Matt’s Smackdown Recap 9/27/13

WWE: Smackdown
September 27, 2013
Milwaukee, WI
BMO Harris Bradley Center

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.

We open with the COOHHH as he comes to the ring. He says the only reason the WWE Superstars are griping about his management decisions over the past month is because they can’t accept their own inadequacies and failures. The impossible burden of being unable to make everyone happy is a burden he and Stephanie must carry and so instead they must do what is best for business. HHH says even when he did what was best for business and what should have been seen as fair by the boys in the back by putting the Shield in an 11-on-3 handicap elimination match this past week on Raw, they still received criticism. It ended with Daniel Bryan eliminating Seth Rollins with the Busaiku Knee Kick. For more info, check out Scott’s Raw Recap. Well, what do you know. The Miz wakes up in time for Smackdown from his Big Show knockout punch on Raw to interrupt the COO. Triple H sees Miz as the prime example of a guy who fails with each opportunity given and then blames someone else. HHH reminds us of Miz’s most recent failed big opportunity when Randy Orton beat him up in front of his parents two weeks ago on Raw. After the clip, HHH says he fails to see how Miz getting destroyed is his fault. Triple H tells Miz that sometimes he has to protect talent from themselves as he kept Miz from competing last week on Raw. Instead, HHH gave Miz a platform to speak his peace on MizTV. When his guest was the Big Show, Miz squandered that opportunity by getting the Knockout Punch. Technically, Stephanie ordered the hit on Miz. Back to live action, Miz thanks HHH for the opportunity with a condescending tone. HHH wants Miz to repeat what he called his wife on Raw. Miz called her a “castrating witch”, but he should have changed the ‘w’ to a ‘b’. OHHH SNAP. HHH reminds Miz that he always runs his mouth despite never being able to back it up. While he feels Stephanie was justified in what she did, the Helmsleys do regret what they did to the Miz. He gives Miz an opportunity for revenge to face Randy Orton in tonight’s main event. When Miz accepts the match, Triple H tries to get under his skin by considering flying Miz’s parents out to Milwaukee from Cleveland so that they can watch their son from the front row get destroyed again. Go get changed, Miz. Your opportunity is knocking. Can you hear it? Oh boy.

– Non-title match: World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio vs. R-Truth

Dang, R-Truth doesn’t even gets an entrance. He busts out Truth or Consequences though for a nearfall, which I haven’t seen in a while. It’s a vertical suplex into a stunner. That’s all he gets though as Del Rio superkicks Truth when he’s on his knees for the win in 1:45. Afterwards, Del Rio locks on the Cross Armbreaker. RVD and Ricardo Rodriguez make the save. A chair gets involved and RVD dropkicks the chair into ADR’s face when he’s down in the corner. ¼*

Van Dam celebrates with the belt as we go backstage where Vickie Guerrero is talking with COOHHH. They notice the RVD-ADR feud is “heating up” and needs something more at Battleground, so they make it a hardcore match, which you would think would give RVD the edge. HHH makes it sound more complicated calling it a “Battleground Hardcore Rules” match. Vickie likes it and thinks that decision was best for business. Har har har.

Elsewhere, the Prime Time Players try to get some nerdy white dudes backstage to do that shuffle they do at the top of the ramp. O’Neil blows his whistle and throws a penalty flag when they show they have no rhythm. That whistle and penalty flag bit should happen more often, but in actual funny and random situations.

