We are nine nights away from WrestleMania 28! That said, let’s get to the action on Friday Night Smackdown!
Daniel Bryan and girlfriend, AJ Lee come to the ring. Bryan says YES! YES! YES! to start his promo. He says he could talk about himself all night. Instead, he asks AJ to tell everyone what it’s like to be in love with him. AJ says it’s heaven. She says nobody really knows this, but Daniel carasses her and has the softest lips, and sometimes at night, they spoon. She says Danny…and he takes the mic away and says it’s Daniel. She apologizes and calls him brave, courageous and generous. She says as a vegan, his body is a temple and that his mind and spirit are pure. She says above all of that, he makes her feel safe. She says that’s why she really enjoys cuddling. She hesitantly calls Bryan a great lover after he whispers in her ear. He says at Wrestlemania(pauses for her to finish the sentence) and she says he is going to make that big Irish brute tap out and continue on his path to become the greatest of all time. Bryan asks the audience to applaud for AJ, and then for him. Bryan starts yelling YES! and his music hits but then it gets interrupted by the great white, Sheamus!
Sheamus says he threw up in his mouth before he came out. He asks AJ if she really thinks Bryan is brave and courageous? He thinks Bryan is a snivelling little coward. He says AJ talks about his soft lips, and he doesn’t even want to go there. He says he does want to go with the subject of WrestleMania. He says if he doesn’t like being called Danny…Bryan interrupts and says his name is Daniel. The crowd chants Danny. Sheamus says well Danny boy, and says that’s a great name for Bryan. He says if he doesn’t like being called that, then he isn’t going to like being called former World Champion. He says seriously though, at WrestleMania, he’s going to kick Bryan’s teeth down his throat.
^I feel like this World Title match is flying under the radar as we head towards next Sunday. People aren’t talking about it at all because three matches on the card are set to overshadow it. I think what these two can do in the ring together, if given the right amount of time, will surprise people. Sheamus has improved by volumes when it comes to his in ring performance and works really hard to put on a quality match. Daniel Bryan, being the technical artist that he is, can have a great WRESTLING match with just about anybody. I expect these two to put on a clinic, and I really hope that people appreciate what these two competitors bring to the big stage next Sunday. As for this promo, I now want to hear AJ talk more on the mic. Bryan’s YES! shouts are annoying but they’re already officially signatured to him. Sheamus is great when it comes to mic confrontation and works so well as the funny good guy because in a snap he can revert back to being the tough guy that’s going to kick your ass. This was a solid opening segment for the show.
Mark Henry takes on R-Truth in our next match. Henry dominates Truth for most of the match. Truth gets the upper hand for a moment and dives at Henry in a crossbody attempt. Henry catches Truth and slams him to the mat for the three count.
^That was quick. Dominant Mark Henry continues this week. I’m going to assume that this is possible foreshadowing of how his performance will go at WrestleMania. Unfortunately for R-Truth, his recent streak hasn’t done much to convince me that WWE has any big plans for him in the near future. I guess my only optimism here is that MITB winner Daniel Bryan was squashed at Summerslam and was then World Champion four months later and then received the biggest push of his career. BRILLIANT booking by WWE.
Yokozuna is announced as the next inductee in the 2012 Hall of Fame. I couldn’t be happier for Yok. His rivalries with Hulk Hogan(short), Lex Luger, and Bret Hart are some of my very first memories of wrestling. His mobility as one of the biggest athletes of all time was impressive and his induction is well deserved.
Backstage segment with Zack Ryder trying to convince Teddy Long to let him be on his team for Mania. Teddy says he isn’t sure. Ryder says he has something else to help him with his decision. Hornswoggle runs in waving a huge blue flag that has Teddy’s face on it. Teddy says Hornswoggle will make a cute mascot. He says a mascot and a rally just isn’t big enough though to convince him. Ryder says you want big? He calls in the Great Khali, who is dressed in a Zack Ryder t-shirt, bandana, and sunglasses. Teddy asks Khali if it’s true that he’s in. Khali does the WWWYKI chant. Teddy loves it and confirms them as official members of Team Teddy. Ryder gets them all to do the WWWYKI chant with him.
