wrestling / TV Reports
411’s WWE Smackdown Report 3.01.13
Michael Benjamin here with another Smackdown recap. Tonight is “Social Media Smackdown” or in other words, what they’re already doing every Monday. It should add a nice extra layer of polish to a taped show. Let’s get to it!
SHOW… ON!
Championship Roll Call:
WWE Champion: The Rock
World Champion: Alberto Del Rio
US Champion: Antonio Cesaro
IC Champion: Wade Barrett
Unified Diva’s Champion: Kaitlyn
WWE World Tag Team Champions: Kane & Daniel Bryan
WWE Smackdown Report 3.1.13
– Then. Now. Forevz.
– Damien Sandow has a microphone in hand! “Others will say what they will, but I believe you fit right in with the rest of America. Poor grammar, lackluster word choice, and sentence structure that is absolutely aberrant”. He rips into ADR and Ricardo a bit before mentioning his timeless good looks and entering the ring.
It’s a three man booth tonight with Lawler, Mathews and Cole. It’s actually not terrible. They circle to start. Damien Sandow locks in a side headlock but gets Irish whipped into the ropes. He counters with a shoulder block and gloats. ADR repeats the same sequence this time but Sandow is quick to roll to the outside. Back in and Alberto quickly regains control, hitting a nice moonsault for two after a moment of isolated offense. Sandow gets on offense and initiates the heat sequence. He beats on Alberto for a couple of moments before Alberto delivers a nice kick to the head, sending Sandow to the outside and turning the tide. ADR stands tall as we head to our first…
We’re back and Sandow is pummeling Del Rio. Sandow applies a chinlock as the announcers put over Sandow’s new aggressive streak. Half of the roster is on a new aggressive streak at this point. ADR hits a nice German Suplex! Both men make it to their feet at a six count before exchanging BOO and YES punches. Damien charges Del Rio in the corner but there’s nobody home. We get the vintage face comeback, including a bunch of clotheslines in succession before Alberto hits a Superkick for TWO! Swagger and Coulter are watching on the monitor backstage. Damien reverses a cross arm breaker into a nice face buster for a two count! Alberto delivers those classic kidney punches before the imminent back stabber for TWO. Sandow hits a nice big boot and swinging neck breaker out of nowhere for two! Sandow is in control now. He delivers knees to the sternum of Alberto before attempting a reverse neck breaker. ADR reverses that into the cross arm breaker and Sandow has no choice but to tap out! This was a pretty solid opener. Alberto looked great and Sandow walks away looking like he can hang in the main event scene again. I can’t think of anything else to ask for out of a segment.
OFFICIAL RESULT: Alberto Del Rio @ 7:02 aired via submission
RATING: **1/2
RAW REBOUND: We get a recap video of the CM Punk vs. John Cena match on Raw. I covered this a bit more extensively (Just barely though) in the Main Event recap but man, this was a brilliant match. ****1/2
– Daniel Bryan and Kane argue about their match with The Prime Time Players on Monday. This time, Daniel Bryan will have one arm tied behind his back and Kane will be blindfolded. Kane is okay with this development and that pisses D-Bry off. I absolutely love their chemistry. For the amount of time that Team Hell No is featured every week, their relatively unchanged act has yet to grow old. I think you can attribute 95% of that to the performers.
Here we go. This is probably going to be the feud ender as they head in separate directions for Wrestlemania. Both men start the match by going for roll up falls. Cole says that Team Hell No are trending worldwide. No they’re not. Did they just take stabs in the dark on Tuesday? Cesaro whips Miz into the ropes and hits a sturdy shoulder block. Miz hits a boot to the face of Cesaro before Cesaro rolls to the outside and escapes a pinfall predicament. Miz chases him to the outside and back in. Roll up by Miz! TWO! Miz hits a huge clothesline and sets up for his signature clothesline in the corner. Cesaro catches him and slams him down to the mat with a move that I’m not sure how to call. Anybody? Cesaro hits the Neutralizer out of nowhere and gets the first pinfall!
