wrestling / TV Reports
411’s WWE Smackdown Report 1.18.13
Hello and welcome to 411’s Smackdown recap. Here’s to hoping for some good wrasslin’ tonight. SHOW… ON!
Welcome to 411’s LIVE WWE Smackdown Report 1.18.13
Championship Roll Call:
WWE Champion: CM Punk
World Champion: Alberto Del Rio
US Champion: Antonio Cesaro
IC Champion: Wade Barrett
Unified Diva’s Champion: Kaitlyn
WWE World Tag Team Champions: Kane & Daniel Bryan
THEN. NOW. FOREVER.
Fiesta Del Rio to kick off the show~! The ring is decorated along with a band and dancer for the occasion. Pretty much what you’d expect a fiesta to look like on WWE TV. Ya know? Ricardo Rodriguez welcomes us and introduces Alberto Del Rio. BIG (canned) POP! Alberto wants to party! Here comes Ziggler with Big E and AJ! That didn’t take long. AJ says that they’re going to assume their invitations were lost in the mail. Alberto says that this isn’t Ziggler’s party but it’s his “friend’s” party as he points to the crowd. 90% of the crowd is on their hands but they cranked it up to ten on the pop meter. Dolph says that he’s going to cash in and threatens Alberto. He asks Alberto what would happen if Big E knocked him out and Ziggler cashed in right there. Alberto tells him to try and Big Show interrupts.
Here comes Big Show. I like the hood on Show. What do you guys think? This type of stuff is important to me. Del Rio’s actually doing a pretty good job right now. I think he’s going to pull off maintaining his character while changing disposition. Ziggler tells Alberto that he’s outnumbered now and that brings out Sheamus. “Everybody knows Sheamus can’t resist a Fiesta Del Rio!” He mentions that last time they were in Texas he tried to steal Alberto’s car. Sheamus says that he knows that Alberto deserves to be champion and that it’d be an honor to be the first to shake his hand. Well I’m sure somebody’s given him a handshake by now. A little late to the party, Sheamus. The face/heel lines are drawn and we’re about to see some brawling before Booker T interrupts. What’s he doing out here? He books a TAG TEAM MAIN EVENT EXTRAVAGANZA~! And then sends the heels packing. Booker restarts the fiesta and gives us a spin-a-rooni to make us smile. Sheamus dances something awful with the dancer as we head to break. It looks like Alberto will manage to maintain his “cool heel” vibe that so many wrestlers lose when they start pandering. Also, Big Show and Booker’s frustrations with each other are starting to become more than just good guy/bad guy headbutting. Maybe we’ll see a match down the line.
JOBBER ENTRANCE FOR CESARO! He waves the United States flag to some heat before the bell. Kofi seems to be keeping his “aggressive” shtick going as he charges at Cesaro and delivers a flurry of punches in the early going. Cesaro sends him face first into the bottom turnbuckle to slow the match down in his favor. Cesaro dead lifts him up for the gut wrench and gets two. He jumps up and stomps on Kofi’s chest for another two. Cesaro applies the headlock but Kofi quickly fights out and picks up the pace. We get a nice little roll up sequence before Kingston hits the S,O.S for two. Kingston goes for a hurricanrana off the top rope but Cesaro catches him and HITS THE NEUTRALIZER~! THREE COUNT. Wow. These guys really maximized their TV time here. Also, I think we can all agree that the match made up for the lack of a Cesaro entrance. Where does Kofi go from here though?
OFFICIAL RESULT: Antonio Cesaro @ 3:00 via pinfall
RATING: *3/4
– Miz has a run in with Primo, Epico, and Rosa backstage. We get a little back and forth verbal exchange before Miz takes off.
I wouldn’t have been upset over more Cesaro/Kingston in favor of this. Maybe this was a last minute fix. “Cut seven from Cesaro/Kingston! We have to get Khali on the card!” Khali pushes him into the corner and gives him some chops. Another corner. Another set of chops. Tensai fights back and hits him with a huge splash in the corner! Khali goes down and Tensai gets ruthless with knees. The ref pulls him back before five. He runs back at Khali and catches a boot and a chop over the head for the loss. Tensai’s burst of offense was the only thing interesting about this. The crowd seemed to react to that too. I say put them in a rematch next week and let Tensai go over. It seems like Cole and Matthews are trying to repair his character on commentary as well. He may not be a lost cause yet.
