Smackdown
Date: September 30, 2011
Location: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T, Josh Matthews

It’s the go home show for Nigh….oh I’m sorry I seem to have gotten the wrong review. It seems like only a little while ago that it was a go home show and it can’t be another one so soon. Only a bunch of idiots would have two PPVs for 45 bucks with one off week in between them. I mean you would have to be crazy to think that would be a good idea. Since there’s no way this can be another go home show so soon, I’m curious as to what happens. Let’s get to it.

Do you know your enemy? Mine is the Cleveland Indians who can’t win one game to finish .500.

Rhodes vs. Sheamus for the title and Christian vs. Orton 10 later.

Here’s Booker to open the show and he’s going to interview Henry. Booker says he was a fan of Henry since the beginning and that since he’s a 6 time champion, he knows what it takes to get there so congratulations. Henry wants to know if that means Booker thinks he’s six times better than he is. Henry yells a lot and says he could put Booker through that announce table but he’s here for Orton, not Booker.

Night of Champions was about the World Heavyweight Championship. He talks about how at home he has the heads of Lawler, Kane and Big Show mounted on his wall (I guess being future endeavored erases your head from existence) and there’s a special place on the wall for Orton. Booker wants to know why it’s all about the violence and pain. Henry says lower your tone and that for fifteen years he did the good things and took pictures and kissed babies. Now he wants to be dominate.

Booker asks about Sunday (wow they really are that stupid) and if Randy can hit the RKO…but Henry cuts him off saying that won’t happen because it can’t happen. Orton can’t beat him and everyone knows it. Henry is going to beat down Khali tonight like he did on Monday so bring him out right now so we can do it. Henry won’t shake Booker’s hand to end this.

Mark Henry vs. Great Khali

Khali pounds away and Henry is staggered. It’s a heavyweight slugfest and Henry is in trouble. Two chops put Henry down for two and here comes Henry’s comeback. He pounds away and puts Khali down where two splashes only get a two count. I’d have thought that was it. There’s the Slam and we’re done at 2:51. This was a lot more fun than I was expecting but battles of the giants are an old standard and they almost always are worth at least a glance.

Post match Henry Pillmanizes Khali’s leg.

Khali is being taken out on a stretcher and Mahal comes up to yell at him.

Evan Bourne vs. Jack Swagger

Bourne gets the big hometown boy pop. Swagger comes out to Ziggler’s music to annoy me. I’m really liking these guys being on both shows as it lets you keep these stories going. Swagger takes over early as is his custom. Bourne fires off some kicks but Swagger catches a headscissors into a side slam.

Vader Bomb misses and Bourne fires off some offense, including that double knee to the neck thing he does. Ziggler interferes but the powerbomb is countered. Bourne sets for the Shooting Star but Vickie breaks it up and the ankle lock ends this at 2:32. Another fast paced match that sets up the probable tag title match at the PPV.

We get a video on the Sin Cara vs. Sin Cara feud and the match at the PPV is announced.

Sin Cara vs. Heath Slater

Slater has a boring southern rock song as his theme music now. At least it’s supposed to be southern rock. It sounds like bad country. It took me longer to say that than the whole match which ends in 42 seconds with a Swanton Bomb.

The other Sin Cara pops up on screen and takes off his mask to reveal a new black one. He says the other Sin Cara stole his identity as Mistico so now it’s time for him to do the same thing. Cool to hear an actual reason for what’s going on.

Video on HHH and how things are going crazy in the company at the moment. He’s not here tonight.

The group that wants to sue HHH is in the back and there are a lot of them: Team Vickie, Johnny Ace, Rhodes, Christian and Otunga as the lawyer. Otunga has an idea put together that could work. Christian says he’s cool with Otunga doing this. It goes down Monday.

Kelly Kelly vs. Natalya

Well at least Kelly is in the white shorts. No entrance for Nattie. Beth sits in on commentary. Kelly goes off on her to start and hits a Thesz Press off the ropes but Nattie pounds away and hooks a chinlock. A victory roll gets the pin at 1:25. Can we get a match that breaks three minutes?

Post match Beth hits the Glam Slam and Natalya puts her in that freaky submission she used on Monday. Beth talks trash and Kelly screams a lot.

Intercontinental Title: Cody Rhodes vs. Sheamus

This is happening because Christian cost Sheamus the battle royal Monday. Cody says he’s being discriminated against by the WWE, referencing being put in a battle royal after having his head injured by the bell. They slug it out to start and guess who gets the better of that. Sheamus tries his forearms in the ropes but Cody escapes. Sheamus is like ok then and beats Cody down a bit and then hits them the second time.

Cody gets in a mask shot and the Beautiful Disaster for two as we take a break. Back after a video about the Cell and Cody has a hammerlock on. Sheamus fires back but a single arm DDT gets two for the champ. This is a pretty boring match. Sheamus gets sent into the post for two.

Cody keeps working on the arm which is kind of stupid since one of Sheamus’ big moves and the easier of his big moves to hit is a kick. Now Cody goes into the post and Sheamus makes his comeback with power moves and the the shoulder block. Brogue Kick misses but he breaks up the Beautiful Disaster for a close two. He sets for the Celtic Cross but here’s Christian for the DQ at 8:37 shown of 12:07.

Rating: D+. The ending was a little better but man the ten minutes it took to get there were boring. I like both of these guys but this was a very boring match all around. The arm work was really slow and it didn’t add anything to the ending of the match as his arm wasn’t really hurt all that badly (or maybe he’s just bad at selling it) and the match just went on and on. Not horrible, but nothing interesting at all.

Video on HHH’s movie. No one cares.

Zack Ryder vs. JTG

I know I’ve been liking NXT more but I don’t want to see JTG anywhere else! Cole makes fun of JTG who wants to take over the WWE. Ryder is in the Fave Five which is currently at about 28 members. JTG takes over to start and makes fun of Ryder at the same time. Off to a chinlock and Booker has four nicknames for JTG already (and Cole makes fun of them all). Ryder starts his comeback and the Broski Boot gets two. Rough Ryder ends this at 2:56. Just a way to get Ryder on TV as his push continues.

Johnny Ace is texting someone when HHH comes up. HHH wants to know what’s up with the meetings Ace has been having. Ace says he’s behind him but HHH says it’s about trust. Future endeavors are implied.

The same video that we’ve seen a million times on the Cell airs and we run down the card.

Orton says he’s crazy and evil and isn’t afraid of Henry. He doesn’t regret hurting Orton last week.

Randy Orton vs. Christian

Feeling out process to start which is odd since they’ve spent more time with each other this summer than is healthy. A clothesline gets two for Orton but Christian hits a middle rope dropkick to take over. Spinebuster gets two and we take a break. Back with Christian having a neck crank broken so he hits a neckbreaker for two instead. Oh this is Orton’s hometown too. I forgot about that.

Orton comes back for a few seconds but Christian smacks him down (nice touch) again and keeps the advantage. Orton comes back with his usual stuff including that awesome dropkick. WWE developmental can teach a pretty awesome one of those. Orton hits that powerbomb into a neckbreaker which is a favorite of mine and it gets two. In a nice bit of psychology, Christian escapes the DDT and goes to the corner for the sunset flip out of it. Orton jumps for the RKO but Christian fakes him out. Orton counters Christian’s fake out though and gets a fast rollup for two. NICE.

Orton hits his powerslam but Christian misses a cross body. RKO is countered and Christian sets up for the spear. I’m so over the spear that I cant fathom it anymore. It hits this time but it only gets two because Christian is an average sized guy hitting a power move so it doesn’t work as well. Killswitch is countered into the elevated DDT and Orton is all fired up. Christian hits the floor and runs but Orton catches him. He sends the Canadian into the steps and stalks him long enough for the double countout at 10:56 shown of 14:26.

Rating: B-. Not exactly Over the Limit but this is a different kind of match. I did like the incorporation of older stuff into this match as it’s good psychology and stuff you rarely get to see in WWE. The ending hurts it a lot too but these two have very good chemistry together and Christian brings out the best in Orton which is hard to do.

Orton goes after Christian post match and loads up the announce table. Cody comes out to beat down Orton but Sheamus makes the save and chases Christian through the crowd. Here’s Henry and the Slam puts Orton down in just a few seconds. Henry goes to get a chair to Pillmanize him but Orton grabs an RKO out of nowhere to put Henry down and stand tall to end the show. They needed to do that before the PPV.

Overall Rating: B-. Pretty good show here as they had a lot of wrestling on it and a lot of stuff got TV time (take notes TNA). Orton getting in the RKO on Henry is a great thing as they need to give fans a reason to think Orton can beat him. I’m hoping Henry keeps the title but it’s hard to say as WWE might get nervous that a guy is actually over as a heel. Anyway good show, although they needed to add in some new matches for the PPV and they didn’t get much in that area.

Results
Mark Henry b. Great Khali – World’s Strongest Slam
Jack Swagger b. Evan Bourne – Ankle Lock
Sin Cara b. Heath Slater – Swanton Bomb
Kelly Kelly b. Natalya – Victory Roll
Sheamus b. Cody Rhodes via DQ when Christian interfered
Zack Ryder b. JTG – Rough Ryder
Randy Orton vs. Christian went to a double countout

Also like my Facebook page please so I can expand a bit more.  I’d appreciate it.

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We don’t have much to work with this time as there haven’t been a lot of matches announced.  Here’s what I’ve got for the main events though.I’ll hope Henry gets the win over Orton as it’ll keep him in this roll he’s on.  We haven’t had a true monster heel in forever and a win over Orton is a great way to get him going.  It’ll be a nice touch as faces control the title way too often.

Cena probably retains but I have very little confidence there.  Punk or Del Rio would be the best choice but I see very little reason for this to be in the cage.  A regular match would be fine and the Cell being 2 weeks after NOC isn’t going to pop buyrates like they think.

Also Beth to get the title, Air Boom to keep the tag titles (assuming it happens) and Christian to steal a win over Sheamus.

Your picks?

Smackdown
Date: September 16, 2011
Location: Air Canada Center, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jim Ross, Booker T

It’s the final show before Night of Champions and other than the IC Title I think we’re all set for Sunday. I haven’t heard anything announced for tonight but it almost has to be better than Raw was. Orton vs. Henry will get pushed even more and to their credit I’m kind of interested in seeing how that match plays out, which is something I never would have bet on when it was announced. Let’s get to it.

We open with the return of Edge who gets the monster hometown boy pop. He’s here tonight to host the Cutting Edge with Henry and Orton. Edge talks about missing coming through the curtain and it feels good to be back. It feels better to be back here in his hometown of Smackdown. He misses being in the ring and competing and being in the back with his friends however more than anything he misses the fans.

Edge talks about having the Cutting Edge tonight and he won’t pull any punches. That’s later though. Right now….and here’s Cody to cut him off. Cody says Edge is probably here to talk about Haven which airs tonight on SyFy after Smackdown (Cody’s plug, not mine) but since Edge didn’t do that, it sounds like he’s sucking up to the people. He suggests the fans all need paper bags.

Edge says maybe it’s Cody that needs a bag instead of the people. Maybe it’s Cody that is ugly and disfigured. Cody says the last time he saw Edge he was walking out of Mania as world champion but Cody has become IC Champion since then and has gotten rid of DiBiase. Also he beat Orton on Monday. Cody pulls out a bag for Edge and says to take it home and put it in his office because it’s a reminder that Cody is the new face of Smackdown. Edge hands it back, saying Cody needs it more.

Cody says that makes no sense. Edge says no it doesn’t and neither does the idea that Dusty fathered him. That’s rather true. Edge goes to leave but Cody screams to have the music cut off. Cody FREAKS, shouting about how he’s better than the crowd and he’s going to give the crowd paper bags. “You need a bag. You need a bag. You need two bags.” Then a fan with a bag punches him and takes his bag off to reveal Ted DiBiase. Ted beats him up and beats down the baggers as well. Ted’s music plays as Cody leaves. I guess that’s the IC Title match. Good intensity from Ted.

Sin Cara vs. Daniel Bryan

This is the rematch from a few weeks ago where Cara beat down Bryan post match. Bryan says Cara can be all aggressive tonight and he’ll be fine with it. Bryan charges straight at him with a flying knee and Cara is in trouble early. He tries another charge though and Cara gets a shot in to block the suicide dive. Cara sends him to the floor and Bryan is holding a lot of parts in pain.

After a break we have Cara holding a leg lock on Bryan. A flying headbutt to a standing Bryan gets two. Booker: “You can see the anger in Cara’s eyes.” Cole: “HE’S IN A MASK!” Cole 1, Booker 0. Cara tries another dive but jumps into a knee and here comes Danny. Big kick gets two. They go to the corner and Cara gets him in the tree of woe where he stomps away. I mean he stomps a lot. He stomps so much that it’s a DQ at 5:00 shown of 8:30.

