LAST WEEK ON SMACKDOWN: Teddy Long made more matches than announced for the ECW PPV, Eminem showed up...Sorry...MNM showed up, Sharmell got snappy and when Kristal faced Layla, I almost missed Miz...almost...

THE SHOW Ashes To Ashes...(And that effect was Funk to Funky) We start out this week (after the opening credits, scarily changed to notarise the Batista title change) with Ken Kennedy coming out to the ring, although lo and behold, there is a hearse parked up at the entrance. Mr. K takes a good look at it, the cameras making sure to note that there is absolutely, positively, honestly no-one in there. Kennedy eventually calls on his roof microphone and tells us that it was Undertaker who parked the car. Could he not find a space outside? I think it could get in the way of everybody else... Anyway, Kenneth started the countdown to Undertaker's inevitable entrance by saying that he wasn't going to be fazed by the hearse, since he's already beaten Undertaker. He then talked about defeating Kane later, to leave him focused on Armageddon.

And whattd'ya know? The music kicks in as the Deadman himself before he gets his transport clamped. Well, not exactly, because while the car does move, it does it ALL BY ITSELF and dry ice starts appearing!!! ***cue that spooky "do do do doo" in your own minds*** They also include a cheesy shot of the steering wheel moving!

Eventually, Taker finally put in an appearance, emerging from the back of the hearse... Now I see his problem, he needs to keep the thing close-by since he's clearly living in the thing. I'm surprised they didn't do a whip-round and get some money for him to stay in a hotel! Not even a Motel-Six. That's just sad...

Anyway, Kennedy decided that cowardice was the better part of valour, made like a tree and left through the crowd, much like last week, when our own Mike Rickard put in a cameo appearance, leaving the Deadman to do this pose.

William Regal & Dave Taylor def. Paul London & Brian Kendrick in a "Ashley took classes in being scared form the cast of See No Evil, obviously..." match This one was non-title. The team I affectionately dub "Londrick" jumped the former Bluebloods before the bell rang, with some stereo offence, and when the match did officially begin, Regal wasn't able to get a punch in edgeways, with London and Spanky pin-pointing Regal's left arm. Regal made it over to Taylor, and now the heels began to take control, especially when Taylor stopped London" skinning the cat", beating him up a little bit. The heels then kicked in with "teh awesomeness", as the Internet kids would say, as Regal went from a Half-Nelson into a release suplex. Taylor then locked in something of a full nelson of his own, although it was hardly a Masterlock Challenge, before Regal came back. London teased hope with a miscalled mule kick, but Regal stayed on London with a stiff looking knee to the back of the neck.

However, Kendrick did make it into the match, taking out both men, even getting the Sliced Bread #2, for a 2 count. The ending then got a little weird. Regal bailed to the outside, where he noticed Ashley. Regal then started stalking her, when London noticed and came to her rescue. Spanky joined them, but London seemed to pull away from him. Kendrick then got back on the ring apron, where he got chop-blocked by Regal, allowing Taylor to get that very cool double-underhook-into-pin combo for the three.

Thoughts - 7/10 - A pretty good match, and while I can see what they were doing with that finishing spot, it came off as weird. And it's funny. There was as much wrestling here than there was on Impact last night, and in these times of, rightfully, doing down ECW, after the PPV, complaining, not-so-rightfully, about RAW, why aren't more people on board the good ship Smackdown, when within the first half hour, it gives us as much action as the show that claims "We Are Wrestling", especially when this match had four really good workers in it.

A little bit more RAW We got us a promo from John Cena, recorded at RAW. Johnny Boy told us he was grateful to get an invite to Armageddon, where he'd be teaming with Batista. Cena said that Armageddon is the "final battle" and "the end of all things". He told Finlay he'd remember the beatdown and told King Booker that he remembered having to kiss Booker's feet. Short, sharp and to the point...

Couldn't he have done this in the ring? Bizarrely, Tony The Chim called the audiences attention to the TitanTron for a Batista promo. That doesn't happen every day! Batista hyped up his teaming with Cena, saying that Booker & Finlay don't stand a chance. Batista then turned his attention to Finlay and their match later

We then cut backstage where Booker & Finlay were watching the promo. They carry on arguing about who deserved title shots and what not, before Booker claimed that Teddy Long was after the two of them.