^This was definitely a fun segment. For all the time that has been invested in the GM storyline and for all the segments that we’ve been through on Raw and Smackdown as of late, I really hope that the twelve man tag match at Mania is given a decent amount of time to showcase all the individuals in the match.
Brie Bella is going one on one with AJ Lee in our next match. Daniel Bryan is in AJ’s corner. Bryan coaches AJ throughout the match. The match ends with Bryan and Nikki on the ring apron. Brie goes to double axe handle AJ but she moves out of the way and Brie ends up nailing Nikki. AJ gets the rollup three count on Brie after the distraction/collision. Bryan and AJ celebrate after the match. Nikki tells Brie after the match that she should have taken her advice. She tells the fans they disagree on a lot of things. She tells the crowd that Brie is rooting for team Johnny, and that she is rooting for team Teddy. She does the cheerleader gimmick and gets the crowd to spell Teddy.
^It was mostly punching and kicking that went back and forth for about two minutes longer than a typical divas match. Bryan will probably coach AJ all the way to a Divas championship before they split up. I can’t complain too much about the match as it at least had a couple submission holds and some legitimate wrestling. Not sure what the Bella twin storyline is all about; maybe it will unfold next week before WrestleMania.
Vickie Guerrero comes out with Jack Swagger for his match with Zack Ryder. Ryder has Hornswoggle in his corner. This match goes for roughly five minutes. Ryder is able to hit the big boot to the head while Swagger is laying in the corner. He goes for the rough-ryder but Swagger catches him and powerbombs him into the turnbuckle. Hornswoggle is chasing Vickie and she jumps on the ring apron. Swagger gets distracted by Vickie as she screams for him and he ends up walking into a rough-ryder to lose the match.
^So Jack Swagger jobs to Ryder tonight after Ryder jobbed to Daniel Bryan on Monday. I wish Swagger’s character had more of a personality. I genuinely like his ability in the ring. The guy actually has really good ring presence and knows how to draw heat from the crowd. Ryder needs to have more matches like this where he uses a variety of moves and gets more than three minutes of ring time. These two both are making the best of their odd-booking situations and I commend them for that. I hope they stand out and get some quality ring time during the twelve man tag next Sunday.
Cody Rhodes is shown in an interview from earlier today with Matt Striker. Cody says he’s enjoyed showing videos of Big Show from past WrestleManias. He says the biggest embarrassment is coming on April fool’s day when the biggest fool in all of WWE loses to him. Cody says he has a plane to catch and leaves.
^Ultimate foreshadowing there with Rhodes saying that he’s leaving. I expect him to be involved in whatever the Big Show does tonight. Another short but decent promo from Cody Rhodes.
It’s time for the Big Show taking on Kane in a rematch from Monday. After five minutes of some pretty solid action from these two giants, Cody Rhodes comes from the audience and attacks the Big Show. Rhodes has little effect and then runs back into the crowd as Big Show chases him. Meanwhile, Randy Orton sneaks into the ring and nails an RKO on the big red machine and gets a pretty decent pop from the crowd.
^I know I’ve been complimenting WWE for building the rivalry with Rhodes and Show for their match at Mania, but this might’ve been overkill. This is now twice in one week where Kane and Big Show where scheduled to go one on one and it’s been ruined by interference. Can’t we at least let a match go for a full eight to ten minute length and give it a clean finish? As for Kane and Orton, they have enough of a feud that they should be competing in a last man standing match or a falls count anywhere match. They don’t necessarily need a gimmick for their match, but I feel like that sort of added element would make their contest even better.
It’s time for the only funkasaurus in captivity to take on the one man southern rock band. Brodus Clay is in action against Heath Slater. Slater gets in a little bit of offense before going for a cover and not even getting a one count. Brodus hits the modified t-bone suplex and then a splash for the three count. Brodus dances with his FCW ladies after the match.
