According to his Twitter.  No real surprise here as he was about as generic in the ring as you could ask for.  His character wasn’t terrible but he wasn’t interesting at all for the most part.

This might be the start of the annual spring cleaning releases but it’s too early to tell.

I want to have its children.

NXT
Date: May 15, 2013
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Tom Phillips, Brad Maddox

The main event tonight is Langston defending the title against Damien Sandow which is a good match for him. Sandow is a main show guy and a match against him wouldn’t do any harm at all to Langston’s status in NXT. Other than that we’ll get to see where the Wyatt Family goes with their new titles. Let’s get to it.

After a quick video on the title match tonight and the theme song we’re ready to go.

Summer Rae vs. Natalya

Summer is now doing the Maryse hair toss. A quick headlock takes Natalya down but Summer uses those long legs of hers to counter into a headscissors. They stay on the mat with Natalya grabbing an armbar until we hit a standoff. After hitting the ropes a few times, Natalya tries the Sharpshooter to no avail. Instead it’s a discus lariat for two on Summer but she manages to send Natalya to the apron. An enziguri gets two on Natayla and we take a break.

Back with Summer getting two off something we didn’t see and firing off kicks in the corner. Apparently this is happening because Summer said Natalya hung out with freaks in Horny and Khali. A back elbow to the face gets two for Summer and she cranks on Natalya’s arm on the mat. Cue Paige as Natalya counters into the Sharpshooter, only to have Summer kick off and send Natayla into Paige. With Paige on the floor, Summer rolls Natalya up for the pin at 5:46 shown of 9:16.

Rating: C+. This was exactly what it needed to be. Summer looked great out there (both in the ring and in those shorts of hers) and didn’t at all look to be in over her head. While she isn’t lighting the ring on fire or anywhere close to it, she looks more than competent out there and worked a decent enough match here. Also she won as close to clean as you can get as she didn’t even see Paige behind Natalya.

Paige chases Summer off post match.

Sami Zayn (El Generico) is debuting against Curt Hawkins next week and says this isn’t his first rodeo.

Here’s Bray Wyatt with a gray mask on his face (due to a broken nose) and what looks like a leather apron. He says this is the new face of fear and no matter who looks into his face, they can’t hurt him because he is already dead.

Danny Burch vs. Bray Wyatt

Burch is from London and has his own music. Wyatt starts with a slap to the face and takes Burch down with ease. A chinlock allows Bray to drill him in the face with a forearm before hitting that cross body of his. The splash in the corner sets up Sister Abigail for the pin at 2:07. Total squash.

Bo Dallas comes up to Adrian Neville but doesn’t seem to care about Neville’s update on Oliver Grey’s injury. Instead he’d rather talk about John Cena winning the Rumble, which Dallas happened to be in. Neville might just make it after all. Adrian has no idea what Dallas is talking about, but Dallas would rather talk about a #1 contenders battle royal in two weeks. Neville is in as well….and that’s that. This was pretty awkward but Dallas was acting rather heelish.

Conor O’Brian vs. Sakamoto/Briley Pierce

O’Brian beat up both guys last week so tonight it’s a handicap match. Sakamoto starts and is easily thrown down off a double chicken wing lift. Off to Pierce who is caught in a series of headlock takeovers. A suplex puts Briley down and it’s back to Sakamoto who has no effect with some chops. O’Brian pounds them both down with ease before hitting a splash to both guys at once in the corner. A very impressive double flapjack sets up a double pin for O’Brian at 2:36. Another total squash.

Post match Rick Victor comes out to the stage for a staredown with O’Brian.

Corey Graves says that his entire life has been ups and downs. You have to fail before you can succeed, but if you keep fighting you can win. He’ll be in the battle royal in two weeks and get the title shot he wants. Bray Wyatt of all people comes in and wants to know why Graves is here while the greatest war in human history is going on outside his door. Kassius Ohno knows what Bray talking about but Bray doesn’t go into any more depth than that. He says he owns NXT and that he’s the eater of worlds. Corey says he doesn’t have his own family but if the Wyatt Family keeps messing with him, they’re going down.

NXT Title: Damien Sandow vs. Big E. Langston

Apparently it’s Graves vs. Wyatt next week. Langston powers Sandow into the corner to start before running him over with a shoulder. Damien escapes the Big Ending so Langston shouts FIVE. A slam puts Sandow down again and Big E. pounds away on the ribs. Maddox says that wrestling Langston is like wrestling a frozen bison. Sandow is dropped on his back out of the corner but fights out of another Big Ending attempt.