During the commercial break, Miz earned a submission point on Cesaro with the Figure Four. That’s actually a pretty solid way to pimp the WWE app. Annoying as hell though. So we’re all tied up now. Miz catches Cesaro with a big kick to the face and follows up with a PUNCH CLUBBERING~! Cesaro slaps Miz like a bitch and Miz faces up and delivers a bunch of clotheslines. Cesaro catches him with the uppercut! 1.. 2.. NO! Miz hits a dropkick to the bad knee followed by a DDT for two! Both men make it to their knees and begin exchanging blows to the face. Giggity. They eventually make it to their feet, still punching, and Miz comes out on top! He hits the running clothesline on his second attempt of the match and goes upstairs! He hits an ax handle and instead of going for a pin, Miz works over the knee a bit before applying the Figure Four. He’s not getting two falls like that. Antonio makes it to the ropes. Miz pulls him back to the middle of the ring, attempting to re-apply the Figure Four and Cesaro kicks him into the ref! Miz gets the pin but the ref isn’t aware of it! Cesaro reverses the pinfall and grabs a hand full of undies for the pinfall victory. You knew the last fall would be a little wishy washy considering both men had already won with their finisher in the first two falls. These two have pretty solid chemistry but the commercial break really hurt the match. Especially when one of the falls took place during said commercial break on the app they’re pushing.
OFFICIAL RESULT: Antonio Cesaro (2-1) @ 10:51 aired via pinfall
RATING: **3/4
– Backstage, Sheamus proposes an alliance with Randy Orton. To Sheamus’ surprise, Randy accepts the deal.
– JR makes his way down to the ring to interview Jack Swagger and Zeb Coulter. He introduces Swagger and Zeb and they come out to Swagger’s epic theme song. JR makes quick note of the fact that he was the one who recruited Swagger from the Sooners. He cuts down the Sooners to some pretty good heat. He says that he thinks JR is a real American and that’s why he allowed the interview to be conducted. JR says that Swagger isn’t the same man that he remembers. He asks what happens and Zeb interrupts saying that he’s lead the way for Jack. JR is confused as to why Zeb is talking for Jack. Coulter cuts a similar promo to what he’s been delivering lately.
– JR attempts to ask Jack about his Wrestlemania match with Alberto Del Rio but Zeb interrupts again to chime in with another xenophobic rant. I like the direction they’re going with this. When Jack “sees the light”, if they ever go that direction, they can just attach another floundering act to Zeb. Zeb’s mustache is ****1/4. Swagger says we the people a couple more times and JR asks Swagger what’s happened to him. He claims that Coulter has brainwashed Swagger. Zeb disagrees with JR’s assessment of the situation, saying that he only opened Swagger’s eyes to the truth. Zeb and JR go back and forth. Swagger knocks JR’s hat off his head and says that he was wrong about JR. He says that JR is either part of the solution or part of the problem. According to Jack, JR is nothing more than a sympathizer. (AKA PART OF THE PROB)
– Here comes ADR to stop a potential assault on JR. He would have been out a moment sooner but he had to tell the sound guys to hit his music. Alberto says that HE is the solution. Jack isn’t a real American. He’s a real jackass. AYE-OOOOOO. Alberto’s music plays and Swagger takes that as his cue to leave. This was a decent segment. I think they’ll manage to get a ton of heat on Swagger by Mania.
So Daniel Bryan has one hand tied behind his back and Kane will be blindfolded. Kane’s blindfold is a goat face. Darren Young and Kane start things off and Kane can’t find his way around. Darren gets on his knees and stand behind Kane, hoping Kane would fall over him. Kane didn’t fall for it and Darren screams “It didn’t work, Titus! It didn’t work!” Titus hilariously begins to blow his whistle, revealing his location as well. In comes D-Bry and he delivers a bevy of kicks to the chest of Darren. D-Bry gets a roll up for two!
