Smackdown – December 17, 2010

Smackdown
Date: December 17, 2010
Location: Cajundome, Lafayette, Louisiana
Commentators: Josh Matthews, Michael Cole, Matt Striker

Back to the Friday show this week after a long wrestling week. It’s the go home show for TLC which I liked last year so hopefully they can give us something good here too. This should be a decent enough show I’d assume as it’s Smackdown after all. We’ll get the fallout from Edge more or less being involved in the death of Paul Bearer. That was his second death I believe? Anyway let’s get to it.

Theme song opens us up. It’s getting better every time I hear it.

Here’s Edge to an ERUPTION. He talks about how bizarre the last few weeks have been but has a video about it to truly show us how weird it’s gotten. Cue Benny Hill music. This just hammers in the reality of how stupid this whole thing has been. Anyway Edge says this is all about Kane and it’s all because he’s evil. So says the man that caused a guy to be shoved off a ladder after kidnapping him for a month.

Edge reminds us of how evil Kane has been the year, mainly focusing on the whole Undertaker thing. He wanted to fight fire with fire with Kane so he got down to Kane’s evil level. No one thinks he went to far, at least not the audience. Edge: Kane has lost his mind, even moreso than usual. Fan: HE LOST HIS HAIR TOO! Edge says he’ll win tonight and that’s about it.

Miz vs. Rey tonight. Should be good.

Kane is distraught apparently and might not be at the PPV. Edge asks what we’re going to do as he doesn’t want the title by forfeit. Notice the very subtle face aspect right there. Alberto comes in and says that Teddy wanted to see him. Rey comes in too and says no don’t give him the shot. If Kane isn’t back by Sunday, it’s a triple threat TLC match for the title between these three. That was a bit random. Alberto doesn’t like being a backup plan so Teddy just makes it a fatal fourway for the title in a TLC match. I guess 7 gimmick matches were too many?

Kofi Kingston/Kaval vs. Dolph Ziggler/Jack Swagger

Should be good. Swagger vs. Kaval, who still has a somewhat bad ankle, starts us off. Kaval goes for a Tajiri handspring into a cross body but Swagger catches him in a nice display of power. Kofi comes in and everything goes insane with dives, leaving the good guys in the ring as we take a break.

Back with Swagger holding Kaval on the mat with a double chickenwing. We’re mainly talking about the triple threat IC Title match which is kind of awkward as everyone but Kaval isn’t in it. Off to Ziggler now who keeps it on the mat. Striker picks Swagger for the ladder match as does Cole. Matthews says Kofi will win due to his hunger. Kaval accidentally tries to tag out in the wrong corner which gets a nice reaction from Dolph.

Kaval reverses a German by the American but can’t tag the African. Kaval has been in this for about 90% of the match but he keeps fighting and a double stomp keeps Swagger down. There’s the tag and here comes Kofi. Striker gets a good line: Who needs a ladder when you’re Kofi Kingston? Boom Drop to Ziggler and here comes Trouble in Paradise but Ziggler ducks. SOS gets two as Swagger saves. Kaval takes him to the floor and there’s Trouble in Paradise to end this at 7:05 shown of 10:35.

Rating: B. Fun match here with a shortened version of the standard formula. It was still well done though and the result is a good tag match. Kaval is growing on me every time I see him and this was no exception. Ziggler’s selling of that kick is perfect as he collapses every time it hits him. Good match.

Swagger beats up Ziggler post match, prompting Vickie to reach new levels of screeching.

Some new guy that looks to be about 15 talks to Miz. Miz isn’t sure why he’s here as he already beat Rey to start his week. Miz: How did you start you week Jack? Jack: Actually….Miz: Actually I don’t care. Miz lists off everything he’s done this week which is an amazing list actually. After he lists off all the days, Riley busts out A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE! Good stuff.

JTG has his own segment now where he hypes up TLC. It’s called Straight Outta Brooklyn. See it’s funny because he talks strangely.

Kaitlyn and Kelly are talking when Drew comes up to hit on Kelly. Drew is tall, handsome and has charm. Naturally he’s a heel. Why not? The acting here is pretty awful but Drew says he’s a different person outside the ring. He asks her out but Kaitlyn comes up to save her before there was an answer.

It’s the return of Grooming Tips with Dashing Cody Rhodes! I need these tips! This time it’s about hair, including a special portion on selecting the right hairdryer as it needs to look right and feel right in your hand. It’s going to be spending a lot of time there so make sure it’s the right one.

Cody Rhodes vs. Chris Masters

Decent pop for Masters who now has pyro. Masters takes over with power to start and hits a gorilla press. And never mind as Cody shoves him off the top while he’s getting punched in the corner and the Cross Rhodes ends this in maybe 1:00 at most.

Rey Mysterio vs. The Miz

Should be good again. Stalling to start as Cole praises Miz and how awesome he’s been this year, which is true. Rey slips a bit on a leapfrog and Miz gets a clothesline to take over. Matthews and Striker commend Miz so Cole says there’s plenty of room for them on the Miz Train to Mizville. Miz takes out the ankle of Rey and gets a baseball slide to send Rey’s ribs into the post.

