(Photo Courtesy of WWE)
WWE: Smackdown
October 4, 2013
Baton Rouge, LA
River Center Arena
The current WWE champs are as follows:
WWE Champion: Vacant (9/16/2013)
World Heavyweight Champion: Alberto Del Rio (6/16/2013)
WWE Intercontinental Champion: Curtis Axel (6/16/2013)
WWE U.S. Champion: Dean Ambrose (5/19/2013)
WWE Tag Team Champions: Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins (5/19/2013)
WWE Divas Champion: AJ Lee (6/16/2013)
Your hosts are Michael Cole and JBL.
Out comes the Big Show to start the program. He says he’s feeling pretty ashamed lately after punching people in the face that he doesn’t want to punch in the face. The crowd cheers his name to let him know he has their support. Show pleads his case for their continued support saying that COOHHH and Stephanie are holding his job over his head. Sometimes you have to do what your boss tells you to do even when you hate it because you don’t want to get fired. He doesn’t ask for forgiveness, he just wants the WWE Universe to try and understand his plight. Over the past few weeks, he has all this pent-up frustration and has gone as far as to threaten Triple H with his fist. As we learned on Raw, Big Show faces the Shield in a handicap match in tonight’s main event and promises to turn all that frustration loose on them. He calls himself a ‘borderline lunatic giant’ and if he’s going down, he’s taking the Shield with him. Cue COOHHH. He’s disappointed that the Big Show – a locker room leader – would come out here and complain about his personal problems that are his responsibility to handle. Triple H brings up Big Show’s mortgage that he apparently can’t afford. Because he considers Show a friend and didn’t want to see Show’s family out on the street, COOHHH has paid for the rest of Big Show’s mortgage. That means Show no longer owes the bank, he owes Triple H. COOHHH tells Show he better get his emotions in check, or he’ll be living in Show’s house instead. Since Show thinks of himself as a borderline lunatic giant, Triple H finds it unfair to the Shield and adds a fourth member to the handicap match: Randy Orton. That seems fair, right? As for Show’s threat towards Triple H, he holds up the mortgage and tells Show that there’s no harm done. It’s not said, but understood that now COOHHH has something else to hold over Show’s head.
– Rob Van Dam (w/Ricardo Rodriguez) vs. Fandango (w/Summer Rae)
Standard Van Dam affair. He gets in his monkey flip and Rolling Thunder on Fandango. As he goes up top for the Five Star Frog Splash, Summer Rae trips him up for the DQ in 3:00 shown. Afterwards, RVD makes Fandango pay with the trash can Van Terminator as a message to Del Rio. Surprisingly, ADR doesn’t show his face. ¾*
– Ryback (w/Paul Heyman) vs. R-Truth
By the way, all the babyfaces are wearing pink versions of their t-shirts out to the ring to make you aware of breast cancer, in case you’ve forgotten about it. In the words of Paul Heyman, R-Truth tries to bully Ryback by trying to win the match. He pays for it with the Meat Hook and the Shell Shock in 2:20. After the bell, Curtis Axel appears from the crowd and cheapshots R-Truth before reminding him that he’s the IC champion. If he was *really* a cool heel, he would have used the belt on the back of Truth’s head. ½*
To the back with Renee Young who is standing by with Alberto Del Rio. A stagehand brings him the scraps of the smashed up trash can courtesy of RVD. AY DIOS MIO!
