Mike Tedesco’s Smackdown Thoughts
February 23, 2013
By: Mike Tedesco of Wrestleview.com
The show kicked off with Alberto Del Rio cutting a promo on his presumed WrestleMania opponent Jack Swagger. I say presumed because who knows what is going to happen in the wake of Swagger’s embarrassing arrest on charges of driving under the influence, speeding, and possession of marijuana. WWE has been silent for the most part on the matter, so maybe they’re hoping it’ll just blow over. In any case, Del Rio hit on the basic point that the United States was built by immigrants. The handout line at the end was a little lame, but it was a good promo for what it was. It starts the WrestleMania build on his end.
Randy Orton then came out and complained about getting beat by Swagger at the Elimination Chamber. His part was a little unnecessary. All Orton did was tell Del Rio to step aside or he’d beat him up to get to Swagger. Why would Del Rio protect Swagger? They could have let Del Rio go a little longer with his promo and have Booker T just announce that Orton would get a shot at Swagger on the show.
Sheamus’ match against Damien Sandow was just ok. Sheamus completely controlled the first part of the match, and then they went to commercial to drag it out longer. That’s what it did when they came back. It just dragged.
To borrow a phrase from my dear friend Dave Stephens, “Women wrestled.”
I liked the Orton/Swagger match. Before the match started, they showed Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter walking backstage when they bumped into Wade Barrett. I liked what Colter had to say to him (not agree with, just like). I liked it because they’re not going to discriminate on faces or heels. If you’re an immigrant, you’re all the same to them. Getting back to the match, there was some good intensity in it. Swagger looked good in it, and Orton doesn’t look bad in the loss.
The Miz/Cody Rhodes match wasn’t as good as it was last week. Rhodes dominated him, and then Miz won out of nowhere with a quick Figure Four Leglock. It was a very “blah” match.
As is always the case when WrestleMania season hits, this show was chockfull of complete replays of RAW segments and video recaps. That always hurts the flow a bit in my opinion, but what can you do? WrestleMania is their biggest show of the year, and they want to make sure that each feud is well promoted. The lack of Mark Henry and Big Show also upset me, but that’s a personal thing.
The main event was pretty good. These guys match up surprisingly well. Barrett hasn’t looked great in his losses in recent weeks, so it was nice to see that trend reversed last night. Jack Swagger watched from the stage, but there was no physical altercation between him and Swagger. It’s still well over a month before WrestleMania, so there’s plenty of time for that. A good main event to close out an ok show.
Bump of the Night: Orton giving Swagger a back suplex on the barricade!
Match of the Night: Randy Orton vs. Jack Swagger **
Final Rating: **
Thanks for reading!
Mike Tedesco is the official recapper of WWE Smackdown for Wrestleview.com.