Sunday, February 1 – 11:15 A.M. (CT)

-I asked Dot Net readers to chime in on the Matt Hardy promo from Friday's Smackdown, and the results are encouraging. 51 percent of the voters gave Hardy a solid "B" grade. 33 percent of the voters took it one step further by giving him an "A" for the promo. 11 percent of the voters felt it was only an average promo and gave him a "C" grade. Best of all for Hardy, only six percent of the voters gave him a grade below average.

I can't be a generous as the bulk of the viewers were. This wasn't a bad promo and I don't agree with the six percent who marked it below average. It was too easy to sympathize with Matt for having to put up with his brother's crap over the years. Sure, there was some jealousy expressed in what he said, but not enough to make me sit on the edge of my seat in anticipation of the eventual Hardy vs. Hardy match. Most of that is probably on the writers.

Yet much like Edge early in his career, Matt struggles to put real emotion in his promos. He sounds like he's reading lines and often looks like he's nervous because he sees the red light of the camera. He's improved over the years, but I was hoping that Matt would really break out of his shell with this promo and give us something truly memorable.

Matt's promo on Friday night was strong by his standards, yet it's not a promo that we'll be talking about years from now. In fact, the most memorable thing about the promo was that annoying music that played in the background. I kept waiting for Regis Philbin to show up and ask Matt if he wanted to use a lifeline.

I didn't give viewers the option, but I would give Matt's promo a C+ grade. He explained his position well, but he said what I expected him to say. Worse yet, I didn't feel compelled to see Jeff Hardy get revenge on Matt.

-I will be posting the final 2008 awards poll tomorrow. Later this week, I'll post the results of all the awards polls along with my picks and Rich Twilling's picks. In the meantime, we're going with a non-wrestling question and it's a simple one: Who will win the Super Bowl?

I'm taking the Steelers to beat the Cardinals and I'm hopeful they can do it by more than 6.5 points. That said, I won't lose any sleep if the Cinderella story known as the Cardinals pull off the upset. The Cards have been so bad for so long and I'm happy that their fans finally get a chance to enjoy something special.

My guess is that the difference in the game will be Pittsburgh's defense. I'm curious to see how Kurt Warner fares against the 3-4 alignment (he didn't do so well against it when he faced the Patriots earlier this year, although it was snowing), and whether the Cards offensive line can cope with the various blitzes that defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau will throw at them.

The Cards passing attack is awesome, but I believe the team is too one dimensional to get by the Steelers. Pittsburgh 27 Arizona 20.

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