Smackdown this week felt like a stacked card with a number
of big matches and segments that made the show feel a lot more important than
it has over the last few month and that can only be a good thing.
Fiesta Del Rio
I’ve forgotten how long it’s been since the storyline
involving the World Heavyweight Championship closed Smackdown. Personally, I
think the World Heavyweight Championship should always be the focus of
Smackdown for as long as WWE have two world championships. If WWE don’t make
the belt feel important by having it the focal point of the show, then there is
very little point in having two world title flying around the WWE. Therefore
seeing the Fiesta Del Rio segment closing the show, amongst a number of other
high profile matches certainly pleased me in that respect.
The celebration aspect is of the segment is something we’ve
seen before a number of times, I’m sure Del Rio had a similar thing on previous
occasions when he won the major championships. It’s pretty obvious what will
happen from the outset, but if worked well can be an enjoyable segment. Ricardo
Rodriguez did a good job of warming up for Del Rio, winding up the fans before
doing his usual announcing schtick. It would be interesting to see Rodriguez
drop the elongated Del Rio catchphrase to help garner extra heat. Del Rio then
took down a piñata with Dolph Ziggler’s face on, it was a little bit cheesy but
sort of worked with Del Rio comparing it to their match at Payback. Del Rio
also spoke a lot of his promo in Spanish which is an easy way to garner more
heat, although I couldn’t comment on how good the promo is because I don’t
speak Spanish.
In a slight twist on the format, Del Rio called out Ziggler,
instead of Ziggler being hidden under a sombrero with a mustache. Ziggler came
out and a brawl ensued, with Ziggler eventually taking out both Del Rio and
Rodriguez, sending Rodriguez from the top rope and through the table and
hitting Del Rio with the Zig Zag. Ziggler finished up by channelling Jeff
Jarrett hitting Rodriguez with a Spanish guitar. It was done at such a quick
pace that you could really feel the pent up aggression in Ziggler towards Del
Rio and that made it easy for me to get behind The Show Off. He proved his face
run could be successful without toning the character down, closing the show by
playing guitar with Del Rio’s Mexican band.
This segment got me pretty excited to watch Del Rio vs.
Ziggler at Money in the Bank, yes it was full of wrestling clichés but was
worked well by all individuals and made to feel important. Knowing that both
individual are capable of putting on a great match certainly helps to build the
interest in the rivalry. Hopefully WWE can keep this up for the next couple of
weeks as this build has been very successful, for me anyway, so far.
Kane vs. Randy Orton
Before the match we saw Daniel Bryan and Kane backstage,
talking about Bryan’s victory over Randy Orton on Raw last week. Kane
congratulated Bryan on the upset victory, causing Bryan to get upset talking
once again about being the weak link. While the early part of the segment went
over some old ground, the latter half was a bit more interesting with Bryan
telling Kane he would be on commentary if he need his help later on. Bryan did
some really nice character work here and hopefully he keeps up this side of his
character, it’s nice to watch him winding Kane up in such a way. Kane does a
good job of being the straight man once again, with Bryan attempting a hug,
Kane simply gives nothing back.
Kane dominated most of the match, in what was pretty basic
affair with no real talking points in terms of what happened within the ring.
Things got a bit more interesting when Daniel Bryan stood on the commentary
desk and lead the crowd in chanting his “YES” catchphrase as Kane took control,
before chanting “NO” when both men went down. It certainly picked up the action
in the ring, with the moves feeling a lot more important from this point
onwards, beforehand seemed like merely going through the motions. The biggest
spot of the match saw Orton take a bump from the top rope to the outside, after
an uppercut from Kane.
The ending was another intriguing one for this story with
Bryan “helping” Kane back into the ring, only for Randy Orton to hit the RKO
and pick up the victory. Bryan left via the entrance ramp and didn’t appear to
show too much concern for Kane. It was a nice ending that furthered the feud
well, as well as helping to build for the All-Stars Money in the Bank with
three of the participants present. The match itself wasn’t anything special
with both Orton and Kane using mainly their signature moves, this was one of
the poorest matches we’ve seen from either man for a while. I’m not saying it
was terrible, but it was certainly a going through the motions kind of contest.
This story has been running for some time now, and it’s
continuing to grow and develop as the weeks go on. I’m not quite sure where the
story is heading anymore, but I think this is a good thing, it means that the
majority of what happens between these three surprises me and that’s always
good for the product. I’d like to see Bryan and Kane positioned in a prominent
place on the Summerslam card, and would personally have them take each other
out of the Money in the Bank to build for the match.
The Shield were once again in six man tag team action, this
time against Christian and the new number one contenders to the tag team
championships, The Usos. In comparison to some of the Shield’s epic matches
over the last year, this really didn’t stand up very well. The wrestling was
good throughout as is to be expected, but it just wasn’t long enough to feel as
important and didn’t feel as thought through as the previous matches. The
ending of the match however was very good with The Usos taking care of Rollins
and Reigns, Ambrose looked to the outside only to run straight into a Spear
from Christian for the upset victory. The reason this worked for me was the
pacey nature of the finish which felt like how the Shield might have picked up
a victory a few months ago, as well as Christian really selling how much the
victory meant celebrating with the Usos after wards.
