WWE have put together a strong string of show’s lately with
Payback and Raw both being up there with the best shows of the PG Era, this
continued Friday Night on Smackdown with a number of good quality contests, as
well as a little storyline progression heading into the A show on Monday.
Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan
In a good move by WWE, the originally advertised main event
of Daniel Bryan vs. Dean Ambrose was switched to re-match from the Raw match
that was called off by doctor’s stoppage after Daniel Bryan suffered a “stinger”.
Switching the main event allowed WWE to capitalise on what happened on Monday,
whilst it was still fresh in the audiences mind and also allowed them to keep
the story going between Orton and Bryan losing very little ground in terms of
what was lost due to the ending of the Raw match.
The show opened with Bryan coming out to talk up never
having a match stopped due to injury before and it only happened this time
because people viewed him as the weak link. Bryan’s development as a character
has been interesting to watch over the last three months or so, although the
weak link stuff is becoming slightly tiresome now. Bryan also talked about
Orton hugging him after the finish and called Orton patronising, which drew
Orton into the ring. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Orton and Bryan here,
with neither playing what could be defined as a heel or face, with Orton saying
he respected Bryan, but would hurt him in the match later on.
The match between The Submission Specialist and The Viper
was another exciting contest. It was hard hitting bout with neither Orton nor
Bryan holding anything back which sold the seriousness of the rivalry well. There
were a number of dangerous looking spots, including a Suplex attempt from Orton
from the apron to outside, which sent Bryan crashing to floor. It looked pretty
painful for Bryan, but certainly build him back up after the referee stoppage
on Raw. Orton dominated most of the contest with Bryan helping to add a little
something extra to Orton’s regular routine of rest holds with some nice
transitions.
Chris Jericho vs. World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio with Ricardo Rodriguez
I was pretty excited when this match was announced during
the show, as I enjoy watching both Jericho and Del Rio in ring, even more since
Del Rio’s heel turn, and thought they would mesh well together, we also haven’t
seen these two face off for some time. I was a little disappointed that WWE
didn’t play on the fact that Jericho and Del Rio had been partners the week
previously, as this would have added a little extra spice to the bout.
The match was not a disappointment though, with some great
action throughout. The action was pretty quick throughout, with the pace of the
match rarely dropping. As expect Del Rio and Jericho worked very well together,
with both getting an equal amount of offense with the momentum switching
quickly from wrestler to wrestler.
Considering both men are over thirty five, some of the spots in this
match were pretty impressive, with Jericho moving out of the way off Del Rio
double footed attack, sending Del Rio throughout the ropes to the outside and
Jericho even hitting the Lionsault which I’m pretty sure has never happened
before!
The ending saw some great chain wrestling from the two,
based around the Walls of Jericho and the Cross Armbreaker. With Ricardo
Rodriguez attempting to get involved, Jericho ended up putting him in the
Liontamer. It was good decision to have Rodriguez get involved as Rodriguez was
probably more over as a face then Del Rio was, and these kinds of actions will
certainly help reverse that reaction. With Jericho busy, Dolph Ziggler jumped
on Del Rio in the ring to give the World Heavyweight Champion the Disqualification
victory. With the two biggest matches on the show ending in indecisive victory,
it could have been a little frustrating as a viewer, luckily the matches went
long enough, and had story developing finishes that left me wanting more, rather
than feeling we had missed out on something.
Best of the Rest
Wade Barrett also received his Intercontinental Championship
rematch against Curtis Axel this week. Heel vs. Heel matches are usually
interesting to watch on television but elicit very little crowd reaction as the
crowd are unsure who they dislike the least and tend to sit on their hands.
This was the case for this match, and certainly took a little of the shine off
of what was decent battle between these two. Neither man really took control of
the match with each have a period in control, before they headed for the
finish, it certainly could have been paced bit quicker with the length of the
match not really allowing for some of the slow methodical action.
The end of the contest saw Barrett miss an elbow drop, with
Axel hitting a hitting a Spinning Neckbreaker for the victory. It was a
slightly disappointing finish, as we’ve seen both John Cena and Triple H kick
out of that neckbreaker already and therefore it feels like a weak finish, and
for me damaged Barrett by getting pinned after it. Axel had also debuted a new
finishing move on Raw, so why not use it again here? After the match, The Miz
who was on commentary entered the ring and looked to be attempting to get into
a fight with Axel, as he began removing his suit. Personally, I was hoping Axel
would knock the smug look of Miz’s face, which I’m pretty sure wasn’t the
reaction WWE was after.
The newly returned Christian was back in action on Smackdown
taking on 3MB’s Drew McIntyre. Christian is extremely good at working these
short television matches and manages to make even a four minute match feel
action packed. Although it was clearly to help build Christian, a win over Drew
at the moment means very little, as I don’t think he’s won a match in over a
year. Christian picked up the win with a Killswitch after fending off all of
3MB. Unfortunately for Christian he could fend off The Shield, who attacked him
after the match with a triple powerbomb eventually finishing Christian off. I’m
interested to see where this goes, with Christian possibly challenging Ambrose
for the US Title, or maybe even reforming his team with Chris Jericho to go
after Rollins and Reigns tag title. Either way, I would definitely be
interested in seeing those matches.
Renee Young interviewed Paul Heyman backstage about what
happened between CM Punk and Brock Lesnar on Raw. Heyman cut an unbelievably
good promo about how this was personal matter and listed a number of things
about Young’s personal life. It left the book still open on Heyman’s involvement
in the rivalry and I’d hope that this continues for a number of weeks with
Heyman disassociating himself from Lesnar, before he is finally revealed to be
behind the attacks. It might be predictable, but would allow the rivalry to
build well heading into Summerslam.
Diva’s Champion AJ Lee was involved in a match with Natalya.
It was another good outing for AJ Lee, against a Diva I’d like to see in action
a lot more often on Raw and Smackdown. There was some good actual wrestling
throughout with the finishing helping to build AJ’s submission hold with
Natalya attempting to fight out but failing. With former champion Kaitlyn
watching backstage with Layla, Aksana turned up and said something to Kaitlyn
which caused her to get attacked with a bottle of water, before the rest of the
Diva’s had to separate the two. I’m enjoying this new side to Kaitlyn and has
certainly helped to make her a more dimensional character.
The Damien Sandow and Sheamus rivalry also continued, with
Sheamus facing off against Cody Rhodes. It was another decent match between
these, although not much that we haven’t seen before. Sheamus kicked Damien
Sandow for no particular reason towards the end of the match, it’s difficult to
like Sheamus at the moment and this really didn’t help. Sheamus brought back
the Cloverleaf hold to win by Submission. Sandow went on to retaliate Sheamus’
earlier attack, by delivering a kick to the head with Sheamus still holding
onto the submission hold. I’m unsure how I feel about this rivalry because, to
me, Sheamus feels a lot more like the heel within it than Sandow ever has.
Finally...
1. It's great to have something nearing the old Randy Orton back.
2. Jericho might be one of WWE's oldest regulars, but he can still go with the best of them.
3. The Miz is possibility the most unlikeable face character I have ever seen.
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