he's truly a face again, then months of planning and work of turning him into a believable upper mid card heel were thrown away for no real reason. If he's not truly turning and is still plotting against Jeff, it just makes his Jeff look like an idiot, naive babyface (copyright TNA) for being so gullible after all his brother did to him.

Listen, I don't want to derail the serious conversation happening here but why has nobody mentioned just how much Matt Hardy looked like Jake the Snake on Friday?

Seriously. The pants, the hairline, the shirtless appearance.

Uncanny.