Friday Night Smackdown
June 7, 2013
Uniondale, New York
We get a video package previewing the evening’s festivities, then Michael Cole welcomes us to Nassau Coliseum for Smackdown. We begin with a little MIZ TV, and out comes The Miz. Miz welcomes us to the broadcast and he introduces Randy Orton, followed by Team Hell No. Before Miz can start anything, Daniel Bryan doesn’t want the pot stirred. The crowd is chanting his name very loudly. He says “Randy I know you didn’t intentionally hit me” and he tells Kane “You’re the best partner I’ve ever had”. At this point the violent rain storms that pelted the Northeast wreaked havoc with my DirecTV and I lost the rest of the promo. It appears that Bryan and Kane got into another fight and Kane walked off. When the weather calmed down I was in the middle of this match.
MATCH: Chris Jericho vs. Curtis Axel
Paul Heyman joined the broadcast team for this one as Cole is trying to stir the pot, saying Heyman forced CM Punk into his Payback match with Jericho. The match is going back and forth, with Axel kicking out of the Walls a few times. Jericho finally gets the Walls ratcheted and Axel’s trying to get to the ropes and makes it. Jericho drop kicks him to the floor, until suddenly CM Punk’s music hits and the place goes nuts. Curtis Axel rolls Jericho up out of nowhere and gets the three count. Brilliant! That’s good booking. Punk’s music hit and the crowd popped like crazy. That’s a sign.
An upset Jericho gets back in the ring and gives Axel the Codebreaker, then glares at Heyman.
Backstage Ryback and Kane get in each other’s face as they face each other later tonight. Kane says “I’ve done so much, Ryback’s Rules don’t apply to me.”
We get another incredibly awesome vignette for the Wyatt Family.
We go back to Monday night and the Triple H/McMahon saga. All booked at 7:57pm that night. If you read my Raw recap, it showed.
MATCH: Alberto Del Rio vs. Heath Slater
Sadly, I think the loss of Dolph Ziggler to television has caused serious Del Rio overkill. Being on every week and facing Big E Langston every week has hurt him. The bookers really screwed the pooch on how to handle Dolph’s injury. Del Rio takes Mahal and McIntyre out and Slater taps to the Arm Breaker in two seconds, but the match technically never started. So there’s guys all over the ring, then Ricardo throws himself off the top rope to the floor taking the two guys out. So it seems like a no-contest? Whatever.
MATCH: Ryback vs. Kane
This is my kind of match, two hosses pummeling each other. Kane dominated the action early, but Ryback takes over and grabs some tables. Kane regains control with punches before anything happens. I’m going to miss Kane whenever he retires (or becomes a politician). They continue to have a stinking good brawl until Ryback gets DQ’ed for power bombing Kane into a table. I wish this match could have gone longer. What a hoss brawl.
We return and the great Damien Sandow is in the ring. I wonder what tremendous skit is going to be ruined by the usual Sheamus nonsense. He says “I’ve tried to engage Sheamus in mental battles, which he has failed every time”. Sandow says no one is his intellectual equal. He says “I’ve seen preschools with higher standards than Nassau Community College.” He says “Everyone has checker minds in a chess world.” SILENCE! Only a supercomputer can match his intellect. So Deep Blue is in the ring, the computer that defeated Gasparov in chess. He starts playing chess with the computer, then out comes Mr. Babyface Buzzkill himself, Sheamus. He strokes Sandow’s ego, and he has a challenge for him. Sheamus says he can beat Deep Blue in one move. Sandow warns him but Sheamus wants to try anyway. He keeps stalling and Sandow is firing nice quips like “I feel like its an orangutan doing a crossword puzzle.” As was totally expected, Sheamus Brogue Kicked the monitor. Sandow sucker punches him and starts whaling away. He throws Sheamus into the table and keeps smashing Sheamus’ head into it. Good for him. It’s about time Sheamus got some of his own medicine. Of course Sandow will lose the match they’ll have because the writers suck at life, but whatever.
Backstage Daniel Bryan is warming up when Randy Orton comes in and lets him know Kane was with the trainers. Bryan doesn’t care and warns Orton to stay out of his way tonight against Reigns/Rollins. Orton says “I’m not your partner. I don’t like partners and I don’t like you.”
Wow a second Wyatt Family vignette. What a special treat. That music they play is friggin’ creepy as shit.
MATCH: Fandango vs. Zack Ryder
Zack gets the hometown pop from the Long Island faithful. Ryder got some offense in on the “Dancing Skittle” but the co-#1 contender for the IC Title wins with his finisher.
We get a “Ryback Rampage” vignette of all the table carnage he’s caused the past few weeks.
Natalya finds Kaitlyn, who says she will meet her “secret admirer” on Raw Monday. Natalya says that’s great but is Raw the right venue? Kaitlyn is offended and storms off.
MATCH: Rollins & Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan & Randy Orton
I’m not sure what the announcers are trying to do in terms of Bryan’s character. Are they turning him face, or heel? Weird but he wouldn’t tag into Orton for the first portion of the match until Orton tagged himself in and dominated Rollins until Reigns saved. Orton then gets worked over by Reigns for a while until Bryan is tagged in and goes all kick happy and the crowd is going crazy. Bryan is throwing himself all over the place and the crowd loves it. I’m still not sure how they’re painting his character though. He hits Rollins with a flying head butt but Reigns breaks the count. Orton RKO’s Reigns but Rollins takes over. Bryan goes for a drop kick but boots Orton by mistake. Bryan has Rollins in the NO Lock but Ambrose breaks the pin and we have a DQ finish.
After the match Bryan clears the ring but eats an Orton RKO as receipt for the screw-up. I don’t think that’s a heel turn for Orton, it’s merely a receipt. With that we’re out.
SCOTT’S TAKE: Not a bad show, with good matches and yes two Wyatt Family vignettes. Keep ‘em coming.
Scott’s Smackdown Top 5:
1) Dolph Ziggler
2) Alberto Del Rio
3) Dean Ambrose
4) Rollins/Reigns
5) Randy Orton