Rating: C. Not their best but this was still pretty good. The idea was that Cara was out to injure him instead of being a competitor which is a good change in his heel turn. Bryan at least has something to do but I’d like him to move on to a feud with someone a bit higher up on the card. Maybe that’s coming though.

Cara keeps up the beating until….Sin Cara comes down for the save. There are two Sin Caras and one leaves, I think the imposter.

Ryder doesn’t think Henry can stand next to Orton without attacking him. Teddy implements another no contact order for the Cutting Edge. Ryder has to go tell them. He leaves and Aksana comes in. She gives Teddy a massage, involving him bending over and saying how good it feels. Trish comes in and says she’s been there before. And that’s it.

AJ vs. Beth Phoenix

Total squash, Glam Slam ends it in 1:15. There’s nothing else to say here. Beth says the time is ticking on Kelly.

Video on Sheamus who is Irish and awesome. This is set to a song which says Too Many Lies but in a slower/more rock style.

Edge and Trish are having a chat about MMA/yoga gloves or something like that. Christian comes up to make it a more Canadian party. Christian has been calling him a lot and Captain Charisma says Edge might have cost him the title. They hug and everything seems cool. He asks Edge to put in a good word with Teddy to get one more match for the title and Edge is like dude, seriously? Edge says Christian is whining again and Christian storms off. Ryder pops up and tells Edge to pass along the messages to Orton and Henry.

Wade Barrett/Christian vs. Justin Gabriel/Sheamus

Barrett has the coat again. Sheamus has new music which is a rockier song. Wait maybe he doesn’t. It sounds different at the beginning but maybe I’m crazy. Sheamus runs them both down pre match with his now usual Irish folk stuff. The former Nexus guys get us going. We talk about Gabriel going bungee jumping as he speeds things up. He tries a springboard move but jumps into a Bossman Slam (Booker: “Big Bubba Rogers!”).

Off to Christian who pounds away on Gabriel and gets a small package and clothesline for two each. Back to Barrett while Cole makes fun of Booker for being a boxing fan. Booker is going to be getting his own WWE.com show soon. Gabriel fires off the kicks but Barreett powers him down again. Sheamus hasn’t been in yet. Christian whips Gabriel back into the heel corner as we take a break.

Back with Gabriel getting beaten down again but grabs an STO on Christian. A double tag brings in Barrett and Sheamus to a big reaction. The Great White (again their terms and not mine) goes up but Christian grabs his foot. That doesn’t work long either as Barrett takes the big shoulder. Christian escapes the Celtic Cross and a Brogue Kick takes Barrett down so that the 450 can end him at 7:05 shown of 10:35.

Rating: C+. This was fine and a nice way to make Sheamus look dominant while not having him really get his hands on Christian yet. That seems like a smaller version of when HHH kept trying to Pedigree Stephanie or when 911 kept wanting to chokeslam Fonzie for you ECW fans out there. Granted it’ll be a much smaller scale.

Sheamus calls Christian into the ring but he bails. Sheamus’ music is the same here so I guess I was hearing things earlier.

Great Khali vs. Heath Slater

I’m really not seeing the One Man Southern Rock Band going anywhere. Much like the Divas earlier, what are you expecting here? Mahal comes out partway through it and speaks whatever language that is and then comes in for the DQ at 1:12.

Khali fights them off but can’t hit the Plunge on Mahal. He beats up Slater instead.

Raw recap eats up about 4-5 minutes.

Evan Bourne vs. R-Truth

Miz and Truth freestyle on the way to the ring. Ok Truth does and Miz shouts YOU SUCK at the right times. They start fast with Truth beating Bourne down pretty easily. Kofi and Miz are on commentary here. Miz makes fun of Kofi wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Kofi gets a good comeback with “You see this championship title right here? Because of this, this is how a champion dresses.” That’s something that needs to be done more often: talk about how the title means you’re the best.

Bourne fires off some kicks and a low hurricanrana which drives Truth’s head into the mat. He sets for Air Bourne but lands on his feet. Truth kicks the leg and hits that jumping downward spiral for the pin at 1:54. That’s a pretty definitive loss for a champion two days before a title match but it makes the challengers look like a real threat. I’ve heard that move is called What’s Up so we’ll go with that.

Time for the Cutting Edge and Edge doesn’t even get a full entrance? Whatsupwitdat? Edge talks about how important Toronto is to him and how he was at Mania 6 and how he won his first title in WWE here in Toronto also. The guests are Henry and Orton so here they are. Remember that while the Cutting Edge is on, there’s no contact allowed or the match is off.

Edge says that’s probably a good thing for Orton to be honest because Henry has been running through people. He asks Orton if Orton believes he can beat Orton. Orton brings up a good point in that Henry has never attacked him when he’s fresh and maybe that’s because Henry knows his best isn’t good enough. Randy doesn’t think he can beat Henry. He knows he can.

Edge says that’s the truth and brings up that Henry has never won a world title and doesn’t know how that’s possible. Getting to a world title means reaching a new level and Edge isn’t sure if Mark can reach that level. Henry says the only reason he’s letting Edge walk out is because Edge is right. He’s seen smaller guys, such as Edge, win countless titles. I thought 30 was a very countable number but that’s just me.

Henry is done smiling and showing personality and is here to take what Orton has. Orton says the match Sunday will sum up Henry’s career: he’ll look good but he’ll be the world’s strongest failure. They stare it down but Edge says to remember the no contact rule. He leaves and Edge says the Cutting Edge is now over.

Orton jumps Henry and gets him down to one knee but Teddy sends out the locker room to break it up. Henry gets in some shots and both guys break free of the others at one point. Orton fights them off (they’re holding him, not attacking him) but runs into the World’s Strongest Slam. Henry adds a splash and make it a pair. He stands tall to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. This grade is going to fluctuate considering how you look at the show. If you looked at it as a regular show, it was pretty weak. If you looked at it as a go home show, this was pretty solid stuff. I really want to see Orton vs. Henry now because while I have a hunch who will win, I’m really not sure and it could go either way.

On the Raw side, I flat out do not care about Cena vs. Del Rio because they haven’t given me a reason to care. Beth looked dominant, the tag champions are in trouble and I think it’s pretty safe to assume Ted gets the IC Title shot. That’s a pretty good use of two hours so I’ll call this a solid go home show.

Results
Daniel Bryan b. Sin Cara via DQ when Cara wouldn’t let Bryan out of the corner
Beth Phoenix b. AJ – Glam Slam
Sheamus/Justin Gabriel b. Christian/Wade Barrett – 450 to Barrett
Great Khali b. Heath Slater via DQ when Jinder Mahal interfered
R-Truth b. Evan Bourne – What’s Up

Smackdown
Date: September 8, 2011
Location: Huntington Center, Toledo, Ohio
Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T, Josh Matthews

We have two more shows before Night of Champions and to the best of my knowledge we have one match on Smackdown set. There’s no IC Title match and the tag title match is on Raw. Wait…are there any other title matches from this show? If there are I can’t think of any. This isn’t exactly a stacked card from the Blue team and Cody is hardly ever on TV anymore because he actually got some momentum and we can’t have that no can we? Let’s get to it.

A video about Mark Henry starts us off. He’s big and mean and strong. Also he’s injured a lot of people because that’s what big mean strong people do.

Do you know your enemy? Mine is being in a dentist chair for two hours next week.

Here’s Henry who almost has to win the title to keep from wasting the last three months of our time. He talks about being in WWE 15 years and needing to validate his time here. Last week he destroyed Orton worse than Orton has ever been destroyed and now he’s more dangerous than he’s ever been.

He gets cut off by Zack Ryder who is still assistant to the GM here. Ryder comes bearing news: tonight there’s a no contact rule for Henry and Orton. They both have matches tonight though. Ryder tries to leave but Henry says come back here. He thanks Ryder for the head’s up and Ryder tries to leave again. Henry says he has a question and Ryder is terrified.

Henry wants Ryder’s prediction for the PPV. He picks Beth over Kelly Kelly. As for Henry’s match though, if he picks Orton then Henry will “snort me up one nostril and out the other.” Ryder tries to leave again and Henry says he’s going to hurt someone tonight. Ryder tries to fight him and that gets him a World’s Strongest Slam. Cole: “I think that puts Henry out of the running for Broksi of the Week.” Booker: “You know it.”

Ezekiel Jackson vs. Mark Henry

Henry wants a test of strength and Jackson is all cool with that. Jackson goes down and starts the traditional face comeback in a test of strength but Henry backdrops him out of it. There’s a top wristlock in another strength contest. Jackson fires off some punches and tries the Rack but since he lifted the bigger Khali a few weeks ago he can’t lift Henry here. Don’t you just love physics in wrestling? Henry gets him down with a clothesline and hits two splashes before the Slam ends this at 2:58. Just a squash.

Orton’s match tonight is with Rhodes. I’m stunned too: Rhodes still exists.

Teddy is in his office and here’s Aksana in more leather. She wants to be guest ring announcer again and Teddy says that would take the special out of special guest ring announcer. She says she can do something else with her mouth: sing. Teddy leaves to go check on Zack Ryder.

Sin Cara vs. Tyson Kidd

The topic of conversation of course is Cara’s heelish…..er I mean rudo actions last week. Cara sends Kidd to the floor and hits a huge dive to take out Tyson. Cole starts making fun of Josh so Booker gets us back to sanity. Josh says he would interview Sin Cara but he doesn’t speak Spanish. Cole gives him a Spanish lesson as the match is totally ignored. Cara and Kidd have their usual fast paced back and forth match. A spinning springboard cross body gets two for Kidd who rolls through Cara’s cover. Cara hits a cross between a Samoan Drop and an Angle Slam to set up the Swanton/Lionsault combo for the pin at 3:31.

Rating: C+. The usual good match from these two with some nice dives and counters, but as he always does anymore, Cole took the focus completely off the match and made it all about himself. We have some high flying stuff going on out there but hey, let’s have Cole teach us (incorrectly) how to fake a conversation in Spanish and make fun of Booker’s way of commentating. I used to think he was no big deal and that people were overreacting to him but dude, shut up for five minutes already.

As per Cole’s more or less demandments, Josh goes to interview Cara. Cole cracks up as Josh talks really slowly. Cara speaks English and says….well now he’s in Spanish again. Oh ok he’s doing the wrestling thing of saying something in Spanish and then repeating it in English. He says he’s going to continue this style because it’s the real Sin Cara.

Cue Daniel Bryan who isn’t happy. He’s surprised Cara can speak English and was also surprised that Cara kicked him in the head last week. The kick spoke in a universal language: he doesn’t respect Bryan. Bryan wants a rematch next week and Cara drills him, putting him in the LeBell Lock and Bryan taps.

Video on Cody. He’s disfigured don’t you know.

Orton says Cody’s changes haven’t been for the better. He’s unstable and that can be dangerous. As for Mark Henry, what he did last week was smart and calculated, which aren’t usually associated with Henry. Orton says an RKO can stop Henry.

Kelly Kelly vs. Natalya

Why doesn’t Natalya get a title shot on PPV? Beth is coming up on her second. Beth is with Nattie and Kelly is alone. Kelly hammers away to start and we’re told about some article on WWE.com which set everyone off. That would make a difference if the article had come out before the heel turn started but whatever. Natalya beats her down on the floor and is in total control.

We go old school with an abdominal stretch. Cole of course won’t shut up about everything not related to the match. Kelly fights back with a slap and a sunset flip which is rolled through into a Sharpshooter attempt but Kelly rolls her up for the pin at 2:58. Another short match but Kelly escaping with the win is getting a bit old. Hopefully Beth takes it Sunday or Eve finally turns on her.

Here’s Christian for a match but he says his match has been postponed. The rest of the matches have been postponed too. Due to Teddy Long making him be in the main event last week, he wasn’t ready for his cage match. Christian wants, say it with me, one more match for the title.

Sheamus comes out and says this is getting embarrassing. Christian reminds Sheamus as a litter of puppies. All but the runt grew up to be big and strong but the runt developed mange. Every time he barked, hot air came out of him. Christian yells at him and says shut up. The pale one says he wants to get to his match and Christian isn’t going to get another chance because he’s out of excuses and out of chances. Right now though, he’s going to get out of this ring. Christian actually leaves. And I’m sure he won’t come back at all right?

Wade Barrett vs. Sheamus

The crowd is behind Sheamus so at least they’re well behaved. It’s a power match to start with Sheamus controlling but not by much. Barrett gets a kick in to block a backdrop and then runs to the floor. Back in Barrett beats him down a bit and Sheamus is like BY THE POWER OF IRELAND and pounds him down in the corner. Sheamus gets reversed into the corner though and Barrett takes over for the first extended period of the match so far.

