TJR: Talking Smack for 01/22/10

The John Report: Talking Smack for 01/22/10 (Plus Fantasy Booking)
Welcome to the Talking Smack column where I offer up a quick rundown of WWE’s Friday broadcast, Smackdown. Three straight weeks of being spoiler free for me as a viewer and I love it. Also, the Smackdown version of Commentfest continues following my recap. At the end of the recap, I’ll post a link to a fantasy booking article I posted at my blog that will book my favorite wrestler Chris Jericho all the way up until WrestleMania. Even though it’s only been posted for a few hours now the reviews have been very favorable so far. I think you might like it. It was a joy for me to write.

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Taped from Greenville, South Carolina let’s talk some smack…

The big hype this week was that Rey Mysterio would be calling out his Royal Rumble opponent, The Undertaker.

Finlay d. Batista via DQ (1/4*)
It was more of an angle than a match. Finlay was on offense early. They went to the floor and Batista was gouging at his eyes when the ref threw the match out. He got DQ’d. Didn’t care. He beat the hell out of him on the floor, tossing him into the guard rail and giving him a spear on the outside. He then stomped on Finlay saying HHH, HBK and Cena are all going to have to deal with him. In other words, that’s WWE speak for saying if you think somebody other than one of those three is winning the Rumble you’re incorrect. This beating was good. I really like heel Batista probably because I grew so tired of face Batista.

The John Report: Talking Smack for 01/08/10 (Batista/Mysterio)

The John Report: Talking Smack for 01/08/10 (Batista/Mysterio)
Welcome to the Talking Smack column where I offer up a quick rundown of WWE’s Friday broadcast, Smackdown. I’m proud of myself this week because I avoided the spoilers at the request of my favorite performer in WWE who scolded me for even thinking of them. Usually I get an email from somebody at the show or somebody asking me about something that happened. Not this week. I was spoiler free heading into SD. I’m going to try it every week.

Taped from Louisville, Kentucky let’s talk some smack…

We started with Batista in the ring bitching about Mysterio costing him the win in the Beat The Clock challenge last week. He wanted Teddy Long to come out. Instead, we got Mysterio. Batista doesn’t want his match with Rey, but Rey thinks he’s scared of him. He threatens to ask the WWE Universe what they think, but Batista says “fine I’ll wrestle you.” I guess that means Batista’s scared of the WWE Universe. Anyway, that match that was already advertised for later, Batista vs. Mysterio, is still on. In other words, they needed ten minutes to fill. I really enjoy heel Batista probably because I became very tired of face Batista by the end of his run in that role. Mysterio was just average here. You can tell he even screwed up the last line at the end too.

The John Report: Talking Smack for 01/01/10 (Beat The Clock)

The John Report: Talking Smack for 01/01/10 (Beat The Clock)
Taped from East Rutherford, New Jersey (pronounced as “Joisey”) let’s talk some smack…

We find out that there will be a Beat The Clock challenge tonight. Four matches. Whoever wins in the fastest time gets the title shot at the Undertaker for the Royal Rumble. In other words, “we know that everybody knows it’ll be Batista vs. Taker or a triple threat with Rey involved, but we have another four episodes of Smackdown so we better have a gimmick show.” See, calling it Beat The Clock (or BTC) is way easier than calling it that.

Undertaker vs. Mysterio the first time…

Thanks to my facebook friend Mike Moyer for posting this. The Undertaker/Rey match this week on Smackdown wasn’t their first encounter. Here’s that match. It’s pretty short at about 5 minutes.

Some WWE related news & notes…

This is all from today’s Figure Four Weekly newsletter. You can subscribe at f4wonline.com for more info.

– Rey Mysterio’s putting off knee surgery until after WM. He was hoping to get some minor surgery to help him, but the doctors have told him that it wouldn’t help him that much. The word is that he wants to work through it until WrestleMania because he doesn’t want to miss the big show. He’ll need major surgery (he has no ACL in either knee apparently) requiring 6 or more months off.