WWE Smackdown is at the Roanoke Civic Center in Roanoke, Virginia this week. Roanoke is a small U.S. city with a population of less than 100,000 people. Smackdown started with a tag team match.
Sheamus and Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho and Alberto Del Rio
This match lasted only five minutes because the referee ended the match early after the match got out of control with all four men in the ring. Michael Cole mentioned during this match that Randy Orton took Chris Jericho out of action a couple of years ago. He was referring to Orton punting Jericho on RAW on September 27, 2010. After that punt, Jericho missed the rest of the year and all of 2011. I hope Jericho reminds Orton of that and they start a feud. It’s not too late.
Winners: No winners (double disqualification)
Rating: *1/4
After the match, Michael Cole says Eve tweeted that two new matches for Smackdown tonight are Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus vs. Jericho. I checked Eve’s Twitter account and Eve did tweet that during the Smackdown telecast. But Smackdown was taped on Tuesday so how did Michael Cole know that? I’m confused.
AJ vs. Kaitlyn
AJ knocks Kaitlyn down and starts punching her immediately after the bell rings. Less than a minute later, AJ hits Kaitlyn with a running knee and wins the match. I actually wish this match had more time. The beginning of the match was similar to the start of the Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena match at Extreme Rules. This match was a lot more entertaining than when the divas try to have a technical wrestling match. I enjoyed seeing AJ fight Kaitlyn instead of trying to wrestle her. The WWE should definitely add AJ vs. Kaitlyn to the Over The Limit Pay Per View because I think it could be an entertaining match.
Winner: AJ
Rating: NR (No Rating)
After the match, Daniel Bryan enters the ring. Daniel Bryan says he is impressed that AJ was ruthless. Daniel Bryan says he is looking forward to moving on…to Kaitlyn. Daniel Bryan starts smiling and AJ leaves the ring. I like this AJ and Daniel Bryan storyline. It’s the best storyline on Smackdown right now in my opinion.
Daniel Bryan vs. Big Show
Daniel Bryan put Big Show in the Yes Lock and the bell rang before Big Show tapped. John Laurinaitis appears by the ring bell and says that Daniel Bryan is the winner by submission.
Winner: Big Show
Rating: *
After the match, John Laurinaitis tells Big Show to apologize to him on RAW next week for making fun of Johnny’s voice. Johnny seemed to tease that Big Show would be fired if he does not give a sincere apology to Johnny.
Heath Slater vs. Ryback
For the second week in a row, Ryback’s opponent was a jobber on the WWE roster. The competition for Ryback is a little bit better, but Ryback is still easily winning and he won this match quickly like he does every week. I’m waiting for Ryback to face someone who might be able to last more than two minutes with Ryback. Has anyone lasted more than two minutes with Ryback? I don’t think so.
Winner: Ryback
Rating: NR
Alex Riley vs. Antonio Cesaro
This match was quick, but I enjoyed this match. Antonio won after hitting his finishing move that is known as the Gotch Style Neutralizer.
Winner: Antonio Cesaro
Rating: **1/2
After the match, Aksana tells Teddy Long that she and Teddy were just friends. Aksana and Antonio are lovers and they make out in front of Teddy.
Randy Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio
Randy Orton won this match via disqualification after Ricardo interfered. Ricardo tried to attack Orton by jumping off the top rope and Orton hit him with the RKO. This was an okay match, but I didn’t enjoy it very much. I might have liked it more without the cheap finish.
Winner: Randy Orton
Rating: *3/4
After the match, Del Rio injures Orton’s left arm.
R-Truth vs. Jack Swagger
R-Truth won this match by hitting Jack Swagger with the Little Jimmy. This was an average Smackdown match.
Winner: R-Truth
Rating: *1/2
Santino and Zack Ryder vs. Titus O’Neil and Darren Young
This was an entertaining match. The team of Titus and Darren won after Darren hit Zack Ryder with an elbow drop off the top rope.
Winners: Titus O’Neil and Darren Young
Rating: **1/4
Backstage, Matt Striker is interviewing Damien Sandow. Damien talks about enlightenment like he does every week.
Brodus Clay vs. Hunico
Brodus squashed Hunico and won this match. It’s not a good thing when I enjoy the ring entrance more than the match and the “Somebody Call My Mama” ring entrance is now starting to get boring. I would love to see Brodus Clay vs. Ryback. That would be a very interesting and unpredictable match.
