PWInsiderXTRA - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

LOOKING AT THE GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THIS WEEK'S WWE SMACKDOWN

SMACKDOWN - 11/05/2012
What this show needs to accomplish?
•Two more Smackdown episodes left before Over the Limit and hopefully WWE is in full promotion mode. I will say I think they’ve done a better post Elimination Chamber of promoting their pay per views and hopefully that continues with this one even though the card isn’t as strong
•Cody Rhodes and Daniel Bryan both took unnecessary pinfall loses last week. I hope WWE has something better in mind for both this week especially Bryan who will be competing for the WWE title at the next pay per view
•Randy Orton and Chris Jericho enter the Smackdown World Title match. I said last week that I wanted to see an Orton-Jericho match and I got it except that they added it to Sheamus-Del Rio. I don’t like the move, but WWE has gone that route and so I expect that the match will be the focus of the show this week
•New Character Development. After some mediocre vignettes, Damien Sandow’s debut was something different and I was pleased with it. I was also impressed with Ryback’s continued development and the backstage skit they did with Teddy Long, Aksana and Antonio Cesaro was also amusing. I’m interested to see what happens with all these characters this week and hopefully D. Young and Titus are back on the show as well
Show Breakdown

1. I like that the show stared promoting the fatal four way and the World Title program going into Over the Limit.

2. Pleasant surprise to see Chris Jericho working Smackdown to help build the fatal four way for Over the Limit. I hope CM Punk does Smackdown as well to build the match with Bryan this week and/or next week.

3. I like that Cole is calling attention as to why Del Rio isn’t happy because he went from a one on one title match to a four way. I also like Cole mentioning why Del Rio didn’t bring a car, but he mentioned the town! I thought it was a Vince McMahon cardinal rule not to mention a town if it wasn’t a big city!

4. I like the tension they are building between Orton and Sheamus. They could build that up to a nice face vs face match at Summerslam if they play their cards right.

5. I was just about to type that I really wish they played up on Orton and Jericho’s history and then Cole mentioned it. I guess that means they are acknowledging it, but it’s likely not going to be used to tell this story. Perhaps if they break off into a singles program following OTL they can leverage it a bit more.

6. I like that cop out finish to help build the World Title match further. I am not sure why Eve is tweeting on a taped show that two individual matches of Sheamus-Jericho and Orton-Del Rio will be taking place. I did go to Eve’s twitter and confirm that they did indeed have her tweet that.

7. I like the squashing of Kaitlyn by AJ. It continues down the mean streak path that AJ has kept up. Kaitlyn might as well join the future endeavored list, because she doesn’t fit in with modern day WWE. On NXT she did show some charisma and presence when she had the opportunity and from what I gather that show wasn’t as micromanaged and over scripted as Raw and Smackdown are. On Smackdown with scripted verbiage, she just doesn’t do as well having to say someone else’s words.

8. Bryan and AJ continue to deliver when they are in segments together. Bryan saying he was going after AJ’s best friend was just an awesome heel move. AJ’s reaction to Bryan saying he was going to move on with Kaitlyn was tremendous. All that being said I’m pretty sure Vince McMahon doesn’t know how to tell the story of AJ and Bryan getting back together so this will all lead to the predictable outcome of AJ snapping on Bryan. If I had faith in WWE Creative to pull this off without hurting Bryan’s character I’d be fine with it, but I don’t have confidence they can tell that story without really doing a number on Bryan.

9. Again I’m not sure why WWE is mentioning Show’s age. If Laurinaitis was on Smackdown why did Eve have to tweet out to announce the Jericho-Sheamus and Del Rio-Orton matches?

10. I am somewhat interested in the story of Laurinaitis picking on Big Show, but I have to question if John is involved with too many characters right now. The heel GM thing really may have worn out its welcome.

11. I really like the slow build WWE is giving to Ryback and having him evolve from jobbers to the lower tier WWE Superstars.

12. Wow Alex Riley not even an intro. There are alot of guys on this show that might end up on the future endeavored list.

13. As I mentioned last week, Aksana is starting to grow on me as a heel paired with Cesaro. I am also warming up to Cesaro’s entrance music and I like the matching red jackets.

14. Another guy in Teddy Long who is being bullied by Laurinaitis. I think I’m officially done with the Teddy character.

15. I usually don’t watch these Make a wish commercials, because I don’t like to see WWE portraying their heels as regular nice people, but this one managed to be mostly about John Cena and it was a really good one. John really appears to be a great guy outside the ring.

16. WWE is really trying to cram alot in this show. Alberto Del Rio is already in the ring when we come back from commercial and Orton’s in the ring posing on the rope.

17. Another cop out finish, WWE doesn’t want to do too many of these on one show. I do like Del Rio taking Orton out after the match.

18. I hear Cole mention in passing that Truth and Kofi will defend the tag titles at OTL against Ziggler and Swagger. I trust that will be a good match, but I’d prefer WWE give these matches a graphic so we have a visual for it instead of Cole just mentioning it. Commentary can sometimes go in one ear and out the other.

19. The video package for Laurinaitis and Cena did nothing for me. It’s very rare that a video package doesn’t make me feel more interested in a match. I do like that WWE has announced two things for Raw, although both are talking segments in Big Show having to apologize to Laurinaitis and a face to face with Cena and Laurinaitis. Is Laurinaitis a ratings draw I’m unaware of?

20. Of course Ryder gets the no entrance. Everything about Santino and Ryder bothers me, because it’s the symbol of WWE Creative. We created Santino, we didn’t create Ryder. Ryder got over; we killed it and instead pushed our guy that we manufactured.

21. Naturally Ryder takes the loss. I continue to like the team of Titus and D. Young. Titus’s is oozing charisma.

22. Dig the promo post match. D. Young definitely doesn’t have the charisma of Titus, but they have great chemistry.

23. Fine follow up promo to Sandow refusing to do battle last week. I’m not sure he’ll maintain interest, but will see.

24. Why would WWE have Cole be the one to get up and dance as babyface Brodus comes out? Shouldn’t that be Booker’s role? Weird.

25. Hunico is going to explain to us what Hunico means, I think I can explain to Hunico what it means when we hear his theme music.

26. Brodus wins and Hunico joins the ranks of Heath Slater. Likely being squashed by Ryback next week.

27. Nice to see a recap of the Lesnar-Triple H storyline and keeping Brock relevant without having him appear. I like that they showed basically the entire Paul Heyman promo again. I wasn’t as high on the promo as others, but it was still solid and Heyman being involved with this storyline can only be a positive. Triple H appears next week on Raw and so that’s three talking segments WWE is promoting for next week’s go home show.

28. Jericho has Sheamus in the Walls and Booker says “There’s no way Sheamus is going to be able to get to that rope, he’s going to tap”...Why does Vince McMahon still produce his announcers this way? When I was ten in 1990 I knew that meant the babyface was going to get out of the move. It’s such passé thinking, nobody falls for it! Not even kids. If you ever watch one of the Taker-Michaels matches and Michaels hits sweet chin music on Undertaker and Michael Cole immediately screams “Streaks over, Streaks over”, well thanks for taking a bit of the drama away from that near fall. Alright rant over.

29. The 4th cop out finish to cap off Smackdown as Del Rio attacks Sheamus. Orton makes the save and I guess it all works to tell the story leading into Over the Limit. I like that they are creating tension between Orton and Sheamus and Jericho and Del Rio. Every man for themselves.