Saturday, August 11, 2012

8/10/12 Smackdown

Ratings:
Sin Cara vs. Cody Rhodes: *3/4

Jinder Mahal vs. two unnamed jobbers: N/A (squash)

Titus O'Neil & Darren Young vs. Primo & Epico: N/A

Christian vs. Antonio Cesaro: **1/4

Rey Mysterio vs. Miz: **

Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio (World Heavyweight Title): N/A (no match)
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Reviews/Thoughts:
We're in Houston tonight, and Smackdown GM Booker T starts the show in his hometown. Would have hoped for a bigger pop for Booker. The GM's in a tux tonight. Spinaroonie for the fans!

Booker lays down the law and tells Sheamus to apologize to Alberto for what happened on RAW. Sheamus does just that, but Alberto isn't satisfied. It leads to a world title match tonight! Hey, I like that start.

Sin Cara in a match next against Cody Rhodes. I still don't get why they have to keep the Sin Cara lights on for the match. Cody references his whole disfigured mask gimmick thing that started a nice push to his career. Cody went after the mask a few times in the match, and it ended up costing him a win. Not bad here.

Another video promoting Wade Barrett's return. I'm intrigued how big a push he'll get on his return.

Gotta hand it to WWE for capitalizing on this whole "YES" deal. Much larger reaction than Booker T. DB and Kane look like they're gonna fight, but AJ shows up on Smackdown. Power suit! AJ wants the two to shake hands. Yeah, that wasn't happening.

Jinder Mahal faces two scrawny unknown jobbers, to play off what Ryback did. Mahal takes one guy and defeats him with the camel clutch while mocking Ryback. Then a cool double camel clutch. Enter the real Ryback. Jinder bails. Cole tries to justify Jinder's actions. Ryback sends a messageback to Jinder. Sounds about right.

Jericho's Highlight Reel is next. Special guests are Ziggler and Vickie. Vickie says no Ziggler, so Jericho makes fun of Vickie instead. Footage of RAW where Ziggler lost to A-Ry and Jericho on commentary. Y2J gimmick is back. Ziggler attacks Jericho from behind and gets the upper hand tonight. Even a briefcase shot for good measure. Vickie's laugh into the mic reminds me of Kharma's entrance theme. Good storyline progression.

Again, Truth and Kofi on commentary. They haven't wrestled much lately. Primetime Players and Primo/Epico fight again in a #1 contender's match. Match largely irrelevant. AW throws water onto the champs, and that somehow causes a DQ win even though AW isn't a legal participant in the match. Ref probably will cite he lost control of the match or something. Still a clever heelish way to get AW's clients the title shot.

Turns out this was AW's last TV appearance. WWE released AW on Friday, August 10. Likely stemmed from the Kobe Bryant remarks he made on RAW the other week.

Antonio Cesaro again shows his fluency in five languages. Great match against Christian. Cesaro impressive with a fallaway slam into a bridge. Christian really flew when Cesaro gave him that European uppercut. Christian also may have covered up a botch at the end with that reverse DDT. Spear barely got Christian the win. Cesaro attacks Christian post-match and gets the last laugh.

Kaitlyn vs. Eve next week to be Booker's assistant. Well, at least the divas will have wrestling time on the show.

Miz and Mysterio next. Usual good match involving Mysterio. One thing about those kicks to the head: remember when Tajiri was doing those in WWE and it really was a devastating thing to see? Now it's still effective, just more commonplace. Miz goes for SCF but Rey turns it into a victory pin for three -- barely.

World Heavyweight Title match last. Actually not a match. Six cops come down that turn out to be hired guns for ADR. Just about sending a message and weakening Sheamus for the PPV. Title match never meant to take place.

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