Jonathan Dehn
WWE Smackdown
07/12/2013
Hampton, Virginia
Daniel Bryan vs. Christian
They both look up at the briefcase to start. Bryan works quickly to the arm. Christian hits a shoulderblock and follows with a second rope dropkick for just one. Bryan blocks a charge in the apron with a shoulder trust and stomps away at Christian. Bryan follows with a running knee lift for two. Christian fights back, and Daniel counters a corner rush. Christian catches him with a spinebuster following that. Christian hits a back elbow from the second turnbuckle, and dumps Bryan over the top but misses the baseball slide. Bryan comes back with a clothesline and the knee from the apron.
We return from the commercial break with Christian dodging Bryan’s corner dropkick and getting a two count. Captain Charisma follows with a neckbreaker for two. Bryan dodges a rush and sends Christian outside. Bryan goes for the dive, but Christian’s counters with a giant right hand. Ouch. They slug it out on the outside, with Bryan hitting a running dropkick to Christian’s arm against the steel stairs. Back in, Bryan kicks at the arm. Bryan flips out of the corner, but Christian counters back with a sunset flip out of the corner for two.
They slug it out before Christian puts Bryan into the second rope and hops out for a right hand. Christian goes up but misses the crossbody. Bryan goes up and misses the headbutt in turn. Back to their feet, Bryan counters the tornado DDT and hits his kick flourish. Christian dodges the buzzsaw kick and hits a reverse DDT. Bryan gets a knee up on the spear attempt and finishes with buzzsaw kick for two.
Bryan hits a corner dropkick and goes for a second, but Christian charges and hits the spear for 2 ¾. Bryan reverses the Killswitch into the Yes Lock, but Christian gets out of that. Christian springs off of the turnbuckle and Bryan catches him with the Yes Lock for the submission win.
Final Thoughts: Terrific match to start the show. I’m may be mistaken, but this might have been their first televised match. I want to see much, much more from them. Bryan was his usual awesome self, and Christian showed that he can still hang after his layoff. One of the great benefits of Bryan’s push to the top is all of the fresh matches that we are gifted with. The show probably peaked with this one.
Fun Daniel Bryan Fact Of The Week: I hear that Dave Meltzer rated Bryan’s punt of Lil’ Jimmy **.
-Back in his office, Teddy is on the phone again, when Dolph arrives on the scene. Teddy gives him the night off, much to Dolph’s chagrin.
Jey Uso vs. Seth Rollins
They lockup to start and trade reversals Off of the whip, Jey hits a back elbow and hits a running clothesline to the seated Rollins. Jey gets an elbow up in the corner, and goes to the second turnbuckle. Rollins pulls him off for a two count and follows with a belly to back suplex for another two. Rollins hits a corner splash for another two count. Seth goes to the chinlock and drives Jey’s head into the turnbuckles before Jey’s Samoan heritage takes over, growing impervious to head damage.
Jey fights back with a flurry and finishes with a hip smash in the corner. Reign’s distraction is cut off by a kick from Jimmy. A Samoan Drop gets two for Jey and he goes up. Reigns attacks Jimmy on the ouside, and the distraction has Rollins crotch Jey on the turnbuckle. Seth finishes with the stomp for the win. After the match, Rollins & Reigns celebrate atop the announce table.
Final Thoughts: This was a decent little TV match where both guys looked good out there. I liked Jey’s little hulk up sequence after Seth ran his head into the turnbuckles. The fans really seemed to enjoy his no selling and chanting following Seth’s chops. I still have high hopes for their match on Sunday.
Chris Jericho vs. Curtis Axel
Axel beats away at Jericho to start. Jericho gets the elbow up on the corner charge and answers with a few chops and a dropkick from the second turnbuckle for two. Axel comes back with kicks and stomps but Jericho dodges the corner charge, Axel slamming his shoulder into the ring post. Jericho goes for the Codebreaker, but Axel stunguns him and gets two. We hit the break.
