Ratings:
Kofi Kingston & R-Truth vs. Darren Young & Titus O'Neil: *3/4
Damien Sandow vs. Yoshi Tatsu: N/A
Daniel Bryan vs. Zack Ryder: *1/4
Kane vs. CM Punk: **3/4
Santino Marella vs. Cody Rhodes: *
Sheamus vs. Randy Orton: ***3/4
__________________
Reviews/Thoughts:
Laurinaitis starts the show, taped in Hershey, PA. Now Big Johnny tries to show how weak he is to get the Board of Directors to reconsider their stipulations for the Cena match. No dice. Laurinaitis now pleads to the fans, who don't buy it at all. Enter Punk to rub it in Johnny's face. Laurinaitis makes Punk face Kane. Johnny blames the fans and tells them to all go to hell.
Team BoomTruth (my name for Kofi and Truth) face Young and Titus. Short, fun tag match here. Truth with the hot tag. Kofi takes out Titus, and Truth hits Little Jimmy on D-Young for three. Good momentum as BoomTruth faces ZigSwag on Sunday. Faces probably retain their titles, paving the way eventually for AW and his All-World stable to capitalize.
The whole "Be A Star" campaign is cool stuff. Even Mark Henry got bullied in his life. Very moving stuff.
Damien Sandow comes out. Will he compete tonight? Yoshi Tatsu's in the ring already. Vintage Sandow monologue. DS deems Yoshi unworthy and starts to leave. Yoshi calls Sandow a chicken and clucks. Sandow removes the robe (pink tights), and nukes Yoshi. Neckbreaker...is that gonna be his finisher? No match here, just a short beatdown.
Orton and Sheamus with fighting words in the back. Good tension for their main event later.
DB and Ryder square off. DB apparently knows over 100 submissions, but he's not nothing on Jericho's 1004 holds! No Broski Boot tonight. DB with the huge kick to the head and the YES lock for the submission win.
DB stays out for the Punk/Kane match. Punk with the upper hand early, Kane fights back. Kane targets Punk's ribs throughout the match, so DB will be going after that on Sunday. Very competitive match here. Counters, variations on signature moves, etc. Chokeslam attempt, but Punk kicks Kane in the head. Suicide dive to the outside. DB fakes going after Punk with the chair, then decks Kane in the back, so Kane gets a DQ win. Kane then nukes Punk, thinking it was the straight edge one who gave him the chair shot. DB strategy worked tonight. Punk may still retain on Sunday, especially if they want the feud to last through the summer. Come on! I want another Summer of Punk...and Daniel Bryan!
Battle of two champs as Santino faces Cody. Cody still does a great moonsault. No Cobra; Cody got the dropkick in. Cobra! Announcers really didn't see that one coming. Three for Santino.
They replayed the entire Big Show firing segment from RAW. I'm still pretty sure Show's turning heel. They could also make it more like the Teddy Long situation and have Show return to do heel stuff that he wouldn't otherwise do (perhaps be Johnny's hired security help or something). It's interesting that Punk mentioned that no one could interfere in the Laurinaitis/Cena match, when Cena's words had left the door open for someone like Show to interfere. We'll see what transpires.
Sheamus and Orton finish the show. Orton with one of the best dropkicks in the company today. Physical on the outside. Orton shoulder-first into the steps. Quick note of Orton's past shoulder problems and Alberto Del Rio's cross-armbreaker submission. Now Orton gets to Sheamus' shoulder as well. ADR will now be able to work on both guys on Sunday. Lengthy match for free TV here. A methodical pace, but still a lot of nice moves and counters. Good flow here. Orton with his comeback. Belly-to-belly from Orton? Uncommon for him to pull that off, at least compared to some of his other moves. Sheamus now with his comeback. Extremely competitive. Superplex from Orton, who hit his head there. Only two. Damn. Brogue Kick missed, Orton with the hangman's DDT! Crowd is really loving it. RKO missed, Brogue Kick missed, RKO countered! Sheamus rolls Orton up for three! Just outstanding.
Post-match, handshake between Orton and Sheamus -- then Orton with the RKO. Sunday should be good.
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