WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Smackdown Review 4/6/12

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at WWE Smackdown 4/6/12. How will the blue brand look after the events of WrestleMania 28? Let's find out and start the review. 

We open the show with John Laurinaitis and David Otunga. What happened to Otunga? He came out there in what looked like a ripped up jacket. What, did he get mugged before the show? I guess someone wasn't satisfied with Otunga's lawyer services. Johnny comes out to some strange music. It sounded like something you would hear in Star Wars. Is Johnny a Stormtrooper now? He turns into a new robot every week. Who says Laurinaitis isn't unpredictable? Johnny comes out to say he will make SD better now that Teddy Long is not in control. He once again brings up the phrase, "People Power". Is that anything like Turtle Power, except with people? Anyway, Johnny calls out Teddy and offers him a job. Teddy declines the offer, but Otunga brings up Teddy's grandkids. According to kayfabe, Teddy's tenure with WWE allowed him for the company to pay for his grandkids' college tuition. Well, the contract said the SD GM has the power to veto it. Since Johnny is the GM of both shows, he gives Teddy a choice. Either take the new job, or he will take away the college money. Teddy isn't happy about the decision, so he swallows his pride and accepts, but not before Johnny embarrasses him a little more. Johnny wants Teddy to say that Johnny is a better man than him. Once Teddy feeds Johnny Five's ego, Johnny sends him to the back. Johnny announces that it will be Kane vs Randy Orton later tonight, but in a No DQ match. It will also be Otunga vs R-Truth to start the show. Well, the lawyer makes another suggestion. So, it will be Otunga and Mark Henry vs Truth. The opening was pretty decent. You kinda feel bad for Teddy since Johnny acts like a jackass towards him. There is a bit of realism with this scenario. How many of you would swallow your pride for the sake of your loved ones? Yeah, I'm sure some of you can relate to this. Of course, it's just a storyline, but let's play along. 

Match #1: David Otunga and Mark Henry vs R-Truth

The match was a joke. Henry pretty much did all the work. The finish comes when Henry hits World's Strongest Slam on Truth, but Otunga immediately wants to be tagged in. Henry goes along with it, but he was disgusted with it. While the match was in progress, AW was watching it in the back. There isn't a whole lot to say about this match. 

Winner via pinfall: David Otunga and Mark Henry

Match #2: Kane vs Randy Orton; No DQ match

This match was a lot better than their WM match. The match was mostly outside of the ring. It was pretty brutal, but it was kept to a minimum. The finish comes when Randy counters the Chokeslam and sends Kane to an exposed turnbuckle. Randy follows up with an RKO to win the match. I'm a little stunned that they already did a WM rematch this early. I would've guessed they would wait until Extreme Rules. Either they wanted to get one more match before ending it at the PPV or they are ending the feud before the PPV. If that was the case, that would show that WWE put them together for WM since they weren't sure what else to do. My guess is that we will see one more match between the two (Christian: what the hell?). 

Winner via pinfall: Randy Orton

Match #3: Ryback vs some random guy

I think the guy went by the name Barry Stevens, but does it matter who is name is? He could've been named Dummy McJackass and it wouldn't matter. For those of you who are wondering who Ryback is, he use to go by the name Skip Sheffield. They mentioned his NXT days and the injury, but they didn't mention his old name for some reason. The only difference between Ryback and Skip is Ryback wears spandex, while Skip wore tights. He still has the bald head and the same look. Personally, I think the guy has serious potential, but it's too early to judge if he will be a big time star or not. Regardless, it lost makes you wonder why they even mentioned the NXT deal. Oh well, there's nothing I can do about that. There was a couple of screen shots from the WWE Superstars in the back, and I really do mean "Superstars". I think that's what we would call a pun. Anyway, they were making fun of McJackass' promo, but were pretty excited about Ryback. Judging by the promo and the reaction, it appears that Ryback is being shown as a babyface. This was your basic jobber match. The finish comes when Ryback hits a modified Fireman's Carry slam for the victory. 

Winner via pinfall: Ryback

Daniel Bryan and AJ are in the ring. Bryan says he had a chance to think after that HORRIFIC match. Just like Raw this past week, there was a lot of "Yes" chants going around. AJ says that the fans are still in support of Bryan and they want him to pick himself back up. Bryan claims the fans are mocking him with the "Yes" chants. Well, maybe the are just paying respect to M. Bison…..

I love that clip. Anyway, Bryan gets angry with AJ. Bryan says that AJ is the reason for him losing the WHC. Bryan even goes on to cut down here habits like gasoline cars and her love of cheeseburgers. Bryan breaks up with AJ and tells her to get out of HIS ring. I thought this was a pretty damn good promo by Bryan. He really has come into his own with the heel character. You almost get the sense that the character is real. Although, it's kinda strange that the audience was in full support of Bryan and didn't seem to care about AJ, who is the character you should feel sorry for the most in this scene. I guess people just love saying "Yes"? You know, AJ…..I don't oppose eating meat. Hey, you can't blame me for trying. 

Match #4: Big Show vs Heath Slater

Cody Rhodes was on commentary for this match. Just like Raw this past week, Show shows the same embarrassing Rhodes clip from WM. This was a very short match. What, did you really think Slater had a chance? At this point, AC Slater stands a better chance than Heath. The finish comes when Show Chokeslams Slater. After the match, Cody would try to land a cheap shot on Show, but it would fail. Show would then hit the KO punch on Slater to send Cody a message. Cody tried another cheap shot attempt, but Show didn't fall for it. Not a lot to say here. The Cody/Show deal will continue for at least one more PPV. 