– The Prime Time Players vs. The Real Americans (w/Zeb Colter)

The heat segment is on O’Neil as Swagger and Cesaro keep him down in their corner. The highlight is the near twenty rotations on the Big Swing by Cesaro. Afterward, he still has the air and the energy to do the “We the People” bit. Now that’s dedication. Hot tag to Young, he hits the Gut Check on Cesaro after a tag to Swagger that he doesn’t see. When Young covers Cesaro, Swagger grabs him for the Patriot Lock and gets the tapout in 4:00. Call me crazy, but I was thoroughly entertained here. *½

– Bray Wyatt (w/Erick Rowan & Luke Harper) vs. Zack Ryder

Bray seriously enjoys beating up Ryder on the mat, but then telegraphs a backdrop to bring about a brief comeback. Broski Boot connects. The Rough Ryder fails, but Sister Abigail’s Kiss does not in 2:15. Follow the buzzard, ya’ll. ½*

– WWE U.S. Champion Dean Ambrose (w/Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns) vs. Dolph Ziggler (w/Kofi Kingston & Rob Van Dam)

To prevent any confusion, the U.S. title is on the line. Ziggler has pinned Ambrose twice over the past two weeks on Raw. He brings his own backup in case Rollins and Reigns want to get cute. Of course that’s exactly what happens when things get heated. Ambrose loses by DQ and it turns in a six-man brawl. COOHHH comes out to take action and makes a six-man tag. Why do we have GMs again?

– Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, and Rob Van Dam vs. The Shield

We are joined in progress as RVD is rolling some thunder on Rollins. Van Dam has his arm wrapped up after the attack from Del Rio last week on Raw and the Shield exploits that. Tag to Ziggler, his series of elbow drops on Ambrose are interrupted by Rollins. When he lunges after Rollins, Ziggler turns back around into a spinebuster. Now he gets worked over to set up a hot tag to Kingston. Before that, Rollins snapped RVD’s injured arm on the top rope that he stuck out to reach for a tag in a nice moment. Kingston’s big comeback includes the Boom Drop on Ambrose. He misses Trouble in Paradise, but gets a nearfall after a flying body press out of the corner. Rollins makes the save, but Ziggler nails him with the Famouser. As Ziggler gets up, Reigns drills him with the Spear. Van Dam surprises Reigns with a springboard thrust kick. As they go to the floor, RVD delivers a moonsault press off the apron. Again Kingston sets up for Trouble in Paradise for Ambrose, but here comes Reigns to take it instead. Ambrose sneaks a rollup on Kingston, but Kofi reverses the rollup, allowing Rollins to run in and deliver the Blackout. Ambrose turns Kingston over for the win in 8:00 shown. The Shield killing it again this week with great tag team work and a frantic finishing sequence to boot. ***

Renee speaks with the Big Show backstage. She wants to know how he’s doing these past couple of weeks knocking out people he doesn’t want to knock out. Long story short, he’s a wreck. Triple H comes by and tells him that maybe this job isn’t for him anymore. Maybe COOHHH can get him a job as a door man or a job as a baggage carrier at an airport. Oh wait, you’re not a regular-sized guy who can just have a regular job. Basically, he’s calling Show a circus freak. Show gets a tad angry and balls up his fist wanting to punch out Triple H so bad, but cooler heads prevail and he walks away. Go punch a wall or something, man.

– Non-title match: WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee (w/Tamina) vs. Cameron (w/Naomi)

AJ Lee and Naomi had a good Divas match last week. Let’s see what Cameron can do as AJ continues to go through the cast of ‘Total Divas’. AJ has also got Tamina as her new bodyguard, so she should be okay in case the other Divas try and gang up on her again. From what I saw here, Cameron is no Naomi. She does a split on AJ, but that’s about it. Her flying body press is a little off, too. Naomi gets pulled into AJ’s trap by talking smack and gets laid out by Tamina. Shining Wizard by AJ ends Cameron in 2:40. ½*