Best of the Rest (in the World)
We also got the culmination of the Sheamus and Damien Sandow
rivalry this week on Smackdown. Now this rivalry started off terribly with
those awful segments involving the Gordian knot and other strange objects, and
got slightly better as it went along. The matches the two have had have been
miles better than any storyline they’ve been given to use. This was a “Dublin”
Street Fight, with various “Irish” object surrounding ring side, including bars
complete with beer pumps and green kendo sticks. Yes, it felt like WWE tried to
ruin this one as well with the goofy nature of the match, but Sheamus and
Sandow actually managed to pull out an enjoyable contest.
There was some nice spots throughout the contest revolving
around what was set up around ringside, including Sheamus clobbering Sandow on
one of the bars, as well as the throwing a beer keg at Sandow. One spot that I
didn’t care for was when Sheamus used a sack of potatoes, yes you read that
correctly, a sack of potatoes to attack Sheamus. It removed from the rivalry between the two and
made Sandow look a bit of a joke. Luckily Sandow did a lot of good work during
the contest, including a nice dropkick on the outside which looked painful,
along with my favourite part of the match, some really well work kendo stick
shots making Sandow look incredibly vicious in the process. Sheamus eventually
picked up the win after a Brogue Kick whilst Sandow was perched on two chairs,
how this hurt more than a regular Brogue Kick I don’t know and it was a bizarre
finish for me. Where these two go from here, I haven’t got a clue!
The World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank
competitors were also announced on Smackdown. In rare appearance from Mr.
McMahon on Smackdown, he came to ask Teddy Long how he was going to compete
with the All-Stars match. Long made the match out of what he called up and
comers, including Dean Ambrose, Jack Swagger, Fandango, Antonio Cesaro, Damien
Sandow, Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett in the contest. I can’t argue with any of
those being included in the match, they’ve featured prominently on television
over the last few months and could all be capable of making a good ladder
match. It was interesting to see Teddy mention Booker T, it would seem they are
going to run I program between the two, something I have no desire in seeing.
Ryback was also in action this week against former Nexus
stablemate Justin Gabriel. For me, this match was the surprise of the night. I
expected Ryback to walk in throw Gabriel around and pick up an easy win,
however Justin Gabriel actually got a fair amount of offence in on Ryback, with
the match revolving around Ryback sustaining an injury to the knee. Ryback’s
only real offense in the match was the finish, seeing him catch Gabriel and hit
Shellshock after a surprising amount of struggle. For such a short match, this
was an entertaining contest and hopefully Gabriel gets some credit for it.
After the match, Ryback’s Money in the Bank opponent Chris Jericho came out and
got the crowd to chant “CRYBACK” in some entertaining work from Jericho before
storming the ring to go to toe to toe with the Human Wrecking Ball. Jericho got
the better of Ryback putting him in the Walls of Jericho before he escaped. It’s
an intriguing new way to present Ryback and an intresting twist on the monster
heel gimmick. Will it work? I’m not too sure.
Miz TV returned to WWE with Paul Heyman as the guest. The
Miz tried to get answers from Heyman about CM Punk and Brock Lesnar, but Heyman
brought out Curtis Axel instead. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it many times
again, The Miz doesn’t work as a face, well not in this current guise and
mentioning Curtis Axel’s Dad, Mr. Perfect, made me wish Axel would punch Miz
square in the face. It might have been okay if Perfect was still alive, but to
bringing up someone’s dead father is not going to make me like you anymore.
Luckily my prayers were answered when The Miz went for his catchphrase and Axel
hit him with what looked like a new neckbreaker finishing move, it looked
impressive and hopefully this is what Axel will be using going forward.
There was also diva’s action pitting champion AJ Lee against
Natalya. Before the match got started Kaitlyn came out and in a reverse of this
weeks Raw, she was dressed as AJ. It was nice to have Kaitlyn get one over on
AJ here, and this is probably the first time we’ve seen Kaitlyn really step up
with some good mic work and tons of personality. The content might have been
slightly lame but at least it was well delivered. Natalya ended up picking up a
roll up victory after AJ was distracted by a skipping Kaitlyn. Surely, Natalya
deserves a title shot after beat the Champion?
Finally...
What have we learnt from Smackdown this week?
1. Dolph Ziggler more than has the ability to get over as a face.
2. We have no clue where Kane/Bryan/Orton are heading but it's great to be surprised whilst watching WWE again.
3. The Irish love beer, potatoes and green kendo sticks.
World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Wade Barrett vs. Jack Swagger vs. Fandango vs. Antonio Cesaro vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Damien Sandow vs. Dean Ambrose
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