On the Marc Reviews 10.28.11: Friday Night SmackDown

From the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas

Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T & Josh Matthews

Championship’s roll call: WWE Champion: Alberto Del Rio… World Champion: Mark Henry… Intercontinental Champion: Cody Rhodes… United States Champion: Dolph Ziggler… Tag Team Champions: Air Boom… Diva’s Champion: Beth Phoenix

Theodore Long opens the show and discusses the “extraordinary” events which put Mark Henry, Big Show and the World title, in flux. He promises the future of that title will be addressed tonight, which draws Christian out. Christian calls the ring collapse historic, as is it is in history. He feels that since Show did not win the title, there is a huge void for the number one contender; he begins to elect himself but Long interrupts and mentions Sheamus. Christian begins to plead for another title shot bur is interrupted by… Raw’s CM Punk? Christian continues his “one more match” pleading and then asks why Punk is there. Long says he pulled strings for a Super SmackDown II Turbo. Punk sells Long’s GM skills and then calls Christian “rusty bird”. Punk is a fan of Christian’s wrestling ability and begins to “throw stones at him”; Christian interrupts and calls Punk a joke. They discuss his possible title shot against Alberto Del Rio. Punk says he doesn’t waste the fans’ times bitching and bitching and bitching… he says bitching about fifteen times. Christian tells him to take his pipe bomb back to Raw because no one wants him here. Huge “CM Punk” chants; he plays to the crowd and wants a match against Christian. Teddy books the match, Punk says, “holler, holler, holler”. 5/10 Now, I love Punk but his promos have become much more tame since his official babyface turn; he is still entertaining in the ring, which bodes well for the main event.

Air Boom vs. Awesome Truth:   Air Boom is the best thing that ever happened to Bourne (even Kofi since he isn’t jobbing all of the time). Miz and Kofi begin and it goes well for Miz, nailing a knee lift; Truth tags in and pounds Kingston down to the mat. Truth charges in the opposite corner and meets feet; Bourne tags in and Air Boom hits double back kicks followed by a double bulldog. Evan hits a nice hurracanrana and dropkick in the corner. Truth pitches him onto the apron but eats a roundhouse kick; Miz distracts allowing Truth to knock him off the apron, Miz adds a clothesline on the floor. Back from a moneymaking break, Miz avoids a running knee from Bourne, thwarting a comeback; Truth tags and hits a running boot and angrily applies a front facelock. Bourne frees himself and hits an enziguri; Kingston and Miz receive tags. Kofi, the house of fire, hits leaping clotheslines, dropkicks but the Boom Drop is avoided; Kingston hits the springboard high crossbody in the corner, drawing Truth into the ring. Bourne takes him out with a knee but totally misses a pescado. Miz boots Kofi in the corner and Truth tags in; they hit both of their finishers at the same time, called the Little Jimmy Finale, on Kofi and get the three. 6.5/10 Good match; I LOVE the tandem finisher WITH A NAME, which looks deadly. Truth and Miz are on a hot streak and this conspiracy was the best thing for the both of them. Truth’s been en fuego since his heel turn.

Post-match, R-Truth says that they just beat the tag champions Air Boom; they defeated CM Punk and Triple H at the PPV and destroyed Zack Ryder and John Cena on Raw. He feels they may have “beat Cena to brain damage” because he picked the one partner who probably dislikes him more than they do, that’d be The Rock. The Miz says that’s fine and dandy, George Carlin was fine and dandy once, in 1963, for an hour… but there was no one around to tell! Miz threatens to finish the job at Survivor Series. 3.5/10 Strong mic work from these two who have been on a Sheamus-esque hot streak since Hell in a Cell.

The WWE’s Greatest Rivalries “Shawn vs. Bret” DVD (available for purchase by clicking here; Blu-Ray is available by clicking here) is plugged which segues to a bunch of babyface talking in the back; Justin Gabriel asks Daniel Bryan about being trained by Shawn Michaels. Tyson Kidd wanders in and discusses the DVD and they get into a Shawn versus Bret Hart argument. I agree with Kidd, I’m a Bret guy. Santino Marella, with t-shirt under his singlet, says settle it in the ring. Hornswoggle is in the back, with Teddy Long, fist pumping in honor of Zack Ryder. Vickie Guerrero’s stable wanders in to tease him so he books Dolph Ziggler versus Randy Orton with Jack Swagger banned from ringside. Aksana shows up, with porn music, and Long invites her into his office.

