The women’s tag match in which Maria and Eve defeat Natalya and Layla was decent. It’s kind of sad though that Maria can’t do her Bronco Buster in a PG WWE. ...

That's probably for the best. Back when Chyna was wrestling, I knew that she had implants and I worried that one of them might rupture due to all the bumps she took. Sure enough, it happened, and it happened with her on the receiving end of a Bronco Buster from X-Pac.

At least one of Maria's regular opponents has probably had work done. Which I find sad, because I'm sure they all looked great or good in the beginning but either they thought they needed to look *better* in order to keep their spots, or the higher-ups did. Anyway, the Bronco Buster is probably not a good idea.

Was it just me, or did Jim Ross feign ignorance of The Anaconda Vice during Punk's promo and then describe it as a submission hold during the Punk-Hardy match?

Agree on the McCool comment. She really is painful to listen to. And could we please keep her away from the commentators' table? Thank goodness for DVRs.

Wow what a match between Rey and John Morrison. Definitely best match of the year so far. Sorry Kev even better than HBK and Taker. Matt Hardy seems to be struggling with some of his moves it might be down to his injury or maybe his weight gain. He seems a bit stiff at the moment. I agree with you about Michelle McCool, decent wresler terrible on the mic.

I found the pepto bismol line more amusing than any of the "comedy" they've done on Raw.

You keep saying that Morrison's a main eventer, and that's probably true, but that says more about the lack of talent depth than his skills. He's a good wrestler and getting better but his mic skills are terrible and his character is fabricated as opposed to real. That being said, yes the match was very good.

The Morrison-Mysterio match was outstanding. Morriosn is really coming into his own as a performer. That match could easily have headlined a PPV. It's a shame, though, that the main event from SD was so dull by comparison. Matt Hardy and CM Punk should have been able to put on a better show.

I found it pretty funny to hear Punk refer to himself as the choice of a new genereation while having the Pepsi logo tattooed on his arm. Totally agree about the fans' faces once they realized Punk was dressed as Jeff Hardy. The anger and contempt made for perfect pictures.

One quick question, though. How is a Singapore Cane Match between Kane and Khali a submission match? Is there something I am missing?

Couldn't agree more about the Morrison-Mysterio match. Do you see a Morrison/Melina-Ziggler/Maria program on the horizon?

I have to disagree with you on McIntyre - last week it was unexpected, and therefore exciting. This week I saw it coming a mile away, and it was the exact same attack! No more vicious, just incredibly obvious, not to mention boring. I like where this is going, but they need to speed it up.

I thought Mysterio's supension was to have started by now? I remember reading somewhere it was to begin Sep 2.

RESPONSE FROM KE: It did begin on Sept. 2. Smackdown was taped on Sept.1.

Drew McIntyre attacking R-Truth is one thing, but I'm still wondering if Kevin Eck has yet to "bust a move" during Truth's entrance music!

What a Smackdown that was on Friday! CM Punk has to be the best heel since The Rock back during the Attitude era. His arrogance and I'm better than you gimmick is just amazing. And hearing that 'The Only Straight Edge Champion' from the announcer was just awesome.

John Morrison vs Rey Mysterio blew me away. What a match! It was obvious Rey was gonna lose when I found out about the suspension but kudos to WWE for allowing those 2 to put on a hell of a show for the fans instead of making it a squash match like they normally do. I just hope this means now that Morrison will get an even bigger push to main event status cos he is just awesome in my books.

The Divas match was OK. Eve has improved for me but why oh why is Natalya not being given more opportunities to wrestle? The girl has talent.
U're right about Michelle McCool. Although I have a soft spot for her she has the WORST acting skills ever.
And what is going on with Maria? Am I the only one who wonders what she's doing in a WWE ring?

And Kevin... I need your input on this. WWE will be celebrating 10 years of Smackdown next month and I am just curious to get your thoughts on what you feel has been the best Smackdown moment in history.
Mine has to be the episode where The Rock 'ended' Vince McMahon's Kiss My A** club with the help of Trish Stratus, Good Ol' J.R. and Rikishi. That was television worth watching. Man those were the days back in WWE...

Remember people... Smackdown will always be The Rock's Show... The People's Show...

Kev, I laughed hysterically when they showed the fans reaction, realizing that it was Punk and not Jeff Hardy coming to the ring. Then I thought...they need to read your blog.

Loved the Morrison - Mysterio match. PPV quality.

You always say that Eve is improving. I think that Layla is improving as well. ( If you mentioned b4 that layla was improving, then I missed it and apologize).

Keep up the good work!