We take a break and come back with Langston suplexing Sandow down. Big E. misses a charge into the corner though, allowing Sandow to clothesline him in the back of the head to take over. We hit the chinlock but Langston powers up, only to be hit with a dropkick. Off to a headscissors by Damien for a bit before he gets two off a top rope ax handle. Some knee drops to the chest get the same and it’s back to the chinlock.

Langston fights up and hits a quick belly to belly suplex and a series of hard clotheslines. Big E. fires off five knees to the ribs but Damien counters the Big Ending into an Edge-O-Matic for two. The Wind-Up elbow misses but Damien hits a swinging neckbreaker. A second attempt at the elbow connects but the Terminus is countered into the Big Ending to retain Langston’s title at 11:28 shown of 14:58.

Rating: C+. This was exactly what it was supposed to be. I don’t think Sandow was ever a real threat to win the title here, but at the same time it gave Langston a good looking win over a main show regular. It wasn’t a bad match at all and there were some nice false finishes at the end with Sandow countering the Big Ending a few times.

Post match another Big Ending gets Langston the five count to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. Another good episode here as we have something set up for next week as well as two weeks from now. Sandow did a fine job here of giving Langston something to do until we have a new #1 contender for him to fight. The Graves vs. Wyatt Family story is interesting, as is Dallas’ teased heel turn. Good show tonight, as is the norm in NXT.

Results

Summer Rae b. Natayla – Rollup

Bray Wyatt b. Danny Burch – Sister Abigail

Conor O’Brian b. Briley Pierce/Sakamoto – Double Flapjack

Big E. Langston b. Damien Sandow – Big Ending

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of the WWE Championship from Amazon for just $5 at:

There has been a lot of talk lately about Antonio Cesaro’s position backstage and how he hasn’t been pushed anymore because he’s considered boring.  This can be attributed to the WWE Creative team.  Again.Let’s see: he held the US Title for months on end and rarely got to defend it, he lost far more often than he won as champion, and once he lost the title he became a yodeler. That was the major gimmick of the guy who was put in the main event of Tribute to the Troops to face John Cena: He yodeled.

Why in the world would the fans care about this guy? He was treated like any other jobber and the fans stopped caring about him. Cesaro wasn’t the biggest star in the world, but he puts on solid matches and plays the smug foreign heel to perfection. There’s money in that kind of a character and there has been for years. The solution from WWE’s creative team? Make him a yodeler.

The same thing happened with Ryder.  He was over with the fans so the WWE crushed him for whatever their reason was that time.  Presumably because he got over against the company’s wishes.  I mean, why would you want to make money off a character who has done the hardest part of the job for the writers: making the fans care about him.

It’s a self fulfilling prophecy.

Someone brought this up on the forums last night and it’s an interesting question.Who do you think is the funniest promo guy of all time?  For me, it’s Flair.  When he would get rolling and ranting about making Nikita Koloff his gardener and that his shoes were more expensive than Dusty’s house he would have me in stitches.

Your picks?

Monday Night Raw
Date: May 13, 2013
Location: BOK Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Commentators: John Bradshaw Layfield, Michael Cole. Jerry Lawler

It’s finally the go home show for Extreme Rules and the main attraction of tonight’s show is that HHH and Lesnar will be face to face. You know, because that hasn’t happened far too often already. Other than that we have Jericho vs. Fandango in a dance off which at least should be funny. Oh and maybe Ryback vs. Cena too if we have time between all the Lesnar vs. HHH recaps and replays. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the end of last week’s show with Ryback beating down Cena with a chair.

Lawler is in the ring to host the dance off. We get clips of Fandango vs. Jericho from Wrestlemania with Fandango getting the pin. Apparently there’s a rematch on Sunday. There’s a wood floor on the mat for the guys to dance on. Fandango is dancing with Summer Rae and Jericho has a woman from Dancing with the Stars as his partner.

Lawler insists that this is NOT a popularity contest and you’re supposed to judge based on their skills only. Fandango insists he didn’t lose to Khali because the fans just didn’t know what they were talking about. Also as long as there’s a Chris Jericho, there’s a better man named Fandango.

Jericho talks about all of the contests he’s won in WWE history that didn’t involve wrestling and says he’s winning tonight. Then he’ll win on Sunday as well, and then there’s going to be a song about Jericho dancing all over Fandango’s face. Fandango and Summer go first….or rather they’re about to when Fandango says cut the music. Apparently the fans were being too loud and he can’t focus. They get started and a few seconds in Summer twists her ankle.

The pro dancer goes to look at it as does the trainer but Fandango starts to leave. As Jericho is looking at Summer, Fandango jumps Jericho and beats him down. Fandango beats him down for a good while, whipping Jericho into whatever object he can find. He picks up a piece of the wooden floor and blasts Jericho in the face with it for good measure. To the shock of no one, Summer is fine and walks off.

