WWE Main Event 11th September 2013 Review

This week's main event seemed like a return to form for the show, with a strong card of matches, with enough variety to keep me interested throughout the hour. Antonio Cesaro continues to leave WWE fans scratching their heads wondering why the organisation doesn't seem to notice the talent they have, with a top notch bout with Kofi Kingston, but I've chosen to focus this week's review on another match, and I'll explain why...

R-Truth 

vs. 

Big E Langston

The reason this match is in the main slot for this review, is because I was really intrigued by Big E Langston appearance on the show. We haven't seen Langston for a fair amount of time on television after Langston lost to Dolph Ziggler in the blow off match of their feud on the 20^th August edition of Smackdown, and I was half expecting for Langston to take some time off television, before returning as a face, with a couple of matches against Damien Sandow at house shows recently, pointing towards that. So I was quite surprised to see him lined up to face R-Truth here. Truth has really been struggling to hold my attention with a stale gimmick and some so-so performance.

The match itself was decent enough to keep my attention and entertain me to some degree, but really lacked any proper structure or flow which let it down. Langston looked impressive when incontrol of Truth and his signature moves such as the Big Splash he did, looked very impressive. R-Truth's offense were mainly limited to strikes, but they came at such random moments, that when Truth launched into what should have been his comeback, it didn't really have much of an impact as Langston had spent to much time on top. What could have been the big spot that helped this match, was unfortunately botched, with Truth cannon-balling over the top rope on Langston on the outside and landing awkwardly on his, this was mainly down to Langston being in the wrong position and not being able to properly catch Truth, so the fault has to lie with the big man on this one.

The finish saw R-Truth miss his Corkscrew Scissors Kick, allowing Langston to hit a clothesline, before pulling down the straps and hitting The Big Ending to pick up the pinfall victory. The finish was simple, but effective using both men's signature moves well, it's just a shame that what preceded it hadn't quite flowed so well. It makes sense to give Langston the win here, as he is someone WWE does seem to have some sort of plan for, even if they aren't quite sure what it is yet, but it does make Truth's victory over World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank holder Damien Sandow even more random and perplexing. It certainly wasn't the strongest performance I've seen from either man in a WWE ring.

So, what should WWE do with Big E Langston? I've been saying this for quite some time...turn him face! Simply do replays of what Langston did in NXT, running over heels opponents, whilst asking for a five count instead of a three count. It got him over on NXT, and I'm pretty certain it would get him over on Raw. He's certainly most comfortable as a face, and is entertain enough on the mic to really get some fan support behind him. From there give the guy a run with the United States Championship with an entertaining rivalry, with any of a number of WWE's heels, and then see how it goes. As for R-Truth, I'm struggling to see what he offers WWE in 2013, although I'm beginning to wonder if they could partner him up with someone and give him a run in the tag team division, which could be an interesting move for Truth, maybe someone like NXT's Xavier Woods could work with Truth.

Best of the Rest

Elsewhere on the show, Kofi Kingston and The Real American's Antonio Cesaro particpated in the match of the night, and arguably the best match to ever grave and episode of Main Event. Cesaro spent much of the match in control, which is a role that suits him down to the ground, as we saw in his battles with Sami Zayn from NXT. Kingston worked well fighting underneath and the two built a good foundation of solid technical wrestling, with a few highflying moves from Kingston thrown in as well. There were also a number of exciting spots that really lifted the match and got the fans to sit up and take notice, including Kingston using the steel steps in a similar spot from this week's Raw, although the cannonball certainly looked by than the forearm strike used on Monday, and of course Cesaro's extra long Giant Swing, which would seem to be becoming a regular part of his offence going forward.

The finish saw Cesaro go for a Neutralizer, with Kingston reversing in a roll up for a near fall, that saw Cesaro show off his strength once again bridging out of the pin and going for a backslide, Kingston slipped free and hit Trouble in Paradise to the pinfall victory. I thought this was a strong finish that allowed both me to continue looking good, with Cesaro bridge out of Kingston's pin being an outstanding show of strength, and Kingston's finisher happening so quickly that you could easily make a case for a rematch. It's baffling that either of these competitors has never been pushed strongly by WWE, whilst many have argued that Kingston lacks the mic skills to move past the mid card, Cesaro certainly does.

There was also tag team action on the show, with Prime Time Players taking on Heath Slater & Jinder Mahal of 3MB. Darren Young & Titus O'Neil were in control for most of the match, with O'Neil's power keeping Mahal & Slater in check in the early going. The best section of the match for me was a nice series of reversal between Young and Slater, with the two former Nexus stablemates showing a familiarity, with their section flowing nicely. The finish saw Slater break up a pinfall by O'Neil, with Young and Slater going on to battle on the outside, ending with Slater sending Young crashing hard into the announce table. With O'Neil taking out Slater with a shoulder barge, Mahal attempted a roll up for a near fall, with O'Neil escaping and finishing Mahal off with Clash of the Titus for the pinfall victory. I thought the finish had some good ideas, but a lot of it didn't flow particularly well, but it was good to see The Prime Time Players back on top after last week's defeat to The Wyatt Family.

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's Main Event.

1. Big E Langston probably still isn't ready for a big push, but seeing him in more matches on television will get him ready quickly.

2. Antonio Cesaro deserves to be higher up the card in WWE. 

3. The Tag Team Turmoil bout on Night of Champions could be a very interesting contest indeed. 

WWE Smackdown 23rd August 2013 Review

For me, one thing and one thing alone gave Smackdown a bigger feel this week and that thing is of course the WWE Championship. It's been a long time since we've seen that title and the main story running through WWE appear on Smackdown, mainly due to John Cena not working Tuesdays. But with the title now on Randy Orton, who is feuding with fellow Smackdown regular Daniel Bryan, it certainly gave you a much stronger reason to catch up with WWE's blue show.

Steel Cage Match: 

Daniel Bryan

 vs. 

