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The SmarKdown Rant–03.30.12

The SmarKdown Rant – 03.30.12

Taped from the same place as RAW.

Your hosts are Josh Matthews & Matt Striker (because Michael Cole is at Axxxxess, you see)

Zack Ryder v. Drew McIntyre

Drew might hold the record for biggest disparity between quality of theme music and level of push, because he’s basically a jobber with an awesome entrance. Actually, Gangrel was right up there too with that ratio. Zack gets a rollup for two as even the idiot announcers are questioning if Ryder can really be such a moron that he believes Eve. They exchange leapfrogs to the delight of the canned crowd heat, and Zack pounds away in the corner before landing on Drew’s knee. Drew takes over with a suplex for two. Tilt-a-whirl slam gets two. Drew controls with an armbar and dodges a blind charge, but he goes up and lands on Zack’s boot. Zack’s all fired up for the comeback, and he gets a forearm in the corner to set up the Broski Boot for two. Drew catches him with a big boot out of nowhere for two. That’s the kind of stuff he should be doing. Zack escapes a gutwrench bomb and finishes with the Rough Rider at 5:59, however. A fine match between two guys going nowhere. **1/4

Lord Tensai is still coming, and he’s still got a badass name.

Meanwhile, in Miami, Cole & Lawler talk about the Undertaker-HHH match. And then I skip through HALF AN HOUR of RAW recaps and video packages.

Big Show comes out to talk about how he hates Cody Rhodes and he’s going to win the IC title and have his Wrestlemania moment.

And then, another 20 minutes of video packages.

Chris Jericho v. Kofi Kingston

Jericho gets a cheapshot and grabs a headlock, but Kofi comes back with an elbow and corner splash that sends Jericho out of the ring. Kofi follows with a baseball slide and goes up for a springboard, but Jericho brings him down and we take a break. Back with Jericho putting Kofi on the floor with a baseball slide of his own, and sends Kofi into the railing. Back in, Kofi reverses a kneelift into a rollup for two, but Jericho puts him down with a clothesline for two. Jericho chokes him out on the ropes, but misses a charge and he’s selling a leg injury. Kofi comes back with his goofy DDT thing (the SOS I think it’s called), and the Boomdrop. Wacky kick misses and Jericho tries the Walls, but Kofi reverses out of it. Kofi with a high cross for two, but he runs into an elbow. Jericho’s Lionsault misses, but Jericho catches the kick attempt and counters into the Walls at 9:19. And it was the real one because Kofi is flexible enough to take it. Good stuff and good to see Jericho going over clean to set up the title match. ***

And we finish with the Rock/Cena interview from RAW. That whole show literally took me 20 minutes to watch. Wish they were all that fast.

See you on Sunday here for WRESTLEMANIA 28!

Comments

  1. "They exchange leapfrogs to the delight of the canned crowd heat"

    Awesome.

    I wish they gave even the slightest fuck about Smackdown. It's funny because Rocky's back and the show is basically named after him yet still...nothing.

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  2. "biggest disparity between quality of theme music and level of push"

    That's easy.  The Gladiators.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVLbRf8CwUM

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  3. MULKEYMANIA!!!!!!!

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  4. I'll see your Gladiators and raise you a Dan Severn:

    http://youtu.be/sp7aGkiflwY

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  5. I liked that during the Kofi-Jericho match Striker & Matthews referenced that Kofi & Punk had been tag champs together and have similar styles. So Jericho will probably be watching tape of their matches and last night's match in order to prepare for WM.

    I miss little things like that.

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  6. Dan Severn was the NWA World Heavyweight Champion!

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  7. If they had stuck with the "straightens necktie while suplexing multiple dudes" gimmick, Severn would've been huge.

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  8. Didn't he lose that title to Al Snow? Clearly it didn't mean shit at that time.

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  9. As opposed to any time after 1994?

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  10. Well you could argue it meant something when it was TNA's main title. Pretty much anytime after they splintered off of WCW it's just been a free floating indie belt. Shit, Adam Pearce is the NWA champion now.

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  11. As for this show only having 2 matches, that's actually kind of a lot for the pre-Mania Smackdown, usually it's just a clip show altogether with no matches, I'm pretty sure.

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  12. Did they do anything extra for the live crowd (or film this at a different time than usual)? Would kind of suck to pay for the ticket and get a bunch of video packages and two matches, with only two top (arguably) guys showing up, Jericho and Show, with the latter doing only a quick promo and nothing more. I don't mind it watching from home 2 days before Wrestlemania, but for the live crowd that's gotta suck.

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  13. The matches were just taped before RAW like it was Superstars or something.  

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  14. Shit, Adam Pearce is catching up with Flair for "Amount of time he's had the belt".

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  15. Instead of "Scrap Iron" he should just be called Shit, Adam Pearce.

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  16.  And that is why Striker is being wasted on NXT.

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  17. You know what was awesome?  Not once was Orton's match mentioned on the go-home show, even though in his words it's quite possibly one of the four main events. U mad, bro?

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