411’s WWE Super Smackdown Report 2.21.12

Welcome to 411’s LIVE WWE Smacdown Report 2.21.12
Championship Roll Call:
WWE Champion: CM Punk
World Champion: Daniel Bryan
US Champion: Jack Swagger
IC Champion: Cody Rhodes
Unified Diva’s Champion: Beth Phoenix
WWE World Tag Team Champions: Primo and Epico

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WWE Super Smackdown
February 21st, 2012
BMO Harris Center, Rockford, Illinois
Attendance: Unknown at this time

Welcome back everyone to 411’s weekly coverage of Smackdown! We’ve got a special live Super Smackdown tonight on this Mardis Gras Tuesday and to celebrate we’ve got a big champion vs. champion match booked for tonight’s show between CM Punk and Daniel Bryan (which should rock). Don’t forget to refresh your browser after every commercial break to get all the updates and a bit of analysis from yours truly, and without further adieu let’s jump into the show!

Your hosts are Michael Cole, Booker T, and Josh Matthews

We open the show tonight with the World Heavyweight champion Daniel Bryan coming down to the ring with his girlfriend AJ Lee. Daniel clears his throat before explaining that when he announced his intentions to cash in the Money in the Bank at Wrestlemania no one believed him, but here he stands tonight as your World Heavyweight champion heading into the “main event” of Wrestlemania (good luck on that one Daniel). Bryan talks a bit more about him being a role model before listing off the men he defeated in the Chamber this week and claims to be the real “Rocky story”, not Santino (“Yo AJ! I did it!”). He claims that he’s going to thwart Sheamus’ dreams come Wrestlemania time, but before he can elaborate on his opponent tonight, CM Punk, he’s interrupted by…The Miz?

The Miz hits the ring with his own mic to inform Bryan that he apparently knew all along that Bryan would become a World champion from their first day together on NXT. Miz isn’t here to gloat though, he’s just here to say congratulations on being in the Wrestlemania main event this year, continuing to “follow in his foot steps”. Miz extends an offer to Bryan that when Wrestlemania is done, they should form a tag team together, but Sheamus has heard enough backstage and comes storming out to interrupt both men.

Sheamus would also like to congratulate Bryan it seems, but on being an arse, hypocrite, and coward. Miz gets in Sheamus’ face and Sheamus responds by taking him aside so the people who actually have Wrestlemania matches can talk. When he turns around Bryan hits him with a cheap shot though and takes off out of the ring with AJ, leaving Sheamus to attack Miz and toss him out of the ring as the World Champion sneaks away again to wrap up our opening segment. Nice way to kick off the show and I’m curious now what kind of interactions Miz and Bryan will have going forward.

Sheamus (23-13-1) vs. The Miz (2-2)
When we return from commercial we join our first match already in progress, having been booked by Teddy Long during the commercial break. Miz gets sent to the apron where Sheamus lays in the ten clubbing fists to his chest. Sheamus hits a slingshot shoulder block on Miz for a two count but gets his arm nearly yanked out of it’s socket by a diving Miz to the floor. Sheamus gets that same shoulder sent right into the steel post in the corner and Miz goes right to work on the arm with an armbreaker and a loose armbar. Miz hits the running clothesline into the corner and follows with a double axe-handle off the top but Sheamus won’t stay down. Sheamus starts the comeback with a clothesline and the Irish Curse backbreaker. Miz counters out of a powerslam attempt into a swinging neckbreaker and looks for the Skull Crushing Finale, but Sheamus tries (and misses) the Brogue Kick before finishing Miz off with the Finlay Celtic Cross at 5:56 (shown). What we got to see was pretty solid, but nothing you haven’t seen a thousand times before. *3/4

Backstage Teddy Long and Aksana do a bit of flirting before John Laurinaitis and David Otunga walk in to interrupt and chastise Teddy for his unprofessional behavior. Teddy tells them he has a special office set up for them tonight, in the men’s bathroom. Otunga tells him his office should be in a dumpster and the two heels take off as we cut to commercial.

Kofi Kingston/R-Truth vs. Dolph Ziggler/Jack Swagger
So I guess Truth is Kofi’s new token partner with Evan Bourne out because of his spice tokin’. Swagger starts off with Truth and quickly hits him with a Swagger Bomb in the corner before tagging Dolph in. Ziggler hits a leg-drop but can’t contain Truth, who tags in Kofi for some high-flying fun. Kofi hits the huge flying cross-body off the top, but Swagger breaks the pin attempt up. Truth and Swagger both get dumped out to the floor and while the ref is busy checking on a fallen Vickie Guerrero outside, Ziggler thumbs Kofi in the eye and hits him with the Zig-Zag to pick up the quick pin at 2:47. Well that was rather quick and did no favors for Truth or Kofi. It did make Ziggler and Swagger look like actual threats for once though. *

We get a video package for the latest entrant into WWE 2012 Hall of Fame class, Ron Simmons. If you only know him a Faarooq, you probably won’t understand why he’s a great pick for the Hall of Fame. Watching the reaction of the fans in the front row when Simmons won the WCW title back in 1992 still sends chills down my spine (the one black guy jumping up and down, freaking out is a classic image I won’t ever forget).

Backstage Santino Marella and his Cobra do a bit of target practice with some plastic cups when Heath Slater enters and knocks all of the targets off of Santino’s table in what can only be described as something O’Doyle would do in Billy Madison.

The Great Khali (5-7) vs. Drew McIntyre (5-13)
This doesn’t bode well for Drew. Khali gives him a chop and then finishes him off with the double-arm chokeslam at 0:33. I wish I understood the point of matches like these, because it doesn’t do anything for anyone. Squash city. 1/4*

Backstage the Big Show lets Cody Rhodes know that he’s a marked man for eliminating him in the battle royal on RAW last night, promising to break his neck.