OFFICIAL RESULT: The Great Khali @ a minute via pinfall
RATING: 1/2*
– We’re flies on the wall of Daniel Bryan and Kane’s locker room now. Kane makes a comment about Cody’s mustache and Daniel says that some people just don’t understand when their facial hair starts to look ridiculous. Kane says “yeah, tell me about it”. Daniel wants to know what he means by that but Kane doesn’t want to tell him. This leads to a no and yes fest until the camera pans over to Orton standing beside them. He says that they’re acting like they’re in second grade. He tries to get them focused. They play up their similar anger issues and Bryan says that after they win they’re going to have a group hug. Bryan would be a PERFECT foil for Randy Orton to turn on.
Alright, Orton’s starting off with Rhodes. Cody tries to get an early advantage with a cheap shot but Orton catches him in the act. This gives him control and he gives Kane a quick tag. Kane’s holding on to the arm and hits a short armed clothesline for two. He tags in Bryan who grabs the arm and tries to break it over his shoulder. Bryan pummels Cody with kicks as we go to…
Sandow’s isolating Kane as we come back from break. Elbow of Disdain for two. In comes Barrett now. He corners Kane and gives him some strikes to the ribs in the corner. Kane charges at him but gets caught in a Black Hole Slam. Nearfall and in comes Rhodes. He goes for the Disaster Kick but Kane catches him with a strike to the face. Sandow in. He tries to catch Kane before he can tag out but Kane gives him a back body drop and in comes Orton! Orton cleans house! Power slams for the Rhodes Scholars. Daniel Bryan hits the running knee on Barrett outside the ring! It’s breaking down in the ring still. Cody reverses an RKO and hits the Cross Rhodes on Orton! Two count! Kane throws out Cody. Sandow throws out Kane. Orton gives Sandow an RKO! It’s over. What’s up with all of the short matches tonight?
OFFICIAL RESULT: Randy Orton and Team Hell No @ 4:57 aired via pinfall
RATING: **
– Kane and Bryan want a group hug after the match. Kane goes in for the hug and Bryan quickly follows. Orton’s trying to keep composure as Daniel Bryan and Kane bring him in for a warm embrace. He’s looking mad as his music starts to play again. He eventually gets over it and poses on the top rope. Yay!
– Raw Rebound: We get a Rock Concert/main event segment recap.
– I CAME TO PLAY! Miz makes his way down to the ring as we head for another…
They circle each other and we’re off to the races. They circle each other. Side headlock, Irish whip, shoulder block, taunt. Miz wins the next exchange and begins to deliver his patented running knees to Primo. Primo catches him with his own running knee. That folks, is what I call PSYCHOLOGY~! He chokes Miz on the top rope. Primo gets aggressive and attacks Miz with punches. Outside the ring, Rosa is looking hotttttttt. Back in the ring and Primo hits a nice dropkick for TWO. Miz fights his way free and he dishes out a flurry of blows. Giggity Goo! Primo somehow gets out of that whole situation, knocks Miz down, and gets another TWO count. Primo hits a float over for two. He locks on another headlock and Miz fights out rather quickly. Boo/Yes punches without the Boo/Yes chants. Miz hits the vintage corner clothesline and then connects with a nice ax handle from up top. Epico provides a distraction and Primo gives Miz a shoulder block. He locks in his own Figure Four but Miz quickly counters. Primo taps. I don’t like Miz running with the Figure Four. Do you guys think that this is what they were originally planning for Dolph/Flair? Primo got in more offense than I had expected going in and that always makes the match more fun. At one point, JBL took a jab by saying that The Dudley Boyz never made it as single stars. I doubt he even knew it was a jab but he still made it.
OFFICIAL RESULT: The Miz @ 5:20 via Figure Four
RATING: *3/4
– Kaitlyn is backstage with some divas that are gawking at her new Diva’s championship. Layla grabs it and says that she forgot how heavy the title was. She looks at for a bit too long before Kaitlyn takes it away. FORESHADOWING. Kaitlyn is really bad at doing the walking forward in front of the camera thing.
