In terms of name value in the matches, Smackdown certainly
delivered this week with a number of matches that could’ve fitted easily onto a
PPV event. This was mainly down to the All-Stars Money in the Bank Ladder Match
and with the Money in the Bank PPV just two days away this was WWE’s last
chance to get major buys for the show.
Sheamus vs. Randy Orton
Now it seems an age since these two were completely torn
apart by a New Jersey crowd on the Raw after Wrestlemania. The reason behind
this was not only some poor WWE booking involving the WWE App, but also because
Orton and Sheamus were two of the stalest characters that WWE was presenting on
television at the time. Now, since then not a lot has changed for either
Sheamus or Randy Orton. Orton has fared the better out of the two, featuring in
a story involving The Sheild, Daniel Bryan and Kane, that was the highlight of
both Raw and Smackdown for a number of weeks. Orton has certainly stepped up
his game, bringing a hell of a lot more passion to his performances than we had
seen pre-Wrestlemania. I’d say this is mainly down to Orton enjoying the
storyline and being put against some top talents in marquee matches, but Orton
can not simply choose to deliver a performance when he is enjoying himself, if
he wants to stay at top star in WWE he needs to take the rough with the smooth.
Sheamus on the other hand has not done particularly, he had a decent series of
match with Damien Sandow, but the rivalry surrounding it was mainly full of
awful segments, that Sheamus didn’t particularly take too. His comedy is at
times painful to watch, which is a shame because we’ve seen Sheamus deliver
some great performances when he keeps it serious.
In the build for this we had a backstage interview with
Sheamus conducted by Renee Young. Sheamus basically went over old ground with
Randy Orton, by mentioning Saint Patrick and the snakes story which we hear
pretty much every time these two face off. We then got Sheamus talking about
what he’d put in the Money in the Briefcase if he won it, including “corn beef
and cabbage”. It particularly help to build either match, as it didn’t look
like Sheamus was taking it seriously, so why should an audience take it
seriously either? I’m not saying comedy can’t factor into main event
storylines, because it can and has worked well before, but Sheamus’ new Irish stereotype
character certainly doesn’t make me laugh, so the comedy feels out of place. Sheamus
finished up by telling Renee Young she was “pretty cute”. Will this go
anywhere? Most probably not.
The match started off pretty hot with some good work on the
outside, with use of the announce table and steel steps, unfortunately an Orton
back suplex onto the barricade was confined to the WWE App. We then entered a
regular Orton match pattern, with a number of head locks and rest holds, I
understand Orton used a headlock when heel to build for a comeback from the
face, but when Orton himself has operated as a face he has certainly been over
reliant on that move. A nice section of the match saw a play on each man’s
signature comebacks, with Orton no-selling a Sheamus high knee, a la Davey
Richards, before launching into a comeback of his own. It was a good play on
moves we’ve seen before and certainly picked up the pace of the match. We got a
number of other variations of Sheamus and Orton’s signatures move, with Orton
doing some great selling of Sheamus’ clubbering on the outside, before hitting
his signature Rope Hung DDT from the corner.
The end saw Orton and Sheamus battling it out on the top
rope, before they both took a spill to the outside. Daniel Bryan came to ring,
and got a ladder from under the ring, taking out both Sheamus and Orton before
ascending the ladder. Christian then came down and all four men attempted to
climb the ladder to get the briefcase in various combinations. It wasn’t a bad
way to end the show and gave fans a quick preview of the Money in the Bank
Ladder Match, but I can’t help but think it suffered from not having CM Punk
involved. Eventually after an RKO to Bryan, Orton scaled the ladder to collect
the briefcase for the end of the show. I’ve enjoyed the booking heading into
the Money in the Bank All-Stars Match, with a number of guys like Orton, Bryan,
Punk and Van Dam heading into the match looking like having a strong chance of
picking up the victory.
Christian vs. Daniel Bryan
The other match pitching Money in the Bank All Star
competitors against each other saw Daniel Bryan take on Christian. Both have
been booked quite differently heading into the contest, with Bryan currently
part of a major push, picking up victories over Randy Orton and Sheamus in the
last few weeks, whilst Christian seems a little lost after his return to WWE
last month, with pinfall losses to Orton and Kane. Christian’s return certainly
hasn’t been handled as well as it could have, after the first few weeks of
picking up wins over the likes of Wade Barrett and Drew McIntyre, as well as an
impressive victory with The Usos over The Shield, the wheels seem to have come
off Christian and his momemtum has slowed pretty quickly, which is a shame as
he could be a vital asset to WWE who they seem to be wasting.