We return and Axel gets two after an elbow from the second rope. Jericho fights back off the whip and hits a forearm. Jericho gets a Northern Lights suplex for two and goes for the Walls. Axel counters and hits a snap belly to back suplex for two. Axel misses a corner splash and Jericho comes off the top with a crossbody for two. Jericho hits the bulldog, but Axel dodges the Lionsault and catches him on the apron, where he hits a neckbreaker from the second rope. Jericho floats over and goes for the Walls. Axel reverses into an awkward pin for two.
Jericho hits the enzuigiri for two. On a charge, Jericho drops Axel over the top and to the floor. They repeat a spot from Bryan and Christian’s match, with Axel dodging the baseball slide and hitting a clothesline on the outside. Back in, Jericho hits a Codebreaker on the apron, sending Curtis outside. Axel can’t make it back to the ring and loses by countout. Axel seethes over his loss, and starts destroying the announce table. JBL stands still until Axel begins to tear away at the monitors.
Final Thoughts: The match was just fine, if already not a little stale. And it was cute that Axel lost by countout for a change. JBL knows that only once monitors begin to leave the table, then it’s serious business.
The Miz vs. Ryback
To start, they lock up, with Miz using his quickness to send Ryback outside. He follows with a slide and a double axe handle. Back in, Miz gets the boot up in the corner, and leaps at Ryback. Ryback catches Miz and twirls him down with a powerslam. Ryback clubs and stomps away. The Ryback drives Miz into the corner and then whips him hard into the opposite corner. Miz fights back and floats over on a slam. He hits the chop block, but Ryback comes back with a charge.
The Miz gets the knees up on a splash and slugs away with left hands. Miz hits a dropkick to the knee, a kneelift and a big boot. The Miz hits his corner clothesline and hits another double axe handle, this time from the top. Miz goes back to the leg, setting up for the figure four, kicking at it in the corner before hitting a kneebreaker. Ryback stays on the mat, clutching his knee and howling in pain. The referee keeps The Miz at bay. Ryback uses the distraction to hit the Meat Hook and finish with Shell Shocked for the win.
Final Thoughts: While everyone is tired of his character, The Miz does a damned good job working on a limb. Also, this is not a very noticeable attribute, but Miz has some of the best worked punches on the roster. He’s got the whirlwind lefty windup that just looks classically great. I’m not sure that a guy like Ryback should play possum to pick up wins at this point.
-Renee Young is backstage with Sheamus. Sheamus says that when he wins the WWE Championship, pints are on him. Then he lets Renee know that she is cute.
-In the ring, there’s a contract signing for the match between Kaitlyn and AJ Lee at MITB. Before she signs, AJ takes the microphone and notes all of the Divas in the ring. She says that everyone should thank her for making the title important. Teddy interrupts and tells her to get on with it. After she signs, she tells Kaitlyn not to sign because she’ll embarrass her. Layla snags the pen and hands it to Kaitlyn to make the match official. AJ then reveals some of the incriminating texts that Kaitlyn sent her fake secret admirer. Kaitlyn tosses the phone to the mat, but then they go to the tron. AJ tells Kaitlyn to tear up the contract to the match. Kaitlyn refuses and calls AJ crazy. So, AJ smacks Kaitlyn. In response, Kaitlyn shoves AJ back into her seat and pushes her and the table into the corner of the ring. She then pummels her. Sweet. Big E grabs Kaitlyn and pulls her away as AJ tries to get away. Kaitlyn breaks free, turns around, and smashes Big E across the face with a slap that looks more like a punch. Kaitlyn turns, glares, and breaks AJ in half with a spear. Good, good segment.
Wade Barrett vs. Fandango
Zeb is on commentary, flanked by Cesaro and Swagger. Fandango dances at the start, earning a big boot from Barrett. That gets two, and Barrett hits away in the corner and follows with a backbreaker for two. Wade hits some knee lifts and gets a short armed clothesline. Barrett hangs Fandango on the top turnbuckle and pounds away as Team Rhodes Scholars come out to argue with Cesaro, Swagger and Zeb. Back in the ring, Fandango wins with a roll up and a handful of tights.
