I think Matt will turn face; I think he will be Punk's challenger after Jeff. I do wonder where that leaves Morrison...but that highlights the depth Smackdown! now has (especially compared to RAW!) when even Edge is injured and Jericho in a tag team role.

Ziggler is ever improving and Maria will help him with his character to work.

Tyson Kidd looked great, I think he deserves a big push...Morrison great as always.

JTG needed to win for the feud, but Jericho has lost too many in a row now.

Punk's promo at the begining was great, though after that link Kev posted on the last Smackdown! blog, I want him to get more hardcore with his character.

Vince turning up was a huge suprise and great that even the "B" show can be just as unpredictable (or better) that Raw!

No divas match though...I'm wondering do you get "from the vault" in USA? In Uk every week we have to endure it, this time "treated" to Hurricane Helms vs Chavo...I'd rather see this time used for a NEW match, mainly a diva's one

RESPONSE FROM KE: We do not get From the Vault.

"[A]s soon as Vince McMahon announced that there would be a special enforcer referee, I knew it was going to be Matt."

_______________________________

You did a better job of connecting the dots than I did. I thought that The Undertaker would be the enforcer. That being said, I agree that Matt's involvement made sense because it made us wonder whether Matt would rekindle his feud with Jeff or a swerve was about to take place. In the end, we still aren't sure where Matt stands, and that's not a bad thing.

You like Slam Master J, but don't like the Cryme Tyme act. How is that possible? Slam Master J is a even bigger steaeo-type

RESPONSE FROM KE: It's just so absurd that it makes me laugh.I think the fact that we saw him as country boy Jesse for so long is what makes the new persona work.

It was nice to see McMahon again... I guess you sort of like him as a character when he's not shoving himself down our throats. Did he get his entrance music updated? One thing I couldn't believe is that there were people bowing down to McMahon, literally bowing.

The Starship Pain right on Kidd's face must've hurt...

There were Y2J chants during his match. Not surprising when his opponent is someone as hateful as JTG. I agree that JTG winning clean is a travesty. They constantly remind us each week about how many accolades Jericho has, how he was the first ever undisputed champion, and now he loses clean to....JTG? At least have Jericho win via a screwjob or something...

The Punk-Hardy match was great, but too short, especially with all the suspense around Matt.

Punk to officials, after beating up Hardy: "Make sure he's okay. Fix him so I can break him again."
Classic. Heel Punk could give Jericho a run for his money.

TLC matches are usually fun, but with PG... WWE is gonna have a PPV called Hell in a Cell later, but that's gonna be ruined by PG as well. PG + wrestling = fail.

Yes... yes it is VERY wrong

First they send Jericho to revive the state of tag team championship. Just when he started to do it, they are burying him by making him job to JTG. Me being a Jerichoholic myself, I can't watch this torture anymore.
Maybe this is WWE's way of saying that Orton is the top heel of WWE. IMO, Orton is nothing but a peice of crap.

Was shame? Was it a still held grudge? No; I think Matt Hardy was just scared that if he made eye contact with someone they would make fun of his horrendous facial tan.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Yeah, that was pretty bad.

was it just me or was Jericho getting the louder cheers even though his dad did play hockey on long island still to me a bad loss. Could they had at least given SMJ a decent finisher that splash on haas looked terrible and my grandmom could have kicked out of that. Glad to see Matt back even though i think he will cost jeff the title at Summerfest that won still gets me ands almost. been a week

Good thing to hear: Charlie Haas' old "Greatest Tag Team" theme song. Bad thing to see: seeing him now as a jobber. C'mon.

And I dunno why I didn't see Matt as a potential contender for the title. He's now a tweener, and I thought that the reason he gave Jeff the win was that "if I was going for the title, it's going to be from Jeff." Two birds, one stone.

And when Vince announced the special enforcer, why in the world I thought that Stone Cold was gonna be it? Still livin' the Attitude Era, I pressume...

When CM Punk made his way down the ramp at the start of the broadcast, he had a smirk on his face that looked so much like a guy called Eric Young's smirk, in my opinion.

A quick question Kev, do you think that WWE will ever go back to using blood in matches, or stay PG?