Tonight it’s Shield vs. Cena/HELL NO in an elimination match.

We see the end of Raw from last week again.

Ryback vs. Zack Ryder

Ryder now has long tights. As the destruction is going on, we get a commercial for the WWE App where Del Rio is having an interview right now. What also is going on right now is a Shell Shock to Ryder for the pin at 1:04. Total dominance.

We get a clip of HHH being attacked by Lesnar last year and breaking his arm. According to Cole, this was “when HHH was COO of the company.” Didn’t the sign on his office last week

say he was still COO?

Tons of Funk vs. Prime Time Players

Tensai crushes Darren to start but gets kicked in the face by Titus. Cole talks about all the countries watching the show tonight so he doesn’t have to talk about the match. Titus misses a running charge into the corner and it’s off to Brodus to clean house. As Clay knocks Darren down, Titus rolls up Brodus for the pin at 1:38. Replays show that Darren hit Brodus in the throat with his hair pick to allow the pin.

We look at the clip from Smackdown where Swagger gave Ziggler a concussion, meaning the world title match is in jeopardy.

Here’s Teddy to make the announcement about the World Title, but Colter and Swagger come out and say Swagger should be made champion. AJ and Langston come out to argue about Ziggler keeping the title, but Teddy cuts them off. Ziggler won’t be losing the title, and Swagger vs. Del Rio on Sunday is now an I Quit #1 contenders match. Also tonight it’s Langston vs. one of them, with the opponent being decided by a poll on the WWE App.

Kofi Kingston vs. Damien Sandow

Ambrose vs. Kingston for the US Title is official. Damien says he won’t be singing a song tonight because Kofi’s song is foolish. Sandow pounds away to start and hits his rapid fire knees to the chest followed by the Wind-Up Elbow for two. The announcers are of course talking about comic books. We go WAY old school with an abdominal stretch by Damien but Kofi reverses into one of his own. Kofi comes back with a dropkick and the Boom Drop, only to miss the cross body out of the corner. Sandow hits a running flip neckbreaker for two but Kofi pops up and hits Trouble in Paradise for the pin at 2:28.

Here’s Mark Henry with a strap to call out Sheamus and induct him into the Hall of Pain. We get some clips of how this match is set up, including Henry pulling the semi trucks on Smackdown. Henry tells Josh Matthews to put the strap around his wrist before shoving him down. He easily touches all four corners and lets Josh go, saying that he feels very generous.

Sheamus comes out and says Henry isn’t the brightest man in the world. He doesn’t want to get in the ring at first but Henry calls him a coward and that’s enough to get Sheamus to come out. Henry won’t let him in with the strap, but Sheamus pulls one of his own out from under the ring. Sheamus beats on Henry enough to send Henry running off.

We get a clip of Lesnar attacking Vince many months ago.

Trailer for 12 Rounds 2, starring Randy Orton.

We look at a clip of the opening segment again in case you’ve forgotten about it already.

Antonio Cesaro vs. Randy Orton

This is a rematch from Main Event where Orton won. Cesaro pounds away to start and has to be pulled off Orton in the corner. Off to a chinlock for a but but Orton comes back with a kick to the face and the powerslam. Cesaro counters the Elevated DDT into a rollup for two, only to stand up and get caught in the RKO for the pin at 3:10.

Rating: D+. Last week Cesaro talked about being the best in the company. Within the next week, he’s been pinned by Orton twice, one of those times being in three minutes and ten seconds. But hey, I’m sure this somehow makes him a bigger star right? This show is REALLY flat tonight but we are getting a lot of matches at least.

The Miz vs. Heath Slater

Feeling out process to start but Miz hits a quick sunset flip and backbreaker for two. Mahal trips up Miz and Slater gets a big boot for two. A neckbreaker gets two for Slater and it’s off to a quick chinlock. Miz comes back with a forearm and a boot to the face as we get ANOTHER commercial for the WWE App. A top rope ax handle puts Slater down but he grabs the rope to avoid the figure four. Slater goes up but gets thrown down onto the rest of his band and injures his knee in the process. Back in and the figure four ends this at 4:14.

Rating: D. I like Miz in general, but this figure four stuff is just nonsense. It doesn’t give him credibility because Flair “gave” him the move and it doesn’t make us care about him any more. He had a good finishing move and won the main event of Wrestlemania with it, but we MUST praise Flair somehow because….I have no idea why we have to pay tribute to him so often actually.

Clip of Alicia Fox and Layla at a cancer walk.

Back in February, HHH beat up Lesnar with a chair. They’re doing the whole history of the feud tonight to show us just how important it’s been.

