LOOKING AT THE GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR LAST NIGHT'S WWE SMACKDOWN
By Revin Samuel on 2/22/2012 12:25 AM
SMACKDOWN – 2/21/12
What needs to be accomplished on this week’s show?
•It was good to see WWE plug Daniel Bryan vs CM Punk on Raw for tonight’s show, but still I don’t think WWE should ever do a Champion vs Champion match unless it gets tons of advance advertisement. Since they are going ahead with it, I hope they give them time to put together a nice story and a great match
•Sheamus-Daniel Bryan. They got six weeks to hype this up and I hope they continue the story of Bryan getting himself out of any and every situation. Make us want to see Sheamus kick his ass
•Limited comedy. I believe last time WWE had a live show for Smackdown was that wretched holiday show at the end of November/Beginning of December. It’s Wrestlemania season and just because it’s a live Smackdown doesn’t mean it’s time to show-off your wanna be SNL skits
•Laurinaitis-Long. I said in my Raw column that I was intrigued by this story and I hope they further this storyline tonight. Utilize the Smackdown mid card and let us slowly begin to understand their roles at Wrestlemania
•What’s next for the Big Show? We’ve heard Shaq say he’ll be at Wrestlemania and now we’ve seen Cody cost Show a title shot. Is Big Show being married to Cody or is this a short term program to build to something bigger. Hopefully we find out the next chapter on Big Show’s road to Wrestlemania.
Show Breakdown
- Interesting trivia note that Cole just mentioned to start the show that for the first time ever the two Champions survived the Elimination Chamber.
- Big Show vs Mark Henry? I’m crossing my fingers that this isn’t for the purposes of destroying Mark Henry especially after he jobbed out in five minutes on Raw.
- What a heel character Daniel Bryan is. The promo work is unbelievable.
- Interesting that the crowd starts chanting CM Punk, but Bryan has to talk right through it just like Eve on Raw who appeared to want to tell the crowd to shut up, but she also couldn’t deviate from the script. This one wasn’t as bad as Bryan isn’t being thrown off by the chants and it looks like they are building to Sheamus coming out thus probably best to talk over the Punk chants in this scenario.
- I was getting a chuckle out of Miz’s promo before Sheamus came out. I wanted to see where Miz was going with that. I would have preferred he say that after you beat Sheamus that you give me the next title shot as oppose to forming a tag team, but whatever.
- Enter Sheamus and I hate the “Great White” nickname about as much as I hate the character of Aksana.
- Good opening segment with Sheamus, Bryan and Miz. Bryan slaps and runs, which continues with the consistency of his character.
- Sheamus beats Mark Henry on Monday and The Miz on Tuesday so a good week for him! Makes sense since he’ll be challenging for the title at Wrestlemania. I wish WWE would change direction on the strategize where mid card and upper card heels job in five minute matches to up and coming babyfaces, but they don’t seem to comprehend the damage it does.
- Miz actually seemed to get more offense against Sheamus than Mark Henry and I didn’t think he was totally destroyed by that loss.
- Also Booker T continues to dig away at his own credibility by saying “I really believe this guy is a future Hall of Famer”. He used it on Wade Barrett last week and now he’s saying it for Sheamus. WWE throws around the word legend like it’s nothing; they don’t need to add Hall of Famer to that list.
- Well speaking of Aksana, she arrives on the scene and continues to be a useless character. How is she considered a babyface? I still don’t get the point of her character or these vignettes with Teddy. They can’t even do anything with it, because it’s a PG product so why do it at all? It’s the same thing every week with the play on words.
- I do like Laurinaitis and Otunga interrupting and scolding Teddy.
- Ah toilet humour, right on cue with Vince’s farting and vomit fetishes that he has going on right now.
- The John Cena promo for however annoying it was did in fact do a great job of lambasting Rock and therefore setting up some great intrigue for what Rock will say next week. Cena did a great job of building up anticipation for Rock’s response, I got to give him that much.
- I said yesterday that I didn’t like Ziggler’s new pink apparel addition to his ring attire, but I’ve changed my mind. I don’t mind that he wears it out to the ring, but don’t wrestle with it on. That gets into jean short goofiness.
- Good win for Ziggler and Swagger and they needed it especially Ziggler. The sudden pairing of Truth and Kingston and seeing Ziggler and Swagger together again makes me wonder if we are headed to some kind of tag title match at Wrestlemania. If it gets Rosa on Wrestlemania it works for me.
- Big Show knocks out Mark Henry last week. Mark Henry jobs out on Raw this week in five minutes and now they are asking the question “Will Mark Henry put Big Show in the Hall of Pain again?” Sure sounds like Mark will be getting beaten again tonight.
- I see WWE Creative was so proud of themselves for their Rocky skits at the Elimination Chamber that they needed to bring them back on Smackdown. “The spitting cobra”, “turkey”, my god.
- WWE playing up the Chris Brown-CM Punk twitter war is an interesting move, I guess its publicity.
