Thanks to a clean victory over John Morrison, Jack Swagger came off looking more like a credible world heavyweight champion on Friday night's episode of Smackdown than he has on Raw, but WWE still could be doing a better job with the character's traits.
I don't know why WWE thought that Swagger's persona needed to be tinkered with, but his newfound stoic demeanor just isn't a good fit for him. The robotic promos that he's been cutting – including the one on this show – are creating "go-away heat."
Before winning the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXVI two weeks ago, Swagger was very believable as an obnoxious, arrogant jerk, and there's nothing more unlikable than an obnoxious, arrogant jerk who has a big gold championship belt around his waist. Swagger reminded me of the kid in school who was the best athlete but was also the type who would beat you up for your lunch money.
But here's the thing I really don't get about the way WWE is portraying Swagger. If the company is toning down his personality in an effort to get fans to take him more seriously, then why is it over-emphasizing his lisp? Quite frankly, it doesn't really make me want to cheer for a babyface who ridicules someone for having a speech impediment, but beyond that, how can you buy Swagger as a no-nonsense champion when he's running around going, "I do not have a speech impediment!"
At least Swagger was given a convincing win over Morrison in a good match that began after Morrison interrupted Swagger's promo and made fun of his lisp. Judging by how Morrison has been booked as of late, however, I'm not sure a victory over him means as much as it used to.
Other thoughts on Friday's show:
This was a solid episode with a couple marquee match-ups and good angles. A rematch from WrestleMania XXVI between Chris Jericho and Edge was the best match on the show, while CM Punk once again shined on the microphone. …
The Jericho-Edge match – which was to determine the challenger for Swagger's title at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on April 25 – ended in a double count-out in a contest that went nearly 20 minutes. No announcement was made as to who will face Swagger, but my prediction of a triple threat match last week is looking good. …
I pretty much knew from the start of the Punk segment that Punk's NXT rookie, Darren Young, wasn't going to get his head shaved and that Rey Mysterio was going to do a run-in, but it was still an entertaining segment. Young hasn't really impressed me on NXT, but he did well here with his facial expressions and brief speaking part. Punk would have been doing the kid a favor by shaving off that bad hairdo, though. …
Mysterio accepted the match at Extreme Rules in which Punk will have his head shaved if he loses, but there was no mention about Mysterio's mask also being on the line. Rumors of a hair vs. mask match between the two have been out there for a while, with the match originally thought to have been scheduled for WrestleMania XXVI. There are two weeks before the pay-per-view, so time will tell if the mask will be part of the equation. Personally, I don't think it should be. No one is going to believe that Mysterio will lose his mask. …
The Swagger-Morrison match was held up briefly while a medic attended to what looked like a paper cut on Swagger's face. The worst part of this was that Swagger was on offense when the referee stepped in, so Morrison remained on the mat selling the whole time that Swagger was being attended to, which made Morrison look weak. They should have called an audible there and had Morrison get the advantage, at least momentarily. …
During Swagger's promo, he said "there isn't a WWE superstar who can stop my momentum." Well, except for Randy Orton. Oh, and John Cena, too. …
Jericho grabbing at Swagger's belt and childishly saying, "Give me that back," while the champ had it on his shoulder was pretty funny. …
Drew McIntyre looked good in gaining a victory over Matt Hardy, who put up a valiant fight before losing. Now that McIntyre has gotten his win back over Hardy, I'd like to see him do the same with Kane. …
McIntyre telling the fans that he wasn't going to waste his breath on them probably got him more heat than anything he could have said in a promo. …
I liked seeing Dolph Ziggler with more of a mean streak, as he slapped the sleeperhold on Josh Matthews during an interview. …
Shad Gaspard's first heel promo was adequate. I'm interested to see what WWE does with him because I have long thought that he had the look and size to be a successful singles competitor. ...
I had to laugh when JTG came out all fired up to confront Gaspard, and the big man just gave him one boot to the face and that was that. Does the "J" in JTG stand for Jannetty? …
The Hart Dynasty versus The Dudebusters (Trent Barreta and Caylen Croft) match was short but fine. It served its purpose as far as getting THD a solid win as they presumably head into a title program with WWE unified tag team champions The Miz and The Big Show.