WWE Smackdown is in Baltimore, Maryland this week. Baltimore has hosted some big WWE events recently. They hosted Extreme Rules 2010, the Power to the People RAW show in 2011, and TLC 2011. At the start of the show, Daniel Bryan vs. Kane is announced. A heel vs. heel match? That’s rare. Smackdown also announces Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler. I think that will be their third televised match this month not including tag team matches. Teddy Long’s music plays. I’m not sure why Teddy is on Smackdown. John Laurinaitis was fired on RAW last Monday, but Teddy Long has not been named the new General Manager of Smackdown and he was John Laurinaitis’s employee so technically he no longer has a job in the WWE. Teddy says to the crowd that John Laurinaitis has been fired. Does RAW not air on TV in Baltimore? I’m sure almost everyone in the arena already knew that Johnny was fired. Teddy says the General Manager tonight is Mick Foley and Teddy is interrupted by Big Show’s music.
Big Show enters the ring and says he doesn’t care about John Laurinaitis. Big Show only cares about himself. Big Show says John Cena needed help to defeat him at No Way Out and says that he would crush John Cena in a fair, one-on-one match. Big Show says he doesn’t care about John Cena anymore and he’s throwing his hat into the Money in the Bank match. He talks about winning the match and becoming WWE Champion. Big Show says he will be the WWE Champion as long as he wants to be. Why do heels always say that? I remember Mark Henry saying that he would never lose the World Heavyweight Championship title when he won it last year. After Big Show’s promo, Brodus Clay comes out. Brodus and Big Show fight in the ring and David Otunga attacks Brodus from behind. Big Show slowly attacks Brodus and it sounds like the fans are chanting, “You can’t wrestle”. I’m not sure if they are directly that chant towards Big Show or David Otunga. Probably Big Show, but Otunga also can’t wrestle. Big Show hits Brodus with the WMD and knocks him out. Otunga gets in the ring and starts talking trash to Brodus while Brodus is unconscious. Brodus Clay’s music starts playing and Otunga does his version of the Funkasaurus Dance.
Ryback is next. I think this is the first time Ryback is in the first match of the night on Smackdown.
Ryback vs. Frank Venezia and Jared Wachtler
Ryback won this match and Ryback did the Carrying Two Men at the Same Time finishing move again. That move has a name now and it is called Shell Shocked. I’m disappointed that this wasn’t a three-on-one match. I was hoping Ryback was done with the two-on-one matches.
Winner: Ryback
Rating: No Rating (NR)
Backstage, Mick Foley talks to Yoshi. Vickie Guerrero joins the conversation and makes a racist comment. Vickie tells Foley that she is running RAW and Smackdown next week. Foley says he has a perfect candidate to be Vickie’s assistant next week and The Great Khali enters the scene. The Great Khali and Foley start dancing.
Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio
I wonder if this is the first televised Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio match since Christian defeated Alberto Del Rio in a ladder match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Extreme Rules 2011. Alberto Del Rio won this match after Christian tapped out to the cross armbreaker. This was a good match. I wasn’t enjoying the match very much in the beginning, but the last few minutes of the match were fun to watch. I was impressed by Alberto Del Rio. I thought Christian would be doing all of the good spots, but Del Rio executed several impressive moves during the match.
Winner: Alberto Del Rio
Rating: ***
After the match, Cody Rhodes enters the ring and attacks Christian.
Smackdown shows a promo video that focuses on the Kane-Daniel Bryan-CM Punk-AJ storyline. Good video. That’s my favorite storyline in the WWE right now.
Daniel Bryan vs. Kane
AJ was the timekeeper during this match. Kane won this match with a chokeslam. Right before the chokeslam, Daniel Bryan had Kane in the Yes Lock and AJ rang the bell while Kane was reaching for the rope. Daniel Bryan thought he won, but the referee explained to Daniel Bryan that the match wasn’t over yet because Kane didn’t tap. That gave Kane a chance to recover and helped him win the match. I liked this match, but I would have liked it as much as the Christian vs. Del Rio match if the finish was cleaner. I’m not surprised that something AJ did helped Daniel Bryan lose the match, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed seeing this match have a controversial finish. It seems like it has been awhile since Kane has had a clean win or loss.
Winner: Kane
Rating: **3/4
Mick Foley is introduced to the ring. What has Foley done so far tonight? Am I supposed to assume he booked tonight’s matches? A weak Foley chant starts after Foley’s music stops. Foley gets a cheap pop after he says that he is “right here in Baltimore, Maryland”. Heath Slater comes out. Slater says he was embarrassed by Cyndi Lauper and Roddy Piper on RAW last Monday. Foley says Slater’s opponent tonight may give Slater something to be embarrassed about and Zack Ryder’s music plays.
Zack Ryder vs. Heath Slater
Ryder won this match with the Rough Ryder. This was a quick match that was less than two minutes long.
Winner: Zack Ryder
Rating: *1/4
Backstage, Damien Sandow talks to Foley and Ryder. Sandow refuses to shake Foley’s hand and calls Ryder “the world’s leading miscreant”.
The Primetime Players vs. The Usos
The Primetime Players won this match after AW distracted the referee. I thought it was a boring match. It was just an ordinary Smackdown tag team match.