Wade Barrett

Now I mentioned WWE Champion Randy Orton in my opening gambit this for this weeks Smackdown, and he appeared in the opening segment, after supposedly being invited to speak by Smackdown General Manager, after she patched up her differences with Triple H off screen. Randy Orton's promo was actually pretty good, it was clear that this wasn't a spontaneous promo, like one we'd see from CM Punk, but it was well written and delivered well by Orton. With Orton asking for the support of the fans, I thought this was good way for Orton to gain extra heat, as clearly the WWE fans aren't going to get behind Orton when he's up against the uber over Daniel Bryan. The face of the WWE idea seems to be sticking with Orton mentioning it a few times, and once Daniel Bryan interrupted it got brought up a few more times as well, it's good to see that phrase attach to the WWE Championship when usually it was simply given to Cena even when he wasn't walking around with the belt. With Bryan now in the ring, he put over John Cena, I'm not quite sure why, Cena is out for six months what is the need to put him over here? Bryan also called Orton pretty, quite a few times, before saying he wanted to kick him in the face with some nice timing. With a championship rematch being set for Night of Champions, Orton went for an RKO, only for Bryan to reverse and send Orton out of the ring with a dropkick. It was nice to see Bryan get the upperhand here, after taking such a beating on Raw.

Later on in the show, Wade Barrett went to visit Vickie Guerrero in her office. With Barrett suggesting that he would like a rematch with Bryan to make sure he didn't make it to Night of Champions. With Vickie reeling off a number of match types, including No Holds Barred and Extreme Rules, which I believe are actually the same match, she eventually settled on a Steel Cage Match, which Barrett seemed very happy with. As was I, Smackdown has a good history with Steel Cage Matches in the past with a number of classic bouts since it's inception including Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk in August 2009 and Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL in July 2004. I also expect the style of match would suit Barrett giving him another oppurtunity to show of his brawling style, whilst Bryan technically savvy would help to create a good story to build the bout around.

However when it came to the actual match, I was slightly disappointed. The bout was afforded less than ten minutes of television time and the story really wasn't strong enough to keep me interested in what was going on, when the winner was clear. Whilst there were some nice moments, like Barrett reversing Bryan's signature comeback with a Winds of Change, and Bryan smashing Barrett into the cage whilst chanting “Yes!” followed by some good kicks, which the crowd loved, there just wasn't enough stringing them together to draw me into the bout. I think this was mainly down to the length of the match, as it didn't really allow the two to explore the concept of the Steel Cage match fully or include enough potential finishes to build up the excitement as I'm sure they would have liked. The wrestling was strong throughout as expected, and I couldn't fault Bryan or Barrett's wrestling here.

Despite being disappointed by the match on the whole, the ending was very good, with Bryan stopping Barrett escaping the cage at the last minute, managing to hit a good looking Sunset Flip Powerbomb from the top rope, before picking up the pinfall victory with the same version of the Knee Trembler that won him the WWE Championship at SummerSlam. Everything about the ending worked for me, but certainly would've have been more satisfying if the match had had at least an extra five minutes to build. After the bout with Bryan celebrating, he was ambushed by Orton with an RKO to close the show with Orton holding his WWE Championship aloft. It was a good way to remind who was the face of the WWE, and having Orton end the show in control will only help to build the fan support for Daniel Bryan heading into Night of Champions and beyond.

Christian 

vs. 

World Heavyweight Champion 

Alberto Del Rio

Now, this was a rematch from SummerSlam's classic World Heavyweight Championship match, now anyone that read my Smackdown review will know how much I adored that match and it was always going to be difficult going in to be able to equal that match on Smackdown. For me there wasn't really enough build up to this match, and it got lost in the middle of the show, and was certainly overshadowed by the build to Bryan and Barrett's Steel Cage bout, similar to how it was overshadowed heading into SummerSlam. The World Heavyweight Championship has certainly lost some of it's shine over the last few years and has really struggled to find a relevant role on the card, with WWE still trying to find a way to present the belt, after both Raw and Smackdown essentially merged, that makes it feel prestigious whilst it's clear that the WWE Championship is the top title in the company.

Now, if you hadn't seen the match at SummerSlam this was actually a pretty good television contest, however if you had seen SummerSlam, you like me, were probably comparing it to the match they had on pay per view. Now, obviously a television match shouldn't be as strong as a match you're going to put on pay-per-view, it makes business sense, but it doesn't make sense to have a rematch the week after a fantastic match on pay-per-view on free TV! They could easily have built another match around bout heading into Night of Champions and given it even more time, I think WWE might have dropped the ball with that one. There were some nice spots like Christian getting pushed off the top rope to the floor, and Christian's impecable selling of Del Rio's attacks on his arm were once again a major part of the match, as well as some beautiful chain wrestling that saw Christian come out with the upperhand for a number of near falls.

The ending played on Christian's arm injury once again, with Del Rio dodging a Spear to send Christian into the ring post in one of wrestling biggest clichés, before Del Rio used a nice transition into the Cross Arm Breaker, using the top rope, before they played out the same finish they used at SummerSlam with Christian looking to fight out only for Del Rio to gain the upperhand and pick up the submission victory. The victory for Del Rio confirmed that Christian was moving back down the card once more, as the loss was basically a way to write Christian out of the World Heavyweight Championship picture. I reckon this is a real shame, and really shows WWE's stubbornness to change things up, as the Del Rio and Christian match at SummerSlam should have had a rematch on pay-per-view.

After the bout Del Rio cut a similar promo to the ones we saw at SummerSlam and one Raw, talking about how all the Latinos should follow his, as he is their leader. It was another solid promo from Del Rio, even if it was sort of going over stuff he'd already said twice this week. Del Rio was, of course, interrupted by Ricardo Rodriguez, who brought Rob Van Dam with him, and after Christian had gotten a little revenge on Del Rio with a missile dropkick, Van Dam finished off the job with a Rolling Thunder. It would definitely seem that WWE is going with Del Rio vs. RVD for Night of Champions, and whilst I'd have liked to have seen Christian get another shot, I'm sure RVD and Del Rio will put on a good match as well, if given the same amount of time. I'm also starting to like the Rodriguez and RVD partnership, Van Dam certainly works better when he doesn't have to speak with his promos usually either struggling to be serious or just looking plain goofy most of the time, this allows him to just show off his in ring skills and stay quiet.

