LOOKING AT THE GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THIS WEEK'S SMACKDOWN
By Revin Samuel on 6/2/2012 1:23 AM
SMACKDOWN - 01/06/2012 Revin Samuel
E: revinsamuel@rogers.com
What this Smackdown needs to accomplish?The Good•A pay per view you card and pay per view promotion. As far as I can see only two matches have been announced for No Way Out. We need a few more matches and some promotion for what looks like a throw away show right now and I don’t mean more focus on Cena-Show•Sin Cara returns. I can only hope this is somewhat memorable since we have a ton of new acts in the mix right now•Foresight. One of the major things chipping away at WWE right now is their lack of foresight. They job out people who shouldn’t be jobbing; they drop storylines at the drop of a hat. You want to suddenly push Dolph Ziggler? Well then push him. You want to turn Christian babyface? Let him tell us why we should cheer for him. I’d like them to become a lot more consistent in that area, but that likely involves a change at the top of the food chain so it’s probably asking for too much. Show Breakdown- Smackdown opens with a video on Kane-Punk-Bryan. Funny how the Punk and Bryan storyline finally got a video package behind it once Kane was in the mix. I see Kane as an albatross, WWE sees him as the center piece of this program.
- This opening segment was fine, but it was standard. I wish WWE would change up their formulaic approach to the product.
- Why is Sheamus the only babyface who can stand up to John Laurinaitis?
- WWE promotes that they will show us Big Show’s destruction from Raw later and I’ll be fast forwarding through that.
- Sin Cara back and back in red. Perfect timing with Orton going down on a 60 day suspension.
- Decent action with Sin Cara and a guy who formerly headlined Summerslam in Heath Slater
- The slow development of Sandow continues. The question is how long it will last.
- “That was a great choice by Del Rio” – Michael Cole. How much does Vince McMahon respect his audience when he has announcers say that? Dolph who’s been treated like a complete joke since Wrestlemania is a great choice. I guess Vince would like you not to remember how he’s been booked and only how he’s going to be booked. You’d think a man who took the industry to new heights would understand why that doesn’t work.
- Michael Cole with a “Ryback, Ryback, Ryback”, I wonder if that’s WWE not so subtle way of trying to get people to transfer the Goldberg chant into a Ryback chant.
- Fast forwarded right through the Big Show recap.
- I like that they are trying to give Brodus a coat of toughness by saying he refused to go to the hospital.
- Well Dolph loses again, but I guess the announcers were really trying to play Dolph up even in defeat. I was hoping we wouldn’t go down the road of a Swagger-Dolph feud as I don’t think either guy should be going babyface so hopefully they can do this breakup without having to do the predictable both guys want to fight each other.
- That Punk promo sounded as scripted as anything I’ve heard lately in WWE. Punk like Ryder reminds me of a guy who kind of got over on his own and thus proved WWE Creative useless and so the reigns were pulled in.
- I’m not sure why Young and Titus are losing every other week. I guess Vince is already going back and forth on them. The only positive is Ryder got a win even though Santino got the pinfall.
- At least Titus and D. Young were able to avoid the beat down that Santino and Ryder were given.
- This beat down was very similar to the Raw one, more establishing Big show as the Giant sans the entertainment part. They should go all the way with this and take away his theme music and rebrand him The Giant. A guy who is not an entertainer is named Show?
- I really liked when Daniel Bryan wasn’t even giving AJ the time of day on Raw. Interesting backstage segment, which didn’t really tell us anything, but add more intrigue as to where that triangle is going. This might be the only compelling storyline on WWE television right now.
- I always thought Christian would make a great commentator, but he seems a bit awkward here, perhaps he’s just being produced thus taking the realism away.
- A much needed win for Slotted Rhodes. Tyson Kidd is probably one of the more underappreciated guys in WWE.
- Good to see Antonio Cesaro is returning next week.
- Nothing match with Punk and Kane. The ending of this show was kind of flat for me.
What this show accomplished?The Good•Dolph and Sheamus. The match quality was good here, Dolph was protected in defeat and the announcers really tried to play up Dolph’s effort even in losing. WWE also tried to protect Brodus a bit tonight noting his toughness by refusing to go to the hospital•Ryback, Sandow and Antonio. Ryback and Sandow continue to develop nicely, although one wonders if they should have one of these guys on Raw since they are both just essentially doing squashes. I liked that they promoted the return of Antonio Cesaro for next week as well!•Christian gets mic time. He’ll need a lot more of that if he’s going to get over as a babyface and I’m not sure Christian on overproduced commentary is the way to go. I think I’d try and do a peep show with Christian and special guest Cody RhodesThe Bad•Formulaic television. I know this is what WWE pro wrestling is so I should be fine with it, but I wish they could find a way to freshen up the way they do television. The opening segment, The Punk promo, Big Show second big beat down in one week and Laurinaitis announcement of the triple threat match was all predictable and boring•Titus and D. Young lose. I have a funny feeling that these two are about to become comedy acts. The guys who talk a lot, but continue to lose that seems like the type of act that is right up the ally of The Bubble in 2012•Sin Cara, new music, new attire, but for some reason I wasn’t feeling it. I hope they throw him right into a program next week•Swagger cost Dolph the match. I’m fine with this in that in protects Dolph, but I don’t want this to lead to a Dolph-Swagger feudOverall Thoughts•This was the definition of nothing show to me. It was just there.What needs to happen next week?•Like Raw this was a better show than what we’ve seen the last few weeks, but still Smackdown needs to pick up the slack on pay per view promotion. They announced one match tonight, but I’d like to see at least five matches lined up by the end of next week. I don’t think that’s asking for much •Cody and Christian. I definitely want this match announced next week. I like the pace they are moving this storyline, but they need to put it in gear next week•Where are the divas? We haven’t seen the women in a while. I’d get the divas champion back on television next week!•Sin Cara in a storyline. We have Ryback, Sandow and Cesaro doing squashes and I don’t think we need Cara going down that road as well especially all on the same show. With Randy out of the picture, I wouldn’t mind if they went to a Dolph-Sin match, if for no other reason than to avoid Dolph vs Jack•Time to open Smackdown with a match. I am not sure how long it’s been, but I feel like it’s been five plus Smackdown episodes in a row that we’ve opened with a promo segment. FRESHEN THINGS UP!Feedback: revinsamuel@rogers.com