John Cena/HELL NO vs. Shield

This is elimination rules like a Survivor Series match. The tag champions are defending the titles against Rollins and Reigns in a Texas Tornado match. Ambrose and Kane get things started with Kane pounding Dean into the corner. Bryan comes in with kicks to the chest and a painful looking arm hold. Off to Rollins vs. Cena with John putting on a front facelock as we take a break.

Back with Shield beating on Bryan in the corner as the Shield makes their traditional quick tags to pound away on him. Ambrose stomps away but the bearded one gets up and fires back, hitting a running knee to the ribs and making the tag to Kane. Kane cleans house with clotheslines all around and a sidewalk slam gets two on Ambrose. A DDT gets the same result and there’s the top rope clothesline. He loads up the chokeslam but has to shove Ambrose and Rollins to the floor. Kane follows them out and winds up getting counted out for an elimination.

We take another break and come back with Reigns pounding on Cena in the corner before it’s off to Rollins to take out Cena’s bad leg. Cena finally gets in a shot to the face and dives over for a tag off to Bryan. Daniel immediately hits a suicide dive onto Reigns and a missile dropkick on Rollins for two. Ambrose sneaks up on Bryan and the bulldog driver is enough to put Bryan out, making it 3-1 with Cena in trouble.

John charges right at Ambrose but gets caught by all three. Cena fights them off and gets down to Rollins alone in the ring. The champ initiates his finishing sequence and hits the Shuffle, only to have Ambrose break it up. Cena clears away Ambrose and Reigns before hitting the AA to eliminate Rollins. Ambrose charges into the AA but Cena spears him down, although he draws a DQ for shoving the referee. Dean covers him for two as we’re down to one on one. The STF goes on but Rollins and Reigns come in for the DQ at 23:21.

Rating: B-. I was thinking for a minute there that they were going to let Cena beat all three guys in a row but thankfully they didn’t let it happen via submission. At the end of the day though, Cena did beat the Shield via pinfall when it was 3-1 so bet on people complaining about that. Still though, good long match here which is what we needed on this Raw.

Post match the Shield hits the TripleBomb and leaves, allowing Ryback to come out and hit Cena’s leg with a chair.

Video on HHH vs. Ryback from Wrestlemania.

Swagger wins the poll by a wide margin of 65-35.

Big E. Langston vs. Jack Swagger

Swagger pounds away to start but Langston shoves him into the corner with raw power. Jack fires off some right hands and tries for the Patriot Lock, only to be kicked away as we take a break. Back with Langston hitting some backbreakers on Jack for two before Swagger fires off some shots to the ribs.

The Vader Bomb gets two but Langston pops up and runs Swagger over. A superplex puts Swagger down for two more but Jack escapes the Big Ending. Swagger hits a chop block and there’s the Patriot Lock, but Langston makes the rope. Jack is backdropped to the floor but manages to clothesline Langston over the barricade for the countout at 10:00.

Rating: D. Well that happened. Swagger likely would have beaten Ziggler here for the same result because that’s what happens in this feud. The I Quit match likely would have happened had it not been for the MITB cash in and it could be an interesting match, although I can’t picture Swagger winning.

Post match Del Rio runs out but gets put in the Patriot Lock. Ricardo tries to help him but gets kicked in the head, allowing Del Rio to put Swagger in the cross armbreaker for a tap out. Langston breaks it up for absolutely no apparent reason, but Del Rio clears the ring.

Natalya vs. AJ

Kaitlyn and the Bellas are on commentary while Horny and Khali are standing off to the side. Kaitlyn gets another gift as the match is ignored yet again. It’s a Simpsons trivia game or something like that but we have to talk about clothes as AJ is sent to the floor for a hard shot from Natalya. Another one seems to knock her out but after sending AJ back in, she locks in an octopus hold called the Black Widow for the tap out from Natalya at 3:10.

Jericho says he’ll teach Fandango to dance Jericho style on Sunday.

Time for HHH and Lesnar’s showdown, which is the real main event tonight. A cage is lowered for some extra atmosphere. HHH talks about how he’s learned to hate this but he feels at home in the cage. He wants Heyman and Lesnar out here right now, and of course what HHH wants, he gets.

Paul and Brock come out but HHH tells them to shut up. Heyman talks about how they’re not allowed to say hate on WWE programming but Heyman will do it anyway. Paul talks about how HHH is going to have to lose in the cage and face everyone after it whether he likes it or not. HHH again says bring it on but apparently Brock doesn’t fight for free.

That’s fine with HHH because he’s figured out why Lesnar won’t fight. See, HHH has done the unthinkable and beat Brock while knocking him out. I guess Extreme Rules from last year is erased from history. He talks directly to Brock and says bring it on. Lesnar walks to the ring with Heyman saying don’t do it. Lesnar slowly climbs the steps, puts one leg in the ring, and actually gets inside. As is usually the case, HHH is more than capable of fighting Lesnar one on one and sends him flying through the door while looking like it’s not a problem at all. Oh and Brock looks scared.

