Smackdown – March 18, 2011: One Match Has More Wrestling Than Impact!

Smackdown
Date: March 18, 2011
Location: Sprint Center, Kansas City, Missouri
Commentators: Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, Booker T

Tonight we have another Edge and Christian reunion, but this time they get a shot at the Corre and the tag titles.  I really hope they don’t go with the switch here as it means the Corre gets them back in a screwy finish later, making them 4 time tag champions.  This is what people talk about when they say the titles have been devalued over the years.  Other than that there isn’t much to talk about.  Let’s get to it.

I don’t know my enemy this week.  I think TNA’s enemy is wrestling though after having less than nine and a half minutes of it on their show last night.

Wait now Big Show and Kane get the title shot?  They completely changed that from Monday.  I’m sure they said Edge and Christian got the shot.  Well at least they told us early.  That….helps kind of I guess.

Cole has his box made and here he comes to Burn It To The Ground.

Edge vs. Brodus Clay

 

Big pop for Edge but the pyro doesn’t go off for some reason.  Del Rio and Ricardo are with Clay here.  Edge has to stick and move here but he jumps into the T-Bone overhead suplex to shift the momentum.  Brodus works the arm and even adds an old school Heart Punch.  Tornado DDT by Edge doesn’t work and a clothesline takes him down.  The splash misses but Edge can’t get the Edgecution

A top rope cross body puts Brodus down and tries a sunset flip.  Clay uses the old school counter of just sits down on him.  I’ve always loved that counter and it gets two here.  The Umaga hips to the head in the corner misses and here comes the spear.  Ricardo distracts the referee and Del Rio grabs Edge’s foot so that Brodus can run him over for two.  The crowd is into this.  Christian comes out to even the odds and the distraction is enough for Edge to hit the spear on Clay for the pin at 5:08.

Rating: C+. This is what we need more of on Fridays.  It wasn’t anything great but little five minute matches like these are long enough to get into but not long enough to get bored with.  Edge looks good, Clay gets to show off a bit, and the storyline keeps going.  What more can you ask for in just over five minutes?

Del Rio and Christian brawl post match until referees break it up.  Teddy comes out to make the obvious main event, but it’s in a steel cage.  That’s much better than the tin foil cage I guess.

Sheamus vs. Kofi Kingston

 

You mean Kofi has another meaningless match with no particular reason to it happening?  I’m STUNNED.  Sheamus grabs the arm to start as Booker questions Kofi’s decision to take this match.  Cole gets on Booker for it as Kofi gets his jumping punches in the corner.  That results in him taking a hot shot into the corner for two.  Neckbreaker gets the same.  Sheamus hits a running elbow and tries another neckbreaker which is reversed into a rollup for two.

Sheamus rolls through the top rope cross body but his powerslam attempt is reversed into some strikes by Kofi.  Then African/Jamaican hits the Irishman with a Russian leg sweep for two.  Boom Drop takes too long and Sheamus I think pokes him in the eye to take over.  SOS gets two and it looked like Sheamus got his head rocked a bit on that.

Out to the floor we go with Kofi being all fired up.  Kofi comes after him so Sheamus kicks the steps into knee of Kofi to send him down again.  Back inside and the Brogue Kick ends this clean at 5:15.  When is the last time Kofi actually won a match?  I actually can’t remember at all.

Rating: B-. Another solid match here that gives us some wrestling to fill out the show.  You have two upper midcard guys going at it and you get a decent TV match out of it.  I’ve long since thought the key to having a solid show at times is just to go out and wrestle.  If you’re having issues, do that and it’ll get fixed.  Smackdown has been lacking a bit lately but the first half hour or so have my attention so far.

We recap Kane/Show vs. Corre which is freaking dull.  Show and Kane want to put their differences aside.  Show reminds Kane of how they dominated as tag champions and says they should do it again.  Kane grabs him by the throat and Show does the same to Kane.  They both laugh and Kane says Show completes him.  At least there aren’t any cheerleaders to take them down this time.

Trent Barreta vs. Cody Rhodes

 

New music for Cody this week.  He also has a towel over his head tonight.  Cole talks about having breakfast with Cody this morning and Cody being treated badly because of his looks now.  Rhodes is in street clothes again and we’re in a squash people.  Cody gets a headbutt with the mask and Trent is in trouble.  Another headbutt and we’re done in 48 seconds.

We get a clip of Christian being injured by Del Rio.

Shawn talks about Undertaker to waste a few minutes.  Same video from Raw.

Layla vs. Kelly Kelly

 

Well at least we get to see Kelly in those shorts.  Michelle is on commentary and makes fun of Snooki for doing nothing.  I guess we’re continuing with the Paris Hilton stuff.  Kelly gets the headscissors over the ropes and a Thesz Press to hammer away.  Why do so many people use that anymore?  Handspring elbow runs into two feet in the corner to give Layla control.  Kelly gets on the middle rope and Michelle yells at her.  The distraction is enough for Layla to pull her off the rope and pin her at 2:10.

Tag Titles: Big Show/Kane vs. Heath Slater/Justin Gabriel

 

Gabriel and Kane start us off and guess how that goes for the champion to start here.  Off to Slater who runs in and gets knocked down with one punch.  Side slam gets two.  Slater gets a dropkick to the knee and it’s off to Gabriel again.  Ok make that Slater as the champion are tagging in and out very quickly.  Gabriel jumps  into an uppercut and down he goes.  Off to Show and the beating continues.  Chokeslam to Slater but Gabriel pulls the referee out for the DQ at 2:43.  Is anyone really surprised here?