Best of the Rest (In The World) 

In the opening contest of the night, Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel, accompanied by Paul Heyman, took on Cody Rhodes. Whilst it was only a short bout, the thing that work for me here was that I actually couldn't make my mind up who was going to win. Rhodes has been receiving a push recently with two straight victories over World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank Winner Damien Sandow (who was strangely absent from the show), whilst Axel is being positioned in a feud with CM Punk, so it really could have gone either way. Whilst the bout wasn't anything special, it flowed well and was easy to watch, with dropkicks from both men being the highlight for me as they were so well performed. The ending saw Rhodes look to be attempting a Moonsault, only for Heyman to cause a slight distraction, allowing Axel to hit the ropes and send Rhodes crashing down. Axel went on to pick up the pinfall victory with a Hangman's Facebuster. With the promo that followed it made sense for Axel to go over Rhodes, although it was a shame to see the wheels seemingly halted on Rhodes' ascent up the cards once more.

With Axel and Heyman in the ring, Heyman got the microphone and cut another good promo, talking about his emotional pain due to CM Punk no longer being the Best in the World, as well as putting Curtis Axel over strongly. Even Axel himself got in on the action, and once again showed that Heyman has been helping him with his promos, as this one was solid, as he showed a lot of intensity in putting over his own personal problems with CM Punk, before finally challenging Punk to a match on next's weeks Raw. Axel plays the overly cocky heel role well, and it works great against Punk, because the audience knows what Axel is saying isn't true. Axel has never been put in the same light as Punk, and therefore it should annoy the audience when he puts himself in the same category. The bout on Raw should be an interesting one, I would imagine that Heyman will get involved at some point and hopefully come the end of the night we'll have more of an idea how Night of Champions will be shaping up CM Punk and Curtis Axel.

Elsewhere, in a two on three handicap match Big Show and Mark Henry teamed up to take on 3MB. Henry and Show, of course, dominated most of the match against Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal, which would have been even more impressive if we hadn't seen Kane do the exact same thing on his own a few weeks ago. After a Chokeslam for McIntyre and a World's Strongest Slam for Slater, Show & Henry got the pinfall victory with Knock Out Punch from Big Show on McIntyre. It wasn't a particularly pretty bout, but it at least presented the new tag team well. With Shield members and Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns appearing on the screen, both cutting good promos about on Henry and Show being past their prime and claiming to be the future of the WWE. It sets up their suspected title match at Night of Champions well, and gives it a nice passing off the torch kind of vibe for their battle.

Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston, accompanied by Diva's Champion AJ Lee, appeared to have the blow off match for their feud on the show as well, with this probably being the best televised match between the two. It flowed a lot better than their previous bouts, with Langston controlling most of the match with numerous Ziggler fight backs and near falls, including a nice section that saw Ziggler reverse a powerbomb in a sit out facebuster for two, and nice false finish that saw Lee punch Ziggler in the face, allowing Langston to hit a vicious clothesline for just a two. For the ending they simple recycled the ending to the mixed tag team match at SummerSlam with Ziggler escaping a Big Ending to hit a Zig Zag for the victory. For the time it was given the match did well, but this rivalry never really ignited like it should have with WWE losing interest pretty quickly, hopefully Ziggler can move onto something else pretty soon.

Ryback appeared in another backstage segment, however this one didn't quite work for me. Some bloke was asking for an autograph for his kid, which Ryback agreed to, but when the Dad revealed he didn't actually know who Ryback was, because he didn't watch the show anymore, Ryback got pissed off and ripped up the autograph. It didn't work for me, because the Dad came across as the bad guy, who was troubling Ryback without even knowing who he was, and Ryback was deservedly pissed off at the situation.

Darren Young was also in action on Smackdown, accompanied by Prime Time Players partner Titus O'Neil to take on Antonio Cesaro of the Real Americans, who was accompanied by the rest of the group. It was an enjoyable match that was easy to follow, with a good comeback from Young, before the ending sequence saw Jack Swagger try to distract Young, only to get taken out by Titus O'Neil, allowing Young to take control again hitting The Gutcheck for the pinfall victory. I have to say after watching Cesaro face Sami Zayn in that fantastic Two out of Three Falls match on NXT, that this result was a little annoying. Whilst there is no doubt that Young is a terrific all rounder, I would much rather have seen him pushed because of his wrestling ability and not because of his personal life.  

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's Smackdown?

1. Bryan and Barrett could have had a great Steel Cage match, if given longer than ten minutes.

2. Christian's run in the World Heavyweight Championship picture is over, hopefully he'll get ONE...MORE...MATCH in the future.

3. The Smackdown announce team is a lot easier to listen to, than when they have Jerry Lawler join them on Raw.

WWE Main Event 14th August 2013 Review

It’s been a good few weeks since I’ve enjoyed an episode of Main Event, after a series of unimaginative or uninspiring main event contests, this week’s show returned to the pattern that had made me a fan of the show to start with. With established main eventer World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio, taking on future main eventer Cody Rhodes, there was a lot of get excited about this week.

Cody Rhodes 

vs. 

World Heavyweight Champion

 Alberto Del Rio

Going into this match there were a few things that needed to happen. Firstly, Alberto Del Rio needed to pick up the victory. After weeks of the World Heavyweight Champion coming up short against the likes of Randy Orton, Rob Van Dam and Christian, his victory over Kofi Kingston on Raw felt like a step in the right direction for the Mexican Aristocrat. Cody Rhodes also needed to have a strong, competitive outing to continue his new face run and keep him looking strong heading into his bout with Damien Sandow at this weekend’s SummerSlam.

As has been a trend during Del Rio’s matches as of late, the face got in a hell of a lot of offense in on the World Heavyweight Champion. Cody Rhodes’ move set alone is capable of getting him over as a face, as he pulled off a string of exciting and crowd pleasing moves, really putting his body on the line, the highlight for me would have to be the top rope moonsault, with Cody performs beautifully. It’s clear Cody is still getting use to his face role though, and he needs to remember to work the crowd more often to get them on his side, especially during this transition period. What little offense Del Rio was getting in however was focused on Cody’s arm as he attempted to soften it up for the Cross Arm Breaker. It was an interesting dynamic between the two and a refreshing change from your average WWE bout.

The bout built up well towards the end, with a number of reversals from both men before Cody managed to hit Cross Rhodes and it looked like he might pull of an upset victory. However, with Cody taking too long to make the cover, Del Rio ended up sending him into the second turnbuckle, before, after some struggle, locking in the Cross Armbreaker for the submission victory. In terms of an ending for the bout, I couldn’t have really asked for much more here, as it kept Cody looking super strong as he fought the Cross Armbreaker and really should have got the victory, whilst Del Rio’s underhanded tactics gave him the victory.