Christian proved his worth to WWE with this match against
Bryan as the two put on a good bout to open the show. Using the face vs. face
dynamic to their advantage neither Bryan or Christian spent a prolonged period
in control of the match meaning we got to see some fast paced action with a ton
of reversals thrown in. Both men had outside dive attempts thwarted, including
Christian delivering a hard slap as Bryan was about to fly. The two also
brought everything they could to match, which always makes it a lot easier to
watch than when someone is simply phoning in a performance, with Bryan
delivering a nice basement dropkick with Christian propped against the steel
steps a particular highlight.
The match was upped a notch with a near fall for Christian
with a Spear out of nowhere that actually made me believe that Christian could
be picking up the victory heading in to Money in the Bank, mainly due to Bryan
ability to kick out late, and some good commentary from Michael Cole. The end saw
Christian attempt to use his signature sunset flip whilst boucing out of the
corner, only for Bryan to lock in the No Lock for the submission victory. It
was a good ending that was worked well by both Bryan and Christian with
Christian’s selling of the No Lock really helping to get the moment over for
me.
Heading into the Money in the Bank All-Stars Match, Bryan
would surely have to be one of the favourites to pick up the win, not only have
we seen him beat Orton, Sheamus and Christian on Raw and Smackdown in the last
few week, but he even un hooked the briefcase Monday Night on Raw. Bryan would
be a great choice to get the briefcase and really deserves a WWE Championship
run, but I can’t help thinking that he doesn’t really need the briefcase to do
so and the moment would be a lot of impressive without it. Christian seems to
be in the match to simply make up the numbers and take some bumps, which is a
shame as I think Christian can offer a lot more for WWE. Having him lose
everyone of his warm up matches hasn’t exactly built him up well heading into
the PPV, even if Christian has put a lot of effort into those matches.
Best of the Rest (In The World)
Elsewhere, the rivalry between Dolph Ziggler and World
Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio continued. With Teddy Long telling Dolph
Ziggler to take the night off, because Long didn’t want Ziggler to interfere in
Del Rio’s match with Sin Cara later on and end up going the same way as Vickie
Guerrero. It’s strange for Long to compare himself to Vickie, when the actual
General Manager of Smackdown is still Booker T, I really hope they aren’t
building to some kind of power struggle between Booker and Teddy, as we’ve got
enough of that going on with The McMahons on Raw, and I actually quite like the
Booker and Teddy pairing.
As Del Rio waited in the ring, Sin Cara headed down to ring
looking more defined than ever, he had also apparently grown a fair bit taller
as well. Instead of executing his signature entrance, Sin Cara headed straight
for Del Rio, eventually hitting a Zig Zag to take out the Mexican Aristocrat. Yes,
a Zig Zag. Of course, it was Dolph Ziggler who even got a few signature taunts
in for good measure. It was a nice segment and was enjoyable to watch, but didn’t
feel like a great way to finally sell this match heading into Money in the
Bank. Teddy Long caught up with Sin Cara backstage, cautioning who he thought
was Ziggler for his actions, until Ziggler himself turned up explaining he left
his phone in the locker room. I liked this little addition and Ziggler is
really settling into to the new face role now.
Elsewhere, Chris Jericho had another match against
Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel, as always accompanied by Paul Heyman. It
was another solid encounter between these two, with Jericho doing a good job of
controlling the match and allowing Axel to look good with a number of near
falls and kick outs by each man. I’m still blown away by the kinds of moves
Jericho can do convincingly at the age of 42, like a fantastic cross body that
men a lot younger than he would struggle to pull off as well. The end saw
Jericho hit a Codebreaker on the Intercontinental Champion who fell to the
outside of the ring and was unable to make the ten count, handing Jericho a
victory. To me, this ending didn’t make a lot of sense, with Jericho picking up
another win over Axel, but Axel vs. Jericho isn’t the Intercontinental
Championship match at Money in the Bank, it’s Axel vs. The Miz!
