This
road to Money in the Bank has felt like an eternity. Inconsistencies,
plot holes, bad storylines and not enough action has made the past
couple of weeks in the WWE Universe very bad indeed. While the WWE
has brought us on many roller-coaster rides this year, this past
while has felt like we've been put on a roller-coaster from some kind
of playground. It's been stop-and-start, at times really cringe, and
very, very boring.
But,we're
so nearly there. The ride to Money in the Bank and been extremely
rough, but this week's Smackdown pulled up rather nicely before this
Sunday's PPV. We've all seen better episodes of course, but at this
stage I'll take a solid, nice flowing episode in a heart beat.
Alberto
Del Rio vs. Sin Cara
A pretty
good match here to kick off Smackdown. While Sin Cara can't work well
with a lot of wrestlers, Del Rio seems to be one exception. They
worked moderately well together (despite some slight mistakes and bad
psychology from Sin Cara) and managed to put on a match that was to
the liking of the fans in attendance.
The
commentators also did a good job of mentioning Del Rio's new found
aggressiveness, even though I still don't quite see it. Didn't Del
Rio always have a bit of a bad temper? In my opinion, there wasn't a
whole lot new from Alberto in that department, apart from a few
head-butts here and there. Still though, it's good to see them
mentioning it, and goes in well with the Sheamus/Del Rio feud.
Primo
vs. Darren Young
An OK
bout here. I liked Abraham Washington's Jimmy Hart-esque approach to
the match especially as I feel this could really get a reaction out
of the crowd during the Primetime Players matches.
In
saying that though, they're still not there in terms of getting
enough heat. The antics from Washington are fine, but apart from that
there's no big reason as to why the fans should hate them. If they
want to go that extra step then they should do something simple like
attack the very over tag team champions Kofi Kingston and R-Truth.
Even something easy like that would give the fans something to boo
about.
As for
Primo and Epico, well, I guess it's good to see them turn face, as it
balances out the amount of good guys and bad guys on the tag team
scene.
Christian
& Santino Marella vs. Cody Rhodes & Dolph Ziggler
Creative
have done a good job of making everyone in the Smackdown MITB Ladder
match look fairly strong leading up to Sunday's PPV. With Dolph
Ziggler getting the win by pinning Santino Marella, I THINK that
makes everyone that's gotten a victory in the build-up to Money in
the Bank.
I could
be wrong, but I'm far to lazy to see if I am, so until someone proves
me wrong, I'm right!
Damien
Sandow vs. Justin Gabriel
The only
person that seems to be out of the loop in this MITB Ladder match.
While everyone else has been facing other at least once, Sandow has
been left out completely. He needed to get into the mix with ever
other competitor in my opinion, because beating people like Justin
Gabriel in such short matches has done nothing for him.
Yes, you
could say that he's at the stage we're he's too new to lose, and also
too new to get a victory over someone relatively big, but you have to
start somewhere. And with him being in such a big match at MITB,
you'd feel they should have pushed him that little bit more on
Smackdown over the past number of weeks.
Sheamus
vs. Chris Jericho
One in a
while you always just come across a little gem, and this week, I
think it's fair to say we came across one.
Sheamus
and Chris Jericho had a fantastic final 2 fight at the Royal Rumble
this year, competed in a fun Fatal-4-Way match at Over The Limit, and
now put on a really solid bout on Smackdown.
While it
wasn't the most exciting match you'll ever see, I thought it did well
in telling the story of the veteran trying to tame the aggressive
champion, and for most of the match succeeding.
Chris
Jericho worked on Sheamus' back for a lot of the match, with Sheamus
fighting back desperately. It was the case of Jericho outsmarting and
out wrestling Sheamus, only to get caught with the Brogue Kick out of
nowhere. Jericho put over another wrestler, and Sheamus got another
realistic hard fought victory.
To close
the show we also got Del Rio attacking Sheamus on the ramp for the
second time in a few weeks. Yes, it was a repeat of what he did to
Sheamus before he got a concussion, but I don't blame them for just
continuing with that 'injured shoulder' angle now
that
he's back again. If anything I'm happy they've gone back to it,
because as Sheamus proved at Extreme Rules in April, he can sell a
shoulder injury very well.
This was
the kind of Smackdown that calmed everything down after all the crap
that's gone on over the past couple of weeks. So with that, I give
this episode a thumbs up.
Stray
Observations:
- “Those would be the opinions of Booker T and necessarily those of the WWE.” Michael Cole really can be great at times.
- “I'm not here to step into the ring with anybody”. Chris of all people should know that you don't come to a wrestling arena in your wrestling attire if you don't plan to compete. It's just common sense.
- Since Raw is going 3 hours now I demand that they free up a half hour for the Great Khali's very own talk show. The guy is pure gold in talking segments, and I would just love to see him sit awkwardly with his guests looking beyond the camera every 10 seconds to see what he has to say next.
- I hate Tout already.
- Lots of clips from Raw being shown on Smackdown, but I guess that's understandable considering both shows were taped in the one night.
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