How is SmackDown not the flagship of WWE? It has comparable talent to RAW, it has great production value, and puts on quite possibly the best overall wrestling show on television. Of course even great shows have off nights. Was tonight one of those nights for SmackDown?NOPE! Let's hit the recap!
Christian Spits the Truth: Christian jerks the curtain with a heel promo with a Michael Cole assist. Christian's always been great, but WWE didn't seem to know how to utilize him as a face. As a heel, they're letting him go all out with his smug bastard-ness and he's turning out to be a fantastic heel. He's getting heat right away and building his rivalry with Randy Orton. Both are good ideas.
6-Man Tag: The Corre takes on Ezekiel Jackson and the Usos. While it's weird that they'd just throw the Usos together with Zeke to make a team, this actually turns out to be a decent enough match. The Corre and Zeke carry most of the action, but the Usos do a good job and seem to get over with the crowd alright in this match. Furthermore, this match continues to build up the tensions within the Corre. Wade leaves towards the finish and Gabriel and Slater get beat, leading Slater and Gabriel to tell Barrett that they won't have his back at Capitol Punishment. I think this means the belt is primed to be put on Zeke, which is a cool prospect, but only time will tell.
Jinder Mahal Squashing: Another squash match to set up how awesome Jinder Mahal is. I can't quite decide whether I like Mahal or not, but he's a big athletic dude, so I'm sure he has potential. He squashes Trent Beretta real nice here, and Great Khali comes in to apply the Kona Crush to him. We'll see how this duo plays out (primarily if they put the belt on Zeke).
AJ vs. Tamina: It's time for the obligatory Diva segment, which typically means a pointless two minute match that leads to nothing. However, they ARE trying to push the Divas face stable of SmackDown vs. the heel stable, and this match tries to further that. I'm not a fan of AJ's personality, as I feel WWE is trying too hard to appeal to dorks (LIKE ME) with her, but she's not a bad in-ring performance. And believe it or not, this was actually a fairly solid match. Decent psychology and a win for the face. Surprisingly, I want to see where this thing goes.
THE REAL MAIN EVENT: Okay, maybe that title's a little misleading, but this building feud has so many of my favorite performers and so much young talent that it DESERVES to be a top billed deal. First, Sin Cara takes on Ted DiBiase in a singles match that starts off fairly solid. However, Cody (who had another fantastic pre-match segment) interferes and gets Ted disqualified. Daniel Bryan runs in for the save and Teddie Long (in true Teddy fashion) demands the match be restarted as a tag match.
What follows is a great classic tag team contest. The heels control the action, wearing down the uber-technico Sin Cara, then Bryan gets hot-tagged in for the clear out and finish. It was a little predictable, yes, but every guy in this match is so much fun to watch work that I could care less. It's a shame they won't likely build this feud up into Summer Slam where I'll get to see these guys go at it live, but it's been a fun ride so far. Can't wait to see more.
Sheamus vs. Orton: Sheamus gets a no DQ, non-title match with Randy Orton... alright. I'm not complaining. This match actually starts off a little slow, and at points it devolves into a punch/kick fest. However, it actually had some decent "NO DQ" stuff including some kendo stick work and some pretty brutal stair spots. Sheamus actually gets power slammed onto the stairs, and the bump looks beyond brutal. In the end, and perhaps a little predictable, Christian brains Randy with the belt again and Sheamus gets the win. Of course this isn't about Sheamus, and Christian gets tons of heat going into Capitol Punishment.
SmackDown this week was great. It's not always such, but I maintain it's the best WWE has to offer. Story building, decent Divas match, Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, stair bumps...
What else needs to be said? 5 stars out of 5.
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