411’s WWE Smackdown Report 06.07.2013

Hello and welcome! Michael Benjamin here with your weekly dose of Smackdown results. Lets see if WWE can follow up a pretty good episode of Raw with another solid outing tonight.

SHOW… ON!

Championship Roll Call:
WWE Champion: John Cena
World Champion: Dolph Ziggler
US Champion: Dean Ambrose
IC Champion: Wade Barett
Diva’s Champion: Kaitlyn
WWE World Tag Team Champions: Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns

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WWE Smackdown Report 6.7.13

Miz TV Featuring Team Hell No and Randy Orton Miz enters the ring and welcomes us to the show. He says that his guests tonight were the first team to come so close to defeating The Shield in a six man tag match and that after the match they had some issues. I guess The Shield’s loss in the elimination tag doesn’t count. Miz is about to call Daniel Bryan the weak link of the team before Daniel Bryan interrupts him and says he has something to say. A HUGE Daniel Bryan chant breaks out. D-Bry says that he realized Orton didn’t try to hit him and that Kane is the best partner he could have. Kane asks if Bryan is going to drop the “weak link” garbage. Miz cuts him off and asks if Daniel Bryan feels like he’s getting the respect he deserves. Daniel Bryan says sometimes. Orton tells Miz to watch what he says because Daniel Bryan is messed up. This sets Bryan off. Kane says that everybody respects him and the crowd goes shit crazy. Orton says that he’s respecting Daniel Bryan less and less every time he calls himself the weak link. Daniel Bryan blames Orton for the loss. He mentions that Kane was FORCED to team with him and that if Kane had anybody else, he’d already be out of here. After giving up on talking sense into D-Bry, Kane gets frustrated and leaves. Miz asks if we just saw the breakup of Team Hell No. “Sure” says Daniel Bryan. HERE COMES TEDDY. Tonight, Daniel Bryan is going to face Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins of The Shield. Since Kane doesn’t want anything to do with Daniel Bryan, he’s going to have to team with Randy Orton. This was the best Miz TV that I can remember. All three men’s characters are establishing some major depth over the course of this angle. Which is essentially what every storyline should accomplish in some way, shape, or form.

– Chris Jericho and Axel Curtis are headed to the ring for their match… NEXT!

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–Commercial Break–

– Paul Heyman puts Curtis Axel’s wins against John Cena and Triple H over before handing Axel the mic. Axel says that just like Cena and Triple H, he’s going to show another former World Champion what it’s like to be… PERFECT.

Chris Jericho vs. Curtis Axel (w/ Paul Heyman) Say what you will about Curtis Axel, but I generally get excited when I know he’s about to have a match. I suppose that a lot of that could be attributed to Paul Heyman’s ringside presence. Heyman joins JBL and Cole at the booth. They lock up to start and we’re off to the races. Jericho hits a nice dropkick followed by a few chops. He stomps a mudhole into Axel before Axel fights back. Jericho is quick to get back on offense with a clothesline over the top followed by a dropkick through the ropes. He slams Axel’s head on the announce table and rolls him back in. Axel catches him with a kick to the face followed by an assisted reverse neckbreaker off of the middle rope that looked really crisp. He goes for a cover and gets TWO as we head to break.

Commercial Break

We’re back as Axel delivers a chop to Jericho on the outside before rolling him in and covering for two. They show a nice looking right hand that happened during the commercial. Axel hits a shoulder block and gets another two before locking in a sleeper hold. Jericho makes it to his feet and snapmares his way out of that. Jericho hits a forearm off the top rope and goes for the walls but Axels kicks him. Jericho clotheslines him back down and misses a Lionsault. Axel hits his modified neckbreaker and only gets two. The crowd really bit for that nearfall. Axel misses a splash in the corner and Jericho hits a cross body followed by a lateral press for TWO. Jericho goes for a clothesline but Axel battles back. He goes for the perfect-plex but Jericho counters into a Walls of Jericho attempt. He locks it in! Heyman is concerned at ringside but Axel makes it to the ropes! Jericho hits a springboard dropkick that sends Axel to the outside. Paul Heyman gets on the announce table and says “It’s clobbering time!” CM Punk’s music hits and distracts Jericho! Axel sneaks back in the ring and gets a roll up for the victory! This was an excellent match. Axel more than held his own out there and really made me a believer. He does his dad’s signature pose on the top rope to a chorus of boos.

