4/27/12 Smackdown

Ratings:
Big Show vs. Alberto Del Rio: *1/4

Nikki Bella vs. Alicia Fox: 1/4*

Titus O'Neil & Darren Young vs. Yoshi Tatsu & Ezekiel Jackson: *

Antonio Cesaro vs. Tyson Kidd: N/A (squash)

Cody Rhodes vs. Great Khali: 1/2*

Ryback vs. Jacob Kaye: N/A (squash)

Sheamus vs. Mark Henry: **
_________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
48 hours from Extreme Rules in Chicago. In Grand Rapids for Smackdown! Josh Mathews not on Smackdown, either. See, this is how you sell injuries.

Daniel Bryan time! Cue #yesyesyes on Twitter! He cut the umbilical cord! 18-second losses don't count! Yup, he called Henry/Sheamus match on RAW down the middle, all right. Sure. Nice heel move to have the three-count in slow motion. Hey, did DB say SI? SI! SI! SI! Q&A time! YES YES YES!

Hey, it's Alberto Del Rio! Will they switch to SI SI SI?! ROFL! They do! Thank you, Ricardo!

Oh snap, now Big Show? Is it "yes" or "si"? And poor Ricardo is now all alone with Big Show. Ricardo...NO!!!!! That was awesome. Chokeslam time, and Ricardo is nuked.

Goes right into Show/ADR. Oh, Show and Cody have their match determined by a wheel (similar to RAW Roulette, I guess) at Extreme Rules. That Big Show spear must hurt like hell. Cody-ference ends that. Kendo stick and chair for Cody. Doesn't work. Belt shot no-sold. Show angered and whips Cody with the leather belt twice. Wondering if Show retains now. Could be a Cody fluke win. Show doesn't need the IC title, in my opinion.

Laurinaitis tells Eve to make any changes she sees fit to improve Smackdown. Name tags? Pbbft. Teddy Long reports to Eve now. Yeah, go get a name tag. Lame.

Booker's right, now we can tell the two Bellas apart! Maybe. As for Beth, best selling of an injury from anyone in a long time. Had me fooled. I just don't understand why they'd give her a rematch at Extreme Rules. Let Nikki beat some other person. Bellas gloat the next night on RAW, Kharma nukes both Bellas. Easy, right?

Nikki faces Alicia tonight. Alicia has one-legged dropkicks. Twin magic, and it's pretty much over. Yeah, we all expected that, right? Probably will happen at Extreme Rules as well. Match was what, less than two minutes? Sounds about right.

Ohhh...exclusive interview with Orton by Michael Cole. Really, now?

Titus and D-Young with Yoshi in the back. See, they bowed to Yoshi! Oops, Zeke is Yoshi's tag partner.

Nice maid outfit, Teddy. YES! Antonio Cesaro gets a tryout match! Woohoo! Teddy gets to do commentary...only if Laurinatis allows it. People Power T-shirt!

Yoshi was basically fed to the wolves tonight. Nice tag finisher from Titus and Darren. Was Zeke even legally in the match? Didn't see it....

Time for the Orton exclusive interview. Cole had to throw in the Laurinaitis edict: no wrestler-on-announcer contact, or face suspension. Time for controversial questions. Nice video package for Orton and Kane. Crowd wants Randy to RKO Cole anyway.

WTF, Jinder Mahal interrupts? Prepare to die. And sure enough, Jinder eats an RKO.

Hey, Aksana gets to be ring announcer for the Antonio debut match! Good opponent with Tyson Kidd. Cesaro's story: former rugby player kicked out of the league for excessive aggression. Not ruthless aggression? Virtually a total squash here. I love Cesaro's finisher. Impressive.

Teddy in the ring to raise Antonio's hand.Antonio and Aksana make out in the ring in front of Teddy. Teddy face is priceless.

Video package hyping Lesnar and Cena. With that Edge pep talk and Cena breaking out his old lock chain, I'm pretty interested here.

Cody and Khali have a short match. No, not even Cody can make me watch most of a Khali match. Sorry.

AW wants an answer from Primo/Epico/Rosa by Monday. You'd think they'd accept. Vintage Ryback sighting!

Now the Usos are playing the fanboy roles as Ryback squashes another hometown hero. Lots of confidence, but he gets nuked. And holy hell, was Kaye nuked. JBL would be proud of that Ryback lariat.

Footage of AJ snapping on Natalya last week. AJ now in the back with Kaitlyn. AJ with a huge bitchslap to Kaitlyn. YES YES YES. I love it. This could be AJ's new gimmick. Release a dark side of her during matches.

You remember when Festus would go nuts when the bell rings? OK, not exactly like that, but WWE's playing it like AJ doesn't know what she's really doing to the other divas. Could be a slow build to transition her to a heel. Again, I reiterate: YES YES YES (if that comes true).

Time for the main event. Sheamus controls things early. Back-and-forth stuff after that. Henry threw Sheamus into the barricade, ouch. Good comeback from Sheamus. Nice roll-through from the top rope from the Great White, into a Brogue Kick for three.

DB appears on the stage to "applaud" Sheamus. "18 seconds." Sheamus even uses "YES YES YES..." to close the show.

I've read Sheamus may retain on Sunday so they can get Sheamus fresh people to feud with. DB will eventually get back to the title picture in that scenario, just not immediately. Whatever works, and as long as WWE continues to capitalize on the "YES YES YES" popularity.