Sunday, January 20, 2013

1/18/13 Smackdown

This is episode #700 of Smackdown, according to JBL.

The show begins with a little fiesta in the ring. Fiesta Del Rio! Mariachi band and dancing. Ricardo in the ring to introduce Alberto Del Rio. ADR with no car this time, but his titantron has the Mexican flag. Twitter handle is @VivaDelRio so they are really going full-on with the babyface run. And with Smackdown in Texas, ADR gets a huge favorable response.

Ziggler comes down with AJ and Langston. Is Dolph cashing in MITB? Nope, they just want to come to the party anyway. Ziggler reminds ADR of the MITB title shot and ADR has a target on his head. Langston speaks! "Que paso, little man." Dammit, shoulda taken Spanish in school. Before anything physical goes down, Big Show also to the ring. Sheamus arrives to even up the sides, so I guess we got a tag match later tonight. ADR and Sheamus shake hands. Who woulda thought that even a couple months ago? I still remember Sheamus' joyride with ADR's car. Don't let Sheamus eat any burritos! Booker comes down to make the match "official." Booker tells Show, Ziggler, Langston, and AJ to leave. Booker with a spinaroonie for old time's sake. Sheamus dances! JBL says now Sheamus will never get back in Ireland. LOL.

Antonio Cesaro vs. Kofi Kingston: Cesaro just with a mention in the ring. Yup, your U.S. champ gets the mention, Kofi gets the big TV entrance. Logical! Short match here, seemed pretty average. Then the finish occurred. Kofi goes for a big hurricanrana, Cesaro catches him and turns it into a Neutralizer for three. Match was about three minutes as Miz watches from a backstage monitor. If that finish doesn't tell you how powerful Cesaro is, I don't know what will. Extremely impressive. Kofi might not be a very large man compared to others on the roster, but he's still over 200 pounds and coming down with a lot of force. *1/2

Primo, Epico, and Rosa apparently still speak English on WWE TV. So does Miz have a match with one of the cousins tonight?

Great Khali vs. Tensai: And this is torture to the WWE Universe. WHY?! No Hornswoggle this week because he's selling injuries of Big E Langston's finisher. Match, even for about 60 seconds, felt like 3 hours. Tensai stayed on Khali in the corner well after the ref told him to stop. Nice job not paying attention. Khali chop ends it quick. I'd also like to know why Natalya is not in a wrestling role right now. Ugh. N/A

Team Hell No in the back. I agree, some people just don't know when their facial hair just gets ridiculous. YES NO war ensues. Orton must be thinking why he's even tagging with these guys. Yup. GROUP HUG AFTER THE MATCH! I love this stuff.

Randy Orton & Team Hell No vs. Wade Barrett & Team Rhodes Scholars: Kane got worked over for a change of pace. Then Cody had to tag in and Kane probably sent the mustache into the third row. A bit of chaos, then Cross Rhodes to Orton. Kane breaks the pin up. RKO to Sandow gets the win. So hey, Orton at least won't be going on a bad losing streak...right? *3/4

OH, IT'S GROUP HUG TIME! Orton refuses, but basically is forced to be a part of it. Now watch Orton refer to this when he turns heel later this year.

We see Rock concert from RAW.

Miz vs. Primo: And as predicted, we got a match between Miz and one of the Puerto Rican cousins. Miz doing a few Flair impersonations. Primo tries for the figure four, but Miz launches Primo into Epico. Miz then with the figure four to Primo, and Primo taps. Match probably went about 6 minutes. Miz gets to celebrate a bit with some of the troops. *1/2

Kaitlyn with Layla and Alicia Fox in the back. Layla gets quite attached to that Divas Title. Could be Kaitlyn's next significant feud?

Kaitlyn vs. Aksana: But tonight, it's two NXT divas who probably should still not work any matches together. And I still don't know what "hybrid" Kaitlyn is supposed to be. Simple offense from Aksana, nothing fancy. Aksana just screams and does some catty attack to Kaitlyn in the corner, then Kaitlyn explodes with a nice spear to get three. Match went a little over three minutes. 1/2*

Nice video package of Mick Foley, who will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year. Gotta love it.

Shield promo mentioning Ryback, Sheamus, and Orton. You will believe in the Shield!

Sheamus and Orton again mentioning the Royal Rumble. Sheamus probably eliminates Orton during that match to set up the full heel turn for the Viper.

Alberto Del Rio & Sheamus vs. Big Show & Dolph Ziggler: Now as a face, ADR gets to show more of the lucha stuff, which he did against Ziggler in the early stages of the match. Show gets tagged in and looks strong as usual. Langston and AJ get ejected, and I'm a partially sad panda because I can't look at AJ anymore. Ziggler almost gets German suplexed on his head and he's probably on autopilot as Sheamus gets in the match. Show launches Sheamus off the top to the floor. Sheamus then pummeled for a few minutes, hot tag to ADR after Show missed that Vader Bomb. ADR with a big side kick to Ziggler for two. ADR signals for the armbreaker. Ziggler tags Show and ADR didn't see it. Cross armbreaker to Ziggler but Show legdrops ADR. Sheamus delivers White Noise to Show again. Running enzuigiri to Show. Remember the confetti Ricardo tossed on Show on RAW? ADR tosses water tonight! Show looks absolutely pissed, but walks away. Since Show's the legal man, his team gets counted out. Not the finish I personally cared for, but whatever. Mexican-colored balloons fall from the sky as the show ends. **3/4

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