What up wrestling fans, I am the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at WWE Smackdown on 8/30/11. Was SD Super or was it super crap? Well, let's find out and start the review.
Match #1: John Cena vs Wade Barrett
We open up the show with John Cena. He talks about the Super SD and calls out Alberto Del Rio. Instead of Del Rio, Ricardo Rodriguez arrives. He says in both English and Spanish Cena will have to wait until NoC to face off against Del Rio. Cena tells him to shut up and gives him a little Cena Punch. Wade Barrett arrives and says Cena is an attention whore for already establishing himself as the main star of the show and reminds him about their rivalry from last year. Nothing really out of the ordinary for the opening segment, but not very effective. I understand Cena wants confront Del Rio for NoC buildup, but if he wasn't there, why have Cena do the same thing for two straight nights? I know Del Rio is dealing with vica issues, but Rodriguez really had no purpose for this scene. All they had to do was Cena call out Del Rio, nobody arrives, Cena makes a crack in how Del Rio's a coward but he will get him next week, and then we have the match. The match was a complete joke. Wade did get some offense in, but it didn't take long for Cena to make Wade look like an idiot. Cena hits AA and wins the match in about 5 minutes or less. I wasn't too fond of this match. I felt this match should have been given more time since there was a point Wade and Cena went toe to toe, but that was completely not the case with tonight's contest and it made Wade look like a Yoshi Tatsu as opposed to a guy who is only here for money. Wade gains nothing for losing like this, especially when it was looking like Wade's character was starting to get back on track. Cena doesn't gain much for winning like this since it resorts to the common Cena formula, the Five Moves of Doom and another victory for the resident Superman of the WWE. If I were the booker, I would have made this a tag team match, given Cena another opponent to destroy, or given these guys more time. I'm not completely mad about this, but I am a little disappointed with the booking for this match. Not a good way to kick off the show with a somewhat pointless promo and a semi jobber match. I can only hope things get better after this series of events. Oh, and I have to give Ricardo some credit for keeping his composure for talking in both English and Spanish during this part since anyone could have easily screwed up. Del Rio was not present again tonight. Looks like the visa problems took a little longer to be dealt with. There was a Mark Henry interview backstage, but he said the basic stuff. Hooray for basic promos?
Winner via pinfall: John Cena
Match #2: Sin Cara vs Daniel Bryan
Bryan takes over for Sin's opponent tonight and based on what would happen after the match, this made the most sense. Bryan and Sin deliver a pretty good back and forth match. After a rough opening match, nice to see a much better wrestling match going inside the ring. The finish comes when Sin hits the Springboard Moonsault for the clean win. So, Bryan is definitely on a losing streak. I have to think this is a storyline for Bryan in which he goes on a mean streak, develops his character and possibly turns heel. Bryan is doing ok as a face, but I know Bryan shines best when he's playing the bad guy. There's always a chance Bryan won't be turning heel and it just leads to Bryan being more intense, but I have to think something is in the works with Bryan's losing. After the match, Sin shakes hands with Bryan, but immediately kicks him in the face...
This again supports my theory I made a couple of weeks back in which we see the current Sin turning heel and adding insult to the Sin Cara name. During this time, the real Sin Cara would show up and we would have a rivalry between evil Sin Cara and good Sin Cara. That is my only explanation since there really is no point in turning Sin heel since he's so over as a face and is one of those guys that is a much better face than heel. Another strange thing is I almost felt Bryan was going to turn heel on Sin right then and there, but it turned out to go the other way around. Either way, it will be interesting to see where they are going with all of this.
Winner via pinfall: Sin Cara
Match #3: Beth Phoenix and Natalya vs Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox
I don't really recall it being established Fox is now a face, but does anyone really care? To be fair, she does have a score to settle with the Divas of Doom. This match was also a joke. Divas of Doom dominate the match and win with the Glam Slam on Fox. Even though Beth and Natalya actually got to compete tonight, it still doesn't add much to the storyline since this storyline seems at a stand still. Hopefully, they figure something out for next week's show, because there's some wasted potential with this storyline. The KO storylines on TNA are better than this at the moment, and those storylines don't make any sense.
Winner via pinfall: Beth Phoenix and Natalya
Back in the ring for the Triple H/CM Punk contract signing. Punk questions the logics of a contract signing since the match is already official and wants Hunter to know nothing catches him off guard in response to Hunter taking Kevin Nash's spot in the match. Trips gets a little angry and talks about how Punk has disrespected him, his family, and the fans and has tried countless times to work with him, but doesn't know what is Punk's problem. Punk says THAT'S the Triple H he has been looking for, the Cerebral Assassin and not this COO Trips since it sucks. Punk says he loves the WWE and loves being here, but he wants to see change in the WWE so people think it's cool again. Punk vows to be the catalyst in all of this, but Trips immediately flips out. He says he's sick of Punk's speeches and he's only looking out for himself and doesn't care about anything else. Trips also adds he and Punk are a lot alike, but Hunter claims he had the balls to tell people he was taking their spot and Punk doesn't. Punk agrees that this is about him, but he's a fan of the WWE and wants to make sure this place is fun again. Punk also says the reason he takes cheap shots at Stephanie is because he was testing Trips. Punk thinks Trips is exactly like Vince with his massive ego and doesn't want change. Punk says if he has to go through Trips to get change, he will do so and tells Hunter to not fine or suspend him for kicking his ass. Punk signs the contract. Trips says he respects Vince for what he did to the business and actually takes it as a complement when Punk said he's like Vince. Hunter says the difference between Vince and him is Vince would actually take a beating from Punk because it's good for business, but that won't be the case against him because this isn't about business and it's personal. Trips also signs the contract. Nash immediately charges to the ring....or at least the closes Nash gets to running at his age. Punk wants Nash, but Trips holds him back. It looks like for a split second, Nash and Trips were working together when Nash kicked Punk in the skull, but Trips immediately tells his friend to stop, so Nash pushes Trips to the ground. The segment ends with Nash leaving the ring as Punk and Trips look on.
