WWE SmackDown 9/9/11

WWE Smackdown 9/9/11
September 9th, 2011
Huntington Center, Toledo, Ohio
Attendance: 3,200 (1,600 paid) *

With only little over a week to go before the big Night of Champions PPV the WWE rolls into Toledo, Ohio for another edition of Smackdown, back on it's regular night and timeslot on Fridays again, though we're not sure for how long. The promos for tonight's show have been hyping Mark Henry making an impact on tonight's show, but that's about all we've been told so let's just get right into it, shall we?


Your hosts are Michael Cole, Booker T, and Josh Matthews


We open the show with a spiffy little video package detailing Henry's reign of terror on Smackdown over the summer before the man himself makes his way out to the ring to open the broadcast. He grabs a mic and rambles a bit about the "Hall of Pain" again, mentioning that his best years are not in fact behind him. Henry promises that Orton will be the next inductee to the Hall at Night of Champions and he'll be the new World Heavyweight champ. Before he can get much further though, the assistant Smackdown GM Zack Ryder's music hits and the Long Island Iced Z comes out with a mic of his own, asking Mark if he wants to be broskis. Ryder announces that tonight Teddy Long has enacted a "no contact policy" between Henry and Orton until the PPV. Henry isn't happy about that though and decides to take his frustrations out on Ryder. Ryder tries to mount an offense with a few big right hands but Henry swats him down like a fly and then press slams, drawing the crowds ire. That's what we used to call a mollywopping. Apparently this transitions us right into our first match of the next, pitting Henry up against big Ezekiel Jackson, next.


Mark Henry (6-7) vs. Ezekiel Jackson (13-10)

Quite the battle of strongmen here, so of course they start off the match with the traditional test of strength, the Greco-Roman knuckle-lock. Henry easily overpowers Zeke and back-drops him like a cruiserweight. Again Henry overpowers him but Zeke mounts some minor offense and Henry exits the ring for a breather. Zeke follows him out and eats a big boot and a trip into the steel ring post before being tossed back inside. Splat. Squash. World's Strongest Slam and this one's all over, giving Henry the win at 2:59. Boy, Zeke's stock sure has dropped fast (not that I'm complaining). Nice little squash for Henry to make him look impressive in preparation for his title match with Orton at the PPV, but nothing you haven't seen a million times. 1/2*


Backstage Teddy Long finishes up a phone call with the WWE video game executives when Aksana strolls in (with cheesy porno music in tow of course) with a microphone to ask Teddy if she can be the special guest ring announcer again. She makes some very unsubtle sexual puns, gives him the flirty eyes, and Teddy takes off to "go check on Zack Ryder". Teddy Long, playing for both teams? I never!


Sin Cara (14-2) vs. Tyson Kidd (0-5)

This is a rematch from a few weeks back and people are still curious as to why Cara attacked Daniel Bryan last week after their match, showing perhaps a darker side of Cara than we have seen yet. Luckily Kidd is one of the few guys who can keep up with Cara (either one, Hunico or Mistico) on the roster so this winds up being just as much fun as you'd expect. They open with some typical acrobatics, countering out of different moves with back-flips and springboards before a rana sends Kidd to the floor, where Cara wipes him out moments later with a cross-body block off the top rope to the floor. Back in the ring Kidd hip-tosses Cara back-first into the turnbuckle for a two count in a nasty spot, landing on his neck. Kidd lays some kicks into Cara's back and tries a back suplex, but Cara counters out into an enziguri. Springboard headbutt from Cara, but Kidd kicks out again. Cara delivers an Olympic Slam to Kidd and then hits the springboard somerdsault senton/lionsault combo to finish him off at 3:33. Fun little sprint of a squash match for Cara, but we've seen this same formula match for months now. *3/4


After the match Josh Matthews tries to get a few words with Cara, despite him not speaking English. Cara says in English "I am an intense competitor" before saying a few words in Spanish. He says now that he's here, no one is going to stop him because this is his essence and style, as the REAL Sin Cara. The crowd pops for that but suddenly Daniel Bryan's music hits and the Money in the Bank winner makes his way out to the ring to confront him. He feigns surprise at Cara's English speaking skills and then tells Cara that they have a problem, because Cara doesn't seem to respect him. Bryan challenges him to a rematch on next week's show, and Cara attacks him before locking Bryan into his own LeBell Lock! Great little segment, Cara has finally become an intriguing character, and all it took was a doppelganger or two!


Backstage Randy Orton is joined by Matt Striker, who asks him for some thoughts on facing Cody Rhodes in tonight's main event. Orton talks about how Cody has changed into an unstable person since breaking his nose, and he knows a thing or two about unstable (I'd say). He also mentions Mark Henry and the danger he poses to his title, but never fear, because like all of life's problems that too can be solved with an RKO it seems.


Kelly Kelly (7-5) vs. Natalya (3-4)

This is a grudge match of sorts based on the repeated attacks on Kelly Kelly by the new two woman wrecking crew of Natalya and Beth Phoenix, and Kelly is pissed as always, fired up like a little spark plug to start the match. She plants Nattie with a bulldog and then wraps Nattie into her headscissors submission in the ropes briefly before getting knocked to the floor. Natalya jumps Kelly from behind while Beth watches on from the staircase and then tosses her back inside. Natalya locks on an abdominal stretch for a bit before tossing Kelly around like a ragdoll. Natalya tries an airplane spin of sorts but Kelly counters into a sunset flip only for Nattie to roll through and try for the sharpshooter. Kelly counters into a cradle and gets the upset win at 2:57. Not bad, but nothing particularly interesting or memorable either. Typical Diva's match basically. *


Tony Chimel begins announcing the next match up but is promptly interrupted by Christian, rocking his best flannel right out of the grunge Seattle collection. Take a wild guess as to what Christian talks about here, go on, I'll wait. If you guessed "complain about being screwed out of a title match/contender's match/etc" then you win a gold star. Kudos to Christian though, he makes it work and milks some nice heat from the crowd with his incessant whining, in the best way possible. Christian says he deserves one more match when suddenly Sheamus' music hits and the Celtic Warrior interrupts Captain Charisma. He tells Christian to give the conspiracy talk a rest, because it's getting embarrassing at this point. He tells a cute little anecdote about the runt of a litter of puppies, comparing him to Christian. Christian says no one cares about his "shanty Irish background" and gets even more heat for that. Goodness, Sheamus is really getting over as a babyface, isn't he? Sheamus tells Christian to bounce, but Christian's all like "Nah my dude, I've got business to handle, ya heard?" No not really, he actually just quietly leaves the ring as Wade Barrett comes out for his match against Sheamus up next.


Sheamus (8-9-1) vs. Wade Barrett (4-22-1)

Good lord look at Barrett's W/L record, that's not pretty at all, especially for a guy who was main eventing PPVs a year ago. Basic feeling out process to start, complete with running shoulder-blocks off the rope and all before going to work on Wade in the corner. Barrett bails for a minute and nearly gets counted out, but back in the ring Sheamus goes to work on him with stomps in the corner. Barrett tosses Sheamus into the corner and follows up with a reverse chinlock as we take a commercial break. When we return Barrett is in mid-slam with Sheamus for a near fall. Barrett feeds him a huge boot and Sheamus drops to the outside floor like a sack of potatoes. Back in the ring both men trade stiff right hands until Sheamus gets fired up and starts mounting a comeback. Sheamus lays ten fists into his chest, follows it with a knee strike and then goes for the shoulder-block off the top rope, but Christian jumps into the ring suddenly and attacks Sheamus, giving him the DQ win at 6:54 (shown). Pretty good little match here considering the two styles of each man and the DQ finish. Sheamus is really starting to look like a world beater these days. After the match Christian barely escapes the Celtic Cross from Sheamus. **


Air Boom (Kofi Kingston/Evan Bourne) vs. The Great Khali/Jinder Mahal

Because this was the rematch we were all dying to see, wasn't it? Atleast Kofi and Evan are over in these new roles together. He snaps off a quick rana on Mahal to start but it's not long before Khali is in waffling him around with his huge hands. Mahal tags back in and Kofi gets the hot tag, delivering his standard sequence of high-flying spots. He hits the Boom Drop on Mahal and Khali goes to tag in but they wind up arguing again. Khali shoves Mahal right into the Trouble in Paradise and Air Boom wins it at 3:12. Pretty much a move-by-move replica of the match from Monday, and it wasn't very interesting then either. 3/4*


Before our main event begins, Cody Rhodes makes his way to the ring with a microphone. He talks about how he's an inspiration to the WWE universe and about how he's been surrounded by people jealous of his abilities for years. He talks about how Ted DiBiase disappointed him again and how he wasn't going to let Ted sink him any further, so he dropped him. Cody says that Orton has inspired him to show him just how "unstable" he can be. Nice promo from Cody, if a bit over-the-top (which is kind of hard to do since his character is so over-the-top the begin with).


