Without a doubt, the highlight of this WWE week was SmackDown. While William Regal's light snuffing antics may be more immediately dramatic, Undertaker being stripped of the title gave us, in Mick Foley's words, a phenomenal night of SmackDown.
Shows where there is a self-contained wrestling goal have always been my favorites. The drama builds throughout and there's a guaranteed payoff at the end. You can't do them all the time, but this week's SmackDown proves WWE should do them more often.
That's not to shortchange "Monday Night Raw." The red show also gave a great night, just not in the in-ring department.
And, oh yes, the one hundredth episode of "ECW on SciFi" slid by this week. If WWE didn't tell us, we'd have never known.
Back to SmackDown, if you didn't see it, Undertaker is
I didn't get a chance to watch the entire episode of this week's "TNA Impact!," so I can't comment directly on it. However, if you've kept up with this blog, you know I'm not the biggest TNA fan in the world.
It's too bad, since I kind of root for this company. It makes no sense that a roster this good--Kurt Angle, Sting, Christian Cage, Rhino, Samoa Joe, I could go on--should make some dramatically stupid televised wrestling. Add to that when I watch TNA with the sound off (say I'm on the telephone or something) I love it. When the volume goes back up, I'm right back to wondering how this product got a national television deal and Ring of Honor flounders on first-run pay-per-view.
I got a lot of flack in the past for being a "spiteful" TNA hater, so here's a look and recap of what I