[5.0] "I'm shocked this is rated so high. The two matches on the card are fine but extremely bloated. I understand circumstances were hard due to Batista having to vacate but this definitely felt like a show about killing time until angle could get the belt. The boogeyman angle was also vile and juvenile."

[4.0] "The first half of this show (i.e. the first match) was good, but the second half brought the whole thing down. Batista's show-opening promo announcing he must abdicate the World Heavyweight Title due to injury was well-delivered, as he put over the gravity of the situation and how bitter he felt about it. It's obviously a super unfortunate situation but the bright side is the built-in storylines with Henry, who injured Batista, and in allowing a new champion to be crowned later on in the show, though a battle royal as a means to crown the new champion is incredibly disappointing. Batista telling Mysterio in their brief backstage segment that he could see Mysterio wearing the World Heavyweight Title was a cool way to put Mysterio over and to hint that a title run might actually be due for him some time in the future. Benoit vs Orton was actually quite good, excluding the finish. It was very predictable that the best of 7 series would come down to the final match after the heel initially went up 3-0, and it was a shame that Booker dropped out of the series halfway through, but at least this was the one match that was actually unpredictable and thus had the chance to be genuinely compelling. And while this was certainly a very technical and slow match, I found it thoroughly compelling. Benoit was one of those guys who perfectly knew how to make his struggle in and out of every hold look immense, with his technique and selling being great, and Orton did really well matching Benoit the whole way with how pained and exhausted his selling was and how dastardly and vicious he was whenever he took control. It was a messy and hard-fought battle between them, and the lack of explosive exchanges and spots never bothered me (in fact that only made the few instances of them feel more significant). I also really liked the story of Orton constantly evading the Crossface but only getting his arm torn up over and over in the process, which was actually really unique. Orton's long term arm-selling could've been better but it was fine enough in its intermittent appearances. Unfortunately, the ref bump and run-ins were brutal in the signature way that WWE loved to do, which was a big shame because the match was already compelling enough without those antics derailing the natural drama. Despite the awful finish that frankly made a mockery of the best of 7 concept, this was still quite a good match. ***1/4. The Piper's Pit segment with JBL was mixed. JBL as the loudmouthed faux-Texan remains a fun character, and he gave a typically strong antagonising promo. He did of course lean into goofiness territory with his absurd delusions of grandeur, but he's still a really confident talker and he did well planting the seed of his eventual next title reign. Piper's responding promo going after JBL and Jillian was filled with low-hanging fruit but with his signature passionate delivery that allowed it to still work. Boogeyman ran off JBL and then... ate Jillian's massive fake mole off her face, which was absolutely foul, like actually sickening. I mean, props to Boogeyman was being so effectively theatrical I guess, but what the hell is this crap doing on a wrestling show? Nasty schlock. The Battle Royal for the World Heavyweight Title was disappointing in many ways. Firstly, Angle participating despite being a RAW wrestler basically telegraphed that he'd be getting the win here, since it clearly felt like WWE bringing a big star over to fill the void of Batista. Him eliminating JBL, one of Smackdown's top heels, mere seconds into the match was super lame too, making Smackdown look quite second rate, especially after JBL was already upstaged by Piper and ran off by Boogeyman in the prior segment. The first 5 minutes of the match were completely dull as everyone lazily messy-brawled and lay in the corners while pretending to try eliminate each other. After that period was when most of the under-carders had been eliminated, meaning we could finally care about the action and the elimination attempts, though that stuff was still nothing special and just a case of everyone getting their few highlight moments. We had Chekhov's Gun with Angle after he was put through an announce table by Henry and made to sell for ages, so that sadly further telegraphed that he'd be the likely eventual winner. Mysterio and Henry as the faux final 2 for the 'David vs Goliath' story was fine, though their interactions were all quite predictable and their chemistry was mediocre. On cue, Angle recovered to full strength right as it seemed like Henry had won the match. Angle's intensity and displays of strength against someone of Henry's size were fun, and Henry was an effective freight train in response, but they still seemed to be on different wavelengths at points, and their elimination attempts all looked a bit too awkward and unconvincing. Angle even got the win quite awkwardly, since it actually looked like his feet touched the ground at the same time as Henry's, yet he was declared the clear winner with zero controversy. Battle royals have never been my thing, so I didn't think this was very good and it was a pretty disappointing way to crown a new world champion. Like, are we really expected to believe people like Kendrick, Nunziom and Simon f'n Dean are deserving of being in contention to become world champion? That's a total joke. Something like a knockout tournament across 1-2 nights with 4-8 top guys easily could've been done instead to allow for far better action and far more believable and interesting storytelling. **. If not for the disgusting Boogeyman and Lillian angle and the lame main-event this could've been a good show, since I truly did enjoy Benoit vs Orton quite a bit despite the awful finish, but it instead seems WWE are determined to book stupid ideas and ruin otherwise good ones."