Randy Orton (16-6) vs. Cody Rhodes (13-10)

Boy how things change in a year. A year ago Cody wouldn't have even cracked into the midcard of most shows, but now here he is fighting the world champion as one of the top heels on Smackdown. Bright things in his future I'd say. They lock up and trade head-lock exchanges before Orton nails Cody with a pair of standing dropkicks. Rhodes uses his mask to head-butt Orton and take an unfair advantage, stomping away at Orton while Cole defends the mask on commentary. Heel Cole on Smackdown is so much more tolerable with Booker and Josh as a buffer. Cody starts to pick away at Randy's leg, stomping away at it. Cody counters out of the second-rope DDT attempt and hits Randy with his sweet jumping knee strike, which sends Orton crumbling to the outside floor again like a wilted flower. Great selling from Orton there as we take a commercial break. When we return Cody is back on the offensive, stomping on Orton again. He grabs a keylock briefly and delivers a flurry of knees to Orton's chest before breaking the hold and dropping another knee for a near fall. Orton keeps trying to fight back, but he's starting to favor his left arm badly so Cody keys in on it, working an armbar and driving his knee into the forearm as the crowd rallies behind Orton with an "RKO!" chant. Rhodes goes for a bulldog but Orton sends him flying, giving him a brief window to catch his breath and regroup. Orton catches his second wind now, clotheslining Rhodes and delivering the snap powerslam (still favoring the arm all the while). Orton manages to nail Rhodes with the second-rope DDT this time around and he sets up for the RKO, going into "Viper Mode". Rhodes sees it coming and bails though, letting Orton chase him back into the ring. Cody tries for the Cross Rhodes but Orton counters out of that so Cody tries for the jumping knee strike again, but this time Orton sees it coming and carefully avoids Cody's leg before turning around delivering the RKO to pick up the win at 10:53 (shown). These nice long TV main event matches have become almost par for the course for Orton these days, but that only speaks to just how consistently excellent the guy has been in the ring all year long. Not as good as some of the recent Smackdown main events (notably the last Christian/Orton match), but still a really well worked and fun TV main event. ***


After the match Mark Henry's music hits and the World's Strongest Man makes his way out to the ring to confront Orton despite Teddy Long's call for a cease-fire. Orton lays in the first strikes though and looks to give him an RKO, but he's exhausted from the match he just wrestled so Henry overpowers him and gives him the World's Strongest Slam, leaving our champion laying in the middle of the ring as we go off the air with Mark Henry celebrating.

Bottom Line: Pretty decent show this week, we got another really solid TV match out of Randy Orton, this time against longtime friend and foe Cody Rhodes, but the first hour or so of the show just didn't really do much for me, it felt a bit like they were just going through the motions, trying to kill time until the next week's round of shows and eventual PPV instead of actually trying to build up or accomplish anything. Still though, the main event was fun, we had a few nifty segments involving Sin Cara and Daniel Bryan among others, and the show never felt elongated so I can't really say too much bad about it. We'll go with a slight Thumbs Up tonight, but not as good of a show as you normally come to expect from Smackdown these days unfortunately.

*Source(s): NoDQ Report by Roscoe De Soto, Wrestling Observer Newsletter September 12th, 2011 by Dave Meltzer

WWE RAW Supershow 9/5/11

WWE RAW Supershow 9/5/11
September 5th, 2011
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
Attendance: 7,000*

Your hosts are Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, and Michael Cole


We're still going under the title of "WWE RAW Supershow" here, so it looks like that semi-name change could be permanent. We open the show with a rather well done video package giving us the hard sell on the Punk/Triple H feud and match at Night of Champions. CM Punk opens the live show for us to a nice pop, grabbing a mic and entering the ring. He talks about being a target because he's different and pisses people off then mentions that he's scheduled to face R-Truth tonight. Punk says he'd rather get his hands on Kevin Nash tonight because he represents the proverbial "status quo" that he is trying to fight against. He calls out Kevin to face him like a man, and the familiar sounds of the nWo theme hit as Nash makes his way out to the stage with a microphone of his own. Nash says he doesn't listen to Punk and does whatever he wants when he wants to. Punk pokes fun at Nash's many names and gimmicks over his career with fun references to Super Shredder and Oz before calling him a complainer. Nash doesn't seem to take Punk seriously, saying that he leaves Punk laying every time he gets his hands on him. Punk says that Nash hasn't been relevant since 1994, when he won his first World title as Nash begins walking down the stage towards the ring.


Suddenly our COO corporate Triple H makes his way out to the familiar sounds of Motorhead and he walks down the aisle in between Nash and Punk. Nash says that Punk is a cancer and tries to convince Triple H to fire him, but Triple H just walks silently into the ring to confront Punk. He grabs a mic and says normally he'd forgive Nash and fire Punk, but this isn't a normal week for him since he discovered "the truth". Hunter says the security at the Staples Center provided him with some intriguing footage of someone entering his office at the exact time that Nash claimed to have received the alleged text message from Triple H to take out Punk after the main event at Summerslam. Hunter reveals that it was Nash who sent the text from Hunter's phone in his office to his own cell phone, and Nash enters the ring and admits he did it. He says he did what needed to be done and "made the WWE cool again". Uh, no Kev, that was Punk. Nash says the WWE Universe is not big enough for the both of them and that one of them has to go, so Triple H implies that he's about to fire Nash instead of Punk, and Nash flips out on him for it. Nash says he got a bit emotional when he pushed Hunter but that he thought "friends could do that". He gets in Hunter's face some more as a small "CM Punk" chant starts up. Nash slaps Hunter and Triple H lays him out with a big right hand. Triple H says the infamous two words of his father-in-law to Nash, "You're fired!", and then exits the ring angrily. Punk points and laughs at Nash ala Nelson from the Simpsons as we cut to commercial.


When we return from the break we see an angry Kevin Nash get into a black Cadillac with John Laurinaitis. Draaammmaaaa!


Air Boom (Evan Bourne/Kofi Kingston) vs. The Great Khali/Jinder Mahal

Apparently the WWE Universe chose the new name for the Bourne/Kofi tag team. Sounds like a sequel in the Air Bud franchise. Non-title match up here. Cole fills us in on Mahal and Khali's back-story, saying that Mahal is married to Khali's sister and will leave her if the Khali doesn't follow all of Jinder's orders. Oh goody, babyface Great Khali on the horizon again. Bourne starts off with Mahal and snaps off a nice hurricanrana before Jinder delivers a nice double-underhook butterfly suplex for a two count before tagging Khali in. Khali takes out Bourne with a right hand and then lays in some awkward stomps on him back in the heels corner before tagging Mahal back in. Jinder nails Bourne with a few knee-drops until Evan gets a shot back in and makes the tag to Kofi, who springboards in with a huge cross-body on Jinder. Khali low-bridges Kofi and then tosses him back inside. He goes for a big tomahawk chop but winds up hitting Mahal instead. Kofi gets the tag to Bourne, who hits the shooting star press on Mahal for the win at 4:22. Goofy name aside, Kofi and Bourne are a fun young tag team of high-flying babyfaces, a tried and true formula for success in the tag division. Jinder looked decent as well, but Khali looks to just about be on his last legs as a performer these days. Decent tag to start the show off. **


Backstage we see the WWE champion Alberto Del Rio enter the arena with Ricardo Rodriguez, so I guess he got those visa issues worked out. The commentators announce Punk vs. Truth as still set to go on later tonight as Kelly Kelly makes her way down to the ring to do commentary for the next match-up.


WWE Diva's Title #1 Contender's Match
Beth Phoenix vs. Eve Torres

Beth is accompanied by a gorgeous looking Natalya, who also joins the commentary table with the announcers and Kelly Kelly. Beth overpowers Eve quickly with a shoulder-block and the two women trade jack-knife pin attempts. Eve delivers a few fore-arms but then gets tossed shoulder-first into the steel ring post. Beth slams her arm again the ring post and then covers Eve for a two count back inside. She delivers a huge boot to Eve's chest, but Eve fires back with a bicycle kick of her own followed by a somersault senton for a two count. Eve misses a jump-kick and walks right into the Glam-Slam from Beth, who pins her moments later at 2:08. These two managed to fit some really good action into 2 minutes, I'd actually be interested in seeing what these two could do together with a decent chunk of time to actually build a real match. After the match Natalya jumps Kelly from behind, mockingly apologizes in the most adorable way imaginable, and then joins Beth back in the ring to celebrate over the bodies of Eve and Kelly on the floor. *1/2


Backstage we see Drew McIntyre talking to Christian about how he too is a victim of injustice. Del Rio walks up and tells Drew off to talk to Christian. He says that he expected to see Christian with the World Heavyweight title tonight and then tries to lay the blame on John Cena, which Christian doesn't seem to like. He says that if he were to take out Cena, it would be on his terms and not Del Rio's. Del Rio reminds Christian about Cena giving him the AA 24 hours before his cage match with Orton last week and then takes off. We get another trailer for the new Triple H film Inside Out as well.


R-Truth makes his way out after the break with a microphone, complaining about CM Punk talking about being different and speaking the truth. Truth says he's been doing the same thing for years and no one cares. He says he'll have to be a "good R-Truth", buy a ticket to Night of Champions and stuff his face like the rest of the "little Jimmys". The Miz comes out moments later with a mic of his own to join Truth. He says that he's had an epiphany. He and Truth do a funny bit confusing big words with one another before entering the ring to complain some more about the vague "conspiracy" against the two of them. Miz says he's going to do Triple H's job for him and says that he and Truth will take on Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne for the WWE Tag Team titles at Night of Champions. Truth makes some lame fart jokes and some-how accepts the challenge that The Miz just laid out. Truth says he has an "epi-phab-knee" of his own, and that's that CM Punk is about to get got. Finally the match begins.


