It was huge night for Smackdown this week, as something
significant actually happened! Yes, The Shield suffered their first loss as a
group.
Team RK-No & Kane vs. The Shield
The show started with Daniel Bryan in the ring, as he cut an
entertaining promo about his accomplishments in WWE, including his nine month
tag team run with Kane in Team Hell No, calling Kane out to the ring in the
process. With the two eventually beginning to squabble after Daniel Bryan
revealed he wouldn’t team with Kane anymore as he and Randy Orton were going to
win the tag team championships at Payback, even coming up with a new team name,
Team RK-No. With Kane about to chokeslam Bryan, Orton came out to make the
save. However the three then continued to argue, until The Shield turned up on
the video screen. The Shield put over their partnership as a group, as well as
the main event and their respective match at Payback. It was a good opening
segment that revealed each of the players in the main event well and set up any
potential conflicts that might be seen later on as well as at Payback.
The match between the six, was as is now the norm for these
six man tag team contest, was well worked and well paced by all six
competitors. Some of the spots and sections during the beginning and middle of
the match may have be familiar to some regular reviewers but this didn’t make
seeing them again any less enjoyable. With The Shield dominating for most of
the match, the match was driven by a number of hot tags from the face team,
with of course the highlight and final turning point being the hot tag to
Daniel Bryan. Bryan has managed to bring something new on every occasion he receives
the tag, this time a nice dropkick to Rollins who had just springboarded of the
ropes, which certainly helps to keep these matches feeling fresh and exciting.
With number of near falls for both Bryan and Seth Rollins
really got the crowd worked up with the match beginning to look like it could
go either way. The ending of the match saw the crowd almost red hot, as an
exciting ending section began with Kane dodging Roman Reigns’ spear, sending
Reigns over the barricade, Kane then choke slammed Ambrose on top of Reigns,
which looked effective on screen. With The Shield finally outnumbered, Kane
pushed Rollins off the top rope into the arms of a coiled Randy Orton who
struck with an RKO, before Bryan had Rollins submit to the No Lock. It felt a
fitting ending to match, which told a fantastic story throughtout and the
reverse of the outnumbering was a clever move by WWE.
Many will be upset that The Shield lost their first match
here, especially on Smackdown. However, I think it was a wise move by WWE, for
a number of reasons, firstly it helps to build for the matches at Payback, by
making showing the Orton, Bryan and Kane can beat the Shield and therefore
could take the championships as well, secondly The Shield’s unbeaten run would
have become repetitive very soon with them running out of opponents to face and
it’s better to end something while it’s still hot than allow the crowd to grow
tired of something, and finally it may not be a PPV or Raw, but because
Smackdown is taped it would have meant a lot of people tuned into watch to see
The Shield lose for the first time, rather than just another Shield match
elsewhere, the ratings will hopefully prove this theory correct.
Alberto Del Rio & Chris Jericho with Ricardo Rodrigues vs. World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler & Big E Langston with AJ Lee
This match was set up by acting General Manager Teddy Long,
during another blantant advertising segment for some American fast food
restaurant. With Teddy munching his way through a burger, he was met by the
returning Dolph Ziggler, alongside Big E Langston and AJ Lee. With Ziggler
unhappy at being forced to compete tonight, Teddy Long basically told him to go
away so he could eat more of his burger. With Ziggler gone, Teddy settled down
for his dinner before Big E Langston turned up and stole it. It really was as
bizarre as it sounds and I really hope WWE drops the burgers before the next
episode of Raw.
The early parts of the match were slow with Langston doing
the majority of the work for his team, dominating Jericho and Del Rio, who made
quick tags after impact moves. The match picked up a gear with some nice work
on the outside between Jericho and Langston, including Langston getting thrown
into the steel steps and Jericho going spine first into the barricade. The
little of Ziggler we saw during the match looked to be showing very little
signs of ring rust, as he performed a nice section controlling Jericho, before
the hot tag to Del Rio.
The end came pretty quickly after the hot tag from Del Rio,
with another classic tag team breakdown segment. With Del Rio being bulldozed
by Langston, Jericho quickly dispatched of him before receiving a good looking
drop kick from Ziggler. With Ziggler taking time to celebrate Del Rio
capitilized with a nice small package for the victory. It was a solidly worked
ending to a solidly worked match that built up well throughout it’s ten minutes
or so. Del Rio picking up the victory here gives him good momentum going into
Payback, whilst Ziggler’s spree of moves on Jericho showed that he will be more
than able to counter any threat shown from Del Rio, keeping both looking good
heading into their Payback show down.
