6/24/11 Smackdown

Ratings:
Sin Cara vs. Ted DiBiase: **

Cody Rhodes vs. Daniel Bryan: **3/4

Ezekiel Jackson vs. Wade Barrett (IC Title): *1/2

Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel vs. Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso: *1/4

Jinder Mahal vs. Yoshi Tatsu: N/A

Kane vs. Christian: **1/4

Christian & Mark Henry vs. Randy Orton & Kane: **
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Reviews/Thoughts:
Teddy Long kicks off the show, addressing the controversial decision from Capitol Punishment on the World Title match. Ref's decision is final. Christian must earn another title shot...he must beat Kane. Kane is pissed. Cole was annoying here...surprised?

Sin Cara and DiBiase have a match. We got the Sin Cara lights again. Spot monkey time! Unorthodox stuff from Sin Cara. His matches are getting a little better, but again, he needs to be in a longer match that tells a story.

Cody Rhodes time. He walks to the ring and talks about Hershey's chocolate making people fat and ugly. Cole is extra annoying here. Bryan brings up a pic of Dusty Rhodes. DB got a point...Cody will likely never live up to his dad's standard. DB was pretty good on the mic this week.

Anyway, back to the match. Looks like DB took a spot out of AJ Styles' book. The ol' "opponent runs the ropes w/leapfrog, opponent hurdle, and dropkick" spot (in that order). DiBiase now on the outside and interferes midway through the match. Very good match here. Cody pulled out a couple of submission restholds that I never saw from him before. DB pulled out a Pele kick! Top-rope hurricanrana! Suicide dive from DB onto DiBiase! Beautiful disaster from Cody, and DB's left foot got caught in the ropes...looked a bit painful. A second Beautiful Disaster and a Cross-Rhodes for three. Very nice.

Johnny Curtis promo again. It was horrible.

Big Show speaks. He says he's fine. Could be good for the storyline. Leads into a pretty nice Mark Henry video package. Henry takes out Big Show.

Barrett assaults Jackson before the IC title match. I like Barrett's version of the Boss Man Slam...it looks quite devastating. Zeke's offense is your standard power offense. Barrett has the better moveset. Not a bad match, but Barrett carried that one.

Orton speaks backstage regarding his thoughts on Christian. Orton is ready for Christian if Christian beats Kane tonight.

Slater and Gabriel make fun of Barrett.

Usos doing the haka...that's new. Yes Josh Mathews, that's what the Hawaii Warrior football team does. And  yup, Slater and Gabriel win!

Jinder Mahal vs. Yoshi Tatsu wasn't even a match...the ref never called for the bell. This was really just Yoshi jobbing to make Jinder and Khali look very imposing.

Main event time. Decent match going until Henry interfered, so Christian loses again (by DQ). Teddy Long comes out and agrees that Christian losing was not his fault. Tag match time! Another clever way by WWE to get Christian to get another title shot. The key is to have Christian lose in a fluky manner or "win" (but have someone else get the pin). Good stuff here.