Smackdown – December 31, 2010

Smackdown
Date: December 31, 2010
Location: Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, New York
Commentators: Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, Matt Striker

It’s the final show of the year which is almost hard to believe.  The main event tonight is a tag match with Edge/Mysterio vs. Kane/Del Rio which should be pretty solid.  I wonder if they’re going to push the whole end of the year aspect as that could be interesting.  Anyway I’m out of filler lines to put here so let’s get to it.

Oddly enough they start the show by having what more or less was a TV commercial for Smackdown, talking about the previously mentioned main event.  I’ve never seen them do that before.

Theme song has cool visuals along with it.

Out first are Vickie and Ziggler and the raven haired, ahem, beauty, is seemingly a bit sick.  Dolph is clutching her close to him.  Striker: “How can you not love Vickie?  She has the mind of Hilary Clinton and the body of…..uh……well Hilary Clinton.”  Striker can be annoying but when he’s on he’s EXCUSE ME!!!

Vickie is here to file a complaint against John Cena for the Attitude Adjustment he gave her last week.  She says that due to that attack she is now suffering from a severe case of vertigo and is not allowed to be above two and a half feet off the ground.  Wouldn’t that mean she can’t be in the ring or on the stage?

Ziggler reads the definition of Vertigo to get some sympathy.  Josh and Striker crack some jokes about how Josh is dizzy and has no balance every night.  It turns into almost a PSA about Vertigo awareness.  She demands compassion from the crowd.  Kofi finally comes out to break this up.

He asks Vickie to show some compassion because all of the people are getting nauseous from listening to her.  Kofi says that Vickie apparently didn’t have Vertigo at TLC and we get some clips of Vickie trying to get up the ladder and steal the belt.  As Cole points out, that happened before the Attitude Adjustment.

Here’s Swagger to also talk some.  He says that for the first time ever Kofi is right about something.  The ladder match was injustice apparently and we get a clip of Kofi and Swagger pulling down the title at the same time.  Dolph says that the video shows that he clearly won but Swagger disagrees.

Ziggler says that Swagger is just jealous and we actually get some heel vs. heel arguing which is a rarity today.  Kofi and Jack both say they deserve rematches but Dolph and Vickie the guests of honor at Teddy’s New Year’s Eve party so he can’t defend tonight.  A brawl breaks out and here’s Teddy to say that everyone is invited to the New Year’s Holla Holla Holiday Party.  There’s a triple threat match tonight for the title.  Cool.

Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes

 

Back from a break with this match.  Thankfully Show has stopped with the bandana which I think he dropped a few weeks ago.  We get clips from the TLC bit between them and the Christmas thing last week where Horny got beaten up.  Show throws him into the corner and the chops are on.  The Stinkface returns and Cody is pleading for a mirror.

Show palms his head to get Cody back into the ring.  That’s always impressive.  HUGE backdrop and Cody is in trouble.  Splash in the corner misses and the Beautiful Disaster hits to bring Show….not quite to a knee.  Striker: “Show is about to drop the ball on Cody’s chin with the knockout punch.”  Make your own jokes people.  Instead Cody runs and it’s a countout at 2:50.  No rating as the majority of this was Show destroying Cody and Cody hiding.

Off to the party where Rosa is feeding Horny some cheese and apparently….they’re dating???   O’Brien from NXT comes up to admire the cheese.  Alberto hits on Rosa but Horny growls at him.  Teddy wants to hear some new year’s resolutions.

Drew says that his resolution is to win the world title and also to be a better person.  He said that after looking at Kelly.  Well Smackdown needs more faces so that might be a good idea.

Chavo comes up with a bottle in his hands and says this might be the bottle talking.  He runs down the roster and says Teddy…..actually Teddy cuts him off and says that’s non-alcoholic champagne.  Everyone glares at him and we take a break.

Drew McIntyre vs. Trent Barreta

 

Moderate face pop for Drew here.  They reference Kaval being gone which is kind of surprising.  We head to the mat rather quickly as Drew hooks a headlock.  Trent gets a nice counter and this is more competitive than you would expect.  And never mind as Drew counters into a Buckle Bomb to counter a victory roll to take over completely.

Striker tries to play up Trent as the ultimate underdog for some reason.  Drew keeps dominating with some clotheslines and off to an armbar.  Barreta goes to the apron and Drew tries to get a belly to back suplex to bring him back in.  Trent counters and lands a running enziguri for two.  A springboard missile dropkick puts Drew on the floor but a tope con hilo misses completely and Barreta is out cold so the referee stops it at 4:35.

