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GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THE 7/20 SMACKDOWN

SMACKDOWN - 20/07/2012 E: revinsamuel@rogers.com
What needs to be accomplished on this show?
•Money in the Bank emphasis. WWE had two strong segments on Raw involving the Money in the Bank winner, but I didn’t think the show nor the competitors were emphasized enough for what they had to go through in that match. It be nice to see more focus on that during Smackdown
•Peep Show with D-Bry and AJ. WWE is rushing out a wedding and hopefully they take full advantage of this segment to build anticipation for a hot shot wedding
•Summerslam hype. I just hope we get a few mentions of Summerslam as I know we are in full hype mode for Raw 1000 so that’s all I’m going to ask for here.
•Brock Lesnar on Raw 1000 hype. They’ve done a fantastic job of building this stand alone show, but they have really let Brock Lesnar fall by the way side and I’m hoping that part of Raw 1000 is emphasized tonight
Show Breakdown

1. Naturally Smackdown starts off with Rey Mysterio since the show is in San Diego. Hopefully the plan is to showcase him even if he does have two strikes.

2. WWE getting to tell a couple good stories this week. Punk dropped the pipe bomb promo in Las Vegas and they return to Las Vegas this year following his retention of the title at the pay per view and now Rey returns for his first words in the same building and his hometown where he was taken out of action.

3. Alberto the heel has no problem getting in the ring with Rey and Rey who was taken out for a year by Alberto doesn’t attack him out right away? This is what happens when you have writers and words are more important than logic.

4. Dolph enters the fray of scripted verbiage and at least acknowledges that he was going to cash in Sunday until Del Rio stopped him thus storyline continuity.

5. Let me say I’m shocked with the way Sheamus has been getting pushed that they closed out the segment playing Rey’s music especially since Sheamus was the only one to get any shots in on the heels. Standard opening segment.

6. Main event announced logically as Sheamus and Rey vs Dolph and Alberto and without a GM this is how main events would be announced. I wouldn’t mind if WWE stuck to this method. I was half expecting some random authority figure to come out in the opening segment to announce the tag match.

7. Primetime Players out and they are forced to get over with their body language and physical charisma because their words have been given to the ever annoying Abraham Washington.

8. Primetime Players teaming up with Hunico and Camacho in a rare eight man tag against Kofi, Truth, Primo and Epico and no storyline continuity here since I believe Kofi and Truth took the belts from Primo and Epico. I guess if the writing team has no issue having Cena and Kane team up, they probably don’t even know that Kofi and Truth beat Primo and Epico for the tag titles.

9. The Primetime Players actually get a win for once.

10. Big Show comes out randomly and we actually have a good heel spot here. As Show is about to double choke slam Primo and Truth when Kofi nails him with a kick from behind, but before Kofi can capitalize on it, Young and O’Neal interfere to take him out and then of course Show decimates the remaining guys, because WWE doesn’t think when it comes to their tag division.

11. WWE is actually having Jeremy Piven do a Raw Flashback Moment, the dude who called Summerslam, Summerfest. These are the times where I say to myself Vince has no respect for his own product. Of all the celebrities they can choose from that like the product such as Mike Tyson, Shaq or even Maria Menenous, but nope, Ari Gold is the choice to use here.

12. WWE showing us some footage of John Cena winning MITB and his goofy, I don’t understand why people boo me facial expressions. Typical WWE too they piped in a “Cena” chant.  This turns into a full on hype job for the WWE title match for Raw 1000th episode.

13. Michael Cole says “it’s been years since someone has let us know when they were going to cash in the MITB contract”....pretty sure Daniel Bryan did the same thing last year when he said he’d cash in at Wrestlemania...and then didn’t.

14. Like Alberto Del Rio on Monday, Damien Sandow squashes Zack Ryder. I guess after giving Zack the battle royal win they felt the need to really bury him hard this week. Bipolar Vince is a fun guy, isn’t he?

15. The crowd heavily into Zack, but that’s not manufactured by the sixteen person creative team. You see they don’t get any satisfaction or self worth from Zack getting a push so he must get buried and destroyed by their creations like Damien Sandow.

