We are told that Punk will take on Bryan tonight in a champion vs champion match, and then we are told Big Show will go one on one with Mark Henry as well.
Daniel Bryan comes to the ring to cut a promo. AJ is with him. Bryan talks about winning the Smackdown MITB contract and his proclamation to main event WrestleMania. He says nobody believed him, but yet here he stands headed to the main event of WrestleMania. Bryan compares himself to Rocky and mocks Santino for doing the same. He goes on about how he will ruin Sheamus’ WM moment by defeating him and says he will defeat CM Punk tonight. The Miz interrupts and comes to the ring.
Miz tells Bryan that he molded him into becoming a World Champion as his mentor on NXT. He says he knew all along that Bryan would become a world champion. He says he is out here to congratulate Bryan on being in the main event of WrestleMania. He says after Bryan defeats Sheamus at WM, one day they should form a tag team. Sheamus interrupts.
Sheamus takes the mic from Miz and congratulates Bryan on being a massive arse and a hypocrite. He says after WM, everyone will be saying that Bryan got what he deserved. Miz tells Sheamus he deserves to be taken down a notch or two for interrupting and trying to steal the thunder of Daniel Bryan. Sheamus tells Miz to let the guy who actually has a match at WM talk. Bryan attacks Sheamus. Miz and Sheamus brawl as Bryan runs off.
We come back from commercial and Sheamus is taking on the Miz in a match. These guys work a really solid match that ends with Sheamus hitting his new slam finishing maneuver on Miz for a three count.
^Good for Sheamus to continue on a dominant role. It only makes sense for him to win the World Title at WrestleMania if that’s the direction WWE chooses to go. As far as the Miz goes, I think WWE is really off target right now with this guy. He deserves to be in the main event scene. Miz and Ziggler are the two best heels on Raw and should both be chasing the WWE Title or at least staying relevant with booked rivalries. Good match overall though for the start of Smackdown live.
Teddy Long and Asksana are backstage. She tells him she wants him to be GM of both Raw and Smackdown. JL interrupts. I’m grateful. JL calls long unprofessional for his behavior with Aksana. Long tells JL his office is the men’s bathroom. Otunga says Long’s office should be in the dumpster.
^Heat with JL and Long to continue towards WrestleMania. I wonder who Otunga will face at Mania on Long’s behalf.
Truth and Kofi take on Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger next. We get a decent back and forth tag match that ends with Ziggler hitting the Zig Zag on Kofi after a thumb to eye for a three count win.
^So, this is where it’s at then. Dolph is a top contender for the title, but because Jericho is challenging for the title, we get six weeks of Dolph doing irrelevant tag team action? What about the US Title with Swagger? Does it just not matter? As far as Kofi and Truth go, I already stated in my Raw analysis that these guys are taking a step backward by being in a a tag team. Good tag match though. I guess seeing these guys in tag action is better than not seeing them at all.
Backstage segment with Santino and his cobra. He’s knocking cups over and Heath Slater comes into the scene and wrecks everything. Santino says he shouldn’t have done that because his cobra isn’t ordinary. The cobra spits water in Slater’s face.
^Funny for Santino and good for him to at least get a segment on this Smackdown, but who the hell cares about Heath Slater? The guy is officially the new Brooklyn Brawler/Barry Horowitz.
They promote the CM Punk/Chris Brown twitter war of words. If this wasn’t staged by WWE, then hyping the verbal exchange doesn’t seem like the smartest thing to be doing.
The Great Khali destroys Drew McIntyre in our next match with the choke throw(punjabi plunge as they call it).
^Where do I begin? Khali is huge and useless and needs to go away. McIntyre was pushed into being relevant again with the whole “win or get fired” storyline. The storyline seems to have disappeared. Drew appears to be jobbing again. I love how WWE can see something so huge in a guy that they invest a ton of money and give a big push, but then just dump all over him if he doesn’t turn out exactly how they want him to with the audience. I like Drew McIntyre and feel he deserves more of a chance.
Big Show is in a backstage segment where he talks about knocking Mark Henry out tonight and having Cody at the top of his “you know what list.” Show talks about destroying Cody whenever he runs into him.
^The heel Show continues to emerge for his potential match with Shaq.
Show and Mark Henry are up next in their one on one match. Mark Henry has been reinstated in case you didn’t hear(in other words, his groin is 90-95% healed up). Cody comes out and distracts Big Show during the match but Show is able to hit the WMD and then leaves the ring to chase Cody Rhodes. So that match ends with no official winner?
^Is Cody Rhodes and the Big Show going to become an actual rivalry or just a short term filler for a couple weeks? Good for Show to look strong and good for Henry to be mobile and to look like he’s at 100% in the ring tonight.
Teddy Long comes to the ring next with Ezekial Jackson. Laurinaitis is out with Otunga and it looks like we have a rematch from Raw. They exchange blows to start the match and this one ends in less than two minutes when Otunga is able to hit the huge spinebuster yet again on Ezekial and get the three count victory.
^Battle of the hulked up big guys? I guess watching this match twice in the same week was almost worthwhile(sarcasm for those who don’t get it). Just goes to show how little creative has to do with either one of these guys.
Punk is interviewed by Matt Striker. Punk talks about giving Long his full confidence in becoming GM of both shows. Punk says he will address Jericho on Raw. He says Bryan being Champion has gone to his head, but he is champion for a reason and that is because he knows how to win. He says he will teach Bryan how to lose tonight.
^Punk does a great interview. Five more minutes of time on the mic and putting him in the middle of the ring would have been far more entertaining than watching Luger/Steiner flex their muscles in our prior match.
Punk and Daniel Bryan go one on one in our main event! Kevin Nash must hate watching Raw and Smackdown with all these “Indy-riffic” guys representing the company as champions. After a lengthy exchange of action, Bryan goes to leave but Sheamus runs Bryan back into the ring. Punk kicks Bryan in the head and gets the three count win! John Laurinaitis comes out and demands the match be restarted. As they continue to battle, Bryan holds the ropes and gets a three count rollup on Punk. Teddy Long demands the match be restarted once again. The two go back and forth once again and Bryan hits a big superplex on Punk. As they come down, they hook each other’s legs and get a double pin on one another. The ref counts three and Long calls Punk the winner while JL calls Bryan the winner. The GMs argue and Long walks away after throwing his jacket in JL’s face as Smackdown goes off the air.
^Good non finish once again for these guys. Their in ring action speaks volumes for what they can do and honestly doesn’t need a clear cut winner. The JL/Long heat feels distracting to the overall picture here. I’m not sure if I care for it much. Punk and Bryan could do what they do in the ring every single night without a single promo and I don’t think an audience would complain.
I’m not sure what the point of having a live show was, but it seemed like a pretty good overall show to push towards WrestleMania. I hope Randy Orton comes back soon enough to start his rumored rivalry with Kane before they have an official Mania match booked. We saw no divas tonight, and once again no dancing Brodus. If Smackdown continues in this direction, you can bank on some solid buildup to the big event in April. That’s all for this one. Not sure what will be out between now and Raw, but I’m thinking I’ll put something out there. Until next time, you’ve been ThunderStruck!
www.facebook.com/thunderstruck11 – add me