Batista def. Finlay by DQ in a "Needs more cowbell Booker" match It's funny how people claim that John Cena's pop is all about the women and children and don't say the same about Batista when all you can hear is the high-pitched caterwauling of at least one of those demographics, if not both.

They start out with a collar-and-elbow, but Batista slaps Finlay a few times, just for poops and laughs, as the Devil-incarnate, Michael Cole talked about Evolution. They continued feeling each other out as Cole and JBL riffed about something with regards to WWE.com, some sort of "incident" with Vito and the evil one, and JBL mentioning chess champions. I know I had a few drinks earlier today, but I swear, I'm not drunk, and not imagining it.
Anyway, things stayed pretty even, until Finlay ducked out of the ring, where Bat9ista laid in some good shots on Finlay, and after blocking a shove into the ring post, Dave dropped Finlay on the barricade before booting him over it, as we take a break (or one of those "fake" breaks in the UK...)

We came back with Batista elbowing Finlay down, but the Irishman soon took control. Finlay stayed on top with various holds and such until, once again, on the outside, Batista rammed Finlay into the side of the ring. Batista hit a vertical suplex and a whip into the corner, selling where Finlay went for the eyes earlier. Finlay tries to regain control, but Deacon Dave caught Finlay off the middle ropes and booted him down. However, the third trip to the outside, or at least, this time, the ring spron, saw Finlay get the upper hand this time, as he put Batista into the ring post. Finlay went back to work on the arm. While locked in a hammerlock, Batista powered up and out of it with a Samoan drop. Batista then got hot as he hit a powerslam and spinebuster. The Lil' Bastard tried a crossbody off the top, but got disposed of, allowing King Booker to get involved, although all it got him was the threat of a powerbomb through the announce table. That threat was neutralised though, by Finlay and his shillelagh, smacking Batista in the back to the DQ.

A beat down followed with the bad guys using a chair and the shillelagh to work over the arm Finlay had worked on during the match.

Thoughts - 6.5/10 - This was nothing too great, but it was good enough for a couple of guys who are brawlers primarily. Personally, I thought it was a little long, for to do that ending, but it was a pretty decent account of themselves.

Jimmy Wang Yang def. Jamie Noble in a "Sign Kaz Hayashi and get a "Yung Dragons Triple Threat" going, eh?" match With Jamie Noble already in the ring, Jimmy came out with Amy Zidian looking very hot. As a special bonus, Gregory Helms (in smart suit, but still wearing a doo-rag) came out to do guest commentary.

As is seemingly the standard when it comes to Yang's matches, he moved too damn fast. Also, what hurts giving some sense of Play By Play, was cutting back to Helms at various points. Suffice to say this was fast paced and had some very cool action in it. The finish came when Noble couldn't hit the Tiger Driver, instead sending Yang into the corner, where a kick and moonsault later (and indeed, a moonsault where the guy taking it was standing and not lying, as is usual) for the win.

Just in case you didn't get the point yet... Backstage, Kristal brought in Chris Benoit. She asked him about Chavo & Vicki's "accusations" of being abusive to women.

After a replay of Survivor Series, Vicki stormed in, mouthing the odds, before slapping Benoit in the chops. She stormed off into he consoling arms of Chavo.

Something for the (next) weekend... MVP was with Teddy Long, whinging about being in the Inferno match. MVP said he wasn't going to do the match. Cool as a cucumber though, Long told MVP he was getting fired if he didn't do the match. However, Long said that Porter would get the chance to soften Kane up by putting MVP and Ken Kennedy in a match next week against Kane...

...

Oh, and The Undertaker...

Chris Benoit def. Sylvan Grenier in a "Still, he beat Orlando Jordan faster…" match Sylvan cut a promo in French beforehand. My basic grasp of it ended at Bonjour (and surely, it should be Bonsoir?), but it was before long that Benoit interrupted and started out "en fuego" on Sylvan. About a minute later, Benoit had Grenier tapping.
Thoughts - 2/10 - At last, something, since I took over the reigns of this job, that resembles a squash match! But in case you're wondering, yes, I too, hate squash matches. Well, the ones that don't involve Benoit anyway. But Benoit has that skill of making most things great.