Winner via pinfall: Big Show

Backstage scene with Johnny and Sheamus. While Sheamus is questioning the concept of "People Power", Johnny says that he doesn't appreciate the new WHC kicking people in the face and doing a sneak attack on Bryan at WM. Sheamus says he will only kick people in the head who hide behind women and bullies. He also talks about one of his relatives. YEAH……Sheamus story time!!! He talks about kicking a family member in the arse. Question. Can you kick a robot in the arse? I would like to know. 

Match #5: Beth Phoenix vs Nikki Bella

Since Johnny is still punishing Team Teddy members/supporters, Nikki has to compete while Brie Bella has the night off. Kelly Kelly shows up and keeps distracting Beth. The finish comes when Nikki takes advantage of the distraction by hitting the X Factor for the victory. Oh great…..ANOTHER Beth/Kelly rivalry. May I ask why? With all the divas in the back, why do you resort to the same rivalry we have seen like 2-3 different times in a course of a year? Oh no!!! TNA Syndrome is reaching the blue brand. Better watch out. That s*** is contagious!!!

Winner via pinfall: Nikki Bella

WWE sure did a lot of debuts this week. Brock Lesnar, Lord Tensai, Ryback, and now this guy. I never got the name of the guy, but I did some research and I guess the guy is called Damien Sandow. He used to work for WWE a while back under the name Idol Stevens. Anybody remember that? This was only a video debut as he didn't make a physical appearance tonight. The guy talks about enjoying the finer things in life, and I really do mean the finer things. He likes fine literature and hates idiotic television. He says mind-numbing crap like Jersey Shore are ruining this world. FINALLY!!! A guy on television who is making sense. He wants to rid the world of terrible sources of entertainment so people can enjoy the good stuff. Does that mean he will get TNA cancelled? Oh, come on. They set me up for that one. I had to take it. Even if it was a joke, there's another reason for TNA fanboys to hate me. Anyway, this was a very good promo. I was really enjoying it. I would need to see more of his in-ring skills to see how far he can go, but I like the look and first promo. Hopefully, he can cut more promos like this. Although, I'm not sure why he looks like Muhammad Hassan's white cousin.

Winner via pinfall: Nikki Bella

Match #6: Sheamus vs Alberto Del Rio

This match wasn't too bad…..until the finish. My God, the finish. Let's just say that the choreography was totally off. So, Ricardo Rodriguez causes a distraction. This lead to the ref dealing with Ricardo. While the ref is busy with that problem, Del Rio brings a chair to the ring. Sheamus ends up intercepting it. The chaos happened when the ref turned around. The ref sees Sheamus with the chair, but Del Rio is scared of getting hit by the chair. It wouldn't have been a problem if the ref didn't see it, but he acts like he saw nothing at first. Based on the perspective, he had to see Del Rio at the corner of his eyes. As soon as the ref sees the chair, he tries to take it away from Sheamus. That's when Del Rio starts acting like Sheamus hit him with the chair. The ref turns around, showing off that wonderful short-term memory, and DQs Sheamus. That had to be the worst Eddie Guerrero chair trick ever. If Del Rio acted from the very beginning that he got hit with a chair, than it would be fine, but he had to act all, "Nooooo, don't hit me!!!". This scene would also work if the ref never turned his back. I'm surprised that none of the online reports are even talking about this spot. It just looked so fake, which is really ironic considering the subject we are talking about. They really should've done a second take of the main event since it simply didn't look right. I guess WWE was like, "Well…….it's been a long week. We'll just get it in editing". Maybe I'm just nitpicking, but I still felt the choreography could've been better. Based on the fact that nobody has talked about this, am I the only one that saw this? Please, tell me about this spot. Did anyone else feel it was off or am I losing my mind…..again…..BLAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

After the match, Sheamus hits the Brogue Kick on the referee for screwing up the call. Maybe that short-term memory loss will kick in after that? So, it appears that Del Rio will get his title match. I really hope that they aren't completely ignoring the Bryan/WHC title scene. After all, Bryan has picked up quite a following since WM (gotta thank the audience for making that happen) and it would be kinda stupid to not follow up on it because we have to make room for Alberto Del Boring. 

Winner via blind referee: Alberto Del Rio

Overall Impression:

Outside of the weird finish, I thought the show was pretty decent. It wasn't amazing, but the overall show wasn't too bad to sit through. I would probably say it was more average since there was some good and bad moments. I did like the new additions to the roster tonight. The action wasn't spectacular, but there was a couple of matches that stood out. I liked the Kane/Orton match and most of the Sheamus/Del Rio was decent to sit through…..besides the strange ending. Then again, I am probably the minority on that one. I really enjoyed Bryan's promo tonight and continues to come alive with his heel character. He might be proving to WWE that they should give him more screen time with that performance. There was some segments I didn't care for. Some of the matches didn't do it for me and I don't like the idea of Beth and Kelly mixing it up again. How many times are you going to show that match? So, a pretty mixed result for SD, but I did rather enjoy it at times. 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 or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show. See you next time.