Personally, I think the match could have been given an extra five minutes that was given over to highlight packages of what happened on Raw. It felt like the ending with Cody too exhausted to get the cover, would have benefitted from having seen a longer match, as it was only just over ten minutes of television time. Either way, each goes into SummerSlam with a solid performance under their belts, which can only be a good thing come Sunday. With Cody currently feuding with World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank winner Damien Sandow, could we be seeing these two face off against each other with World Heavyweight Championship on the line within the next couple of months? If given enough time it’s certainly a bout I’d like to see. 

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Big E Langston was also in action on Main Event as he took on Justin Gabriel. Now this bout went a lot longer than I had expected with Gabriel getting in a surprising amount of offence in on the bigger Langston. Whilst this did make the match an enjoyable bout, with Gabriel’s quick kicks and exciting offence, I’m not sure if a quicker victory for Big E would have given him more momentum heading into his SummerSlam mixed tag team bout against Dolph Ziggler & Kaitlyn. Langston’s moveset seemed limited as he twice attempted his Big Splash (a move that is already overused in WWE), hitting it first time and missing it the second, which is strange because during his run as NXT Champion Langston was capable of having much longer matches than this one without the need to repeat moves. With Big E’s power had eventually overcame Gabriel’s speed, hitting the Big Ending for the pinfall victory, Big E was at least back on track after a disappointing saw that saw him dominated by The Great Khali.

WWE has been fairly hit and miss with Langston since bringing him up to the main roster. His matches have been few and far between, which has made it difficult for the WWE fans to really understand what he brings to the table. Personally, I don’t think he suits the heel role, and seemed much more comfortable as the top face in NXT. WWE has teased that he may turn face in the future, as it’s clear at times he is frustrated with friend Divas Champion AJ Lee. I could see Big E possibly turning face at SummerSlam, after AJ loses her cool once more. Big E could make a good opponent for Dean Ambrose over the United States Championship, if turned face, and I could see the two doing some good work together.

Elsewhere, The Usos built on their victory over The Real Americans on Raw, as they took on 3MB’s Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre, who were accompanied by Jinder Mahal. It was a solid tag team bout, with Slater and McIntyre doing a good job of working over Jimmy Uso, working quick tags, it seemed to be over pretty quickly with the hot tag being made. However, that wasn’t to be the case, as in a nice use of the numbers game, Mahal’s distraction allowed McIntyre to hit a big boot sending Jey off the apron. The action for the most part was quick and exciting, and when Jey finally made that second hot tag and took out Mahal and McIntyre on the outside with suicide dive, allowing Jimmy to hit the Superfly Splash on Slater, it felt like we’d seen some quality tag team action. We’ve seen what the Usos can do in recent weeks and months, but it was nice to see 3MB get a bit of the spotlight here, with Slater and McIntyre looking good as a pairing, personally I prefer these two to Mahal, but Mahal could work in a managerial role if they choose to push Slater & McIntyre as a duo. 

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's Main Event?

1. Cody Rhodes still has some work to do on his face character, but his in ring talent is undeniable.

2. WWE doesn't seem to know what they're doing with Big E Langston.

3. Josh Matthews is my least favourite commentator in professional wrestling today. 

WWE Smackdown 9th August 2013 Review

Smackdown this week presented two strong television bouts, one of which was a preview of a World Heavyweight Championship match booked for SummerSlam. With a special video from Brock Lesnar also debuting on the show, this was another strong edition of the WWE’s B-Show.

Christian 

vs. 

World Heavyweight Champion 

Alberto Del Rio

When this match was announced I questioned why WWE had chosen to give away this match on free television when in less than two weeks they will be expecting people to pay for it as part of the SummerSlam Pay-per-view. Considering, in terms of build up, this is the weakest bout on the card, we really should’ve have been given a reason to care this week on Smackdown. Many would argue that because this match wasn’t for the title, the incentive of purchasing SummerSlam would be the possibility of the title change, however the likelihood that their SummerSlam match will be shorter than this one with the card already looking stacked surely counteracts that.

That being said Christian and Del Rio put on a fantastic bout, with neither man holding back. This match certainly wouldn’t have looked out of place on SummerSlam, going for almost twenty minutes of television time, building up steadily, with a number of exciting spots thrown in throughout, like Del Rio regaining control of the match, after dodging Christian’s top rope dive to the outside. Christian and Del Rio are usually overlooked by wrestling fans on the most part, with both regularly putting on solid television bouts and when given pay per views contests they usually prove their worth to the company as well. A lot of top WWE wrestlers would have gone into this contest half-heartedly knowing that SummerSlam was just around the corner, and there would be some who would argue that that is the right way of going out things, but I think it’s commendable to both men continue to delivery strong bouts on Raw and Smackdown, which makes me wants to watch their matches each week.

The ending however annoyed me a little, I had expected some kind of draw or disqualification finish, which would result in an extra stipulation being added to the bout at SummerSlam, to give bring something extra to their pay-per-view battle. They seemingly had the perfect opportunity to end the bout, when both Christian and Del Rio took impressive bumps from the top rope to the arena floor, and I began to think we were going to see a double count out finish. However, this was not the case as the match continued for another five minutes afterwards, with a nice closing sequence with Christian getting several near falls on Del Rio, which really helped you get behind Captain Charisma, until the former two time World Heavyweight Champion, played possum suckering Del Rio into a small package to gain a pinfall victory. Personally, I think these last five minutes or so would’ve been best saved for SummerSlam, even if the result had been reversed, as it’s not only going to be difficult for both me to not only compete with the better built matches on the card, but also with this match they had on free television.

After the bout had finished Del Rio tried to attack Christian, only to eventually receive a Killswitch that left him lying in the centre of the ring. In an almost mirror image of the end of Raw, World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank winner Damien Sandow headed to the ring in an attempt to cash in his briefcase for a World Heavyweight Championship match with Alberto Del Rio. Luckily for Del Rio, Sandow’s former partner turned rival Cody Rhodes made the save, hitting a diving crossbody before raining in the punches, followed by Cross Rhodes to leave Sandow laying the ring with Del Rio and close the show. It’s interesting that Rhodes and Sandow have been involved with a number of the final segments on Smackdown recently, with WWE showing a lot of faith in the duo. Could it be possible that Damien Sandow could be cashing in that Money in the Bank briefcase on 18^th August at SummerSlam? 