Another great promo by Punk. Once again, pro wrestling is staged, but Punk adds so much realism to a scene. You almost feel Punk's words are genuine, and that's how you make a worked shoot/promo work in professional wrestling. Of course, Hunter was no slouch on the mic tonight. Both guys went out there and put a lot of passion into the scene, which really made this my favorite scene of the night. I would even say this was the best moment of the night. You can almost feel the tension between Punk and Trips, which makes their encounter at NoC that much bigger. We really don't get much insight with the Punk vs the world storyline, but they added a lot of fuel for tonight and is really making NoC a PPV worth checking out. Nash showing up also leaves us with the mystery if Nash and Trips are working together and plan to screw Punk over, or if a person or two are plotting against Punk and possibly Trips. Very excellent scene to watch. See, who says pro wrestling can't be fun with just talking?
Match #4: Sheamus vs Great Khali
Very short match. Sheamus was in a uphill battle for most of the match, but he would battle back with his new Great White Face Turn Powers. It looks like Sheamus is setting up for the Brogue Kick, but Jinder Mahal interferes and the ref calls for the bell. After the match, Khali and Mahal work together to fight Sheamus. They do ok for a while, but Sheamus would take out Khali....by having Khali's hand hit the ring post? Yeah...explain to me how slapping your giant hand against a ring post makes you collapse on the floor for over 5 minutes? That has to be wrestling logic if I ever saw it. Mahal fights Sheamus for a while and end up back in the ring, but he would screw up and the scene ends with Sheamus hitting the High Cross on Mahal. A basic scene that showed what face Sheamus is capable of doing in the WWE. The fans are really taking a liking to Sheamus and this face turn has gone over very well for the Celtic Warrior. As for Khali and Mahal, I really don't care. Mahal is just plain boring. Mahal is so green that even a green Yoshi would be baffled by this. Mahal makes sand paper look interesting by comparison. Yeah, not a big fan of Mahal....DO SOMETHING!!!
Winner via DQ: Sheamus
Match #5: Randy Orton vs Christian for the WHC; Steel Cage Match
What's baffling is how Josh Matthews saying how balanced the Christian/Orton rivalry has been. Are you kidding me? This rivalry is more one sided than a fight with Godzilla. This was another great match to add to the Christian/Orton rivalry. Lots of good stuff to watch like Christian's Frog Splash and many other things. Highly recommend watching this match. The finish comes when Orton hits an RKO off the top rope and wins the match. Damn, Orton is so overpowered on this show that not even the Death Note can kill him. You really shouldn't be shocked with Orton winning this match considering the length of this rivalry. After the match, Henry arrives and takes out Orton. Orton did have some fight in him, but it wasn't enough. Henry hits a splash, bounces his skull of the cage, and hits WSS to end the assault. The show ends with Henry posing with the title. The ending here was pretty predictable as well since you had to sense Henry showing up to take out the champ to show he means business in the upcoming NoC match. Still, this is the most invested in Henry I've been in a long time since Henry was always that boring, big guy, but he really has hit his stride with this push and this is the best Henry has been in a long time. This is a reason why I agree with Henry getting a title match since I know a lot of people hate this idea. Henry is one of the most dominate figures on SD and he was due to get a world title. In fact, this Henry push has gone so well that I can actually see Henry walk away with the championship at some point. Henry might not be the popular choice for this title match, but considering how the other talents on SD aren't ready for a world title match, Henry getting this opportunity makes the most sense.
Winner via pinfall and still WHC: Randy Orton
Overall Impression:
I have mixed feelings with this super show. There was some things about it that were enjoyable, but also some moments where the show was pretty rough. The wrestling quality was only present for the Bryan/Sin and Christian/Orton matches while the rest of the matches are skippable. The show didn't get off to the most exciting start with Cena saying the typical stuff and beating Wade in about 5 minutes. What really saved this show was the contract signing between Punk and Trips. It was an excellent exchange of words and really added a lot of fuel for their match at NoC. Not a great showing of SD, but some redeeming factors about it make it at least watchable. I don't recommend watching the entire show. Really, if you watch the main event, Sin's possible heel turn, and the contract signing, then you will be plenty satisfied with tonight's events. I think one of the reason I was a little disappointed with tonight's show was it was labeled as a Super Show, so you almost expect more. If you think about it, the true Super Show was the one on Raw this past week as opposed to SD. That's at least how I feel after tonight. That's going to do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, tell me what you thought of my review and tonight's show. TNA Impact takes place outside of the Impact Zone this week, so maybe it can be good....or not, but we'll wait and see. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.
awesome review! your immense :D x
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