LayingTheSmackDown

Welcome to Laying The Smackdown. WWE Smackdown is in North Charleston, South Carolina this week. At the start of Smackdown, Josh Mathews reads Mr. McMahon’s written statement that said that CM Punk’s match against Ryback at the TLC Pay-Per-View has been cancelled after Punk suffered a knee injury on RAW last Monday. The written statement was posted on WWE.com. Ryback will now participate in the 6-man tag team TLC match. Ryback and Team Hell No will face The Shield. Booker T is in the ring for Smackdown’s opening segment. It looks like there will be a contract signing in the ring. Booker T announces that he has created a no contact clause for Big Show and Sheamus effective immediately. That means Big Show and Sheamus can’t touch each other until their match at TLC. Booker T introduces Big Show and Sheamus to the ring.

Booker T reveals the penalties for disobeying Booker’s no contact clause. If Sheamus disobeys the clause, he won’t have a title match at TLC and if Big Show disobeys the clause, he will be stripped of the World Heavyweight Championship. Booker asks Sheamus and Big Show to sign the no contact contract. Sheamus compares waiting to face Big Show at TLC to waiting for Christmas. Sheamus signs the contract. Big Show says he could end Sheamus’s career in the chairs match at TLC. Sheamus says their last two PPV matches were the greatest fights of Big Show’s career and Sheamus doesn’t think Big Show has another great fight left in him. Big Show gets ready to sign the contract and flips the table over onto Sheamus. Big Show quickly signs the contract so Sheamus can’t touch him. Sheamus wants to fight Big Show, but Booker tells him to calm down. Booker says he has someone Sheamus can take his frustration out on. Sheamus has a match against Alberto Del Rio. Booker tells Big Show that he will face Daniel Bryan next.

Daniel Bryan vs. Big Show

Big Show won with a chokeslam. Daniel Bryan was climbing to the top turnbuckle and he saw The Shield walking through the crowd. That distraction led to the chokeslam. Big Show controlled a lot of the match, but Daniel Bryan had taken control of the match before The Shield showed up. The time length of the match shown on TV was 6:55.

Winner: Big Show

Rating: **

After the match, The Shield attacks Daniel Bryan in the ring. Kane comes out to help Daniel Bryan, but three men from The Shield are easily able to attack Kane. The Shield puts Kane through the announce table. Wow…the announce table is destroyed and there is more than half of the show left. That sucks for Josh Mathews and JBL.

After a commercial break, Damien Sandow is in the ring. It’s week two of Sandow’s search for his apprentice. Sandow invites a “fan” in a Santino shirt to the ring. Sandow will ask him three questions. Just like last week, the first two questions are easy and the last question is very difficult. The guy can’t provide an answer for the final question and he fails the test. After the quiz, The Miz comes out. The Miz has a question for Sandow. What 21st century WWE superstar wears his daddy’s bathrobe and buys his pink trunks from Victoria’s Secret? The Miz says the answer is Damien Sandow and then he says, “You’re Welcome”.

Josh Mathews and JBL talk about the John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler ladder match for Ziggler’s Money in the Bank briefcase at TLC.

Brodus Clay and The Usos vs. 3MB (Drew McIntyre, Heath Slater, and Jinder Mahal)

Finally, Drew McIntyre is in a televised WWE match! Josh Mathews says this is Drew’s first WWE match in a few months and Drew was recovering from a broken wrist. Drew got the win for his team after hitting Jimmy Uso with the Future Shock DDT. That was a quick match. The time length of the match was 2:33.

Winners: 3MB

Rating: *1/2

In the locker room, Matt Striker interviews Wade Barrett. Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett will happen tonight on Smackdown. Striker says to Barrett that when we last saw Randy Orton, he was in the ring and The Shield came down. Barrett says Orton needs to be concerned with him and not The Shield.

Wade Barrett vs. Randy Orton

Kofi Kingston did guest commentary during this match. I just noticed that the announce table has been magically repaired like nothing happened earlier in the show. Randy Orton won this match with the RKO. While the referee was checking to see if Orton was okay, Barrett was trying to expose one of the steel turnbuckles. Kofi stopped Barrett by getting onto the ring apron and Orton hit the RKO after the distraction. JBL said you have to credit the assist to Kofi, but Barrett should have never turned his attention away from Orton. Barrett was in control during most of this match and this was a slow match. I was waiting for it to getting exciting towards the end, but that didn’t happen. The time length of the match shown on TV was 7:16.

Winner: Randy Orton

Rating: **1/4

Primo and Epico vs. Hornswoggle and The Great Khali

Hornswoggle won the match with the tadpole splash. Don’t be surprised by that sentence. The Great Khali did all of the work. The Rosa-Natalya fight outside of the ring was more entertaining than this match. The time length of the match was 2:54.

Winners: Hornswoggle and The Great Khali

Rating: *

The RAW Rebound is highlights of the lie detector test on RAW last Monday.

Smackdown shows video footage of The Shield. They explain why they attacked The Miz and Randy Orton on RAW last Monday.

After a commercial break, Antonio Cesaro cuts an anti-America promo in the ring. R-Truth interrupts Cesaro. R-Truth says when you pick a fight with America, America fights back. Cesaro says R-Truth is delusional because he has failed miserably to take Cesaro’s United States Championship. R-Truth says when Cesaro kicks his dog, he is going to kick Cesaro’s cat. R-Truth attacks Cesaro briefly and Cesaro is able to escape from the ring.

Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio

Sheamus won after Del Rio tapped out to the cloverleaf submission hold. One of the highlights of this match was Del Rio doing a moonsault. I don’t think I have ever seen Del Rio do that before. He has done a lot of moves from the top turnbuckle in the last two weeks. This wasn’t a great Smackdown main event match, but it was better than I was expecting. The time length of the match shown on TV was 9:18.

Winner: Sheamus

Rating: **3/4

After the match, Big Show enters the ring and he wants Sheamus to hit him. Big Show double dog dares Sheamus to hit him. Sheamus can’t touch him so he shoves Ricardo Rodriguez into Big Show. Sheamus found a loophole in the no contact clause. It looks like Ricardo made contact with Big Show’s crotch and Big Show’s reaction is very funny. Smackdown ends with Big Show down on the mat selling the pain.

Match to Watch: Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio

Matches to Skip: Daniel Bryan vs. Big Show, Brodus Clay and The Usos vs. 3MB, Wade Barrett vs. Randy Orton, Primo and Epico vs. Hornswoggle and The Great Khali

Best Superstar of Smackdown: Drew McIntyre

It was good to see Drew back in the ring and I am glad that he won the match. I’m hoping his stint with 3MB leads to a push.

Best Moment of Smackdown: The Shield video footage

The video footage of The Shield that was shown on Smackdown was awesome. It was not a normal WWE video interview. The Shield were interviewing themselves and had a handheld video camera. It was a short interview, but it was entertaining. I really think The Shield has the potential to be a great stable in WWE. The 6-man TLC tag team match should be fun to watch.

This wasn’t a good episode of Smackdown in my opinion. I didn’t think there were many must-see moments and I didn’t like most of the matches. Other than the Wade Barrett interview, there weren’t any backstage segments. I think I could have skipped the entire episode and not miss anything important. I think the only thing you need to know from this episode is the no contact clause and that is something you don’t really need to watch Smackdown to know about because it will most likely be mentioned on RAW this Monday. I’m disappointed with this episode, but next week should be better because it is the go-home show before the TLC PPV.

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