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GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FORTHE 6/29 SMACKDOWN

SMACKDOWN - 28/06/2012 E: revinsamuel@rogers.com
What this show needs to accomplish?
•Smackdown MITB match. WWE made the Raw MITB match with four former WWE Champions and I hope the Smackdown MITB match doesn’t do the same thing, although having a bunch of lower tier guys compete for a shot at the World Title really puts the World Title another notch below the WWE title
•Mid Card push. WWE did a nice job of pushing some lower tier characters last week with the pull a part brawl between the PTP and The Colons along with putting the spotlight on David Otunga, Brodus Clay, Ryback, Christian, Ziggler and more. I hope we see more of that this week and that the development of these characters and their storylines are driving towards Money in the Bank
•Raw 1000. WWE has done a fantastic job of pushing this show and I’m sure this is a given, but I hope it keeps up this week. For the most part I’ve loved the flashback segments as a promotional tool to build to Raw’s 1000th episode
•Sheamus-Ziggler-Del Rio. Surprise me WWE; we know Sheamus is better than Ziggler. What is the point of this match if it’s only for Sheamus to pin Ziggler again?
•Show format. I thought last week they kind of changed up the formula of the show and wouldn’t you know it, the rating went back up to a 2.0! They still had the predictable opening promo segment, but there weren’t as many squash matches and mostly every segment was dedicated to furthering a character or storyline.  I’d like to see them continue the trend of freshening up the format and hopefully very soon we can open Smackdown and/or Raw with a match instead of the standard promo!
Show Breakdown

1. A fresh start to Smackdown! As we have the commentators discussing what happened on Raw followed by igniting the show with a divas match so not only are we starting Smackdown with a match, but a women’s match. AJ opening up both shows this week; I guess she’s the new hot trend in WWE! I hope they don’t overexpose her, WWE has been known to do that!

2. Is Layla using Tiffany’s old theme song? I’ve been begging Layla to get a new theme song, and this is better than what she was using, but it wouldn’t have been my first choice.

3. Layla breaking out some new moves in this opening contest and shockingly they are giving this match some time.

4. Love the role reversal of Bryan coming down and costing AJ the match! I’ve been waiting for that to happen.

5. Very weird formatting of the show to have Bryan say he’s holding the show hostage and then back from commercial go into a Raw’s most memorable moment flashback.

6. Another great clip shown of Mike Tyson joining DX. We’ve already seen Triple H talk about his favorite moment, but he’s been a main stay of Raw for so long so I’ve got no issue with them using him again to talk about that clip.

7. That Yes off between AJ and Bryan amused me, maybe it shouldn’t have.

8. Did anyone else see this poll on wwe.com?

9. I dislike the idea of AJ as the ref between Punk and Bryan, but something tells me this triangle storyline has caught the interest of the audience so it might be the right strategy from a buy rate perspective.

10. I get frustrated just seeing Zack Ryder as he is the symbol of the insecurities and pettiness of WWE creative.

11. No surprise at Ryder losing. I think it’s too early to put Sandow in a MITB match unless the plan is for him to win. I think it would have been a smarter move to put Cesaro in especially from a match quality perspective.

12. On a side note I question how long it is before WWE creative turns Sandow into a comedy character. Sandow has a great resemblance to the Dean Douglas character for me and that screams comedy to me especially for this writing team!

13. I’m shocked WWE remembered that AJ slapped Kaitlyn twice and so Kaitlyn acknowledged that if AJ was in the divas locker room, she wouldn’t be. This is nitpicking, but they should pretend like the girls have separate locker rooms. Are they implying to us that Layla and AJ wrestled in the opening match yet get dressed in the same room?

14. Swagger-Kidd in a MITB qualifying match? These two are so far down the pecking order; I’m not sure what it does for the match standards for either of these two guys to get in.

15. This is a nice match between Kidd and Swagger and the commentators are making a great effort to put this over as the opportunity of a lifetime for one Tyson Kidd.

16. Wow Tyson Kidd in MITB! I like it for him and him being in there probably makes the match. Hopefully the reputation and brand that is MITB can overcome the stench of loser that Kidd might have on him. Let’s hope they continue to tell his story over the next couple weeks and he’s not just a placeholder participant.

17. As for Jack Swagger, WWE needs to drop the losing streak gimmick stat. Seeing him flounder, I’m reminded of Billy Gunn as Rockabilly before the New Age Outlaws and Road Dogg Jesse James coming to him on a show and saying together he smells money. I’d like to see the same thing happen with Drew McIntyre and Jack Swagger and have them try to elevate the tag division, because both men are great workers who are not being taken advantage of by WWE creative.

18. This is the third time I’ve seen the flashback clip of Austin attacking McMahon in the hospital. They must really like it.

19. WWE once again forgetting about the sports part in sports entertainment as why would Sheamus want to be in a triple threat match for his world champion? And then if these are qualifying matches for an everyman for himself, ladder match, why would they have a tag team qualifying match?

20. I love David Otunga, there’s something about his character that works for me and I like the added touch of a music switch during his entrance for his posing.