RESPONSE FROM KE: The business is always changing, so it wouldn't surprise me to one day see blood come back.

Punk's opening promo was so so...seemed scripted to me. I think he can handle it on his own now. Creative may eventually screw him up.

Matt had surgery...and sun burn. I guess those operating room lights get pretty hot.

Mixed fillings on the Jericho loss. They really need to keep his losses to a minimum, he is much to valuable. But this does prove you right Kevin, as the WWE may now be recogizing JTG for his talent. I never paid attention until you mentioned it. Good call.

Reports indicate that Ricky Ortiz has been future endeavored.

Heh, you weren't the only one a tiny bit confused with Ziggler's attitude on Superstars. Mysterio almost came across as a heel on Smackdown.

Could a Ziggler swerve be in the pipeline?

Do you know that rule WWE has about not saying the referees' names? As far as I'm concerned, that rule can apply to Charles Robinson. I just got back from a Smackdown / ECW house show where Robinson blocked my view of the Kozlov-Goldust action for half the match, and he did the same for some of the Morrison-Ziggler match, too. I'll never buy another floor seat unless it's in the first row .

I had a mark out moment when Tyson Kidd acknowledged my applause with a double nod before his match with Shad. I know that he nodded at me because I was the only one in my section who applauded for him. We are in western Canada, yet the fans cheered Cryme Tyme over The Hart Dynasty? I must be older than I think I am.

I think charlie haas should form an alliance with guys like mike knox, chavo, and jamie noble and call themselves "the new job squad" like al snow and bob holly were in back in the day...

Hey Kev, anything to report on Kidd? He looked legitimately shaken up after Morrison landed on his face. Great match, though.

I guess I'm one of the few who didn't mind JTG getting over on Jericho. I believe JTG is probably the most underrated wrestler in the game today (a horrible gimmick and being stuck in a non-existent tag team division will do that to you). WWE seems to have trouble when it comes to their black wrestlers. Aside from Kofi Kingston (who is as over with the fans as anyone right now; they just love him, and for good reason), take a look around: Benjamin, MVP, Truth, JTG, and even Shad are all at least above-average talents. Hell, Benjamin is among the best in the world. I'm certainly not making a "racism" accusation, I just think WWE is genuinely clueless when it comes to how best to showcase their black wrestlers.

Regarding the "From the Vault" thing, if you watch Smackdown on Hulu (as I often do, hard to catch it on Friday nights), they show it there.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Kidd is fine. He has been working house shows.

Just getting to watch smackdown now grrrr and thank goodness for VCR's lol

They need to give Tyson Kidd a push I would love for them to turn the Hart's face but I can't see that happening unfortunately

Also with Maria & Dolph, are they going to use her to turn him face, her comments certainly suggest it.

What got me with the Jericho V JTG match was how easy Jericho took it on JTG, the kicks looked so soft my grandmother could have taken them (Or been the one giving them)

Ok so are we going to see something reminiscent of the Undertakers Vignettes to explain what Kane did to Singh?

Okay so Matt Hardy can't even win a fight against a bottle of fake tan now? Yipes. But coming back to what will happen, my cousins and I have a motto. "Family can do to family what no outsider is allowed" In other words we can get into a massive drag out fight but if someone else lays a hand on one of us, you get the other 11 of us after you. Matt could be working under that theory as well. Well that is my suggestion anyway

I wouldn't get so upset about Jericho's loss. As a fellow fan, I don't like to see him job too much but it shows he's an unselfish performer that is willing to do anything to get others over. And he doesn't really lose any credibility because he's so over. By contrast, it really elevates JTG.

Just compare the Jericho and HHH matches this week. HHH puts over Legacy and afterwards sarcastially says "ow" before no-selling the loss to the audience. Jericho puts over JTG and really sells it as a devestating loss that he's hugely upset about. Who's doing more to create new stars?

RESPONSE FROM KE: That's really funny that you made that analogy, because I said the exact same thing today to a friend regarding Jericho and Triple H.