16. Peep Show segment and good to see Christian has the intercontinental title front and center. Bryan and AJ out and AJ looking sexy in the cut off Bryan shirt.

17. I can’t tell whether this crowd is with Bryan or not. They seemed to boo him when Christian made the intro, but as soon as his music hit, the “Yes” chant was in full effect. Does that mean they are into Bryan or they are into chanting yes? Probably a bit of both

18. Humorous video package looking at the wedding plans. This would be alot better if they spread it out over a few weeks. I’d love to see a Daniel Bryan bachelor party with William Regal and Derrick Bateman. I hope WWE doesn’t plan to cram the bachelor, bachelorette party and wedding all on to Raw this week.

19. Judging by how this Peep Show is going they are trying to lead us in the direction that Bryan is taking advantage of airhead AJ, which now would tell me that come wedding night they aren’t going to go that direction. I hope the plan isn’t to have AJ swerve Bryan and emasculate him in anyway.

20. Kane is AJ’s ex boyfriend? Sixteen writers...

21. Even Michael Cole is saying it’s her ex boyfriend so I guess WWE is rewriting history.

22. Bryan and Kane ends when AJ interferes. AJ and Kane stare each other down, Bryan pulls AJ leaves with her and then kisses her on the ramp. AJ looks at Bryan with the puppy dog eyes and I am thinking either A) AJ is turning on Bryan or B) Kane interrupts the wedding and kidnaps or marries AJ himself after taking Bryan out. I guess if they really wanted to turn Bryan babyface option A would really be the way to go.

23. We get a graphic for Dolph’s win at MITB. He doesn’t get the extended package like Cena does, but at least they made an effort.

24. We get another Raw Flashback moment and this one is Zack Ryder reminding us of GTV. I tell ya this is like the go home show for Raw’s 1000th episode and they choose a couple crappy flashbacks, but it’s a nitpick  for sure.

25. Road Warrior Animal out to face Heath Slater who takes the challenge a legend gimmick to Smackdown. It’s always good to see Road Warrior Animal just to hear the awesome theme music.

26. Booker T with some solid commentary when it comes to hyping guys from his generation like Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio and now Road Warrior Animal.

27. Huge LOD chant, you knew that was coming!

28. Michael Cole and Booker doing a hard sell for the Legends who are going to be on Raw’s 1000th episode and then Michael Cole begins talking about the present guys who will be on the show. I like that, I like that alot!

29. I think I had mentioned in my raw columns that the Touts from fans weren’t that annoying, well that all changed tonight. We saw a grown man in a Cena shirt, another grown man holding the spinner belt and another dude congratulating AJ and Bryan on their wedding. I know Stephanie (who appears to understand the business just as well as John Cena )said in the Tout press release that they wanted the Touts to be storyline related to get on TV, but this is the kind of stuff that isn’t going to help WWE’s cause in trying to get Tout over.

30. Ricardo goes from talking Spanish to talking perfect English in this backstage segment with Vickie. Seeing Ricardo and Vickie together on screen, I actually wouldn’t mind seeing WWE trial them as a couple. Although with the way WWE does comedy they’d probably ruin it quickly.

31. WWE does a full card down for Raw 1000. Imagine if they could do that for pay per views? I did notice that Christian’s title defense got snubbed. I wonder if during rewrites on Raw Monday afternoon that will be taken off the show all together.

32. Interesting to see we are getting a replay of the Ziggler-Jericho segment from Raw as Ziggler heads to the ring for the main event of Smackdown. I like that and it tells us that we likely haven’t seen the last of these two in a program hopefully building to a classic Summerslam match.

33. The commentary during this match is still building towards a continuing of the feud between Sheamus and Del Rio so if that’s direction they are going one has to wonder where Rey fits in.

34. WWE in lame DQ week mode. Show gets DQ’d for pushing a ref, Bryan gets DQ’d for AJ jumping on Kane, and now Del Rio and Dolph DQ’d because Ricardo grabbed Sheamus leg. WWE Creative is using alot of cop out finishes these days and it’s beginning to get annoying.

