Saturday, July 23, 2011

WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Smackdown Review 7/22/11 (Plus CM Punk/Comic Con rant)

What is up wrestling fans, I am the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at WWE Smackdown on 7/22/11. I thought after MITB that this week's show had enough going in to make it interesting. So, how was the show and was it better than Impact Wrestling? Well, let's kill the suspense and say it was automatically better than TNA, but let's find out how the show did and start the review.

We open up the show with Randy Orton sitting down on a chair in the middle of the ring. He says the WWE is upside down because the WWE Championship is no more and how Triple H is now in charge, but he doesn't care because he only cares about dealing with Christian. Captain Charisma comes out and gloats about the fact he is the champ. He says it's Orton's fault because he can't control his anger and knew the rules prior to the match. He also says he didn't mean to spit in Orton's face and claims justice was served at MITB. Orton dives into his insult bag and realizes the only thing left for him to say is to get in the ring and fight. Man, Orton couldn't be more cliche if he tried. Anyway, Orton tries to attack Christian, but referees separate both guys and Teddy Long shows up. Orton says he wants his rematch tonight, but Long says Orton already signed up for a Street Fight with Kane tonight, but does insure him he will get his rematch at a later date. Orton is walking away, but still manages to sneak a sucker punch on Christian and officials separate them. Christian gets angry about the attack and the fact Long isn't doing anything to punish Orton. Long greets Christian with a match against Ezekiel Jackson, which is up next. Overall, a pretty traditional opening. It establishes everything to anyone who doesn't use the internet or didn't watch MITB. Well, I guess we should at least give WWE some credit since Christian's world title reign has already gone twice as long as the first time. It's amazing how generic Orton is on the mic, but the fans cheer as if the President is giving the promo. Once again, I am convinced Orton can say anything on the mic and fans will go apes***.

Match #1: Christian vs Ezekiel Jackson
This match is about what you expected when your dealing with the man of a million power slams. Zeke was trying to put away Christian, but Christian would fight back and eventually outsmart Zeke and sneaks a Killswitch for the win. A pretty skippable match and the booking made sense. Does anyone else think Zeke is actually getting over with the crowd? I just don't sense people really getting pumped when he arrives and he typically gets the basic face pop. I guess all of that personality got buried underneath all that muscle.

Winner via pinfall: Christian

We are in the ring where Michael Cole is about to interview Daniel Bryan. Cole talks about how Bryan's MITB win was a fluke and how he is a nerd while Bryan says he doesn't care about Cole's opinion. Cole would say Bryan will be a terrible world champion because he will use the MITB like everyone else and cash it in on a weaken champion while Bryan counters by saying Cole didn't deserve a WM match (he actually has a point here, plus it was Danielson's match that got bumped at WM so he has even more of a reason to be bitter). Danielson says he EARNED the briefcase and says he will cash in the MITB at WM 28. He then goes into a speech in how he has had injury upon injury in his career but kept going because being a world champion in the WWE was his dream. Cole is giving this look as if he is going to be sick. Heath Slater interrupts and says Bryan will be the first guy to fail at become world champion with the MITB and says he is a loser. There match is about to get underway, but let's discuss this scene first. I wouldn't make too much out of Danielson's purposal of cashing in the MITB at next year's WM. I mean, it could happen, but I guess I will believe it when we are closer to the date. Danielson was getting more pop this week than he has in a while. I would like to see the WWE really utilize Danielson and really push him to the top and prove they know what they are doing in having him hold the MITB briefcase. I know Danielson is talented enough for a world title, but his win was a surprise and I just don't want to see his MITB cash in too soon or else it could turn into another Jack Swagger. I am sure the WWE will do their homework and make sure that by the time Danielson is about to cash in MITB, he will be over, people will really be behind him, and he is ready for the belt since I don't think he is ready for it yet. I would really like to see Danielson cut more promos and change his entrace music. He really can cut a promo when you give him a little more free range, so hopefully this will happen more often. Either way, it will be interesting to see what they do with Danielson moving forward. Oh, and I am aware Danielson made an error by saying he was the first MITB winner to announce the date he would cash in the briefcase. RVD was actually the first, but I understand what they are trying to do here.

Match #2: Daniel Bryan vs Heath Slater
News flash, Bryan is now #1 in Booker T's Fave Five. Alert the media. Tell the world. Everyone must know......NOW!!! Anyway, this was a pretty good match. The finish comes when Bryan locks in the Guillotine Chokehold for the submission win. They really should let Bryan use other submission holds to win matches to really push how he is a technical wrestler.

Winner via submission: Daniel Bryan

Backstage interview with Mark Henry. He claims the destruction will never end and claims he is all powerful....by the power of Greyskull. I know this sounds odd, but seeing Henry in a world title match might be on the way and I actually might care about it. Then again, with the RKO of Doom walking around, not sure how that will go on Henry's end. WWE also aired a detailed video on Vince McMahon being "fired" and Triple H now taking over. If you want my thoughts on that, please check out my Raw review from this past week. I didn't want to spend too much time on this angle since it is mainly on Raw, but I figured I can at least address something that happened during the week. At a WWE panel in Comic Con, Triple H would get interrupted by a "unsuspected" guest...

