Friday, January 27, 2012

1/27/12 Smackdown

Ratings:
Justin Gabriel vs. Cody Rhodes: *1/4

Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre: *1/4

Primo and Epico vs. Yoshi Tatsu & Santino Marella: *

Wade Barrett vs. Randy Orton: N/A

Hunico vs. Ted DiBiase: 1/2*

Brodus Clay vs. Alex Riley: N/A (squash)

Aksana vs. Natalya: N/A (WTF?!)

Big Show vs. Mark Henry: N/A
___________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
Big Show comes out to publicly apologize to AJ. Show says AJ forgave him. Show's pulling the "contemplating retirement" card. Enter DB. Whoa, DB brings up Andre the Giant! How fitting, because in WCW, Big Show was billed as Andre's son (btw, Andre only had one daughter in real life). Loving DB's attitude change. He slaps Show twice in the face! Woohoo! Show's snapping! Welp, here comes Mark Henry. ROFL, did Henry just mention DB and a Napoleon Complex? Yes! DB plays the coward role pretty good. Aw dammit, Teddy Long. Show and Henry AGAIN tonight. DB gets out of it! Well, he may get involved somehow anyway, right?

Gabriel and Rhodes again this week. Cole's all negative on Gabriel, duh. Gabriel is now doing John Morrison's slingshot corkscrew move to the outside. Gabriel didn't hit his springboard moonsault, but Cody nailed his Beautiful Disaster and Cross Rhodes for three. Not liking that...would have preferred Gabriel to win. Cody won't suffer much with a loss there, but it hurts Gabriel a lot.

Santoshi! Yoshitino! Guess Santino and Yoshi Tatsu are teaming up soon. Guess Yoshi dropped the whole face paint and being serious thing. Good. It didn't work for me anyway, especially if Yoshi wanted to keep that video game-like music.

Drew McIntyre gets another chance against Sheamus. I'm not really digging this Drew "slump" thing. It's much like when MVP had his slump a few years ago. I didn't care for that then.

Sheamus pulled a page out of Finlay's and Mr. Anderson's playbook! That rolling fireman's carry slam move. Pretty nice. Sheamus got some good comeback moves. Drew gets a cheap shot in, but Brogue Kick ends it. Drew's that much closer to the pink slip.

Note on the Royal Rumble facts...they're eliminating the year Benoit won. Such a shame. Why the hell can't more wrestling fans separate Benoit's wrestling career (as in pure in-ring accomplishments) from that horrific double murder-suicide? If a person's ONLY significant memory of Benoit was the end of his life, maybe I can see the point. But to just knowingly throw a guy's career out the window and just focus on the horrible stuff? Unfair and typical human nature.

Rosa Mendes is awesome. Can she speak Spanish all the time? Santino having fun at the start. Cousins win again, and they're red hot going into the Rumble!

Nice job by DB to pull the manipulation talk on Henry. Yeah, he's doing it to Show, too (actually he sends Kaitlyn to do it). Point is clear, DB wants both big guys to beat the crap outta each other before Sunday.

Barrett cuts a fairly long promo before Orton is shown backstage. Fast start, here we go! Actually, the bell never rang, so it's not really a match. Woulda kept mum on Orton and make him a surprise entrant, though. Long sends a bunch of the locker room to separate the two guys. Barrett watches on the ramp. RKO to Reks and Hawkins. Barrett walks away. Barreta and the Usos all get RKOs. Good segment.

Royal Rumble 2006. Rey's Rumble win in honor of Eddie Guerrero. 62:12...that's unlikely to be broken. But who knows. Maybe one day.

Wait, DiBiase and Hunico again? DiBiase actually has a legit broken wrist, apparently. It's the left wrist, so it's not as bad (DiBiase is a righty). Still, the match is a short one. Hunico and Camacho take DiBiase out post-match. Stomped on DiBiase's broken wrist.

Aksana moment! Broken up by Natalya. Aksana's wrestling tonight? Vintage awkward fart! Santino's reaction was the best.

A-Ry's jobbing to Brodus tonight. I must admit, Brodus is entertaining. But Regal dancing was just classic. Anyway, it's a squash again. I'm loving Brodus' dancers introducing him. Cameron and Naomi, is it? Lucky Brodus. ROFL, A-Ry's dancing too! Yes!

Wait, Cole says Brodus' finisher is now "What the Funk?" Um...OK. Did they not like "Aw...funk it?" I guess eventually they could shorten it to WTF if it gets real well known....

Well, why the hell did they have to replay Kane and Ryder in its entirety again?!

No Cole, Aksana's theme is not unique. Well, maybe in the PG era. But see Val Venis for another "sexy" theme. This match was literally five seconds. Good grief. Thank you, goodbye. Post-beatdown by Natalya, but Tamina's out again. Why didn't they let Tamina do this gimmick from the start? I can only guess she was too green and not ready for the big time yet.

Main event time. DB comes out to watch. Again, not much of a match. Henry for some reason collapsed to the canvas throwing a punch...huh? Commercial break. As they get back from commercial, Lilian is announcing Show as the winner. Apparently, Henry got back in the ring, but Show knocked him out again, so Henry got counted out. DB takes Show out with a chair. LeBell Lock! Show breaks free and nails a chokeslam. DB avoids the WMD. This match was one of the very rare instances where the match actually ended during the commercial.

I'm still saying DB's retaining this Sunday. Ratings have been great, and DB's character is gaining steam. Again, he's finally able to show what he's made of on the mic. Now if he only starts doing the "I've got till FIVE!" bit, then I'd love it even more.

This show was crappy if you wanted wrestling action.

NOTE: Just read that Mark Henry was likely injured again during the main event, causing for the abrupt end to the match. Henry apparently didn't plant his foot properly and collapsed to the canvas. He rolled out of the ring, causing the abrupt commercial break and match stoppage during that time. The post-match scene called for Henry to take out DB at the very end, standing tall over Daniel, but obviously that had to be taken out. Not sure what Henry's status for the Rumble is now. If he can't go, then it's likely just gonna be DB vs. Show for the title.

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