PWInsiderXTRA - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THE 7/3 LIVE SMACKDOWN

SMACKDOWN - 03/07/2012 EMAIL: revinsamuel@rogers.com
What this show needs to accomplish?
•New Money in the Bank competitors. We have five guys involved right now and it will be interesting to see how many more guys get locked in for this match. I’d go with six or eight guys most and hopefully Cody and Dolph find their way into this match
•Details and continuity with storylines and characters. I thought WWE really tightened this up for one show at least on Raw and it would be a great thing if they could keep this up on Smackdown
•Spotlight on the mid card. The Primetime Players, Brodus Clay, Tyson Kidd, Damien Sandow and others getting attentions and character development is a good thing and if WWE can make the audience invest in these guys it would be a big bonus for the company going forward
•The battle royal for GM powers next week. This is a fine hook for a show, but hopefully it doesn’t become the theme of the show to the point of overpowering the Money in the Bank hype. Balance and pacing is key with this!
Show Breakdown

1. Smackdown opens with those stupid, awful backstage party segments that are beyond played out. I’d almost prefer seeing the standard opening promo over this stuff. I hope we don’t have to deal with too much of it throughout the show.

2. Weird Alberto promo here. It’s different; I am not sure why he’s so focused on these people having their papers.

3. Effective and visually violent looking beat down of Sheamus by Del Rio. I guess the purpose of Raw and Smackdown this week were to show that Alberto has a mean streak.

4. The only benefit of seeing The Great Khali is seeing Layla come out dancing to his theme music.

5. I hope WWE has more foresight than to job Cesaro out to Khali. I know the lower tier divas as pretty much interchangeable, but I was a much bigger fan of Maxine than I am of Aksana.

6. Thank God WWE didn’t feed Cesaro to Khali. This match worked for me just for Layla’s post match victory dance!

7. A great Raw flashback moment with Foley winning the title for the first time!

8. Cody-Christian and hopefully this is given some time. I like Booker on commentator saying this could be the most important match in Cody’s career which translates to putting an emphasis on how important it is to get into the Money in the Bank match and therefore making the pay per view feel like it is a must see event. I also like Cole mentioning that every person that has won the MITB match has gone on to win the big title

9. Cody gets into MITB in a good match, but a clean win over the IC Champion. Beating your IC Champion clean is a lack of foresight, but perhaps it’s a good sign for Cody’s career that they possibly see him above IC level.

10. Why is Hornswoggle in the kitty pool?

11. Maybe these backstage dance segments appeal to others, but to me they are played out and one of those signs of how out of touch The Bubble that is WWE Creative really is.

12. Dolph Ziggler in a MITB qualifying match against Alex Riley and WWE will be two for two here if they Dolph in this match after just putting Cody in.

13. I like the drop kick by Riley followed by the quick pin attempt. It was a good near fall that had me believing Riley might score the upset especially after they had Tyson Kidd beat Jack Swagger last week.

14. Another good near fall as WWE’s treatment of Dolph Ziggler has me believing they would let Riley score the win on him.

15. Dolph gets the win and with him and Cody in this match that puts two guys in this match I could see with the briefcase.

16. I love the creepy background music WWE is using to recap the AJ storyline from Raw.

17. Nice of Daniel Bryan to logically sell going through the table from Raw last night.

18. I thought this AJ-Punk-Bryan segment was a little too focused on AJ, but at the end they managed to bring it around to AJ’s importance is the power she holds to get to the gold that stands behind her. As for the double kisses to Punk and Bryan, I am not sure why CM Punk the babyface would allow her to kiss him for an extended period of time especially if he has no interest in her. The key to Punk not looking stupid in the end if AJ ends up with Bryan are that Punk rejected AJ to begin with and by allowing her to kiss him for several seconds that makes it look like it isn’t the case. I know why WWE did it and I don’t want to bitch about it too much as it was another effective move to keep you guessing with AJ and her role as ref in the match at Money in the Bank.

19. No surprise on that on the July 4th themed, Great American Bash Smackdown that we see Sgt. Slaughter and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Michael McCole has already started bashing the Legends for looking old.

20. A faint “You still have it” chant for Duggan and Slaughter and sorry crowd, but that is not the case!

21. I am not sure what it does for Damien Sandow to feud with a guy WWE continues to disrespect in Zack Ryder, but maybe that will change.

22. As for Eve getting the punch spilled on her and everybody laughing at her, I don’t know, but that might seem like a bit of bullying to me! I guess she’s just getting what’s coming to her since she went heel to join the Laurinaitis administration.

23. Well at least Ryback has gone back to destroying lower tier WWE jobbers as oppose to actual jobber handicap teams.

24. The crowd needs to get over The Goldberg chants. 2012 kids, 2012.

25. I am looking at this graphic for the battle royal and it’s pretty disrespectful if you ask me that John Cena with no belt gets top billing in the graphic over Punk and Sheamus. At least try and put on a little bit facade for us that you don’t look at Cena has ten notches above everyone else.