Winners: The Primetime Players
Rating: *3/4
Backstage, AW and the Primetime Players are celebrating their win. They walk right into Primo, Epico, and Rosa. Primo calls AW a backstabber and punches AW in the face. The two teams brawl and the fight is broken up by WWE referees. Rosa was yelling and screaming while they were fighting.
Santino comes out to the ring. Santino wants the cameraman to show the best signs in the crowd. One of the fans made an “I Love Santino” sign and Santino invited the plant…I mean female “fan” into the ring. She was dressed just like Santino. She had the Santino shirt and even had a cobra. Santino’s Cobra kissed her cobra and then she kissed Santino. I’m surprised that segment made it on the show. It should have been a dark segment because it wasn’t very enjoyable. At least it was short.
Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler
I noticed a guy in the front row dressed like Ric Flair during this match. He had the robe and the blond hair. Sheamus won this match with the Brogue Kick. There were a lot of good spots during the match. I enjoyed this match and I liked it more than the match they had on Smackdown earlier this month.
Winner: Sheamus
Rating: ***1/4
Matches to Watch: Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio, Daniel Bryan vs. Kane, Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler
Matches to Skip: Ryback vs. Frank Venezia and Jared Wachtler, Zack Ryder vs. Heath Slater, The Primetime Players vs. The Usos
Best Superstar of Smackdown: Dolph Ziggler
Ziggler is this week’s Best Superstar. He didn’t get the win, but Ziggler had some great spots during the main event match. Without Ziggler, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the match as much as I did. I’m hoping Ziggler doesn’t get another title shot at Money in the Bank because I would love to see him in one of the Money in the Bank ladder matches. Ziggler didn’t participate in a Money in the Bank match last year.
Best Moment of Smackdown: The Primo/Epico and Primetime Players brawl
I enjoyed watching Primo and Epico and the Primetime Players fight each other backstage. Primo’s punch to AW’s face was awesome. Hopefully this leads to a match at next week’s Smackdown because I am now interested in this feud.
This week was a good Smackdown. I would have liked to see more Mick Foley, but there were three good matches and that doesn’t happen every week. The Divas got ignored again so I think Divas will only be appearing on Smackdown once a month to promote their Pay-Per-View match. I hope next week Smackdown starts announcing who will be in the Smackdown Money in the Bank match. It seems like Big Show is already in the match. Or was he talking about the RAW match because he was referring to the WWE Championship? It will be interesting to see what Vickie Guerrero does as the General Manager next week. It has been a long time since Vickie was the General Manager of Smackdown.
I would love to see more of Foley as well. The divas I am not missing on TV. Decent amount of wrestling on this show.
Vickie should be interesting next week, I love her heel role as GM. She gets an incredible reaction every week.
I just want to see Ryback in a feud and stop squashing people.
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I wonder if Vickie will give Ziggler a WWE Championship match on RAW and a WHC match on Smackdown.
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That would be interesting. Abusive power.
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She’d be crazy not to do it. She is always saying that Ziggler should be champion and stuff like that. She should book those matches and make herself the referee…lol.
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haha. Just thinking, if she wanted to be permanent GM, she would try to not abuse her power.
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true
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I want a Ryback/30 jobber Battle Royal on the 1000th RAW!
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I want Brodus Clay vs. Ryback. Who would win that match?
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IDK tbh. Like it would be hard to make that match realistic. Ryback vs. a good heel McIntyre would be good, once he gains credibility back.
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Clay and Ryback as a team? Just call them “You’re Funked”.
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I would love to see El Ziggerino as the winner of one of the MITB matches.
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What a drudgery. The show not your review.
I found watching a baseball game, I knew my team would lose, more interesting than SD. It shouldn’t feel like a chore watching wrestling, but it is with SD. The repetitiveness, the lack of a point/story to any “feud” is killing me.
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Well you watching the baseball and knowing your team is not gonna win yet you continue to watch it is pride, we’re all like that with our favorite teams. You feel it can be a chore to watch it is just your loyalty, as you once said, you’re hooked on it (wrestling). That’s the same with me and it’s why I look at it from a positive perspective, even if it’s god damn awful and bland as rise cakes. http://wrestlingrambles.com/2011/07/07/bland-as-rise-cakes-a-character-crisis/ Interesting to compare that column to now.
The biggest problem with Smackdown is by missing it, you’re not missing much. You’re completely unfocused to what is going on as it’s uninteresting. ALL the focus and prospect is on Raw. Yet I still like watching it as I know it’s bound to get better. At the moment Impact is better than SD and I’m hoping for the sake of everything it will continue that way, because WWE needs competition, even if it’s TNA and SD going at it for ratings. Like TNA will have to start competing some time and will have to outgrow SD first. If TNA start to get better ratings than SD, wrestlers outside TNA will take the brand more seriously and could even attract bigger starpower. I know TNA likely will never outgrow WWE but some sort of competition is needed.
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I almost get the feeling that SD is a “build up” show.
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Smackdown needs another big star that only appears on Smackdown. I think moving Chris Jericho to Smackdown would help. Maybe they can have Triple H be a permanent Smackdown GM. Get more big names on the show. Sheamus is okay but he’s not someone that should be the face of an entire show. I wonder if Smackdown would be different right now if Orton was on the show.
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Yeah, Sheamus isn’t at that level yet. He needs more time to become an established top guy.
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If this was baseball, he’d be a good #2 starter but not the ace of the staff.
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Good analogy!
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