411’s Smackdown Report 07.12.13

Welcome all!

Michael Benjamin is once again detained, or better be since I’m dragging my sick arse outta bed to do this as cover.

OK, enough from my whiney self.

You’re watching….

“Live” from Hampton, VA!

Match #1: Daniel Bryan vs. Christiancolor= 0033ff>
Lock up to start. Bryan into an arm bar. Christian whips him into the ropes and gets a shoulder block then a second rope drop kick for two. Bryan drives the shoulder in Christians midsection on a charge, nails a couple of kicks and then gets the running knee as we go the break…

…we’re back as Christian is in control but is favouring his left shoulder, the attempted cross body from the top rope misses. Bryan misses the diving head butt from the top rope himself and both men are down. They’re up, Christian tries the second rope tornado DDT but Bryan throws him off and starts to lay in the YES! kicks. He misses the big one to the head, Christian hits the reverse DDT as he’s still favouring his shoulder. He calls for the spear but Bryan catches him with a kick and finishes off the YES! kick to the head for a two count. In the corner and Bryan lays in more kicks Corner-to-running running drop kick on Christian but a second one gets cut-off by a spear as Bryan kicks out at two. Crowd starts chanting this is awesome. Christian fails to properly engage the Killswitch and Bryan works him down into the No Lock but Christian throws him off. They struggle some more before DB finally gets the No Lock on as Christian taps. Crowd chants Yes in appreciation

Winner – Daniel Bryan via submission. Crowd seemed to like this match and while it was good, I wouldn’t say it was awesome as the chants suggest. For what it was it was all action and I would like to see what was cut for the ad break. ***

++++

Teddy Long and Dolph Ziggler are backstage. Teddy advises Ziggler he has the night off. Dolph isn’t happy about that and Long explains since Alberto Del Rio is wrestling tonight he wants to make sure Ziggler doesn’t interfere. He doesn’t want to be fired like Vicky Guerrero. Dolph isn’t happy and claims Long is now chumming it up to ADR.

Match #2: Seth Rollins vs. Jey Usocolor= 0033ff>
Lock up to start. Rollins goes behind but Uso fights out into a hammer lock. Rollins breaks free and goes for an Irish whip, Uso reverses into an elbow. Uso runs the ropes and hits a clothesline on a seated Rollins for a two count. Uso up to the second rope but Rollins catches him brings home down and gets a suplex for a two count. Running forearm into the corner also draws a 2 count as Rollins goes for a rear chin lock. Uso fights his way up as Rollins walks him around to each corner ramming Uso’s head into each turnbuckle. By the third turnbuckle Uso has had enough and starts to hulk up, nails a charging Rollins with a couple of right hands, gets a superkick and backs Rollins into the corner with another right hand and hits a corner splash. Jey then nails the Rikishi asrse charge to the corner and Roman Reigns is up to distract. Jimmy takes him out with a clothesline as Rollins misses his own corner splash, Jey nails a massive Samoan Drop for a two count. Reigns gets his revenge on Jimmy on the outside and this distracts Jey long enough for Rollins to his the running knee to the head of the pinfall.

Winner: Seth Rollins via pinfall. This is a peppy little match that was all go from bell to bell. The Uso’s are uber talented but have been booked so poorly that it was hard to give a shit about Jey in this match. **

++++

Match #3: Curtis Axel vs. Chris Jerichocolor= 0033ff>
Curtis attacks Jericho at the bell. Jericho gets whipped to the corner and catches Curtis with an elbow on the corner charge. Jericho lays in some more chops and hits a reverse elbow off an Irish whip. 2nd rope drop kick and Jericho takes control with a series of kicks and forearms. Curtis starts to fight back but misses a corner charge and hits shoulder into the post. Jericho goes for a Codebreaker but Axel catches him and turns it into a hotshot onto the turnbuckle but that only gets a two count as we go to the ad break…

…we’re back as Curtis is still in control. 2nd rope elbow drop gets a two count. Axel then racks his forearm across Jericho’s eyes just to be a dick. He whips Jericho into the ropes and goes for the back drop, Jericho counters with a kick, nails a running forearm and hits a northern lights suplex for a 2 count. Jericho goes for the Walls of Jericho but Axel throws him off, catches Jericho in what I can only describe as a snap side-suplex and that gets a two. Curtis backs him Jericho into the corner, lays in the punches and whips him to the other corner. He eats a kick on the corner charge however, Jericho goes up top, cross body gets two, Curtis rolls away from a Lionsault. Axels gets a neckbreaker for two. He goes for a bodyslam, Jericho slides out and goes for the Walls but Curtis rolls him up for a two count. Jericho gets a Shinning Wizard and that gets two. Jericho body drops Axel over the top ropes but missed the baseball slide to the outside and Axel nails a clothesline. Jericho rolls back in and catches Axel with a Codebreaker as he tries to come back in. The count out starts and Curtis fails to answer and Jericho wins.

Curtis loses his mind at that decision.

