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Is there anyone that stinks up a ring more than Vladimir Koslov wrestling on television in the US right now? WWE management is out of their minds for putting Koslov over Undertaker on the Feb. 27 edition of Smackdown. First of all, Koslov's victory did nothing for him. Think about that. The Undertaker did a job to Koslov on national television and it didn't mean a thing to anyone in that arena or watching at home.

Heck, even Jim Ross couldn't muster a "By God what an upset" that came across like he meant it. The spot where Koslov was out of position for the Taker's signature snake eyes/big boot of the ropes combination had more edits than an N.W.A CD on a Wal-Mart shelf. It was simply embarrassing and Koslov should be sent to FCW for two years to learn how to do something else besides throw punches, cinch in headlocks, and headbutt his opponents and fans into boredom.

The reason Taker's job means nothing is because it was booked to mean nothing. Koslov caught Taker with a powerslam as Taker was in the midst of hitting his old school spot. Nobody in the arena bought that as a finish and because the announcers didn't sell it as important, Taker's rare loss was rendered as meaningless.

If you strip away all of my complaints about Koslov and just take the way the finish of the match was booked on its own, it was clear management wanted to give Koslov the win, but didn't want to make it seem important. I'm wondering why WWE creative would do that at all, especially when a rare Taker loss on television could have meant so much more to a more talented up-and-coming wrestler at another time. The Koslov-Taker segment was a total thumbs down bummer.

Koslov wasn't the only giant lulling fans into boredom, as the Big Show represented La Familia in their quest to keep John Cena away from Edge and the World Championship. The Big Show-Cena contest was nearly as boring as the Koslov-Taker match, but at least the match forwarded the Cena-Edge storyline heading into WrestleMania in a meaningful way.

The match itself was boring because Cena could only come up with one or two spots where he made the nearly immobile Big Show look like a powerhouse in the ring. Otherwise, it was the usually collection of rest holds used by Show to get through his match with Cena until Edge cost Cena the match to end the show. After such a great comeback at the 2008 edition of No Way Out where he squared off against Floyd Mayweather, Show has been almost a total bust and needs to be matched up with wrestlers that can make him look good. Cena certainly was no HBK in the ring for Big Show on Smackdown this week.

It's clear that with WWE's lack of long-term planning, fans are going to be exposed to some hit or miss television to build the big matches on WrestleMania this year. Unfortunately, Smackdown was almost a total miss with only the Edge-Cena feud taking a small, but insignificant step forward.

Contact Sean at PWTorchSean@gmail.com

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