Smackdown starts off this week with Johnny Ace in the ring, with the Smackdown roster also surrounding the ring. He talked about the chaos that happened on raw which involved The Miz and R-Truth getting fired by Triple H. He says he now believes that triple H now has control of things. He then introduces the new World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry out to the ring. They shake hands and Johnny walks to the back. He says it’s taken him 15 years to get to the top of the mountain and it will take another 15 for the title to be taken from him. He singled out Ezekiel Jackson and Teddy Long about not believing in him, but they believe now. He is then interrupted by the WWE COO. Before he can even speak, he’s interrupted by Christian. He says on behalf of himself, the SD roster and the WWE Universe, he thinks HHH is doing a great job as COO. Christian says that he’s a leader, and that the rest of the SD roster looks up to him. But to be the leader, he needs to be World Heavyweight Champion. Because he deserves one more match, After Hell in a Cell when Henry ‘Chokes’ against Orton, he’ll embarrass and beat Randy Orton to become a 3 time World Heavyweight Champion. HHH says that’s pretty good. He thanks the superstars for coming out the ring. He then tells him that he appreciates him stepping up as the leader of the SD locker room. He gives Christian the opportunity to lead by example tonight. He will compete in a lumberjack match against Mark Henry for the World Heavyweight Title.

I’ll get this out of the way just now so I can lay out the match results one after the other. Between the matches, Christian asks several superstars including The Great Khali, Ezekiel Jackson and Sheamus to help him out tonight. They all seem to agree, but never actually say that. One of the best parts was when Christian handed Sheamus a potato. Irish people do love their totties. He takes a bite out of it and spits it out. “This isn’t from Ireland. This is from Monaco”. I think he said Monaco anyway. I thought the segment with Sheamus and Christian was well done. Pretty funny. Better than the dross we usually get from backstage promos.

Match #1: Sheamus d. Heath Slater.

I loved this match! You know why? Because I HATE Heath Slater! It was pretty much a squash match, with Heath filling the role that suits him perfectly: Being a Jobber. He got a couple of hits in, but the match was over in mere minutes after Sheamus nailed him with the Brogue Kick. I love that move. Such a devastating finisher. I prefer it to the High Cross. Sheamus is also my choice of superstar that will be the next World Heavyweight Champion.

Match #2: Wade Barrett d. Justin Gabriel.

They never had a lot of time but it could have potentially been a very good match if given the right amount of time. Barrett seems to work better with smaller competitors, so I have a feeling that longer matches between them could be sneaky good. Gabriel hit a nice suicide flip to take Barrett out on the outside before hitting a Lionsault inside the ring. Hey Chris Jericho, how you doing. Gabriel went for the 450 splash but was caught with a big boot on the apron. Barrett hit Wasteland for 3. As competitors, I’m a fan of both of these guys. Both have great potential. I hope to see both of them pushed soon. It would be nice to see Tyson Kidd turn face and team with Gabriel to build up the tag team division. That could be exciting. It’s just an idea.

Orton was interviewed backstage. He says “like the song says: Hell aint a bad place to be (Nice AC/DC reference), especially when you bring back the World Heavyweight Championship”. he says that when he comes back from hell, he’ll be the World Champion again.

Match #3: Divas of Doom d. The Chickbusters.

It was a squash divas tag team match. I would say AJ and Kaitlyn are better than Kelly Kelly and Eve, so why are the two best divas in WWE, Natalya and Beth Phoenix, squashing them when they are booked to lose to K2 and Eve on raw? Makes no sense. I’d actually say Kaitlyn is worse than K2 and Eve, but she is hotter, haha, and AJ is awesome. Or at least, that’s what I can see in her future. She’s paying her dues right now, hence the squash matches against Beth Phoenix and Natalya. Beth won this match by pinning AJ following a Glam Slam.

Match #4: WWE Intercontinental Champion Cody Rhodes d. Randy Orton via DQ.