Barrett puts on a chinlock as we take a break. Back with Wade getting two off something we didn’t see. Out to the floor again and Barrett gets a big boot in and rams Sheamus’ back into the apron a few times, getting two in the ring. Barrett gets a single right hand to put Sheamus on the floor. Back in Sheamus fires off and it’s a slugfest won by the pale one. There are those tied in the rope forearm smashes, now getting counted along with by the crowd. A top rope shoulder block hits but here’s Christian for the DQ at 6:53 shown of 10:23.

Rating: C+. These two are good for a power brawl and that’s what they had here. I’m not sure what else they were supposed to try to do so they didn’t try anything complicated. There’s always something fun about two big and strong guys out there hitting each other until one can’t get up and that’s what they were getting close to by the end. Fun little match. Also Sheamus vs. Christian could be a pretty entertaining feud.

Sheamus starts beating Christian back but gets double teamed by the Canadian and the Brit. That’s not a problem either as he gets Christian to run and takes Barrett out with a double sledge and the Brogue Kick. Christian comes back in and almost gets caught in the Celtic (formerly High) Cross but he gets out and runs.

Air Boom vs. Great Khali/Jinder Mahal

Kofi’s pyro works tonight as opposed to Monday. Bourne vs. Mahal gets us going with Mahal getting a clothesline for two. Off to tall dude who has to lean down to hit Bourne in the back. Khali smothers Bourne’s face against the top rope and it’s back to Mahal. This referee is really loud.

Bourne escapes a suplex by kneeing Mahal in the head which was impressive. Hot tag to Kofi and he cleans house. Boom Drop hits and he loads up the Trouble in Paradise. Instead he hits a spinning cross body off the top and Khali saves. Mahal yells at Khali and slaps him, making Khali shove him into Trouble in Paradise for the pin at 3:10.

Rating: D+. Just a quick tag match and I’m kind of disappointed that they’ve split up the Indian dudes this quickly. They could have been something interesting especially with an actual backstory to them. Mahal was a hot guy when he came in and has come crashing down since then and I don’t get why. I guess this sets up Khali vs. Mahal and I’m not sure why that’s happening.

We run down the card for NOC.

Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton

Non-title here of course. We get a clip of Ted getting beaten down by Cody after his loss. Cody talks about how everyone is jealous of his abilities and his success. He’s tried to inspire people but Ted DiBiase was happy being Ted DiBiase so he dropped him. Rhodes points out that Orton has no room to talk about being unstable.

Feeling out process to start and neither guy has a real advantage. Orton gets two on a dropkick. Here are the stomps which Cole calls psychological. Almost all Orton so far but they have a lot of time. Thesz Press keeps Rhodes down. Cody gets in a shot with the mask and Randy goes down. Cole goes into a big rant about Josh being a follower or some jazz like that as Orton makes a comeback.

Orton headbutts the mask and takes over with an adrenaline rush off the pain. Booker: “Cole has anyone ever told you that you’re just annoying?” Orton injures his knee a bit and Cody hones in like a wrestler that sees an opponent with an injured knee. Rhodes puts him on the apron and hits his kick as we take a break. Back with Cody still in control in the corner.

Cody works over the arm because he’s a bit strange at times. You know, I mean it’s not like ORTON HURT HIS KNEE EARLIER. Time for Cole to work his annoyances again as Booker mentions he has wrestling students. Cody works on the arm even more which I guess is the focal point now. Orton has had bad arms/shoulders so it works I guess. Rhodes throws on an armbar and the fans chant for Randy.

Alabama Slam cuts the comeback short but it only gets two. Orton gets a shot in and both guys are down. Booker gets WAY too excited when Randy starts his comeback. There are the clotheslines and the powerslam but Rhodes gets a release gordbuster to break up the momentum again. Orton fires back with a kneedrop as this is starting to get good. Elevated DDT and Orton goes into seizure mode. Rhodes shows some intelligence and RUNS while Orton is all fired up. Cross Rhodes are avoided and the RKO ends this clean at 6:57 shown of 10:27.

Rating: B-. This could be really good in an instance where Cody has a chance, but here he was just cannon fodder for Orton. The problem here is that Cody has lost a bunch of steam in the past few weeks since he won the title because just like everyone else who gets some momentum he’s immediately stopped cold so that a guy the writers haven’t picked doesn’t become something huge. This is probably the biggest problem in WWE at the moment: no one is allowed to get significant momentum and it cripples so many pushes.

Here’s Henry post match and Orton is a bit scared. Orton gets in some shots but Henry takes him down with ease. He hits the Slam and puts an unfolded chair over Orton’s throat and says he could break him, ending the show.

Overall Rating: B-. Pretty good show this week as we move closer to Night of Champions. Orton vs. Henry gets a bit more build but it’s kind of the same stuff we’ve seen so far. I guess the no touching policy was either forgotten or was only in effect until after their matches were over. Other than that there isn’t much going on here but Christian vs. Sheamus should be good….when we actually get there. Good show overall but a bit boring.

Results

Mark Henry b. Ezekiel Jackson – World’s Strongest Slam

Sin Cara b. Tyson Kidd – Lionsault

Kelly Kelly b. Natalya – Small Package

Sheamus b. Wade Barrett via DQ when Christian interfered

Air Boom b. Great Khali/Jinder Mahal – Trouble in Paradise to Mahal

Randy Orton b. Cody Rhodes – RKO

Monday Night Raw
Date: September 5, 2011
Location: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
Commentators: Jim Ross, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

We’re two weeks from Night of Champions and we have a lot of the card starting to be filled in. HHH vs. Punk is already happening this early which really surprises me. We also have Cena vs. Del Rio and the champ will actually be back tonight after getting his work visa stuff straightened out. Other than that we know the titles will be on the line but we’re not sure who will be challenging. Let’s get to it.

We open with a long montage of HHH vs. Punk and the Nash factor too. When I say long I mean like three or four minutes.

Here’s the Cult of Personality to open things up. He talks about how he’s different and doesn’t have a filter from his brain to his mouth. That also makes him a target and tonight he’s against R-Truth. He’d rather be facing Kevin Nash because he’s the status quo. He doesn’t buy that Nash and HHH are arguing, so right now he’s offering Nash an open forum to come and face him like a man.

Here’s Nash who talks about how he’s not apologizing for what he did last week. Punk runs down all of Nash’s nicknames (SUPER SHREDDER!!!!!) and Nash isn’t thrilled. He says Punk should be thankful for HHH pulling him out of the match because he’d kill Punk. Punk says Nash hasn’t been relevant since 1994 and that brings Nash closer to the ring.

HHH comes out and Nash says HHH needs to get rid of Punk who is a cancer. I hate that word being used in wrestling, I really do. HHH says he found some stuff out this week. The Staples Center (the place Summerslam was held) found some security footage which shows who sent the text from HHH’s phone. The person that sent the text to Nash from HHH’s phone was…..Nash.

Nash says that’s true and he did it so he could make the WWE cool again. One of them (Nash or Punk) has to go. HHH says Punk hasn’t lied to him once and Nash has done nothing but lie since he came back. HHH says he doesn’t want to do this and Nash freaks out. He gets in HHH’s face and HHH blasts him and then fires him before leaving. Punk talks some trash and we take a break.

Nash is trying to leave and Johnny Ace gets in his car after looking around first.

Evan Bourne/Kofi Kingston vs. Jinder Mahal/Great Khali

They’re officially Air Boom. Justin Roberts told me so. This is non-title. Mahal vs. Bourne to start us off and Bourne tries to speed things up but gets caught in the face by a jumping knee. Lawler has to fight either Otunga or McGillicutty later tonight. Khali comes in and beats up Bourne for a bit and it’s back to Jinder. Bourne gets in a shot and there’s the hot tag to Kofi. He beats up Mahal but is sent to the floor by Khali. Khali sends Kofi back in but misses a chop, hitting Mahal instead. That sets up the Shooting Star for the pin at 3:15.

Rating: C. This match made perfect sense. The champions couldn’t hang against the two bigger guys physically so they used teamwork to escape with the win. I liked this and it’s cool to see a team thrown together actually working as a unit and having some chemistry. You can get good teams out of that and it’s working here.

Kelly is on commentary for the next match.

Beth Phoenix vs. Eve Torres

Winner gets Kelly at the PPV. No chance for Natalya? And why not exactly? Beth has the skirt/shorts look back. Nattie sits in on commentary also, giving us five total people out there. Eve tries what looked to be a monkey flip but slips. Beth uses power and sends her shoulder first into the post. Natalya and Kelly are arguing over what Divas should be like the whole match. Eve misses a kick out of the corner and gets caught in the Glam Slam for the pin at 2:03. This was really, REALLY sloppy looking.

Nattie decks Kelly post match.

Drew McIntyre is talking to Christian who wants ONE MORE shot. Drew says he deserves one shot at….something but he’s cut off by Alberto. Del Rio talks about how he expected Christian to be champion here. The reason he doesn’t is John Cena. Christian cuts him off and says this is the part where Del Rio wants him to fight Del Rio’s battles for him right? Del Rio points out that Cena gave him an AA last week and the next night Christian had the cage match. He leaves the Canadian with that thought.

Inside Out trailer because we need to be reminded about it in case we happen to live in one of the 10 cities it’s showing in.

Truth vs. Punk next.

R-Truth vs. CM Punk

The Truth has now set him free instead of shall set him free. Miz is nowhere to be seen even though he was coming to the ring with Truth before the break. He wants to know why Punk is different because he was telling the truth the whole time before Punk was. Maybe he should buy a ticket to Night of Champions so he can stuff his face with popcorn.

This brings out Miz who says there’s a conspiracy and that HHH is in way over his head. Miz is going to do HHH’s job for him: at the PPV they’re getting the tag title match. They make fun of the name Air Boom and it isn’t funny. Punk is about to get got. Miz has a satellite radio show now. Punk controls early with a headlock and Jerry has to get us back onto the match while Cole starts ranting against Ross a bit.

Punk hits a suicide dive to take Truth out but Miz moves to avoid it. While still on the floor Miz gets a shot in to Punk’s knee and Truth takes over. This show and this match in particular are just dragging. I know they were in Europe this past week (the SD guys were) but this has been very lackluster. Truth throws on a half crab while the announcers spend the entire match talking about HHH and how he’s failing running the company. Truth goes up very slowly and Punk pops him in the head.

Punk goes up for a superplex and is at least selling the knee. He goes all the way up too and the superplex puts both guys down. Punk gets a hobbling knee in the corner and the bulldog to follow. The springboard clothesline hits and Punk is rapidly getting louder and louder face pops. The knee gives out on the GTS and Truth hits the sitout gordbuster for two. Punk takes out Miz and there goes the plaid! Miz gets ejected but Punk gets hit in the back while watching it. Not that it matters because the GTS ends Truth clean at 9:45.

Rating: D+. I wasn’t into this one. Punk’s selling was good but at the same time the parts where Truth was in control were really boring. Punk’s face pops are interesting as the fans are getting more and more into his offense. It wasn’t horrible but Truth is really boring to me in the ring anymore.

HHH comes out post match and Punk says he still doesn’t believe Nash and HHH aren’t in on it together still. HHH calls Punk Obama since he wants change. The match at NOC is now no DQ and afterwards Punk might get fired. Punk says that’s cool but he wants one more thing: if HHH loses, he resigns as COO. HHH says done and leaves.

Some guy I don’t recognize (apparently Curt Hawkins) is talking to Tyler Reks and Wade Barrett. Del Rio interrupts and gives the same kind of speech to Barrett that he gave to Christian. Yes pick the guy that lost to Cena in three minutes last week.

The WWE Network is coming in 2012.

We get a quick recap of last week with Lawler insulting McGillicutty and Otunga and them getting in his face.

There’s a tag team match this week and Lawler has a mystery partner: Zack Ryder. We get a video of Ryder, complete with a big montage of his show and Cena appearing on it. I guess this is his official face turn.

Jerry Lawler/Zack Ryder vs. David Otunga/Michael McGillicutty

Ryder gets beaten down for the early part of the match while Cole makes fun of his Youtube show. After about a minute it’s a hot tag to Lawler and he cleans house with punches and a dropkick. The middle rope punch hits and Ryder wants in. He hits the Rough Ryder on Otunga and we’re done in 2:00. This was fine.

Del Rio tries to get Ziggler to do his thing. The Bellas come up and hit on him. He says hang on a sec and keeps going on Ziggler, implying Vickie is cheating on him….kind of.