RESPONSE FROM KE: On my Smackdown review that was posted on Aug. 15, I wrote: "The Melina-Layla match wasn’t bad. Layla has improved a lot."

the main event was really good but i really don't like Drew attacking R-Truth his character seems to be an Irish or scottish version of Dolph. On that note i think lately that why are the majority of young guys getting pushed right now heavily for their shows are heels can we get some Face pushes such as SD right now you got Punk, Jericho-Show, THD, Dolph, kane, Mike Knox getting pushes and as far as the faces go Taker, Rey, Morrison, Matt. On ECW you got Regal, Jackson-Kozloff, Sheamus, Zack, faces Christian & Yoshi, & Benjamin,
and Finally Raw Orton & Legacy, Show, Swagger,Miz,faces Cena,HHH,Shawn,Batista,Kofi, Mark Henry, and out of all these guys heels and face you count how many of them have been with the company less then 5 years and getting pushes on what side of the fence is amazing they can't try and give any others a reakl push as a face even though hopefully Evan is about to get what i hope weill be a Rey misterio type of push.

"One quick question, though. How is a Singapore Cane Match between Kane and Khali a submission match? Is there something I am missing?"

Simple.. they wrestle until the audience taps out from the pain. I'm tapping now.. does that count? ;)

"One quick question, though. How is a Singapore Cane Match between Kane and Khali a submission match? Is there something I am missing?"

Didn't they say only the main event matches are submission matches?

Ironically, Morrison had a great match with Punk when Morrison had to give up the ECW title due to his own drug suspension.

In regard to Punk calling himself the only straight edge champion in WWE history, wasn't the Bob Backlund character straight edge, even if those words weren't used? Or doesn't he count since he was WWWF and WWF champion?

Hey Kev, when was the last time Raw had a PPV quality match? Because Smackdown has given fans a PPV quality match almost every week recently.

Mysterio is a champ, and though I was saddened about his suspension and the reason for it, he went out in style. Morrison is getting up there, but needs to step up his mic skills.

Everyone mentions McCool's terrible acting, however, the worst is Melina - all the lip-biting and hand-wringing, she's like a really bad mime.

Oh, I love Matt Hardy, but there is definitely some stiffness which I attribute to his abdominal injury. I say injury because the stiffness was there before the actual surgery took place. But that boy has so much heart - he'll be back to 200% in no time.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I agree -- Melina is pretty bad, too.

"I’m begging Michelle McCool to take some acting lessons."

I'm begging Maria to take some wrestling lessons.

What was with JR's shot at Maria "not even knowing who Lou Thesz is"? A) I have no particular reason to think it's true and, more importantly if it is, b) why would he highlight one of the big things that's used against the Divas, which is that they don't know the business?

yes...the title of your post says it all! the fans were even chanting "this is awesome"
this is something that i heard during the undertaker-shawn micheals match at wm!
hats off to both the guys and the wwe creative team as well! undertakers return could have been detrimental to morrison's push!! but now many goals were accomplished with morrison winning the ic title! utill the undertaker feuds with cm punk! morrison can have a program with ziggler which i am looking forward to! a quality opponent like morrison will give ziggler the chance to portray his skills effectively as well!! by the time wm 26 arrives ,we will 2 superstars ready in morrison and ziggler!
keep up the good work kevin!!

@ Rob Watkins

Morrison is excellent on the mic... when it's his material

When he was a heel and teamed with The Miz, Morrison was great

but now that he's gone face, he's being fed papercutter babyface lines and he's not connecting with them. If they want Morrison to shine they need to let him write his own stuff. Let him continue to be an egomaniac but direct his insults towards heels

John Morrison is the future of WWE. They had better seize the moment and give him a good run with the Intercontinental title this time around and get him solidified as a top star. I have a feeling a Morrison-Punk feud is in the making and that could probably be one of if not the main event of Wrestlemania 26. These two guys are outperforming CENA,HHH and ORTON. They bring freshness to the WWE and could really get as good as Breat Hart and HBK at their prime. Without smackdown...I would have stopped watching Wrestling...

The show's opening was great. I never tire of analyzing WWE from a business-school case-study perspective. Here you have an auditorium full of paying customers, and WWE deliberately goes out of its way to p--- them off. And it's the right thing to do, and it works!

Maybe McCool and Matt Hardy can carpool to those lessons.

I was at the show. The "let's go Morrison" was from males over 18 while the mysterio chants were all from the little kids. Also, the little kids flipped out for "Jeff hardy", but no one really cared that much about the undertaker. The biggest pops of the night were: 1. DX (after the show) 2. Jeff Hardy 3. Mysterio 4. undertaker the most heat was 1: Cm Punk 2. Abraham Washington (when he told the crowd that both he and Lebron James cannot wait to get out of the Cleveland) 3. McIntyre guy.

I thought it was a good show, I just wished Jericho would have been there because I was looking forward to seeing him live.