– Non-title match: World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio vs. Dolph Ziggler
We get a Top 10 video montage of RVD’s craziest risks throughout his career. I won’t spoil the countdown for you in case you’re into that sort of thing. Hmm, Damien Sandow joins Cole and JBL for this one. The man could win a Rafi-from-the-League look-alike contest, if such a thing ever existed. Del Rio gets frustrated with Ziggler early on leading to a commercial break. When we return, Ziggler takes a shoulder bump into the ringpost turning the tide. Cole and JBL are trying hard to goad Sandow in cashing in the briefcase tonight. Ziggler escapes a chinlock only to be met with a series of headbutts. ADR charges him in the corner and takes a flip out to the apron, but then receives a dropkick and takes a nasty bump on the apron to the floor. Back in, Ziggler stops him up top and brings him down with a Super X-Factor setting up a big comeback. Famouser gets countered to a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker though. Ziggler dropkicks him as he comes off the top rope, but then eats a running enziguri. Ziggler counters a superplex with a sunset flip powerbomb for a hot nearfall. He grabs the Sleeperhold on Del Rio, but ADR escapes and delivers a flying double stomp to the back. Superkick lands for another heated nearfall. Cross Armbreaker gets countered to the Famouser for 1-2-NO! Zig Zag fails and ADR puts him away with the Cross Armbreaker for real in 11:15 shown. Good TV match with some fun nearfalls. ***
– Los Matadores (w/El Torito) vs. 3MB
This is like Doom putting on masks after already being the unmasked version of Doom. You know, I didn’t think bullfighting was a big thing in Puerto Rico. Now if Primo and Epico’s gimmick was that they were two guys who really enjoyed cock fighting, then that would be much more authentic if not seen as somewhat offensive to us wimpy Americans. Never thought Mantaur would be making a comeback, but he kind of is in ‘little people’ form here as El Torito. This entrance is way too elaborate. I know they just debuted and all that, but they are going to have to pull it back at some point. Not sure if they have a name for their finisher yet, but it appears to be a slam off the shoulders shared by both guys at 3:20. These guys are going to get booed quick. Now they just need to get Hornswoggle to turn heel and manage a heel tag team for them to face. ½*
Renee Young speaks with Team Heyman. While Ryback and Curtis Axel are present, Heyman does all the talking. According to Heyman and most everyone watching, R-Truth’s dream of becoming the IC champion this Sunday at Battleground is only fiction. At least he’s not CM Punk, who has to face Ryback. Heyman sees a Shell Shock in Punk’s future and hopes Punk will finally come to his senses and stop seeking revenge against his lord, master, and owner: Paul Heyman, the “Best in the World”.
– Brie Bella (w/Nikki Bella) vs. Aksana
Just a match to put over Brie as she faces AJ Lee for the Divas championship this Sunday. She wins with the Bella Buster in 2:00. AJ Lee comes out to tell Brie that she plans to do exactly what Randy Orton did to her ‘tin can chewing’ fiancé last week on Raw. She then continues to make jokes about the hideous baby Daniel and Brie will one day produce. ¼*
– Kofi Kingston vs. Big E Langston
Kingston is the Wyatt family’s newest target. This one goes under a minute. Kingston counters the Big Ending with a victory roll for the three-count. The lights go down and the Wyatt family surround Kingston. Bray promises this Sunday that the first will fall. Follow the buzzards, ya’ll. ¼*
– Handicap match: The Big Show vs. The Shield & Randy Orton
Show does fine against these four until Ambrose causes a distraction and Orton kicks at the knee. The Shield and Orton take over as they try to keep the big man down. Show fights up and goes for a Chokeslam on Orton, but Orton counters with a DDT. Show makes his comeback against Reigns only to be cut off by a 4-on-1 attack. Ambrose brings a chair into the ring only for Show to punch the chair back in his face for the DQ in 5:30. Orton saves Rollins from a Chokeslam with a chairshot to the back. Now Show goozles them both only for Reigns to run in with the Spear. The Shield picks up Show so that Orton can drop him with an RKO. Crowd wants Bryan. The Usos run down to take care of Reigns and Rollins. Meanwhile, Orton wraps the chair around Big Show’s head when Daniel Bryan makes the save. He punches and kicks Orton down into the YES Lock until Ambrose breaks up the hold. While Orton escapes up the ramp, he leaves Ambrose behind to take the Busaiku Knee Kick. The crowd chants YES to close out the show. **
Final Thoughts: Another below mediocre go-home show for a PPV. Besides a pretty good Del Rio-Ziggler contest, nothing much else to go out of your way to see tonight. There’s certainly better things to watch on cable tonight if you’re a baseball fan. On a sidenote: has the world title simply become the ‘work horse’ title that the IC championship used to be in the ’80s and ’90s? No champion wrestles more often or has longer matches than Alberto Del Rio. I think there’s a case for it. Anyways, skip this show and just get ready for Battleground LIVE on PPV this Sunday night.
Matt’s Smackdown Top Five:
1) Alberto Del Rio (Some hot near falls and the only match that got any time.)
2) Dolph Ziggler (ADR couldn’t have had the MOTN without this guy.)
3) Rob Van Dam (The Van Terminator is always cool.)
4) Paul Heyman (Not as great a promo in weeks past, but he’s always solid.)
5) AJ Lee (Always a pleasure even if it was just for a short time.)
My Battleground Predictions:
WWE Title: Randy Orton over Daniel Bryan
World Title, Hardcore Rules: Alberto Del Rio over Rob Van Dam
Intercontinental Title: Curtis Axel over R-Truth
Divas Title: AJ Lee over Brie Bella
Ryback NC CM Punk to set up Hell in a Cell
Goldust and Cody Rhodes over Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins
Bray Wyatt over Kofi Kingston
Dolph Ziggler over Damien Sandow