Winner: Brodus Clay
Rating: NR
Chris Jericho vs. Sheamus
This match ended early after Alberto Del Rio attacked Chris Jericho outside of the ring. Del Rio then attacked Sheamus, but he attacked Jericho first so Jericho was the winner of the match. This match was good, but I would have liked to see a longer match.
Winner: Chris Jericho
Rating: **
After the match, Randy Orton enters the ring and hits Del Rio with an RKO. Then Sheamus hit Del Rio with a Brogue Kick. Sheamus and Orton stare at each other to end Smackdown.
Matches to Watch: Alex Riley vs. Antonio Cesaro, Santino and Zack Ryder vs. Titus O’Neil and Darren Young, AJ vs. Kaitlyn, Chris Jericho vs. Sheamus
Matches to Skip: Brodus Clay vs. Hunico, R-Truth vs. Jack Swagger, Ryback vs. Heath Slater, Sheamus and Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho and Alberto Del Rio, Daniel Bryan vs. Big Show, Randy Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio
Best Superstar of Smackdown: Antonio Cesaro
Both of Antonio’s matches on Smackdown have been very impressive. I would love to see him face CM Punk or Daniel Bryan.
Best Moment of Smackdown: AJ beating up Kaitlyn
The AJ-Kaitlyn match was too short to be considered a great match, but I liked AJ’s aggressive offense. The divas don’t have many storylines and the AJ-Kaitlyn storyline is starting to become interesting. A Kaitlyn vs. AJ Pay-Per-View match would be a divas PPV match I would actually want to see.
I wonder if Smackdown set a record this week. Has there ever been a Smackdown that had ten matches? WrestleMania doesn’t usually have ten matches and WrestleMania is two hours longer than Smackdown! Ten matches sounds interesting, but I think it was a bad idea because almost all of the matches were very short. I think there were only two in-ring promos and both of them were very short. I guess it’s good to have a lot of wrestling on a wrestling show, but six of the matches were either squashes or had a DQ finish. And that’s not including the Big Show-Daniel Bryan match that had a screwjob finish. So out of the ten matches, only three of them had a clean finish and didn’t end in less than two minutes. That’s not good. Hopefully, this will be the last time Smackdown has that many matches during a two hour show. That’s not the right way to try to give TV time to everyone on the roster.
Here’s how I want to see the whole DB/AJ/Kaitlyn angle go down.
Kaitlyn sees DB in the back and starts to seduce him. This drives AJ even more insane. One day, AJ snaps and attacks DB. DB fights her off and while AJ has her back turned, Kaitlyn comes in and is about to attack AJ from behind, when all of the sudden, she hugs AJ and they both go nuts on DB. After they are done with him, they look at each other, grin, then make out very…very…slowly. Then I show up and join in as the camera fades to black. The End.
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I’m looking forward to the day when you can rate a Ryback match! lol
10 matches is a lot, like you said, most were pretty short. I’d rather see 3 decent matches and 2 squash matches rather than 10 with only 1 maybe 2 worth watching.
@Capt – DB seems to be dominant over women, he was over AJ anyway. I don’t think him being seduced by Kaitlyn is what his character resembles with. Like he’s an asshole, Kaitlyn will probably get turned on by him and will turn heel just to get back at AJ for getting slapped in the face 2-3 times.
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As long as it ends with AJ and Kaitlyn making out, I don’t care. Priorities, man!
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lmao, I’d watch it.
Kaitlyn could be that hardcore dominant chick while AJ is that ‘cute’ innocent lesbian, lmao.
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No lesbians, just bi, so I can get involved.
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I remember Raw having that many matches back in the attitude era.
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It was an ok show. Too many matches. Disappointed that Orton/Del Rio and Sheamus/Jericho did not have finishes. The best part of the show was Bryan said he was moving on to Kaitlyn, lol.
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Actually fuck that, the best part of the show was when I found out Over The Limit is on Sky Sports 1. Thank you Sky.
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I haven’t decided if I want to see OTL. There’s only one match I really care about, but that match could be MOTY.
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Back to not watching this week, sounds like a pretty status quo show anyway.
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This is the worst Smackdown review ever. You need to read Andrew Johnson’s review, it’s a million times better. I bet your parents wish you were dead.
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Andrew Johnson, well he’s good but not nearly as good as Tony.
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Awesome…thanks Ray. I don’t give a shit about Andrew Johnson. It seems every time I left a comment after one of his columns, he deleted it. I don’t know what I did to make him hate me so much. I don’t really want to be compared to him…I don’t care if his reviews are better or worse than mine. That’s not my main concern when I’m writing these reviews.
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Oh and that was the worst Smackdown ever so I’m not surprised you feel that way.
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