Randy Orton vs. Heath Slater

Slater is sent into the post about 5 seconds into this and Orton hammers him down. Orton stomps away and hits the knee drop. Slater pokes him in the eye and gets an enziguri for two. Spinebuster gets two. Orton fakes Slater out and takes over again. There’s the powerslam and the elevated DDT. RKO and we’re done at 2:57. Just a quick match that wasn’t quite a squash.

Ryder is talking to Cena and is filming his show at the same time. He puts sunglasses on Cena and Cena asks who wears sunglasses indoors. Cena is up next.

Here’s Cena who says Happy Labor Day. This is just for talking and I don’t think there’s a main event match set up yet. Cena wants to get his hands on Alberto but the champ keeps ducking him. We get a Tattoo from Fantasy Island reference which makes sense when you think about Ricardo being about two feet shorter. Here’s Alberto in a car which Cena thinks he doesn’t know the name of.

Del Rio talks about how he’s trying to protect Cena. However, he can’t say that about these guys, and here are Barrett and Swagger. Ziggler joins in also and here’s Christian to make it 4-1. Alex Riley and Sheamus come out as does Morrison, running along the railing as he comes. I think I smell an 8 man tag. Teddy comes out and says he has some authority when necessary around here. You know the drill here but in a little twist, this is under elimination rules ala Survivor Series. That helps a bit. The bell is after a break.

John Cena/Sheamus/Alex Riley/John Morrison vs. Dolph Ziggler/Christian/Wade Barrett/Jack Swagger

Survivor Series rules remember. The match is in progress as we come back with Barrett vs. Riley and no eliminations so far. Barrett hits a Boss Man Slam for two. We came back at 10:53 so this is going to go fast probably. Riley manages to send Barrett into the corner and it’s off to Morrison and Ziggler. Morrison takes down the entire heel team and avoids a rollup. Christian comes in and gets kicked in the head. Morrison’s partners have no issue with letting him get beaten down 4-1.

Swagger tags in and we get a double submission attempt. With ZERO help from his partners, Morrison has to tap out. Here’s Vickie with Swagger looking at her. We take after less than three minutes. Back with Ziggler hammering away on Riley with no extra eliminations during the break. Riley fights back and hits that sweet spinebuster of his. And never mind as he walks into a Fameasser for two.

Swagger tags himself in again and gets in an argument with Ziggler. Riley rolls through the ankle lock but gets caught by a Vader Bomb and is put right back into it for Swagger’s second submission of the match, making it 4-2. Sheamus is in now and gets his head kicked off by Barrett.

That only gets two and Sheamus wakes up to pound away on Barrett like the true brawler he is. Top rope shoulder block hits and Sheamus pops Ziggler to break up interference. Brogue Kick misses but the pumphandle slam is broken up. Brogue Kick ends Barrett and here’s Christian. It’s Cena/Sheamus vs. Swagger/Christian/Ziggler at this point. Killswitch is countered and Christian is sent to the apron where he slaps Sheamus.

Old pasty chases him around the ring and knocks down Ziggler in the process. They go into the crowd for a chase scene and then up the ramp for the double countout, putting us at 2-1. Gee I wonder how this is going to end. He gets Swagger first and team heel takes over. Vickie is all smiley as Swagger beats on Cena. Cena fires back and goes into his finishing sequence.

Cena hits a double Five Knuckle Shuffle to them but walks into a side slam kind of move from Swagger. Vader Bomb hits and now Ziggler tags himself in with some nice psychology there. He walks into the AA though and it’s one on one. Swagger grabs the ankle lock but Cena rolls through into the STF for the tap at 17:42.

Rating: C. Eh not bad here but so what? This doesn’t advance Cena vs. Del Rio or anything which is something that we’re desperately needing at this point. I’m really getting tired of these pretty pointless tag team main events though as they’re not getting us anywhere, especially when it comes to the world title match.

Del Rio runs in, takes an AA and is right back out again. Cena poses to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. I wasn’t feeling this one at all. It felt like a throwaway show and that’s not good this close to NOC. Alberto vs. Cena feels like it has zero attention to it while HHH vs. Punk is being pushed to the moon to try to stop the feeling that it’s being used way too early. The problem with NOC is there really are no stories needed for most of these matches and it’s showing here as there’s no reason to have a lot of the matches and a lot of people will be left off the show. Bad Raw tonight and I wasn’t impressed at all for the most part.

Results

Evan Bourne/Kofi Kingston b. Jinder Mahal/Great Khali – Shooting Star Press to Mahal

Beth Phoenix b. Eve Torres – Glam Slam

CM Punk b. R-Truth – GTS

Jerry Lawler/Zack Ryder b. David Otunga/Michael McGillicutty – Rough Ryder to Otunga

Randy Orton b. Heath Slater – RKO

John Cena/Alex Riley/Sheamus/John Morrison b. Christian/Jack Swagger/Dolph Ziggler/Wade Barrett – Cena last eliminated Swagger with the STF to win

Monday Night Raw
Date: August 29, 2011
Location: BOK Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Commentators: Jim Ross, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

It’s officially Alberto vs. Cena at the PPV but the bigger story at the moment is the conspiracy that Punk thinks is going on against him. According to him, someone wants Alberto to be champion. This opens a lot of doors because the questions of who sent the text message, was Alberto in on it and who is lying to who and who knows what are all in play. Let’s get to it.

The boss opens the show as is the custom recently. He says that for the forseeable future, Raw and Smackdown will be combined to form Raw Supershows. Did the Brand Split just end? I very well may have misunderstood it but that’s what it sounded like. Anyway HHH now wants to talk about the bad part of the job, which in this case is people lying to him which he thinks Nash has done. He calls Nash to the ring but gets someone else instead.

Here’s Punk who is still getting a decent response. He wants to be told that HHH and Nash have been together all along. Cue Nash to the NWO music. Nash admits that he lied about the car wreck last week. Nash yells about Stephanie. For all the references to her, shouldn’t she be here soon? He asks HHH what kind of man HHH is and HHH says the kind that shouldn’t be lied to by his best friend.

HHH can’t trust him anymore and tells Nash to leave now and not come back. Nash doesn’t leave and says he wasn’t lying about the text. While HHH was gone last week, Nash was signed to a contract by Johnny Ace so he has to be fired to be gone. It’s a guaranteed paycheck too so Nash gets paid even if he’s just sitting at home. HHH says he’s not fired but no more lying.

Punk has a sudden viral stomach attack and begins to dry heave all over the ring as he’s sickened by this. He says he’s just acting, exactly like those two are. Punk references the Clique, which is the sound of remotes changing the channel every time Nash is on screen. Also it’s the sound Nash’s knees make when he walks.

Nash says since he’s under contract now, Hunter should book the match everyone wants to see. Punk says let’s do it at NOC and then makes sure the Board, and by that he means Stephanie, is cool with it. HHH may not wear the pants, but he wears Stephanie’s panties. HHH says the match is on for NOC and they can both suck it.

HHH leaves but with Punk and Nash in the ring…here’s Orton? He doesn’t say anything but it’s Orton vs. Ziggler later. In a nice touch we get a little highlight reel of Ziggler with JR narrating about how good he is. That’s EXACTLY what they need to do to save time and still get these guys some mention.

Randy Orton vs. Dolph Ziggler

Ok so it seems it’s just Smackdown guys being on Raw and not vice versa. Well it’s a step in the right direction at least. Vickie is compared to great managers who had a diverse stable. I’d like to see that come back because it gives people some fallback storylines if they’re bored. Orton keeps up the advantage and Ziggler has a noticeable tan line. Vickie gets involved and Ziggler counters the elevated DDT to send Orton to the floor.

Zig Zag on the floor has Orton in trouble. It gets a close 8 count on the floor but Randy gets back in, allowing Dolph to stomp away as we take a break. We’re back on the floor with Orton being rammed into the steps. Swagger is watching in the back. Something resembling a crossface chickenwing by Ziggler and he keeps Randy down even longer.

Dolph goes up and they slug it out with Orton taking over. Superplex by Orton puts both guys down but randy gets two. Here come the clotheslines and Orton is all fired up. Belly to belly gets two. Ziggler gets a Fameasser out of nowhere for a near fall. What might have been a sleeper attempt is countered into a rollup for two. Ziggler channels his inner Hennig and is catapulted into the corner.

Orton busts out his sweet over the shoulder powerbomb into a neckbreaker for two. He loads up the punt but Ziggler NAILS him with a superkick for a very close two. This is starting to get good. Orton teases throwing Ziggler to the floor but stops him at the apron so he can hit the elevated DDT. That was kind of cool. RKO time but Ziggler counters into the sleeper. Orton escapes and tosses him into the air and Ziggler bounces to his feet and a kind of botched RKO (Ziggler didn’t fall fast enough so it was closer to a Stunner) ends this at 12:30.

Rating: B. Solid stuff here as these two continue to have some pretty decent chemistry together. Orton was on his game tonight and had some nice variations on his usual stuff, making it a far better match than he’s used to having. I really liked that toss being caught into the elevated DDT. Good match here and I was really getting into it near the end.

We get a clip of Cena getting beaten down last week and Josh asks him about it, but Cena just walks away and is all mad.

Here’s Cena (saying that you should come see this on his way through the curtain) to talk about Alberto. Cena says that Alberto talks about having honor as a champion but last week he got jumped by the champ in a dishonorable fashion. He calls out Del Rio but gets Mark Henry instead. Henry talks about how he’s hurt everyone in his sight and now he’s going to make Cena join that list. Oh and he’ll win the title at Night of Champions after he beats whoever wins the cage match.

Cue Christian who says he’ll be facing Henry at Night of Champions. But we’ll deal with that later. Right now he wants to tell Cena that he’s tired of John’s whining. Cena says that hasn’t been whining and makes fun of both of them. If they want some, come get some. Christian says let’s do this but here’s Sheamus for the save.

Cena pulls his fist back to punch Sheamus because he’s not sure if he can trust him. That’s BRILLIANT as Sheamus hasn’t had a big change of heart and it wouldn’t be much of a turn for him to beat up Cena too. Christian bails and Henry, realizing he’s outnumbered, thinks better of it and leaves. He doesn’t come off like a coward, keeping his monster levels high. Nice touch again. Man they’re thinking tonight and it’s improving the show massively.

Johnny Ace says the match should be made and HHH comes in and is like dude, I got this covered and says the match is made.

Punk vs. Miz next. I’m DIGGING this brand split ending thing.

CM Punk vs. The Miz

Punk is in the ring post break which is kind of weird. Miz has a mic. Oh I’m liking this. Miz says that he was dropping pipe bombs way before Punk was and he’s much more must see than Punk. Punk takes over early on with his usual assortment of strikes but the Macho Man elbow is broken up. Miz hits his running boot to the head for two.

He hammers away with left hands so Punk fires off some kicks. Short DDT gets two for Miz. Off to the chinlock before a neckbreaker gets two for Miz. Corner clothesline and a double axe off the top get two. Big boot gets two for Miz. This is a much better performance from Miz than I was expecting. After a few more minutes with almost nothing from Punk, Miz sends him to the floor and we take a break.

Back with Miz holding his third chinlock of the night. Punk starts his comeback as Cole is blasting JR and Lawler for every word he says. Punk hits the top rope elbow and loads up the GTS. And never mind as here’s R-Truth for the DQ at 14:00. Man I wish this could have gotten some more time and a proper ending.

Rating: B-. Not as good as the other match but still it was pretty good all things considered. Miz isn’t the kind of guy you want to have long matches but they’re trying at least. Truth coming in is kind of annoying but that fits the story they’ve got going on. Not bad at all and I liked it for the most part.

Punk beats them down but here’s Nash for the distraction so that Miz can take over. Jackknife leaves Punk laying.

Sin Cara vs. Jack Swagger

BIG pop for Cara. No Vickie with Swaggs. The lights start out as normal and then go out a few seconds into it. Cara sends him to the floor and this an Asai Moonsault to take Swagger down. Here comes Vickie as Swagger hits a Vader Bomb and legdrop for a cocky one count. Swagger is in control and here’s Dolph to yell. He goes to the ring and calls Jack a loser. Swagger charges but gets caught by a springboard dornado DDT and the swanton/Lionsault combo for the pin at 2:51. Hunico is WAY more coordinated than Mistico out there.

Tag Titles: Evan Bourne/Kofi Kingston vs. David Otunga/Michael McGillicutty

Kofi’s pyro doesn’t go off for some reason. There was a poll online and the new champions are going to be known as Air Boom. I’ve heard worse. McGillicutty takes over to start on Bourne and hammers away. Bourne gets beaten down as we’re waiting on the hot tag to Kofi and it connects before I can finish typing that sentence. Kofi comes in with a huge springboard chop and things speed up. SOS is countered by Michael but Kofi hits a spinning springboard cross body for two as everything breaks down. Big dive takes out Otunga and Trouble in Paradise ends McGillicutty at 2:25. This was fine.

