7/13/12 Smackdown

Ratings:
Alberto Del Rio vs. Sin Cara: **1/4

Primo vs. Darren Young: *1/2

Christian & Santino Marella vs. Dolph Ziggler & Cody Rhodes: *3/4

Big Show vs. Great Khali: N/A (thankfully short)

Ryback vs. Tyler Reks: N/A (squash)

Damien Sandow vs. Justin Gabriel: N/A (squash)

Sheamus vs. Chris Jericho: **** (hell yes)
_________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
Zack Ryder is the GM this week on Smackdown after winning the battle royal last week. It's Zackdown!

Alberto Del Rio and Sin Cara start. ADR nuked Sin Cara two weeks ago on RAW, but at least we have a match tonight. Yeah, these two both kick hard. Sin Cara gets to fly this week. Great chemistry between these two. I'm still a bit miffed that WWE touts Sin Cara as one of the most popular superstars in Mexican wrestling history when it's people like El Santo that deserve more praise. ADR takes advantage of Sin Cara's missed senton and gets the cross armbreaker submission win. ADR getting pushed and a bit more aggression shown. ADR supposedly in line for a title reign later this year.

WWE's newest project is Tout, where it seems fans can be heard and seen more in video form. Yay WWE memories!

Show and Khali are gonna have a match. Someone taser me and hit me with a bedpan. Woo woo woo, you know it.

Darren Young and Primo in singles action tonight, more extending of this AW storyline. What time is it? Prime time! Millions of dollars! Yeah, thanks AW. No backstabber tonight, but Primo rolls D-Young up for three. Not bad, the match did its job for the storyline.

RAW moment of Edge's retirement speech last April after WM. That was indeed a shocker for me, but at least he got inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Tons of amazing matches you can watch to see what he did. Look at the stuff with Foley and the TLC matches, for starters. HIAC with Taker was amazing as well.

Christian and Santino face Dolph and Cody. Finally, three guys with talent and one guy with a cobra sock that makes people laugh. Christian takes out Cody and chases him away, but Ziggler nukes Santino with Zigzag for three. Sounds about right.

Big Show and Khali. Thankfully it's short. Dueling slaps, then a Big Show WMD out of nowhere for three.

No entrance for Reks and Hawkins. Nice to see Reks back up his words from last week and actually challenge Ryback this week. Not that means anything. Reks with a couple of shots, and then Ryback goes to town. "T-Reks is extinct again." Bet Vince fed you that one, huh Cole? Anyway, much better than Ryback squashing two unknown guys.

Will Sandow even wrestle tonight? Yup, and no monologue before the match! Sandow has a Latin-phrased elbow that I have no clue how to pronounce. Sandow with a quick win over Gabriel (basically a squash) to get MITB PPV momentum.

Sheamus and Jericho close the show. I'm not totally agreeing that Jericho is one of the all-time greats, but Chris surely deserves more credit for his work and great storylines with the likes of HBK, Mysterio, and Punk. Nice that the World Heavyweight Title nameplate now clearly shows who's the champ.

Jericho looks like he's growing his hair out a little, and he's got "Best in the World" on the seat of his trunks. Sheamus with hard hitting, and Jericho flies into the announce table. Chris does get his offense in as usual after tossing Sheamus into the steps. Great countering on signature moves and finishers. Sheamus with a nice job of selling the Walls of Jericho. White Noise hit for two. Codebreaker hit, but Jericho had to crawl to cover and only got two. Sheamus skins the cat, off the top rope for a shoulderblock -- and into a codebreaker. Sweet spot. Only two?!?! YESYESYES. That pretty much sealed a huge rating. Jericho runs into a Brogue Kick for three. Awesome match that got plenty of time. 20-some minutes on WWE free TV shows is extremely rare. Jericho does it again, putting over a younger star very strong.

ADR ambushes Sheamus on the stage at the end. Ricardo with the distraction by driving the car. ADR looking strong going into Sunday. Will they put the strap on him now? Certainly possible, although Sheamus has been booked to not tap out even during the ambushes.