Smackdown Review - 9 March, 2012

When it comes to WrestleMania, normally the buildup is better than WrestleMania itself. It's filled with flashy hype videos, strong promos, engaging storylines and two generally solid PPVs in Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber beforehand. In many ways January to April is wrestling season.

This year however, the blue brand has failed to capture the essence of the Road to WrestleMania. It's come to a point where you literally could have skipped Smackdown from January to right about now and not have missed anything special. Sure, we've had someone from Smackdown win the Royal Rumble, but there hasn't been anything groundbreaking in terms of storyline development or promos that make you go 'Wow, I can't wait to see what happens at WrestleMania'.

Smackdown has three stages right now, all of which are focused on three WrestleMania matches (or soon to be matches) that haven't really taken off in any way, shape or form.

Funnily enough, all three of these happened to take place in the last twenty minutes of the show as Daniel Bryan, The Miz and Cody Rhodes took on Sheamus, Randy Orton and Big Show.

It all started off with both Sheamus and the World Champ in the ring with Michael Cole. I actually found this segment to be pretty enjoyable, with Bryan playing his character to perfection as usual and Sheamus coming across as the hungry challenger. Unfortunately though, the segment ended just as it started to heat up. This feud needs more heated exchanges and this week is was just taken away for no real reason. It all makes me wonder why they didn't have this segment start the show. That way they could talk longer, maybe have a physical altercation and then have it blow off in the main event.

It was after this segment however, when the three stages all seemed to blend in together. With the exception of The Miz, everyone had their WrestleMania opponents in sight. Bryan and Sheamus had their brawl, Big Show and Cody Rhodes had their brawl, and Randy Orton and Kane had their brawl as well after the match. While watching this all unfold I couldn't help but think how similar all these feuds are. And not only that, but how weak they are as well.


If I didn't know any better, I wouldn't have thought that WrestleMania was just around the corner. There was simply no spark this week. We don't see any of the match cards pop up throughout the show and we don't see many references to WrestleMania enough from the people on the card and we don't. Instead, it just looks like Raw is hosting WrestleMania, with Smackdown being a minor feature.

Through all this ranting however, I have to say that the show wasn't that bad. The six man tag main event was fairly solid, as was the rest of the show.

I liked the Steel Cage match from Santino and Swagger. There weren't any big spots, or many highlights in general for that matter, but the ending was pretty good as the underdog Santino got the lucky escape. I was a little worried that Swagger would get back the US Title, but thankfully it looks like it'll be Santino's for another couple of months at least.

John Laurinaitis continues to be as exciting as ever. The story this week involving Aksana wasn't very good, but seeing John warm up in that ridiculous attire more than made up for it. Seriously, him and Otunga have been pretty great since they formed.

I expect R-Truth and Kofi Kingston to get a Tag Team Title shot against Primo and Epico at WrestleMania. Truth and Kingston are both fine (as was the match by the way), but I'm just not digging the tag team. Despite their lack of quality in the ring, I still feel that they should be singles wrestlers looking to get a better spot on the WrestleMania card, or even a better spot later this year.

So, another week and another missed opportunity to really hype up WrestleMania. It was still an improvement from last week however (especially with Bryan and Sheamus), but it still feels like they haven't kicked into another gear. Instead, they seem content on strolling casually to WrestleMania.

Stray Observations:

• A lot of possible WrestleMania match ups being indicated this week. Will we see both Santino and Primo & Epico defend their Titles against the people they faced this week? I guess we'll find out soon enough. 
• Drew McIntyre has his job back. Nice to see I guess, even though this whole losing streak storyline has made him very boring and uninteresting in the process. Good job WWE. 
• Are Orton and Kane just going to brawl from now until WrestleMania? They really haven't done anything else. 
• What was The Miz doing in the main event this week? He really looked out of place. 
• "AJ, shut up."

Smackdown Review - 2 March, 2012

WWE have a knack for leaving big matches out in the dark leading up to WrestleMania. Last year it was Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio, a feud which consisted of very little build up and heat. The year before that it was Edge again, this time against Chris Jericho.

Out of those WrestleMania's we saw bigger build ups for other matches, even though the two World Title matches listed above were just as big as any other match on the card. 

This seems to be the case this year again with Sheamus and World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan. We hear Sheamus talk about how he's going to wrestle in front of 80,000 in the biggest match of his career, on the biggest stage of them all, but so far, we haven't see any real build up. Bar a few run ins, both seem to be on different sides of the building. They talk a bit in the ring and backstage, but overall they've had no real confrontation. 

I just hope that this little thing between Sheamus and Bryan (it isn't even a feud) picks up, because believe it or not, the Royal Rumble winner facing off against the World Champion should be a big deal. 

This World Title situation kind of summed up Smackdown this week, deplete and drab. 

It wasn't necessarily a bad episode this week. We saw some good action inside the ring, but overall, Smackdown seems to be lost in the shuffle of not pushing any real feuds, yet knowing how close they are to WrestleMania.

It was a good start to the show, with Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler putting on arguably the best match of the night. Both men looked good throughout, and was booked well in the sense that Sheamus got the important victory, yet Ziggler wasn't devalued and downed in just a couple of minutes. 

The storyline that seems to be getting the most attention seems to be between Theodore Long and John Laurinaitis. The storyline has been fine so far (even though I don't like Long at all), but I just wish that there wasn't so much attention on it, especially when you see the World Title seen get so little attention. 

Natalya seems to be comfortable with her farts now. That's better... I guess. 

I like the idea of showing Big Show's woes at WrestleMania, its not the most compelling storyline going on at the moment but at least one match from the undercard is getting a buildup for Mania. I really liked the way Cody was shocked to find out that he would be facing Show at WrestleMania. I mean seriously, if you pick on someone with WrestleMania just a couple of weeks away you're obviously going to be put in a match with him!

Its a real shame to see Mark Henry in this type of situation now. For the first time in many years Mark Henry was been interesting again, when he was World Champion he actually looked like a massive threat and someone that no one could stop. But now? Now, he's losing to the likes of Sheamus and Big Show, which in many ways isn't that bad considering their statuses, but very bad in the manner in which he is losing to them.  

His match with Show was OK this week, although to see Show kick out of the World's Strongest Slam just doesn't do Henry any favours. It also doesn't help to see Henry lose so easily. Will Henry ever get back on track the way he did late last year? I doubt it. 

Another real shame is the way Drew McIntyre is being used. Even though he is fired I still expect him to return soon (possibly with Laurinaitis re-instating him when he's on Smackdown next week). And even though he's in such a rut I still expect him to get a minor push in the future. In saying all that though, Drew deserves better than being in such a generic storyline.

This weeks main event was a good bout. Both Bryan and Orton work well together, and this week was no exception. Seeing Bryan win in such a manner yet again isn't the best to say the least, although at least he still has momentum going into WrestleMania. And at this stage, I suppose thats all that matters. 

It looks like Kane vs. Orton will happen at WrestleMania, and just like the Cena/Kane feud, I doubt Kane will have a reasonable explanation as well as to why he's set his sights on The Viper. For someone who was one of the best wrestlers in 2011, I think Orton deserves a better slot at WrestleMania than to face Kane. 

Filler matches for wrestlers like this are always inevitable at WrestleMania, I just wish that they'd explain why these feuds are happening in the first place.