Trent Barreta vs. Wade Barrett:   This match up looks like a palindrome. Pre-match, Barrett says that the ring is his battlefield, his opponents, casualties of war; the “Barrett Barrage” continues tonight. Barrett is facing another high flyer; let’s see how he incorporates that into Wasteland. Barreta slides under Barrett’s legs and hurracanranas him; he charges in the corner but runs right into a HUGE swinging Bossman Slam. He grounds him with a bow-and-arrow lock; Barreta fires back but runs into a knee. He entangles Barreta in the ropes and boots him to the floor where he steamrolls him with a lariat. Back in the ring, Barreta begins a weak comeback but a Savate kick cuts him off; he gets a boot up in the corner to create space and tries another hurracanrana but Barrett blocks and hoists him up, in one smooth motion, into Wasteland for three. 3.5/10 Complete squash; Barreta hit ONE move in the match; hopefully this is leading to a serious singles push for Barrett.

Randy Orton vs. Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero):   Jack Swagger is banned from ringside as per GM Teddy Long; Tony Chimel just announced Orton as “Randy Orton”, which I prefer as opposed to Justin Roberts’ “Apex Predator” or “The Viper”. I think this is another “test drive” for Ziggler, in there with Orton. Cody Rhodes comes out to join the commentary team, which will be fun; since he has had his Bagmen annoy Booker T with paper bags of late. They lock up and… stalemate. Orton hits the ropes and drops a shoulderblock and applies a chinlock. Already? Just kidding, I like Orton. The trade leapfrogs and Ziggler avoids a backdrop, hurdling Orton, and taking him down into a headlock. Orton comes back with a few shoulderblocks, they reset, and Ziggler headlocks Orton back down. Orton counters into an armbar; he tries the stretch backbreaker but Ziggler counters into a schoolboy for two. Orton returns the favor for a nearfall as well. Randy takes Dolph down and methodically stomps him and hits the floating knee drop; I call it “floating” because Orton seems to move through the air in slow motion when he drops it. He goes back to the armbar. Ziggler gets a boot in the corner, drops an elbow, and gets two; Dolph goes to an armbar and punches Orton in the face. Randy’s eyes must have turned serpentine, because Ziggler freaks out and runs around the ring, with Orton chasing him. Vickie gets in the way so Orton hurdles her and nails a clothesline. That was unique. Guerrero screeches at Orton as the commercial break commences. When we return, Orton charges into a European uppercut in the corner and a standing dropkick; Dolph takes over and knee lifts through a potential comeback. Dolph applies a sort of half Rings of Saturn looking move; Orton lifts him up in a fireman’s carry but Ziggler stops him via DDT and goes back to his Rings of Ziggler. He drops a neckbreaker for two. Dolph goes to the top but Randy stops him; he honors his father with a superplex… for two. They trade fisticuffs to a big eruption; Orton gets the better with clotheslines and scoop-powerslam. Orton hits the Viper DDT (rope assisted hangman’s DDT) and plays to the rather animated crowd. RKO… no! SUPERKICK! …for two! Zigzag is countered via rope grab and Dolph charges one too many times and eats an RKO for three. Post-match, Rhodes leaves angrily. 7/10 Another pretty good match on this show; I detect a pattern here. This match delivered; Ziggler looked like he belongs in there with the big guys and he is finally getting noticed by the upper management. Perhaps he will finally get a real world title run.

Highlights from the Sin Cara battle from Mexico City last week are shown; Matt Striker talks to Hunico, who feels his identity and face was stolen. He cuts a Spanglish promo and says it is payback time, esse.

Daniel Bryan vs. Tyson Kidd:   I guess the WWE is selling it as “Bret Hart versus Shawn Michaels 2011: The Protégé Battle”. The only difference is that Bret would not be “already waiting in the ring, to my left…” If Bryan loses this match, I think it may drive him over the edge, or to eat meat, or buy a television… not that I don’t like Kidd (or wish a push for him) but, let’s face it, he’s a jobber. They push each other and then trade wastelocks; Bryan arm drags into an armbar. He runs the ropes and catches Kidd’s foot off a leapfrog and tries to segue into the LeBell Lock but Kidd wriggles free and tosses him into the bottom turnbuckle; Tyson levels him with a running dropkick. Bryan comes back with a top rope flip and Hart Attack style clothesline. MOVE THEFT! He hits a running dropkick in the corner for two and Booker T tries to liken it to Tim Tebow’s comeback against my Miami Dolphins last Sunday. DAMN HIM! He can go Suck for Luck, although I won’t complain if Andrew Luck is wearing teal and orange next season. Bryan hits a super Frankensteiner but Kidd rolls through… for two. Michael Cole finally says something I agree with… Tim Tebow is a nerd. They go through a nearfall sequence and Kidd nearly applies a Sharpshooter but Bryan wrests into the LeBell Lock. Kidd taps out. KIDD WAS SCREWED! 6/10 Good match that was criminally short; poor Kidd (and Bret) still can’t get over the (recent) Shawn hump. I know Bret dominated the feud earlier but Bret dominated it in 1997.