After the match, Jericho was interviewed by Renee Young. As
we’d expect from Y2J he gave a very good interview his match with CM Punk this
Sunday. He built up the connection between CM Punk and Chicago, as well talking
about his connections to the city. Jericho then made the claim that this match
will be better than their previous contests, which is a brave claim to make
after the quality of those matches, Punk-Jericho III (as it’s being billed)
will have to have to set the world on fire to live up to it’s high
expectations. Punk’s manager Paul Heyman turned up to talk up his client,
before Jericho shoved the mic in his face, it’s nice to see Jericho playing a
different kind of face than we have been taught to expect from WWE, although
without Punk being present his aggression towards Heyman feels a little out of
place. The absence of Punk has obviously harmed this rivalry, as it’s been
difficult to build any kind of story around it, similar to the absence of Dolph
Ziggler, especially with the rumours that Punk might not even turn up in
Chicago.
Best of the Rest
Elsewhere on Smackdown, the build for Intercontinental
Championship Triple Threat at Payback continued with Curtis Axel facing
champion Wade Barrett. Although with Barrett suggesting the two hold of the
fight until Payback, it seemed the match would not happen. That was until The
Miz came out with a slightly annoying promo in an attempt to get the two to
fight. The Miz clearly has a lot of skill when handed a microphone, but his
character and personality do not suit the face role he is currently in and
everything he says comes out like a brattish child who really wants you to like
them. The childish behaviour continued with the Miz attempted to get the crowd
to chant “Fight” on television it seemed like this worked, although I wouldn’t
be surprised if WWE added in a few extra chants.
For some unknown reason, Axel and Barrett decided to have
their fight. For me, it would have made more sense for the two to leave,
allowing them to garner heat for not doing what the crowd wanted. The match
itself was short but good between these two, with the two going back and forth
throughout. The ending came with Barrett ducking a clothesline from Axel who
took out the Miz, with Barrett distracted by Heyman, once he was ready to get
back in the ring, Axel was waiting with a Rope Hung Spinning Neckbreaker for
the victory. It was a logical ending to the contest involving all parties that
will be involved in the triple threat and giving Axel a credible victory over
Barrett giving him a reasonable claim to the title. The only problem is we’ve
seen Wade Barrett lose so many times as Intercontinental Champion recently, it’s
difficult to see him as the credible champion we know he could be.
Kaitlyn continued to show signs of a breakdown in a contest
with Aksana. Before the match, the reveal of Kaitlyn’s secret admirer was shown
on the screen with Kaitlyn clearly affected by it. She charged at Aksana and a
catfight eschewed, all the was missing was Joey Styles over the top. The match
never got started, although I’m sure there isn’t a lot of people too upset
about that fact. With Kaitlyn battling Aksana to the outside and the referee
trying to break up the fight Kaitlyn slapped the referee in the face before
Aksana escaped. It was a decent segment, an helped to further Kaitlyn’s new
persona, although we’ve seen similar storylines before with the Divas. With
Kaitlyn and AJ now showing signs of being a little big crazy, they should have
a decent match at Payback, it goes to show that all the Divas need is a little
TV time, a storyline and some character development to get the people
interested.
The first match of the show saw a rematch from last weeks
Main Event, as Sheamus faced Antonio Cesaro. Before the contest there was a promo
from Sheamus’ Payback Kick-Off opponent Damien Sandow, who did a good job
building the rivalry on the whole and finally appeared to be the heel in the
story. If anything it was refreshing not to have to watch another awful games
segment as we’ve experienced over the last three weeks. The match was another
good match between these two who shared the offence more or less equally
throughout the match, with highlight seeing Sheamus catch Cesaro on the outside
and send him overhead into the barricade and Cesaro driving Sheamus into the
ring steps. The ending saw a Brogue Kick out of nowhere from Sheamus for the
victory. These two seem to work well together, with Cesaro’s serious wrestling
style bringing out a more serious side of Sheamus which is a lot better to
watch than the goofy side we’ve seen for most of his face run. Whilst Sheamus
headed to the back Sandow reappeared with a blindside attack. With the rivalry
now feeling a lot more serious than in recent weeks, I have high hopes for
their contest at Payback Kickoff and hope they keep the serious nature for the
contest.
There was also a match pitting The Great Khali against 3MB’s
Heath Slater. Khali dominated most of what was a poor match, although if you
were expecting anything else from Khali then you obviously haven’t been
watching WWE television in the last six years. The end saw an altercation
between the other members of 3MB and Hornswoggle which distracted Khali
allowing Slater take down the giant, before a thunderous DDT gave him the
victory. I’m not sure of the last time Slater won a match on TV, especially on
a Raw or Smackdown, but it’s been a very long time indeed. It would be nice to
see 3MB move higher up the card, as I think they’re all fairly talented guys
and have taken to the poor 3MB gimmick well, but I’m not quite sure where they
will fit into current WWE plans.
Finally…
What have we learnt from this weeks Smackdown?
1. WWE isn't afraid having huge moments, like The Shield first loss, happen on what is essentially the B show.
2. Dolph Ziggler looks ready to go come this Sunday's Payback.
3. WWE should really stop the over the top advertisement of Fast Food product during segments of their show.
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