411’s Instant Analysis 2.10.12: Friday Night Smackdown

Welcome to another edition of the Instant Analysis of Smackdown, I am David McGregor. I think I was officially initiated into the 411 world last week as I got a bit of a slaughtering in the comments section. I would respond to some of them but really I just don’t care, it’s part of writing on 411 to deal with the trolls even if they proclaim their previous positivity. So yeah I welcome the idiot comments it makes for a fun read. So yeah onto this week’s show!

Opening Segment – Everyone’s facing Sheamus at ‘Mania!

This segment worked very well, Sheamus came off as the charismatic guy that he can be and Barrett and Rhodes came off as the cocky arrogant heels that they are. Sheamus looked like a star in there and has really grown into his babyface persona, it is the first time in a long time that the WWE has managed to pull off a genuinely entertaining face character. I didn’t like the cheap bullying angle they were trying to put across, thankfully it wasn’t the overarching theme of the segment.

Rhodes, Barrett and Big Show were fine in their roles; I especially loved the jokes about Big Show’s losing record at Wrestlemania “the Giants can win the SuperBowl but not at Wrestlemania”. The only issue I had with this was that none of these matches seemed Wrestlemania worth. Sheamus v Big Show, Barrett or Rhodes just isn’t a match that should be a main event of the biggest show of the year. I know that the likelihood of any of those matches happening are slim but even with an addition of Orton or Daniel Bryan the Smackdown main event for the big dance just doesn’t seem good enough. Bar that the segment was really good and built towards Elimination Chamber and Wrestlemania very nicely.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

The Great Khali v Jinder Mahal

Is it possible Khali has gotten worse? I didn’t think so but this match argues otherwise. You know a match sucks when the best thing about it was how short it was. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t horrendous or anything that bad but Khali just looked sloppy and fumbled his way through the 3 or so minutes he was in the ring. This is the guy who is going to be competing inside a dangerous environment with 4 of the best in the WWE today, and Big Show. Khali should be out of the Chamber and kept to comedy roles at best. The match was short and was a complete mess.

Winner Great Khali

Rating 4 out of 10

Beth Phoenix v Alicia Fox

Another short match that didn’t really do anything bar show how big a badass Beth Phoenix is. I enjoyed the stare down at the end with Tamina, call me crazy but I think those two could have a good match together. They won’t be given the time but the mere seconds they are allocated should be fun to watch.

I think the WWE are leading to a Beth Phoenix v Karma match at Wrestlemania and if they give it more than 5 minutes will no doubt be the best Divas match since the loss of Trish Stratus.

Winner: Beth Phoenix

Rating: 5 out of 10

Big Show & Sheamus v Cody Rhodes & Wade Barrett

Before this there was another video package for The Rock hyping Wrestlemania. I wouldn’t normally mention it but I thought it was brilliantly done and is keeping the idea of the match in the audience’s mind which I think is genius. I just wish this had really been a yearlong feud and not a year of video packages and hype and 6 weeks of a feud, with an added on match at Survivor Series which accomplished nothing.

Anyway, the tag team match was surprisingly well done. It wasn’t ground breaking and Big Show was in far too much but it gave the audience a taste of what is to come in 9 days at Elimination Chamber and for that I can’t fault it. I do think they had a better idea on Raw with the 6 Pack Challenge match but this was a decent 2nd option and gave more time to building up Sheamus as the unstoppable babyface.
I would have liked one of the heels to have picked up a cheap win to build more to the match but it’s pretty obvious that Sheamus is untouchable until his Wrestlemania program officially begins.

Winners Sheamus and Big Show

Rating 6 out of 10

Michael Cole interviews D-Bryan – Take Two!

This was just absolutely pointless! No one cares that AJ loves Daniel Bryan and that Bryan may have or may not have used her to win a match. Seriously this segment got nearly 20 minutes and accomplished nothing other than furthering Daniel Bryan’s chicken shit heel persona, and even then that was only at the end when he tried to take a “personal day”. The crowd just did not give a crap about this and I can’t blame them because neither did I! The whole Michael Cole thing was done to death last year and just seems dull now nearly a year since the angle was supposedly concluded. As for AJ, I barely know who she is!

The stupid evil and arrogant vegan angle continued to bore the life out of me. I don’t understand why they have added this onto Bryan’s character; the guy was fine as the brilliant wrestler who did anything to keep onto the World Heavyweight Championship. And it isn’t even as if I hate him because he’s a vegan I’m just completely indifferent to him now that he has added this aspect. I hope they end this and go back to arrogant brilliant wrestler similar to Benoit in 2000, I can see why they wouldn’t want to but I think it’s been long enough since 2000 to repeat that gimmick. This was just a completely useless segment regardless of whether Daniel Bryan is an Internet darling or not his stuff can still suck!

Rating: 2 out of 10

Ted Dibiase v Hunico – Part XXXVII

So Ted Dibiase’s big injury angle results in one week of missed action? This so called feud is just terrible and I am really sick of seeing these two wrestle the same basic match again and again. The people that write this are supposedly creative yet an idiot troll of the comments section on 411 could write a better storyline for these two guys. I feel sorry for Ted Dibiase, and the say Miz fell from grace fast.

Winner: Ted Dibiase this week.

Rating: 1 out of 10

Daniel Bryan v Randy Orton – Non Title Match

This was an absolute godsend! Smackdown was on a roll of badness that I thought was going to stretch into the main event. Thankfully, I was wrong and this match was brilliant and the drama after the match was just as good. Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton have really good chemistry in the ring and put on a very good match for the reasonably small amount of time they were given. I have to respect Bryan because he puts his ass on the line with his insane spots throughout his matches, even the bog standard Smackdown matches. I can’t fault the match at all, a proper ending would have been good but this was to hype Elimination Chamber so everyone knew this was ending in a screwy fashion.

After the match and the brawl with Orton and Big Show was great and was probably the most interesting Big Show has been since he and Mark Henry destroyed the ring last year. It was a tad sloppy but it didn’t really matter I loved it. Also it showed how much of a manipulator Daniel Bryan is, this is the type of character they should be promoting not some stupid hippy vegan! That stuff is X-Pac heat, whereas if they keep utilizing the nasty arrogant manipulator role for Bryan it should stick and make him a permanent fixture on Smackdown. This was great stuff from start to finish.

Winner: Daniel Bryan (via DQ)

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Final Thoughts

Moment of the Night Randy Orton v Daniel Bryan

Trash of the Night Hunico v Ted Dibiase

Show Analysis There were parts of this weeks show that were just pointless and unbearable, such as the AJ and Cole segment or Ted Dibiase v Hunico for the 50th time, but there was also great stuff like the opening promo with some of the participants of the Elimination Chamber and the main event. It’s odd that Smackdown just can’t seem to have an entirely great show it’s always filled with good to great and bad to terrible segments. This week as an entire show was a lot better than the past few weeks and here’s hoping that we continue down this road at least until Wrestlemania.

Show Rating: 7 out of 10