Big Show (17-6) vs. Mark Henry (12-9)
Ugh, if I never see these two wrestle each other again it will be too soon. Slugfest to start (duh) before Mark decides to stand on Big Show’s chest a bit. Henry starts trash talking Show while he stomps away at him in the corner. Show starts his comeback with a few clotheslines and then hits the spear. He calls for the choke slam when Cody Rhodes interrupts in the middle of their match to come out with a mic and play old Big Show Wrestlemania clips on the titan tron to try and humiliate him (this time going with an extended clip of Show vs. Akebono at Wrestlemania 21). Henry takes advantage of the distraction and hits the World’s Strongest Slam and a splash, but Show still kicks out at two. Show hits Henry with the WMD fist and then exits the ring to chase Cody Rhodes to the back, apparently ending the match around the 5:00 minute mark, though we never get a closing bell to confirm. Why wasn’t Show just counted out? More of an angle than a match, but like all of Henry and Show’s encounters, it was slower than molasses while it lasted. 1/2*

We get clips of WWE’s new YouTube show “Are You Serious” in which Road Dogg and Josh Matthews cut MST3K-style commentary over amusing old wrestling videos. Is that a dream job, or what?

David Otunga (2-2) vs. Ezekiel Jackson (14-14)
This is a rematch from RAW last night, and one of the few occasions where David Otunga isn’t the worst wrestler in the ring. Sloppy slugfest to start with Zeke getting the upper hand in the corner. Zeke tries for the torture rack but Otunga escapes and hits a terrible spinebuster to pick up the win at 1:21. I imagine it’s pretty hard to lift a guy as big as Zeke up, but man, that spinebuster was flat out BAD. Quick, harmless filler. 1/4*

CM Punk is with Matt Striker backstage, where Striker wants to know Punk’s thoughts on his match with Daniel Bryan tonight. Punk talks about knowing Bryan for years and then notes how he’s become the new “rebel” of Smackdown like he once was because of his unpopular vegan ideology. Punk wraps up by promising to teach Bryan how to lose tonight.

CM Punk (1-2) vs. Daniel Bryan (15-15-1)
We’ve got about 25 minutes of TV time remaining, so this should rock. Great chain wrestling to start as you’d expect from these two with both men kipping back up to their feet after an exchange as we take a commercial break. When we return Punk fights out of a side headlock and sends a huge knee into Bryan’s gut. Punk misses a cross-body from the second rope and appears to injure his arm, so Bryan targets the arm immediately and begins driving his knee into it. Punk counters a back suplex into one of his own, dropping Bryan neck first across his knee on the way down! Nasty. Punk lays in some kicks and hits a leg lariat but can’t capitalize because of the injured arm. Both men tease going for their respective finisher’s until Bryan bails out of the ring and calls for his title to leave the match. Sheamus runs down and tosses him back into the ring to meet the same stiff spin-kick from Punk that knocked Jericho out at the Chamber and that’s enough for Punk to seemingly pick up the win at 6:34 (shown), but John Laurinaitis comes running down to re-start the match because of the interference by Sheamus. Johnny grabs a seat at ringside as we take our last commercial break. When we return we get clips of Punk hilariously mocking Bryan’s overzealous ring celebrations but in the ring Bryan rolls up Punk and grabs the second rope for an unfair leverage to seemingly win the match cheaply at 8:18 (shown) but now it’s Teddy Long’s turn to come out and re-start the match. Both men begin trading forearm shots and waist-locks as Punk finally back-suplexes Bryan over the top rope and out of the ring, where Punk follows him out with the tope suicida! Back in the ring Punk hits a springboard clothesline for a near fall. Punk hits the Muay Thai knee in the corner but Bryan counters out of the corner with a wristlock on Punk’s injured arm before nailing him with a running dropkick in the corner for a near fall of his own. Bryan tries for a super Frankensteiner, but Punk rolls through for another close two count. He eats a few stiff kicks from Bryan and then Daniel goes for the LeBell Lock, nearly synching it in before Punk can counter into a catapult into the corner turnbuckle. He nails Bryan again with the spin-kick of doom but Bryan gets his foot on the bottom rope at the last second. Punk and Bryan struggle on the top rope, where Bryan tries repeatedly for a superplex before finally delivering it. Both men think they’ve got the other hooked with the pinfall after the superplex and the ref apparently counts both men’s shoulders down for the draw at 14:22 (shown). Despite their damnedest efforts to ruin this match with overbooking, they still gave them nearly 15 minutes of TV time and just as you’d expect Punk and Bryan delivered solid gold for the time we got. I wasn’t a fan of the two re-starts initially but with the draw finish it does add a bit to the story of the match showing the equal footing these two men are on. Great TV match and better than most of what we saw at the PPV two days ago. ***1/2

After the match Teddy raises Punk’s hand while Johnny raises Bryan’s hand as both men get into a shouting match and OH SHIT THE JACKETS ARE OFF PEOPLE, THE JACKETS ARE OFF! Both men toss their coats at one another and Teddy takes off as we go off the air with Bryan trying to calm Johnny Ace down while Teddy walks off and Punk looks on in bemusement.

Bottom Line: I was feeling a bit iffy about tonight’s show up until the main event, but boy did that last 25 minutes or so of the show really save things. Punk and Bryan delivered another great TV match together and even the Teddy Long/Johnny Ace interactions were amusing. You could probably fast forward through a good portion of the beginning of the show, but I’ll go with the Thumbs Up because of the awesome main event this week.

Score: 7/10

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