^Well, they expanded his match length by a little bit. Now they just need to give him some other opponents besides Slater. I’m more than willing to warm up the Brodus character if they’ll do more than just booking him in squash matches with a limited moveset.
Backstage segment with Zack Ryder and Eve. Zack tells her he’s going to WM and she says no, we’re going to WM. Zack tells her not only is she beautiful, but she is smart as well. She acts upset by this comment and the fact that he just noticed that. She tells him to forget about the dinner that they had planned and walks away. Ryder tries to apologize but she keeps walking away, then smiles.
^It’s the drama portion of Zack Ryder’s time on the air. I’d rather watch him wrestle a good match. To each his own, I suppose. The hoski has a match booked for WM. I wonder where the hype for that is this week?
Christian joins the commentary table for the next match. It’s the Great Khali, accompanied by Teddy Long taking on Dolph Ziggler, accompanied by John Laurinaitis and David Otunga. Khali dominates the start of this match, but Ziggler turns it around and mounts an offense of his own. Ziggler jumps on Khali’s back and applies a sleeper hold. Laurinaitis rings the bell and grabs a mic. He declares Ziggler the winner by submission. Teddy tells JL that isn’t how they roll here on Smackdown. Teddy tells Ziggler the match isn’t over. Ziggler doesn’t come back to the ring and is counted out for the loss. Santino Marella and Kofi Kingston run down and toss Ziggler back into the ring. Khali chops Ziggler and knocks him out. The members of Team Teddy celebrate in the ring.
^More hype for the twelve man tag. It’s interesting to see the variety of talent in this matchup. I wonder what they’ll do for each of them as far as rivalries go after WrestleMania. I’d personally like to see Christian feud with both CM Punk and John Cena, and the same goes for Dolph Ziggler. There’s a lot of potential for some really good main events with the combination of those four. Maybe some of the other guys like Santino, Kofi, and Truth can get themselves elevated to that next level as well. There’s a lot of WWE created stars in that bunch with volumes of storyline potential.
The Miz and Daniel Bryan take on CM Punk and Sheamus in a tag team match for the main event of our show. Bryan is going to start the match with Sheamus but Bryan immediately tags out to the Miz. Sheamus goes after Bryan when he’s on the apron and gets kicked to the outside by Miz. Later in the match, Punk goes for a flying elbow on Miz but Bryan approaches him so Punk jumps off the ropes. Miz grabs Punk and hits his signature DDT for a two count only. The crowd chants Danny boy as Bryan works on Punk. The match ends when Sheamus is dominating Daniel Bryan and he desperately tags in the Miz. Miz comes in and gets destroyed by Sheamus before receiving the brogue kick to the face. Sheamus gets the pinfall victory. Sheamus and Punk are the in the ring celebrating with Punk watching from the ramp as the show ends.
^Sheamus continues to look ridiculously dominant as the top face on Smackdown, which is enjoyable. Bryan continues to look like the cowardly champ and it makes you look forward to his World Title match with Sheamus that much more. This Miz and CM Punk looked good in the ring together. It makes me wish they were having a main event match sometime in the near future. Despite being a Raw superstar, I’m a little surprised there was no Chris Jericho appearances or promos at all tonight. I guess it’s for the better that the focus was on the World Title rivalry and on Miz wanting to prove himself. He was booked to fail once again. This continues to add to the frustration for his character heading towards the big event. Miz will be involved as outside interference in one of the matches at Wrestlemania; you can count on that.
There was certainly a lot more wrestling tonight than we got on Monday. I’ll have Mania predictions up either Wednesday or Thursday this week and my ROH ppv predictions will probably be up early in the week as well. Also, you can expect for a very special WrestleMania edition column to be coming either Sunday or Monday. Lastly, regular ROH column will be up by tomorrow night at the very latest. Until next time, you’ve been ThunderStruck!