After the break, Paul Heyman comes out to talk to us. Without saying a word, he points to the TitanTron to show us Heyman pinning CM Punk after Ryback appeared and did the deed at Night of Champions. Heyman is quite disappointed by the response because the WWE Universe shouldn’t be that surprised that he pinned CM Punk. When their blood lust for Heyman is at its peak, Punk is going to fail. He calls the people myopic for not realizing this fact. They show a clip from last week on Raw when Heyman set up a trap for CM Punk when his rascal scooter died on the ramp way. Punk jumped at the chance to beat up Heyman when he was then attacked by both Ryback and Curtis Axel. What led from there was pretty awesome. Punk managed to take out Axel, but received a press slam off a part of the stage through a table by Ryback. Back to Smackdown, Heyman thanks Axel and Ryback for helping him put the plan together, but also thanks the WWE Universe that drove Punk to come after him the way he does. Further proof of that fact is that Punk has signed a contract to face Ryback at WWE Battleground on October 6 LIVE on PPV! On that night, history will repeat itself as Punk will again fall to Paul Heyman, and the fans are the ones to blame.

– Santino Marella (w/The Great Khali & Hornswoggle) vs. Heath Slater (w/Drew McIntyre & Jinder Mahal)

What a goofier than normal match this turned out to be. Jinder Mahal and Great Khali get into a cobra charming flute battle. Yes, this actually happened. Of course, Michael Cole thinks this is the funniest thing ever. While McIntyre distracts Khali away from his flute playing, Mahal continues to play the flute causing the Cobra to get close to Santino’s face. Hornswoggle pulls Mahal off the apron and breaks the flute over his knee. Khali gets back up on the apron and plays the flute again to help Santino hit the Cobra on Slater for the win in 3:00. WRESTLE CRAP.

Los Matadores debut this coming Monday night on Raw!

We get a lengthy series of clips showcasing the latest happenings with the Rhodes family. I hope this ends with Goldust getting a permanent job. Then we get a WWE.com exclusive interview (no longer exclusive to WWE.com) with Triple H. He does what is best for business by offering the Rhodes family an open forum to speak their mind this coming week on Raw. Triple H also has a lucrative proposition for them that he thinks they will be interested in hearing.

Next, Cody Rhodes and Goldust tell us straight from a camera phone that they will be at Raw on Monday night.

– Randy Orton vs. The Miz

Being incensed, Miz fares pretty well against Orton to start. Just to be clear, Miz’s parents aren’t sitting in the front row. HHH did not fly them in again to watch their son get beat up again. Miz misses the Awesome Clothesline and apparently hurts his collar bone. As he rolls to the outside, Orton pulls him back onto the apron by his hair while a trainer is trying to check on him. There’s a DDT through the ropes and Orton shoves the ref away when he’s trying to punch on Miz to cause a DQ in 3:00. COOHHH comes out and refuses to let that be the end, so he orders the match to continue under no-DQ rules, which I guess means ‘no rules’. We get a repeat beatdown from the one we saw in Cleveland. Miz brings a chair into the mix, but can’t back it up. Orton gives Miz a DDT off the barricade straight onto the floor and drags him back into the ring. With Miz completely out of it, Orton picks him up only to drop him back down again with an RKO. The three-count is academic in about 8:00 total. Orton basks in the hatred expressed by the crowd while another trainer checks on the Miz. Just another week to put over the evil nature of the Randy Orton character. That’s okay, but I wanted more out of this match. I’ll explain further in the closing paragraph. *½

Final Thoughts: A real hit-or-miss show this week with fewer hits than misses. I would have liked to have seen Miz give a more fired up babyface performance especially since it was no-DQ. I know they were selling the knockout punch from Big Show, but the “injury” came off really weak. Then at least the win for Orton would have seemed more impressive. I also understand that the Miz isn’t on Orton’s level right now, but this shouldn’t be regular Miz if he’s truly motivated with a big opportunity. I hope that makes sense. Anyways, the Shield produce their weekly good TV match, so that’s certainly something that you can like.

Matt’s Smackdown Top Five:
1) The Shield (the ‘good match’ streak continues)
2) Antonio Cesaro (that big swing is something to behold)
3) Titus O’Neil (for taking the big swing and doing the penalty flag bit)
4) Kofi Kingston (great hot tag and I’m digging him more than ever right now)
5) Paul Heyman (he never runs out of interesting things to say about Punk)