Final Thoughts: Wade had a decent reaction for just a moment, showing some in-ring charisma that he desperately needs to do more often. However, this is the final sell segment for the weak “Rising Stars” MITB match. They should have at least tried to finish with a brawl.
-Kane is out of the MITB match due to the injuries suffered by the beatdown that he took from The Wyatt Family.
Alberto Del Rio vs. Sin Cara
Sin Cara immediately goes after ADR, and the two brawl. Sin Cara hits the Zig Zag and gyrates in the middle of the ring. He’s so talented! This new Sin Cara is going to be a star! After the match, Vickie pops up out of nowhere and demands respect. She also demands that Teddy Long be fired. Her voice has reached a new, higher level of shrieking. Teddy comes out onto the stage and brings out security to escort her from the building.
Final Thoughts: I had heard about Ziggler being in disguise and was worried that it would be more of a comedy segment. I’m a mark for these types of segments, though. Luckily, Dolph didn’t botch anything. Also, Sin Cara needs to incorporate more hip gyrations into his gimmick.
-Teddy tries to catch Dolph Ziggler, but Sin Cara and he have already pulled the switcheroo once more. Dolph tells Sin Cara that he enjoyed his match.
Sheamus vs. Randy Orton
They slug it out for slug it out for a while, to start. Sheamus fights for and gets a suplex. Orton fights out of an armwringer but runs into a powerslam from Sheamus. Orton grabs Sheamus and dumps him to the outside. Sheamus drags him out and they trade blows. Sheamus avoids a whip into the steel stairs but takes a clothesline from Orton. We go to break. We return with Orton holding Sheamus in a headlock. Sheamus fights back, but takes a dropkick from Randy. Orton goes to a rear chinlock.
They return to slugging it out, but Sheamus comes forth with a clothesline. Sheamus gets a head of steam, but Orton dodges a knee lift and hits the clotheslines and the powerslam for two. Off the whip, Orton gets the boot up, but takes an Irish Curse for two. Orton fights back and hits a backbreaker of his own for two. Sheamus fights out of the hanging DDT and tosses Orton to the apron. Orton gets clubbered over the ropes and brought inside for the rolling Samoan Drop. Sheamus signals for the Brogue, drawing quite a few jeers. Orton ducks, and they go into the corner, where Orton hits the hanging DDT from. Sheamus shoves off from the RKO and goes up. Orton crotches him and climbs up to join him.
Sheamus and Orton both tumble out to the floor. Bryan runs in as they are both down and grabs a ladder. He runs it into both of them and looks to grab the case once more. Sheamus catches him and pulls him off. Sheamus clotheslines Bryan out and goes to the top. Christian runs out, pulls Sheamus off of the ladder and goes up. Sheamus battles back and they both go up. Christian punches Sheamus off and goes up. Bryan comes back and tips the ladder over. Orton jumps in and gives Bryan the RKO. Randy climbs to the top and grabs the case for himself.
Final Thoughts: The match was solid, as you’d expect. The postmatch shenanigans were fun and somewhat dramatic. Michael Cole yelling over and over again about the symbolism became annoying, but this segment was still pretty good.
–It was a very good show tonight from the start. Bryan and Christian had a terrific opener and the solid action continued without running into a wall with having time to fill or having only six guys to use on the show. The Divas contract signing segment was very well done and hit the most satisfying payoff since Bret Hart revealed that he hadn’t broken his leg at all. The build for the WHC MITB match continued to be lackluster and lacking all sorts of intensity or intrigue. While I didn’t mind Dolph Ziggler dressing as Sin Cara, it was angle that felt like it should have been used last week and not for the final meeting before Sunday. The final sell for MITB was well done, but I guess that neither Orton, nor Bryan is going to win the case. Bryan/Christian and the Kaitlyn/AJ segments are highly recommended from me.