Overall Rating: D+. This show was ALL about HHH vs. Lesnar. Yeah a few other things got some time, but it was all revolving around the one underlying theme of HHH vs. Lesnar. This feud has been every bad thing about HHH rolled into one: the matches aren’t as good as they’re made out to be, his stories dominate everything else, and they go on WAY too long. At the end of the day, people just do not care about seeing these two fight anymore. It should have been a one off match at Summerslam with HHH going away for months and never mentioning Brock again.

Instead it’s gone on EIGHT MORE MONTHS and yeah, Lesnar will likely win on Sunday, but the loss will wind up being all about HHH and Lesnar will be none better off as a result. But hey, HHH gets to headline another show right? Lesnar could have feuded with ANYBODY else in the company and given them something out of it, but instead HHH needed to occupy a year of his time.

As for the rest of the show….it wasn’t easy. The problem on this show anymore is that WWE is so obsessed with everything they can put around their product (the App, the charity stuff, videos, unfunny commentary, celebrities etc) that they ignore the in ring action and the stories. Shield is the only interesting thing right now, as Ryback vs. Cena is feeling more and more worthless every second they’re together because Cena isn’t losing the title to him, period. This show felt way too long and it was mainly because of the HHH vs. Lesnar overkill.

Results

Ryback b. Zack Ryder – Shell Shock

Prime Time Players b. Tons of Funk – Rollup to Clay

Kofi Kingston b. Damien Sandow – Trouble in Paradise

Randy Orton b. Antonio Cesaro – RKO

John Cena/HELL NO b. Shield – Cena last eliminated Ambrose via DQ when Reigns and Rollins interfered

Jack Swagger b. Big E. Langston via countout

AJ b. Natalya – Black Widow

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of the WWE Championship from Amazon for just $5 at:

Instead it’s going to be…..Del Rio vs. Swagger in a #1 contenders I Quit match.  You can’t mess with those concussions so I have zero issue with this.

It’s not one you would expect.Back at Over the Limit 2010, Punk was fighting Rey Mysterio and got cut open.  As usual, the match was stopped for a doctor to look at it.  The crowd starts to chant BORING, and Punk goes nuts.  In just a few seconds he hits about five moves on Mysterio, all faster than you’ll ever see Punk move anywhere else.  Punk took offense to the crowd thinking his match was boring because it had to be stopped and he wasn’t going to accept that because it meant he wasn’t doing his job.  That’s something so few people take pride in anymore.  How many people have you seen in a match with a five minute run time and they just throw on a chinlock for a minute of the match?  It’s a cheap way to get through a match and not fair to the people that paid to see you have an entertaining match.

Monday Night Raw
Date: May 10, 1993
Location: Manhattan Center, New York City, New York
Attendance: 1,200
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan, Randy Savage

Back to 1993 as we’re approaching King of the Ring. Tonight we have a tournament qualifying match as well as an Intercontinental Title match between Shawn Michaels and Jim Duggan which is a lumberjack match, likely due to Shawn running in the previous match. Other than that it’s hard to say as these are still the early days for the show. Let’s get to it.

Earlier tonight Shawn was outside of the arena when Mr. Perfect jumped him and slammed Shawn onto the hood of a car.

Heenan goes on a rant about how Duggan was behind Perfect attacking Shawn. Perfect and Duggan associating with each other just sounds wrong.

King of the Ring Qualifying Match: Typhoon vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

They collide off the ropes a few times with no one going anywhere at all. Typhoon slams him down and Bigelow (kind of) slams him down as well. Off to an armbar on Bigelow but Bam Bam suplexes out of it. They head to the floor with Typhoon being sent into the steps to shift control. Typhoon is rammed into the buckle to put him back on the floor as Bigelow is bleeding from the top of the head. Back in and we get a chinlock….and take a break. THIS MATCH needs a break??? Bigelow avoids a charge in the corner, hits a Samoan drop and the top rope headbutt sends Bigelow to the tournament.

Rating: D-. These battles of the giants usually suck and this is another version which did just that. Typhoon was such a worthless wide load that he never accomplished anything at all. Nothing to see here although that headbutt was kind of cool. When that’s the highlight of a match, you can tell it was lame.

Yokozuna vs. PJ Walker

Walker is more famous as Justin Credible. Yoko chops him down and ENDS Walker with a belly to belly and a legdrop. A splash in the corner sets up the Banzai Drop and we’re done in about 90 seconds.