These two have had a number of matches over the last few weeks. I’m honestly not a fan of that booking. I’d rather they saved these matches for a feud later on down the road. It wasn’t as good as their previous matches. Cody took his mask off and hit Orton with it while the ref was distracted. It was only to be a 2 count, though. Orton was able to take the mask off his face again and hit Cody with it this time, causing a DQ. He literally beat the shit out of Cody with the mask. It cut to a break after that, They edited out when Randy beat Cody to a pulp and left him laying on the outside in a pool of his own blood, so that’s obviously too graphic for PG TV. Randy is losing at Hell in a Cell. I don’t see the point of Mark Henry winning the WHC only to lose it 2 weeks lagter. Then again, Christian only had it for 2 days. That was dumb booking. I can honestly say that I’m going with Mark Henry on this one, though. Cody will likely continue his feud with Ted. Cody is ready to Main Event. I say let Ted take the strap from him. Ted should have a long reign as IC Champion while Cody competes in the World Title picture.

Match #5: The Great Khali d. Jinder Mahal.

Squash match. Here was me thinking Mahal had a bright future. That won’t be the case, as Khali Punjabi Plunged his ass straight to jobber hell. Mahal will likely be sent to FCW again to brush up on his ring skills. It’s the only thing i can think of that they would do with him.

Match #6: Sin Cara d. Daniel Bryan.

It was Mistico under the mask this week. He’s been out for a few months, so I expected to see some botched moves. And I did. He’s still a better worker than Hunico by a long shot. Look up Mistico’s CMLL stuff. The guy is fucking awesome. He just needs to adjust fully to the WWE style of wrestling. Then he’ll be fine. Why he wasn’t assigned to FCW is beyond me. What did they expect? For him to have perfect matches against guys with completely different styles of wrestling and have no idea how Mistico works around the ring. I wonder what genius thought of that? *Darts eyes to Vince McMahon*. Anyway, the match wasn’t a disaster. It was good for what it was. Sin Cara went to the top rope when the fake Sin Cara cam out and knocked him off while the ref was checking on Bryan. He climbed up top and pinned Bryan following a senton bomb. I can’t wait for Hunico and Mistico to have a match together. It just means that anyone who doubts Mistico’s abilities, will be put to shame when he works circles around Hunico.

Match #7: WWE Tag Team Champions Air Boom d. The Uso’s.

Pretty good tag team match for being short. I like both of these teams. I’m not a Kofi fan, but I’ve been loving his pairing with Bourne. They make a great team. The Uso’s are also a great tag team. The match came to an end when Evan hit Air Bourne after Kofi hit TIP.  A match on PPV for the tag titles between these teams would be good if they got at least 10 minutes. HIAC is 8 days away. I hope they make it happen.

Match #8: World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry d. Christian.

Wasn’t a very good match. Not surprising. You can’t have a good match with Henry. It’s actually impossible. Not even Kurt Angle could pull a good match out of him back in 2006. Props to Christian for putting Henry over big time. He basically let Henry squash him, but he still kept his credibility as a top star in his defeat, if that makes sense to anyone. It’s one of those rare abilities a wrestler can have. Christian has it, Jericho has it, Daniel Bryan has it and Mysterio has it. They can make anyone look as good as they possibly can be. Christian headed to the back after he had enough but Sheamus came out and through him into the ring. Henry finished him with the WSS. Henry celebrated his win as Orton came out and battled it out with Henry in the ring. He sent Henry out of the ring with a dropkick, which surprised Henry, as SD goes off the air.

I don’t know why, but I loved the atmosphere of this Smackdown. It felt like a good show. It felt better than it actually was. It was an average show with short matches, so there wasn’t a lot of wrestling going on. It should be about quality, not quantity. I don’t expect Orton to win at HIAC, but he could surprise me. Christian should face Sheamus at HIAC too. They are too good to leave off of PPV events. Give them 15 minutes and we’re looking at match of the night. If you want to see best match of this week, look up Tyson Kidd vs Ted DiBiase on Superstars. That should also have been on PPV. Those guys delivered! This week, SD gets a 5 out of 10.