Jonathan Dehn
WWE Smackdown
10/18/2013
Kansas City, Missouri
-Brad and Vickie are in the ring to start us off. Vickie claims that Smackdown will have order. Brad guarantees that his security will keep Big Show from the arena. Their exit is interrupted by Daniel Bryan, who comes out to the ring. Bryan is out to help them, letting them know that Big Show has breached security. Bryan toys with them by giving Big Show a false entrance, but instead invites Cody and Goldust out to the ring. Vickie is upset to see them and tries to punish them with a six man tag team match against The Shield. These renegades, as Vickie declares them to be, just kind of shrug their shoulders since they’re wrestlers and they wrestle.
The Wyatt Family w/Bray Wyatt vs. Kofi Kingston and The Miz
Rowan and Miz begin the match, with Miz kicking the mask from Rowan’s face. Miz hits the corner clothesline and gets a dropkick to send Rowan into the corner. Kofi comes in off of the top, but eats a forearm shortly afterwards. Harper enters and goes for a corner whip. Kofi floats over and gets Harper into the ropes, where he springs around and gets a dropkick. Kofi comes off the top, but takes a big boot. Rowan reenters and gets a slam. Kofi tries to fight out of the corner, but is unsuccessful. Harper comes back and batters away at Kofi. We hit the chinlock.
Kofi gets the boot up in the corner and avoids a charging Rowan. On the outside, Rowan pulls Miz away from the hot tag and Harper takes off Kofi’s head with a clothesline for the win. JBL might have made a mess of himself. After the match, Rowan and Harper are called off from beating down The Miz. Bray tells Miz to enjoy what time he has left of his life.
Final Thoughts: *1/2 and this was fine. Kofi’s bump from Harper’s clothesline was filthy and pretty cool. I like the big clothesline being used as a finisher.
Brie Bella w/Nikki Bella vs. AJ Lee w/Tamina
Brie has taped up her arm after feeling the effects of AJ’s submission hold, but I think she has the wrong arm wrapped up. AJ bails to start the match. Tamina stands in the way of Brie’s progress on the outside. AJ takes a big forearm. Back inside, Brie presses AJ but AJ pulls the bad arm against the ropes and goes to work on it. Brie fights back, but takes a back elbow for her troubles. AJ keeps up the work, hammerlocking the arm in the ropes. Brie escapes from a hold with a jawbreaker and follows with a couple of clotheslines and a missile dropkick. On the outside, Nikki dodges a charge from Tamina and Brie rolls through on a school boy. The facebuster wins it for Brie.
Final Thoughts: *. Hopefully, we see an extended match between these two.
-Big Show comes out through the crowd to interrupt the proceedings. He does the old ticket trick, autographed by Daniel Bryan, no less. Big Show thanks the fans for their support in trying to get him his job back. Brad runs out, along with Vickie, and they yell at him to leave the arena. Maddox gets into Big Show’s face and screams at him. Big Show reminds him that he has nothing to lose and knocks him out. Brad might have sold that better than anyone else ever has.
CM Punk vs. Big E Langston
With Cena coming back soon, it’s up to Punk to help Big E stay relevant for the time being. Punk grabs a waistlock to start, but that fails, and he takes a back elbow. Punk grabs a headlock, but takes a shoulderblock. Punk ducks a clothesline and works at Big E’s left arm. Langston gets a hard corner whip and splashes Punk. Langston beats Punk down for a bit, but Punk battles back with a chop. Langston charges, but Punk pulls the ropes, sending Big E outside. Punk leaps out, but Big E catches him and gives him a backbreaker against the apron. We got to break with Punk being thrown against the barricade.
We return with Big E holding Punk in a half crab. Punk fights out and goes for a ‘rana. Langston isn’t having that and reverses to the half crab. Big E is looking good here. Punk makes it to the ropes, but gets picked up and hit with a stomach breaker. Big E climbs atop of Punk gets a couple of hook punches. Punk gets the knees up on a big splash. Punk gets a leg lariat off of the whip. Langston counters out of the neckbreaker, but misses a charge and hits his shoulder on the post. Punk dives out with a forearm to the jaw of Langston. Brutal.
Punk gets a crossbody from the top for two. The high knee in the corner is followed by the clothesline. Punk gets the Savage Elbow for two. Punk calls for the GTS, but Langston gets out, runs Punk over, and hits the big splash for two. The straps come down, but Punk gets out from the Big Ending. The roundhouse kick leads to the GTS to end the match. After the match, Paul Heyman steps out onto the stages with his guys and congratulates Punk for beating a mediocre rookie in Big E Langston. Paul and Punk have another one of their good exchanges, and Paul leads his goons to the ring.
Ryback and Axel beat at Punk and toss him back into the ring. Langston, taking exception to being called a marginal rookie, joins up with Punk and sends Axel and Ryback out of the ring. Paul scurries up the ramp as Big E turns his rage back towards him.