No entrance for Aksana. Bell rings and Aksana wants a handshake. She pushes Kaitlyn’s face instead and the two lock up. More circling. Another lock up. Kaitlyn takes down Aksana and hits a nice suplex. She floats over for a two count. She rolls under the ropes to go to the top but Aksana pushes her to the outside. Aksana rolls her in and gets two. Headlock applied. Kaitlyn tries to escape the hold before they rol around for the cat fight spot. Aksana gets the better of that and delivers some knees to Kaitlyn in the corner. She runs back at Kaitlyn again and delivers some stiff blows. The ref pulls her off and when she charges at Aksana for a second time she gets caught with the spear to a decent pop. Match was okay.
OFFICIAL RESULT: Kaitlyn @ 3:28 via pinfall
RATING: 3/4*
– Mick Foley’s HoF induction video plays.
– Another self-recorded promo from The Shield airs. They air their grievances with Mick Foley, Ryback, Sheamus, and Randy Orton. The stuff Ambrose said is pretty much along the same lines as the altercation he had with Foley last year. Entertaining stuff from The Shield.
– Randy Orton is watching The Shield’s promo on the TV in his locker room when Sheamus walks in. So does his TV show him and Sheamus on it? Or how does that work? They tease a Rumble altercation. Orton is slowly starting to seem interesting again with these confrontations with faces.
Ricardo gives us an extra long “Alberto” tonight. Ziggler and Alberto start us off. They exchange some arm wringers. Dolph misses a charge and walks into a scoop slam. Alberto goes upstairs. Dolph moves and Alberto notices in time to roll away. He catches Ziggler and pulls him to his corner. In comes Sheamus. Sheamus holds Ziggler up for like ten seconds before dropping him with the powerslam for a two count. Ziggler slips out of an Irish Curse and and tags in Show. Big Show steamrolls Sheamus into the corner. Head butt knocks Sheamus outside. Big E tries to attack Sheamus but gets pushed away. The two have a standoff and the referee sends Langston to the back. Now AJ is in the ring and she’s going crazy on the ref. She’s sent to the back as well.
Sheamus in as we come back from break and he’s dominating Ziggler with quick strikes and clotheslines. He goes upstairs but Show shoves him down to the floor. The referee begins the ten count as Ziggler recovers. Sheamus rolls in and Ziggler stomps on him immediately before he can get to his feet. He drags Sheamus to the corner and in comes Big Show. Big Show drops a couple of elbow drops and then delivers a scoop slam. Sheamus crawls to the ropes and Big Show chokes him on the bottom rope with his foot. Sheamus fights out of a submission and crawls to his corner. He almost makes the tag to ADR but Show drops an elbow on him. He pulls Sheamus back to the middle of the ring before delivering a flurry of open hand chops. Sheamus runs at Show but gets a side slam for his troubles. Kick out at two by Sheamus! Big Show is headed to the second rope for a Vader Bomb, Kick out at 2! Show goes back up again and Sheamus rolls out of the way! Big impact! Here we go with a 10 count! HOT TAG. Del Rio’s in! He hits an awesome tilt-a-whirl back breaker on Ziggler and follows up with a super kick to the head for two. ADR signals for a cross arm breaker. Big Show drops the leg to break it up. Sheamus lifts Big Show up though! White Noise! ADR gives Big Show an enziguri off of the apron! Alberto throws a bucket of water on Big Show’s face and Big Show walks up the ramp. Balloons fall come down. Fiesta time. The match was about what you’d expect from a Smackdown main event tag.
OFFICIAL RESULT: Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus @ 11:35 aired via count out
RATING: ***
OVERALL This week’s episode was solid yet unspectacular. There wasn’t as much wrestling as normal but everything that we got was pretty good. Cesaro looked impressive, Alberto’s face turn continues to move forward, and the seeds are being planted for an Orton heel turn that I couldn’t be more ready for. Check out the main event if you’re a Smackdown main event tag team match completest. Or, you know, if you just like Smackdown.
Thank you for reading! I’ll see you guys on Wednesday for the Main Event recap.
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma
More Trending Stories
- Note On Possible WWE Storyline & Faction For The Creed Brothers (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)
- Tony Khan Weighs In On Warning From Oklahoma Athletic Commission Over Nyla Rose Match
- Backstage Update on WWE’s Plans for WrestleMania 41, Possible Move to March or May
- Jim Ross Recalls Dustin Rhodes Being Fired From WCW For Not Following No-Blood Policy
