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GUEST EDITORIAL
By Justin James, Torch reader

For about six months now, Smackdown has clearly been far superior to Raw. It has focused on great character development, storylines, and elevation of new talent. In the last few months, we have seen C.M. Punk, Cryme Tyme, John Morrison, and Dolph Ziggler presented as major stars. Mike Knox has been slowly been coming along as well.

Part of this has been from necessity, though. Triple H was drafted to Raw, Jeff Hardy's unclear contract status forced WWE to have a "Plan B" for him, The Undertaker took an extended break, Edge has been sidelined with a major injury, Chris Jericho has been splitting his time with Raw, and now, Rey Mysterio is out on a 30-day suspension. Indeed, the Smackdown creative team deserves congratulations for holding the show together as well as they have, despite the challenges. However, with the return of The Undertaker to the regular roster, there is the distinct possibility that all of this will change.

We know that WWE loves to focus on their top-tier performers. One look at the PPV matches from the last few years makes that pretty obvious. The very real concern with Smackdown is that the return of The Undertaker takes some of the pressure off the bookers and allows them to take the easy way out again. After all, The Undertaker is a great performer with a well-established character who is completely over with the fans. You could hand three or four hours worth of tape to someone who had never watched pro wrestling and they could competently write for The Undertaker's character.

We are already starting to see signs of the "Shake 'n Bake Booking" since The Undertaker's return. At Summerslam, he immediately was slotted into a title feud with no explanation and no justification. In a way, it almost made sense; everyone else on Smackdown is worried about the Intercontinental Title. (Odd that the IC Title is now more prestigious in storyline terms than the World Title, isn't it?) But it also felt really lazy at the same time. The ending to Breaking Point was completely predictable. In fact, myself and others predicted a screwy ending to that match. There was just no way to get out of the trap they put themselves into.

Their big mistake here was putting the Intercontinental Title on John Morrison. John Morrison was a logical replacement for Jeff Hardy in the World Title scene, especially after his excellent series of matches with C.M. Punk and how Punk began his full heel turn with an attack on Morrison followed by refusing a handshake. But Rey Mysterio's suspension sent the creative team into a panic, which led to them putting the IC Title on Morrison. Instead, they should either have pulled the trigger on Mysterio-Ziggler early.

With John Morrison out of the WHC picture for the time being, and The Undertaker being back, it feels like Smackdown could very well return to "easy booking" and let all of their hard work over the last few months go down the drain. After all, just as it was inconceivable that C.M. Punk could beat The Undertaker clean in a submission match, who would pick Punk over The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match?

You can bet sure money that HIAC will end with another screwy ending or the World Title on The Undertaker, which then will send Smackdown into the seemingly obligatory "match/re-match/title change" dance that WWE likes to play out for four months at a time. So while Smackdown potentially will look like Raw for the next three months, I can content myself with ECW.

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