Kevin, Mysterio-Morrison was great, but I still think that Hardy-Morrison at the Arena was a little bit better.Either way, I'm glad that the IC title seems to mean something again within WWE. Growing up, the first wrestling show I ever went to at the Baltimore Civic Center, the main event was Tito Santana defending the IC title against Roddy Piper, and I always was more entertained by the IC title matches than the heavyweight title matches.

CM Punk's presentation was humdrum and did nothing for me. Although it was a sharp move to focus on Jeff Hardy for heel heat, the manner in which he went about it took attention completely off his feud with The Undertaker. This was made evident when his comments directed to The Undertaker were met with "Hardy" cheers. If I were Punk, I would have placed attention on both The Undertaker and Jeff Hardy simultaneously:

Example: "Undertaker, Jeff was unwilling to listen to me. See what's happened to him? You don't want the same thing to happen to you. Undertaker, Jeff had to learn things the hard way. You just like Jeff are now going to have to."

This would have also aroused enough resentment in Matt Hardy to come down and attack Punk. As for the Punk's impersonation, funny but not remotely insulting. He should have done a more insulting impersonation and come out with cigarettes and beer bottles.

I think part of my problem with Punk this week was him applying his gimmick mainly to the the same star again, and thus it became hackneyed. Being able to apply that Straight Edge gimmick to new stars in different ways is what's going to make it new and refreshing. His Straight Edge gimmick was mainly manifested in regards to Jeff Hardy and we ended up hearing the same ole' stuff with nothing new added. Albeit he made a 'smoke' reference to The Undertaker, it was tired and weak. If that's how Punk plans on applying his Straight Edge gimmick to the Dead Man, it's going to get stale and quick. If I were Punk, I would make use of how Taker is the Dead Man, how he probably became Dead, and work from there:

"Undertaker, we all know how you became the Dead Man. You were probably on drugs back when you had life. You know you could be alive if you lived a Straight Edge lifestyle. We all know what you're probably doing in the darkness and in the shadows. I've always known what the true purpose of all that darkness was. Why don't you stop hiding your cigarettes and beer bottles and come out of the darkness. You'd have life; not all this death."

Speaking of which, this Undertaker business has been driving me up the wall. I don't want to hear about ANY superstar for two weeks and then fifty two times on the night in question, only for that superstar to make a crummy minute-long appearance. It's misleading and irksome. Also, why does the WWE have The Undertaker making a mockery out of this successful heel that they've built up flawlessly in CM Punk? Taker has been making CM Punk look like a little girl. It was also in WWE's best interest to allow Punk to defeat Matt Hardy by submission to give him a much needed push in facing The Undertaker, of whom they push mercilessly.

Matt Hardy shouldn't even be in World Wrestling Entertainment at this time. He's grossly out of shape and needs to hit the gym.

Drew Mcintyre has made a strong impression on me. I love the killyjoy, party pooper gimmick and how he's quick to put all the celebration and merriment to a fleeting halt. Having a different accent to distinguish him from everyone else should work in his favor. That being said, not coming out in a wrestling attire was tacky and attacking R-Truth again was hackneyed.

Guess I'm in the minority when I say I love Michelle McCool on mic and doing commentary. I think she speaks fluently as a heel.

WWE needs to stop pushing Khali and get rid of him and Kane. Push Knox and work from there.

Wow-wee! I compliment John Morrison on his impressive in-ring skills. I can't get over that spinning legdrop. I like Morrison because he's versatile; he's got a bit of that striking style of CM Punk, the highflying style, as well as the fanciness of Kofi Kingston. I feel bad for Rey Mysterio. All of his love and affection coming down the aisle and now this. Good for him in putting on a good show at a time like this.

Great comments guys. I've seen a lot of people complaining about how this sets back Morrison and Ziggler beacause he will lose to Morrison. My idea is win at BP and then at Hell in a Cell lose thanks to interference by Punk as the opening match. Long then puts Morrison in the whc title match with taker and Punk. That would be good because you can't have someone like Punk pin taker in his own match. mMake it a triple threat

"For some reason, I find the interaction between Vince McMahon and Theodore Long amusing"

I didn't see that, don't think we got that here in the UK...shame, I like Vince being on Smackdown; Vince gives Smackdown/WWE that old atitude era feel.

Been loving Smackdown of late but for me this one dissapointed a little....

The CM Punk promo at beggining was great as always, but I think he missed (or I did) having Jeff there to interact with (which is suprising as Jeff on the mic is bad, and I'm a Hardy mark saying that!) I suppose it was a little subdued as it was the ending (for now hopefully) of the feud; plus he had no one else to feud against yet, Taker hasn't properly returned yet, and Matt I just don't see as competition as of yet (again I'm a Hardy mark so that's hard to say).

The first hour of Smackdown was a bit plain to me; the tag match wa sok but nothing special. In my opinion Finlay, Knox and Kane are solid workers, but they need that right person to have a great match. The less said about Khali the better....I hope the new ROH guys and drew mcintyre can fill the few empty slots on Smackdown. Still hoping for that R Truth push as well...