Rating: B. This was FAR better than you would expect it to be.  Trent had a great match out there and tried incredibly hard.  Wow that sounded incredibly kayfabe but it’s true here.  Drew was in trouble until that one big move missed and Trent more or less killed himself on the miss.  Very fun match otherwise though and a big surprise.

Drew kills him even worse post match with a Futureshock on the floor.

Back to the party with Chavo pouring his heart out to the Eagle.  Teddy wants to give his new year’s resolution but Laycool interferes.  They don’t need resolutions as they’re flawless.  They say they didn’t lose the table match because they’re too skinny to break one.  They make pigs fly jokes but the blondes come up to argue.  Tag match is made for later in the night.

Edge/Rey Mysterio vs. Alberto Del Rio/Kane

 

So the title and the younger guys are main eventing?  Awesome.  Edge makes his entrance before the break and then the rest come out.  Rey vs. Alberto to start us off.  Rey gets a headscissors and it’s off to Edge almost immediately.  The good guys clear the ring and add a move from the No Mercy 2002 match of the year as Rey runs at Edge who lifts him up so he can backflip onto the other guys, taking us to a break.

Edge vs. Kane as we’re back.  We get a random ECW chant going as Del Rio beats on Edge.  Striker and Josh get into a near psychological debate over why Alberto is cruel to others.  Alberto and Kane tag in and out quickly to beat on Edge.  Edge counters Snake Eyes and hits an Edge-O-Matic to bring in Rey.  Seated Senton off the top takes Kane down.

Rey tries a springboard rotating cross body so Kane drills him with an upperkick on the way down.  Out to the floor where Rey gets drilled into the barricade to shift the momentum back again.  Off to Alberto who gets a gutbuster for two.  Body scissors by Alberto and he tugs at the mask a bit.  Off to Kane again with a backbreaker as Rey’s back is being destroyed.

Edge and Del Rio both come in after Rey gets a bulldog to Kane.  Edgecution takes down the Mexican Elitist and it might be spear time.  Kane picks off Edge but the Chokeslam can’t hit.  Rey pulls the top rope down to send Kane to the floor.  619 sets up the Spear to end Del Rio at 9:30 shown of 13:00.

Rating: B. Another good match here that followed the formula almost to the letter.  This worked exactly as it was supposed to with both feuds getting pushed forward a bit more.  Edge and Rey teaming together on and off is nice to see as in an odd way it reminds me of Sting and Luger back in WCW.  This was rather good with everyone looking good.

Back to the party where Chavo hits on Kaitlyn.  His flirty move of the night is supposed to be sucking in helium but it’s regular air.  Masters does the Pec Dance and Horny tries to also.  Show and Kelly are talking and he warns her about Drew.  Cody grabs the mic and talks about how he can’t be the face of Smackdown with Show breaking his nose.  Teddy says no fighting and makes Alberto vs. Rey in a 2/3 falls match.  The other match he makes is a world title match in a last man standing match.  Both are next week.  I’m sold.

Laycool vs. Beth Phoenix/Natalya

No entrance for Laycool.  Michelle is absolutely stunning in blue.  Beth and Michelle start us off with Beth grabbing a wristlock and raising Michelle into the air in an always impressive looking move.  Natalya blocks the Faithbreaker but gets dropped on her head anyway.  We take a break and come back with Layla having a body scissors on Natalya.  The crowd is dead.  Striker’s cats are Loverboy Dennis and Beautiful Bobby.  He officially is awesome.

Off to Beth who gets sent to the floor and Michelle kicks her a few times.  Layla hooks a crossface but the Glamazon gets up anyway.  Natalya is back in now and Layla does what she can against her.  Sharpshooter is blocked but Natalya channels her inner Uncle Bret to counter into the hold from the mat.  Michelle makes the save and comes in.  Off to Beth who hits the Glam Slam on Michelle almost immediately for the pin at 6:30 shown of 10:00.  Wow that was a long match.

Rating: B-. Surprisingly a very good match here.  The Divas have been clicking lately and this was no exception.  Michelle and Layla are underrated in the ring and this is a good example as to why.  They more than hung in there with the far more talented in ring workers and made a ten minute match seem short.  Granted it doesn’t help that they both get better looking every week, especially Michelle.