The Miz def. Scotty Taylor in a "AT LAST! The Worm and real worms in one segment!" match Miz headed out as Cole kissed his ass by comparing him to the '72 Dolphins and Rocky Marciano. Scotty then headed out, doing something of a HHH-esque spit-take at the entrance.
As per usual, JBL was utterly indignant about Mizanin. Things stayed pretty basic, although it wasn't bad as such. Miz took over with the Bam Bam Bigelow dive over the top rope into the ring. However, Scotty came back, setting him up for, well, you know. the most embarrassing move in wrestling. However, Miz countered into a rollup for the win.
Miz continued with a beatdown before mocking The Worm. And speaking of worms, Boogeyman's music kicked in as the announcers thought he was suspended (what for exactly? When did that happen?). Miz backed out of the ring, and into the former Marty Wright. The Boogster beat on Miz a bit before munching on some worms. Boogeyman went for a big boot, but Miz ducked, scampering up the aisle to safety.
Thoughts - 2/10 - Miz? Scotty? Did you think I was scoring it high? Nothing offensive here, but...

If that is the standard, Kane should release a Christmas CD...
We head to the locker room where we see a Christmas tree. Kane walked in, cradling what looked like a couple of burnt chestnuts. He then belted out the classic line "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire", before laughing maniacally. I've heard worse.

Kane def. Ken Kennedy by DQ in a "Well, with powers like Kane's, disappearing comes as no surprise..." match After running down the main matches from the PPV, Ken Kennedy made his way out again, this time without a hearse in his way. We then recap earlier. At least that was at the beginning of the show I suppose, unlike RAW where they recap stuff from two minutes ago. After that bit, Kennedy did his usual intro schtick before we took our final commercial break.
Kane dominated this one early. Having taken notes from earlier, Kennedy bailed outside, to try and get himself the advantage when Kane followed. However, while he got some shots in, Kane stayed on top of Kennedy. However, Kennedy managed to pull Kane out by his tights, before dropkicking Kane off the apron onto the exposed barricade. Kennedy got a 10 count started, and Kane only just managed to make it back in. A Russian legsweep by Kennedy saw a 2 count. Ken went to the ground with a headlock, but while Kane got out of it, Kennedy got Kane down in the corner. However, when Kennedy approached, Kane started to take it to Kennedy. The match went back and forth, but Kennedy looked to take the final advantage after a swinging neckbreaker, but Kennedy was countered off the ropes, allowing Kane to come off the top himself with a clothesline. This drew out MVP for the DQ.

As the heels laid a beating, the lights went out. When they came back, Kane had disappeared, prompting Kennedy to high-tail it again, leaving MVP in the ring alone. Suddenly, Kane's pyro went off, leaving the heels to fill their individual ring attires as the show ended.

Thoughts – 5/10 – This was OK, although for my tastes, Kane had a bit too much of the advantage. The action though, was pretty decent. It just didn’t exactly go anywhere, and the main problem I had with it was a lack of selling, and not just by Kane. Kennedy tended to recover pretty quick from attacks too.

OVERALL - 6.5/10 (- 0.5 on last week) - This was a pretty good show, although I think it was a notch down on the last couple of weeks. But we still got VERY solid action in the ring, and some good development towards the PPV. I find it hilarious that they developed a PPV in 3 weeks a million times better than they did with all the weeks they could have done it with ECW.

If I were to find fault with the show, however, I would point at the placement of the Batista/Finlay match. The crowd were very hot for Batista and there was a definite drop-off in enthusiasm from the crowd after that match happened. It would have probably helped the show overall to put the Batista/Finlay match there, so the crowd would be into the other matches more. But aside from that, this was a very solid show, and once again, the best show of the week.

Well, that’s all I got for now, but if you have something to say about this week’s Smackdown, you can e-mail me at dedicated e-mail address, or come hunt me down on the WWI Forums!
OR, you can find me along with the rest of the dribbling masses on MY OWN MYSPACE PAGE!

Well, I’ll be back soon enough, but for now, I believe I’ve fulfilled my contractual obligations. For reading this, And continuing to support World Wrestling Insanity, you’re cooler than the other side of the pillow…

I’m out.