Rob Van Dam 

vs. 

WWE Championship Money in the Bank Winner 

Randy Orton

Now, personally I had expected this match to take place at SummerSlam, with two big WWE names battling it out at the Biggest Event of the Summer, especially after last week’s World Heavyweight Championship Number One Contenders Triple Threat had seen both men come up short against Christian. The added incentive for the match being that Orton had been the one that had put an end to Rob Van Dam’s original WWE run at One Night Stand 2007. Whilst both men would be respectful towards one another, it would serve as a good reminder that Orton has a darker side to his personality, as WWE continues to build toward his heel turn somewhere down the line.

I was a little bit wary of this bout going in, as whilst both men are capable of putting on great wrestling matches, they have both fallen foul of phoning in their matches and looking like they’d rather be somewhere else as well. Luckily, Orton and Van Dam both turned up and preceded to put on another strong television bout. The face against face dynamic allowed the match to break out of the pattern that most WWE TV matches do, as both Orton and Van Dam spent periods of the match in control. Orton obviously brought his slow calculating style to preceding, with a number of headlocks, but Van Dam’s scramble-like selling made these possibly dull moments in the match come to like. Not to be outdone by Van Dam’s exciting moveset, Orton continued to up his game with a number of nicely worked spots, including a version of Orton’s signature Inverted Headlock Backbreaker, that saw Orton pick Van Dam out of the corner.

After a nice sequence that saw Van Dam reverse an RKO into the same pinning combination he used to defeat Alberto Del Rio on Raw this week for a near fall, we headed into the closing sequence of the match. Van Dam hit Rolling Thunder, before heading to the top rope, where he went on to miss a Five Star Frog Splash, allowing Randy Orton to hit an RKO and gain a pinfall victory. For me this was fitting ending to match, that built well throughout, and continued to build Orton as a future WWE Champion. When Smackdown is allowed to showcase matches like this, it should be a must watch for any WWE fan, because this really should have been on SummerSlam.

Talking of SummerSlam, both Rob Van Dam and Randy Orton are currently not scheduled to appear on the card. It does seem strange that WWE has resigned Van Dam and just over a month in to his comeback, he isn’t scheduled to appear on pay-per-view, or even in any resembling a rivalry. Whilst the card is stacked from SummerSlam anyway, Van Dam is certainly a name that if handled correctly could have added something to the card, adding him to the Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio match, especially seeing as Van Dam holds a victory over Del Rio, would have elevated not only the World Heavyweight Championship Match, which currently looks a little lost, but given Van Dam something of importance to do on the show. Whilst Orton isn’t scheduled in a match, I think it’s unlikely that we won’t see Orton at some point during the John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan match, so maybe WWE don’t want to showcase Orton on the show elsewhere to make that moment stand out even more, even if most are expecting it to happen.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Number One Contender to the WWE Championship Daniel Bryan was also in action on Smackdown this week as he faced off against Preston’s Wade Barrett. Prior to his match with Barrett, Bryan was interviewed backstage by Renee Young regarding what happened on this week’s Raw. Bryan claimed he changed his mind about the corporate makeover, when Vince McMahon ordered him to change his beard and that he would be John Cena to become the new WWE Champion at SummerSlam. It was a decent enough promo, but really didn’t reveal much that we didn’t already know. I would have preferred to see this focus more on Bryan’s opponent, Barrett, who Bryan had shaved on Raw, it wasn’t like there wasn’t anything for him to say, with Barrett and Bryan sharing a lot of history.

This bout was similar to the one we saw a 19^th July edition of Smackdown, with Barrett working over Bryan with strong strikes and power moves, until Bryan made his comeback. This match did get a little bit of extra time, which allowed the two to work a better story into the match and faux comeback from Bryan at one point. With the opening segment from Raw to work off the matches felt slightly elevated in importance, with Barrett looking to get revenge for having his beard shaved, this was, of course worked into the finish with Barrett attempting to shave Bryan’s beard, only for Bryan to block and launch in a comeback. With Bryan hitting a Diving Headbutt, before locking in the No Lock to pick up a submission victory, John Cena’s SummerSlam opponent continued to roll heading into the Biggest Show of the Summer, whilst Barrett still looks for a first win on major WWE programming since dropping the Intercontinental Champion to Curtis Axel.

Kane made an appearance on Smackdown this week, in a three on one handicap bout against 3MB. Kane dominate the contest, with Heath Slater, Ayr’s Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal making good foils for the Big Red Machine, as he threw them about the ring and ringside. The most impressive part of the bout saw Kane throw Heath Slater over the announce table, making Slater look like rag doll. After Kane picked up the pinfall victory with a Chokeslam on Drew McIntyre, Kane’s SummerSlam opponent Bray Wyatt and his family appeared on the tron. Wyatt cut terrific promo talking about the Ring of Fire Match, it was beautifully delivered with a number intricacies that a lot of WWE wrestlers seem to lack, really allowing the viewer to be pulled in by what Wyatt was saying, because there really is nothing like this going on elsewhere on WWE programming. The revelation that Wyatt is in-fact “already dead” was interesting one, whether meant to be presented as a metaphor or if WWE are attempting to create some kind of new age Undertaker is yet to be seen.

Brock Lesnar made a rare appearance on Smackdown, but of course he wasn’t in the arena, WWE wouldn’t want to waste one of the Beast’s precious dates on the B-Show. It was in the form of pre-taped promo, which had been edited well and with a number of interesting effects added. Lesnar talked about his match at SummerSlam with CM Punk, detailing that this was not just a rivalry between Punk and Paul Heyman, and that he had always disliked Punk seeing him as a joke. Once again the Punk/Heyman and Lesnar feud was given another layer with this promo, and the decision to have this promo taped and edited was a good one, as we’ve seen multiple times before Lesnar can struggle to cut promos live.

