Smackdown: The Undertaker wins, but Kane has last laugh
Forget for a moment that we’ve seen The Undertaker and Kane feud on and off since 1997. Also forget that the current program between the two “brothers” has one of them returning from a three-month vegetative state to battle the other for possession of magical powers.
If you can overlook the rehashed and ridiculous aspects of the feud, there’s actually a pretty interesting development here. For one of the very few times in his storied 20-year WWE career, The Undertaker truly appears vulnerable.
That point was driven home on Smackdown Friday night, when The Undertaker wrestled his first match on television since May. Although he ultimately prevailed against CM Punk, The Undertaker was on the defensive for most of the match.
He moved much slower than usual, had a glazed look in his eyes and even slipped (purposely) when attempting Old School. When he cut a promo at the beginning of the show, he sounded tired and coughed several times.
The Undertaker wasn’t even able to savor his victory, as the lights went out after the match and Kane – who was never shown on camera – began laughing maniacally.
While I’d rather have some of the younger guys in the world heavyweight title picture, and at the end of the day this is still a feud that we’ve seen a number of times, I have to admit that I am starting to find the role reversal of Kane being the unstoppable monster and The Undertaker showing some weakness to be somewhat compelling.
Other thoughts on Friday’s show:
The broadcast ended with The Undertaker in the ring and Kane’s evil laugh echoing throughout the arena, but that wasn’t the end of the live performance for those of us in attendance at 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore. Kane came out to defend his world title against The Undertaker, as that match had been advertised as the main event on local commercials in the weeks leading up to the show. It made for an odd scenario to have a fresh Kane taking on The Undertaker, who had just wrestled a hard-fought, 14-minute match against Punk. The Kane-Undertaker bout only lasted about three minutes and ended in a double countout. Some fans hated the quick match and non-finish, but I can’t fault WWE too much on this one. With The Undertaker’s legitimately banged-up body, he should be doing little to nothing on non-televised events. On the other hand, WWE could have booked a main event that didn’t involve The Undertaker. …
The verbal exchange between The Undertaker and Punk to open the show was good. The “you suck” chant directed at Punk was loud enough that it was difficult to hear what Punk was saying at one point. …
Alberto Del Rio had another impressive outing, as he defeated Matt Hardy in a good back-and-forth match. Del Rio’s hard kicks were pretty vicious. As for Hardy, the crowd was really behind him. It’s amazing how over he remains despite his mid-card status and less-than-stellar won-loss record. …
Speaking of vicious kicks, Kaval made a good accounting of himself in his Smackdown debut. Even though he came out on the losing end against Drew McIntyre, Kaval – who got a good but not great reaction from the crowd when he was introduced – got in a lot of offense. He and LayCool had an entertaining backstage segment together as well, as the seed was planted for Kaval’s eventual split from his NXT pros. …
Layla and Michelle McCool said that Vickie Guerrero had inserted a clause in their contracts that allows either of them to defend the WWE women’s title. I’m glad WWE addressed the issue and came up with some kind of explanation, but it’s still silly that there are co-champions. …
The Jack Swagger-MVP match (which Swagger won via tapout to the anklelock) was decent. …
There wasn’t much to the tag team match in which Kofi Kingston and Chris Masters defeated Dolph Ziggler and Chavo Guerrero, although it was interesting that the referee not seeing the legal tag between Ziggler and Guerrero is what led to their loss. That spot has been a staple of pro wrestling forever, but it’s almost always the babyfaces who are the ones to get screwed in that situation. …
During Kaval’s match, Matt Striker said: “Don’t let Kaval’s low-key demeanor fool you.” That was a nice play off Low Ki, the name Kaval wrestled under for years before signing with WWE. Striker also said about Kaval that “it doesn’t matter what you’ve done anywhere else but the WWE.” Ain’t that the truth. …
The Big Show had a funny line when he was talking about dismantling the Straight Edge Society. He said that he took out Luke Gallows, Joey Mercury and “that other bald-headed guy in their organization.”
Comments
Actually, Kaval did wrestle under the name Low-Ki in WWE back in 2000-01. I've seen some videos on YouTube of him wrestling Christian, Raven, and Essa Rios on WWF Metal. I hope he and Christian can wrestle another match together, and if they do, it would be nice if the announcers recognized that they had fought before.
Posted by: paul | September 12, 2010 12:11 AM
I was there, had great seats. Sad to see so much of the arena tarped off. Del Rio is going to be a fantastic mega heel in a very short amount of time. Luckily WWE is building for the future. I see a lot of great up and coming main event caliber heels( del rio, rhodes, dolph, sheamus, and barrett) , but not a lot of faces. This is what separates them from TNA, who builds, then forgets
Posted by: mike | September 12, 2010 12:52 AM
I guess it's not that big a deal, but Punk shoulda gone over. He certainly could use a big win to get some of his momentum back, and a loss to Punk really would have reinforced that the Undertaker is more vulnerable then ever before. If they're not going to use the Undertaker to put over some young talent now, when will they?