CM Punk vs. R-Truth

Punk makes his way out quickly and hops into the ring as we cut to commercial before the match begins. When we return the bell rings and we're off as both men lock up and Punk works an early wristlock. He snapmares Truth and then goes to work on his abdomen with big stomps before taking him down to the mat again with a side-headlock. Cole and JR bicker like two junior high girls on commentary as Truth trades places with Punk and works his own side-headlock briefly. He shoulder-blocks Punk and dances a bit arrogantly, paying for it almost immediately with a big dropkick from Punk that sends Truth out to the floor to consult with The Miz. Punk stays on the offensive though with a big tope suicida, wiping out Truth at ringside. Back in the ring Truth slaps a chinlock onto Punk and then tosses him out of the ring so The Miz can get a cheap shot in behind the ref's back. Truth goes to work on Punk's leg, slamming it into the ring apron. Truth wastes time showboating again though and takes a few close near fall roll-ups from Punk. Truth works a half Boston crab and continues the leg-work. Punk crotches Truth on the top, lays in a stiff chop and then superplexes him off the top turnbuckle to give him some time to recover. Punk lays in some lightning-fast kicks and a leg lariat followed by the high running knee and the running bull-dog to Truth before hitting him with a springboard clothesline and calling for the GTS (the crowd actually seems to be solidly behind Punk as the face here for once). Truth counters the GTS into a nice gourdbuster, but Punk kicks out of the pin attempt. Truth misses a scissors kick attempt and The Miz tries to trip Punk up, so Punk dropkicks him and the ref throws The Miz out of the ring side area. Truth sneaks up behind Punk, but Punk turns him around and absolutely DESTROYS him with one of the best GTS I've seen from him in a long time to pick up the win at 11:52. This one started off a bit slow and they seemed to rely a bit too much on rest-holds for a bit, but they found their groove eventually and the finish was killer. Not even the unbearable commentary work from Cole, JR, and King could derail this one. Did I mention how sick that GTS was? ***

After the match Triple H immediately makes his way to the ring with a mic. Punk has a mic of is own and cuts him off, saying that he doesn't buy Triple H's attack on Nash earlier for one second and he still believes that Nash and Hunter are in cahoots. Triple H announces that he's changed their match at Night of Champions into a No DQ match because he genuinely wants to hurt Punk. He threatens to fire Punk afterwards as well. Punk says he likes the No DQ stipulation and he'll agree to it if he gets to add a stipulation of his own to the match, and that's that if Punk wins at NOC Triple H must resign as the COO of the company. Triple H agrees to the stipulation and takes off hastily.


Backstage Alberto Del Rio interrupts a conversation between Wade Barrett, Tyler Reks, and Curt Hawkins. Del Rio tries to get Barrett to attack Cena just like he tried with Christian earlier, but Barrett says that he doesn't need to bother because he's going to take out Cena regardless.


After a quick commercial we return to see David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty in the ring (someone, anyone needs to confiscate McGillicutty's doo-rag, for the love of God) awaiting the King, who insulted them on commentary last week. King introduces his own tag team partner for tonight, the Long Island Iced Z Zack Ryder! We even get a nifty little video package hyping Ryder up.


Jerry Lawler/Zack Ryder vs. David Otunga/Michael McGillicutty

Don't look now but the WWE might actually be giving Zack Ryder a real honest-to-God push. Cole buries him on commentary so that might just be your confirmation. McGillicutty jumps Ryder from behind to start and he and Otunga trade quick tags, working him over in the early going. Ryder gets a shot of his own in and quickly tags the King in, and King cleans house on the former tag champs. He delivers the second-rope fist drop to Otunga but Ryder demands the tag and delivers the Rough Ryder to pick up the win at 2:19. Just a quick tag match to give the King a nostalgia pop and give Ryder a "big" win on Raw for once. *


Backstage Del Rio tries to lay the same mind games onto Dolph Ziggler, but he tells him off. The Bella Twins walk by and are all over Del Rio, but he shoos them off to his dressing room. Del Rio lays the seeds of jealousy into Ziggler about Vickie Guerrero's new business relationship with Jack Swagger and tells him that Cena is always insulting Vickie before taking off. Elsewhere we see Randy Orton walking towards the ring area as we cut to commercial.


Randy Orton vs. Heath Slater

Orton's opponent is...Heath Slater? I don't like Slater's odds here. Orton takes the fight right to him with stiff European uppercuts and stomps to the face and legs. Slater lures the ref into the corner to check on him and then pokes Randy in the eye behind the ref's back before laying him out with a nice step-up enziguri for a two count. Slater knees Orton in the back and tries a chinlock, but Orton fights him off quickly only to walk right into a big spinebuster for another two count. By god, Heath Slater is actually getting some decent offense in here. Slater avoids a leapfrog but then walks right into a lariat, followed by the scoop powerslam and the second-rope DDT from Orton. Randy goes into Viper mode and finishes Slater off with the RKO at 3:00. Decent little jobber match for Orton, and they actually gave Slater a bit of offense so as not to make this a total squash-a-roo. *3/4


Backstage Zack Ryder catches up with John Cena as we cut to commercial. When we return he's made his way out to the ring and has a microphone. He talks about how week after week he calls for Del Rio's head, but Del Rio keeps ducking him. He predicts that Del Rio will come out and give him another excuse as to why they can't fight right now, and just that begins to happen as Ricardo Rodriguez introduces Del Rio in his luxury car. Del Rio is handed a microphone and he talks about how Rey Mysterio is gone because of him and how Del Rio is allegedly trying to "protect" John Cena from...himself. He calls out the "rudos of RAW" and moments later Wade Barrett, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, and Christian all run out to the ring and jump John Cena. Suddenly Alex Riley and Sheamus run out to save Cena, followed by John Morrison who wipes out Christian with a running clothesline off the security barrier. The Smackdown GM Teddy Long's music hits and he makes his way out to turn this whole brawl into an eight-man tag team elimination match for our main event tonight.


Eight-Man Tag Team Elimination Match
John Cena/John Morrison/Sheamus/Alex Riley vs. Christian/Dolph Ziggler/Jack Swagger/Wade Barrett

We take a quick commercial break and when we return the match has already started during the break. Riley and Barrett are squaring off, with Barrett delivering a huge sidewalk slam for a two count on Alex. Barrett misses a Yakuza kick in the corner and both men tag out to Morrison and Ziggler. Morrison is fired up and delivers the C4 suplex to Ziggler before taking out Swagger and Barrett with a double-dropkick and kipping back up to his feet. Christian tries to jump him from behind but gets nailed by the pele kick. Ziggler is able to slap his sleeper hold onto Morrison however and Swagger tags himself in and applies the ankle lock on Morrison, who taps out and is eliminated at 2:52. Vickie Guerrero makes her way out to ringside as we take another commercial break. When we return from the break Alex Riley is being worked over in the heels corner again. Ziggler nails him in the heart with an elbow drop for a near fall. Riley fights back with a huge spinebuster but turns around and walks right into the Fameasser/Rocker Dropper from Ziggler. Swagger tags himself in and it causes a bit of friction between the two. Swagger nails Riley with a Swagger Bomb and then locks the ankle lock on to make Riley tap out to be eliminated next at 5:09. Sheamus comes in next to a big pop and tosses Swagger aside to set his sights on Wade Barrett. Ziggler distracts him briefly and Barrett nails him with a huge big boot for a two count. Sheamus fights back with a big powerslam and then lays in some huge fists into Barrett's chest in-between the ring ropes. He hits Barrett with a running knee and knocks Barrett down with a flying shoulder-block off the top rope. He misses the Brogue Kick and Barrett tries for a pumphandle slam, but Sheamus counters and connects with the Brogue Kick to pin and eliminate Barrett at 8:42. Christian hops in next and spears him for a close two count. He slaps Sheamus in the face and Sheamus flips out, chasing Christian all the way into the crowd and back out up onto the entrance ramp. Both men are counted out at 9:57, leaving it down to Cena against Ziggler and Swagger. The crowd goes apeshit for Cena's offense as he cleans house on both men and delivers a fisherman's suplex to Swagger before getting nailed in the face by a stiff dropkick from Ziggler. Both men try to isolate Cena briefly, but this of course is futile as Cena goes into his usual finishing sequence, with a two-man Five Knuckle Shuffle thrown in to mix things up a bit. Cena gets caught with a belly-to-belly suplex from Swagger and then eats a huge Swagger Bomb, but Ziggler tags himself in with a blind tag and walks right into the AA from Cena, who pins him at 14:05. Swagger slaps the ankle lock on Cena from behind though. Cena counters into the STFU though and Swagger taps out almost immediately to give Cena the win at 14:39 (shown). This was a RED-HOT match in terms of crowd noise and the finishing stretch with Cena against Ziggler and Swagger was very exciting, but the finish was never even slightly in question and yet again Cena overcomes the odds for a meaningless television win, basically defeating two guys single handedly. I'm not one to ever complain about Cena's dominance, but the fact that the finish was never in doubt here at all really took away from an otherwise enjoyable main event. **3/4

After the match Del Rio tries to jump Cena, but bails when it doesn't pan through. We close out the show with Cena celebrating in the ring, an all too familiar picture.


Bottom Line: This was a pretty decent show from a wrestling perspective as there were two matches that were pretty good for free TV standards, but overall the whole affair just felt kind of...flat. Not a terrible show or anything and a few parts of it were quite good, but as a total package tonight just didn't seem to do much for me unfortunately, so I'm going to have to go with the rare Thumbs Down despite the solid in-ring action featured in most of the episode.

*Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter September 12th, 2011 by Dave Meltzer

WWE Super SmackDown 8/30/11

WWE Super SmackDown 8/30/11
August 30th, 2011
Intrust Bank Arena, Wichita, Kansas
Attendance: Unknown at this time

Fresh from a weekend joust with Hurricane Irene here in my humble state of Rhode Island, I'm back to do the live report for a special live edition of SmackDown tonight. It was an interesting few days living in the dark ages again with absolutely no power in most parts of the state (including the entire island that I live on) from Saturday to Monday afternoon, but I'm more than glad to be back in the cool air-conditioned, lap-top chargin', HD Smackdown watchin' days of the present. We're in Wichita, Kansas tonight for a special live Tuesday edition of Smackdown and we've got several big-time match-ups advertised for the show, including two World Heavyweight title matches with one contested inside of a steel cage. WWE champion Alberto Del Rio was also scheduled to face Sin Cara (apparently being played exclusively by Hunico indefinitely from now on) but because of real-life work visa issues Del Rio had to return to Mexico and will miss the show tonight. Should be a great show regardless as Smackdown usually winds up being the best show every week without hesitation. So stay tuned to this page and remember to refresh during every commercial break for all of the live updates, semi play-by-play, and a healthy dose of smark analysis from yours truly.


Your hosts are Michael Cole, Booker T, and Josh Matthews


We open with a quick video package that immediately informs us about Triple H replacing Kevin Nash for the match against CM Punk at the Night of Champions PPV. I'm sure the match will be good, but I was hoping they'd go the slow-burn route on that match and build it up for a big show like Survivor Series of Wrestlemania next year. Nash apparently wasn't cleared to wrestle because of some minor injury. The jokes write themselves here, so I won't even bother.

John Cena's music hits and the former champ comes out to his usual mix of cheers and jeers to open the show. He hypes the show tonight and name-drops everything from the XFL to Smoky Mountain Wrestling to the Shockmaster and beyond. Fun references for the old-time fans but I'm not sure the younger people in the crowd even know what those things were. Cena calls out Albeto Del Rio, but instead we only get Ricardo Rodriguez. He informs Cena that he's going to have to wait until Night of Champions to get his hands on Del Rio. Ricardo goes all Stepford Wives on us and can't stop announcing Del Rio's name over and over again like a malfunctioning android until Cena tells him to shut his trap. He shoves Ricardo to the floor and suddenly Wade Barrett's music hits.


Barrett makes his way out with a mic of his own to chastise Cena for beating up announcers and trying to hijack Smackdown already in the opening minutes of the show. Barrett seems to think that Cena hasn't learned his lesson from their previous feud, so he's gotten a match signed for tonight between the two of them. Cena levels with Barrett, telling him that he's got a bright future in the company, but he's been on Cena's hitlist for a while and tonight he's more than happy to fight him for a bit of revenge. We take a commercial break before jumping right into the match.


John Cena vs. Wade Barrett

The bell sounds as we return from the commercial break and both men lock up. Cena takes to the offensive immediately, brawling with Barrett and planting him on the mat with a bulldog as a big Cena chant starts up. Cena gives Barrett a big powerslam and then tosses him into the ropes. Barrett bounces off of them and delivers a spinning sidewalk slam to Cena, building a bit of offensive momentum for himself for the first time in the match so far. Cena delivers a pair of shoulder-blocks and a fallaway slam before hitting the Five Knuckle Shuffle. He delivers the Attitude Adjustment to Barrett and pins him clean at 3:18. I can already hear the smark masses complaining about SuperCena dominating a young star in an almost squash-like fashion, but I think that may be a bit of an overreaction. The loss doesn't hurt Barrett very much since he's already lost to Cena many times, and while it would have been nice to have atleast made Barrett look like a moderate challenge for John, I for one don't really think Barrett is ready for that kind of main event push yet. Still, there was really no need to make Barrett look like such a tool here, it's not like Cena needs the heat. The match itself was fairly decent as these two have clearly become comfortable with one another in the ring. *1/2


Backstage Matt Striker asks Mark Henry who he prefers to face for the World Heavyweight title tonight, Christian or Randy Orton. He doesn't seem to care, that rebel. Striker asks a silly question about what a cage match is like and Henry explains the dangers before promising that he'll win the title tonight.


Daniel Bryan vs. Sin Cara

From now on, you're going to have to find out for yourself who's playing Sin Cara under the mask each week, because I've grown tired of having to find out each week. I'm pretty sure it's Hunico tonight though, again. Should be fun to see how this version of Cara works with Bryan, as the original Mistico worked a fun match with him a few months back on Smackdown. Cara takes it right to Bryan in the opening moments with a flurry of quick arm-drags. Bryan nails him with a running boot that sends Cara to the outside floor, and Bryan wipes him out moments later with a big tope suicida! Fireworks already. Back in the ring Bryan nails Cara in the corner with a big running dropkick. He stretches Cara out with the old Mexican surfboard (oh irony) and then transitions into a nasty combination surfboard/guillotine choke briefly. Bryan gets back-dropped out of the ring and Cara fakes him out on the first dive attempt before going through on the second one with a big Asai cross-body. He tosses Bryan back into the ring and covers him after a Guerrero-like tope con hilo for a two count. Bryan back-flips out of an Irish whip and both men collide in the middle of the ring with simultaneous cross-body attempts. Back on their feet they trade stiff precision kicks and Cara gives Bryan a big Olympic slam. He hits him with a springboard somersault senton followed by a lionsault moments later and that's enough to give Cara the win at an even 5:00. You know that old saying about how some workers are so good that you can give them five minutes and they'll almost always come out with a great little match? That's the sort of praise we used to save for guys like Benoit, Guerrero, and Malenko on Nitro, but nowadays the name is Daniel Bryan. Just a flat out fun five minute sprint. ***


After the match both men shake hands in a sign of respect....when suddenly Cara turns on Bryan and beats him down! The crowd is shocked, and frankly so am I. Sin Cara, a heel? I suppose this could be a way to set up an angle for the "real" Sin Cara to return and reveal this one as an imposter known as Hunico, but I'm not entirely certain that's the direction they're heading in.


Backstage Matt Striker is with the new tag team champions, Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne. He asks about how they feel and Bourne cuts a clean-cut Leave it to Beaver like little promo about how excited they are. Kofi talks about great tag teams in years past (Rockers, Demolition, Harlem Heat) before teaching Striker how to do the "Boom Drop" taunt that Kofi does. I'm all for a revitalized tag team division, but it's going to require more than just throwing two midcard singles wrestlers into a thrown-together team to accomplish that I think. We go to commercial and when we return we see a poll up on WWE.com currently asking who has the better advantage inside of the steel cage tonight between Randy Orton and Christian.


After a brief video package detailing the Orton/Christian rivalry, we join Matt Striker with Christian backstage. Christian says that he's resilient and a survivor, and that tonight he's going to fight for what's right whether the people like it or not. He says he doesn't need to be the World champion to validate his career, he just wants to be the champ for the sake of it.


Beth Phoenix/Natalya vs. Kelly Kelly/Alicia Fox

Aksana, complete with cheesy 80s saxophone "romantic" music in the background, does the announcing duties here. I'm not sure what they see in this girl. Kelly and Natalya start us off with Kelly playing the fiery spark-plug as usual. Beth knows her routine by now though and immediately plants Kelly on her face before tagging Beth in for a double-shoulderblock and a near fall. Beth beats up on Kelly for a bit with forearms until Alicia Fox gets the tag and hits a big cross-body off the top rope. Alicia lays in a forearm and then takes out Beth with a sweet reverse falling elbow off the second rope before knocking Natalya off the apron. She lays in a stiff kick on Beth, but Beth fights back with a pair of knife-edge chops and then delivers a huge Glam Slam on Fox for the win at 2:03. Is it just me, or is the Diva's division actually improving dramatically from a workrate perspective these days? Beth and Natalya looked great in the win, Kelly looked as fiery as ever, and even Alicia Fox looked great, bouncing all over the place and taking bumps. One of these days they're going to give these ladies some actual time to work a match and I think people are going to be surprised by how good it could be. *3/4


They're making a remake of Straw Dogs? Straw Dogs?! Is nothing sacred? I can't imagine there were people knocking down Screen Gems Production's doors demanding a modern take on a film as dark and deeply disturbing as Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece is.


When we return from the break, Teddy Long is in the ring for the contract signing between CM Punk and Triple H for their match at Night of Champions. He introduces our COO Triple H and he comes down to the ring with a mic of his own. He says that he canceled the match between Nash and Punk at a board of directors meeting last night in favor of booking Punk against himself. He says that the WWE board was kind enough to let him take off the suit for one night to take out CM Punk, and he calls Punk out for the signing.


The sounds of "Cult of Personality" ring out in the arena as Punk makes his entrance down to the ring with a pipe-bomb/microphone of his own. He sits down casually at the table in the middle of the ring, props his feet up and asks Triple H why he's even here to sign this contract and if there are any new stipulations in it that he should be aware of. Triple H tries to apologize for the abruptness of the match change, but Punk says it doesn't matter because nothing Hunter does surprises him. Triple H says that Punk has disrespected his family and Punk keeps trying to butt back into the conversation while Triple H tries to explain to Punk how he bent over backwards to try and make Punk happy. Triple H claims that he's the one that got Punk's theme change to Living Colour's "Cult of Personality" to go through and that he helped pay for it. He also claims that he was the one to approve of the new Best in the World CM Punk shirt that has been selling like hotcakes. Triple H says he's trying his best to juggle all of his responsibilites, but Punk disrespected him as a man and now Punk has to deal with Hunter like a man (in the ring). Good promo work from Hunter here. Punk says he doesn't want to face the new Triple H, he wants to face the old one---the cerebral assassin. Punk says Vince couldn't separate his personal and business issues, and now Triple H is falling into the same pattern.