"Morrison and Tyson Kidd had a good match together for the second straight week. Obviously, the idea here is to showcase Morrison’s talent and get him over as a top-tier guy, but Kidd has been impressive as well. …"

Kidd was good. Unfortunately, I would be willing to bet he has a concussion. I was sitting front row nearedst the corner of the Starship Pain...and this time it was aptly named.

After JTG pinned Jericho I stopped watching the recording and deleted it. I just couldn't accept it, even though as you said KE it did make sense in booking terms.

SD again is the shinning star of the 3 shows, maybe the reason vince was there is to see how good the B show is......Man when is Finlay going to get any respect, the man does everthing wwe and vince wants and still doesn't get any title shots he made ziggler look good. If dreamer became a chapion y not finlay....................

Is the PG thing really so far gone that they can't show chairshots or the shillelagh anymore? Blatant crowd shots and freeze frames? Really?

now my time now

I couldn't disagree with you more about the result of JTG vs. Jericho. I think the ending was clever and it was nice to see a surprise win. I think the crowd popped a little, too, when it happened. Cryme Tyme's work in the ring is very good (especially JTG's). I think they should get more credit then they deserve. I do have to agree, though, that they will not win at Summerslam but they do deserve the straps at some point.

To Michael and Virginia, you wrote: I guess I'm one of the few who didn't mind JTG getting over on Jericho. I believe JTG is probably the most underrated wrestler in the game today (a horrible gimmick and being stuck in a non-existent tag team division will do that to you). WWE seems to have trouble when it comes to their black wrestlers. Aside from Kofi Kingston (who is as over with the fans as anyone right now; they just love him, and for good reason), take a look around: Benjamin, MVP, Truth, JTG, and even Shad are all at least above-average talents. Hell, Benjamin is among the best in the world. I'm certainly not making a "racism" accusation, I just think WWE is genuinely clueless when it comes to how best to showcase their black wrestlers.

--------------------------

Well, I'm black so I see where you're coming from. I don't know whether it's wrong that I feel guilty that I never support the black athletes, but I do feel guilty. The only ones I've gone crazy about were Ahmed Johnson (way, way back in the day), Kofi Kingston, Shelton Benjamin, and it took Kev to get me to like Mark Henry. lol! The only disagreement I have with your comment and it seems is the general consensus is JTG being better than Shad Gaspard.

Shad Gaspard is far far more entertaining in the ring than is JTG in my opinion. Sure, JTG is a very impressive high-flier but already have the impressive Black high fliers that no others can top, Kofi Kingston and Shelton Benjamin. Shad gives us something we've never seen before. There's no one of his size who's Black. Blacks are either light heavyweight or obese. Plus I like a big man who can move around quickly and with ease which is probably why I'm obsessed with The Undertaker in-ring action growing up. I've always hoped Shad Gaspard would become a singles competitor down the road which coincidentally Kev made mention of in recent blog. I love watching him in the ring; love the braids, etc. Love everything; HOWEVER, he needs to leave Cryme Time.

In regards to his match with Jericho, this the WWE's mistake. Cryme Time needed to be pushed extra extra good if they were going to get a win over Jericho (perhaps in some singles matches since there's few tag teams right now). I just feel Jericho deserves more respect. On the bright side as some have said, at least he's proving he's not like HHH.

I'll end this post now before I have to deal with the nagging of a [jerk] telling me it's too long.

Another great smackdown as always, this seems to be the only show without all of the horrible comedy routines (poorly acted 'comedy' bits and the Abraham Washington Show), if they just got rid of the word up segment, I would have no complaints. I doubt this was shown on the broadcast version, but when I watched it on Hulu, they showed an old match from 2002 where Chavo fought Hurricane. Before seeing that, I never knew Chavo was that good, it was a real treat to see an older match in the middle of the episode (30 mins in on the newest episode). Can anybody confirm if that is standard on the hulu streams of smackdown? CM Punk has really grown on me, he is a great heal and I'm excited to see where his angle goes, also, Jericho is the best, I watch Raw to see if he will show up on that show as well, his speeches and commentary make me laugh almost the whole time, here's hoping that's the route he takes when he's done wrestling (even though they seem to have killed off the heel announcers)