Mike Tedesco’s Smackdown Thoughts
April 20, 2013
By: Mike Tedesco of Wrestleview.com
The show kicked off with a Fandango segment involving Lilian Garcia that I found to be pretty weak. It was all fun and games on the April 8 RAW (believe me, I was there), but now the craze has cooled. The segment wasn’t that well received and it didn’t get the cheap heat it was designed to get. There was a lot of indifference in the crowd for Fandango. Santino Marella interrupted the segment, and they had a match that was just ok. Santino did the same gimmick as he did last week with the attempts to kip-up only to fail. It was a pretty lame way to open the show.
So is Teddy Long turning heel and starting a faction with big dominating heels? That’s how it seems to be shaping up for me with these backstage segments. I’ve never been incredibly fond of the Teddy Long character. He’s a guy who comes out, never gets a reaction, and books a tag team match. Most of the time when he comes out, I imagine a lot of people in the crowd asking themselves, “OK, who is this guy?” He’s been around forever as a General Manager, and no one seems to either recognize him or care about him. He tries hard, but for me, it doesn’t work.
I got a kick out of them referring to the “Champion vs. Champion” match as rare. There is seemingly one every other week in WWE. The most recent one I can recall is from the RAW I covered a few weeks ago. Kofi Kingston and Wade Barrett had a decent match, but it didn’t blow me away. They’ve had better matches in the past. Also I found the ending to be a little bizarre. What exactly was that slam that led to the pinfall supposed to be?
I loved the backstage segment with Mark Henry and Sheamus. As a fan of this product, this is one matchup I’ve been dying to see since they feuded in 2011. For some reason these two guys matchup really well. They just go out and beat the hell out of one another. They had an awesome match at Summerslam that Mark Henry won by count-out. Then Sheamus beat him by count-out on the following episode of Smackdown. For two years I’ve been waiting for a real rubber match. I don’t want a throwaway match on a RAW heading into WrestleMania – I want PPV. This should be great. I’m looking forward to it.
Well, I wish that Alberto Del Rio and Jack Swagger had this kind of match at WrestleMania. Maybe I would have enjoyed it a little more than I did. Both were working with injured limbs so there were quite a few rest holds, but the final few minutes of the match were better than their rivalry was at any point. This could have used an appearance by Dolph Ziggler, but he was already on his way overseas when this show was taped. They’ll makeup for it in London next week.
The Shield had a decent little promo to build up their match for this Monday against Team Hell No and the Undertaker. I’m certainly anxious to see how that goes.
The Great Khali, Hornswoggle, and Natalya beat Epico, Primo, and Rosa Mendes in a match fought over a lost parking spot. I’ll admit – I’ve been there before with someone stealing your spot that you’re going for. It happens all the time at William Paterson University. It’s really frustrating. It was all filler, as they really didn’t have anything for this show as they’re gearing up for the overseas shows next week, but at least the filler was mildly entertaining and semi-true to life.
I really enjoyed the tag team main event with Mark Henry and Big Show going over Randy Orton and Sheamus. These guys went out there and performed well. It looks like everyone was wrong about that triple threat match between Sheamus, Randy Orton, and Big Show at Extreme Rules. I’m glad about that. For one thing, we’re most likely going to get Sheamus and Mark Henry. I don’t need to talk anymore about my excitement for that. We’re also seemingly going to see Randy Orton take on Big Show. I’m interested in that. For a lot of people who are tired of seeing Orton’s babyface comeback with the clotheslines, powerslams, and modified backbreakers, working with a big guy could be a breath of fresh air for him. He’ll have to change his style to work around the size and find other ways to get the crowd to pop. Orton is no scrub. He’s a veteran now, and he’s done it before. I think he’ll be able to have a very good match against Big Show.
Bump of the Night: Nothing too impressive. You decide.
Match of the Night: Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger ** ½
Final Rating: ** ½
E-Mail – MikeyT817@gmail.com
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Thanks for reading!
Mike Tedesco is the official recapper of WWE Smackdown for Wrestleview.com.