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Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (8.0): Best: MVP vs. Punk Worst: Henry vs. Dreamer; Maryse vs. Cherry While this episode of Smackdown wasn't all that spectacular, it still sure beat Raw. The main event was all but dictated as Batista was not going to meet the same exact fate as Undertaker so close to Undertaker's "end," and not nearly as much prestige was given to Batista as was The Deadman. Having Khali as his opponent kinda gave it away too as Khali's push is long gone. On the way there, the WWE Tag Titles are in chaos as it can't be determined if the belts are going to be taken seriously or not despite Miz/Morrison given the belts longevity cred. Rewind reminds people that Natalya won the Golden Dreams match, yet no followup to put her challenger in place happened. Instead we get the not-so-good Maryse-Cherry match. Hardy-Palumbo was an okay match, but Chavo is a completely random opponent choice without the nepotism explanation and the build coming out of Chavo's mouth was weak at best. Kozlov speaking Russian lets him explain his character abd be vague at the same time. Deuce and Domino splitting up and fighting has been long overdue as neither got over period. And the subtle burial of MVP continues. He gets a fluke DQ win, which still protects no one, and now he comes out with no blowup entrance (although I can somewhat buy this as being more of a time and cost cutting move) and no pyro like he once had. I can even see it in his face that something different is happening; it doesn't seem like the expressions of someone becoming more intense.

Colin Johnson of Kalamazoo, Mich. (3.0): Best Match: Morrison vs. Finlay. Worst Match: Batista vs. Khali. Smackdown this week was just plain BAD. Through out the entire two hour period of the show, it felt like SD was just screaming WE NEED THE DRAFT!! Morrison vs Finlay was an entertaing opener but everything after that was just hard to watch. I thought for sure Punk vs. MVP would be a good match, but that match was a boring waste of nearly 20 minutes. Punk reminded Edge that he's got MITB, but does anyone take him seriously anymore? I still do not understand him losing every other one of his matches, and I doubt I ever will. But let's not forget about the five star match that is Big Show vs. Mark Henry. Again, just another reason why SD can't wait for the draft to come along. And as for the main event, Batista needs to get drafted back to Raw big time. I'm sick and tired of seeing him in the main event on SD, and his match with Jericho on Raw a few weeks ago suggested to me that Batista just feels more comfortable whenever he wrestles there. Oh well, we'll see what happens I guess.

Wayne Maye of Richmond, Va. - PSR 2 for Wachovia Bank (5.0). Best Match: MVP vs. C.M. Punk. Worst Match: Mark Henry vs. Tommy Dreamer. Well, we have another edition of Smackdown on our hands, beginning with a Vickie Guerrero segment, which is now becoming the theme of Smackdown. Nothing new was said here, other than the tiring stipulation of a superstar being "banned" from WWE if he doesn't win his match. I'm all for storyline advancement, but I'm really starting to despise that angle. Finlay, who's now become the opening match guy on Smackdown, had a fairly decent match against John Morrison. We now will get Finlay and his "son" vs. Miz & Morrison for the WWE Tag Team titles at Night Of Champions. With all due respect to Finlay and Hornswoggle, this is the best WWE could come up with? Henry vs. Dreamer was the worst match of the night, and rightly so. I bet if there are any fans out there seeing Dreamer for the first time, I bet they wouldn't know he was a former World Champion, for ECW no less. Why is Dreamer still wrestling at this point in his career? Maryse vs. Cherry was okay, but nothing special. Moving on, MVP vs. C.M. Punk was clearly the match of the night, but that's not saying much at all. A borderline 20 minute match ends with an unsatisfying DQ? I didn't like that at all. And MVP, I miss his pyro when he comes out. And either it's just me, or MVP has certainly lost a step since losing the U.S. Title to Matt Hardy at Backlash. Speaking of Matt, his match against Chuck Palumbo served its purpose, which was to hype the thrown together U.S. Title match at Night Of Champions with Chavo vs. Matt. And why was Chuck wearing that silly hat to the ring? Certainly, we didn't need to see any more of the clips of the McMahon Million Dollar giveaway. Jesse & Festus vs. Deuce & Domino was okay. Festus's act before the bell is beginning to grow on me. The post-match angle with Deuce and Domino coming to blows was the best I've ever seen them do. I didn't see this one coming, but it looks like ANOTHER tag team will be broken up. And finally the main event: I liked how the match was hyped, even though Khali clearly had no chance in winning. This match was an ugly match to be sure. Overall, this show was a little better than last week's show, but not by much. I liked the MVP vs. C.M. Punk match, but at times even that match was on the boring side. Raw had three great segments with the rest of the show being filler, ECW was good this week; Impact, surprisingly, had a couple of good matches, and Smackdown was the same ol' same ol'.

We welcome your 1-10 score and comments on this show for a "Smackdown Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on Smackdown, click here.

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