Mr. Perfect vs. Iron Mike Sharpe

Before the match, Perfect looks at one of the overweight Raw girls and puts his gum in her mouth. Sharpe shoves him around to start but Perfect comes back with a quick dropkick, sending Mike out to the floor. Back in and Perfect chops away before hitting the Hennig neck snap. They trade some hard chops before Perfect takes over with a knee lift. Heenan is channel surfing while watching TV at the announce table. Now we’re watching him watching TV at the announce table. The PerfectPlex ends Sharpe with ease.

Rating: D+. Just a squash here and we got the weekly “comedy” bit thrown in here. I have no idea why they did those bits like Heenan watching TV but they were rarely funny and hopefully would stop soon after this. Hennig continues to look good but he would be disappearing soon because of back issues.

Mr. Hughes vs. Cannonball Kid

Hughes is debuting Harvey Whippleman as his manager. This is another squash with Hughes pounding away with almost no resistance whatsoever. A big boot and Bossman Slam end the Kid. The next week it would just be The Kid and he would face Razor Ramon. I think you know the story.

Promo for All-American Wrestling, which I didn’t know was still on TV at this point.

Intercontinental Title: Jim Duggan vs. Shawn Michaels

This is a lumberjack match but before the match, Duggan jumps Yokozuna. Shawn is defending and comes out in jeans and a t-shirt on crutches. Perfect goes after Shawn and indeed the champions was faking. An atomic drop puts Shawn down so Vince says that Shawn is going to lose the title tonight. A slam and elbow get two for Duggan as Heenan is losing his mind. There’s a suplex by Duggan as the fans think Shawn is gay.

Hacksaw stays on offense as we hear about Duggan NEVER getting a title shot before. I know 1988 was a long time ago Vince but come on. Duggan chokes away in the corner as Yoko is glaring at him from the floor. A HARD elbow staggers Shawn and it’s off to a reverse chinlock by Duggan. Off to a quick bearhug on Shawn but Duggan lets it go pretty quickly. Duggan slugs him down as this has been completely one sided so far. Shawn gets tied up in the ropes and Duggan pounds away even more. Michaels tries to take a walk but gets thrown back in as we take a break.

Back with Duggan slamming Shawn down again but missing a knee drop. Shawn takes off his own boot and blasts Jim in the face with it to take over for the first time this whole match. Duggan is kicked to the floor but comes back in and slams Shawn’s face into the mat. Somewhere in there Duggan has hurt his leg so he very slowly runs into Shawn’s boot in the corner. Off to a chinlock by the champion but Duggan fights back with a clothesline.

Duggan chokes away in the corner and slams Michaels down for two. Now Hacksaw puts on a chinlock of his own but the three point clothesline puts Shawn on the floor as we take another break. Back again with Shawn missing a splash in the corner but hitting Duggan in the ribs with a knee. Bam Bam Bigelow distracts the referee, allowing Shawn to throw Jim out to Yokozuna. A big splash CRUSHES Duggan but Mr. Perfect runs in for the DQ.

Rating: C-. This wasn’t as awful as I would have expected, but at the end of the day it’s Jim Duggan in the year 1993. How much faith can you put into the guy at this point? Also given that it was a lumberjack match, the ending was pretty clear from the get go. It’s not a bad match or anything and for a TV main event, this wasn’t bad at all.

The lumberjacks brawl to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. This was your typical early Raw: mainly squashes and a long main event with this one running nearly twenty minutes. The problem is none of the matches are particularly good and nothing on here is required viewing (although the Duggan match is on multiple home video releases for some reason). Not a terrible show but it’s nothing great.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of the WWE Championship for just $5 from Amazon at:

Smackdown
Date: May 10, 2013
Location: PNC Arena, Raleigh, North Carolina
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Josh Mathews

With only two Smackdowns left until Extreme Rules, the biggest question is obvious: will more furniture be destroyed here tonight? Oh wait this is Smackdown, meaning Lesnar and HHH will never appear here. Anyway tonight we’re likely to get more build up towards the triple threat, meaning some combination of the people are likely to fight each other so that one can look weaker than another. Let’s get to it.

We open with the voiceover and a video on the triple threat stuff from Raw, with Swagger destroying Ziggler and Del Rio with the ladder. It’s Swagger vs. Langston tonight, as well as Ambrose vs. Bryan.

Jericho is in the ring for the Highlight Reel. His guest tonight is Ryback so we see some clips from Raw with Ryback beating Cena down. Jericho says he sees where Ryback is coming from but Ryback doesn’t really care. It’s Jericho’s show though so he gets to talk about what he wants to. Jericho knows about all the times Shield has beaten Ryback down and all the times he’s lost the WWE Championship. He says he’s been WWE Champion six times so he understands what Ryback is going through. That’s a bit confusing as he only held that title once. He’s held six world titles but only one WWE Title.

