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•Smackdown’s central program of Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio had a controversial ending at Summerslam and tonight it should be addressed. I am pointing out the obvious here, but my main concern is that WWE Creative doesn’t treat the World Title ending like a joke because it was the babyface who cheated. As I said in my Raw column, WWE needs to tread carefully here because I am not so sure Sheamus is that over as a babyface to sustain getting cheered while screwing Alberto

•Night of Champions. WWE did a subpar job promoting Summerslam and I am hoping they can hit the ground running with the build to Night of Champions

1.       Nice opening video package to set the stage for tonight’s show.

 

2.       Oh God...Randy still using the verbiage “My name is Randy Orton”.

 

3.       Randy really comes across when he speaks like he’s reciting lines. I think he’s one of those guys who would be better off if they just let him go off bullet points.

 

4.       I think one of the things WWE might need to tweak about the babyface Sheamus character is the fact that he smiles way too much. Too much smiling is just far too insincere. I know it’s one of Vince McMahon’s big things for babyface characters as has been pointed out by past talents such as Maria Kanellis and even on television by the Big Show, but I just think the audience sees through that in 2012. Sheamus, the ass kicking bad ass with less smiling is probably better for his long term health as a babyface as oppose to Sheamus the John Cena of Smackdown.

 

5.       Alberto out and I must say I’ve really been enjoying Del Rio’s promo work alot lately.

 

6.       I really liked this opening segment once Booker and Alberto Del Rio came out. Del Rio of course deserved the rematch, but because he was being a big mouth heel, he now ends up in a number one contenders match. Makes sense to me!

 

7.       The character of Josh Mathews is clearly written to be a tool. He tweets that these incidents of him getting attacked need to stop, but of course it be alot smarter if he didn’t try to interview big dudes like Kane and Brock Lesnar when they are pissed off.

 

8.       Ryback comes out and the new theme music is now no different than any other generic rock song WWE uses. Ryback’s original theme was a nice old school WWE theme song that fans could pop for when they heard it. Now it sounds like a bad version of Batista’s song with “Feed me more” playing on loop.

 

9.       Teddy Long joins Cole on commentary and points out that there will be a different commentator joining Michael Cole for every match tonight. I like that idea! I really want to hear Christian on commentary so hopefully he’s one of the guys.

 

10.   Ryback dominates Jinder and a few years ago that would mean the feud is over, but now because WWE Creative can’t come up with new storylines for talents to be involved with they tend to keep people programmed with each other past the story limits. Basically I wouldn’t be shocked if this epic feud continued.

 

11.   Kaitlyn on commentator for this Layla vs Alicia Fox match. Smart idea, because this girl needs to be talking alot going forward if the audience is going to care in any way about her getting a title shot. I remember on NXT she showed alot of fire, but once she got moved up to the big shows where they micro manage, all that charisma went away, hopefully she can get some of that back!

 

12.   Awkward pauses on commentary with Kaitlyn, although she’s much better than the first time they put Eve on commentary in that role.

 

13.   Cole points out that Natalya has been tweeting that Kaitlyn didn’t deserve the shot and so I assume Kaitlyn will be squashing Natty in the near future like Tamina did months ago when she was the flavor of the month.

 

14.   I love the way Layla is selling the knee during the match following Alicia Fox’s submission attempt on it. Of course once the match was over Layla seemed to stop limping.

 

15.   Eve randomly comes out to raise the hands of Layla and Kaitlyn. Is she trying to impress Booker? Perhaps she will end up officiating their match or being added to that much, which I’m fine with, because it least it puts some sort of storyline attachment to this match.

 

16.   Vickie and Dolph backstage and Vickie tells Dolph that she’ll handle AJ and that scares me into believing WWE will find a way to transfer the money in the bank briefcase from Dolph to someone else.

 

17.   Sheamus interrupts Dolph and Vickie backstage with smiles and bad comedy. When will this company learn?

 

18.   Michael Cole playing babyface on commentary defending Sin Cara, because the heel Cody Rhodes is on commentary. Typical inconsistent Vince McCole.

 

19.   Sin Cara loses to Heath Slater thanks to Cody Rhodes. After all the losing Slater has done to legends, I think I would have used someone like Jack Swagger or Drew McIntyre in this role.

 

20.   Officials need to pull Cody off Sin Cara post match and the kids in the crowd are chanting “Cody sucks”. Slotted Rhodes continues to in mid card programs, but he makes them work. He was also pretty damn solid on commentary.

 

21.   I really enjoy Vickie on commentary during this Dolph-Sheamus match, because logically she’s invested in Dolph winning and is just cheering him on.

 

22.   Dolph once again teases cashing in MITB, but backs off. Smart idea.

 

23.   I really like that WWE is mentioning more and more the number of days someone has held a title. Punk on Raw, Cole just mentioned Sheamus number in the last match and now in this Santino promo he lets us know that he held the US title for 100+ days.