I agree with your thoughts about this program. Despite the mystical garbage, it's still an interesting twist on their usual dynamic. I think at NoC, Kane has to go over strong (almost a squash), to set up a rematch that could go either way.
Posted by: Ken Raining | September 12, 2010 8:00 AM
I didnt know that about the Taker versus Kane house show match after the tapings. Its a shame that the WWE roster is stretched so thin that Taker has to do anything after a hard fought 15 minute match with Punk. To me the real problem is that there isnt a true bonafide #2 babyface on the brand if Rey is out. Big Show or Kofi I guess. I myself would have ran a Swagger v. Kane v. Big Show triple threat. If anyone's gonna wrestle twice, then let it be Swagger, he's just fantastic right now, and a true main event talent, and young enough where he can handle it. Great show btw.
Posted by: Nick Rini | September 12, 2010 8:47 AM
"The Big Show had a funny line when he was talking about dismantling the Straight Edge Society. He said that he took out Luke Gallows, Joey Mercury and “that other bald-headed guy in their organization.”
You're right that was pretty funny, but that whole promo just annoyed me. Promo's that are so blatantly aimed at 5 year olds have no place in wrestling. I understand having PG to broaden your appeal, but promos like that just alienate older viewers and make them ask the question whether they are watching what is supposed to be a children's show.
Posted by: Nick Jolley | September 12, 2010 2:18 PM
Hey Kev Matt Striker maid an interesting comment after the McIntyre vs Kaval match that McIntyre showed some respect to Kaval after his win . Do you think Drew may become a baby face in the new season of SmackDown on SyFy . Your Thoughts !
Posted by: ryan | September 12, 2010 6:29 PM
Punk seems to be more of an enigma then Jeff Hardy could ever be. By your account he recieves a ton of heat live and it's not a canned studio effect. He also is an excellent wrestler, and is great on the mic. I'm not calling for him to be champ just for some sense of direction. And it's not just with Punk it seems like it's that way for a lot of wrestlers right now. Creative needs to step up their game and make more meaningful undercard feuds.
Posted by: Kevin | September 12, 2010 10:12 PM
Hey Kev,
You said "It’s amazing how over [Matt Hardy] remains". Do you agree with my opinion that Matt's popularity (and to a certain extent for Jeff too for a while) hurts his chance of getting top card status or a world title belt. If I remembered correctly, for years, the Hardys' merchandise were tops in the WWE. Heck Matt was still proven to be immensely popular even when he was not with the company. I felt that some wrestlers need to have a major belt to help boost them (ex: Great Kahli, Sheamus). Although we don't know what the wrestler's contracts are worth, it is entirely possible that Matt is one of the top earners of the company (perhaps due to royalty in merchandise sales), so any talk of him being "pissed off" at the company or jumping ship to TNA is really far from the truth. This is after all professional wrestling, where the casts play a role and being able to remain popular without a scripted belt is a true test of his value and popularity (think Randy Orton now). Your take?
Posted by: Johnathan | September 13, 2010 10:25 AM
The Undertaker's promo kind of brought me back to 2002 when he was doing the respect thing. He did not sound like the deadman, he sounded like the pissed off, this is my yard Undertaker. I really enjoyed it.
Aside for the Undertaker/ Punk match, I was bored with the rest of the show. From the Hardy match to the Big Show sticking a microphone into his arm pit. But my question about that, why did we not hear anything when he put it in his armpit?
Posted by: Peter | September 13, 2010 1:34 PM
I must say that both Smackdown and RAW have picked up in the last couple of weeks - and the various Superstars are putting on a great show.
Unfortunatley, in the end, and for me especially.... " It doesn't matter" (no pun intended) what the WWE decides to do.
Dwayne Johnston is most definately holding the WWE for ransom.
He is irreplacable and as much as WWE downplays it as "the past" - I think we all know what the fans want to see.
As a fan, I struggle with this " he's coming back " or..." he's Not coming back " - and knowing that this decision rests with Dwayne Johnston, entirely.
Would not expect him in the ring, but - GM of RAW ???? - Definately.
I did like him in The Toothfairy, but I would much prefer seeing him on Monday Night Raw. ....C'mon Vince - You can swing it .....
Posted by: Attitude Era | September 14, 2010 3:25 PM
I think it is also pretty great selling on the Undertaker's part that in a stare down between he and Kane that Undertaker looked as if he was sad, almost tearing up in the stare down instead of that normal snarling, deathlock gaze he gives. I don't know if he has a cold or not, but the coughing and weakened voice are also selling that Taker might not be up to snuff.
Posted by: The Mythical One | September 14, 2010 8:18 PM