Anyway Jericho wants to know what Ryback’s Rules are. Jericho has gone through a period with people gunning for him because he had a chip on his shoulder the size of the big show. Ryback doesn’t care so Jericho talks about how the Jericholics are judging Ryback. The fans understand the difference between beating Rock and Austin in one night and beating a one legged Cena in one night.

Jericho tells Ryback to be careful what he wishes for, because no one will respect him if he wins the title. Ryback says Jericho talks to much and threatens to drop him right now. Jericho says he doesn’t think Ryback will do a thing, so here’s Teddy to make this the main event. Does Booker do anything on Smackdown anymore? Ryback lays out Jericho with a right hand.

Mark Henry is going to try to pull two tractor trailers tonight to break a world record.

Kofi Kingston vs. Cody Rhodes

Non-title of course. Cody trips him down but gets caught in a flip over armdrag as Kofi speeds things up. Rhodes gets in an elbow to the face and hits a knee to Kofi’s thigh followed by the front suplex for two. Off to an armbar on the champion but Kofi easily escapes and chops Cody down. A rollup gets two on Rhodes but he rolls through Kofi’s spinning crossbody for two. Both finishers miss but as Cody loads up the Disaster Kick he jumps into Trouble in Paradise for the pin at 3:28.

Rating: C. This was fine given the time constraints. I’m not wild on Cody losing again but he’s way past the point of being a threat on Smackdown. Kofi is still his same old self, having decent to good matches but never rising above the midcard at all. In other words, this was exactly what you would expect from these two.

We look at Lesnar destroying HHH’s office on Raw. Calling it frightening and a workplace invasion over and over again doesn’t make it suck any less than it already did. I don’t know about you, but I have a problem getting upset that Lesnar destroyed a bunch of furniture and a TV that the company probably paid for. Oh wait he also broke a replica belt and some photos. How ever will HHH replace those things?

Colter talks about how Swagger is going to climb the ladder like an AMERICAN, one step at a time.

Big E. Langston vs. Jack Swagger

Del Rio is on commentary. Before the match, he slides in a ladder but Swagger kicks Dolph in the face before he can do anything with it. Langston is knocked to the floor but Ziggler dropkicks the ladder into Swagger’s face. Del Rio comes in and hits the low superkick to Dolph’s face and rams the ladder into his head. Swagger has the ladder thrown at him and Del Rio stands tall atop the ladder. Somewhere in there Ziggler got a concussion and as of this writing, his status is still in doubt for the PPV. No match of course.

Dean Ambrose vs. Daniel Bryan

They slug it out in the corner to start until Bryan hits a running knee to the ribs to take over. Some hard kicks to the back have Ambrose in trouble but he comes back by sending Bryan face first into the buckle. Bryan moonsaults out of the corner and hits a clothesline to set up kicks to Ambrose’s chest. Dean rolls to the floor and there’s the big suicide dive to take both guys out.

We take a break and come back with Ambrose dropping elbows on Bryan before putting on a cross arm choke. Ambrose transitions into a nerve hold and neck crank, giving him the rest hold trifecta. Bryan fights up but gets kneed in the ribs to stop his comeback cold. A running dropkick gets two for Dean and it’s back to the chinlock. Back up and Ambrose misses a charge in the corner, slamming his shoulder into the post.

Bryan fires off the kicks in the corner before putting Dean in the Tree of Woe for even more kicks. A running dropkick to Ambrose’s ribs gets two but he comes back with a quick backslide for two. Bryan kicks Dean down again and goes up top for the headbutt, only to be distracted by Shield. The delay makes him switch over to a missile dropkick for two instead.

Dean comes back with a forward belly to back suplex (he picked Bryan up for a belly to back and snapped him forward onto the mat instead) for two. Ambrose is starting to snap and fires off knees to Bryan’s face. Bryan grabs the NO Lock out of nowhere but Reigns comes in for the save while the referee is watching Kane and Rollins fight. Dean loads up the bulldog driver but Kofi Kingston runs in for the DQ at 9:21 shown of 12:51.

Rating: B-. Good match here as Ambrose continues to look good in the ring. I like the Kofi run in as it’s pretty clearly setting up Ambrose challenging him for the US Title either at Extreme Rules or soon thereafter. The match here worked well as both guys got to look strong and the ending saves both guys from losing while also setting up future stuff. That’s how I like my run in finishes: efficient.

Shield is cleared out post match.

We recap the Highlight Reel, because we can’t remember something that happened 50 minutes ago.

We see a clip from earlier today with Mark Henry attached to a semi truck and pulling it down the road. Apparently that’s a warmup and next he’ll pull TWO of them, which combine to weigh over 110,000lbs.

