It was billed as a 5-man "cruiserweight open" at the Great American Bash, with Chavo Guerrero defending against three former champions--Sho Funaki, Jamie Noble, & Jimmy Wang Yang---and perennial also-ran Shannon Moore. A 6th man got into the match unexpectedly and ended up the winner.

Hornswoggle, Fit Finlay's leprechaun sidekick, never comes down the ramp to get into the ring. He always hides under the ring, waiting for the appropriate moment to strike. He wasn't announced as a participant in the match, and yet they let his pin of Noble stand as of right now. Why?

Chalk it up to a change in creative philosophy when it comes to the cruiserweight title. It was a big deal 5 years ago when the division was built up around Rey Mysterio, and the cruisers routinely stole the show. Mysterio, in particular, quickly became part of the "Smackdown elite", along with the likes of Kurt Angle, Edge, and the late Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit.

Today, however, things have changed. The fact that Hornswoggle, who rarely competes to start with, is the champion, pending any sort of clarification that may come out of tonight's taping, suggests that current Smackdown head writer Michael Hayes doesn't want to put any more emphasis on the cruisers and is burying the title by placing it in the hands of the smallest man on the roster. Also, the cruiserweights are no longer exclusive to Smackdown. Nunzio, aka Little Guido, left for ECW last year. Brian Kendrick, Paul London, and Shawn "Khosrow" Daivari were all moved to Raw in last month's supplemental draft. Simon Dean fit into the weight class, but was "retired" last year and is now in the front office. Carlito & ECW champ John Morrison also fit into the weight class, but were never considered cruiserweights. Chavo was over without the title, but certain in creative--and the blame, IMPO, falls on Hayes--didn't think Yang was worthy of a run as champ, hence the fact that Yang only held the title for what amounted to a couple of minutes after ending Greg Helms' run as champion at No Way Out before losing to Chavo, and has since been stymied in attempts to regain the title.

I've read people's comments about how they're turning away from Smackdown because Great Khali is the World champion. Some of those people might not be so insulted by Hornswoggle as cruiserweight champion, but the purists definitely are. The problem is that there are no other "Juniors" for 'Swoggle to fight, as the Juniors Division was dissolved long before he arrived last year. Any title defense is going to be looked upon as a joke because 'Swoggle, like Finlay, has to rely on the shillelagh to gain an advantage. It is in WWE's best interests to do the right thing for the fans between now & Summerslam, and that's to take the World & Cruiserweight titles off the least deserving champions they have, before the fan base shrivels even further than it already has. Raw's ratings are down. I'd imagine Smackdown's would be, too, if you don't factor in pre-emptions for baseball in certain cities.

Sorry, Vince McMahon, but this latest joke you've played on the fans is not the least bit funny.