Smackdown Spoilers - May 9, 2008

by Jack Windham

WWE has decided to do a tournament on Smackdown this week to determine who will face the Undertaker at Judgment Day for the title.

Match Listings

The following matches will take place on Smackdown tonight.

• Matt Hardy vs CM Punk
• MVP vs Finlay
• Natalya vs Kelly
• Batista vs John Morrison
• Big Show vs Tommy Dreamer
• Kane vs Chavo Guerrero
• Kozlov vs Phil Atlas
• Battle Royale

The battle royale will consists of the winners of the tournament matches.

Basically, it's going to be Matt Hardy, MVP, Finlay, Batista, Big Show, and Kane in the battle royale.

Gaining an Edge

The entire purpose of the tournament is basically to set up a title rematch between Edge and the Undertaker at Judgment Day.

They stripped the Undertaker of the belt so that it wouldn't seem like the rematch was just another match.

Those of you that don't think that the writing has suffered since Michael Hayes' suspension need not look past this situation.

To draw even more heel heat on Edge, the writers had Batista look like he won the battle royale only to be cheated out of things when Edge snuck in at the end.

Back to Boredom

Thought we had something going last week with Vladimir Kozlov going up against Colin Delaney instead of a random local jobber.

Vladimir Kozlov falls right back into the same trap that's going to make fans care less and less about him.

Natalya's Push

Looks like WWE is intent on pushing Natalya Neidhart.

She's been getting quite a bit of television time and wins lately. Beating Kelly Kelly in a random match is a sure sign that she's being pushed.

The only thing left to do is to team up Natalya, Victoria, and Layla against Kelly, Michelle, and Cherry.

After that, they'd have nothing fresh to Natalya to do on Smackdown except for mixed tag team matches.

Waste of Time

Instead of doing the qualifying match, they should have just thrown all of those guys into the battle royale.

That would have left time for a tag team match or two.

A triple threat tag team match featuring Jesse & Festus, Deuce & Domino, and Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder would have been nice.

Closing Thoughts

The battle royale is basically the only thing that sounds entertaining.