Ratings:
Ryback vs. Frank Venezia & Jared Wachtler: N/A (squash)
Alberto Del Rio vs. Christian: ***
Kane vs. Daniel Bryan: **3/4
Zack Ryder vs. Heath Slater: N/A
Titus O'Neil & Darren Young vs. Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso: *1/2
Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler: ***1/4
_________________
Reviews/Thoughts:
Teddy Long says Foley is the GM tonight. Big Show interrupts, thanks to his ironclad contract. Show only cares about himself, not even Laurinaitis. Show predicts a lengthy title reign. Brodus Clay comes out and I guess we're having a fight. Brodus with some body shots, but Otunga takes out Brodus' left knee. "You can't wrestle!" chants at Big Show. Wow, they do that for someone other than Cena? WMD to Brodus. Otunga taunts Brodus and does a pathetic dance.
Ryback squashes two more opponents. Jared looks like a shorter, pudgier Kofi Kingston. Keep these jobbers off the mic. No, don't feed Ryback more. Feed him a storyline. At least he's now a Mastodon. Wasn't Vader the original Mastodon?
Vickie's officially running RAW and Smackdown next week. Meanwhile, Foley and Khali dance. Sounds about right.
Daniel Bryan relives the time HBK threw Marty Jannetty through the Barber Shop window. Then that IC title match between HBK and Jannetty on RAW. Yeah, the one that Meltzer absolutely loved (over four stars, I believe). YESYESYES. Really helped launch HBK's singles career and catapulted him to the Hall of Fame.
Christian with a new shirt, basically representing an element on the periodic table. He has control of Alberto early, then ADR targets Christian's shoulder. Real hot crowd on the Christian comeback. Didn't know ADR had a superkick in him. Ricardo plays interference, and cross armbreaker gets Alberto the submission win. Very good match. Big statement.
Cody Rhodes ambushes Christian after the match. Armbar from Cody. Christian's shoulder into the post.
Kane comes out for action. AJ is the special guest timekeeper?!?! Um, OK. Yeah, give the delusional chick a tiny hammer and a bell, that's real smart. Kane with the power moves, DB with the speed, kicks, and submission attempts. Not sure if DB slipping off the top was planned (probably not). DB gets Kane in the YES lock, Kane lunges twice for the ropes, which causes AJ to ring the bell prematurely. DB thinks he won, but ref says no. Kane with a chokeslam for three. Another great match. In a bizarre storyline, at least AJ's role made perfect sense to me. Kane with a smirk at the end for AJ.
Foley promo, complete with a cheap pop. Heath Slater comes out to protest what happened on RAW. Slater faces Ryder tonight. Yup, there's that Long Island connection between Ryder and Foley. Slater jobs again. I feel bad for him...you know, he's got some good moves in the ring, but really needs to get back in a tag team role.
Damien Sandow in a backstage skit this week. You're welcome.
AW leads his Primetime Players against the Usos. AW with a little interference to allow Titus to get the pin. Titus and D-Young getting pushed now, perhaps. Good for them. And to think, their tag team partnership started with an NXT rivalry.
Primo with the left hook to AW in the back, and we got a brawl! Woohoo! A tag team storyline?! In Vince's world these days? Never woulda thunk it.
Santino on the mic. We're gonna see some signs in the crowd. The signs are not that creative. He sees an I [heart] Santino" sign, and the lady -- complete with cobra sock/sleeve -- gets in the ring. Wow, the lady is bigger than Santino?! Vintage liplock! So Santino now has Khali's old job.
Time for Sheamus and Ziggler. Josh Mathews says Sheamus is not 6'4" and 272. So he can gain or lose a few pounds, and apparently shrunk a couple inches. Hard-hitting match as usual, very physical. Vickie gets involved, and Dolph takes over. Sheamus with the comeback, but wow, nice jumping DDT from Ziggler. Ziggler ate a huge Brogue Kick, and Sheamus gets the three. Another quality Ziggler match. The guy's seriously on fire.
I'm still disappointed that Vickie didn't side with Swagger, but perhaps there's a time to do that in the future. Eventually, Ziggler's gotta be turning face. Whether that's in a couple months or next year, I certainly see it happening. And hey, if Ziggler goes face, maybe Orton can finally get his wish and turn heel (given that the Viper doesn't get a third Wellness Policy violation).
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