What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another edition of mini-reviews. Today we take a look at WWE Smackdown 7/26/13. Let's not waste any more time and begin.
The show begins with Randy Orton vs Damien Sandow. While it appears Randy didn't suffer too big of an injury, I felt they shouldn't have brought him back on television since it could've made the MITB cash-in more of a surprise. Oh well, it isn't that big of a deal. The match is pretty good and I would even say it was the best match of the night. Cody Rhodes comes in to commit First Degree Briefcase Snatching. This distraction allows Randy to hit the RKO for the victory. The theme of tonight's show was Damien in pursuit of his briefcase while Cody manages to hide from everybody. In other words, this has become an Elmer Fudd/Bugs Bunny cartoon… Minus the shotgun. Throughout the night, Damien would ask people if they have seen Cody with his briefcase. My favorite was his interaction with Booker T and Mark Henry. I love Booker's reaction to Damien bringing up the fact he isn't the GM anymore. Booker is like 'Hold me back, Mark! Hold me back, man! Hold me back! Hold me back or he's dead! I'm gonna get the bastard! AWWWW'!
I love how CM Punk reacted to Fandango. His face told the whole story…Who the f*** is this guy? After another example of how the Prime Time Players need to start thinking of pocket change instead of millions of dollars, we witness the Alberto Del Rio/RVD match. I was actually looking forward to this, but this was mostly put on for storyline instead of actual wrestling. Del Rio was trying to hide from RVD during this contest. Either he's intimidated by RVD or he wants to get away from the pot smell. I'll buy either one at this point. Thanks to Del Rio's cunning, he outsmarts the referee and RVD in order to steal this match. Based on the ending, it seems RVD is still a prime candidate for a WHC match since he basically got screwed over in this contest. I guess we'll find out next week what the plan is for the WHC.
AJ gets back at Dolph Ziggler by ripping up his credit cards, money, passport, and etc. So, is there any explanation to why Dolph carries scissors with him? Seems a little much to be considered a grooming device. Either that or he kept it on stand-by in case AJ went over the e--wait a minute!? So, Dolph has money on him and doesn't have pockets? How does that work? Does it shove it up his ass or something? Anyway, she continues to destroy Dolph's possessions until she has a mental breakdown. I swear that AJ has a mental breakdown every month on this show. Do you ever notice that? Kaitlyn comes out of nowhere and spears AJ. Oh yeah, that's still a storyline. I almost forgot about her. A segment that was pretty funny to watch as well as doing its job.
The Wyatt family's Luke Harper and Erik Rowan destroyed Tons of Saturated Fat in a matter of seconds. After the match, Bray Wyatt encourages Kane to find him and follow the buzzards. Can't really take a whole lot from their in-ring debut since it was mostly a squash match, but it does its job in building up the stable and foreshadowing to what could happen come Monday. When will Galactus Wyatt compete in a match? I can't wait for that.
There's no need to check you, Mr. Colter, because you are a real douchebag. My guess is if Swagger was driving the car, they definitely would've checked them. Hmm… Now I'm envisioning Zeb cutting a promo in a prison to talk about how real Americans visit prison inmates. Christian defeated Jack Swagger because Captain Murica didn't give Jack his powers. After the match, Damien comes out and demands for Cody to hand him his briefcase. Cody gets on the titantron and tells Damien to come near the Gulf of Mexico or else the case will pick up 150 different chemicals from the water. Did you seriously look at that water? What happened? Anyway, Damien makes his way toward the water and despite proclaiming Cody is the almighty messiah of the mustache, Cody still throws the briefcase in the water. Damien tried to save it, but the 'smartest' man in WWE forgot that he didn't know how to swim. Yeah, I know this stunt has been done before and I can already hear the nostalgic fanbase calling out these guys, but I thought the segment was good. Yes, the stunt has been done before, but it's also your character/personality that can make a scene different from its predecessor. Damien's reactions to his contract ending up in the water was hilarious. Damien literally made this episode stand out.
Overall Impression:
I thought this was a very good episode of SD. There was a lot of things that made this show stand out, but the star of the show had to be Damien Sandow. They were the focus of tonight's show and I thought they did a good job. I can see people not enjoying this episode since the wrestling was lacking, but storyline development is a big part of the show and I felt they did that decently this evening. The show worked for me, but I can understand why this wouldn't work for some of you. That does it for the mini-review. Tell me what you thought of the review or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls in the next one.
I'm surprised Cody didn't throw Damien into the water while he was standing there, watching his briefcase sink.
ReplyDeleteThe show worked for me because of Sandow too. Besides the English language, the man is also a master of facial expressions.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I wonder about where the WHC briefcase storyline goes...I can understand why Damien can't say this, else it would render Cody's actions meaningless, but at any point didn't you think Damien should just say, "Whatever Cody, your theft doesn't even deserve to be dignified with a response, I can just have WWE issue me a new briefcase, as your Money in the Bank winner." So I wonder what happens now, as to whether Sandow's cash-in has really been lost forever, or if it's just the MITB victory that matters. If they go forward with the former, I must admit I will be disappointed not to see Sandow as the future WHC.
And allow me to commend you on two great zingers, both the Tons of Saturated Fats name, and that the car with Swagger driving would have been searched, were spit-take level funny.
Well done as always.