 

24.   Ridiculous Santino promo. He tries with the material, but other than Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn and anyone under 8, I doubt many people were entertained.

 

25.   Just like Ryback, Cesaro’s theme song has now been changed. I’m not sure how I feel about it just yet, I’ll have to hear it some more.

 

26.   I do wish Cesaro was feuding with someone else like Christian as oppose to this comedy figure.

 

27.   What a stupid storyline. The cobra has a mind of its own. Vince McMahon ladies and gentleman, he’s go t the sense of humor of a five year old.

 

28.   Good to see Rosa back with Primo and Epico if for no other reason than we get to look at her.

 

29.   Primetime Players on commentary and this is another opportunity for the players to show off some personality and validate that they never needed AW.

 

30.   As I see Truth and Kofi come out, I take note of the fact that we have R-Truth doing a character where he has an invisible friend and Santino doing a storyline where the cobra has a mind of his own and btw Vince McMahon turned 67 today!

 

31.   Are the PTP turning babyface? Titus is ripping Michael Cole when he tries to mimic his moves. He’s praising the talents of Booker, Truth and Kofi, very weird.

 

32.   Five random tag teams have a brawl backstage. WWE has made a consistent effort over the last few weeks to heat up the tag division, but they’ve disregarded it for so long that it’s going to take several months before anyone can truly invest in it.

 

33.   Eve shows up Teddy backstage with Booker and I like the dynamic between the three and where that story could go just as long as it doesn’t become too much of the shows focus.

 

34.   Michael McCole lets us know that Daniel Bryan thought the Yes chants were out of respect, but now he’s realized that the WWE Universe was mocking him. I guess the crowd chanting “Daniel Bryan” at Summerslam was mocking him too. Almost 70 year old Vince still thinks its 1985 and he decides who the crowd cheers and boos.

 

35.   We get a replay of the awesome Paul Heyman and Shawn Michaels promos from Raw.

 

36.   Michael Cole lets us know that Triple H will be on Raw Monday to address his career. That’s a good hook for Raw, I would have mentioned it on this past week’s Raw however. I hope Triple H sells the injury this time.

 

37.   Sheamus is on commentary for the main event and hopefully he can avoid bad WWE writers’ comedy.

 

38.   Very unusual finish to the Del Rio-Orton match as a heel was able to score a clean submission win over a top babyface that makes two for the week!

 

39.   Ziggler tries to cash in, but Orton prevents it and oddly Smackdown goes off the air with Orton’s music playing.

•Alberto Del Rio cleanly beats Randy Orton. It’s shocking in this day and age for a heel to get a clean win, let alone not receive an RKO or a Brogue Kick afterwards

•Summerslam ramifications were recognized. It wasn’t emphasized as much as what happened on Raw, but I thought they did enough to tell the viewers if you didn’t watch Summerslam, you missed out

•Mid Card storytelling. With Raw moving to three hours WWE has begun to start telling more stories with mid card talent. Sandow-Clay, Ryback-Mahal, Kaitlyn-Layla, the tag division, Cody-Sin Cara. It gives a purpose to matches and angles that followed such as the one we saw tonight with Cody and Sin Cara

•A different talent on commentator for ever match. I assume I’m in the minority on this, but I liked this move for one show

•Eve-Teddy-Booker. I could see this being a nice, slow developing storyline if WWE does it right

•Sheamus. Too much smiling and comedy. I am not sure if Vince McMahon’s vision for what a babyface is works in 2012. It didn’t work in the late 90’s when he switched to the attitude era and now he’s gone back to that and I think that’s half the reason the older fans boo the pushed babyfaces in WWE. Perhaps I’m off base, but I’d have Sheamus tone it done and perhaps try and a bit more serious

•Dolph Ziggler. The treatment of Ziggler doesn’t work for me. Yes, he beat Jericho clean but then he was destroyed by a written out of storyline Jericho for his troubles. Tonight he was treated like a joke again and when he suddenly gets the title, it’s just not going to fly. WWE needs to PROTECT this guy more

•Tag Division focus. I like the focus on the tag division, but the way WWE is going about it, is like a person who has a time consuming project at work trying to cut corners to achieve his ultimate goal. Where did The Usos come from? Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd? Eve said she complied all the win/loss records for each of these teams, I question whether that will even be acknowledged again next week

•Santino Marella and the cobra with a mind of his own. Just like on Raw where WWE has put AJ in a role where it’s just too much of her, WWE putting Santino in an actual back and forth program where he has to carry promo segments is not playing to the man’s strengths

•Slotted Rhodes. You know how I feel about this situation

•Promote your upcoming ppv! WWE seems to have the outline for some potential matches, but naturally they have a hard time announcing any matches!

•Establish characters and background stories for characters. WWE went in the right direction with Kaitlyn this week, but we definitely need to get more of that. In addition, do not just throw The Usos and especially Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd in a tag team program without giving us a reason to care about them