Post match Otunga gets in Lawler’s face and Daivd takes the headset off him. They stare each other down but nothing else happens.

Kelly Kelly vs. Brie Bella

Oh joy, it’s this match again. Kelly hammers away to start and we cut to Beth and Natalya complaining about someone else that are causing the problems. They should be in the ring, not Kelly. The twins switch places and Nikki gets the pin with an X-Factor at 1:18.

Trailer for HHH’s new movie Inside Out. So how many times are we going to see this over the next few weeks? It’s an action movie about a guy that is trying to reform or is out of prison or something like that. Again though, does anyone care?

Mark Henry/Christian vs. John Cena/Sheamus

Sheamus vs. Henry to start at 11:01. Sheamus pounds him down to a nice reaction but Henry runs him over with a clothesline. The tape on Sheamus’ ribs is taken off and the Great White (yes they’re really calling him that in a feud with a big angry black man) is in trouble. Off to Christian as this is one sided. The not great and not white (I’m just going off what they’re calling his opponent) Henry comes back in and works on the ribs even more.

Christian is back in but he jumps into the Irish Curse and is down. We’re waiting on the hot tag to Cena and are also waiting on Alberto to run in because we haven’t see him all night. Off to Cena who cleans house and the young ones begin to cheer. Christian escapes the AA but can’t get the tornado DDT.

Powerslam puts Christian down but he tries his cross body out of the corner and jumps into the AA which is blocked again. Henry breaks up the STF but misses a charge at Sheamus and they hit the floor. A running shoulder block off the apron takes Henry down and Christian gets a spear for two on Cena for two. Killswitch is countered and Christian is shoved into a Brogue Kick and the AA for the pin at 6:40.

Rating: C. It’s a main event tag and that’s it. There’s nothing too great here but they were trying. It was very reminiscent of a Smackdown main event and that’s fine. With only 7 minutes to work with at the very end of the show there’s only so much that they can do. This wasn’t bad but it worked pretty well.

To end the show, Punk comes in to HHH’s office and the match with Nash is off. Instead, it’s Punk vs. HHH. Oh my.

Overall Rating: B. This was back and forth. The first hour has some HUGE stuff going on including the big white elephant in the room: the brand split being over on Mondays. That breathed a lot of life into this show as you got interactions with guys that haven’t been around each other in awhile. It makes things a lot more fresh and keeps us from having to sit through the same set of matches week in and week out. Definitely a plus there.

The wrestling was great in the first hour with two rather good matches. After that it kept being good but it was a step down. The drama is good stuff right now and the whole show is clicking in a way it hasn’t in a very long time. With the injection of some fresh blood with the Smackdown guys, I’m hyped up for Raw in the future. Good show.

Results

Randy Orton b. Dolph Ziggler – RKO

CM Punk b. The Miz via DQ when R-Truth interfered

Sin Cara b. Jack Swagger – Lionsault

Kofi Kingston/Evan Bourne b. Michael McGillicutty/David Otunga

Brie Bella b. Kelly Kelly – Pin after a facejam from Nikki Bella

John Cena/Sheamus b. Christian/Mark Henry – AA to Christian

Smackdown
Date: August 26, 2011
Location: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Commentators: Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, Booker T

We’re still in Canada and we’re into the Henry as #1 contender era. The main event tonight is him vs. Sheamus in a Summerslam rematch that hopefully is as good as last time. I’m really hoping they don’t end Sheamus’ momentum already but maybe they won’t. Since we’re in Canada there’s also a little surprise in store. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Henry being dominant last week in the battle royal and getting the shot at Orton.

Do you know your enemy? Mine is 4000 miles separating you from someone you want to be with more than anything.

Remember that surprise I mentioned? Bret Hart is here to open the show. Bret says he’s not here tonight so HHH has named him Guest GM for the night. See, THIS is what legends should be doing. Flair would be perfect for something like this. Have a show in Charlotte? Have Flair pop in and be a guest host or a guest referee or something. Bret mentions that Tuesday will be a special live Super Smackdown which is a double branded show.

Bret says he’s looking forward to the main event which will be Henry vs. Orton for the title. That brings out Christian who says he blames his loss at Summerslam on Bret’s friend Edge. Due to Edge doing what he did, Christian couldn’t concentrate and he lost the title. Bret says Christian is getting really whiny, becoming an embarrassment to himself, the world title, the WWE Universe and to Canada. OH NO HE DIDN’T! Christian needs to start at the bottom and work his way back up.

Christian says that guys like Bret and Edge are the real embarrassments because they can’t let it go. He thinks maybe they’re jealous because he’s the only relevant Canadian. Christian pulls out a document saying he gets a title rematch next week on Smackdown. Bret says he does, but it needs to be a special kind of match. The more famous Canadian makes it a steel cage match and Christian isn’t happy.

That brings out Mark Henry and Christian heads to the floor. Henry says he’s tired of this disrespect after 15 years in the company and he earned his title match last week. If he doesn’t get it, someone is going to be hurt. He wants the winner of the cage match and as much as he respects Bret, he can’t be held responsible for what happens if he doesn’t get the shot. Since three people taking 15 minutes to talk hasn’t been enough, here’s Sheamus!

The great white (which is what Cole called him earlier so don’t jump on me) talks about his uncle’s farm and a big black bull there. The bull kept destroying everything in sight so one day his uncle castrated said bull. Sheamus charges and the fight is on! Henry gets knocked to the floor and the staredown finally takes us to a break.

Christian vs. Daniel Bryan

This was set up during the break. As Bryan is coming to the ring we get a quick video package on him. Cole thinks Bryan is planning something and won’t cash in at Mania but rather like everyone else has. It’s a basic match to start as Bryan tries his strikes and Christian tries his usual stuff.

There’s the big dive (the announcers don’t react to it until the replay because they’re talking about how the champion always gets a rematch after losing. Not exactly but who cares about history in this company?) and Bryan hooks a surfboard. Christian escapes the hold though and takes over as we take a break. Back with a chinlock on and the fans are behind Christian as is expected.

Bryan gets a shot in and the missile dropkick out of nowhere for two. So far the count of Booker calling him “D. Bryan, one of my Fave Five” is at three. The pendulum kick is blocked in the corner and Bryan rips off some kicks and a knee to the chest for two. Christian does his stand on the guy’s back while they’re in the 619 position and the uppercut for two.

Spear is countered by a kick but Bryan slips on his moonsault and Christian tries the sunset flip out of the corner. Bryan rolls through and hits the spin kick (with Christian looking stupid for sitting there for two). Top rope rana is countered and Christian (called the Professor by Booker) hooks a tornado DDT for two. Killswitch is countered into a LeBell Lock attempt but the Canadian makes the rope. Out of almost nowhere the Killswitch ends this at 8:08 shown of 11:38.

Rating: B. Another good and long TV match from Smackdown as is their custom. I’ve heard some people saying Bryan is being buried or depushed, but since he’s won the case the worst loss he’s had is to Wade Barret who is hardly a nobody. He’s got (arguably) a better resume than Bryan in WWE at this point and it was a good match. Bryan has had consistently good matches against top level competition and I can’t get why people would think he’s been depushed.

Aksana says watch Super Smackdown.

Wade Barrett vs. ???

It’s a jobber but his name is never given. Barrett grabs the mic and says he’s done a lot and this is an insult because this is beneath him as a man and asking him to face a man such as this is an insult. Barrett walks off and there’s no match.

Raw ReBound eats up some time. It’s about Cena vs. Punk.

Sin Cara vs. Heath Slater

I’m not sure which Cara this is but he’s got some solid abs. It’s now the one man Southern rock band and his music sounds like that a bit as well. Del Rio vs. Sin Cara on Tuesday. Slater goes right after Cara to open things up and the fans aren’t thrilled. We hear about Slater’s background in listening to southern rock. I know the writers are lacking for characters a bit but a guy that listens to music is the best they’ve got? Anyway as the announcers argue a bit Cara hits the big cross body to the floor and the slingshot swanton and the Lionsault end this at 1:42. What the heck was that?

On a side note, from what I understand this match was taped twice because the first time was so horrible it had to be redone because it couldn’t air.

We get a recap of Orton being confronted by Legacy and the RKO to DiBiase before he could get much out at all.

Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase

Rhodes talks about being a miracle worker and that he’s resurrecting the title, which I hope is true. Basic stuff on the mat to start until Randy takes over. Shoulder block gets two for DiBiase. It’s more or less a standoff and I think they’ll have a decent amount of time to work with here. Orton gets going and stomps away to continue the slow pace of this match. DiBiase gets the following clothesline for two and a pop from the crowd. That Bizarro Land tag is pretty true.

Ted’s dropkick is countered into a slingshot and Orton unleashes his clotheslines. A move that I refuse to call a Thesz Press hits but Cody breaks up the elevated DDT. Randy tries an RKO on the floor on Cody but DiBiase hits a baseball slide to save and we take a break. Back with Orton getting taken down by a dropkick for two. Ted goes up but Orton fires off right hands and gets a superplex for two.

Orton initiates his finishing sequences and might be bleeding from his head a bit. Powerslam sets up the backbreaker but Ted counters the latter into a rollup for two. They’re trying to play up the idea that Ted knows Randy so well that he can counter everything. Dream Street is countered into a European Uppercut and there’s the elevated DDT. RKO attempt is countered into a Dream Street attempt which is reversed. Ted tries another following clothesline but walks into the RKO for the pin at 8:40 shown of 12:10.

Rating: C-. Not a horrible match but I wasn’t feeling it. These two didn’t click and after three months of Christian vs. Orton, it’s kind of hard to get into these two having such an uninteresting match. It wasn’t bad I guess but Orton needs the right guy to bring him out of his boring area and DiBiase isn’t that guy.

Post match Cody takes out Ted with Cross Rhodes. Ted gets a bagging.

Kelly Kelly vs. Tamina

A quick inset promo by Natalya says Kelly is a real Barbie doll but she doesn’t play with dolls. Do these more often WWE. They’re a great way to give the characters TV time and let them say a little something. Booker has dubbed Tamina the Warrior Princess. Kelly does her usual stuff and spanks Tamina a bit. Tamina knocks Kelly down on a headscissors attempt and we talk about Tamina’s basketball career. Cole: “Tamina once had 69 rebounds in a game.” Booker: “That’s like Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points but from a female perspective.” Yeah I’ve got nothing. Stink Face and a bad K2 end this at 2:45.

Jinder Mahal blames Khali for losing the battle royal last week and says Khali has been reeducated to only serve Mahal. Tonight, the target is Ezekiel Jackson.

Great Khali vs. Ezekiel Jackson

Khali shoves him around to start so Jackson charges straight at him. That makes sense for him as it’s worked against everyone else and why shouldn’t he use it again here? We get the backstory again about Khali and Mahal. Off to the nerve hold which doesn’t last long. Jackson starts firing off his clotheslines in the corner but Khali gets the big boot up. Here’s the vice grip but since Khali is a heel his submission hold is useless and Jackson breaks it as well as makes a rope. Mahal tries to cheat and gets dropped, allowing Jackson to get the torture rack for the tap out at 2:55. Ok that was impressive.

Orton says he isn’t worried about Christian and then it’s on to Henry.

Video on Henry being all dominant and evil, which I think we’ve now seen some form of about 193 times if my math is correct. The difference here: it’s a lot longer.

Sheamus vs. Mark Henry

This is a rematch from Summerslam which they’ve played up about as much as humanly possible tonight. Booker says he’d be upset if he had been here 15 years like Henry had and got disrespected. It really has been 15 years. It seems like at least 16 or so. This is what you would expect from these two: a power brawl. Sheamus takes over to start and then Henry uses his power to take him back down.

Henry steps on his chest but Sheamus fires off some right hands. That goes nowhere as Henry headbutts him back down. What would a power match be without the heel throwing on a bear hug? They keep up the idea of Sheamus trying to get some shots in but Henry is too strong. Henry sets for a gorilla press but Sheamus counters into a pretty nice DDT.

He fires off the axe handles and then the forearms while Henry is in the ropes. A flying shoulder block gets two off the top. Henry rolls to the floor and the fun starts. Henry pulls him to the floor and then sends him literally flying into the barricade. Henry loads up the announce table but Sheamus counters the Slam and gets a big old Brogue Kick to send Henry over the table. Sheamus slides in to beat the count at 7:33.

Rating: C. This was really all they could do here and it’s the right move. They’re even now and Sheamus has a reason to want another crack at Henry because neither has the definitive win yet. This was exactly what you would expect in the form of a brawl and that’s what it should have been. There’s no need to have these guys try to be something they’re not and this match was watchable because of it.

