Welcome to Laying The Smackdown. WWE Smackdown is in Memphis, Tennessee this week. The show starts with MizTV. Miz is now the former Intercontinental Champion after losing to Kofi Kingston on WWE Main Event last Wednesday. Miz says he is invoking his rematch clause and he will face Kofi at the Hell in a Cell Pay-Per-View. Miz’s guests tonight are Daniel Bryan and Kane.
Miz mentions that he was Daniel Bryan’s pro on NXT and that surprises me because I thought WWE forgets about anything that is more than two years old. I guess since Daniel Bryan is a babyface now, Miz can start hating him again. I wouldn’t mind another Miz and Daniel Bryan feud. Miz thinks Daniel Bryan is going to be the reason his team loses the tag team championship at Hell in a Cell. Daniel Bryan starts to respond, but Kane stops him and says that he will handle this. Kane talks about his past tag team success and says that if Daniel Bryan is the problem, Kane is the solution. Daniel Bryan says he is the reason they will win because the devil’s favorite demon is nothing without the world’s toughest vegan. Kane says that’s like being the world’s tallest dwarf. Miz wants to say something, but Kane and Daniel Bryan both say no. Bryan says he is a former World Heavyweight Champion and he won that title by ending a giant’s title reign that lasted only 45 seconds. Daniel Bryan and Kane then get into another of their “I’m the tag team champions” arguments. They get interrupted by Big Show. He says he doesn’t have a problem with Kane, but he has a problem with Daniel Bryan. Big Show thought Bryan would keep his mouth shut after Big Show defeated him last Monday on RAW. Big Show calls Daniel Bryan’s title win the biggest fluke in history and after he knocks Sheamus out at Hell in a Cell, nothing like that is ever going to happen to him again. Big Show wants to knock Bryan out right now, but Kane protects him. Kane says they don’t have to wait until their match on RAW next Monday. Dolph Ziggler comes out. Ziggler talks about cashing in his briefcase after the Sheamus and Big Show match at Hell in a Cell. Everyone in the ring except for The Miz starts to argue with each other until Booker T comes out. I think I know what Booker is going to say and so does Miz because he interrupts Booker and says that Booker is going to book some sort of tag team match that involves everyone in the ring. Miz also says that Booker will end his speech by saying “Can you dig that sucker”. Miz is right…Booker is so predictable. Booker says that actually he was not going to say that. Really? What Miz said sounded exactly like what Booker was going to say. Booker has booked two main event caliber matches tonight. Booker announces Team Hell No vs. Dolph Ziggler and Big Show. Booker says thank you and starts to leave. Miz tells Booker that he said two and Booker says he almost forgot about Miz. Booker says Miz will face…this man and Randy Orton’s music plays.
The Miz vs. Randy Orton
This match was joined in progress. Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez watched this match from a skybox. Matt Striker interviewed Del Rio during the match, but Del Rio didn’t say anything interesting. Orton won the match with the RKO. I wanted to like this match, but nothing happened in this match that impressed me. It wasn’t a bad match, but I don’t want to watch it again. Miz got busted open a little bit where his stitches are and the blood was cleaned up during the commercial break in the middle of the match. The time length of the match shown on TV was 7:32.
Winner: Randy Orton
Rating: **1/4
Backstage, Sheamus talks to Teddy Long. Sheamus is upset that Big Show is ruining his matches with Wade Barrett. Sheamus wants one more match with Barrett. Teddy says he will talk to Booker and he will try to make it a lumberjack match. Eve is hiding in the back and I guess she was secretly listening to the entire conversation.
Team Rhode Scholars vs. Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel
Cody Rhodes won the match by hitting Tyson Kidd with the Disaster kick while Kidd had Damien Sandow in the Sharpshooter. I enjoyed this match a lot. It had great spots from start to finish, but the match was too short. I wanted at least five minutes. The match got me more interested in the finals of the tag team tournament on RAW next week. The time length of this match was 3:16.
Winners: Team Rhode Scholars
Rating: **3/4
In Booker T’s office, Booker is talking to Eve and Teddy enters the room. Teddy tells Booker about his lumberjack match idea and Eve says that was her idea. Eve thinks Teddy is trying to take credit for Eve’s idea and Booker seems to believe Eve. Booker and Eve leave the room and Teddy looks at the iPad that Eve left in the room.
Team Hell No vs. Big Show and Dolph Ziggler
Daniel Bryan forced Dolph Ziggler to submit to the No Lock. It was another good Team Hell No match. I don’t think I have seen a bad match from them yet.
