GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR THE 7/27 SMACKDOWN
By Revin Samuel on 7/28/2012 2:36 PM
SMACKDOWN - 27/07/2012 E: revinsamuel@rogers.com
What this show needs to accomplish?
•WWE has a ton of momentum coming off the highly rated Raw 1000 episode and they need to keep it going tonight with a solid Smackdown show
•Summerslam hype. It’s time for WWE to go into full Summerslam promotion. If this is the so called biggest party of the summer and what WWE perceives as their #2 pay per view of the year, they need to start delivering the card and why each match is worth paying for!
•#1 contender to the World Title, it appears they are going back to Sheamus-Del Rio. I don’t like the direction since Sheamus beat Del Rio clean at MITB, but if they want to go down that road they need to give us a reason Del Rio is the #1 contender
•Rey Mysterio. It appears they won’t be following up on Rey-Alberto so I’d like to see Rey in an important program. The guy is too good and has a large enough fan base that he should be treated as more than just another guy, which is how he was treated on Raw this past week
Show Breakdown
- Great video package recapping the 1000th Raw. I am glad they included Miz winning the IC title in this as I figured that might not be important enough to make the package from their standpoint.
- Looks like a pretty strong match they’ve setup for the main event of the show in Bryan-Rey-Del Rio and Kane in a four way. I’m excited to see Bryan and Rey working together.
- I like that Miz is starting the show. We’ve had an IC title change and it should be emphasized.
- Commentator really trying to put over Miz as a different guy who has matured as a performer. I like when they do this type of stuff.
- Christian as per usual is getting a good match out of someone. The man is just so talented. The Miz also doing his part as well.
- They can’t let Ryback pin Jinder? I guess they want to stretch these things out so they don’t have to move Ryback into an actual important program.
- Bipolar Vince McMahon clearly doesn’t understand that he can’t have Michael Cole switch moods at the drop of a hat. He starts the show off heeling Christian, now he’s sincerely thanking the fans for a 1000 episodes of Raw. This is only an indictment on how clueless Vince is sometimes.
- We get a recap of Punk’s turn of sort on Raw and Booker T immediately defends him so either Booker is clueless or they don’t want to define Punk as a heel.
- Are you surprised that they said Cena was cashing in his money in the bank, but no emphasis has been put on the fact that he was the first man to cash in and lose. I hope this is acknowledged on Raw otherwise it’s another example of The Bubble being overprotective of John Cena.
- Oddly enough the Tout’s they’ve shown are fans saying they are pleased with what CM Punk did and that’s interesting. It makes you wonder if this was a heel turn, a slow heel turn or if WWE just wanted to put an edge back on Punk.
- I must admit during the backstage segment with Sheamus and Bryan, I was cringing at Sheamus having to do WWE creative style comedy, but the gift he gave Bryan being a book of “How to last more than 18 seconds” was somewhat amusing.
- Cody Rhodes makes an appearance and here is a guy who WWE doesn’t seem to know what to do with since Money in the Bank.
- Pretty solid match with Sheamus and Cody as WWE continues to tease that Dolph will cash in his money in the bank.
- I don’t really like that Cody rolls out of the ring the second Sheamus scores the pinfall. That’s just so transparent and makes the product look so fake.
- Jericho takes out Dolph again as the game of one-upsmanship continues.
- Cole lets us know that Santino has held the US title since March and it’s done nothing for the title in my opinion.
- Cesaro beats Santino clean and I can only hope when they give him a title shot that he doesn’t lose clean to the Cobra.
- Sandow squashes Yoshi Tatsu. Cole lets us know that he was trained by Killer Kowalski and it all makes sense why Triple H is in love with him.
- More Tout videos, but this time I had to hit fast forward.
- Another solid match on Smackdown with this four way. I like Cole on commentary talking about the history of Rey and Kane and Kane cashing in MITB on Rey.
- Alberto steals the #1 contender ship and at least they’ve created a valid reason why he’ll be getting another title shot, although why he got a #1 contenders match to begin with is beyond me.
What this show accomplished?
The Good
•Great in ring action. WWE delivered three quality matches with Miz-Christian, Sheamus-Cody and Alberto-Bryan-Rey-Kane
•Alberto Del Rio earns the #1 contenders spot. I’m not sure why he even got into this match since he lost clean, but at least they delivered a reason why he will challenge for the World Title.
•Jericho-Dolph. This might be the best story being told in WWE right now and what a surprise it involves Chris Jericho
•Raw hype. Smackdown did a solid job of creating anticipation for Raw with AJ as GM, Punk’s response to what he did and Triple H-Brock Lesnar
•Antonio Cesaro beats Santino. Hopefully this is the start of something bigger for Cesaro
The Bad
•Lack of Summerslam promotion. We are coming up on two weeks out and nothing is really solidified for Summerslam other than Brock-Hunter
•Cody Rhodes dwindling away. WWE needs to protect Cody and give him something to do and I hope that doesn’t mean being the first guy fed to Randy Orton upon his return.
Overall Thoughts
•Very good edition of Smackdown filled with in ring content, but not very much hype for the pay per view
What needs to be accomplished on next week’s show?
•Summerslam hype and somewhat of a Summerslam card needs to be in place. We can see where they are going on some things such as Sheamus-Del Rio and Jericho-Ziggler, but these matches need to be announced for the show in addition to Brock-Hunter
Feedback: revinsamuel@rogers.com