Daniel Bryan hits a nice running dropkick and tags in goat face Kane! Titus O’Neil is the other legal man but Kane can’t find him! It’s funny because his mask has a goat face! Kane gives Titus a hip toss and can’t seem to find where he threw Titus. Titus baits Kane with the whistle and Darren attacks. That’s sound strategy. Titus tags in Darren but Kane hits a chokeslam! He goes for the cover and can’t find Darren Young for the pin. Kane almost gives Bryan a chokeslam before feeling his beard and realizing it was him. Titus takes advantage of this and gets a roll up victory on D-Bry. Kane and Daniel Bryan argue after the match. They argue even more when Kane realizes that his blind fold mask had a goat face on it. Bryan says that he didn’t do it and wants to hug it out. Kane puts the mask on him instead and gives him an uppercut before exiting the ring. So are they wrestling each other or another team at Mania? There were some funny spots and some cheesy spots. They worked with what they had.
OFFICIAL RESULT: The Prime Time Players @ 4:10 aired via pinfall
RATING: 3/4*
– Backstage, Matt Striker is with Big Show. Striker asks if Show has any comments on his match with Orton tonight. Big Show says that it’s Mania season. It’s time to make an impact.
– Matt Striker is backstage with Fandango. Fandango tells Striker to breathe the A’s in when speaking his name. Striker can’t seem to get it down. He asks Fandango about his fighting style. Fandango says that he’s accomplished everything that there is to accomplish in the ballroom and that it’s time to take that grace to the ring. Fandango says that he won’t wrestle until Striker gets his name right.
RAW REBOUND 2 We get a recap of the McMahon/Heyman segment. Based purely on Lesnar/Triple H 1, I’m not excited for the rematch. If they work a different style than they did in their Summerslam match (i.e. more exciting), they can potentially deliver a classic though. I have no doubt about that.
– Before the match, Alberto Del Rio vs. Dolph Ziggler is announced for next week. This was a Social Media Smackdown poll. If they’re going to keep doing stuff like this, they need to fix the audio issues. They have the announcers record a bunch of lines that may apply to who will be trending on Twitter during the live airing or in this instance, what the results of a poll are. They did a terrible job mixing these in with the crowd audio. Kind of surprising, as this is where WWE usually flourishes.
So, what’s Big Show doing at Mania? They’ve done a pretty good job of keeping him strong and we’re only five weeks away from Mania. It looks like Ryback will be involved with The Shield so I’m not positive Ryback/Show is in the books this year. Big Show backs Orton into the corner and goes for a SHHH chop but Orton fights him off into another corner. Orton attempts the ten count punches but Big Show fights that off. Orton ends up in the corner, falling victim to the overhand chop. Big Show’s original choice of decimation at the beginning of the match. They tangle into the adjacent corner and Show delivers another chop to Orton. SPEAR BY SHOW~! Commersh!
We’re back and Big Show remains in control. He’s zeroing in on Orton’s arm. Randy attempts to fight back but can’t maintain offense. Show’s working the ribs as well, which are injured from the spear before the commercial break. Orton’s on his back and Big Show goes for an elbow off of the second rope! ORTON MOVES! Orton gets to his feet quickly and charges Show. Show catches him and attempts a chokeslam but Orton hits the DDT! ONE… TWO… NO! They end up brawling outside and Orton sends Big Show head first into the ring post. Orton hits a modified DDT off of the TOP ROPE on Big Show into the inside! HERE COMES THE SHIELD! They surround the ring, about to attack, but here comes Sheamus! The crowd is chanting “feed me more” as the five men begin to brawl!
OFFICIAL RESULT: Randy Orton @ 8:54 via DQ
RATING: **1/2
– Big Show knocks out Reigns with the KO punch! Ambrose and Rollins grab Reigns and retreat through the crowd. It was out of instinct however. No alliance with The Shield and Big Show here. He punched the closest man as he made it back to his feet. Sheamus gives Big Show a Brogue Kick and stands tall. Orton and Sheamus shake hands as we go off air. So it’s Sheamus/Ryback/Orton vs The Shield at Mania? If the rumored Jericho vs Henry and Sheamus vs Barrett matches are legit, I don’t even know where they’re going with this. That was a hot way to close the show though. I know that much.
OVERALL: This was a solid show. All of the wrestling was good and all of the main angles intelligently moved us forward to Wrestlemania. They REALLY need to start focusing on that undercard though. With Cesaro and Miz seemingly blowing off their feud tonight, it seems like we may see the puzzle start coming together better next week. I’ll see you guys on Wednesday for the Main Event recap! As always, thank you for reading.
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