Winners: Team Hell No
Rating: ***
After the match, Team Hell No is attacked by Team Rhode Scholars. Does that attack mean Team Rhodes Scholars will win the final match of the tournament this Monday?
Before the next match, Smackdown shows a pre-taped segment of Antonio Cesaro in Memphis.
Antonio Cesaro vs. Ted DiBiase
Ted DiBiase is back, but it looks like he has returned as a jobber because his ring entrance wasn’t shown on TV. Cesaro won with the neutralizer. I was expecting a squash match, but DiBiase got in a lot of offense. They got in a lot of good spots in a short amount of time. The time length of the match was 2:46.
Winner: Antonio Cesaro
Rating: **
Smackdown announces that WWE will present a Rolling Stone concert on PPV. Then they show the RAW Rebound which focuses on the WWE Championship contract signing last Monday. After the video, Smackdown uses the WWE ’13 video game to show a preview of what the match might look like.
Heath Slater vs. Brodus Clay
Before the match, 3MB cut a promo. I can’t believe WWE thought this is the right way to use Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre. They don’t look like guys who should be in a band. Jinder definitely doesn’t look like someone who should be in a band. The gimmick works well for Heath Slater, but not the other guys. Unfortunately, both of them weren’t getting much TV time before this so they aren’t going to demand that they be removed from the group. I think McIntyre is just happy to be still employed and Jinder probably thinks this is a little bit better than being one of Ryback’s jobbers. I don’t see how this will help either of them. Someone like CM Punk would never let something like that happen to him. Slater won this match after Clay was distracted by Slater’s band members. The time length of this match was 1:55.
Winner: Heath Slater
Rating: *
Wade Barrett is interviewed by Matt Striker in the locker room. Barrett says Sheamus is stupid because he asked for a match against Wade Barrett less than two weeks before his World Heavyweight Championship match. Barrett says he will do Big Show a huge favor by damaging Sheamus before Big Show’s match at Hell in a Cell.
Natalya vs. Layla
Eve did guest commentary during this match. Layla won with Lay Out. The announcers barely paid any attention to this match and talked to Eve during the match. The time length of the match was 1:52.
Winner: Layla
Rating: *
Backstage, Teddy Long shows Kaityln what he found on Eve’s iPad. They don’t reveal what is on the iPad, but it’s important enough that Kaitlyn uses her phone to take a photo of the iPad screen.
Wade Barrett vs. Sheamus (Lumberjack Match)
Sheamus won this match with the Brogue Kick. The lumberjacks got into a huge fight during the match and Team Hell No came out to attack Team Rhode Scholars. Why weren’t with the other lumberjacks when the match started? This match was okay, but I expected it to be better because it was the main event match. The time length of the match was 7:23.
Winner: Sheamus
Rating: **1/2
After the match, Dolph Ziggler teases a Money in the Bank briefcase cash-in, but Big Show knocks him out. Big Show is on top of the entrance ramp now and says to Sheamus that he will knock Sheamus out at Hell in a Cell just like he knocked out Ziggler.
Matches to Watch: Team Rhode Scholars vs. Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel, Team Hell No vs. Big Show and Dolph Ziggler, Wade Barrett vs. Sheamus
Matches to Skip: The Miz vs. Randy Orton, Antonio Cesaro vs. Ted DiBiase, Heath Slater vs. Brodus Clay, Layla vs. Natalya
Best Superstar of Smackdown: Daniel Bryan
Many superstars on the show had great performances, but no one had a performance that was clearly better than everyone else. I would say that Daniel Bryan was the best superstar this week because I enjoyed his performance during his match and his match was the best match of the night. I also liked his line about being the “world’s toughest vegan” at the start of the show. Bryan looked better against Big Show on Smackdown than he did on RAW last Monday. I hope he will get more singles matches, but his tag team matches are fun to watch.
Best Moment of Smackdown: The Miz predicting what Booker T was going to say
Not too long ago, The Miz used to be one of my favorite superstars in WWE. I enjoyed listening to him talk to Booker T and predicting what Booker T was going to announce to the WWE Universe. Miz reminded me why I used to be a big fan of him.
