9/7/12 Smackdown

Ratings:
Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs. Cody Rhodes & Miz: **3/4

Daniel Bryan vs. Zack Ryder: *

Randy Orton vs. Damien Sandow: **1/4

Titus O'Neil & Darren Young vs. Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso vs. Primo & Epico: **

Wade Barrett vs. Yoshi Tatsu: 1/4*

Sheamus vs. David Otunga: *1/2
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Reviews/Thoughts:
Ricardo, Del Rio, and Otunga come out of Booker T's office. Ricardo in a neck brace. Vintage heel lawsuit coming up. ADR says the Brogue Kick should be illegal, while the cross armbreaker is artistry. Ricardo is ADR's only friend? Depressing. Yeah yeah, Otunga is a Harvard law guy, whatever. Video showing many Sheamus Brogue Kicks. Booker asks the fans, fans say no, so the kick's still legal. Cole basically goes on a tirade. Vintage Cole.

Masked Marvels (a.k.a. Mysterio and Cara) is a great way to use Sin Cara. Eventually, they will feud by WrestleMania, you'd have to think. Real lethal kicks from the masked team  thoughout. Miz clearly shouting coaching tips to Cody in the match, what a nice tag partner. Crowd really into it, love that. Cody kicked Miz in the head on accident. Sin Cara takes Cody out. Rey's 619 and splash to Miz ends it.

Daniel Bryan in the back. Hornswoggle wants a hug, but settles for a handshake. Kick to the shin. DB pissed. Breathe!

Otunga still at it with Booker on the Brogue Kick. Booker will think about making it illegal. Otunga has more footage in the trailer.

The hugging segment with Kane and DB was awkward, but man, the crowd ate it up. Who knew Miz knew so much about hugging it out? And then it got physical between DB and Kane. Now that ruled.

DB time, so fans go nuts with the "YES!" stuff. He faces Ryder tonight, and Lilian gets Ryder's name right. Ryder gets his offense in. DB backs off and calls for a hug for anger management class. They hug, and then into the NO lock for the win. Yay ring smarts! DB snaps again and refuses to let the lock go. Ref reverses the decision so Ryder wins now. DB snaps even more. Classic DB reaction. Crowd is really letting the "YES" fly now.

Sandow interrupts for a promo, explaining his countout loss the other week. He dares someone to call him a craven to his face, so Orton comes out. He wants to fight Sandow and the ref rings the bell. Ziggler comes out with Vickie to watch. Ziggler now on commentary.

Action spills to the outside. Ziggler distracts Orton to let Sandow get the upper hand. Probably Sandow's longest match to date, showing that he can do fine in a lengthy match when paired with the right person. Typical Orton comeback moves, but before he can go for the RKO, Sandow bails and Orton gets a countout win. Words between Ziggler and Orton. Orton goes for an RKO on Ziggler. Sandow interrupts and eats the RKO instead. Ziggler bails. Perhaps Ziggler and Orton at Night of Champions (or something like that) before Orton taks time off to film his movie.

Otunga shows Booker neck X-rays, one normal and one purportedly of Ricardo. Oh really, another potential lawsuit for WWE? Booker tells Otunga to put on his ring gear and go to the ring to face Sheamus. Logical!

But first, a triple threat tag match to determine #1 contenders for the tag titles. Three guys (one from each team) in at the same time, first pin or submission wins. What, no Kidd/Gabriel? Blasphemy! Good action here, love triple threat matches because of less downtime. Usos a house of fire and really got the crowd buzzing. D-Young gutbuster, Uso splash. D-Young throws Uso out of the ring and gets the pin. Primetime Players are the #1 contenders. They should finally be getting their title reign at Night of Champions.

Nice job by WWE to align Punk and Heyman. Heyman being on screen keeps Lesnar in the back of people's minds and gets people talking about why this particular alliance formed.

Ziggler wants to face Orton again and reminds Teddy Long he could cash in MITB and become champ that night anyway -- perhaps even before he faces Orton. Yeah, that match should happen.

Wade Barrett returns after dislocating his elbow seven months ago. He looks great and should get a huge push now. He faces Yoshi Tatsu tonight. New upbeat rock entrance music for Barrett, who now always has facial hair. Too methodical a match for me, but lots of hard strikes. Nice side thrust kick from Wade. Short-arm elbow strike KOs Yoshi and gets Wade three. I like that, if it's his new finisher. Can hit it on anyone at any time.

Barrett post-match promo stating he wants to be part of the title picture fast. Yeah, push him. He was due for a MITB win before getting injured. Excellent on the mic and he seems to have found a good, rugged look to go with his bare-knuckle fighting style.

Del Rio accompanies Otunga to the ring. Otunga nearly ate a Brogue Kick early on. White Noise hits. Sheamus signals for Brogue Kick, but Booker interrupts to say that move is now illegal. ADR is elated now. Sheamus still gets Otunga in the Cloverleaf and Otunga quickly taps. I say it's a great way to get a new finishing move over with the crowd.