Punk says that although everyone thinks he hates the WWE, he in fact loves it. He wants change in the company and he wants things to be better for everyone in the company. Punk says he wants to be the catalyst for that change, but Triple H isn't buying into his rhetoric. Triple H says that Punk's real motive is to be on top as "the man", and that his whole humble man-of-the-people shtick is bullshit. Hunter says he thinks that Punk is alot like he used to be when he started out in his career, mercilessly crushing everyone in his path in order to make it to the top, but the difference in how Punk does this is that Punk backdoors and soft-talks his way to the top instead of being a man and taking action like Hunter used to. He accuses Punk of playing the role of a martyr, and Punk doesn't seem to completely disagree. Punk says that everyone should be able to tune into the WWE and enjoy the show, not just the half and half that Hunter just mentioned. Punk says he tested Triple H with a trial by fire, but he failed and is just another egotistical stooge like Vince McMahon, hiring his old buddies like Kevin Nash to come back and do his work for him. Punk says this match has been a long time coming and finally signs the contract. Triple H takes the Vince McMahon comparison as a compliment and Punk cuts him off again for another diatribe about wanting change in the company. Hunter says unlike Vince McMahon, he won't take a beating from Punk because it's good for business. He says this is personal, and he's going to kick Punk's skinny fat ass.


Suddenly the old NWO music hits and Kevin Nash comes roaring down the entrance way. He steps into the ring and tosses the table aside and Punk goes right to the attack on Nash. Nash gives him a big boot and Triple H shoves him, so Nash shoves Triple H right back and we cut to commercial. Glad they didn't forget about Nash in this whole equation, as it would have been a bit strange to not have him appear tonight. When we return we see a clip of Striker trying to interview Nash during the break, but he has nothing to say.


Sheamus vs. The Great Khali

Last week we saw big Zeke make Khali tap out, can Sheamus do the same tonight? Sheamus tries a side headlock to start but Khali slams him and then stomps a mudhole into him in the corner. He rips some of the bandaging off of Sheamus' ribs and lays in some huge open-palm chops. Khali tries the nerve hold, but Sheamus fights it off quickly. He brings it to Khali with big forearms and then takes Khali down with a dropkick to his knee. Sheamus ties Khali up in the ropes and lays in big hammer-fists, following it with a running knee to the jaw moments later. Sheamus takes Khali down with a flying shoulder-block off the top rope and sets up for a big move, but Jinder Mahal hops into the ring and nails Sheamus from behind to give him the DQ win at 2:49. Shockingly decent until the DQ finish, Khali seems to work well with these big guys like Zeke and Sheamus (who looked great again here). The beatdown continues on Sheamus after the match, but he regains the upper hand and winds up giving Mahal the Celtic Cross. *


The steel cage held high above the arena begins to come down as we prepare for our first World Heavyweight title match. We also take a look at the new Triple H film "Inside Out" as well as the upcoming Randy Orton three disc DVD set. Some good stuff on the horizon, call me crazy but I actually think Inside Out looks like it might be halfway decent, and a DVD set for Orton has been overdue for a long time.


World Heavyweight Title Steel Cage Match
Randy Orton © vs. Christian

These two have had several outstanding matches this year, and if wasn't for the incredible John Cena/CM Punk rivalry, I think Orton and Christian would have had any "Feud of the Year" award in the bag. Christian immediately tries to escape the cage, first trying the door and then trying to scale the cage, but Orton reels him back in and nails him with a beautiful dropkick for a two count as we cut to commercial. When we return we see both men trading blows as Christian again tries to scale the cage. Orton pulls him down again and plants him with a huge back body drop. Christian fights off the second-rope DDT by launching Orton into the cage face-first. Randy counters with a great roll-through cradle for a near fall, but he turns around and walks right into a powerful spinebuster from Christian for a near fall of his own. Christian delivers a reverse neckbreaker, but again Orton kicks out, so Christian tries climbing the cage again. He makes it to the top turnbuckle where he jockeys for position with Orton for a bit until Orton takes him out with a huge superplex off the top rope as we take another commercial break. When we return we see Christian crawling on his knees towards the door to try and escape, but Orton pulls him back in by the legs again and stomps on him. Christian gets sent face-first into the steel cage and gives Orton a chance to catch his breath. Orton goes into his Viper/finishing sequence mode and looks for his usual snap powerslam, but Christian sees it coming (psychology!) and evades the move only to be bounced off the steel cage again and then given the same powerslam anyways for a two count. Christian counters out of another second-rope DDT attempt so Orton tries to launch him into the cage like a lawn dart, but Christian counters into a big reverse DDT for yet another split-second near fall. Christian tries to scale the cage and Orton tussles with him again only for Christian to knock him back down to the mat and then deliver a huge frog splash from the top rope for yet another heated near fall! This match has gone into overdrive baby. Christian tries for a spear and Orton leap-frogs over him. He tries to connect with the RKO but Christian has him scouted again and he evades him long enough to bounce off the ropes and plant Randy with the spear! Yet still Orton kicks out again. Christian sets up for the Orton-esque punt but misses it. Christian feints a leaping cross-body from the second rope as he sees that Orton has already set him up to counter that move into the RKO (which if you remember correctly, is exactly how he beat Christian in one of their previous encounters) and he scales the cage again. Orton grabs him though and delivers a sort of muscle-buster neckbreaker for yet another near fall. Orton counters the Killswitch and tosses Christian into the cage and then plants him with the second-rope DDT. He sets up for the RKO, but Christian counters it again and Randy slams to the mat. Christian scales the cage and climbs to the very top of the cage. Orton meets him on top as they both straddle the top of the cage, trading left and right hands. They struggle again on the top turnbuckle until finally Orton is able to deliver the RKO to Christian from the top rope and that's enough for Orton to retain at 12:15 (shown). Good God all mighty, I stand corrected, this IS the feud of the year because these guys yet again went out and delivered an absolutely unbelievable match with just an insane amount of counter-wrestling, psychology, fighting spirit and everything else you could ever want in a wrestling match. This was off the charts fantastic, and another home-run from these two that stands right up side-by-side with their Over the Limit and Summerslam matches in an incredible three-way tie for the best match in this feud yet. You owe it to yourself to watch this match people. ****1/4


After the match is over, Mark Henry's music hits and he lays down an epic beatdown on Orton as we go off the air.

Bottom Line: This was one hell of a show, simply put. Tons of great stuff to be seen here, from the fun Daniel Bryan/Sin Cara match, to the exciting war of words between Triple H and CM Punk in their contract signing right down to an absolutely incredible steel cage main event that's an easy contender for free TV match of the year, and you've got yourselves one of the best episodes of Smackdown I've seen in quite some time. Brilliant show all-around really, can't say enough positive things here and it's an enthusiastic Thumbs Up obviously.


Score: 10/10

No RAW Coverage Tonight

Due to Hurricane Irene knocking out the power for most of Rhode Island for the last few days, I won't be able to cover RAW tonight live. I may or may not still review it later this week when I get the power back (should be getting the power back tomorrow but I've got to cover the live Smackdown first for 411), but for tonight there won't be any RAW coverage due to that damned Irene. Thanks for understanding everyone and be safe.

--- X/Colin R.

NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2011 PPV 5/3/11

NJPW Wrestling Dontaku PPV
May 3rd, 2011
Fukuoka International Center, Fukuoka, Japan
Attendance: 6,500

New Japan rolls into Fukuoka tonight for their big annual May PPV event, Wrestling Dontaku. Tonight we've got some major match-ups on the card, including Hiroshi Tanahashi defending his IWGP Heavyweight title against longtime rival Shinsuke Nakamura as well as both a Heavyweight and Jr. Heavyweight tag team title match to go along with a CMLL Middleweight title match among other goodies tonight. This show is long as hell too, clocking in at a little over four hours. Really stacked card honestly and I can't wait to watch it, so let's jump right into it again.


Manabu Nakanishi/Tomoaki Honma/Hiromu Takahashi vs. Jado/Gedo/Killer Rabbit

I see we only have one of the Killer Rabbits on the show tonight instead of the two man crew they threw out a few weeks back. Typical throwaway NJPW PPV opener here in which Honma does a bit of his offense before letting young Takahashi in to show some fire. Finally old man Nakanishi hops in and does a nifty double suplex spot with Jado & Gedo before he makes Rabbit submit almost instantly when he locks him into the Argentine backbreaker at 4:36. I don't really get the logic of even booking matches like these on PPVs as usually you'd want something fast-paced and fun that goes atleast 10 minutes to open a show, but then again I'm not booking New Japan now am I? 1/2*


TAKA Michinoku/Taichi vs. Tiger Mask IV/KUSHIDA

Well this is an interesting little match up of both experienced and young juniors here. Imagine if Taichi had been around ten years ago for Kaentai? He would have been like a wrestling version of Ken Jeong. KUSHIDA immediately botches a leap to the top turnbuckle just as the match begins unfortunately, and we're off with a whimper. Always fun to watch TAKA and Taichi work together, but KUSHIDA is sloppy again and TMIV is showing no interest (so basically he's just doing his normal thing). Taichi winds up winning the match after giving the Black Mephisto to KUSHIDA at 6:43. Another throwaway filler match, but it had a few fun moments atleast. *1/2


Takashi Iizuka/Toru Yano/Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan/Wataru Inoue/King Fale

