Smackdown
Date: September 12,
2014
Location: Mohegan Sun
Arena, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Michael
Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Tom Phillips
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
We're coming off a good
Raw for the first time in far too long and the main story is Reigns
getting taken out to end the show. It looks like we're heading for
Reigns vs. Rollins and Jericho vs. Orton, though they would likely be
better off with just having a tag match instead. Let's get to it.
We open with a recap of
the end of Raw and Reigns taking a Curb Stomp onto a chair.
Usos/Big Show/Mark
Henry vs. Wyatt Family/Goldust/Stardust
This is just Harper and
Rowan and not a handicap match if that isn't clear. Jimmy chops on
Goldust in the corner to start before doing the same to Stardust.
Jey comes in to choke on the ropes a bit and start in on the arm.
Back to Jimmy to face Harper with Luke missing a clothesline and
getting dropkicked down. Mark gets the tag for a splash in the
corner but Luke clotheslines him down for two. Bray comes down to
ringside but Big Show stands in his way as we take a break.
Back with Jimmy
superkicking Harper and nailing him with an enziguri. Bray is
nowhere in sight. Luke backdrops him to the apron and Jimmy slips
off, injuring his own knee. Stardust likes what he sees and sends
Jimmy into the announcers' table before handing it off to Goldust. A
clothesline to the back of the head gets two and it's back to Harper
with a dropkick for two. Rowan comes in for a knee drop to give us a
complete set of heels not going after the injured limb.
Not that it matters
though as Jimmy is able to Samoan drop Rowan on the bad knee.
Goldust comes in and gets superkicked, allowing for the hot tag to
Big Show for some house cleaning. Stardust takes the worst of it but
the Dusts are actually able to suplex Big Show down. The Wyatts take
Henry to the floor, allowing Jimmy to dive onto everyone. The
Disaster Kick staggers Show but he comes back with the KO Punch and a
Superfly Splash from Jey pins Stardust at 11:04.
Rating: C-.
What was the point in having Jimmy hurt his knee if they were just
going to forget about it thirty seconds later? At least have someone
kick the leg a few times after it. That being said, I'd definitely
prefer not to have two members of a team both having leg injuries as
the injured limb is being overused as it is. The match wasn't bad
but just kind of there.
We
recap Heyman and Cena from Raw.
Kane
praises Reigns and Rollins for their actions on Raw. Rollins says he
knew he could get inside Reigns' head and promises to take him out
tonight. It's
Reigns/Jericho vs. Orton/Rollins later.
Bo
Dallas vs. Justin Gabriel
Colter
and Swagger are at ringside. After the bell, Dallas says most of the
fans are destined to be failures for their entire lives, but they
could be just like him if they just Bolieve! Dallas
calls himself America's Sweetheart and asks everyone to put their
hand over their heart, but Zeb interrupts. He says if Dallas is
America's Sweetheart, then he's “Arianna freaking Grande. And I
don't even know who that is!”
After
a minute and a half of talking, Gabriel starts firing off kicks and
rolls Dallas up for two. A
hard whip sends Gabriel into the buckle and we hit the chinlock.
Gabriel comes back with a
springboard cross body and an STO but the moonsault misses, setting
up the Bodog for the pin at 4:10.
Rating: D+.
It's almost not fair to rate this as they only fought for about two
minutes after all the talking. The match was every Bo Dallas match
you've seen yet but that's fine in this case as he finally has
something to do. I'm glad he didn't get the “Vince is bored with
you” treatment that so many others have suffered through as Dallas
has potential to be a good pest.
Dallas
runs from Swagger post match.
Paige
vs. Summer Rae
Non-title.
AJ is on commentary of
course. Summer stomps away
in the corner to start and puts on a full nelson leg lock. Paige
fights out with a headbutt and some clotheslines followed by a series
of knees to the ribs. A
Black Widow makes Summer tap at 1:46.
AJ
comes in and lays out Summer with the Paige Turner before skipping
away. Paige freaks out again.
It's
time for some good old fashioned arm wrestling between Rusev and Mark
Henry. Before the match,
Lana offers Henry a chance to get out of the match by forfeiting.
She brings up Henry leaving the Olympics with an injury but Henry
will have none of it. He never thought he would have the chance to
represent his country again and there's the USA chant. Henry
easily wins in a few seconds.
Rusev wants a rematch left handed and Lana throws powder in Henry's
face so Rusev can beat him down.
Jericho
talks about losing the cage match on his own terms. He can live with
that, but he can't live with Orton attacking him to make a statement.
Jericho calls himself the Snake Shredder and the Copperhead Crusher
and promises to take care of Orton. We
get a hiss to cap things off.
Miz/Damien
Mizdow vs. Dolph Ziggler/R-Truth
Ziggler
says Truth (R-Ziggler)
is his stunt double tonight and we get Truth in Dolph attire,
complete with the hip swivel on the stage. JBL
and Cole are nice enough to play up the joke. Mizdow vs. Ziggler to
start but it's quickly off to Truth for
Dolph's big elbow and two. Off
to a front facelock from Ziggler before the good guys try to do a
twin switch in a funny bit. A pair of hiptosses and clotheslines put
Miz and Mizdow on the floor as we take a break.
