Matt’s Smackdown Recap 2/28/14

WWE: Smackdown
February 28, 2014
Milwaukee, WI
BMO Harris Bradley Center

The current WWE champs are as follows:
WWE World Heavyweight Champion: Randy Orton (12/15/2013)
WWE Intercontinental Champion: Big E (11/18/2013)
WWE U.S. Champion: Dean Ambrose (5/19/2013)
WWE Tag Team Champions: The New Age Outlaws (1/26/2014)
WWE Divas Champion: AJ Lee (6/16/2013)

NOTE: Busy Saturday without a lot of free time. I did get a chance to catch the show, but this will be a mildly abbreviated recap. I will still try and make this as enjoyable as possible. Things should be back to normal next week. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Your hosts are Michael Cole & JBL.

Batista the Hollywood Douche comes to the ring to start the show. He really has a chance to be the biggest main-event heel in wrestling. He goes the John Cena route and vows to win regardless of what we think. This could actually be brilliant and the crowds could start to like him again as a heel if they do it right. Here, Batista is heeling on the crowd favorites who are just a bunch of “195-pound wannabes”. Speaking of crowd faves, Dolph Ziggler interrupts. Apparently he’s been watching a lot of “Duck Dynasty” lately, because he ends every sentence by calling Batista, “jack”. I’m only assuming Ziggler’s walk to the locker room was where the Ziggler chants are “edited out”. He wants a match with Batista. Dave thinks that’s a real knee-slapper, but accepts the challenge anyway. Ziggler makes him eat a dropkick before retreating to the back. On the plus side with the attitude change, it does look like Daniel Bryan will be added to the main event now.

– The Real Americans (w/Zeb Colter) vs. Big E & Mark Henry

Back and forth match with very short heat segments. Swagger is made to look like the weak link in the team and once the match breaks down, Cesaro runs Big E into the ringpost while Swagger applies the Patriot Lock on Henry. Just as it appears Henry will tap, Cesaro reaches in and tags Swagger. That doesn’t set too well with Swagger obviously, but Cesaro is able to put Henry away by showing off with the Neutralizer for the win. (5:30) Swagger joins Cesaro and Colter in the “We the People” celebration, but you know this should add fuel to the fire for a split. *½

In the back, Alberto Del Rio flirts with Smackdown GM Vickie Guerrero to get his “rubber” match with Batista. It won’t happen since Ziggler battles Batista tonight. Del Rio asks for the night off then until Sheamus swings by and insults ADR into taking a match with him.

– Alberto Del Rio vs. Sheamus

Sheamus gets pissed when Del Rio tries to go after his injured side and beats him in and out of the ring. Dressed in his street clothes, Christian interrupts and joins us for commentary. Sheamus nearly gets the win over ADR with the Cloverleaf, but then Christian runs him over for the DQ. (6:20 shown) Afterwards, Sheamus hits Del Rio with the Brogue Kick, but takes the Killswitch from Christian who then puts the badmouth on him. **

They take us back to Raw where Daniel Bryan challenged COOHHH for a match at WrestleMania and then the ending of his match later in the night with Kane.

Next up, a special video look at the return of Hulk Hogan.

Then they show us the latest in what is happening with the Shield. For all the details and much more, check out Scott’s Raw Recap.

In the deepest and darkest places in the arena, the Shield quibble with one another over their recent losses. As usual, Seth Rollins gets them back on track.

– Batista vs. Dolph Ziggler

Ziggler uses his speed advantage to try and take out Batista. He gets a nearfall off a Famouser, but then gets drilled with a pair of Spinebusters and the Batista Bomb puts him down for the three-count. (6:30) Fun little match that may help Batista a little bit to get back into ring shape. **

Time for the Wyatt Family to come out. Bray Wyatt preaches to us about how American society lies to us about how we should live our lives. John Cena is the mouthpiece of all those lies who just tells us what we want to hear. There is some truth in what he says, but he’s insane about so many other things that nobody will believe him. The Shield interrupt looking for a fight, but COOHHH tells the Shield to “stand down” and announces a six-man tag rematch for Monday Night Raw.

– WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee (w/Tamina Snuka) vs. Cameron

Over in no time. AJ submits Cameron with the Black Widow to retain her title. (2:30) Too bad Naomi is gone for a while because she’s so much better in the ring than Cameron. ½*

Video package plays concerning Brock Lesnar and the Undertaker. Once again, check out Scott’s Raw Recap for all the juicy details.

– The Usos & Daniel Bryan vs. The New Age Outlaws & Kane

Bryan still has his shoulder wrapped. The Usos and Bryan do just fine against the Attitude Era to start. Once the Usos and Bryan clean house, we take a commercial break. When we return, Jimmy becomes face in peril to set up the hot tag to Bryan. While the Usos are flying, Gunn hits the Famouser on Bryan for a nearfall, but then Bryan wins with the Busaiku Knee Kick. (8:00 shown) Meh, really just an average six-man tag. While we have seen a lot of six-man tags over the past several months, they usually contain more evenly talented teams like the Shield, Real Americans, or some younger babyface mix-and-matches. **¼

Final Thoughts: Certainly a step-down from the amazing quality of shows this month, but Smackdown can’t be amazing every week, I suppose. Instead of Smackdown, check out the NXT ArRival show if you haven’t and want to see two hours of awesome wrestling. There’s a ****½ Cesaro and Sami Zayn match, Alexander Rusev brings da ruckus, a Divas match complete with actual storytelling, and a fun NXT title ladder match.