I liked this episode of Smackdown. It wasn’t great and it still needs better matches, but it was better than last week. Out of the seven matches, only two of them were bad matches that wasted my time. Some of the other matches were matches I wouldn’t see again, but I didn’t hate them. All of the backstage stuff was good this week and Teddy Long/Eve/Booker T/Kaitlyn/Layla storyline is surprisingly interesting enough that I want to know how it ends. I’m done expecting great stuff from Smackdown, but I thought this episode was good and better than other weeks.
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I thought it was an ok show. The opening segment was probably the best segment. Daniel Bryan is probably the most entertaining superstar in the WWE right now.
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yeah it definitely wasn’t great but I think they did a good job filling the two hours with watchable stuff. They still need to improve more though.
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Miz could be a great, smart ass face.
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I want to see Miz as face. It probably won’t work, but I’d like to see it.
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Watch his original vignettes. He’s in the WWE offices, hitting on women and would’ve been a perfect face.
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I got a new banner made for you. If you don’t like it just go back to the last one.
Watching SD soon then will read your column and comment 🙂
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Sheamus is GLOWING…well, more than normal.
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I like the new banner! I just hope Sheamus doesn’t drop the title in 9 days. Maybe you can edit the title out of the banner if he loses it.
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Glad you like it. I’m the one who made it, so I’m happy you like it. I haven’t seen SmackDown yet, so I’ll read the actual blog once I do.
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Always a good idea to see DB yelling at something.
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It’s a good banner.
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Finally saw the episode this week and I agree with you. It was just another average show. SD used to be my favorite show of the week but not so much anymore. I think Impact is above SD at the moment. TNA has been most consistent IMO. SD and Raw can be great one week but poor the next. I want SD, along with Raw, to be more consistent every week.
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I think Raw will need to go back to 2 hours to be more consistent. Impact is definitely better than SD but thats only really because SD is treated like a second rate show by WWE whereas Impact is TNA’s main priority.
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See, the reason i like SD is because I enjoy watching a wrestler’s journey and how they grow as a performer.
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Same Capt. but it just doesn’t feel it’s that show anymore, it’s just a second fiddle to Raw. I know it has always been but now SD is a recycling show for Raw.
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It’s always been the “B” show; a place where wrestlers go before they become main event wrestlers.
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Capt, are you sure you are not thinking of NXT?
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I see where he’s coming from. SmackDown is where the guys who have a lot of potential grow, and when they are good enough, they go to Raw and compete in the big times. That’s what they did with Cena, Orton and Edge (though the last of those two went back and forth a lot).
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There are exceptions…Miz did most of his growing on RAW. So did CM Punk. And Evan Bourne. Not everyone starts their post NXT or ECW careers on Smackdown.
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Tony: Nah, SD has people with a bit more polish.
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Agreed. I can’t see the 3 hours last a whole lot much longer. Tomorrow there’s the debate, Football (USA one) on at the same time as Raw. The ratings will be lower than 2.5 IMO.
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Yeah…I’ll be watching football instead of RAW tomorrow. Da Bears are playing.
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Well I know if almost any Premier League Football (soccer to you) match was on during the same time as Raw, I would pick the football to watch 8 times out of 10. UNLESS, Raw was unmissable which it’s not at the moment.
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RAW is more DVRable than sports unless like you said, something unmissable is going to happen.
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“DVRable”? I like it!
Yeah, I’ll be watching the debate…just to see if we get another Big Bird or Binders Full Of Women moment.
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Is DVRable not a word?
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Never heard of it.
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I’m starting to think Smackdown and RAW should go back to being treated like separate shows with two completely different rosters and announcer crews. Although I don’t like there being two World Champions, I don’t like that Smackdown is being treated like its RAW 2.0. I know people who only watch RAW because they view Smackdown like it’s Sunday Night Heat and they think they won’t miss anything if they don’t watch it.
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Agreed fully. I don’t think the two world titles is a problem unless they’re on the same show, which happens too often. If they were kept on different shows it’d be better.
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Eh, I don’t mind as long as there are some good matches, moments.
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I hate the idea of two world titles. Cena, Orton and Edge have far too many world titles reigns. One company, one world title.
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@Tony but those guys who were always at the top of the food chain were on SmackDown, grew, then went to Raw, and only went back to SmackDown when they needed some star power over there.
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True. I look at it as helping out the company that has helped you out.
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I don’t look at Smackdown that way because I remember when Smackdown first started. Back then, everyone appeared on both shows and Smackdown got some really good moments because it was the last major show before each PPV.
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Yeah, towards the mid-2000’s, they became the “B” show to see which wrestlers were ready for the main event.
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