SmackDown! 6/23/2005: For and Against

FOR: Orton's promo. Good job of (re-)establishing his character for the Smackdown audience.

FOR: The loop of the Tombstone at WrestleMania 21.

FOR: Taker's old tricks.

FOR: Rey's interview.

FOR: Melina in yellow.

AGAINST: The boys' fur coats. It's summer in Arizona.

AGAINST: Heidenreich matches.

AGAINST: Michelle's completely unnecessary implants.

FOR: The increased TV time she's getting because of them.

FOR: These homemade wings. Yummy.

AGAINST: "Michelle McLoser?" Melina? You're better than this.[/Kilborn]

AGAINST: The "SmackDown Championship"? What, two "world" titles aren't enough?

FOR: JBL's inflated ego assuming he's the beneficiary.

FOR: London/Chavo! Again!

AGAINST: "Mexicools"? What a weak name.

FOR: The "Mexican limo."

AGAINST: I didn't recognize any of these guys and I should've. Juvy at least. I'm so ashamed.

AGAINST: Did we come back from commercial late?

AGAINST: Nothing against Booker, but shouldn't Benoit be interrupting JBL here?

FOR: Booker's line about earning the right to be a champion.

FOR: Ah, there's Chris.

FOR: Ah, it's gonna be one of those segments.

FOR: Everyone snatching the mic from JBL.

FOR: A match!

AGAINST: Five men? I smell something obvious here.

AGAINST: Hassan?! That's the best they can do at this point?

FOR: Cole putting this over as the most despised draft pick in history. (Though, for completists' sake, he should have added "not made by the New York Jets.")

FOR: Daivari's mic work.

AGAINST: Yeah, Muhammad, that winning streak that ended Monday night when Cena kicked your ass.

FOR: And that, friends, is how you insult JBL and still get booed.

AGAINST: Seriously, with Carlito being drafted over to Raw to essentially take Hassan's spot, and then Hassan getting jobbed out (to say nothing of Shelton getting undercut), did they decide to do this on Monday afternoon or something? They could have done all of this next week.

FOR: Continuing the trend of making the draft picks look like big deals by putting Hassan in the title match.

FOR: Long seizing the moment and booking Hassan vs. Show for... next?

AGAINST: Matt Morgan's headed for the announce table.

AGAINST: "The Verbal Assassin." Indeed.

FOR: The extended Rey/Eddie video package.

FOR: Eddie's interview.

FOR: I have no idea who's going to win tonight.

FOR: It's not even 9:30 yet. They're gonna get a ton of time.

FOR: Rey using the launch station for the first time in weeks.

FOR: Tazz noticing the bruise on Eddie's midsection and positing that Eddie didn't wrap it so as not to draw even more attention to it.

FOR: The wrestling at the start. This match is about a lot of things, but it's mostly about who's better.

FOR: Rey targeting Eddie's midsection and the camera work on the bruise.

AGAINST: Eddie just sitting Rey on the top turnbuckle.

FOR: Eddie PUNKING Rey after the clean break.

FOR: Tazz's(?) outrage. "Clean break, my ass!"

FOR: Cole and Tazz are particularly good when they have a good match like this and a storyline for them to sink their teeth into.

FOR: The Gory Special~~~~~~~

FOR: The tilt-a-whirl backbreaker.

FOR: This match.

FOR: Eddie's moving and shifting to hide the choke out of the full Nelson.

AGAINST: Eddie's taunting. That's gotta come back to burn him at some point, right?

FOR: The first of what are sure to be many textbook Mysterio rallies.

FOR: This match.

FOR: Nice springboard crossbody by Rey.

FOR: Eddie slowing Rey down by working over his back. And at the same time, you don't see Rey going after Eddie's midsection any more because he knows he's behind and just needs to get momentum any way he can.

FOR: The spot where Eddie knocked Rey down on the turnbuckle and then slumped in the corner. The way Rey was hanging up there before sliding down his back, I thought Eddie was going to hook him for a Gory Bomb.

FOR: This match, by God.

FOR: The trademark trading sequence. Puts over their familiarity with each other.

AGAINST: There wasn't nearly enough of that in the match for my taste.

FOR: Rey going for the cover off of the missed frog splash. It won't work, but it's smart.

FOR: The crowd's loving this.

FOR: Rey wins! GREAT match.

FOR: And yet, I'm still not sure if this is the blowoff or not... Cole didn't sound as committed to it as he was when Booker/Angle ended.