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GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THE 4/27 SMACKDOWN

SMACKDOWN - 27/04/2012
What needs to be accomplished on this week’s Smackdown?
•Extreme Rules hype. It’s the final chance to get some good hard sell hype in for Extreme Rules. WWE did a better than usual job of go home hype on Raw for this upcoming B show and hopefully the trend continues on Smackdown
•Bryan-Sheamus. The focus of this feud has been more about Bryan and AJ so hopefully tonight we get some centered hype on the Bryan-Sheamus match in two days for the World Title
•New Characters. WWE has alot of new acts they are trying to showcase on Smackdown in Ryback, Antonio Cesaro, Damien Sandow and Titus/Darren Young. My hope is that WWE has a focus for each of these characters and they all stand out in their own unique way. I haven’t liked what I’ve seen from Sandow so far in the vignettes. Cesaro chapter one wasn’t all that impressive. The Ryback matches are all about whether the fans will take to a jacked up monster in 2012, but WWE is doing their part.  As for Titus and Darren, I surprisingly like this duo and Titus has a ton of charisma so I look forward to seeing what’s next for them
Show Breakdown

1. Unexpected way to start Smackdown. I figured we’d hear right away that Josh isn’t on the show, but I didn’t expect them to go right to the replays of what happened and a graphic for Brock and Cena at Extreme Rules.

2. Here comes Daniel Bryan, which is more of the standard way Smackdown seems to start these days.

3. Classic heel tactics from Bryan blaming his loss at Wrestlemania on his girlfriend. Beautiful stuff!

4. I like that they showed the Raw replay from Monday of Bryan counting out Sheamus and doing it in slow motion.

5. Very good promo from Bryan focused and promoting the Extreme Rules match with Sheamus.

6. I like Del Rio coming out and foreshadowing that he’ll be next in line for a title shot. The part with Big Show and Ricardo was wasted television time.

7. Booker seems to be overreacting saying Cody should be suspended for interfering in the Show-Del Rio match.

8. Cole says “Nothing is going right for Cody” and he’s right on. This feud is doing absolutely nothing for Cody.

9. I like Eve in this role if for no other reason than we get to look at more.

10. Damien Sandow is coming next week and hopefully this character gets better flushed out on television. Right now he’s just coming across as an overly scripted character from WWE creative.

11. I also like that they replayed the Beth injury angle from Raw. She did a great job on that.

12. This is what I hate about how WWE promotes patches for pay per views. Perhaps Nikki Bella vs Beth Phoenix isn’t selling any pay per views, but at least give the match a graphic instead of just having Michael Cole mentioning it in passing during the match. Wouldn’t it have made sense to show a graphic and announce the match for Extreme Rules after you showed the replay from Raw?

13. I’ve always felt Alicia Fox has shown more in the ring than both Eve and Kelly and has more charisma than most divas, but like many of her counterparts in the female division isn’t used to her full potential.

14. I’m liking Titus and Darren more and more. Titus is flowing with charisma.

15. Well it looks like Aksana is going heel, which works for me.

16. Teddy is going from being sympathetic to pathetic if he doesn’t stand up for himself soon.

17. I guess this Teddy thing with Laurinaitis in his earpiece while he commentates is a rib on Vince McMahon always being known for yelling in his announcers ears.

18. Nice win for Titus and Darren. Good week two for them. Did Zek even get in the ring?

19. WWE decided to promote this Randy interview with Michael Cole on Raw so will see if it was worth giving a few extra days promotion to.

20. Randy says that a part of him wants to respect Kane for taking it to the extreme of going after  his family, and I like that because it stays consistent with Randy’s character who in the past went after Triple H’s family.

21. Randy’s closing line before Jinder Mahal came out is the perfect example of why scripted promos suck!

22. I guess Jinder’s purpose was to take an RKO since Cole couldn’t take one, but I think they would have been better served having Kane attack Randy from behind or something to promote their match. Why did WWE feel the need to promote this interview segment on Raw?

23. Love the video package for Punk-Jericho. It does so much more for their story than what they have actually done with their promos.

24. Aksana’s ring announcing was so bad it was good.

25. Antonio Cesaro’s ring gear is awful and the theme music isn’t any better.

26. Well Aksana makes the official turn kissing Antonio in front of Teddy. Teddy needs to grow a spine soon.

27. Very good video package on the upcoming Lesnar-Cena match.

28. I don’t understand the booking of this Khali-Cody match. Cody and Dolph Ziggler should be two of the most protected guys on the WWE roster and here Cody is jobbing to Khali as he heads into a match for the IC title on Sunday. It’s amazing yet not shocking that such stupidity can survive in WWE.

29. I’m not sure where they are going with AW. Isn’t Rosa the manager of Primo and Epico? Whatever segment. Rosa looked good and Ryback looked like a beast.

30. Booker actually did a nice job on commentary hyping Ryback.

31. Another one of my pet peeves of WWE is that they do a piece on what’s happening with AJ and then she’s wandering in the back and Striker catches her to do an interview. How fake is that? Just have Cole say “And now to Matt Striker backstage with AJ” and have the interview setup already.

32. Mark Henry has been protected in alot of his losses lately, but I don’t think he was as protected in this match. It was a loss to the World Champ, but Henry has lost a lot lately, I’d prefer they had used someone else in this roll, but it is what it is.

33. WWE really trying to get the 18 second chant going to no avail.

34. Fine ending segment of Smackdown to sell Bryan and Sheamus with Sheamus turning the tables

on the Yes chant.

What this show accomplished?
The Good
•Solid development with new acts Titus/Darren Young and Ryback. Also hoping Damien Sandow delivers in his debut next week because the vignettes have not delivered
•Aksana makes the official turn. I liked the turn and I think the character is much better suited as a villain. I also like her paired up with Antonio Cesaro
•Show was focused on hyping Bryan-Sheamus. Both the opening and closing segments were dedicated to promoting this match
•Good Extreme Rules hype. I thought the Extreme Rules hype once again was above average for a B show. The matches all got some form of promotion and the video packages were excellent as per usual
•AJ promo. I like what’s happening with AJ and the new attitude. I’m hoping it doesn’t mean she turns on Bryan, but judging by an upcoming pay per view poster that’s probably where we’re headed
The Bad
•Cody Rhodes. My god, get this man out of this program. Perhaps he and Dolph need to switch spots and hopefully the creative teams for each show will have fresh eyes and ideas for them. The clean pinfall loss to Khali was so illogical going into a title match this Sunday
•Randy Orton promo. What a waste of time. I’m not sure why they hyped this on Raw. Randy was badly scripted and the use of Jinder Mahal at the end was pointless
•Antonio Cesaro’s ring gear and theme music. Hopefully they realize this needs an overhaul in the next couple weeks
•Teddy Long stuff. It hasn’t been overwhelmingly bad, but were getting to the point where Teddy is going to need to stand up for himself. He’s turning into Zack Ryder
Overall Thoughts
•Thumbs up show only because the hype for Extreme Rules was solid. Some of the booking was head scratching, but I continue to be interested in where the Smackdown brand is going
What needs to be accomplished on next week’s Smackdown
•I can’t really say too much until we see what happens at the pay per view, but hopefully WWE does their usual good job of emphasizing the importance of what happened at the pay per view and please, please get Cody Rhodes away from the giants!