35. Del Rio destroys Sheamus again and my question is why they are continuing this feud when Sheamus beat Del Rio clean as a whistle at Money in the Bank. At some point you need to put some sports logic into your entertainment program WWE!

36. Sheamus stays down for about five seconds to sell the arm breaker. He really is the modern day Triple H as he brogue kicks Dolph who WWE felt the need to tease again like he’d cash in MITB. I’m not sure why they couldn’t just have Rey hit the 619 and then have Dolph bail so Sheamus could continue to sell the side effects of Del Rio holding on to the arm bar submission for an extended period of time.

What this show accomplished?
The Good
•Heath Slater gimmick debuts on Smackdown. I like that they brought this to Smackdown and gave us the pleasant surprise of Road Warrior Animal
•Peep Show with Bryan and AJ/Bryan-Kane. I enjoyed this because I thought it built intrigue and anticipation for the wedding on Monday. The fans don’t seem to be behind a babyface Bryan and AJ team...probably because WWE has pushed it way too fast therefore the angle of Kane kidnapping AJ and Bryan having to save her might not work if the fans aren’t cheering for that. The other line of thinking I have is that AJ turns on Bryan. It appears based on Smackdown that we are likely headed to Bryan-Kane at Summerslam and that’s a program I don’t want to see, but the issue comes up with guys like Kane and Big Show being around for forever and a day so they have to get top programs
•Raw 1000 hype. They delivered the go home blow tonight and basically gave us a full card preview for what to expect
•Sheamus/Rey-Dolph/Alberto. Good wrestling match
•MITB. I thought they did an above average job of emphasizing the importance of what happened at the pay per view and the winners
The Bad
•Rey can’t wait to get his hands on Alberto the man who put him on the sidelines for a year on Raw and on Smackdown he has no issue just standing in the ring and talking to him. Storyline continuity
•Kane was AJ’s ex boyfriend. Its fine to rewrite history from ten years ago like Triple H-Undertaker, Wrestlemania 17 never happened, but to pretend Kane was AJ’s boyfriend is just disrespectful to the audience
•Why is Alberto Del Rio-Sheamus continuing? Sheamus beat Alberto clean at the pay per view. WWE learn to keep some sports aspect to your product. It was Sports Entertainment that brought you to this point, not just the entertainment
•Tout. Tonight’s Touts were not a good representation of the fans and if this is what we have to look forward to in the future, it’s not going to work
•Big Show destroys the tag teams. No reason for this whatsoever. I look at this segment and I say to myself that all these writers and producers are sitting around TV all afternoon and have nothing to do so they come up with this segment to give them something to do
•Zack Ryder. What can be said about the treatment of Zack Ryder other than he made creative look like asses so he continues to pay the price. If anyone ever goes to those stockholder meetings where Vince and Hunter are on hand, I’d like you to ask them “How come guys like Hunter are saying guys have to create their own opportunity, but when they do you squash them (Zack Ryder)” and then before they can answer, just answer the question for them, thrown down a checkmate and tell them to move on to the next question.
•Cop out DQ finishes. I don’t mind DQ finishes, but at least make them worthy DQ finishes. For example on Raw, Big Show pushes the ref, that’s lame in 2012. Ricardo grabs Sheamus leg, immediate DQ, as lame as it gets. AJ jumping on Kane was somewhat worthy, but Kane was still able to choke slam Bryan with AJ on his back. It’s all lame. I don’t know whose directive it is that we DQ at the drop of a hat, but it needs to be adjusted.
Overall Thoughts
•I wasn’t a fan of this show and it’s all because they couldn’t keep storyline continuity
What needs to be accomplished on next week’s show?
•Raw 1000 will be over and it will be time to press the pedal to the metal on Summerslam hype beginning on Smackdown
•Rey Mysterio’s program. If they are going back to Sheamus-Del Rio, I am very interested to see what’s next for Rey. I hope they utilize him even with two strikes, because the guy is too good not to be in an important program.
Feedback: revinsamuel@rogers.com