Mike Tedesco’s Smackdown Thoughts
June 1, 2013
By: Mike Tedesco of Wrestleview.com
I loved the way the show kicked off with back-to-back good matches involving one arguably the best thing going in the company right now: The Shield. Seth Rollins kicked off the show with a match against Kane. When it started, I was wondering why they didn’t go with Kane versus Roman Reigns, but I was pleasantly surprised to see these two match up so well. Rollins is that guy for The Shield that will take most of the punishment, and he was bumping well for Kane. Rollins nearly got the win, but some well-timed interference by Daniel Bryan led to Kane stealing a victory.
After that, they immediately went into the next match, which was Daniel Bryan taking on Roman Reigns. Reigns really held his own in a match against one of the company’s best technical wrestlers. Reigns seems like he’s going to be one of those few bigger guys who can really go in the ring with anyone. This time, Seth Rollins helped Reigns avoid taking a loss by pushing the bottom rope into his hand as he was trapped in the No! Lock. Kane tried to interfere on Bryan’s behalf, but the referee caught him. Bryan then lost the match by disqualification. After that, Bryan argued with Kane and accused him of thinking he’s the weak link of the group. This was a great way to kick off Smackdown. I was really happy the show opened up with two good matches rather than another Miz TV segment or something of that nature. I’m also really glad Teddy Long didn’t come out and make this a tag team match. While I absolutely loved last week’s six-man tag team main event (it’s one of my favorite Smackdown matches of the year so far), I think we’ve seen enough of Teddy Long for now. This also set up the end of the show when Daniel Bryan felt he really had something to prove to everyone.
The next segment was another Damien Sandow Show skit. Sandow was explaining the rules of the shell game when Sheamus interrupted him. Basically Sandow cheated to defeat Sheamus at the game, and he got Brogue Kicked for his troubles. There wasn’t anything awful about the segment, but it wasn’t a favorite of mine. I liked the segment they had last week a lot better. It had some good laughs, particularly when Sandow dodged the Brogue Kick. I wonder where they’ll go with this from here, if anywhere. Sandow has never been a real threat to anyone, particularly Sheamus, against whom his track record isn’t very good.
Paul Heyman was out with Curtis Axel for the next segment. I’m trying not to pass too much judgment on him since it’s so early in this new character, but he has to do a better job of delivering his lines. I’m sure as he continues to work with Paul Heyman he’ll become more believable. Right now he just doesn’t look comfortable. As long as Heyman does the majority of the talking, he’ll be just fine for now. As for the match against Sin Cara, it was ok. It was basically a repeat of last week, except this time he used the Perfect-Plex as a finisher. That’s a lot better than the McGillicutter in my opinion.
Alberto Del Rio and Big E Langston had their fourth match in two weeks against one another. I guess if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. I didn’t particularly enjoy the fourth helping of this match-up. If only that damn Jack Swagger didn’t have to be so careless with a kick to Dolph Ziggler’s head, we wouldn’t have to sit through this placeholder feud until he recovers.
Ryback took on Kofi Kingston in a quick little match that saw Kingston get a surprising amount of offense in. Afterward, Ryback powerbombed him three times through three tables. That was obviously done to write off Kingston as he gets some surgery to heal up a preexisting injury. The Canadian crowd was chanting “One more time” as Ryback left Kingston in the wreckage of three tables, so the sympathy angle for Kingston was a fail. It was pretty impressive to watch.
Chris Jericho and Cody Rhodes had a decent little match for the amount of time they were given. Jericho needs wins to look strong heading into a match against CM Punk in his hometown of Chicago in about two weeks. Jericho got Rhodes to submit, and I expect we’ll be seeing a few more Jericho wins as they move toward Payback.
I really enjoyed the main event. I’ve actually wanted to see a one-on-one match with Randy Orton and Dean Ambrose for a while. It just seems like their styles would match up really well together with both of them being a little psychotic, and I was right. They put out a very good match. It didn’t feature an ending as The Shield saved Ambrose before he could take an RKO, causing a disqualification win for Orton. The Shield beat up Orton for a few moments before Team Hell No ran down to help. Then Daniel Bryan took over, and it was glorious. Bryan, who has been contending since the title loss at Extreme Rules that he is not the weak link, single-handedly took out The Shield. He hit all his big moves on them, and the whole arena went absolutely nuts for him. It was exciting to watch and a very good end to a great show.
Bump of the Night: Ryback powerbombing Kofi Kingston through three tables
Match of the Night: Randy Orton vs. Dean Ambrose **
Final Rating: *** 1/4
E-Mail – MikeyT817@gmail.com
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Thanks for reading!
Mike Tedesco is the official recapper of WWE Smackdown for Wrestleview.com.