Another filler match here, but atleast it's the last one before we start heading into the good stuff on this card. Not much structure to this match at all, as it's mostly just listless brawling around the ring mixed in with a few random tags and double-team maneuver attempts. Tenzan beats down on Iizuka for a bit to start before we go into quick and random tags again. Iizuka nails Fale with his metal glove (and the announcer screams as if he just shot him in the face) and then Yano finishes him off with the Oni Koroshi powerbomb at 7:57. Another filler match but atleast this one had somewhat of a point to it (getting more heat for Iizuka/Yano/Ishii with the heel tactics finish). Still completely skippable. *


CMLL World Middleweight Title Match
Jushin Liger © vs. Mascara Dorada

Liger actually won this belt one year ago to the date after defeating Negro Casas on last year's Dontaku show. Dorada has shown some promise from the work I've seen of him both in Japan and Mexico, and Liger is practically incapable of having a bad match. Liger's rocking the all white hair look tonight and Dorada wants to play mind games early, threatening to walk out on the match. He hops back into the ring in stylish fashion and we're off. They do some nice mat and foot work for the opening minutes until Dorada tries to get fancy and Liger wrenches him into a Mexican surfboard. He transitions into a camel clutch briefly, but Dorada counters into a hybrid Indian deathlock/bow and arrow stretch submission. He follows up with some flashy springboarding work before sending Liger to the outside floor with a 'rana. He teases a dive at first and then turns around and takes out Liger on the second somersault plancha attempt. Wow, we even get a replay! I can't remember the last time I saw a replay in the middle of a match on a puro show. Dorada scrambles to another corner but Liger then wipes Dorada out with a plancha of his own. They briefly re-enter the ring but of course Liger is sent out immediately again and this time Dorada takes him out with somersualt plancha (and he even lands on his feet). Unsatisfied, Dorada delivers a moonsault from the turnbuckle to the floor on Liger and then waits for him to be counted out. Liger makes it back in at 19 though. Dorada hits a spectacular corkscrew senton on Liger, but doesn't even try to pin him. You should have struck while the iron was hot my dear Dorada. He delivers an old fashioned moonsault but that doesn't satisfy him so he goes up for another one, but Liger gets his knees up this time. Liger gives him a Liger Bomb and the brainbuster to retain at 10:04. This one started off shaky, as Liger looked a bit frail and sloppy tonight for once and caused some confusion in the early going, but once Dorada decided he was just going to dazzle this crowd until they forgot about it, everything came together. Tons of awesome and innovative stuff from Dorada, and the story of the match was perfect with Dorada continuously trying to one-up Liger with more and more flashier aerial moves until he took one chance too many and Liger pounced on him. The sheer willpower to make this match work by Dorada elevated this above what could have been standard fare. ***


IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt/Ryusuke Taguchi) © vs. No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards/Rocky Romero)

Well now, this looks like it could be a barrel of fun. I believe this is Davey's first match in New Japan since last winter. Taguchi and Richards start us off with some nice wristlock exchanges. For those American ROH fans who aren't fans of Davey Richards style, this match might turn you around on him because he plays the arrogant and rambunctious foreign heel perfectly here, flipping off the crowd and jawing with them at ringside with a shit eating grin on his face all the while. Apollo 55 dominate early and tease simultaneous dives, but instead they just throw them into the crowd. Taguchi launches himself off of a guard rail to give Davey an axe handle in a nifty spot. Tag rules go out the window as NRC dropkick their opponents onto the floor on the other side of the ring before taking them out with perfect simultaneous tope suicidas. Devitt starts getting worked over in the corner by the heels, but the crowd just sits on their hands. This is why Fukuoka crowds often times suck. Nevertheless both teams provide an excellent tag team contest here. Heel Davey Richards is so much better than babyface Davey Richards. Taguchi tries for the three amigos suplex but Davey counters out of the last one. Taguchi and Davey trade some great counters and a German suplex from Davey gets a two count. They try a doomsday device leaping knee but that doesn't work either. Taguchi is working his ass off and making himself look like the star of his team instead of Devitt. Davey eats a sickeningly stiff kick and both men tag out to their partners. Rocky gets sent to the floor and Devitt goes for the tope, but Davey trips him up for some massive heat. My god, is Fukuoka coming alive? Devitt wipes everyone out with his usual swan-dive plancha and then heads back to the ring. Davey hits a sick springboard DDT on Devitt, but the Irishman kicks out at two. Taguchi breaks up another doomsday device and then both Davey and Rocky wind up inadvertently kicking each other's leg as Taguchi scrambles in another creative spot. Devitt hits a nasty double-stomp off the top on Rocky, but Davey breaks the pin up briefly only for Taguchi to wipe him out with a plancha. Finally Devitt ends it with the Bloody Sunday on Romero to retain at 17:41. This was downright spectacular, like a crazy fireworks show with four guys launching themselves all over the place with no regard for their own safety and mixing and matching all kinds of incredibly innovative double-team spots and sequences. Easily one of the best straight-up two on two tag team matches I've seen this year. ****


IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard/Karl Anderson) © vs. CHAOS/NO LIMIT (Tetsuya Naito/Yujiro Takahashi)

Naito and Takahashi defeated Tenzan and Inoue a few weeks back to earn this title shot, and these four are very familiar with each other. They start off with each team trading frequent tags, trying to get some serious offense in. Bernard overpowers Naito with ease despite his speed. He nearly kills Naito with a sick powerbomb out of the ring right onto the edge of the ring apron (AKA the hardest part of the ring. Not much in the way of heat in this match unfortunately though, as the crowd seems bored by the extended beatdown that Naito is taking, which lasts nearly ten minutes. Finally Takahashi tags in and gets a bit of life out of the crowd as he does his best to fight off both Bernard and Anderson. Takahashi gives Bernard a German suplex and a rejuvenated Naito hops back into the mix to take it to Anderson. Naito delivers a great top rope frankensteiner to Anderson, but he kicks out at two. Anderson and Naito trade near falls while Takahashi and Bernard brawl on the floor. Back inside Bad Intentions takes firm control of the rest of the match and then finishes Naito off with the Bernard Driver to retain at 19:49. This was a bit underwhelming honestly, I expected more out of these four guys who are all very familiar with each others work. There was some solid action in this one down the finishing stretch, but they lost the crowd halfway through during the Naito beatdown and the match never really regained it's footing after that. **1/2


We take a short intermission at this point to see some ads for the upcoming G1 Climax tournament among other things. When we return, it's time for an inter-promotional tag team match.


Special Tag Team Match
Hirooki Goto/Tama Tonga vs. Takashi Sugiura/Makoto Hashi

Odd to see Sugiura (the GHC Champion for NOAH at the time this was filmed) show up on an NJPW show just for a random filler tag match like this. Hashi and Tonga start us off and it's not long before Tonga nearly kills himself with a crazy plancha on Hashi out of the ring onto the concrete floor. Sugs and Hashi team up on Tonga for a bit in their corner. Sugiura doesn't seem to be very motivated tonight, but atleast Goto and Tonga are their usual fun selves. Goto delivers the Shouten Kai to Hashi and that's enough to give him the win at 9:43. Decent little tag match, Goto and Tonga both looked good, but there wasn't really anything to this match other than four guys just kind of going through the motions for ten minutes. **


Yuji Nagata vs. Masato Tanaka

Gee, this match up seems strangely familiar. Oh, right, it's because they've wrestled each other 12 billion times over the last five years. Good thing they have such outstanding chemistry and it never gets boring though. They start off with some trademark strike exchanges, each man getting in some stiff blows. Nagata sends Tanaka to the floor with a flurry of stiff high kicks and then tosses him into the guard-rail. Tanaka fires back with a lariat and then sets up half of a table's legs from underneath the ring, which he promptly knee-drops Nagata onto without breaking it. Tanaka continues to target Nagata's leg with nasty steel chairshots, once while he's prone on the floor and a second time against the steel ring post. Back in the ring the legwork continues and the crowd comes alive, chanting Nagata's name while Tanaka works a figure four leglock on him. Nagata teases reversing the figure four so the pressure would be on Tanaka and the crowd bites like fish catching bait, but when Nagata finally does roll over and reverse the hold, they show almost nothing. Fuck this crowd with a rusty spoon, these two are working some simple and brilliant mat and submission wrestling and this crowd only comes alive sporadically at all the wrong times. Finally the leglock is broken and Tanaka nails Nagata in the corner with a running forearm before steadfastly going right back to work on the leg. Nagata responds with a huge release German suplex. He counters a tornado DDT attempt by Tanaka into a beautiful dragonscrew suplex and then throws in a brainbuster for good measure. Nagata starts his comeback and tries for a top rope exploder, but Tanaka counters into a sunset flip powerbomb followed by the Sliding D for a two count. Tanaka delivers a superplex to Nagata and when they hit the mat, Nagata maintains the hold, rolls through, and delivers a brainbuster of his own to Tanaka before collapsing under the pressure. Outstanding ring psychology in that sequence. They fight to the top turnbuckle, where Nagata delivers an overhead belly-to-belly superplex for another near fall. Back on their feet Tanaka lays in as many forearms as he can, but it only incenses Nagata further to attack him. Tanaka takes out Nagata's leg with a chop-block and then piles on another Sliding D to his face and this is simply brilliant stuff here, like watching Tanaka pick apart a body piece-by-piece. Tanaka attempts another Sliding D, but Nagata counters right into a nasty reverse armbar. Tanaka is on his last legs and Nagata just keeps giving him one back-drop suplex after another until finally the third or fourth one is enough to put Tanaka away at 14:53. This was another outstanding match-up in a long running series between these two men, and they worked about as good of a mat, submission, and psychology ground war match that anyone could ask for. The only problem was that the crowd sucked and they sat on their hands often through-out this match despite the impeccable limb and counter wrestling magic they had performed right before their very eyes. Fuck you Fukuoka, this match was brilliant. ****


