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SMACKDOWN - 14/09/2012 E: revinsamuel@rogers.com
What this show needs to accomplish?
•Great to hear the King is back on track! Following that I was able to rewatch that last segment from Raw again and man what a phenomenal go home segment, but of course it was overshadowed by real life. Those are the breaks, but WWE would be might, MIGHTY wise to show that segment again tonight on Smackdown. WWE has no problem showing us half of Raw on Smackdown and usually I wouldn’t endorse that, but this time I endorse them showing the final segment of Raw
•NOC hype has to be the priority on this show. Make the title matches feel important
Show Breakdown
WWE actually opened up Smackdown with a recap of that wretched Sheamus-Otunga deposed nonsense. This was not even in the same league as the Anger Management stuff, which was good, but nothing special in it of itself. That skit did nothing to help Sheamus as a babyface. You would think at this point WWE would know that having your top babyfaces do comedy doesn’t get them over with the crowd. I guess when your writers all have comedy background that’s the price you pay.
Smackdown’s opening segment is Alberto, Ricardo and David still protesting the Brogue Kick and I have to say this angle is doing nothing for me. We’ve seen it a thousand times and the story this time isn’t being executed that strongly.
Watching this opening segment, my first thought is that on Sunday, WWE should take the belt off Sheamus and then have him nail Alberto with the Brogue Kick and be stripped of his entitled rematch.
Christian randomly appears via satellite to enhance this storyline. I was hoping he’d win the battle royal this Sunday, I guess not.
Christian says he’s one of the toughest guys there is. I’m not sure if we were supposed to take that seriously.
Christian says the Brogue Kick should be banned and WWE immediately pipes in boos.
Daniel Bryan also randomly joins the segment and man; this dude is just so good.
Sheamus telling stories from back in Ireland and nobody really understands what he is saying when he tells story. They politely laugh sometimes, but once again it’s a case of WWE just not understanding their audience.
Sheamus then takes a cheap shot on Otunga and I have to wonder if Creative is just this stupid or they are building to a Sheamus heel turn.
Sin Cara beats the IC Champion, because as usually the only way to build title defenses is by beating the Champion non title.
Rey and Sin Cara in the same match against each other on two days notice. This company...
Disappointed to still see Michael Cole playing the heel.
WWE still replaying the anger management stuff and the Kane-Bryan story.
WWE doing “balls” jokes with Kane and Bryan, I didn’t mind this one.
Kane cleanly beats Kofi so back to back challengers beating champions in non title matches to setup pay per view matches.
WWE clearly loving this Dr. Shelby character.
Randy Orton backstage promo to hype his match with Ziggler. It was fine and an effort to create anticipation so approved!
Cole calls Randy Orton “one of the all time greats”. He’s 32...
Pretty boring Orton-Tensai match here.
Orton beats Tensai and Vickie out to major heat.
Vickie pulls the old Dolph isn’t here yet, but Orton is too smart to fall for it. On the one hand that’s weird, because you’re telling us how fake this is, because Orton knows it’s coming. On the other hand it’s good to see a babyface actually not falling for that for once.
Cesaro out to cut a promo on how “outraged” he is to defend the US title against the winner of a battle royal. Why? Wouldn’t he logically be the rested one? None the less I thought the promo was coming off a little wooden and scripted to start, but he pulled it together nicely at the end and made it seem like they were his own words.
Tyson Kidd gets to talk on the mic and gets destroyed for his troubles. Michael Cole also mocks Kidd as Vince McMahon chuckles in the back.
Brodus comes out to challenge Cesaro. Kidd nails Cesaro and Brodus rocks Cesaro with a splash. Kidd then dances with Brodus. Won’t they be opponents in the battle royal on Sunday?
Wade Barrett out and every time I hear these generic rock songs that he, Ryback and others have been given, I just want to slap Kevin Dunn and whoever else is involved in the musical selections.
Speaking of generic themes. Kaitlyn out to the typical divas teen pop song and I now want to slap KD and company on the other side of the face.
Kaitlyn vs Beth Phoenix as Beth has taken on the Nattie role of putting over the babyface who can’t wrestle as well as they can.
Eve uses Tout to continue her party in this weird Eve-Layla-Kaitlyn storyline.
Kaitlyn beats Beth Phoenix. It would be one thing if the story was going to continue past NOC, but we know that won’t happen so why have your more talented girls jobbing out in few minute matches for a short term gain. This company yet again.
We get a recap of that Cena-Punk final segment from Raw. What a beauty segment that was.
We get a card run down...of two matches. Yup, The Bubble respects their audience and their own storylines.
BTW what’s interesting about Sheamus and Del Rio for the third time is that they’ve banned the Brogue Kick, but that doesn’t really play into the finish of the Summerslam match where Sheamus won, because the ref made a mistake and so once again this company doesn’t know how to tell consistent stories.
An awkward backstage segment with Eve, Booker and Teddy as the storyline of Teddy feeling insecure with that dynamic continues.
Solid Bryan-Sheamus match.
I am not sure if I care for the Submission expert tapping out to a guy who has just started using submissions, but again were talking about the powers that be who don’t understand how to write for more than one or two characters.
What this show accomplished?
The Good
•NOC gets promoted somewhat. It wasn’t strong promotion, but there was a solid effort for every single match on the card
•Bryan-Sheamus. Quality match
•Christian returns to television. Hopefully this is foreshadowing something
•Orton-Ziggler. I thought the story for this match has been the most effective throughout this build to NOC
•Eve-Booker-Teddy. Good to see this backstage storyline continuing. I like these types of stories as long as they do not become the spotlight of the show
The Bad
•Sheamus. Perhaps the universe won’t turn on Sheamus like they have John Cena, because they just don’t want to fight WWE on another babyface, but I don’t see how this guy is going to be unanimously supported either. The character is written so badly, he can’t pull off the material and the material is terrible for a babyface unless your name is Rocky
•Why does the Champion have to lose to setup a match? I know what they are doing and its effective, but they’ve done it so much that they should be able to come up with different methods to build a title match
•Michael Cole remains a heel. WWE has a chance to give Cole his credibility back. I’ll give them somewhat of a mulligan on Smackdown and at the pay per view, but if they don’t transition the character out of this heel nonsense on Raw, it showcases once again how selfish and all about me this product is for Vince McMahon
•WWE does a card run down of two matches. Is this because they don’t respect us? Or because they themselves are too stupid to remember more than one or two matches?
Overall Thoughts
• Average programming
What needs to happen on next week’s Smackdown?
•Hit the ground running for HITC hype
•Push the ramifications of NOC
Feedback: revinsamuel@rogers.com