Rey speeds things up but can’t get the 619. Seated Senton to the floor takes down Riley though as we take a break. Back with Miz holding Rey on the mat as the crowd is WAY into this. Rey gets a spinout DDT to take care of the momentum and both guys are down. They slug it out from their knees with Rey winning, allowing him to hit a springboard cross body for two.

Miz stomps away and hits the running corner clothesline to further his dominance. For some reason he goes up though and that of course doesn’t work very well for him at all. Top rope rana puts the champion down for two. He sets for the 619 but Riley distracts. Alberto comes out and trips up Rey to give Miz a rollup for two. Rey gets the 619 and kicks Alberto and sets for the springboard splash. It eats knees though and that’s enough for the pin at 9:30 shown of 13:00.

Rating: B-. Solid stuff again here as Miz gets to rub elbows with guys like Rey. That’s nothing but good for him as he’s going to have good matches with them as well as it makes him look all the more legit. This was pretty good actually as Miz delivers another good but not great match which is certainly his custom.

Alberto beats down Rey again but Edge saves. Teddy makes a tag match for the main event with the teams being exactly who you would expect them to be.

Back from a break and here’s Laycool. They’re here to protest the tables match on Sunday, saying that it won’t happen. They just refuse to do it because it’s barbaric and here come Natalya and Beth with their own table. Natalya asks when Laycool started making the decisions here. Without missing a beat they say in unison: “We run this show.” Laycool says that Natalya and Beth belong in the men’s division based on their looks.

We find out why Beth never talks as she cuts a really weak promo against Laycool. It does amuse me that they find Beth and Natalya masculine when their chests are hanging all over the place. They unwrap the gift table they have and there’s a caricature of Laycool on it. At least I think it’s Laycool. The good girls beat up Laycool but can’t put Layla through it like they want to.

Tag champions in action next.

Santino Marella/Vladimir Kozlov vs. Chavo Guerrero/Tyler Reks

Another non-title match for Chavo here. Santino vs. Reks starts us off and the comedy begins early. Off to Kozlov who gets beaten down with ease also. The camera is rather odd here as they’re filming through the middle and bottom rope rather than the typical shot they have. The two smaller guys come in with Santino beating on Chavo. I would say Santino winds up playing Ricky Morton but that feels too wrong to say.

Santino literally swims over to Kozlov who is pounded on by Chavo. His solution: KICK HIM IN THE FACE. Chavo tries to come off the middle rope but runs into Kozlov’s Cranium. Here’s Santino again and the CORBA pins Chavo. You would think him yelling COBRA right before Chavo turned around would tip Chavo off. Match ran about 3:40.

Rating: C-. Glorified comedy match but that’s all it needed to be really. Santino continues his ridiculously popular run and I have no problem with them giving him a tag title given the pops he’s getting. If the fans are as into him as anything else all night, why not? It’s not like the titles meant anything anyway. Match was filler but it wasn’t aiming any higher than that which is fine.

Ezekiel Jackson will be on Smackdown next week. Odd but ok.

Raw Recap and PPV rundown eat up some time.

Alberto Del Rio/The Miz vs. Edge/Rey Mysterio

Ricardo’s mic isn’t working at first and he seems a good bit ticked off about it. Most of the intros occur during a break which is nice as we get more wrestling. Edge vs. Miz starts us off here. Edge gets beaten down by both guys for a good while until he brings Rey in. It’s Rey’s turn to get beaten down for awhile now also.

We’re five minutes into this now and it’s been one sided almost the entire time. After one of the longest extended heel beatdowns to start a match I can remember Edge comes back in but Riley stops the spear on the Miz. Edgecution gets two instead as Alberto makes the save and Josh coughs a lot. Kane is here!

Edge hits the spear on Miz and here comes Kane. He takes down Edge which would be a lot more dramatic if Kane hadn’t already had two matches with him recently. A bunch of Smackdown guys come out to pull Kane off Edge and a big pull apart brawl ends the show. We’ll say the match ended at about 9:00. Edge gets a spear to Kane to end things.

Rating: C-. Kind of an underwhelming main event with the LONG heel beatdown being the vast majority of this one. The ending hurts it a bit but it’s refreshing to see Kane finally showing some anger rather than moaning and yelling about how mad he is. This wasn’t a great match or anything but it worked fine for a main event with all three guys in the at the time triple threat and then Kane running in at the end. Not bad but nothing great.

Overall Rating: B. Solid show this week and a good buildup to the PPV. I’m really not sure why they nixed Rey vs. Alberto. I know Rey is working hurt so maybe that had something to do with it as Rey couldn’t work a one on one match on his own. The show had some very solid wrestling on it combined with the final push for the matches Sunday. I’m not interested in Edge vs. Kane still, but adding the other two in helps a bit as it opens up some more doors. Good show overall with solid stuff throughout.