Half Year Review 3: Smackdown Review

This is the third of a daily series I will be doing until June 30.

I will use articles and slideshow lists to cover and review TNA and WWE events over the past six months. Thus the name, Half Year Review.

Today is the first article in my Half Year Review and it is a review of Smackdown so far in 2009. I will take you through, the superstars, on screen talent, likes, dislikes and what has been happening on our TV’s every Friday night this year.

Since creating the brand extension WWE has tried to make both shows as popular as they can possibly be, quite obviously, but have attempted to make Raw the leading brand in terms of ratings and talent. For only the second time since it’s birth, Smackdown has became the number one show to watch.

Now, as a Brit, I’m not sure about the ratings over in America, or here to be honest, but I’m pretty sure they are ahead or if not, very close. Enough for now with the politics of wrestling, let’s get down to business (bad choice of words there, business pretty much is the politics).

In January 2009, a much younger but equally as awesome Callum watched WWE Smackdown. He watched but it never really hooked me in enough to feel like I couldn’t miss next weeks show.

The year started off with Jeff Hardy as champion. As this was his first title reign in over 11 years of being in the WWE I thought he would get a good run, possibly even to WrestleMania, he didn’t. At the Rumble, Hardy (Matt) came out seemingly helping Hardy (Jeff) but ending up hitting his brother. This led to a Hardy (Matt) v Hardy (Jeff) feud which lasted good length of time and is kind of still happening.

Before I get to the Mania build up that happened on Smackdown let’s speak about the No Way Out action. I thought the Elimination Chamber match that kicked off the show was brilliant. All 6 of them seemed as though they could have won it, minus Kozlov. Then in the raw match, Edge coming out and winning it was great excitement.

O.K, 5 weeks of build up to WrestleMania on Smackdown for me were weak. The majority of the major feuds occurred on Raw. Smackdown had to take the back seat and have a bunch of poor matches. The only good feud that made Smackdown worth watching was the Hardy (Matt) v Hardy (Jeff)…..how long till that Hardy brackets thing gets annoying?

There were such main events as Big Show v Cena (don’t even get me started), Ted DiBiase v Batista and many poor matches involving people from the Money in the Bank match, I know they weren’t main events but they were equally poor and only had 2 Smackdown stars in it.

I have to say an exception in the midst of all this was the Smackdown 500^th episode. This was a good show and had many good matches. This included the changing hands of the U.S. Title.

Going to speak about the U.S. Title for a bit I’ll get back to the time line soon enough. How long was Benjamin champ for? It got boring. I’m going to compare it to Primo and Carlito, he never defended it. No-one was really good enough; imagine that, a poor Smackdown midcard.

More Smackdown rebound on the next page....

After WrestleMania Smackdown had no World title. Although this could have changed as Edge had his rematch clause with John Cena. He used this at Backlash, the last day before the draft took effect, meaning Edge had to win this for Smackdown to have a title. He did.

In this years draft Smackdown were the undisputed winners. Although the main eventers aren't as good on the mic and on raw they are more entertaining and higher quality matches. They have got such talents as Mysterio, Jericho, CM Punk and Mike Knox, O.K the last one wasn't as good. The midcard on Smackdown is twice as good as on Raw or ECW, it's got so got they've almost got two different midcards scenes going on.

The first Smackdown after the draft was the best Smackdown I have seen this year. Gave everyone a feel of what was to come in upcoming months. It showed nice feuds, matches, good backstage segments and in ring confrontations.

I do have a bit of a problem with Smackdown though. J.R. and Grisham. For me it doesn't work. They need a colour commentator in there as they're both saying the same thing most of the time. It was a mistake in not renewing Tazz's contract unless he didn't want to sign it of course, if he is coming to TNA, speaking of which that must be soon when his 90 day thing expires.

One of my favourite Smackdown matches was the stretcher match between Hardy (Matt) and Hardy (Jeff). It was a great back a forth match with a nice ending.

Recently Smackdown has showed that it is worthy of being the A show. I'm not sure. It's more entertaining, true. It better written, true. Despite this it's not as if I look forward to Smackdown more than I do Raw, if anything, the other way round. Smackdown is performing better but Raw has a higher potential than Smackdown.

At the moment there are very few tag teams on there. The only note able ones are Cryme Time and wrestlers formally known as the worlds greatest tag team. Not enough is it. Neither are good enough to be tag champions.

To summarise Smackdown is the more entertaining show and is worth watching. The current feuds are strong and exciting. I hope it continues for the remainder of the year. I'm not sure if it's Smackdown that is good at the moment or if Raw is making it look good in comparison.

Thank you for reading, once again proving...

WHEN I BLOG, THE WORLD LISTENS

Yesterdays Article: Top 11 Draft Picks

HTTP:// BleacherReport.com/articles/201293-half-year-review-2-top-11-draft-picks

Tomorrows Article: Moment of the Year

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/202899-half-year-review-4-moment-of-the-year