Miz TV returned to Smackdown this week, with The Miz welcoming guests Diva’s Champion AJ Lee and Big E Langston onto the show. After The Miz had successfully wound up AJ with talk of ex-boyfriends, the Divas Champion launched into another strong promo about how she had been betrayed by everyone and how she would be the Divas Champion forever. What works well for me with the AJ Lee character is that she truly believes what she is saying and you can see the logic of her speech, even if it is slightly warped. It wasn’t long before Dolph Ziggler and Kaitlyn turned up to further add to AJ’s misery, winding her up further by saying they were both “over” her. After some bickering, The Miz interrupted and as the “Host of SummerSlam” made a mixed tag team match with AJ and Langston teaming up against Ziggler and Kaitlyn. After a catfight enshewed between AJ and Kaitlyn, Langston tried to break up the fight, only to receive a Zig Zag from Ziggler. It was decent segment overall with everyone playing their part well, but this match should have been booked at least two weeks.

Elsewhere, Fandango and Kofi Kingston had a rematch of their bout from on Raw. The bout was speedy encounter in the regular four minute WWE television bout format. After some back and forth, Kingston seemed to be gaining the upperhand, heading to the top rope for a potential dive to the outside, only for Summer Rae to attempt to protect Fandango. With Kingston jumping off the top rope anyway, Rae seemed to take a spill to the floor. It turned out the be just a distraction, allowing Fandango to throw Kingston into the ring post and hit a Diving Leg Drop for the pinfall victory, in a classic example of WWE even steven booking.

Damien Sandow also debuted a brand new Money in the Bank briefcase, during an interview with Renee Young. Whilst some Sandow’s dialogue didn’t quite fit the character (“Sandowize” anyone?), the briefcase certainly does, with a seemingly embossed leather look. It’s nice to see a return to the more personalised briefcase that we used to see when the likes of Rob Van Dam and Edge held the briefcase, as brings something extra to the character rather than seeing them carry around the same briefcase as the other winners of the ladder match. However, if the whole segment with Cody Rhodes throwing Sandow’s briefcase into the Gulf of Mexico was only to give Sandow a new briefcase, I’m sure they could have come up with a quicker way of doing so.

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's Smackdown?

1. WWE should have held off on Christian vs. Del Rio until SummerSlam, they will struggle to top this week's bout and probably won't receive as much time.

2. Rob Van Dam vs. Randy Orton should probably also have been on SummerSlam.

3. WWE has no clue how to push Wade Barrett

WWE Main Event 24th July 2013 Review

This week’s Main Event was the first episode in a while that didn’t feature a top notch main event, with Sheamus and Jack Swagger not quite being able to live up to previous weeks. Main Event seems to be there to give wrestlers a chance to show what they can do when given the time and the spotlight, and this did happen elsewhere in the show with Damien Sandow, Sin Cara, Justin Gabriel and Drew McIntyre all getting more time than they would usually be afford on Raw or Smackdown, but with the Main Event of the show focusing on two wrestlers whose stars seem to be fading as of current, it didn’t feel like the show lived up to its potential this time round.

Sheamus 

vs. 

Jack Swagger with Zeb Colter

Before the match, we got another promo from Zeb Colter. Now, when these promos started I was a big fan of Colter and his character, but having him perform one before every single one of Jack Swagger and Antonio Cesaro’s match is beginning to get a little tiresome. Zeb seems to go over the same ground time and time again, and has resorted more and more to simply attempting to garner cheap heat, which is a shame for a character that showed so much promise just six months ago. I simply find myself zoning out every time Zeb begins to speak, as I’ve heard it all before, and rarely does it bring anything that is going to be particularly relevant to the match I’m about to watch.

The match in question here pitted Colter’s charge Jack Swagger, against The Celtic Warrior, Sheamus. Both were involved in losing efforts on Raw, against Daniel Bryan and Alberto Del Rio respectively, so neither could really afford another defeat here if they wanted to stay within the upper echelon of talent in WWE. Similar to Sheamus’ match with Del Rio on Raw, this bout focussed heavily on Sheamus’ injured leg, with Swagger performing a number of attacks and holds in it, including wrapping the leg around the ringpost, throughout the match. In this sense the match told a decent story, with each time Sheamus attempted a comeback his leg would let him down allowing Swagger to get back in control. However, it was stretched out to almost tedium, with the match lasting over fifteen minutes of television time, about five or six more than it actually needed.

The ending saw Sheamus fight back, as Swagger was attempting to wrap his leg around the ring post, Sheamus pulled Swagger into the post. When Swagger recovered and got back into the ring, he received a swift Brogue Kick at Sheamus picked up the victory. A solid ending to a long contest for these two, with Sheamus being the logical winner, as it seems like they have absolutely nothing for Swagger right now, and only vaguely more for Sheamus. I found this match difficult to get into, because it was pretty slow throughout, with nothing really to latch onto, whilst there was strong moments, like Swagger taking an impressive back body drop to the outside, they were few and far between in this stretched out bout.

Sheamus and Swagger both seem to be in career ruts at the moment, with neither really going anywhere. Swagger’s may be self-inflicted with his extracurricular activity certainly causing harm to his status post-Wrestlemania and I wouldn’t expect him to be moving any higher up the roster than this, at the moment. The best he can hope for is to be teamed with Antonio Cesaro for a run at the Tag Team Championship, but I’d much rather see Cesaro break out on his own, than to stuck with someone who WWE clearly is no longer high on (pardon the pun) Sheamus on the other hand is simply in the position because his character has failed to evolve and is no ultra-stale, we’ve seen these routines before, we’ve heard the Irish Jokes, Sheamus can truly go in the ring when he has the opportunity but without a believable and coherent character we won’t see him move back to former glories any time soon.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere, World Heavyweight Championship Mr. Money in the Bank Damien Sandow was in action against Justin Gabriel. Sandow also got the pre-match promo treatment, and did a pretty good job of it.  Sandow’s tone draws you in to what he has to say, even if what he has to say is insulting you, and the Money in the Bank briefcase has given him a new set of material to play with, keeping his spiel fresh. Justin Gabriel was a good opponent to have Sandow face here, as Gabriel of putting on good short matches and does a lot to help his opponent, whilst also being able to produce those high-flying moments that “Wow” a live crowd.

The match was a decent television bout with Damien Sandow getting the majority of the offence in, with Gabriel working mainly in shorts bursts of high octane action, before being grounded once again by Sandow. The action wasn’t exactly enthralling, and I’d probably say I was a little disappointed, given the time that Sandow and Gabriel were afforded the could have done a lot better, with the sections with Sandow in control being very slow and mainly involving rest holds. The end saw Gabriel miss a Stinger Splash in the corner, allowing Sandow to hit another new finishing move, a Full Nelson Slam for the pinfall victory. I’m not sure why WWE insists on give Sandow new finishing moves, we’ve seen him use a version of Matt Hardy’s Side Effect recently, when his Terminus Neckbreaker was a solid move in the first place.