Togi Makabe vs. Satoshi Kojima

These two have had continuing problems throughout the last year, so this could be seen as a grudge match of sorts. As you'd expect the action quickly spills to the floor where they trade whips into the steel guard rail before brawling up to the entrance ramp. Kojima lariats Makabe on the ramp and they make their way back to the ring. Kojima works him over with a top rope elbow for a near fall. Kojima keeps firing away but Makabe starts doing his trademark drunken Japanese version of the Hulk Up routine, throwing in a Randy Orton-like snap powerslam and a Samoan drop on top of that as well. Kojima blocks an exploder suplex and Makabe nails him with a bridging northern lights suplex for a two count. Makabe no-sells a DDT, but apparently an Ace Crusher is enough to put him down momentarily. Kojima delivers a top rope ace crusher on Makabe for good measure, but instead of pinning his man he taunts the crowd and takes off his elbow pad to set up for a lariat. Makabe lariats him instead (karma!). They trade right hands and go into a stiff exchange of repeated lariat attempts that Kojima keeps blocking before blasting Makabe over the back of the head with another forearm. Makabe decides it's puro Hogan time though and the power Makabe-mania starts running wild, brother. Makabe German suplexes Kojima off the top rope and then finishes him off with the King Kong knee drop at 11:51. Well that was a rather anti-climactic ending to a very solid match. This desperately could have used a few additional minutes to establish some kind of story for the match, but as it stands it's still a decent effort by both men. **3/4


After the match Taichi and TAKA, members of the Kojima's Army stable, hit the ring to talk to him, but instead they betray and attack Kojima. Suddenly, Minoru FUCKING Suzuki comes out to the ring and locks a headlock onto Kojima. Makabe decides to come back and save the man he just defeated. Minoru walks off like a badass, blowing him a nice little kiss before Makabe reseonds with a nice "Fuck you" and pair of middle fingers. Makabe helps Kojima back up and they embrace with a firm handshake, seemingly turning Kojima face here. This is why New Japan is far and away the best company in Japan right now, because they actually put some effort into establishing angles and alliances, babyfaces and heels. They mix the strong style with sports entertainment perfectly.


IWGP Heavyweight Title Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi © vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

This is like the Red Sox vs. Yankees or Celtics vs. Lakers here in the sense that Tanahashi and Nakamura are eternal rivals bound to one another. I still can't decide who's the better air guitarist between the two either. Just as you'd expect, this winds up being another fantastic chapter in their rivalry. Both men begin cautiously, testing the waters with basic hold and counter exchanges. They're very evenly matched on the mat, but Tanahashi gets the better of Nakamura with a flying cross-body from the second rope. Being the cocky son of a bitch he is, Tanahashi celebrates a bit too early and Nakamura makes him pay for it with nasty precision kicks and knee strikes. Tanahashi targets Nakamura's leg with a dropkick and sends him out to the floor before wiping out Nakamura outside of the ring with a tope con hilo off the apron. Back in the ring Tana goes back to work on Sexy Naka's leg, but this only awakens the angry drunken beast inside of Nakamura and he comes alive with a flurry of brashly stiff knees to the gut. Nakamura coils himself around Tanahashi like a snake with a sleeper hold briedly before coming alive with some forearm shots. Somersault senton from the second rope gets Tana a two count. Tana tries a Boston crab for a bit, but Nakamura fights it off and nails him with an enziguri. Nakamura misses the Boma Ye knee in the corner, but delivers a beautiful back drop suplex instead and the crowd comes alive. Tana blocks another Boma Ye knee attempt with the Sling Blade. Nakamura fights off a waistlock briefly before eating a German for another near fall. Falcon Arrow from Tanahashi but he misses the High Fly Flow frog splash. Nakamura just destroys Tanahashi in the back of the head with a sickeningly stiff Boma Ye knee strike and the crowd continues to go nuts. Nakamura lays in even more Boma Ye knees to a downed Tanahashi, but he misses the last one. Nakamura tries an armbar but Tanahashi continues to fight him off until he gets the rope break. Nakamura again goes for the flying armbar, but this time Tanahashi counters right out of it into a sickening Dragon suplex! That was a counter sequence of Gods my readers, and it nearly gets the three count on Nakamura. Tanahashi hits the High Fly Flow frog splash off the top once, then goes for a second High Fly Flow but Nakamura stands up and just punches him square in the face! Next they go into a Matrix-like sequence of kung-fu strikes that keep missing until finally Nakamura nails Tanahashi with a spinning high kick. Nakamura leas off the second rope only to eat a dropkick from Tanahashi, who then climbs to the top and delivers a High Fly Flow-like cross-body before delivering yet another damned frog splash to finally finish Nakamura off and retain his title at 20:17. I may have gone overboard in some of the move-by-move analysis here, but it's simply a testament to how utterly captivated I was by this match, just like most any other time these two meet in the ring. This is another easy contender for New Japan match of the year thus far and I wouldn't be shocked to see people award it that honor by the end of year's time even. Simply outstanding work from everyone involved. ****1/4


After the match Tanahashi is awarded a few trophies and awards, probably for having the best hair in all of Japan, before he's handed his title back to celebrate the victory further. Lots of little kids in the crowd who love Tanahashi are sitting in the front rows chanting and cheering for an exhausted Hiroshi Tanahashi, who continues to dance and play air-guitar like a badass anyways. Is there anything this wonderful man can't do? This is like the feel-good babyface moment of the year, when suddenly who should show up but a returning Hirooki Goto, fresh off a stint with CMLL in Mexico. Goto departed for Mexico way after he and Tanahashi had a falling out during a tag team match at the New Japan Cup finals PPV back in March, and something tells me he's not here to apologize for that. No, in fact he's here to give Tanahashi the sickest head-butt I've ever seen in my life, which nearly knocks Tanahashi unconscious. Goto storms off afterwards. Someone's moody.

Bottom Line: As you can very clearly see, this show was down right amazing. There were fantastic matches all over the card (three different ****+ matches), as well as a few solid midcard matches and plenty of major angle advancements, as well as two brilliantly executed face and heel turns. This is just about everything you could want out of a show really, and this ranks right up there with Money in the Bank so far as the one of the very best shows of 2011. Thumbs way up.

Score: 9.5/10

WWE Friday Night SmackDown 8/26/11

WWE Friday Night SmackDown 8/26/11
August 26th, 2011
Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Attendance: Unknown at this time

With the hot summer nights winding down as we approach the fall season, the WWE takes a pit-stop in the Hitman's old stomping grounds in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for tonight's edition of Friday Night SmackDown. On last week's show we saw Mark Henry win a battle royal to become the new number one contender for Randy Orton's title, but we still don't know when exactly that match will take place. Hopefully we can get some answers tonight and maybe even a good show to boot. Let's do this thing.


Your hosts are Michael Cole, Booker T, and Josh Matthews


We open the show with an announcement for a Summerslam rematch later tonight between Sheamus and Mark Henry before suddenly Bret Hart's music hits! The Hitman himself is in the building tonight and he comes out to a thundering roar of cheers for the old hometown hero. He makes his way to the ring and grabs a microphone to tell the fans that Teddy Long won't be able to make it to the show tonight, so under the orders of the new COO Triple H, he has been appointed the General Manager of Smackdown for one night only, tonight! He plugs the big live Tuesday Smackdown special next week and announces that the main event will pit Mark Henry against Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Title.


Suddenly, Christian's music hits and the former champ comes out to a steady mix of jeers and cheers. He comes out to the entrance ramp and says that he wants to make it perfectly clear that it wasn't his fault for losing at Summerslam, but rather Edge's fault for getting into his head before the match. Christian mentions he's entitled to one more rematch, and he wants it to happen on the Tuesday super show. Bret says that Edge gave Christian the best advice he could, and that Christian is starting to become an embarrassment to everyone in the WWE and Canada itself. Christian says what's "really embarrassing" is that when guys like Bret and Edge come out and can't let go of their careers now that they're retired. Christian says maybe he and Edge just can't stand the fact that he's the only Canadian that's still relevant in the WWE. Christian pulls out a piece of paper from Teddy Long and hands it to Bret. It's a legal document stating that no WWE superstar will receive a World Heavyweight title match before Christian gets his shot first. Bret begrudgingly agrees to the rematch and then decides that the match will be contested inside of a steel cage! That way, there won't be any more excuses when Christian loses.


Mark Henry's music hits next though and the world's strongest man makes his way down to the ring. He complains about having his earned title opportunity pushed aside and then says that he wants to face the winner of the cage match between Orton and Christian. Henry tries to intimidate Bret a bit when Sheamus' music hits and the Celtic Warrior comes out to a nice pop with a mic of his own. He tells a humorous little story about a mean black bull that his uncle had to castrate, warning Henry that he might have to do the same to him. He hits the ring and both men begin brawling. Henry takes off and we wrap up our opening segment as Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase is announced for later tonight.