The Morrison vs Mysterio match was amazing! On a par with Taker vs Michaels for match of the year. Happy to see Mysterio went out in style. Morrison and Ziggler should be a great match too; but I don't want to see either lose whilst they are both getting great pushes.

How can you follow Mysterio vs Morrison? Well not with Cm Punk vs Matt Hardy...I expected better...I think Matt needs to hit the gym again, also he looks a bit rusty in the ring, he might need some time to get his old skill back. Taker's return would have been great if it wasn't advertised throughout the show...Likewise I don't like the fact Morrison is just looked over for the number 1 contender.

No Chris jericho as well...lots of Maria to cheer me up though.

It was an okay Smackdown, not up to recent standards in my opinion, but I suppose it lacked nay good feud; Cm Punk vs Jeff is over, and Mysterio vs Ziggler is over/put on hold. Also, again it lacked a bit without Jericho.

Did anyone else notice Jim Ross on the sideline of the OU football game?
I did not watch the the whole game. Did anyone make mention of it?

Layla has improved. I wish the announcers would mention that as well. The Eve push is getting on my nerves. Sure she's athletic with all of the flips and dropkicks, but Layla needs to talked about as well.

AJ, I caught JR on the sideline if the BYU-OU game. It's always fun to catch unexpected people on the sideline of a college football game. JR makes complete sense to be there with OU though. I didn't hear any mention of it, and I'm not surprised. He's not exactly a household name to most college football fans.

Tonetare, I agree the Punk-Hardy match should have ended with a submission. With a submission match coming up, we need to be reminded of the Anaconda Vice. However, what is wrong with Matt being a bit over weight? You really don't need to be in tremendous shape to wrestle. We've just been fed McMahon's biased views of what wresters are supposed to look like for the past 30 years.

AJ, Jim Ross is an unabashed Sooner fan. They plan Sooner Schooner for him when he makes his entrance before the show, even in Nebraska and Texas. He is on the sidelines for every football game he can get to and writes a piece about Sooner football.

Interesting to see where the McIntyre storyline goes from here; especially since WWE just signed the McGinness guy and already have Finlay and Shaemus so thats 4 guys from the British Isles. (maybe roddy piper will come back too...)

Kevin, when was the last time a title actually changed hands on any of the tv shows???

It will be really interesting to see Punk's promos directed at Taker. I'm assuming he won't start accusing Taker of drug or alcohol misuse so what will he latch onto? Or maybe he will just focus on the fact that the Undertaker keeps attacking him. I hope they come up with something better than this though.

Small note: It was stupid when JR acted like he didn't know what Punk's 'vice' was once Punk had made it abundantly clear.

"Interesting to see where the McIntyre storyline goes from here; especially since WWE just signed the McGinness guy and already have Finlay and Shaemus so thats 4 guys from the British Isles"

Don't forget William Regal.

and Paul Burchill

and Paul Burchill

BTW -- don't forget the Piper is actually Canadian

Morrison and Mysterio were unbelieveable! It is matches like that that made the IC belt great when the best workers like Shawn Micheals, Breat Hart and Mr Perfect worked their tails off to make up for the fact that Hogan spent all his time posing.

If Vince still has a wrestling brain in there, he'll keep the belt on Morrison, forget about giving it to Ziggler for a while and set up a big feud between Morrison and Mysterio for Survivor Series. (I believe Rey should be back in October, so there'll be plenty of time) That will really put the prestige back in the IC title. Just having the annoncers saying it's a big deal doesn't cut it. If that doesn't happen, Vince needs to fire his creative team and step down himself. When you have a crowd chanting "this is awesome!" on Smackdown, you have to roll it into a PPV.

Not enough can be said about the Rey/Morrision match. Un-Be-Live-Able!!! *****

With Punk kicking on all cylinders right now with the whole straight-edge gimmick I can't help but think how great it would be if RVD returned to challenge Punk. That storyline just writes itself.

Rey mysterio and john morrison are my favourite wrestlers.
Their match on friday was nothing less than amazing that could main event a ppv or be a wrestlemania match.
When at Wrestlemania 22 rey main evented and won the whc even that match was dismal to the match this week on smackdown!
And it wasnt even the finishing main event match on smackdown!!!
Now we all knew Rey Mysterio was gonna lose because of his suspention but you have to give both men credit it was like a 25 minute match with non stop high flying action from both athletes!!!
Just awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not to sound cruel, well, maybe a little bit, but that opening segment was awesome. The fans in attendance wanted to destroy CM Punk for his posturing. That was brilliant.

I like R-Truth, but Drew McIntyre is the man. Great way to get the fans interested in someone off the bat.