The other match of the evening saw Sin Cara face off against Ayr’s Drew McIntyre, who was accompanied by 3MB teammates Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal. For a short three minutes match, this was an entertaining contest, with a number of decent spots, and Sin Cara even managed to show some personality as he mimicked Drew! Sin Cara was actually pretty crisp throughout the bout, hit his moves with a precision that has become rare during his run with WWE. Sin Cara ended up picking up the victory, with a Hurricanrana Driver, that didn’t quite look right. I know that’s how the move is supposed to look, but it looks like a botch. Either way the contest was a solid television contest with plenty to keep the attention off the viewer, whether it was the antics of 3MB, the jumping acrobatics of Sin Cara or the fact that Drew McIntyre used to be Vince McMahon’s Chosen One. 

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's Main Event?

1. WWE don't seem to have any plans for Sheamus or Jack Swagger.

2. Even Damien Sandow is capable of phoning in what should be a straight forward contest.

3. Josh Matthews reads the same facts about a wrestler in every match they are in.

WWE Main Event 17th July 2013 Review

This week saw another highly enjoyable episode of Main Event, with a featured contest that stuck to the formula that has been developed, as well as some storyline progression at the end of the show, helping to build towards a major match at this year’s Summerslam.

Christian 

vs. 

Fandango with Summer Rae

After Fandango’s impressive performance in the World Heavyweight Championship Contract Money in the Bank Ladder match, as well as a competitive contest with Randy Orton on this week’s Raw, it’s been a busy few days for the Ballroom Dancer. Christian has also been busy, taking a number of major bumps in the All Stars Money in the Bank Ladder Match, before defeating Damien Sandow on Raw. Therefore, I was intrigued to see how these two would clash together in the ring, which to my knowledge was their first bout. This also saw continuation of the formula that has been used for Main Event over the last few months, with an experienced main event player, taking on someone making their way up the WWE ranks, it’s concept that seems to be working well allowing both Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow to seemingly end up positioned higher up the card not soon after, it will interesting to see if Fandango is next in line for that kind of treatment.

The match was a good solid contest, which gave both Christian and Fandango spells in control of the action, similar to what we’ve seen on previous episodes of Main Event. Fandango looked impressive throughout, bringing a lot of speed which worked well against Christian, and his delivery was fairly crisp for the majority of the contest. However, the real revelation of this match for me was Summer Rae. Summer has become increasingly involved in Fandango’s matches as of late, becoming more than just a dancer, she distracted Christian a number of times in the match, but it was her facial expressions during this contest that really sold the match to me, showing peril when Fandango was in trouble and joy when he began to take control.

Recently, various commentators in WWE have been describing Christian as a late game player and this was certainly the case during this match, as the match built up well towards the closing moments. There were a number of false finishes, including the classic crossbody reversal from Fandango, who also went onto miss a top rope leg drop. The ending saw Christian attempt a spear only to run straight into a Fandango knee, but as Fandango went for a suplex, Christian caught him in a small package to pick up the pinfall victory. It was a good ending, that allowed Fandango to remain looking fairly strong and possibly left the door open for a return contest further down the line.

Now, will this match help Fandango move up the ranks in WWE anytime soon? If I’m honest probably not. It was decent contest, with some very watchable action, but there could have been a lot more go into it, in terms of psychology that didn’t really factor into the contest. I happen to someone who enjoys the Fandango gimmick, as a heel it works, and the Ballroom Dancer is sound in the ring and manages to make his promos fairly interesting even with the silly voice. However, I can’t really see the Fandango character fitting into the main event scene, he could easily have a lengthy run as Intercontinental Champion, but anything else, might just be beyond him. I’m going to stick my neck on the line here, and say Fandango is the Honky Tonk Man of his generation.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere, former tag team partner Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater faced off for the umpteenth time. Not that I’m complaining Gabriel and Slater always manage to string together an interesting contest, that are quickly paced and full of good action. This was once again the case with the added elements of Slater’s 3MB cohorts Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre being a ringside. The two managed to move quickly between the more serious action and comedy spots like both Gabriel and Slater performing their signature “Woo” taunts, which did slightly remove from the pace off the contest, but when performed convincingly it doesn’t really matter. The match followed a regular pattern for these two, with Slater controlling most of the match, with some high flying spots thrown in from Gabriel, before he eventually mounted his comeback.

It was surprised then when just as Gabriel was about to start his comeback, The Wyatt Family appeared on screen, before making their way down to the ring. With lights coming up on the ring, showing Luke Harper and Eric Rowan, whilst Bray Wyatt sat in his rocking chair on the ramp, Harper and Rowan took out Justin Gabriel, before turning their attention to 3MB, destroying both Mahal and McIntyre. Slater attempting to escape up the entrance ramp but was of course cut off by Bray Wyatt, before Rowan and Harper took him out as well. Wyatt finished off Slater, with a Sister Abigail in the middle of the ring. As Harper & Rowan piled up their victims, Wyatt cut another creepy promo aimed at Kane, which was much calmer and better delivered than the promo he gave on Raw last Monday. Overall, this was a good segment to close the show, and I’m never going to complain about another opportunity to see the Wyatt Family.

There was also a throwaway Divas Tag Team Match, pitting Natalya & Layla against Alicia Fox & Aksana. It wasn’t a particularly bad match, with the best of the action coming when Natalya and Alicia Fox were in the ring against each other, but I really had little reason to buy into it, as the majority of the Divas are shown so little in any segment of any meaning with their character so poorly underdeveloped that it makes it difficult for my mind not to wander onto something a little more interesting during their matches. Aksana is pretty dreadful in the ring as well, she’s been on the main roster a while now and has shown little sign of improvement, with some terrible ring positioning at points, including calling for a time out in a neutral corner. Eventually, Layla and Natalya picked up the victory after Aksana walked into a Roundhouse Kick from Layla. 

Finally...

What have I learnt from this week's Main Event? 