Michael Cole shows the fat pictures of Jim Ross again and promotes the match on Raw. Big Show, in a nice suit, with a little limp, is out next. He smiles and addresses the ring implosion from Vengeance; he says “oops, I did it again,” which is the first time the WWE admits that the ring implosion has happened once before. Show puts over Mark Henry and his strength and fight. He wants the ring enforced to have the match again because he knows in his heart that he can defeat Henry; he spoke with Teddy Long and promises a future rematch, which draws Henry, limping a little, to the ring. Henry says he took care of business and is done with Show. Henry says he is sore, not because of Show, but because of the ring. Mark says he must have not done a good enough job because Big Show is still running his mouth; he threatens to put his foot in it but then elects not to fight and leaves. 1.5/10 Not quite sure what that accomplished besides there will/may be a rematch at some point in the future. If it is as good as their first encounter, then I’m all for it.

CM Punk vs. Christian:   This is like the battle of the “little things” as both guys love to sneak little hints and tributes in their matches; Christian steamrolls Punk first and draws sarcastic applause from him. They trade smirks and lock up again; this time, Christian leapfrogs and drops down, but eats a shoulderblock. Punk fake flexes like Hulk Hogan. Christian goads him into Greco-Roman knuckle-lock, boots and slaps him, but Punk gets the last laugh immediately with a leg lariat. Punk hits a few arm-trap short-shoulderblocks and then hammerlock tosses him into the buckles; Punk dropkicks the arm and applies a keylock. Christian blocks a charge in the corner with boots and hits a second-rope reverse elbow; he heads up top, shaking the worked arm (the same one he hit the reverse elbow with) while climbing… LITTLE THINGS! …but misses a Superfly splash. Punk looks for the Go2Sleep but suddenly Alberto Del Rio’s music hits and he heads out to ringside with Ricardo Rodriguez. Meanwhile, Christian counters the GTS with an Impaler for two. Back from commercial, Punk is entangled in a chinlock; Del Rio is still hanging around ringside. Punk fights free but misses the legdrop and Christian boots him in the face. He celebrates to a chorus of “boos” and then rakes Punk’s face and chucks him to the floor. Alberto taunts him as Christian gives chase and rams him into the announce table, back in the ring, a nearfall is gotten followed by a seated keylock. Punk fights free, hits some Muay Thai backhands and a roundhouse kick, and then collapses. Punk fires up for real with clotheslines and a backdrop; they stumble a little over a swinging neckbreaker and Punk misses the corner knee. They trade finisher counters and Christian scores with a springboard sunset flip… but Punk rolls through and boots him in the face. Punk stops to spat with Del Rio, which permits Christian to avoid a buzzsaw kick and drop the pescado into the slap. Christian tries a top-rope crossbody but Punk rolls through and gets two. Punk tries a springboard move but Christian turns it into a powerslam, for two as well. Punk counters the Killswitch again and tries the Go2Sleep, but Christian turns it into another Killswitch attempt, but Punk counters that pushing him into the corner and hits the high knee/bulldog combo. GTS is signaled so Ricardo distracts him drawing Punk to the floor; Christian tries to nail him reentering but Punk avoids and hits a springboard clothesline for two. He looks for the Macho Man Elbow but Ricardo distracts the referee allowing Del Rio to crotch him. The music tech must have gotten a bonus because he/she hits Sheamus’ music to cue his run-in, or distraction; Punk hits the Go2Sleep for three. 7/10 Good match but a lot of run-ins and distractions, which is not bad for a WWE television main event, but it hurts the score a little.

OVERALL 7/10 Good show this week; highlighted by some good matches. The “wrestling show” may have returned, at least with this particular show.

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