There was also the first ever Diva’s contract signing, in
what was another impressive segment for AJ Lee and Kaitlyn. With AJ saying if
Kaitlyn signed the contract she had even more to reveal about her, things got
really heated after Kaitlyn signed the contract and AJ revealed texts that
Kaitlyn had sent her secret admirer, also known as Big E Langston. With AJ
revealing things Kaitlyn had said about Natalya and The Funkadactyls, Kaitlyn
was clearly about to lose a lot of friends, which definitely brought that crazy
side back of Kaitlyn, as with probably her best work on the mic so far, she
came back at AJ. Kaitlyn said the trigger word for AJ “crazy” and got a slap
for her trouble, with Kaitlyn retaliating by pushing AJ in to the corner using
the table and continuing to attack her until Big E Langston pulled her away.
Kaitlyn then had a slap for Big E. I actually really liked this contract signing,
as it took a main event style segment and used it to elevate this Diva’s
rivalry into feeling important, both Diva’s have put in a lot of work to this
rivalry, which has been refreshing to see and hopefully it pays off at Money in
the Bank.
There was also some build for the World Heavyweight
Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match, with Fandango facing off with Wade
Barrett, in a nice follow up from the segment on Raw that saw Fandango get a
Bullhamer elbow from Barrett. Most of the match was dominated by Team Rhodes
Scholars and Zeb Colter’s Antonio Cesaro and Jack Swagger being at ringside,
whilst Barrett and Fandango simply went through the motions, with the Preston
man dominating. Barrett got distracted by the argument between the two teams,
allowing Fandango to hit Barrett with a kick to the head and get the pinfall
victory. This Money in the Bank certainly hasn’t had as much build up as the
All-Stars one, but with the talent involved in the ring, and a lot of
inter-weaving character work gone into the story, it’s probably the match I’m
most excited to see.
Tag Team Champion Seth Rollins of The Shield was also in
action against Jey Uso, both with their respective tag team partner at ringside
for the contest. I was impressed once again with these two, with Jey proving he
is more than capable of putting on a good singles match. The match saw Rollins
take control early on, before the highlight of the match for me, saw some
classic no-selling from Jey, as he took chops from Rollins, only to shout out
the call and response US-O with the crowd happy to join in. Uso was then on a
roll hitting a number signature moves, before heading to the top rope. With Jey
attempting to warn his twin, Jimmy, of an impending clothesline from Roman
Reigns, this was the opening Seth Rollins needed, knocking Jey off the top rope
and hitting the Blackout for the victory. It was a well worked singles contest,
that used the involvement of their partners well, thus helping to build for
Money in the Bank, although I can’t help suggesting that giving Jey the victory
here would have helped to make The Usos look like much more of a threat to the
Tag Team Champions at Money in the Bank Kick-Off.
In a reverse of the Jericho-Axel match we saw earlier,
Ryback faced The Miz in another rematch. Miz already held a victory over Ryback
from two weeks ago on Raw, after Ryback had had the match stopped by the
referee for an injured knee. This was capitilsed upon well in this match, with
Miz spending a lot of the match focusing of Ryback’s knee. With Ryback, using
the referee to help himself up, he suckered Miz in for a Meathook clothesline
followed by a Shellshock for the pinfall victory. This was a much better match
than I had expected, using a good deal of psycology and story which helped propel
the mediocre action that occurred in the ring. I’m actually enjoying this
development to Ryback’s character as after WWE botched both Ryback’s face push
and initial heel turn, there is only so long you can believe that Ryback is an
all concurring monster.
Vickie Guerrero also made an appearance on Smackdown this
week, claiming Teddy Long had made her by a ticket and paraphrasing Stephanie
McMahon from Raw, calling him a “spineless puppet”. Vickie went on to rip up
her ticket, before Teddy had her removed from ringside. I’m not quite sure
where this segment is heading or even if it will be mentioned again, but one
thing is for sure we haven’t seen the last of Vickie Guerrero.
Finally...
What have I learnt from this week's Smackdown?
1. Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, CM Punk and Rob Van Dam are the most likely to claim the Money in the Bank briefcase.
2. Christian has been poorly utilised during his return and looks the least likely to win the breifcase.
3. Dolph Ziggler looks to have finally settled into his role as a face.
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