By John Shadle, PWTorch Specialist

Hello folks and welcome to Under the Microscope: Smackdown style, which is a tad bit different from Chicago style. I've decided to mess with the format a lot this week as I am trying to make this as helpful to those reading it and also make it distinct compared to the other Under the Microscope columns. Let's take a look at the first Smackdown after Summerslam.

Historical Observations:

So I guess Maria now uses the Bronco Buster. This is the move given to the extremely hot women in wrestling who do not have a very big moveset or just X-Pac.

They brought back MVP's entrance tent! I am so excited as I believe that adds so much to that character and makes him even more distinct.

Shelton Benjamin, the current U.S. champ, is wrestling Finlay who is a former U.S. champ.

The streak continues of Smackdown not ending in a match but a segment involving La Familia. This isn't super historical, but I believe this is the best category for this observation. It was a great ending segment establishing that Taker will be feuding with just La Familia now without Edge, but they have been going to this well far too often.

Undertaker picks up the mic and sounds kinda like Christian Bale's Batman's raspy voice. I know that Taker is channeling his early-'90s persona of not talking much and using that low voice. It just reminded me of Batman.

Match Observations:

Maria's wardrobe looks new to me. I haven't seen her in those shorts before. That is a new wardrobe for Natalya, too. Why do I know these things?

Did you see that botched headscissors by Maria to Natalya? In reality, Natalya should have not gone down to the mat.

Championship Scramble Battle Royal Participants: The Brian Kendrick, Curt Hawkins, Zach Ryder, Armando Estrada, Scotty Goldman, Ryan Braddock, Jimmy Wang Yang, Vladimir Koslov, Super Crazy, and Funaki. How did anyone of these guys earn this shot besides Koslov?

Did you notice that Jimmy Wang Yang went after Ezekiel during the Battle Royal?

If Show actually did eliminate Kendrick in that match, Jimmy Wang Yang would have been the winner as he was the last person thrown out of the ring by Show. Now that would have been a random entry into this WWE Title match.

What's with Jessie taking a seat during the Festus-MVP match? I have never seen a ref make a "manager" take a seat during the match.

MVP's music came on before the bell rang. The sound guy got a little trigger happy.

Did you notice that Hardy whiffed on the Whisper on the Wind and Khali sold it like a ton of bricks just hit him? Couldn't they have found a better angle in editing for this?

Background/Commentator Observations:

Why is Vickie's old wedding planner in the Smackdown intro? I know she has a fling with Edge, but is that really worth having her in the intro? Also, they added Taker to the intro. Last week, the intro ended on Edge. This week, it ended with Undertaker raising his arm up at the top of the stage a la One Night Stand.

There was a kid in the crowd with blonde hair that looked a lot like Hornswoggle right behind Hornswoggle during the Finlay-Benjamin match.

Tazz was picking his nose and starring into the laptop in the background during the Benjamin-Finlay match.

Triple H at commentary reminds me of Shawn Michaels doing commentary circa '97 due to his sense of humor and delivery.

Random Observations:

They have changed the Championship Scramble rules. Instead of having several new and incredibly short championship reigns during the match (a la the Hardcore Title match at Wrestlemania 2000), they will become interim champs. The interim champ at the end of 20 minutes will become the official champion. I like this idea a lot more than I did on Monday. I felt that the multiple title changes during one night would cheapen both belts. Plus, I didn't want to hear that The Brian Kendrick is a former three time WWE champion after that match.

ECW list tonight: Chavo + Bam, Estrada, Finlay, Mike Knox, and Hornswoggle. Since the draft, ECW and Smackdown have done a decent job of keeping their wrestlers on their own shows besides the occasional Stevie Richards jobbing on Smackdown. Tonight, it exploded again.

Every single week, the WWE says that either Raw or Smackdown beats NFL games in the ratings. They should start promoting that if that is still happening once the regular season starts. Then we are doing well.

Have you notice that Tazz has been dominating the commentary tonight? I really miss Mick Foley doing color.

Just like No Way Outs Elimination Chamber matches, Raw has more of the star power in the Championship Scramble than Smackdown. The Raw challengers have a combined nine World titles (if you include Kane's ECW Title reign) and Smackdown has none. But I am more excited for the Smackdown match as it puts fresh faces in the title picture while Raw has the same guys that are near the belt since the draft.

There goes this week's episode of WWE Smackdown. I want to thank both Cody and Jason for responding to my column last week. I definitely thank Cody for correcting me on Festus actually losing before this week to the Undertaker. Thanks again, man!

See you next week! Keep the feedback coming.

John Shadle is a life long WWE fan who keeps Excel spreadsheet rankings on the wrestlers with the most WWE World Titles. The amazing Bob Backlund is ranked #15 on the all time list with three WWE titles and 1 World Tag Team Title reign. If you are intrigued on where your favorite WWE wrestler is on the list or you would like to give any comments or questions, you can reach him at slim_shadle@hotmail.com.

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