Back
with Ziggler crawling over
to tag in Truth who is still wrestling like Dolph. Mizdow
takes a right hand for his boss, allowing Miz to kick Truth in the
face. The Reality Check gets two for Miz but Truth escapes the same
thing from Mizdow. Back to Miz who walks into a DDT, allowing for
the hot tag to Dolph. Everything
breaks down and the good guys use each others' signature moves,
capped off by Truth hitting a Zig Zag on Mizdow to give Dolph the pin
at 11:04.
Rating: C+.
The wrestling wasn't great but this was at least a funny idea and the
announcers played up the joke really well. Dolph did say that this
was one night only, which is for the best as it would get old fast.
For a one off joke though, it advances the story and keeps us from
having Miz vs. Ziggler one on one again.
We
look at the Bellas and Springer segment from Raw.
Nikki
talks about how she's been the victim for years when AJ comes in and
says Nikki got into the title match by being Stephanie's lap dog.
Paige comes in and says she'll beat AJ one last time so they can be
best friends. Nikki thinks this could be easy.
Chris
Jericho/Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins/Randy Orton
The
brawl quickly heads to the floor and Reigns wants to get his hands on
Orton. Reigns gets sent
face first into the announcers' table though and we take a break.
Back with Orton hitting a running clothesline in the corner and
putting on the chinlock. Roman
fights up and slams Orton down to make the tag off to Jericho.
Chris
cleans house and sends Rollins into the buckle before putting on the
Walls. He has to let go to take care of Orton but comes right back
with a bulldog. Orton breaks up the Lionsault though and the
Authority takes over again. Randy
hammers away and gets two off the powerslam. Rollins
comes back in and gets backdropped to the floor, only to circle
around and break up the tag to Reigns.
Jericho
fights up and dropkicks Randy, allowing the hot tag to Roman. The
big man cleans house and sends Rollins to the floor before tagging in
Jericho for a high cross body on Orton. The
former Shield members head into the crowd as Orton loads up the
Elevated DDT, only to have Jericho counter into a rollup for the pin
at 12:09.
Rating: C-.
This was short, energetic and set up the matches at Night of
Champions. It's fine to have Jericho win here as losing to a former
World Champion on a quick rollup is hardly going to crush Orton.
Reigns and Rollins weren't
really a factor in this but their story is already set up.
Overall Rating: C.
Tonight was a by the book episode of Smackdown: advance
everything but the main event, have some tag matches and recap stuff
from Raw. It's just a supplement to Raw but I'll take that over a
lot of boring episodes that we so often get. There's nothing to see
here but it could have been far worse.
Results
Usos/Big Show/Mark
Henry b. Wyatt Family/Goldust/Stardust – Superfly Splash to
Stardust
Bo Dallas b. Justin
Gabriel – Bodog
Paige b. Summer Rae –
Black Widow
Dolph Ziggler/R-Truth
b. Damien Mizdow/Miz – Ziggler pinned Mizdow after a Zig Zag from
R-Truth
Chris Jericho/Randy
Orton b. Seth Rollins/Randy Orton – Rollup to Orton
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:
http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6
The Ariana Grande line from Zeb made me laugh; that's more of the character he should work into 'Murica Zeb.
ReplyDeleteI'm in a crazy hummus kick. I mix it with this sweet and spicy Tabasco sauce and good god you could just die.
ReplyDeleteI like the R-Truth fill in because it gave the wrestlers a little personality. You can imagine Ziggler (kayfabe) approaching R-Truth backstage for help in the feud and Truth jumping at it cause it's a laugh.
ReplyDeleteI thought the Mohegan Sun was in CT. Is there another?!
ReplyDeleteTommy Hall you should watch Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Jericho at clash of champions 35 again. You gave it a C- . I strongly disagree bro. I just saw that match it damn near dropped my jaw. Guerrero was doing his 95 hbk impression and it was a good one. It was definitely short but it was action backed and Guerrero bumped like a mad man. Dude how can you give that w failing grade? You gotta rerant that show man.
ReplyDeleteI mean I'm not trying to be a dick or anything, I'm just saying you should check it out again sometime and let me know if you think its really that bad.
ReplyDeleteThe casino in CT has the naming rights to the arena.
ReplyDeleteI gave it a B- on the redo.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm worried about a potentially show-stealing Night of Champions tag titles match being overbooked with the Usos' injury angle, I am very interested to see how they treat the tag division between now and WrestleMania. The division is getting stronger with The Usos, Show & Henry, Goldust & Stardust, The Wyatts, Slater & Titus, Rybaxel (if/when Ryback returns) and Los Matadores established, The Ascension on the way, and Big E & Kofi maybe or maybe not on the way. Throw in Miz & Mizdow as a part-time team and that's some solid talent.
ReplyDeleteThat's the kind of stuff I want to see more of from Rusev and Lana. They can be heels by doing good old-fashioned heel-ish things, not just by pounding the point home over and over that they're Russian.
ReplyDeleteDo they though? It looks like two separate logos and everything. Either way, it's hella confusing to have two "Mohegan Sun Arena"s in the Northeast. It's stupid.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone else noticed that when they're in smaller markets, Bray won't say the city before "we're here?"
ReplyDeleteYou get the same thing from the commentators. They'll often not mention the city or they'll say a university. I know they rarely say Lexington and say they're on the campus of the University of Kentucky, which isn't accurate either.
ReplyDeleteRaw was in no way "good" at all.
ReplyDelete