Winner: Chris Jericho via count out. Very good match. This was Curtis Axel going 50/50 with a main eventer and holding his end with ease. While the WWE need for parity booking rears it’s head, this was a creative count out win at least and thankfully Axel sold his disgust. ***1/4

++++

Match #4: Miz vs. Rybackcolor= 0033ff>
Miz controls early but Ryback gains control with his usual arsenal of power moves. Miz tries to keep coming back but Ryback easily keeps control. Miz is down, Ryback goes for a splash but Miz gets the knees up and suddenly takes control. Drop kick to Rybacks knee and a running knee lift to the head and Miz is in charge. He nails his clothesline into the corner and nails an axe handle from the top rope. He attempts the figure four leglock but Ryback fights it off. Miz keeps working the knee and backs Ryback into the corner. Miz charges, Ryback goes to kick him in the face, Miz catches the leg and hyper extends it and Ryback is down. The ref asks if he Ryback can continue. The answer is yes and Miz gets caught with his guard down by a clothesline. Ryback goes for the Shellshock and even though the knee looks like it’s going to give he hits it for the win.

Winner: Ryback via pinfall. I dreaded this match and the first 2 minutes were as good as you would fear. However, the last 4 minutes were good if not confused. Ryback is the heel. If he got hurt he should be a chicken shit and roll out for the cheap ending. Instead he played the fighting babyface role and got the heroic win. I give up on WWE booking. *3/4

Sheamus gets interviewed backstage.

Teddy Long is in the ring with the Divas. We’re going to do the A.J Lee/Caitlyn contract signing.

It’s about here I should point out that my dreaded case of man-flu is hitting hard. I’m sorry if the recapping becomes relatively brief from this point as the sirens call of bed is hailing me

A.J rants about how the Divas hate Caitlyn and should love her. She signs. Caitlyn signs. AJ pulls out a cell phone and reads off disparaging texts Caitlyn made to Big E about the other Divas. Caitlyn calls AJ a needy, man-crazed psychopath. AJ slaps her. Caitlyn goes nuts and destroys AJ. Big E pulls her off. She slaps him and then spears AJ outta her sneaker. This did not suck.

++++

Match #5: Fandango vs. Wade Barrettcolor= 0033ff>
Zeb Colter is down for commentary with Jack Swagger and Antonio Ceasaro.

Short match as Barrett controls out of the gate. The Rhodes Scholars are out about 30 seconds in and jaw with Zeb and the gang, Barrett is distracted and Fandango hits the enziguri for the win.

Winner: Fandango by pinfall. Poor Wade…who did you piss off? Nothing match. DUD

++++

Match #6: Alberto Del Rio vs. Sin Caracolor= 0033ff>
Match never gets satrted as it’s obviously Dolph Ziggler in the Cara gimmick. He destroys ADR. Cole sells it as Sin Cara using Dolph’s moves and JBL is incredulous.

Winner: No contest. N/R

Michael Cole lets us know that Kane is out of the Money in the Bank match thanks to the Wyatt Family. We get a recap of their debut from RAW.

++++

Teddy chases down Sin Cara thinking it’s Dolph. Suddenly Dolph is standing there as well. Confusion.

Match #7: Sheamus vs. Randy Ortoncolor= 0033ff>
The first 5 minutes of the match is these guys just beating the piss out of each other. Because of my ability to barely stay awake at this point let me just say I’m talking a good old fashioned fight. I don’t think you need me doing a blow-by-blow account to get the picture. Neither guy can keep control for long enough before the other fights back. Heading down the stretch…

Sheamus hits an Irish Curse for two as both men are favouring their lower back. Sheamus goes for a White Noise but Randy slips out and hits the backbreaker for a two count. Randy tries his hanging DDT but Sheamus backdrops him over the rope onto the apron. Sheamus gets his clubbering forearms to the chest, running senton by Sheamus as he calls for the Brogue kick. Randy ducks it, Sheamus up to the 2nd rope, Orton stops him and nails his hanging DDT as he calls for the RKO. Crowd is going fucking nuts. Sheamus pushes off the RKO attempt, goes up to the top rope, Orton crotches him on the turnbuckle. Orton goes for the superplex but they both fall off the top rope to the floor and the ref begins to count them out. But wait…

Daniel Bryan is out, he pulls a ladder from under the ring, Orton and Sheamus come back in, they get nailed by Bryan causing a DQ. He climbs the ladder to get the MiTB briefcase but Sheamus stops him and tries to get the case himself. Christian comes out, stops Sheamus and tries for the case but Sheamus intervenes. Both men climb up, Christian knocks off Sheamus, almost gets the case but Bryan is back in, he goes up but Orton is now back in the ring and hits Bryan with the RKO, he climbs, gets the briefcase as the show ends.

Winner: Double DQ. Although I didn’t recap the first 7 minutes (of which I apologise) this was a match that was heading right up into the excellent category. It was a good, ol’ fashion smash mouth fight affair and if the match didn’t get cut off by the silly run-ins and given another 5-7 minutes we would have been into easy **** territory. As it stand, thanks to the ending we had I’m giving it ***

Overall; We only got one RAW recap and the rest of was about the wrestling. We had three ***+ a **+ and one very near to **. If the main event had a proper finish and the filler matches were given some time this would have been an excellent PPV. The AJ/Caitlyn segment was surprisingly good and effective. We had some good Ziggler shenanigans and nothing overstayed it welcome. Good show.