Christian (16-7) vs. Daniel Bryan (8-7-1)

When we return from the break, Christian is already in the ring and set to take on the Money in the Bank winner Daniel Bryan (complete with a nifty little hype video package putting over Bryan's ability in the ring). They lock up to start and leap-frog over one another before Bryan escapes an Irish whip and delivers a dragon-screw legwhip to Christian. Bryan knocks Christian out of the ring and then wipes him out with a big tope suicida on the floor. Back in the ring Bryan works a textbook Mexican surfboard until Christian fights it off with a boot to the face. Bryan goes to work with big precision kicks to Christian's chest, but he grabs a hold of Bryan and back-drops him out of the ring as we cut to commercial. When we return Christian is working a loose chinlock on Bryan. They trade blows and Bryan hits a top rope missile dropkick on Christian for a two count. He lays in some more stiff kicks and Christian tries his trademark ring-assisted kick to the face, but Bryan blocks him up with more kicks and then hits a knee drop on him from the top rope for another near fall. Christian delivers a flying back elbow from the top rope and sets up for the spear, but Bryan blocks it. He flips behind Christian, who then tries a sunset-flip from the second rope, but Bryan counters that for another near fall. Some excellent counter wrestling going on right here. Bryan misses a top rope frankensteiner attempt and eats a Tornado DDT, but he manages to still kick out. Bryan counters the Killswitch attempt into the LeBell Lock, but Christian quickly gets the rope break. Bryan misses a running dropkick in the corner and Christian capitalizes on it by delivering the Killswitch to pick up the win at 8:08 (shown). Excellent way to kick off the show with two guys who have honed their craft into a lean, mean wrestling machine over the years. Lots of great counter-wrestling, a fast pace, just about everything you'd want out of a quality opening match for television here. ***


You may or may not have gotten a short clip of a great old Mysterio/Jericho match from Smackdown in 2009 here depending on whether or not your local cable affiliate features the WWE "From the Vault" featurettes.


Wade Barrett is in the ring with a microphone when we return from the commercial break. He's set to face some nameless jobber aparently. He talks about how he has shaken the WWE down to it's very foundation during his short time in the company already and about how facing this random jobber is beneath him before he exits the ring and leaves before the match ever officially starts. Later it's announced that Alberto Del Rio will face Sin Cara on the big live Smackdown next week.


Sin Cara (12-2) vs. Heath Slater (4-17)

Reportedly this match was such a mess the first time around that they had to film the entire match over again later that night, which I assume is the version we're getting here. Cara is once again being played by Hunico and not the original Mistico, who apparently was sent home after the tapings, perhaps permanently. Slater has some new absolutely godawful country song as his theme, to complete the total package of suck that is Heath Slater. The match itself winds up being so heavily edited that it's over before you know it. Cara dropkicks Slater into the corner and gives him a cannonball senton before getting right back to his feet and following up with a springboard forearm/headbutt combo for a two count. 20 points to Booker T for using the word "mollywop" several times during this match too. Cara sends Slater to the floor and then wipes him out with a big cross-body off the top rope before tossing him back into the ring. He hits a springboard somersault senton followed by a lionsault, which is enough to put Slater away at a whopping 1:43. This was edited and clipped to hell in order to make up for the disaster that this match apparently was live, but atleast the parts that they left in made Cara look like a total star, flying all over the place like a freakin' pinball and totally dominating Slater. For a clipped 2 minute jobber match, this was fun. **


We get a clip of Orton RKOing Ted DiBiase last week on the show right in front of Cody Rhodes followed by Randy Orton walking backstage before we head to the commercial break.


Randy Orton (14-6) vs. Ted DiBiase (3-9)

Cody is with Ted again, along with the usual squadron of Matrix agents carrying around Cody's twisted paper bag masks. He has a mic and cuts a brief promo on Orton on the way to the ring as he claims to be a miracle worker, resurrecting both the Intercontinental title and his friend Ted DiBiase's career. Ted immediately takes Orton down at the bell with a legscissors before trying to work a side headlock that Orton shakes off briefly before Ted goes right back at it. They trade leap-frog sequences and Orton delivers his picture perfect standing dropkick for just a one count. Orton switches between a wristlock and a side-headlock on DiBiase followed by a lariat. Ted fires back with a lariat of his own and lays in some closed fists. Orton catches Ted in a dropkick attempt and then catapults him into the turnbuckle. He gives him a pair of lariats and an Austin-like Lou Thesz press before setting Ted up for the second-rope DDT. Cody hops on the apron but Randy knocks him right back off it and slams Ted back into the ring. Orton sets up for an RKO on Cody, but Ted hits him with a baseball slide dropkick to break it up as we take a commercial break. When we return Ted actually looks impressive for once with a sweet backbreaker/dropkick combo for a near fall. Orton responds with a thunderous superplex, but DiBiase kicks out as well. Orton has a small cut on his forehead dribbling blood as he starts to go into his trademark "Viper" sequence of moves (I'd use the term "five moves of doom" but that's so 90s). Ted actually counters one of Orton's backbreakers into a roll-up and then delivers a nice Rydeen Bomb on Orton for another near fall. This is a damned good match so far. DiBiase blocks an RKO attempt, but he eats the second-rope DDT instead. DiBiase counters another RKO attempt right into the Dream Street cobra clutch, but Orton escapes that as well and they criss-cross the ropes a bit before Orton manages to finally deliver the RKO on Ted for the hard earned pin at 8:41 (shown). This started off casually enough before rocketing right into an impressive exchange of one counter after another after the commercial break. Ted actually looked outstanding here for once with his workrate and Orton is always game for a good TV match, so this wound up being another excellent television match that exceeded my expectations. ***


After the match Cody offers his hand to stand Ted up, but then delivers the Cross Rhodes to him for failing him yet again against Randy Orton. To add insult to injury he tosses one of his paper bag masks onto Ted's face. Rhodes character is seriously brilliant, it's just the kind of thing that every rabid internet smark (myself included) has always dreamed about, it's like they plucked him straight out of a Jeph Loeb Batman comic book or something. Lookout Calender Man, we have a Paper Bag Man!


Kelly Kelly (6-4) vs. Tamina (4-2)

Intriguing match-up here. We get the old Superstars-lite split-screen promo from Natalya while Kelly makes her way to the ring, talking about how Kelly is a barbie doll come alive and that she doesn't like to play with dolls. I might be getting ahead of myself here, but could this vague angle they've been working with Beth and Natalya kicking ass in the Diva's division be a stalwart tactic until Kharma returns from her pregnancy to wreak real havoc? Nevertheless, they lock up at the bell. Kelly delivers a few forearms and a body press. She delivers a flurry of flying headscissors on Tamina until Tamina breaks it up and they devolve into a loose hair-pulling, bitch-slappin' catfight. Kelly delivers the handspring back elbow followed by the stinkface. She leaps off the second turnbuckle right into Tamina's arms, but Kelly escapes out of that and hits the old Rocker Dropper to put Tamina away at 2:48. Another spirited and athletic effort from Kelly Kelly and Tamina...well she sort of just stood there for Kelly to bounce off of. Which is just fine by me. **


Backstage Matt Striker is with Jinder Mahal and The Great Khali to ask them about their failure to win the battle royal last week. Jinder says Khali has been "re-educated" and his only mission is to serve him. Damn when did Smackdown's writing staff jump into poli-sci? Mahal says Khali will dominate Ezekiel Jackson tonight.


Ezekiel Jackson (12-10) vs. The Great Khali (1-3)

So this isn't exactly a scientific match-up on paper now is it? No, instead this is just the stiff and uneven brawl you'd expect it to be. Khali slaps Zeke around a bit and big Zeke gets npissed off enough to mount a decent comeback before Khali just levels him with a boot. He puts the vicegrip that he's been using to dispatch of jobbers for months now onto Zeke and Zeke actually manages to hold strong through-out the fingers of Khali and actually fight it off briefly to get a rope break. A distinct "Both of you suck!" chant starts up among the Calgary front row natives as Jinder Mahal tries to beat up on Zeke behind the ref's back. Khali winds up clubbing Mahal inadvertently and Zeke actually manages to lift the Great Khali onto his shoulders in the torture rack and Khali actually taps out to give Zeke the clean (and massive) win at 2:55. That is one gargantuan win for Big Zeke to get his heat back after dropping the title to Cody. This was actually probably the best damned Great Khali match I have seen in years, as they used simple psychology and worked their submission holds perfectly here. Again, my expectations have been exceeded. **


Sheamus (6-9-1) vs. Mark Henry (6-6)

And to cap off the night we have this battle of the bulls. Henry overpowers Sheamus quickly in the early going and it's obvious what strategy Sheamus must utilize here as he starts to pick apart Henry's limbs with all kinds of different strikes in order to "chop him down to size" as they say. Henry boots Sheamus in the face and follows it with a body splash and a backbreaker for a two count. Henry works Sheamus over a bit some more and then tries to deliver a press slam to him off the top rope, but Sheamus counters into a sick DDT. Sheamus follows up with a flying forearm and then starts laying in punches to Henry's chest in-between the ropes. He rocks him with a few stiff knees and a flying shoulder-block off the top rope for a two count. The action spills out to the floor where Henry tosses Sheamus into the padded guardrail before clearing the announcer's table of all of it's monitors. Henry tries a press slam, but Sheamus counters with the Brogue Kick right over the table and the referee counts Henry out giving Sheamus the win at 7:36. Call me crazy, but this was the best damned match I've seen Mark Henry work in YEARS. Simple and effective psychology, a great power battle and a creative ending pushes this match from "regular same old usual TV match" territory into "Well I'll be damned, they had a great match all things considered" territory. ***


After the match Mark Henry and Sheamus continue to brawl at ringside, where Henry gives Sheamus the World's Strongest Slam onto the steel steeps as we go off the air.

Bottom Line: This was an outstanding show by all accounts here. We had THREE different matches that cracked into *** territory, all of which showcased the burgeoning young and old talent together into a fantastic mix. SmackDown continues to be the gold standard of weekly television shows, and we roll onto another week. Obviously an enthusiastic Thumbs Up.

Score: 8.5/10