1/30 WWE Smackdown TV Reax

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (7.0): Best: Matt Hardy promo; Edge promo. Worst: Big Show vs. Festus. Smackdown suffered a serious lag from the PPV, but not nearly to the degree Raw did. Matt Hardy gave a strong promo to explain his actions, while still leaving the door open for the "whodunit" of the sequence of events surrounding Jeff Hardy. Much like on Raw, the Elimination Chamber qualifying matches didn't mean a whole lot. The Show-Festus match scared me, though, as Festus took two bad bumps in my opinion. The DDT he took look like he got nailed on the head, and the backwards throw from a powerbomb position looked like a face-first landing. When was the last time Festus was in a match? For Umaga's return, I wish Yang wasn't Yang fed to him, but a squash was a quick an easy way to get him back in business. Taz came across in a really awkward way describing Umaga's "anger and frustration...after being gone so long" without even speculating as to why Umaga was gone. Yes, he was injured, but it was never played out on TV - he just disappeared. Speaking of disappearances, the timing of the promo for "12 Rounds" seems to neatly coincide with the end of "Behind Enemy Lines" plugging. So where is Kennedy now? Thanks to MyLVTV, I knew Triple H was going to win his Chamber qualifier (the commercial hints at the possibility of a Hunter/Taker-Edge/Show match). Kozlov stays undefeated in singles competition, leaving at least something for later. Should there be an over/under on when Khali leaves after tonight?

Alex Roberts in the U.K. (3.5): Best Match: Umaga Return. Worst Match: Main Event. It pains me to say it but on the evidence of his performance this week Matt Hardy is not a top tier WWE talent. In fairness to him his awful opening promo was not entirely his fault. The writing was almost as bad as his flat and lifeless delivery and the ridiculous background music did him no favors. The problem is that as good as a lot of the ideas within Hardy's promo were, it lacked any real sense of continuity or flow. Rather than Point A leading into Point B, it was Point A (awkward pause), then Point B with no real connection between them. I do however feel that these problems could have been overcome if there had been some passion or fire about Hardy during his delivery rather than his lifeless nothingness. He's supposed to have gotten rid of the biggest burden in his life and yet there was no euphoria or passion. I just didn't buy it. The rest of Smackdown was what it is almost every week. I still don't buy Edge as the top heel on the brand. I also don't understand why they continue to use The Undertaker in such meaningless and pointless matches on TV every week, particularly given his current and increasingly obvious physical problems. Also whoever decided to book The Great Khali and Kozlov in the same match should be fired. On the plus side, it's nice to have Umaga back. The fact that I can say that is a credit to WWE and the man himself because there's no way this gimmick should have lasted as long as it has, but he looked brilliant in his return squash and showed Kozlov how to work like a monster. Roll on the feud with The Undertaker. And finally, MVP is getting some direction. More impressively, it looks like it might be a feud with Shelton Benjamin. That alone might make me stick with Smackdown for a couple more weeks.

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