Final Thoughts: ***1/2. This was a borderline great match. You can look at Big E. Langston as something of a Lesnar. He’s just impressive while still being as green as he is. I can tell that Punk likes the guy, and it’s known that Cena is a fan. If this is a legitimate babyface turn for Big E and just a setup to stack the deck against Punk, it was a nicely executed turn for what it was. He got to make the save for Punk, which is a big deal. So, this is promising.
-Josh is in the ring with Alberto Del Rio for an interview. A music video glorifying John Cena is played. Del Rio responds as he should, calling the Kansas City fans stupid gringos that don’t have Mexican passion. Del Rio declares John Cena to be The Ultimate Gringo. He makes fun of Cena’s injury and declares that Cena will join the other gringos in the crowd. To give Cena a taste of what is to come, Del Rio puts the cross armbreaker on Josh because God hates Josh Mathews. That’s some fine heeling.
The Real Americans w/Zeb Colter vs. The Usos
Cesaro and Jimmy start the match. Antonio gets hit back a flying back elbow and a full nelson slam. Jey hits a sliding clothesline for just one. Cesaro gets the boot up and brings in Swagger, who enters with a clothesline. Jack gets some knees in the corner and brings Cesaro back. THE GIANT SWING is performed on Jey, with some mustard on the toss at the end. Swagger returns and stomps away. A belly to belly slam gets two. Jack cuts off the hot tag. The Swaggerbomb and double stomp combo gets two.
Swagger returns and he gets a resthold. Jey rolls up Swagger for two, but takes a slam. Los Matadores pop up on the stage, and Zeb goes to stop them, walking up the ramp. Zeb stares down El Torito and gets gored in the nuts. And then gored in the ass. Heh. Back inside, Jey hits Jack with a superkick and Jimmy comes off the top with a splash for the win. After the match, El Torito presses Swagger.
Final Thoughts: Usually I wouldn’t enjoy the shenanigans with Zeb and El Torito, but it was a wrestling equivalent to “Man Getting Hit By Football”. **.
Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes and Goldust vs. The Shield
Randy Orton pops out onto the stage before the match and cuts a promo on Bryan, telling the grappler that he is in over his head. Goldust begins with Reigns. Reigns takes the advantage and all three members attack Goldy in the corner. Reigns returns and clubs away in the corner. Goldust comes off the second buckle with a back elbow. Goldust get an inverted atomic drop and a boot to the face. Cody comes in off the blind tag with a springboard dropkick. Cody goes into the post after Reigns retakes control following Cody taking shots at Rollins and Ambrose. We hit a break.
Cody is isolated when we return, eating a dropkick from Rollins. Rollins puts on a chinlock and we move towards the hot tag. Cody gets a backslide for two and pays for it. Rollins chokes Cody in the ropes and brings in Reigns, who hits a big splash. Rhodes fights back, but takes a back elbow for two. Rollins returns and stomps away for a spell. Rollins brings Cody back in from the apron with a suplex for two. Reigns is in and goes to the chinlock. Cody gets the boot up on the whip and sends Reigns outside. Reigns cuts off Cody, but takes a dropkick.
Rollins gets the tag, takes out Goldust but takes a high knee. Ambrose enters, as does Ambrose. And Bryan is raining down a shit blizzard on The Shield. Bryan flips out of the corner and decks Ambrose with the clothesline. The corner dropkick sets up a ‘rana that gets two and is broken up by The Shield. The action breaks down, leaving Bryan alone with Ambrose. They both go for a crossbody and are left lying in the ring. Goldust battles with Reigns. Reigns misses a charge and goes into the stairs. Bryan gets the best of Ambrose and goes to the top. Dean meets him up there, and hits a butterfly super-plex. Cody breaks it up but winds up powerbombed from the ring onto Goldust and over the announce table. It was kind of a weird spot, but worked out nicely.
Bryan flies out and dives onto Rollins and Ambrose after dumping Ambrose outside and onto Rollins. He throws Ambrose back into the ring and hits the Cena Killer for the big win.
Final Thoughts: ***3/4. I might be a bit generous, but I loved the extended heat segment and hot tag teases. The finishing sequence was crazy and I missed a bit of the action. Sure, it’s not too special to beat The Shield anymore, but I’d say that a couple of brothers and Daniel Bryan makes for a formidable side.
–It’s not too crazy to claim that this is the best Smackdown, from start to finish, of this year. Everything was solid at the worst, and the show moved forward at a brisk pace with plenty of development. Big E and Punk had a fun match with a simple face turn that should work out well for E. Fans are going to take well to him when he gets a real face run. It’s great that he was brought into the Punk story line. Del Rio did some fine heeling in preparation for his match with Cena. Zeb Colter took a shot to the nuts and sold it terrifically. In the same vein, Brad Maddox took the knockout punch like a shotgun blast to the face. It was so good that it should get into a few highlight videos. And the main event delivered in a satisfying way. This was great.