Henry goes nuts after the match and manages to ram Sheamus into the apron. Sheamus fights back and rams Henry into the post but he tries to throw the steps at Henry at the post and misses. A World’s Strongest Slam onto the steps ends the show.

Overall Rating: B. Well with two long matches and the usual nothing bad from Smackdown you can’t call it a bad show. This was more of a placeholder show as the Super Smackdown was the focus, as it should be. Bret was a nice surprise but I would have liked to see him more than in just the opening segment. The Tuesday show was set up well and that’s the important thing right here. Good show but it was missing something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

Summerslam 2010
Date: August 15, 2010
Location: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
Commentators: Matt Striker, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler

Well we’re back again for the *insert Summerfest joke here* show. This is the epitome of a one match show as EVERYTHING has been about the Nexus invasion. The theory is that Cena turns tonight but I’m not sold on it. Nexus more or less has to win tonight or the angle is worthless. I’m not sold on this card very well at all, but it’s starting now so let’s get to it.

The opening is of course all about Nexus, which makes sense. The arena and set look great as this really is a huge show.

Intercontinental Title: Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston

Pretty clear that Dolph retains here. Vickie does her usual whining and catchphrase here just to be annoying. Nice pop for Kofi but nothing great. We’re in MALTA BABY! Kofi misses a dive to start and is in trouble early on. Apparently the tag titles either aren’t major titles or his win is forgotten into the Rocker Tag Title Book of History. King makes a joke about liking 11s or 12s. On a 1-10 scale you freaking perverts.

Dolph is mostly dominant here as he hooks a chinlock. Kofi can’t get the “controlled frenzy” going according to Cole. Does everything have to have a name now? Dolph gets two on a roll thru of a cross body. We get a Fameasser reference from Striker as it makes Kofi famous. Even Lawler chuckles at it. He’s more energetic tonight for some reason. Trouble in Paradise misses, which might be because OF THE MASSIVE CHANTING OF BOOM BOOM BOOM by Kofi.

Sleeper goes on….AND HERE THEY COME? Yes, Nexus hits the ring and beats them up before circling Kofi. The big beatdown follows as I have a bad feeling about where this show is going. Barrett says this is a preview of later tonight. Expect a Kofi run-in later. Nexus is united apparently.

Rating: C+. Not a bad match for what they had, but the ending is very strange. This wasn’t bad, but with no ending like this it really hurt things. I really do expect the Cena turn now for some reason, which is why it likely won’t happen. Anyway, this needed a finish to be good but even still it’s decent.

Jericho wants Miz on the team tonight and so does Edge. Edge eating a Slim Jim is epic for no reason at all. They say he could be a huge star but doesn’t say yes.

Alicia Fox vs. Melina

Well at least this should be short. Melina has a freaking headdress on and she looks like a freaking idiot. Fox is attractive with straight hair. Shame that’s not the case here. Melina is in the skin colored tights which are always weird looking. Melina is the hometown girl so she’s all awesome and such apparently. Yep this is boring. It’s not bad, but seriously does ANYONE care about this match?

Still waiting on something to happen here. Melina might have hurt her knee on a move from the ropes. Alicia of course does nothing about it. Nice superkick by Melina. This is just boring me to death but Melina’s gyrations are helping a bit. That girl could make a KILLING as a stripper. After FAR too long, Melina wins with more or less a weird snapmare. Apparently it’s called the Mind Trip. Ok then.

After the win, cue Laycool to annoy Melina. They say this is awesome and want to take a picture with “two champions” in it so hopefully this will lead to a unification thing soon. Brawl ensues and the worst kick every by Michelle misses by at least 8 inches. Laycool’s music continues to be awesome. Michelle does a knee into the tables to put down Melina for a good while.

Rating: D. This was pretty bad. The ending came out of nowhere but thankfully it ended a bad match. I’m very glad to see that there might be a unification soon, but will anyone care even after that? It’s definitely the right move but with people like Fox chasing it then the whole thing is in trouble. Not a good match.

After a quick recap of the SES vs. Show, we go to this.

Straightedge Society vs. Big Show

How appropriate to have this after that video package. It’s Mercury, Punk and Gallows. Show dominates Mercury and Gallows in about a minute to get us to Punk, who gets face cheers. Oh and Show’s hand is fine. Gallows and Mercury get back up and the 3-1 beatdown begins.

Show comes back of course as it occurs to me that Punk has the most hair of anyone out there. Punk goes for the springboard clothesline and gets caught by the throat. He kicks Show in the head which was cool looking. Cole calls a bulldog a DDT because he’s a stupid man. Punk does a bunch of strikes to the hand and it just ticks Show off. Punk gets knocked to the floor and leaves. Mercury gets chokeslammed and pinned while on top of Gallows. Here lies the SES.

Rating: D+. Pretty weak here as more or less we knew it was just going to be Show winning in the end due to his huge size advantage. This was an ok match and the ending advances the story, but dang man why do they have to crush the SES again? For once could they actually let something go on for more than a month without crippling it?

Kane talks to the casket and Sheamus of all people comes up, saying he’d like to borrow the casket to put Orton in. Kane says no. Sheamus says stay out of his way and Kane yells at him. Odd moment but cool potential.

And here’s Miz. The Raw title match is next so he has a reason to be here. He wants to know if he should be on the team. The fans cheer but he doesn’t care what they think. Allegedly Hart and Cena begged for him to be on the team. He talks about every person on the team and how they’ve all done things to get him on the team. Awesome promo but he wants the fans to admit it. After a HUGE delay, he says yes he’ll be on the team. Cole orgasms loudly.

We recap Orton vs. Sheamus, which isn’t much at all. Orton won a match and now he’s the number one contender. The hype for this has more or less not existed.

Raw World Title: Sheamus vs. Randy Orton

Orton is in purple and Sheamus is in green, making this just freaking weird looking. Sheamus powers him back to start which is odd since he’s kind of quietly powerful. Slow start here which should be a good sign but I’m not sure here. They tease a countout and Orton is dominating which is a weird formula for a match.

This is just boring as they’re going WAY too slow. Orton’s arm gets worked on and the elevated DDT is reversed into a backdrop. Sheamus is in control and not much is going on. He hits basic moves and covers. This is apparently the main event and it started about 5 minutes after 9. He gets technical with a drop toehold to put Orton down.

Sheamus likes to use a double axehandle which is kind of a cool move for him to use. More people should use it. When I say more I mean like one total. Sheamus at least works on the arm which is the right idea if nothing else. Orton gets the backbreaker as this is just DRAGGING. The boo/yay cheers start up for punching. Orton does his usual array of clotheslines as I fight off sleep due to this.

Middle rope suplex gets two for the guy with non-mayonnaise colored skin. Sheamus hits his backbreaker for two which of course Cole is surprised by when the kickout happens. Brogue Kick misses though and Sheamus hits the floor. There’s the DDT but the RKO is countered which surprised me. He shoved him off and it legit looks like he hit it from both angles. Clearly countered though which was cool.

High Cross and RKO are both countered but Orton walks into the Brogue Kick for two as the fans are into this now. That’s the issue with WWE Title matches: you don’t have to get into them for a long time and everyone knows it so for the first ten minutes no one cares. Sheamus gets a chair and shoves the referee out for the CHEAP DQ.

Rating: D+. Oh this was bad. The ending crippled the actually solid last 5 minutes or so as the rest of this was just flat out boring. The slow style of both guys crippled each other and the ending had me shaking my head at how freaking dumb it was. I don’t get this at all as if nothing else have Sheamus get the chair shot and win that way but dang man, this was freaking stupid.

Post match Orton snaps and hits the RKO on the table. Good for him. Table didn’t break so at least it looked good. Sheamus is announced as still champion which should make us wait for either HHH or Miz’s theme music. Naturally we get the Legendary trailer.

We recap the way overdone Rey vs. Kane issue, which comes down to one thing: how would Rey know who did it? This took almost five minutes.

Smackdown World Title: Rey Mysterio vs. Kane

Kane brings the casket with him. Striker even throws out a quick summary of the Taker/Kane childhood which you NEVER hear anymore. Kane goes right for him and gets kicked in the knee. They talk about the keys to victory and King says that Rey’s potential innocence should help him win. Uh, what? Striker thinks this is speed vs. power. You can’t buy commentary like this people!

Kane takes over and we slow it down again. He gets a baseball slide which is cool looking. Can you imagine Kane playing baseball? That’s just funny for some reason. 619 is blocked and Kane takes his head off with a clothesline. We’re clearly just filling in time until the finish. It’s been mostly Kane here and as soon as I say that Kane goes into the post. Rey hits a flying battering ram move but Kane takes over AGAIN with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, a cool move.

Cole likes to talk about people being in the box. Kane wants the referee to ASK HIM. He’s been chilling with Jericho I guess. Top rope rana is blocked and Rey’s knee might be hurt. Wait wasn’t his ankle hurt on Smackdown? Springboard Splash misses so Rey just kicks Kane in the head. Well that works if nothing else. After more uneventful stuff, the 619 is blocked and Rey gets thrown into the casket.

The casket is closed and you know Taker will be in it soon. Chokeslam is blocked and 619 hits. Rey gets two off a counter to a counter to the springboard splash as the end is clearly near. Chokeslam hits to retain THANK GOODNESS!

Rating: C-. Better than the last match as at least this had an ending. It was still boring but Kane winning clean is a nice perk. You know it’ll wind up being Kane vs. Taker but Kane getting a clean win like this is good for him because he flat out needs them for some credibility. Not horrible but I’ve seen worse.

Post match Kane says he’s going to put Rey in the casket and opens it, showing that it’s empty. Two chokeslams and a tombstone (sick one too) and of course Taker is in the casket. He goes for Rey and asks if he’s heard of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Taker asks him why he did it but Rey insists it wasn’t him. Hand around throat and the throat slit sign but he turns to Kane. Kane breaks Taker’s grip and tombstones him, leaving him laying. These guys are on and off more than all the high school relationships in history. Yep Kane is the heel again.

Ad for Smackdown on Sci-Fi.

Clips of Summerslam Axxess which looks awesome.

Recap of Nexus vs. Cena’s Army. If you don’t know this by now, go read the Raw recaps since I’m sick of this story.

Nexus vs. R-Truth/Edge/Chris Jericho/Miz/John Cena/Bret Hart/John Morrison

Remember that this is elimination. This should go for a LONG time. New shirt for Cena. Miz comes out last and Cena has something to say. Cena has a replacement, and it’s DANIEL BRYAN. The really weird thing here is that there was an article up on WWE.com where it spoiled this half an hour before it happened. That’s very freaky and I can’t imagine the speech he got because of it.

Nexus vs. R-Truth/Edge/Chris Jericho/Daniel Bryan/John Cena/Bret Hart/John Morrison

BIG brawl to start as Cole runs down Bryan every second because he has to. The official starters are Bryan and Young. This should be quick. Hey I’m right as Bryan gets a crossface and Young is out in like 30 seconds. That evens things out since Hart is more or less worthless. Gabriel and Jericho are in now and don’t expect every tag to be mentioned since it’s going to be very fast paced.

Tarver comes in and throws a lot of punches. Morrison gets a nice pop as the hometown boy. Flash Kick and Starship Pain put Tarver down to make it 7-5. He landed on his back this time so we’ll call that a success. Barrett wants a huddle. Sheffield comes in and boxes with Morrison kind of as Nexus takes over. The fans want Bret as it’s all Sheffield. Morrison makes a comeback but walks into a kick by Gabriel and the clothesline from Sheffield to make it 6-5.

Sheffield hits Truth in like 30 seconds to tie it up. Jericho comes in and gets beaten down. Why do they keep calling them Team WWE? Nexus is in WWE officially right? Jericho vs. Barrett is an interesting match actually. Bret and Slater come in as Cena hasn’t been in yet, which is rather interesting. Bret does basic stuff and gets the Sharpshooter but there’s a chair in. Sheffield gets the tag and Bret pops him with the chair for reasons of basic stupidity. That’s the best way to get rid of him since he can’t take a power move due to his health so there isn’t another way to do it really.

As a recap it’s Cena/Edge/Jericho/Bryan vs. Sheffield/Barrett/Slater/Otunga/Gabriel. Sheffield gets up and walks into the Codebreaker. Spear ties us up at 4. Gabriel gets a SICK spin kick on Edge. The kick itself was just ok but the impact looked great. Barrett and Edge slow us down a bit. Edge gets a spinwheel kick which is one of his old moves. I haven’t seen him use that in forever.