26. Raw flashback segments with Donald Trump and he lets us know that the fans appreciate him more than Vince, because he paid them off. Alright then...

27. Teddy out and lets us know that the winner of this battle royal will be the GM of Smackdown next week. The key being Smackdown, which means Raw’s GM, is still open for discussion. I’m hoping Sir William Regal gets the nod on that one.

28. I’m surprised Jack Swagger was considered elite enough to make a top twenty for a WWE battle royal.

29. Well just as I complain about John Cena being front and center ahead of the champions in the graphic, he randomly is introduced 4th out of the 20 men in the battle royal as we head to commercial.

30. Perhaps I shouldn’t read anything into the order of how guys came out, but interesting that back from commercial Daniel Bryan is already in the ring and that Big Show not CM Punk was the last guy introduced. Sheamus nowhere to be found and I hope he doesn’t run down late to win the thing, but I don’t put it past WWE.

31. Big Show eliminates Gabriel and Brodus goes right to attacking Big Show and gets immediately eliminated. Perhaps Brodus and Dolph should feud with each other knowing they can’t beat Show or Sheamus.

32. Ezekiel Jackson eliminated and I don’t even recall seeing him in the graphic for the battle royal.

33. I’m surprised that Zack Ryder eliminated Damien Sandow. Sandow not getting that much protection on this show in the backstage segment and now in the battle royal.

34. Shockingly Heath Slater is still in the battle royal as we head to commercial break.

35. Back from commercial and I don’t see Slater so I will assume he was eliminated during the break.

36. Punk and Bryan eliminate themselves and that definitely makes sense.

37. Zack Ryder is still alive and cooking and that would be an interesting choice for GM.

38. The crowd seemed really into the Kane-Show showdown and Kane being able to choke slam Big Show.

39. John Cena taking a beating from three guys and then of course makes his own comeback and starts beating up not only three guys, but four guys! That’s John Cena ladies and gentleman!

40. Well John Cena got to look like Super Man before being eliminated by Big Show

41. It comes down to Zack Ryder and Kane as Josh Mathews lets us know the history between Ryder and Kane. Once again I appreciate the nod to previous storylines.

42. Shock of shocks WWE gives Zack Ryder the acting GM role for next week’s Smackdown. He better add himself to the MITB match!

What this show accomplished?
The Good
•Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler get into the MITB match. This needed to be done and I’d have to assume one of these guys is the odds on favorite to win
•Zack Ryder wins the battle royal and will be Smackdown GM. A much needed boost for Ryder and hopefully it’s a sign that WWE will give him a chance. It would all be very petty of course since Ryder was massively hot, WWE stripped him down and now will build him back up in their own mold...or it’s just a onetime thing, which is what I’d bet on. Bonus for finally allowing Zack to get his heat back on Kane and to a lesser Eve
•The Battle Royal. I thought this was a quality battle royal and they got me invested in seeing who would win
•Del Rio beat down of Sheamus. A visually violent looking beat down slamming the car hood down on Sheamus head repeatedly. WWE looked like they had an objective of giving Del Rio a mean streak this week and delivered through beat downs on Sin Cara and Sheamus
•Booker T does well on commentary. I liked that Booker put over before the Cody match how this might be the most important match in Cody’s career
•Layla dancing
The Bad
•AJ-Punk-Bryan. A perfect example of the difference between bookers and writers. This segment was way too overproduced, overacted and over scripted. Why would babyface CM Punk allow AJ to make out with him for 15-20 seconds especially after she had just made out with his upcoming opponent? The reason? Because it is a better story to tell, but its way too convoluted and doesn’t fit with Punk’s character. If WWE wanted to have her kiss both men and have them accept the kiss, they should have found a better way to get there then this segment
•Money in the Bank hype. I didn’t see it that emphasized tonight as WWE was more focused on hyping Raw 1000 and celebrating the July 4th holiday
•The backstage holiday party theme. It’s so overdone. WWE has run this concept into the ground and need to move away from it. It’s one thing to have Jim Duggan and Slaughter out there, it’s another thing all together to do the stupid backstage parties where people are standing around in bikinis and dancing to Brodus Clay’s theme music.
•Cody beats Christian clean. I like the idea of Cody finally getting a win on Christian and having to beat a guy he hadn’t beaten to get into the match, but Christian is the IC Champ, which once again devalues the belt when he loses, let alone clean!
Overall Thought
•This was fine for a standalone show, but in the overall scheme of things I thought alot of guys were mishandled tonight including Punk, Clay and Sandow
What needs to be accomplished next week?
•The final show before MITB so it should be a promotional and hype blitz. Let the Raw 1000th hype take a back seat.