[7.0] "Decent show. Batista promo was a bit boring. First match was okay and a terrible segment in the middle marks this down. Battle royal was easily best part of the show. The ending between angle and henry is underrated"

[10.0] "This was a perfect match. Most of the time was allocated for the World Championship battle royal and Orton & Benoit had a fantastic match. Batista giving up the title had fans in tears to open the show. Piper's Pit wasn't great but it thankfully didn't eat too much time. Angle moving over to Smackdown to win the title and turn face was a fun surprise. It also led to several months of great action on Smackdown for him before he wrapped up this tenure on ECW"

[8.0] "Really enjoyed this episode. There are basically only four things on it, but they're all interesting and consequential. Batista surrenders the world title, Chris Benoit and Randy Orton have a pretty great match for the U.S. Championship, Piper's Pit with the Boogeyman and JBL (which is not objectively good admittedly), and then the World Title Battle Royal, with Mark Henry having some fun sequences as a lump of meat against Kurt Angle and Rey Mysterio. An hour and a half breezes by."

[6.0] "This was an alright episode of Smackdown. The opener was incredibly boring, the Piper's Pit segment was stupidly funny even if JBL talked fuckin' forever, but Piper's prayer after Boogeyman ate the mole had me laughing. The main event was a pretty good battle royal, Mark Henry did a crazy powerbomb that I don't remember him doing regularly. This ain't an all timer show but it's enjoyable enough."

[9.0] "Episode was awesome. Two amazing title matches, no undercard matches which was probably for the best, and a segment of Boogeyman eating Jillian's mole which was........ yep. Kurt Angle's unexpected battle royal entry was great and the title celebration just added to the awesomeness. Overall shows why Smackdown was by far the better show during the Ruthless Aggression Era."

[8.0] "Kann man durchaus als legendäre SmackDown! bezeichnen, allerdings fand ich sie zu keinem Zeitpunkt sehr gut. Emotionales Segment zu Beginn, als Batista den World Title abgibt. Benoit gg. Orton hatten definitiv bessere Matches, denn es passiert in diesem Match lange überhaupt nichts. Dazu ist das Ende zwar passend, um Benoit vs. Booker weiterzuführen, aber für das Ende einer solchen Serie irgendwie nicht befriedigend. PiperŽs Pit war ziemlich bizarr. Das hatte ich eigentlich schon wieder verdrängt. Die Battle Royal war zum Ende hin sehr spannend und gut umgesetzt. Insgesamt ist hier echt viel passiert, aber alles auf einem soliden bis guten, allerdings für mich nicht auf einem sehr guten Niveau."

[10.0] "Sehr gute Ausgabe von SmackDown. Das Anfangssegment war gut. Batista machte ein rührende Promo wo er den World Heavyweight Titel abgeben musste. Teddy Long machte prompt eine schnelle Entscheidung in einer Battle Royal als Main-Event wo es den Titel zu gewinnen gibt. Benoit vs Orton war in Ordnung. Das Match brauchte LANGE um in die Potte zu kommen. Echt schade wie Benoit in der Best of Seven Series behandelt wurde. Nur einen regulären Sieg gab es für ihn die anderen zwei waren durch DQ. Orton gewinnt den Titel für Booker T nach einem hin und her am Ende des Matches. Pipers Pit wäre eigentlich nur geplant mit dem Boogeyman aber JBL durfte noch ein wenig erzählen was Piper langweilte. Allerdings sind seine Mimik und Gestik zum lachen gewesen. Boogeyman aß dieses Ding von Jillians Gesicht was total ekelhaft war was auch immer das war. Die Battle Royal war gut. Angle von RAW überraschte das SmackDown Roster mit seiner Anwesendheit. Allerdings dominierte Henry eher. MNM war keine große Hilfe für Henry in dem Match da beide einfach durch Mysterio eliminiert worden sind. Nach langem ziehen und zerren gelang Angle der Gewinn des Titels."