Otunga comes in and is booed out of the building. Edge hits the Edgecution and gets a face pop for it. Not sure whether it’s for Edge or against Otunga but whatever. Edge gets the tag but STILL no Cena. This is certainly compelling. Lionsault hits and Striker says HE HIT IT! Jericho loses the Walls for a bit but Otunga eventually taps to get us to 4-3 Team Cena. Jericho is wrestling like Lionheart here and a BIG Y2J chant starts. I still want a Jericho face title run.

And he runs into Cena, resulting in Slater hitting his Zig Zag for the tie. Cena and Edge both want in and Edge yells while Bryan plays peacemaker. Slater runs Edge into Cena and rolls him up to get Jericho and Edge in less than a minute. Edge and Jericho beat up Cena before leaving. Jericho: YOU’RE A STUPID MAN! Cena/Bryan vs. Slater/Barrett/Gabriel. Cena is finally in now and gets his head kicked in.

Very good match so far as Nexus has looked STRONG. Cena can’t get anything going and Cole will not shut up about Bryan. Gabriel gets a DDT on Cena that looked good. Everyone beats on Cena and as I say that we get a double clothesline. Bryan comes in and cleans house, using a freaking big boot. Striker wants Cattle Mutilation. Where’s PETA when you need them?

Cena is down on the floor which makes me wonder where this is going. Cena as heel vs. Bryan as face? After a lot of GOOD stuff from Bryan he gets Slater to tap. And cue Miz with the briefcase to blast Bryan and make it 2-1 with Barrett/Gabriel vs. Cena. Cena is more or less dead though despite not being beaten down past anything overly special. He goes into the ending sequence though after a missed Gabriel splash in the corner.

FU doesn’t work as Gabriel makes the tag and Nexus takes over again. It’s a massive beatdown here as Cena has NOTHING. The two guys pull the mats on the floor back and Barrett hits a DDT on the exposed concrete. Gabriel gets tagged in and the 450 MISSES! Cena rolls up Gabriel and instantly gets the STFU on Barrett for the TAP AND THE WIN!

Rating: B+. This was very good. They booked it perfectly, including the ending. As I said in the LD, Cena moved, covered, did a drop toehold, laid on Barrett’s back and pulled. THAT’S IT. That’s how he beat them both. He wasn’t doing an FU to both guys after escaping their finishers and hitting 4 shoulder blocks each. He outmoved them and it worked fine. Nexus looked solid out there and the whole thing looked fine. This was a good match and well done. It certainly wasn’t bad and is nowhere near what people are making it out to be. I loved this and it made the show for the most part.

Overall Rating: B. This was a good show, but it’s a kind that would need a footnote. This is the definition of a one match show. I don’t mean one match is great and the rest suck. I mean this was built around one single match and nothing else on the card mattered at all. Other than the 7 on 7 match, what else was hyped at all?

Luckily, that match was very good and hit on all cylinders. The rest of the card is ok, but it could have been better. The Orton/Sheamus ending was just bad. Kane overpowering Taker is interesting as it actually gives us some intrigue. This was a good show overall, powered mainly by the main event’s success. Not worth seeing much other than the main, but that’s expected with a show like this.

So there you have it: The History of Summerslam. For 23 years the show has served as the second biggest show of the year and I’d say it hasn’t disappointed very often. There have been some bad ones, but there’s also been some great ones. It’s a great pairing to go with Mania as it’s about 4 months later and things have changed a decent amount in between.

Complete with the Survivor Series and the Rumble, you could almost see this as the beginning of the WWE year. Think about it. Of the four major shows, Mania is the end of the year, so this could be the beginning as Backlash is usually the epilogue with the Mania rematches. This is the first big show of the year, so it’s a big benchmark if you look at it that way. I’ll be back with Survivor Series starting around Halloween, so until then…..um….dang I need a catchphrase.

I’ll be back tomorrow with this year’s show hopefully as soon as it ends.  Thanks for reading.

Smackdown
Date: July 29, 2011
Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T, Josh Matthews

It’s a new era in the WWE as HHH is now in charge and tonight he’ll be here to talk to Smackdown. No clue what that’ll bring but it should be interesting at least. We should get something of an update on Christian vs. Orton which is probably going to be the SD main event for the I think fifth PPV in a row at Summerslam. Christian having the title now is a nice twist though. Let’s get to it.

Do you know your enemy? Mine are NXT and the heat wave that will not end.

Here’s HHH to open the show. He even does a Vince walk down the ramp. Booker is ticked that Cole is still here. HHH is going to start with the things that are the most important and work his way down. In this case that would be the two world titles. The Raw situation is more complicated because he has two world champions. Punk’s name gets less volume than Cena but there are more boos for John. Granted this is Smackdown so that means about as much as a chant in the Impact Zone. Punk has been re-signed and a decision will be made on the situation by Monday.

He starts to talk about Smackdown’s situation and is cut off by Christian’s music. He’s glad HHH is in charge because he’s tired of Teddy Long trying to ruin the show by sucking up to Orton. Christian says that HHH probably wants to establish a working relationship with the champ. HHH says not really because Vince fostered a culture around here where it’s encouraged to step on toes. In HHH’s world though if you step on his toes, he’ll slap you back. The Game doesn’t like negotiations so here’s how it is: at Summerslam it’s Christian vs. Orton in a no holds barred match.

Christian starts to complain but R-Truth of all people interrupts them. He says he’s back home on Smackdown but doesn’t clarify if it’s for more than just tonight. I’d assume it isn’t though. Truth is a bit confused because HHH isn’t talking to himself. Everyone knows there’s a conspiracy against him. DON’T WHAT ME! This Monday, those conspiracies better be figured out. Truth calls himself a man of action. HHH says that gives him an idea so it’s Truth vs. Orton later tonight. Christian offers some tips on how to beat Orton but HHH says not so fast. Christian has a match also against John Morrison, and it’s next.

HHH and Teddy are in the back when Zack Ryder pops up, saying he has an idea. HHH says Ryder has been bothering him all week. A call comes in for the Game so to get Ryder to shut up, HHH makes him Teddy’s official assistant. I felt a great disturbance in the IWC.

John Morrison vs. Christian

I’m kind of curious to see how Morrison is in the ring in his first match back. Morrison sends him to the floor quickly and teases a dive but Christian moves. Morrison puts the brakes on and back into the ring we go. Back elbow puts John down as does a right hand. Morrison fights back and the Moonlight Drive gets two. I think that’s the name at least but it’s the spinning springboard kick that Cody uses also.

Morrison gets sent to the floor and Christian misses a dive out there. John dives through the ropes as we take a break. Back with Christian hitting something that looked like a neckbreaker (only caught the end of it) for two. Christian slams him into the mat and pounds away, working on the neck. Neck crank goes on which makes sense for a change. Tornado DDT is countered and Morrison gets a brief comeback.

He sets for something but Christian reverses into a reverse DDT and gets two. Morrison tries the diving neckbreaker that he used in ECW but Christian rolls out. Christian takes him down again for two and is starting to get frustrated. Standing C4 gets two for Johnny. He pounds Christian down into the corner but the champ fires off a spear for a close two. Christian goes up top only to get drilled. Morrison goes up also and backdrops Christian off the top. Morrison tries something like Starship Pain but lands on his feet. Christian guillotines him and the Killswitch ends him at 6:18 shown of 9:48.

Rating: B-. Pretty fun match and Morrison looked fine. I’m really not sure I get the point in having his return match be against the champ but that’s Smackdown for you. Moving Morrison back to Smackdown wouldn’t be a bad idea to give them an upper midcard face to eventually feud with Christian. Either way, this was pretty good stuff, especially for an opener.

Jinder Mahal and Khali have a sky box.

Here’s Wade Barrett who wants to talk about why he left England to become a WWE Superstar. It wasn’t for the fans but rather to make himself a lot of money. He lost track of that in the last year but thanks to Daniel Bryan, he realizes that again. It should have been his case and the paycheck that comes with it.

He’s going back to basics because greed is underrated. Bryan’s music cuts him off and Booker calls him a superhero. Bryan says Slater said the same thing last week and Bryan made him tap. Barrett asks if he really just compared Barrett to Slater. Wade takes credit for shaping Nexus in his own image which Bryan disagrees with. Barrett may have main evented PPVs, but Bryan is going to main event Wrestlemania. Barrett decks him and holds up the case. Bryan picks the arm and hooks the LeBell Lock, making Barrett tap. Booker: “What’s he tapping for?”

Ryder is talking to Teddy when Mark Henry comes up. Teddy says people don’t want to deal with him right now. Ryder says he’ll find an opponent for Henry. Long won’t fist bump him.

Video of Justin Gabriel in South Africa, his home country. This pushes him like a face, talking about how he grew up in wrestling and how he’s kind of a local celebrity now.

Natalya/AJ/Kaitlyn vs. Alicia Fox/Rosa Mendes/Tamina

We get reference to AJ on NXT this week and AJ’s crush on Horny. Tamina and Natalya start us off as Cole makes fun of Rosa because he’s a jerk. Booker: “Rosa is hotter than a Mexican plate lunch.” Tamina takes over and brings in Alicia who gets two off I think a Tamina Samoan Drop. Booker says Alicia has been on fire recently. What show has he been watching? Off to AJ who is seriously too cute for words. A cross body out of the corner misses and Alicia hits the scissors kick for the pin at 2:12. Cole: “Booker you wish you had legs like she did.” Booker: “Yeah sometimes.” Cole and Josh: “WHAT?”

Video on Henry being all evil and dominant, breaking the two giants’ legs.

Mark Henry vs. Bobby Howard

Howard is a local guy apparently and appears to be about 5 and a half feet tall. Ryder tries to talk him into getting into the ring, offering him Broski of the Week honors. Henry is all ticked off and Booker says get Henry some A-1 steak sauce. I think you know what’s coming here. It ends at 1:06 after a WICKED backbreaker.

Post attempted manslaughter, Henry gets a chair and looks to Pillmanize his leg, only for Teddy to make the save. Teddy says Henry can’t compete anymore which Henry doesn’t like the sound of. Long says he’ll find someone. Cue Sheamus of all people who comes out and takes Teddy’s mic. He says he’ll fight Henry which gets a face pop. Sheamus says Henry is just big and as Henry says, bigger isn’t better.

We get an old Irish folktale which ends with Henry being called a 425lb bag of crap. Henry yells at Teddy and there’s a loud Sheamus chant. Sheamus smacks him and ducks low to send Henry to the floor. Henry charges back but Sheamus grabs the chair and says bring it. Henry leaves and Sheamus stands tall. I know I’m a fan of the guy, but face Sheamus is AWESOME. The key thing to him is it’s not really a change of personality. He’s always been willing to fight everyone. Now he just wants to fight bad guys. I can dig this.

Tag Titles: Usos vs. Michael McGillicutty/David Otunga

Wow the champs are on Smackdown. Nexus has new music too. We’ll say that’s Jey starting vs. McGillicutty. They beat the champs on Superstars to set this up. Off to Otunga who does a bit better with Jimmy. Chinlock goes on and the crowd is silent until Jimmy gets a shot in and brings in Jey. He takes over on McGilligutty and they set for the top rope splash. Otunga distracts the referee by pointing out that Jimmy is in the ring still so he can shove Jey off the top. McGillicutter ends this at 2:30.

Ryder is bragging to what he did tonight so far. Teddy says he’s done enough but Ryder suggests Legacy vs. Jackson in a handicap match. Teddy isn’t sure but Ryder has already talked to all of them so the match is on.

Raw ReBound talks about Monday night and all the insanity on it.

Truth feels good about the main event tonight. He says he feels like a bunch of eagles swooping down on a snake. He has a snake tonight and tonight, the Viper is gonna get got.

Ezekiel Jackson vs. Ted DiBiase/Cody Rhodes

Cody’s jacket is sleeveless now. Rhodes and DiBiase have to tag here so Ted starts. Both guys are in quickly and that doesn’t go well for the team. Double teaming takes down Jackson until DiBiase gets dropped with a modified snake eyes. Off to Cody who takes a bunch of slams. There’s the Rack but Ted makes the save. That move rarely finishes anyone. Jackson charges at Cody but his shoulder goes into the post. Cross Rhodes ends this at 2:22. What is with the short matches tonight?

Mahal is in the sky box and says stuff we can’t understand. Khali says something too.

R-Truth vs. Randy Orton

The lack of music works for Truth. Orton hits some clotheslines to start and Truth shrugs them off. Another clothesline by Randy gets two. Big knee drop misses and Truth hits a jumping side kick for two. Orton heads to the floor and Truth takes forever to send him back in. He takes enough time that Orton can almost get the elevated DDT but Truth escapes into a Stunner on the apron.