OFFICIAL RESULT: Curtis Axel @ 6:40 via pinfall
RATING: ***

– After the match, Jericho runs back into the ring and hits Axel with a Codebreaker. He points to Heyman after the match. Before you even say that he buried Axel, you have to know that it’s to build Punk/Y2J. Axel looked strong and this was a great way to continue the Jericho/Punk feud without Punk being there.

– Backstage, Kane is walking down a hallway before running into Ryback. Ryback asks if he saw what he did to Daniel on Raw. Kane says “lets see if you can do it to me. I’ve tombstoned a priest, set a man on fire, and buried my brother alive. Whatever your rules may be, they sure as hell don’t apply to me.” I love how they always reference all of the messed up things Kane has done in his career.

Commercial Break

– Wyatt Family promo! Every time I see one of these I get his damn theme song stuck in my head. Cole says that later tonight we’re going to learn more about the Wyatt Family. Awesome.

RAW REBOUND: They show us all of the McMahon family drama from Raw. Like I said in the Main Event report, I liked this a whole lot more than most of the IWC. It’s the first time I’ve cared about a Triple H angle in quite a few years.

Commercial Break

Alberto Del Rio vs. Heath Slater (w/ Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal At the beginning of the year, I was very much on the Del Rio bandwagon. I thought he was fresh and natural in his new face role. I’m finding myself sigh when I hear his theme song now. I can sink my teeth into a Slater match though! 3MB beat the hell out of Alberto before the match starts but Alberto fights back. He hits a tilt-a-whirl slam on Slater and goes for the cross arm breaker. Slater taps but the bell never rang. Ricardo and Alberto send all three men packing. Ricardo goes to the top rope and hits a plancha on 3MB off of the top rope! This was a pretty entertaining non-match.

OFFICIAL RESULT: No Match
RATING: N/A

– Dolph Ziggler pops up on the Titan-Tron and says that Alberto looked great for not being Ziggler. Ziggler says he’ll be on Raw to confront Alberto Del Rio. I’m not used to all of these segments that seem so… purposeful.

Commercial Break

Ryback vs. Kane We have a few lock up standoffs to start. Ryback pushes Kane and Kane hits him with uppercut. They follow up with some back and forth brawling. Ryback lifts Kane up over his head with both hands and drops him on his stomach. That was pretty impressive looking. “We want tables” chants break out. On the app, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton are looking on. Shit, I want an app where I can watch wrestlers look on. Kane hits a big boot and a pair of corner clotheslines before delivering a sidewalk slam for two. Running DDT to Ryback followed by a clothesline over the top. Kane follows him to the outside and Ryback drop toeholds Kane mask first into the barricade. He slams Kane’s head against the apron a few times and grabs a table under the ring that’s sitting next to a bin of Gatorade. I’d have grabbed a quick sip. He slides the table in but Kane fights back. Kane misses a clothesline from the top and eats a spinebuster. Ryback sets up for the Meathook but Kane counters with a chokeslam! ROPE BREAK! Kane looks at the table and decides that he wants to utilize it! Bad idea probably. Ryback makes it to his feet and turns around. Kane attempts to chokeslam Ryback through the table but Ryback rakes the eyes! He powerbombs Kane through the table for the disqualification! This was a pretty solid power match. Kane kept the pace quick for the duration and the DQ ending was satisfying.

OFFICIAL RESULT:Kane @ 5:47 via DQ
RATING: **1/2

–Commercial Break–

– Damien Sandow joins us in the ring upon our return from break. He says that over the last several weeks Sheamus has failed all of his intellectual challenges. Sheamus is never going to be his equal. Who will be? Sandow says that everybody is a bunch of a checker minds living in a chess world. SILENCE! Which leads him to the only thing in the world capable of matching him intellectually… a super computer. Damien puts over the computer’s chess skills. The computer, “Deep Blue”, says that Damien is too kind. Damien silences the computer! Here we go! Damien vs Deep Blue! Damien mentions that he was a chess champion at the age of eight. Damien moves a pawn and here comes Sheamus. Sheamus bets Sandow that he can beat Big Blue in one move. Oh man, I wonder what he’s going to do! Sheamus stalls forever before hitting a Brogue Kick to Big Blue. This pisses Sandow off and he beats Sheamus down! He tosses him into the table that the computer was sitting on multiple times. It’s nice to see Sandow finally come out on top of one of these segments.