The worked shoot that is so good that it is now being advertised outside WWE television and being shown around the world. Again, this pretty much shows that Punk has in fact signed a new deal and is just taking a break for the sake of the storyline and because he needs a rest. I like the little confrontation between Punk and the Game. Possible match between the two on the way? I personally would like to see it, but its still a longshot. I almost wonder if they will go further with this? Will more confrontations happen like this like at a football game or something? I think it makes it kinda fun. Again, even though wrestling is scripted, this is still entertaining and really fun to watch. Plus, it doesn't seem too phony because Punk is a good enough of an actor to where he is making it look natural and it almost gives a sense of realism to the storyline, but in a good and entertaining way. Again, this is why WWE worked shoots are more convincing and fun than the one on TNA. The audience was clearly having fun with the whole thing, so that helps as well. Anyway, those are my quick thoughts on the Punk/Comic Con deal since I think some of you were wondering what I thought about that.

Match #3: Wade Barrett vs Sheamus
It was reported that Sin Cara has an injured back and will be out for at least 4 weeks. That is at least what WWE is saying in regards to kayfabe. In reality, Sin got hit with a 30 day suspension for failing a performance enhancer test. Something about this just seems odd for some reason and have to wonder how things will go for Sin when he comes back. Oh, and I am aware of the dirt sheets reporting that WWE doesn't want to bring back Sin. I don't believe that, but I can see the IWC buying it because it was reported over the internet. And as you all know, anything reported over the internet is automatically right, duh? Anyway, Cole is making fun of people who get their GEDs. I understand he is a character and his character is a verbal bully, but that was a little much considering I actually know people going for their GEDs and such and its insulting taking cheap shots at people like that. Barrett is now out of Booker's Fave Five in case you were keeping track at home. It was kinda odd to see WWE have two heel vs heel matches in two straight tapings. The finish comes when both guys are fighting at ringside and they both get counted out. Not really sure what they are doing with this possible rivalry. It could be WWE seeing which one the crowd likes more and then turn them face, but who knows. After the double countout, Sheamus hits the Brogue Kick to stand tall. The crowd enjoyed this match a lot more than I hoped for since they are both bad guys. Hopefully that means people care about both guys to a degree.

Double Countout

A backstage Kane interview in which he is using the eerie music and saying how he hates feeling like a human and wants to be a monster again. Go watch TNA Impact, cuz I pretty sure that show will make you enraged to become a monster.

Match #4: Randy Orton vs Kane in a Street Fight
This was the main event for the evening. This match was also pretty long as it went around 20-30 minutes. See, when WWE has to fill out the time, they show longer wrestling matches. When TNA needs to fill out the time, they air stupid stuff that makes no sense. As you would have guessed, these two fought around the arena floor, near the announcers booth and brought in chairs, steel steps, and a kendo stick. I wasn't too sure how well this match would turn out, but I was actually quite surprised. This wasn't too bad of a match. The finish comes when Randy RKOs Kane onto a steel chair and wins the match. I know people get a little ticked off with Orton winning all the time, but he had to win to keep his stock up while Kane loosing actually makes sense because of his current storyline of becoming more human and disliking it. After the match, Kane and Orton would shake hands while Orton leaves. Very strange on Kane's part, but I guess it keeps up with his "becoming more human than a monster" storyline. Henry would show up and destroy Kane. He hits WSS and would put a chair on Kane's leg and would do the second rope body slam. The show ends with Henry standing tall while Kane is screaming in pain. So, they continue to buildup Henry's reign of terror as he continues to take out everyone. It might really be something if this current Henry push actually leads to him getting the world title. This is probably the first time in a long time that I am actually interested in what Henry does, and THAT is really saying something.

Winner via pinfall: Randy Orton

Overall Impression:
I thought this was a pretty fun episode of SD. They did pad out the time a bit with the main event eating up almost 1/4 of the show. Characters like Cody Rhodes, Johnny Curtis, and Jinder Mahal didn't appear this week, so it will be interesting to see what they will be doing come next week. Still, they addressed the major storyline's for SD, which was the Christian/Orton deal, Danielson winning MITB, and Henry. This wasn't a mind blowing show and there was flaws, but this really comes off as good wrestling show when you compare it to the show that claims Wrestling Matters. I felt SD was good enough to keep you coming back to see what happens on next week's show. I am also surprised that Christian didn't address himself as the "only" world champion in WWE considering that Punk is "out" of the company, but no matter. Ok, time to rank the shows. In terms of wrestling quality, I will rank it to SD, Raw, and Impact. Raw had a pretty decent series of matches involving the WWE Championship tournament while SD had better quality matches. Impact, you featured more KO stuff this week, so that is a fail....and a paddlin. In terms of promos/segments, it goes Raw, SD, and Impact. Raw had Vince and Triple H confront each other while SD did ok promo wise. TNA, again with the KOs....that's another paddlin. MVP of the Week? Hmm....I am going to give it to WWE Creative Team or just WWE in general. I realize that is cheating since I should give it to a wrestler or one person, but this is my show and I can do whatever the hell I want with it. By giving it to WWE creative team, big ups go to Punk, Vince, Triple H, and John Cena for this amazing storyline and how well its coming off on television. TNA failed at entertaining you, so you better believe that's a paddlin. Anyway, that's going to do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Always, tell me what you thought of my review and tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.

No comments:

Post a Comment