Sloppy suplex into the stunner gets two. Here’s Christian to watch the match and we take a break. Back with Orton firing off some right hands, only for Truth to hit the spinning forearm for two. Off to a chinlock before another elbow gets two for Truth. Truth goes up but jumps into a punch to the stomach.

Orton starts his finishing sequence and gets all googly eyed. Elevated DDT hits and he loads up the RKO. There’s a very small trickle of blood on Randy’s lip. Truth slides to the floor as Christian offers a distraction. Orton follows him out and Truth blasts him in the head with a water bottle. It doesn’t do much here other than make Randy mad so he picks the bottle up and goes back in. Orton spears Truth down and the bottle is nowhere in sight. Instead he hits the floor and grabs a chair, which goes into Truth’s ribs for the DQ at 7:54 shown of 11:24.

Rating: C-. I wasn’t all that interested in this one. I’m not sure why as the match was ok but it really just kind of came and went. It’s not bad but I was just sitting around waiting for it to end. Truth’s offense was off all night long with the moves not looking like they were making a ton of contact and not looking very damaging. Not impressed here but it wasn’t particularly bad, just not very good.

Post match Truth is sent to the floor and Orton pops him in the head with a monitor. RKO onto (not through) the table and Truth is more or less dead. Christian has been watching in near horror the entire time here. Orton gets all evil again and snaps off a second RKO onto (again not through. FREAKING OW MAN) the table to Truth. Christian and Orton stare each other down to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. I just wasn’t feeling this one. It has its moments, such as Morrison vs. Christian and Sheamus as a face, but other than that the whole thing was kind of meh. It’s pretty good overall but there’s nothing that jumps off the page at you and the rather short matches overall hurt it a lot. Not a horrible show, but for Smackdown’s usually awesome standards, this wasn’t up to par.

Results

Christian b. John Morrison – Killswitch

Alicia Fox/Tamina/Rosa Mendes b. AJ/Natalya/Kaitlyn – Scissors kick to AJ

Mark Henry b. Bobby Howard – Backbreaker

Michael McGillicutty/David Otunga b. Usos – McGillicutter to Jey

Cody Rhodes/Ted DiBiase b. Ezekiel Jackson – Cross Rhodes

R-Truth b. Randy Orton via DQ when Orton hit R-Truth with a chair

Smackdown
Date: July 15, 2011
Location: Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, Connecticut
Commentators: Michael Cole, Booker T, Josh Matthews

It’s the final show before Money in the Bank and everything is pretty much set in stone at this point.  The MITB match itself is a pretty open field but I’d look for Sheamus, Barrett or Rhodes to win it (what a limb I’m going out on with those picks).  Probably just some last minute pushes for the show here as expected.  Let’s get to it.

Do you know your enemy?  Mine is a bad internet connection.  And popcorn costing $7 at a theater.

Orton vs. Kane tonight.

DiBiase gets a shot at Jackson too.

Josh is in the ring and brings out the dude that hears voices in his head.  Orton says he won’t get disqualified and that he thinks this is a cheap attempt by Christian to try to steal the title.  Christian pops up on screen and says that clause was his lawyers’ idea.  He has a gift for Orton which is a portrait of Christian standing over Orton with the title.  Orton says that isn’t going to work to make him mad.

Christian starts talking about Orton’s family, namely Bob Orton Jr., who was only a glorified sidekick.  His dad is in the Hall of Fame in the wing with guys like Drew Carey and the other cheap jokes.  He’s in the HOF to keep Randy happy.  Orton says come say that to his face, which Christian says he’ll do once he wins the title on Sunday.  He calls Orton pathetic and Orton calls Christian a pathetic excuse for a man and a superstar.  After Sunday, Christian will be exposed as a flash in the pan that needed Edge to help him win the title for five days.  Simple segment but the emotion was there.

Video on Show vs. Henry which I think is the same one from Raw.  They face off tonight.  Not a match, just a face off.

Intercontinental Title: Ezekiel Jackson vs. Ted DiBiase

New ring announcer tonight who looks a bit better in a blue dress than Chimmel does.  DiBiase hits Jackson and that doesn’t go well for him.  Out to the floor as Booker rambles about his Fave Five as is his custom.  Jackson is rammed into the post which gets two in the ring.  Cody is watching and the referee, the former Nunzio, is really loud here.

DiBiase takes over and throws on a chinlock.  The following clothesline is countered by Jackson.  How has no one else ever countered that?  Apparently Ted has blown all of his money and it’s implied that it was on Maryse.  Here come the slams but DiBiase counters into a Dream Street attempt but Jackson shrugs it off and slams Ted again.  Rack doesn’t work but the second attempt does with the submission coming at 3:45.

Rating: C. See, this is what Jackson needs more of: wins where he gets in some trouble but eventually uses the power game to make his comeback and set up his finishing stuff.  Nothing fancy here and it worked just fine.  Also helps when he actually, you know, wins his matches instead of losing them.

Most of the MITB people are in matches later.

Ted is in the back and Cody says he’ll bag him if Ted loses again.

Daniel Bryan vs. Cody Rhodes

We get a quick recap video of this feud during the introductions.  It’s almost shot like its from the mind of a crazy person so it looks really cool.  Ok make that a long one.  Bryan hammers him into the corner to start us off and he escapes an Alabama Slam attempt.  LeBell Lock doesn’t work and Cole puts a bag on and imitates Booker.  Ok that was kind of funny.

Rhodes takes over for a bit but Bryan sends him to the floor and takes over with a dive.  We take a break and come back in the ring with Cody in control.  Cody throws on a half crab which doesn’t last long.  Like you can put a submission on Bryan.  Cody works over the ribs as the fans keep coming in and out of this one.  Booker gets asked about being in a MITB match and somehow he starts talking about Daniel Bryan.  Apparently it’s too brutal to talk about.  I give up.

Anyway it’s back to the half crab as the announcers totally ignore the match other than Josh when he can get a word in edgewise.  Bryan fires back with some forearms and a leg lariat/running kick for two.  Some light Cody chants start up.  Not we’re talking about Booker being a drum major.  Alabama Slam gets two and the commentary is really starting to get old.  Talk about MITB or ANYTHING of importance, but drop the bickering.

Cody tries Cross Rhodes but Bryan climbs the ropes to get behind Cody.  Bryan gets put on the top but kicks Cody away and manages to grab the LeBell Lock while on the ropes.  That gets broken up of course so Bryan settles for the missile dropkick for a long two.  Running dropkick in the corner puts Cody down again.  They both go up and Bryan gets crotched badly.  That positioning allows the Beautiful Disaster to end this at 7:29 shown of 10:59.

Rating: B. I liked this one a lot actually.  Cody can be really good when he gets some time and Bryan of course is capable of having a good match with anyone.  This has been a pretty solid mini feud and I’d like to see it get a title involved.  Good stuff here and a rather fun TV match indeed.

Teddy is on the phone talking about getting protection or something.  A referee comes in and Teddy tells him that if there’s any physicality in the Big Show/Mark Henry showdown, their PPV match is off.  The referee leaves and Teddy talks about gambling a lot.  This seems to be a running theme with him.  Kane comes in to thank Teddy for giving him a match with Orton as he requested.  Kane isn’t happy because he’s starting to feel human instead of like a monster.  Teddy says if it makes him feel any better, he’s scaring Teddy right now.  Kane says if Teddy was really scared, Teddy wouldn’t be able to tell him.

Jinder and Khali are in a photo shoot and Jinder isn’t happy with the photographer paying attention to Khali.  They both yell at him and that’s about it.

Christian is looking at Orton’s bus and there’s spray paint on the side talking about Christian being the uncrowned champion.  He says he’ll find out who did this.

Sheamus vs. Sin Cara

This should be interesting.  Wade Barrett is on commentary here.  The match starts after a break.  Cara takes over to start with his high flying stuff.  Barrett admits that the Corre was a disaster.  Sheamus can’t get anything going as Cara gets an armdrag out of the corner.  And let’s talk about the Fave Five because it’s been a full 4 minutes since we did.  Apparently Booker sees some of himself in Sheamus.  Uh….ok?

We talk about the drum major stuff as it’s kind of interesting to see how long they can go without actually talking about the match.  Barrett is talking about how he’s going to win as Sheamus gets a running knee lift while Cara is draped in the ropes.  Off to a cravate as we’re probably two minutes without talking about the match now.  Now let’s look at Booker and Barrett talking because the match isn’t important I guess.

Josh finally mentions Cara being grounded here, which apparently has NEVER happened to him before.  Honestly, is there something in the water in the announcers’ water cooler?  Cara sends him to the floor and Sheamus may have hurt his knee.  Back in Sheamus catches Cara in a dive and hits a fallaway slam for no cover.  He loads up the High Cross but Cara counters into a rana for the surprise pin at 6:00.

Rating: C+. Not a great match but by far and away Cara’s biggest win to date in WWE.  I’m rather surprised that they would have Sheamus lose here but it looked like a fluke win which is probably the best way to have it happen.  It doesn’t really hurt Sheamus as he had Cara beaten but took too much time to end him, which is good for both guys.

Barrett takes Sheamus down post match and hits Wasteland.  He looks weird in a collared shirt and slacks.

Christian is in the casino with a wallet.  Naturally it belongs to Orton and it’s time to gamble with the $1000 he finds in there.  He says Orton is going to need the money for anger management and his daughter’s college.  Christian puts it all on 1 in a game of roulette and loses it of course.  Christian says Orton’s luck just ran out.  I liked this as it was something outside of the ordinary which you hardly ever see anymore in promos.  Just having something different in the background makes it more interesting.

Time for the showdown which is just the two big guys talking.  Teddy moderates it for lack of a better term.  Henry isn’t going to come farther from the stage though because he can’t hold his temper well enough apparently.  They talk about pain and how it’s Show’s problem apparently.

Show says everyone has been waiting for Henry to wake up and Show finally did it.  Henry asks if Show thinks bigger is better.  Without waiting for an answer, he says stronger and meaner are better.  Both guys say the other has no idea what they’re capable of.  Teddy has to stop a fight and says we’ll see who wins Sunday.  I still don’t get the appeal of this feud.  Scratch that.  I get the appeal, but I just don’t care about Mark Henry at all.

Rosa Mendes vs. Kelly Kelly

Non title here.  I have absolutely no idea what to talk about here.  Match is over and there’s just nothing to say.  Kelly wins with the K2 at 1:49.  The majority of the match was spent talking about jobs Rosa has had.  Nothing else to say at all.  Oh and Alicia was at ringside and did nothing at all.

Johnny Curtis pulls an elephant out of a bag which is supposed to be a cat.  Apparently it’s the big elephant in the room.  They’re really running out of ideas aren’t they?

Justin Gabriel vs. Heath Slater

Both guys have their own music now.  Slater says he’s tired of being held back and that he’ll show he’s better tonight.  Nice technical stuff to start as they know each other really well.  The crowd doesn’t seem to care at all but you can’t have everything I guess.  Gabriel starts fighting back but can’t hit the 450.  Cole runs his mouth some more as Slater misses a moonsault.  The 450 hits and we’re done at 2:52.  Well Slater looks like nothing now.

Video on Punk vs. Cena, which is the same from NXT.

Randy Orton vs. Kane

For some reason I’ve wanted to see a proper feud between these two for years.  Just seems like it would be good.  Orton hammers away to start which doesn’t really work.  Christian is on the stage.  Kane hammers away as he is known to do.  The clothesline hits and he calls for the chokeslam about 75 seconds into this.  Orton counters with right hands but he can’t take Kane down.  He manages to get the powerslam and the elevated DDT.  RKO is countered and Orton sees Christian, allowing Kane to send him to the floor.  Christian throws a drink at Randy and runs into the crowd.  It’s enough for the count out at 2:58 though.

Orton chases after Christian and gets him near Kane and the beatdown is on.  Kane doesn’t like Christian though and chases him off.  Orton pops up and hits the RKO on Kane but Christian hits a spear and pounds on Randy.  Christian gets a chair but Orton gets it away from him as the Canadian runs.  Kane takes a chair shot.  Make that a lot of them.  Orton goes all bugged eyed on Christian to end the show.

Overall Rating: B+. Good show but it was a step behind what the others have been recently.  That being said, they had some good matches and a story going throughout the show.  Also they had some nice build for the PPV so maybe it wasn’t all that bad of a show.  It’s not as good as some others they’ve done, but still for a go home show, this was really pretty good.

Results

Ezekiel Jackson b. Ted DiBiase – Torture Rack

Cody Rhodes b. Daniel Bryan – Beautiful Disaster

Sin Cara b. Sheamus – Hurricanrana into a pin

Kelly Kelly b. Rosa Mendes – K2

Justin Gabriel b. Heath Slater – 450 Splash

Kane b. Randy Orton via countout