LOOKING AT THE GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR LAST NIGHT'S SMACKDOWN
By Revin Samuel on 5/5/2012 10:10 AM
SMACKDOWN - 04/05/2012
What this show needs to accomplish?
•The first Smackdown post Extreme Rules and hopefully WWE goes hard into Over the Limit hype. They already announced two matches on Raw and let’s hope that momentum carries over to Smackdown
•Cody Rhodes regained the IC Title, but was treated like a joke in the process. Hopefully WWE gets him back on track tonight
•Damien Sandow debuts. The vignettes didn’t really hit home so hopefully his in arena debut is as impactful as it can be
•Daniel Bryan lost the World Title match and now is the #1 contender for the WWE Title. I don’t really care for the logic, but it should make for a great match. I trust WWE will find an easy way to transition Bryan to Punk and Sheamus on to his next challenger
Show Breakdown
- Looks like Josh Mathews is back and the first thing we hear about is Brock Lesnar’s attack on Triple H and John Laurinaitis attack on John Cena. I like that they are emphasizing those as important and it’s cross promoting the shows, which is always a smart strategy. It is more crucial than ever that WWE handle Brock Lesnar with care after they beat him in his first match. As for Cena and Ace, that’s a match on the pay per view!
- Thank God Sheamus was able to do a promo without having any bad humor that he can’t pull off. Note to WWE no more stories of Ireland and Arses.
- I love how Sheamus and the announcers are emphasizing the great performance Bryan put on at Extreme Rules. It’s important because Bryan is challenging for the WWE title on the next pay per view.
- Well as Alberto Del Rio promised last week it looks like he is indeed going to be the next challenger for Sheamus.
- WWE seems to have a hard on lately for these injury angles where they do a backstage skit where the trainer is looking over the guy in the back. I guess it makes sense since this is pro wrestling and there should be injury angles.
- “Many people say it was only a matter of time for this team of Kofi and R-Truth” – Michael Cole. Really? I didn’t realize this team had been around fighting their way up the ranks for the last few months.
- I’m not sure I care either way for this AW storyline, but at least they took the storyline somewhere and actually gave him some clients.
- Looks like AW, Rosa, Primo and Epico are paying tribute to NXT with the chairs on the stage.
- Truth, Kofi-Hunico and Camacho started off pretty boring, but was definitely a fun one by the end.
- I’m not sure why they are always tweaking the Brodus act. I don’t see a need to introduce the girls before they come out. Thank the lord that they took Swoggle away from this act.
- I have this perverse need to see a dance off between Brodus, Cameron and Naomi against Vickie, Dolph and Jack; I’m shocked they haven’t done it yet that seems right up the ally of WWE and the motto of ‘we put smiles on peoples faces’.
- Ziggler taking a ridiculous bump as the Jack Swagger corner man in a throwaway match with Brodus Clay. He deserves so much better so does Swagger for that matter.
- The one kid dancing with Brodus post match seemed like he was amazed by Naomi, I don’t blame him.
- As they are showing this replay of what happened on Raw between Cena and Laurinaitis, I’m reminded of John Cena going back to one of the traits that made him a miserable character to watch and that’s bad humor. The Laurinaitis beat down of Cena was a pretty good one though. WWE seems to have gotten one thing right with Cena lately and that is he is taking more beat downs and selling more so he isn’t coming off as Super Man.
- They need to change Lord Tensai’s gear; the big gut isn’t doing him any favors.
- I’m not sure I’d have Eve dressing down Bryan and Del Rio
- As Damien Sandow comes out, I am having flashbacks to Triple H’s original blue blood character in WWE.
- Poor Bateman, not even an entrance. I thought he showed some real charisma and talent on NXT.
- WWE Creative writing more long overly scripted monologues that being said I am actually a fan of this debut. It was something different and works with the character Sandow is portraying.
- I like some of the intensity Ryback shows and the Mortal Kombat style “Finish Him” at the end. He’s starting to grow on me. As for Derrick Bateman, I saw something in him, I guess WWE doesn’t right now.
- Cody Rhodes and Kane seems like a weird team
- Well I said WWE needs to get Cody back on track tonight and right away they are talking about the fluke way he regained the title and what Show did to him after the match. Of course Show is all smiles not caring at all that he lost the title.