21. Good to see Christian in MITB, he is the ladder match expert! Disappointed not to see Cody get in there. Since this is entertainment and the sports aspect doesn’t matter to WWE, perhaps he’ll get a second chance next week after all he didn’t take the pinfall. I’d also love to see Otunga in there, but I think I’m probably in the minority on that one. As for Santino, I wouldn’t be shocked if he won the MITB match knowing WWE Creative’s growing erection for him.

22. I’m glad Sheamus was able to cut a relatively clean babyface promo. Every time he does an interview now I get scared that WWE creative will write him Cena comedy that he also can’t pull off.

23. Another fine backstage segment with Bryan and AJ. WWE really wants us to know what a loonytoon AJ is.

24. Not to nitpick too much, but shouldn’t these jobbers change up their promos so it’s not always talking about how two is greater than one?

25. The crowd momentum for Ryback continues to grow as the feed me more chant picks up!

26. Teddy Long is the General Manager next week and now it makes sense why this wasn’t advertised on Raw, because just like Vickie Guerrero it’s underwhelming. Live Smackdown next week and the only announced match involves The Great Khali

27. Is this Tensai’s Smackdown debut?

28. Tensai is an interesting choice for MITB and he takes care of the big guy in the World Championship, Money in the Bank match.

29. Cole has announced Cody Rhodes is filing a complaint over not taking the pinfall loss in his MITB qualifying match so hopefully that means he gets another shot next week. It taints the qualifying matches aspect of this, but “were entertainment” so who cares.

30. This is five guys in the World Title MITB match and they will have more qualifying matches next week. It will be interesting to see how many guys they go with in the Smackdown match. I’m hoping the Raw one boosts up to six with the addition of Rey and Miz.

31. Another Raw flashback? I am watching the online version Friday afternoon, because I am away this weekend so not sure if some of these will be cut on the North American version. We once again get another Triple H flashback to his return in 2002. We’ve seen the clip; we’ve seen a Triple H flashback once tonight already, switch it up. WWE has shown us three repeat clips tonight. How about getting a young guy like Kofi Kingston in there to talk about the Raw where he took out Randy Orton in MSG...of course that led to nothing, but still let’s hear from him or how about Howard Finkle or Matt Striker, two guys who are long time fans who probably have great memories of the early days. I know I put too much thought into these and the ones they show are effective even if we’ve seen them before.

32. Solid match for Sheamus, Del Rio and Ziggler. The commentators tried to emphasis Dolph had it won before being caught by the Brogue Kick and once again being pinned by Sheamus. I’ll assume this might make Del Rio the #1 contender heading into Money in the Banks since he wasn’t pinned.

What this week’s Smackdown accomplished?
The Good
•Good wrestling. The main event was great, Swagger-Kidd was a quality, short match and even the divas match was ok and it was given time.
•Smackdown begins with a match! Hallelujah and bonus points for the unique touch of opening with a divas match
•MITB participants. The addition of Tyson Kidd given the star power that is in the Raw match makes me question if the Smackdown match is being placed a level or two below the Raw match, but that being said it’s very fresh as is this the addition of Tensai and Sandow. You’ve got your comedy guy in Santino and the glue that holds it together in Christian. I’ll be interested to see who qualifies next week
•Ryback. Dude appears to be gaining alot of traction with the crowd. I can already visualize him taking on Big Show, Mark Henry or a maybe down the road a heel John Cena, but I know I’m getting way ahead of myself there. The first step is seeing him against a real challenge and seeing how he sells. The initial push however has been good and they haven’t jammed him down our throats so it appears to be working, at least for the live crowds
•AJ as special ref. I myself do not like this idea and I am sure alot of the online community hates the idea, but I like to think from a mass audience perspective and if this storyline and AJ is as over as I think it/she might be with the general public, this might be a wise idea from a business standpoint
•Bryan turns the tables on AJ. Bryan costs AJ her match by distracting her with a Yes chant going around the ring, but then like any good story, he the villain finds out she’ll be officiating his title match and he must now try to kiss up to her. It’s simple storytelling and that’s effective!
•Vickie Guerrero as GM. I thought WWE Creative handled her well this week and she got the perfect amount of television time for a GM
•Raw 1000 and MITB push. WWE once again found a good balance to multi promote Raw 1000 and MITB. We got four MITB qualifying matches and Sheamus talking about going into the pay per view as champion. Plus they increased the Raw flashback videos from two per show to four per show even though three of them were repeats, still effective! I did think the Great American Bash, live Smackdown kind of got lost in the shuffle, but they did manage to advertise one match for the show even though it involves The Great Khali
•Layla get’s a new theme! Finally!

The Bad
•Where were The Primetime Players and Primo and Epico this week? This is a lower tier feud, but these two teams had a pull apart last week and this week the storyline was left off television. Make us want to invest in these characters WWE!
•Tag team MITB qualifying match. What a dumb idea this was
•Sheamus pins Ziggler again, so what else is new?
•Swagger continues to lose. I don’t mind Swagger losing to Tyson Kidd, but I don’t want them to do the losing streak gimmick
Overall Thoughts
• A solid edition of Smackdown and I think overall WWE had their best week of television in some time. I grade the programming this week probably around a B
What needs to happen on next week’s live Smackdown?
•Lets announce the #1 contender for the World Title for MITB
•The continued development of the mid card and lower tier guys. Sandow, Kidd, Tensai got the push this week and hopefully we see this continue next week with Antonio Cesaro, Aksana and more!