1. Summer Rae is becoming even more important to Fandango's act.

2. The Wyatt Family can turn up anywhere.

3. The Miz and Josh Matthews make for an awkward commentary team.

WWE Main Event 10th July 2013 Review

This week’s Main Event featured another big match in the spotlight, that allowed a lengthy match to a superstar who would not usually get it, in Antonio Cesaro, and allowed a superstar struggling to find his feet as a face get an opportunity to continue to work on the persona in Dolph Ziggler. It was a shame however that we only got two matches this week, with a number of recaps from Monday’s Raw, hurting the shows feel.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Antonio Cesaro with Zeb Colter & Jack Swagger

As of late, Dolph Ziggler has struggled to find a definitive character that suits his new face role within WWE, he has not been helped by some strange booking decision such as involving Chris Jericho in Ziggler’s feud with World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio, the cloudy situation with Ziggler and heel girlfriend Diva’s Champion AJ Lee and a duo of matches with member of 3MB. However, in Cesaro he had an opponent who is a strong heel who is also receiving a big push at the moment. Before the contest, Zeb Colter of course got on the microphone to tell us about the state of America. Zeb seems to be back on form with these pre-match talks, using a metaphor based around ladders to talk about how America has changed, calling the fans lazy, which of course never goes down well.

The match allowed Ziggler to fight from underneath, displaying his superb selling technique, whilst also displaying the power of Cesaro well, these was seen best with Cesaro holding Ziggler in a painful looking submission which stretched Ziggler and looked legitimately painful. Cesaro controlled for most of the match, with minor come backs from Ziggler throughout on for Cesaro to quash any attempt with a well placed uppercut or similar manoeuvre. With Zeb Colter shouting advice for Cesaro at ringside, the relationship between them seems to finally have clicked into place, with Colter spurring Cesaro on to be even more vicious in his attack and Swagger there for when things don’t quite end up going Cesaro’s way.

This was seen in the ending of the match, with Ziggler on another comeback taking out Jack Swagger with a drop kick, before getting hit with a thunderous uppercut from Cesaro for a near fall. Cesaro then went for a suplex attempt only for Ziggler to escape over the top and hit a Zig Zag. With Ziggler looking to have the victory in the bag, Swagger pulled him out of the ring, resulting in a Disqualification for Cesaro and giving Ziggler the win. I was intrigued by this ending as I had fully expected Ziggler to pick up a clean pinfall here, however having the match end in disqualification could suggest that WWE has major plans for Cesaro going forward. After the match, Ziggler managed to out do all three opponents, escaping Swagger’s Patriot Lock, dumping Cesaro over the top rope with a back body drop, before leap frogging Zeb Colter, which helped keep Ziggler in line with his Show Off gimmick.

I think now Ziggler has found an in ring formula as a face, fighing from underneath, using his selling ability, and making flashy hard-fought comebacks, he could become someone the WWE Universe could really get behind. However, there is still work for Ziggler to do on his character to get the fans fully on his side, and we’ll see if Ziggler can manage this on Sunday at Money in the Bank and going forward. Cesaro on the other hand also seems on the up, and hopefully WWE officials took notice of this match, as this could easily have featured on a PPV on it’s own, possibly even main evented with a good enough story going into the bout.

 Best of the Rest (In The World)

The other match on the show was a bizarre six man tag team match. It was bizarre for a number of reason, firstly the competitors chosen to take part. Okay, the face team of Tons of Funk and The Great Khali kind of makes sense to pair together, they’re all big men, who should be booked as monster but instead choose to spend their time dancing. Now when I saw 3MB head towards the ring, I automatically decided that Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal would be their opponents, which I think most people would have done. Instead they were joined by Team Rhodes Scholars who would be teaming with Heath Slater. Rhodes and Sandow did some more pre-match talking about how they are a complete unit, it’s becoming a bit too obvious what is about to happen at Money in the Bank, yes it’s always good to hear Sandow on the mic, but maybe this is too much of a good thing.

The match itself took a strange pattern with the face team controlling most of the match due to their size. Khali stayed on the apron with Tons of Funk doing the lions share of the work in the match. The heels finally got the upperhand when a confrontation broke out between 3MB’s Jinder Mahal  & Drew McIntyre and The Funkadactyls and Natalya who were all at ringside, with the distraction allowing the heels to take advantage. It wasn’t long however before Brodus Clay began to get the better of Sandow, leading Sandow to tag in Heath Slater and Team Rhodes Scholars to leave ringside. Cue Great Khali to enter the match, hitting Slater with a Brain Chop to pick up the victory for his team. All in all, this wasn’t a particularly bad match, and everyone did the best they could in the match (including Khali, who is definitely best used when being kept to a minimum), but it’s not exactly going to go down in the books as an all-time classic. For some reason it reminded me of a match you'd see on WCW Worldwide on Channel 5 back in the day.

Finally...

 

What have learned from this week's edition of Main Event?

1. Dolph Ziggler is beginning to find his feet with the face role, doing a much better job than The Miz who was on commentary.

2. Team Rhodes Scholars are going to split at Money in the Bank. If they don't I will eat my shoes.

3. Main Event doesn't need three different recaps of Raw.

WWE Smackdown 21st June 2013 Review

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.

The end came with both men hitting a number of impactful moves on the outside. Orton with a back suplex onto the barricade and Bryan hitting a diving running knee from the apron which resulted in a countout win for Daniel Bryan. It was a good ending, in terms of keeping the rivalry going, added to by the fact that Bryan refused to accept the victory, and will build up any future matches the two have, giving the final decisive winner a much more satisfying victory.

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.

After the match, Ziggler continued to attack Del Rio until the Mexican Aristocrat managed to escape through the crowd. With Ziggler distracted by Del Rio, Jericho grabbed Ziggler and the two argued until Jericho hit the Codebreaker. I’m interested by this move and have begun to wonder if Jericho is turning back heel, although I’m hoping he isn’t added specifically to this rivalry. As good as triple threat has the potential to be, I’d much rather see a satisfying conclusion to the Del Rio and Ziggler storyline in the form of a one on one match. Jericho left the ring and Del Rio re-entered, having Rodriguez hold Ziggler, before delivering a Superkick. I liked this finish, as I felt it worked well in getting Ziggler over as a sympathetic face and will hopefully get people interested in seeing him finally get one over on Del Rio sometime in the future.

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...

What have we learned from this week's Smackdown?

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.