- Orton has been treading water for the last few months. If Jericho is sticking around I wouldn’t mind if they went to a Jericho-Orton program since Orton is the one who originally punted Jericho out of the WWE in his last run and it would make for quality in ring action!
- Fun, long match between Show/Randy-Cody/Kane however the wrong person took the loss. Cody needn’t be put in this position time and time again and needs to be put in a new program with someone more his size that WWE will give him more respect with.
- WOW! Michael Cole just did something amazing, he promoted WWE live events this weekend noting that Big Show would be getting his rematches this weekend against Cody. I take that as a sign that this program is done and that Cody can move on, but I’ve thought that before and they went right back to it.
- Natalya, the Derrick Bateman of the Divas Division with the no entrance.
- Natalya is so great, it’s a shame WWE doesn’t use her properly.
- Pretty solid for a divas match and no surprise when it involves Natalya and someone she can carry in Ms. Layla.
- I must say I chuckled at that backstage skit with Teddy having to rub oil on Antonio Cesaro and finally the character of Aksana works for me!
- Loving the new AJ character and I really hope they pair her back up with Bryan again in the coming weeks.
- Great video package on the Lesnar beat down of Triple H.
- Good to see they announced Del Rio and Sheamus for Over the Limit. I don’t advocate triple threat matches, but I’m hoping Christian returns and is added to this match.
- Alberto not saying much on commentary.
- Good match with Sheamus and Bryan. I don’t like sacrificing Bryan like this when he will be challenging for the WWE Title at the next pay per view. The logic is all backwards, but what else is new in WWE land.
What this show accomplished?
The Good
•Good wrestling. Some quality in ring action this week between the tag matches, divas matches and Sheamus-Bryan match
•Sheamus-Del Rio announced for Over the Limit. I only remember Michael Cole mentioning this once in passing during the main event, but I’ll assume I missed where it was more emphatically mentioned.
•Video packages hyping the Raw storylines. I liked these packages and the promotions of the two top storylines on Raw. Amazing that neither of them involve the current WWE Champion.
•New character done well. No sign of Titus and D. Young this week, but I liked the memorable debut of Damien Sandow. The Ryback squash was against a “name” so to speak and he seems to be getting more traction with the crowd. Finally I was greatly amused by Teddy having to oil up Antonio. Antonio and Aksana could be a good tandem. I’m not fully on board with Aksana, but I think she has a good shot of winning me over.
•AJ the snap show. I’m like the character turn and I’m hoping it eventually leads to her and Bryan reuniting, but I have a feeling all this hell is going to be unleashed on Bryan, which might not be the best thing for his character!
•John Laurinaitis absent from Smackdown. I like that Laurinaitis was absent from Smackdown. It’s always good to give a character a night off and it puts more intrigue on Raw and what will happen this week. I don’t want to see Eve ever become the permanent Smackdown GM. She’s good in small doses, but we know the focus WWE likes to put on this role and I’m not sure she needs that responsibility.
•Michael Cole promotes weekend live events as the place to see Big Show get his rematches. WWE should do this old school type promoting more often!
•AW finally gets some clients. I like this, although I’m not sure Primo, Epico and Rosa would be my first choice as talent to sign. Will see where it goes.
The Bad
•Only three weeks to promote Over the Limit and I didn’t see that much promotion for it on this show
•Daniel Bryan and Cody Rhodes lose. Rhodes needs to get far away from Big Show and there was no reason for Bryan to lose to Sheamus this week especially since he’ll be challenging for the WWE Championship on the next show
Overall Thoughts
• For the most part I enjoyed this show, but of course question some of the booking as per usual.
What needs to happen on next week’s show?
•With only two Smackdown’s left before Over the Limit its key that the show be in a full out blitz mode for the pay per view
•Transition Rhodes and Bryan away from Sheamus. Bryan has lost three times now to Sheamus and Rhodes has been destroyed by Big Show, I think we get the point. I realize when it comes to giants like Big Show and Kane that it’s tough to find creative ways to do things with them so perhaps WWE needs to do what they did last year with them and give them some time off to freshen up and recover.
•Randy Orton, let’s get him doing something meaningful. The first quarter of the year has been a cold start for Randy.
•Continued development of new characters (Sandown, Titus, D. Young, Antonio, Ryback) and character development (Rosa, Primo, Epico, AJ)
Feedback: revinsamuel@rogers.com