- Great Khali on three straight shows...stop the pain.
- Why are they sacrificing Drew McIntyre like that for The Great Khali? I just don’t get it.
- That was a good, short and sweet promo from the Big Show. I like short and to the point.
- I’m glad Josh at least acknowledged that Mark Henry was reinstated, I was about to go off on that if it wasn’t addressed.
- They couldn’t let Mark Henry beat Big Show after a Cody distraction? He must really be in the dog house. It would appear they are building to a Cody-Big Show Wrestlemania match. I wonder if that means Shaq isn’t wrestling or if he’s in another match. Big Show has won his last two Wrestlemania matches, I’m not sure what beating Cody adds to his legacy, but it’s a storyline theme for Wrestlemania, I guess.
- Great video packaging recapping Triple H-Undertaker. Love the background music.
- Do we really need to see back to back nights of Ezekiel Jackson and David Otunga?
- BTW I saw that neither Del Rio nor Christian were on Raw, I guess those who bought the Elimination Chamber got that treat if neither of them show up on Smackdown tonight.
- Good to see Otunga win this match, as I would have had to harp on even-steven booking if Jackson won. Jackson does look like a total goof for losing yet again especially after the in set promo. I’d be worried about my job if I were Jackson.
- Solid promo from Punk. I like the closing line, “Tonight CM Punk teaches Daniel Bryan how to lose”.
- Cute spot with Punk mocking Bryan and the “Yes, Yes, Yes”.
- I like that Michael Cole has officially jumped on the Bryan bandwagon.
- I’m not sure I care for the Long-Laurinaitis storyline interjecting with this Punk-Bryan match, but you can’t get everything you want.
- Oh my I think they are actually building to a Teddy vs Johnny match at Wrestlemania. This must be Vince McMahon’s menu theory again.
What this show accomplished?
The Good
•Wrestling storytelling 101 in the Bryan-Sheamus program. Bryan slaps Sheamus; Sheamus tosses Bryan back in the ring when he tries to bail on his match later. I hope they address at some point in this build that they were jolted from the Wrestlemania card last year and that this is their chance to steal the show
•The comedy was kept to a minimal. WWE delivered a focus show on building the storylines and creating storylines as we head towards Wrestlemania. That being said the comedy that was on the show was horrendous (Santino, Aksana, Men’s bathroom)
•Big Show’s road to Wrestlemania. It seems the storyline is that Big Show can’t win at Wrestlemania. The storyline isn’t true, but I guess in some of his bigger matches he has not prevailed, but is beating Cody Rhodes a Wrestlemania moment to remember? I wonder if this is a short term program or if it leading to a Show-Shaq showdown.
•Punk and Bryan deliver in the ring and are you surprised?
•Dolph Ziggler gets a much needed win. One of my biggest complaints is heels losing too easily and here we got Ziggler getting a much needed victory
•Miz, Bryan and Sheamus opening segment. I really enjoyed this opening segment and would like to see more with Miz and Bryan on the same side of things. I also liked that Miz wasn’t totally squashed in the match with Sheamus
The Bad
•The treatment of Mark Henry. Why do you treat a guy you spent so much time building up like a goof all of a sudden? Are you mad at him for getting injured after he kept on working hurt to begin with? Vince continues to build up and tear down his product at the same time.
•Punk and Bryan as a backdrop to Laurinaitis and Teddy. I don’t approve and I don’t want to see a John and Teddy match at Wrestlemania. Just stop it Vince, don’t feel like you need to deliver us your “entertainment” match every year now. The fact that you’d use a Champion vs Champion match as a backdrop to this storyline is asinine beyond words and so short-sighted. The battle for power is so meaningless in 2012 and I don’t mind that it’s a storyline, but it’s a mid card storyline and should be treated as such. This should not be a majorly pushed story on the Road to Wrestlemania like Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler was last year.
•Drew McIntyre and Ezekiel Jackson. What’s the point here? You feed McIntyre to Khali? Why don’t you use someone who actually doesn’t have an upside in this role? As for Jackson, you have him cut an inset promo and then lose and he’s the babyface? Talk about sabotaging your talent. WWE in 2012...
Overall Thoughts
•Like Raw, I thought this was a pretty solid show, but there were some major stand out flaws. I’m very concerned that the Teddy-Laurinaitis storyline is going to become the Cole-Lawler of last year and I don’t want to see that overshadowing other storylines. I hope they do not use the WWE Champ or World Champ’s matches at Wrestlemania any further as a way to garner heat for the battle for power storyline
What needs to be accomplished on next week’s show?
•Mark Henry needs to be protected again next week. You did a good job with him last year so one week of television won’t ruin him, but two weeks will really start to chip away at him
•The battle for power storyline should not be the show’s theme. Both Teddy and John are good characters in minimal doses; we don’t need to see them as a central focus of a show again
•Focused hype for Smackdown’s side of Wrestlemania
Feedback: revinsamuel@rogers.com