Back to the party where Teddy congratulates them for actually not having a fight.  Naturally Chavo runs his mouth and gets punch poured on him.  The food fight/brawl is on.  It just wouldn’t be a wrestling party without one.

Raw Rebound is the same from NXT with Cena vs. Punk/Nexus.

Intercontinental Title: Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger

 

Unless there’s something extra at the end, there is a ton of time for this at over 15 minutes left of time in the videos, not including commercials.  Striker calls Vickie Haystacks.  For an old school fan like me, Striker’s little one liners are awesome.  Commercial before the match starts so we don’t miss the opening.  And we’re off.

They double team Kofi to start as the commentators like Dolph to retain.  Ah Josh goes with Kofi for his athleticism.  The big elbow hits Kofi as he’s in big trouble.  The fans cheer for him as we’re three minutes into this and it’s been the exact same thing the entire time.  Swagger tells the fans that he’s their hero.

The guy that might be from Africa but might be from the Caribbean takes over and takes out both guys with a big old suicide dive as we take a break.  Back with Kofi holding Swagger in an armbar as Ziggler is still on the floor.  Dolph breaks up what was presumably going to be the Boom Drop and takes Kofi down on the floor.

Back in the ring a Fameasser to Swagger gets two for the champion.  Vickie yells when a Ziggler neckbreaker gets two on Kofi.  Swagger tries to get back up so Dolph drills him off the apron to get back to Kofi.  That’s rather intelligent indeed and a good thing to see in matches.  Dolph cranks on a chinlock as Kofi is in trouble.

Swagger has been on the floor for a long time here.  Kofi fights back and hits a Superman Punch to drop Dolph for awhile.  Boom Drop hits and it’s Kofi in control.  Here comes Trouble in Paradise but Swagger pops up and pulls Kofi out of the air with a German.  Kofi and Dolph ram heads on the suplex and both are down.  Swagger covers both for long twos as the crowd is getting way into this very quickly.

Back up Dolph can’t get a superplex on Kofi so Swagger powerbombs the heck out of the champion instead.  HUGE crossbody by Kofi only gets two.  Swagger takes out the knee as we’re about to go after the ankle.  Kofi counters it but whiffs on Trouble in Paradise.  Ankle Lock goes on but Dolph hooks the Zig Zag on Swagger for two as Kofi makes the save.

This is GREAT stuff if you didn’t get that.  Kofi vs. Swagger at the moment and Kofi gets something similar to a tornado DDT as Swagger stopped the spin part but Kofi dropped him straight down for two as Vickie puts Swagger’s foot on the rope.  Doctor Bomb is reversed and Trouble in Paradise puts Swagger out cold.  Dolph runs in and rolls up Kofi to steal the pin and keep the title at 12:50 shown of 16:20.

Rating: A. Now I’m not a person that likes triple threats for the most part.  For a big time showdown for a title I’m a traditionalist and want to see two people square off for the gold.  This match was great though with great storytelling, a TON of close near falls and an ending that fit it perfectly.  Dolph kept making sure he was in the ring for the vast majority of the time because he knew he had to protect the title.

Other than that you had both guys trying to avoid finishers and using their experience against each other to counter the known moves.  This was incredibly fun and well worth watching as even knowing who wound up winning I got sucked into it.  Great match and great to see the young guys get to show off to end the year.

The announcers plug the big double main event next week and that’s it for 2010.

Overall Rating: A. This was an outstanding show with everyone looking on point.  The opening match is the weak spot I guess but it made sense for Cody to run away when his face was in danger.  Trent Barreta of all people put on a very fun match.  The tag match was old school formula stuff and worked very well.

The Divas looks good and had a nice lengthy match and then there’s that awesome main event.  This is one of the better shows I can remember in a long time for Smackdown and the whole thing was great.  Loved it and am looking forward to next week, so have a happy new year and go watch this show if you haven’t already.  Ok watch the ball drop and then go watch the show tomorrow.  Yeah that’s better.

Results

Big Show b. Cody Rhodes via countout

Drew McIntyre b. Trena Barreta via referee stoppage

Edge/Rey Mysterio b. Kane/Alberto Del Rio – Spear to Del Rio

Natalya/Beth Phoenix b. Laycool – Glam Slam to McCool

Dolph Ziggler b. Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger – Rollup to Kingston