Jackson and Barrett come in to stop a worse beating post match.  Barrett actually hits Wasteland on Show.  They beat down Kane also.  The steps are put on Kane and the other steps are dropped onto the steps onto Kane.  The table is taken apart a bit and is dropped on Show.  The big guys are left laying here.  Cole tries to play this off as big and epic but it wasn’t for the most part.

Del Rio says everyone is trying to interfere with his destiny.  He’s not an animal.

Jack Swagger vs. Chris Masters

 

No entrance for Masters so what do you expect here?  We get clips from Raw with Ross and Lawler getting beaten down.  The hold Swagger taught Cole is the An-Cole Lock.  I give up.  Swagger works on the arm but takes a Samoan Drop.  Full Nelson is blocked by ramming Chris into the corner.  Ankle lock is reversed also and Swagger hits the floor.  He pulls Masters down though and wraps the leg around the post.  Ankle lock ends it at 1:56.

Post match Cole comes in and puts the ankle lock on Masters also.  Cole shouts COME ON LAWLER and does Swagger’s run around the ring.

WWE Rewind is the Dusty/Cody/Rey segment from three weeks ago.

Rey Mysterio vs. Ted DiBiase

 

Maryse is called Ted’s on again/off again girlfriend.  That would hint towards her face actions on NXT which is good I think.  Shame she’s not in camouflage though.  Rey tries his speed stuff so DiBiase hammers away on him.  Rey tries coming off the middle rope but jumps into a dropkick for two.  The following clothesline gets two.  Off to the chinlock now as Rey hasn’t been on offense at all here.

A couple knees to the back have Rey in trouble again.  Rey tries a headscissors and spins into what I think was a DDT.  Some ranas by Rey with the second one being countered into a reverse powerbomb.  That’s a great finisher for someone to use.  Dream Street is countered into the 619 position.  That and the top rope splash ends it at 3:35.

Rating: C-. Just a TV match here but nothing very interesting.  DiBiase is flat out boring and there was no threat at all to Rey here.  Granted I don’t think there was supposed to be so I guess that was the point.  Pretty bland match here that doesn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know.

Maryse leaves without DiBiase.

We get a clip of the Edge/Christian/Alberto stuff from Elimination Chamber.

We see the Snooki stuff from Raw.  I can’t stand that show and people like her (meaning people that have no talent yet are millionaires for being loud or getting drunk).

We run down the Mania card.  I can’t believe it but there’s no long video from Raw.

The cage is lowered.

Alberto Del Rio vs. Christian

 

Lot of time for this too.  No word on how you can win here so I’d assume pin, submission and escape.  Christian is all ticked off here.  Josh confirms that you can win through those three ways.  Killswitch is blocked early on.  The announcers are really playing up this being the first cage match for Alberto.  He tries to get out but Christian stops him and they fight on the top rope for a bit.  German off the top doesn’t work for Alberto but the visual was awesome.

Christian tries to get out but Del Rio hits a vertical suplex from the top of the cage.  Not quite Hogan/Boss Man but not bad.  With both guys down we take a break.  Back with Del Rio hammering away and sending a charging Christian into the cage.  Alberto gets two and we hit the chinlock.  After slamming Christian’s head into the mat, Del Rio goes up.

Christian grabs the leg and Alberto hits the top rope throat first.  He blocks being rammed into the cage and a reverse DDT gets two.  Del Rio is sent into the cage for two.  Christian goes up and gets knocked back down.  The running enziguri in the corner takes Christian down for two and Alberto tries to leave.  His torso gets out but Christian makes a diving save.

Del Rio sets up the cross armbreaker but it’s reversed into the Killswitch for two.  I would have bet on that being the finish.  Christian goes up again and one more time Del Rio kicks him down.  Christian is hung over the ropes so Alberto uses him as a stepping stone tos tart his climb.  That was rather awesome.

Why is it that every time someone gets to the top they become as slow as a slow Christmas?  Anyway it happens here to Alberto and Christian catches him.  They sit on the top of the cage and slug it out with Christian getting his head slammed into the cage.  Christian climbs down over Del Rio and Alberto kicks at him, knocking him down and giving Christian the win at 9:35 shown of 13:05.  Good ending.

Rating: B. Good stuff here with the false finish and the ending making this work rather well.  The problem with cage matches tends to be that the endings are basic, which is why shifting this one to something different helps a lot.  I liked this match and it got better as it went.  Good stuff.

Post match Alberto beats down Christian and says he’s going to be to Christian what he’s going to do to Edge at Wrestlemania.  He’s interrupted by a horn honking and Edge is in the car.  Edge talks about how nice it is and how much of a shame it would be if something were to happen to it.  He pulls a chair out of the passenger seat but Brodus pops up to drill Edge.  The double beatdown ensues and it’s a Conchairto to the arm.  Edge is in a lot of pain as we go off the air.

Overall Rating: A. Now THIS is how you do it!  In a two hour show we got 8 matches with about 30 minutes of action overall.  That’s the difference between having a lot of wrestling and pacing what you have.  This didn’t have a ton of wrestling, but they paced it out to make it seem like they did.  Instead of one match in an hour and fifteen minutes and then 3 matches in 45 minutes, there was a steady stream of them all night and it’s a MUCH more entertaining show.  Far better here than in previous weeks and a great show overall.  I’m well pleased.

Results

Edge b. Brodus Clay – Spear

Sheamus b. Kofi Kingston – Brogue Kick

Cody Rhodes b. Trent Barreta – Headbutt

Layla b. Kelly Kelly – Pin after pulling Kelly off the middle rope

Big Show/Kane b. Justin Gabriel/Heath Slater via DQ when Gabriel pulled the referee out

Jack Swagger b. Chris Masters – Ankle Lock

Rey Mysterio b. Ted DiBiase – Top rope splash

Christian b. Alberto Del Rio – Christian escaped the cage