Last
week I said that the real hype for WrestleMania has been on the
flagship show Raw. Raw has been the only brand that has hyped up all
of their matches very well, emphasizing the fact that all of these
matches will be taking place at WrestleMania.
I think
that's where Smackdown has come up short. As well as not having a
good a build up as Raw, they are also failing to mention that the
biggest show of the year is just around the corner. Raw has the buzz
of WrestleMania season, Smackdown doesn't. It's as simple as that.
Through
all this however, Smackdown was still a solid show. It had some
decent action throughout and also featured some stand out promos from
the likes of Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes and Chris Jericho.
One
storyline that is getting a lot of attention on Smackdown is the one
between Teddy Long and John Laurinaitis. This is a storyline that has
gone on for a fairly long time now and been built up at a nice pace.
The show
kicked off with the focus on this storyline when the returning
Christian hosted 'The Peep Show'. Seeing Captain Charisma return was
a great way to kick off the show and thought he did a superb job when
talking to both Teddy and Johnny. What's so great about Christian's
heel persona is that he still considers himself a good guy who's all
about respect. Seeing him give Teddy the opportunity to convince him
to join his team was very entertaining, as was him sucking up to
Laurinaitis. He's just a joy to watch.
This was
then followed by the Team Johnny captain David Otunga taking on the
newest member of Team Teddy, Kofi Kingston. Otunga was actually
pretty impressive against Kingston, as he executed some rather nice
moves throughout the match. The ending was the smoothest however, as
either Otunga turned around to early to receive the Trouble in
Paradise or Kingston was too late delivering it.
Although
Daniel Bryan wasn't in action (unfortunately) he still had a good bit
of air time on the show. His first segment of the evening with AJ
came off so well, as Bryan came across as a total asshole towards AJ,
completely degrading her with every sentence. Like Christian, Daniel
Bryan is great at coming across as totally self-centred, while still
thinking he's a good guy who's simply misunderstood.
He got
even better when he followed AJ to ringside (but of course, had to
come out to his own entrance music) as she took on Nikki Bella. The
match was fine, but only really got entertaining afterwards when
Daniel Bryan came into the ring celebrating as if he had won, totally
taking away AJ's big moment. Seriously, that bit had me laughing out
loud.
Big Show
and Cody Rhodes both made quick work of their opponents as Cody
defeated The Great Khali and Big Show downed Drew McIntyre. The
matches were nothing special, but nonetheless, the build up for this
little midcarder feud has been quite good.
We
finally got an explanation as to why Kane attacked Orton, but still
just seems like a weak excuse to me. I know the idea for this feud
was only thrown together a few weeks ago and so couldn't really build
anything up, but you still got to wonder if they could have come up
with something better. I never liked this feud and don't expect their
match at WrestleMania to be any good, so really, there's not much
else to say.
Last
January at the Royal Rumble, Jericho and Sheamus put on a fantastic
'last two' battle in the Royal Rumble match, the best one since
HBK/Undertaker in 2007. That's why going into this match I was
expecting an entertaining bout, and thankfully wasn't disappointed.
Jericho
and Sheamus have really good chemistry together. The matches featured
some nice spots and the pace was top notch throughout. Also, having
Daniel Bryan at ringside was a nice touch, and played a good part in
the ending of the match. I thought it was smart to have Jericho win
the match relatively cleanly, as it keeps his momentum going into the
WrestleMania.
Seeing
Bryan cost Sheamus the match was something that was needed in this
feud as well, but unfortunately this is the most the feud has gone in
terms of tension between the two. I think the most we can hope for is
that in the next two weeks both of these men get into some kind of
brawl, because this feud has had no heat whatsoever.
Stray
Observations:
- It's great to see Christian back on Smackdown, he was sorely missed.
- I seriously can't wait to see Team Johnny win at WrestleMania. He's undeniably better than Teddy Long in every way.
- Not good seeing Drew McIntyre lose yet again, but at least this loss goes along with the storyline of him (probably) joining Team Johnny.
- Daniel Bryan is hands down the best heel on Smackdown. This week alone he showed that he has the charisma, the mic ability and the mannerisms of a terrific heel. And not only that, but he's great at attracting heat as well.
- “Yeah, I don't get it. The dress just looks so much better on the manikin.”
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