Clip from Raw of Sheamus getting taken down by Henry and whipped with a belt. The photos of the welts on his body are rather disturbing. The match at Extreme Rules is a strap match, where you have to touch all four buckles.

We go live to the parking lot where Henry is attached to two semi trucks. Before he starts he promises to destroy Sheamus at the PPV. Henry can’t pull it at first but after Striker asks him some annoying questions, Henry gets all fired up and finally pulls them forward. That’s rather impressive looking, whether it was rigged or not. Henry is spent….and Sheamus doesn’t appear. That’s kind of surprising.

The Raw ReBound recounts all of the Ryback/Cena stuff from Raw.

Randy Orton looks at a clip of Big Show knocking him out on Monday. He says that vouching for Big Show got him knocked out twice, which has only made him more venomous.

Big Show vs. Tensai

Tensai pounds away at Big Show and knocks him into the corner with right hands. Not that it matters as Show hits a single right hand and wins in 50 seconds.

Brodus gets speared down by Big Show but before Show can load up the WMD, Orton runs in with an RKO for the giant.

AJ runs into Kaitlyn as she gets another text from her secret admirer. Kaitlyn suggests that it’s Dolph and they get into a catty argument until Natalya comes up to scare AJ off. Khali pops up in a Mysterio mask which is his undercover attire. He takes off the mask to reveal that it’s actually not Mysterio before leaving. Kaitlyn says the mask isn’t really needed and he just needs to keep his ears open. Natalya tells Khali he doesn’t have to dress like Rhodes, as he now has a mustache on.

Chris Jericho vs. Ryback

Ryback shoves him into the corner to start but gets caught by a dropkick to put him down. Jericho is thrown to the floor as Ryback shrugs off whatever Chris throws at him. Back in and Ryback pounds Jericho down as the fans chant for the Canadian. Off to a chinlock by Ryback but Jericho fights up and elbows Ryback to the apron for the springboard dropkick. Ryback starts getting fired up but that might be too interesting for a heel so he stops to think instead as we take a break.

Back with Ryback stomping on Jericho in the corner before working over the leg a little bit. Now it’s off to a body vice as Ryback can’t seem to pick a body part. Jericho fights up but gets caught in a big spinebuster for two as JBL gets annoyed with Josh being an idiot on commentary. Josh: “Ryback will be in the ring with John Cena in ten days.” JBL: “WELL DUH!” Off to a neck crank on Jericho as Ryback mocks the fans chanting for him. Back up and Jericho is sent over the top, only to hold on and go up top for an ax handle to the head.

Ryback slams him down again but misses a splash, allowing Jericho to hit a Lionsault to Ryback’s back for two. As usual, the announcers are surprised that the Lionsault only got two. The Codebreaker is countered into another spinebuster and there’s a jackknife powerbomb to keep the Canadian down. Someone needs to use the powerbomb as a finisher again. It’s been far too long. Josh is totally behind Ryback in this match and criticizes Cole for hanging on to Cena, complete with comparing Cole’s love of Cena to JR’s love of Austin. That’s very odd to hear coming from Matthews.

Jericho makes a quick comeback and tries the Walls but Ryback is just too strong. He kicks Jericho away before catching a cross body in a fallaway slam for no cover. The Meathook connects but Chris rolls through Shell Shock into the Walls of Jericho but Ryback easily gets the ropes. Now the Codebreaker hits but Ryback falls out to the floor. Jericho follows him out but gets thrown into the barricade and crotched against the post…..for a DQ at 11:00 shown of 14:30.

Rating: C+. Not bad here but the ending was kind of lame. I guess the idea was to show that Ryback will be able to do whatever he wants to do at the PPV, but it really fell flat here. Instead the ending could have been beating Jericho down and counting to ten, but again that might make Ryback look too intense and he might be effective as a heel. Also what was with Josh being a Ryback fanboy here?

Post match Ryback knocks Jericho over the announce table to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. This wasn’t a bad show but it felt like nothing happened at all. There were four matches and two of them didn’t even make it to three and a half minutes. The Henry thing, which impressive, didn’t do much for anyone, Ryback continues to flounder as a heel because everything that got him over as a face has been taken away because it might make him too interesting. The world title stuff is the same schtick we’ve seen them do for months now. The show definitely isn’t bad but it continues to have Smackdown’s main problem: there’s no need for it to exist.

Results

Kofi Kingston b. Cody Rhodes – Trouble in Paradise

Dean Ambrose b. Daniel Bryan via DQ when Kofi Kingston interfered

Big Show b. Tensai – WMD

Chris Jericho b. Ryback via DQ when Ryback sent Jericho into the post

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