– Backstage, Orton tells D-Bry that Kane had to go to the trainers room after his match with Ryback. Bryan doesn’t care and he wants Orton to stay out of his way. Orton isn’t taking orders from Bryan though. He doesn’t like orders and he doesn’t like D-Bry.

–Commercial Break–

– We get a second Wyatt Family vignette. I can’t wait for them to debut.

Fandango (w/ Summer Rae) vs. Zack Ryder Fandango kicks him in the gut and delivers some punches. He hits a nice corkscrew dropkick and knees Ryder in the face a few times. He hits him with a nice uppercut and Fandango poses for Miz. Ryder fights back with a knee and a facebuster. Ryder hits a drop kick off the top rope and hits the Broski Boot for two. He follows up with a clothesline. Fandango reverses the Rough Ryder into a powerbomb and hits the Alabama Jam off the top rope. It’s over! SQUASH! It was entertaining enough though. Fandango is still making minor adjustments to his character between moves and is really progressing nicely.

OFFICIAL RESULT:Fandango @ 2:18 via pinfall
RATING: SQUASH

–Commercial Break–

– We get a replay of Ryback’s match with Daniel Bryan on Raw. Ryback’s best match to date? They follow up with clips of all of the table spots he’s been a part of over the past few weeks.

– Natalya is walking backstage. She catches up with Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn says that she’s going to meet her secret admirer on Raw. Natalya says that this guy could be a total creep. She said “this guy” a bunch of times so it’s going to be Kaitlyn’s best friend AJ that knows everything she wants to hear.

Commercial Break

Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins start things off. Rollins tries to leapfrog him but Bryan catches him with a dropkick and locks him in a half surfboard before stomping the legs of Rollins. He hyper-extends Rollins’ arm over his shoulder and then tries to snap it out of his socket with his boot. Bryan hits a dropkick and covers for two. Rollins corners D-Bry and tags in Reigns. Reigns chokes him out in the corner with his feet and tags Rollins in. Rollins comes back in with some kicks before tagging Reigns back in with a double team assisted splash in the corner followed by a clothesline. Reigns locks in a headlock and the crowd claps Bryan on. Bryan fights out with a few blows to the midsection before getting cornered and stomped on. Reigns runs at him in the corner and ends up eating a drop toehold onto the second rope. Double hot tag and Orton cleans house with his signature moves. Orton sets up for an RKO on Rollins but Reigns pulls him to the outside before our final commercial break.

Commercial Break

We’re back as The Shield double team Orton in their corner. During the break, Reigns his a Superman punch on Orton for a two count. Reigns locks in a headlock and Orton makes it to his feet. He powers out but can’t make it to Daniel Bryan. Rollins assaults Orton and tags Reigns back in. Reigns delivers a few boots and tags Rollins back in. Orton sidesteps Reigns and sends him into the ring post and clotheslines Rollins! He tags in Bryan and Bryan immediately hits a double missile dropkick off the top rope followed by a bevy of kicks to both men. Reigns rolls to the outside and Bryan hits an AWESOME German suplex on Rollins before diving through the ropes on both men as the crowd goes nuts. Bryan hits a flying headbutt on Rollins and covers. Reigns breaks it up! Orton hits the RKO on Reigns! Rollins dodges a dropkick and Bryan hits Orton! Rollins rolls him up but Bryan reverses it into the No Lock! Rollins is about to tap but Ambrose breaks it up for the DQ. Daniel Bryan still cleans house and there it is! ORTON RKO’S DANIEL BRYAN! He stares down at Bryan with a smug look on his face as we head off air. It was Daniel Bryan and The Shield in there so of course this was going to be awesome. Daniel Bryan is the most over wrestler on the roster without question so the crowd was nuts throughout. The action was nonstop and we may have witnessed the beginning of the rumored Orton turn. Great main event.

OFFICIAL RESULT Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan @ 9:33 via DQ
RATING: ***1/4

OVERALL: What an episode! There was plenty of quality wrestling, no filler segments, and some great storytelling and angle advancement. This is a prime example of how good their product can be at two hours. What more could you ask for? 8.0/10