411’s WWE Smackdown Report 11.08.13

Welcome to another Smackdown report! We continue moving forward to Survivor Series as WWE presses the big ol’ reset button on a lot of stories. Lets check out the show, shall we?

Championship Roll Call:
WWE Champion: Randy Orton
World Champion: John Cena
US Champion: Dean Ambrose
IC Champion: Curtis Axel
Diva’s Champion: AJ Lee
WWE World Tag Team Champions: Cody Rhodes and Goldust.

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WWE Smackdown Report 11.8.13

– We open up the show with a Wyatt Family video package. They recap the assaults on Punk and Bryan.

– CM Punk heads down to the ring and says that The Wyatt Family is targeting him for being the best in the world. Nobody knows why they do what they do but he’s here to do that. He’s taken out the biggest rat in the WWE, Paul Heyman, and he’s here to take them out right now. Curtis Axel interrupts. He doesn’t care about the Wyatts. They can wait in line. Axel has unfinished business with Punk. Punk put his father figure out of action. Axel is going to make him proud though. He got permission from Vickie to go one on one. with Punk and that match is now!

Curtis Axel vs. CM Punk Axel attacks right out of the gate. He corners Punk and delivers knife edge chops and jabs. He whips him into another corner and charges into an elbow. Punk goes upstairs and hits an axe handle. Punk returns the chops to Axel. Punk targets the leg of Axel and begins kicking it out from beneath Axel Axel grabs Punk by the tights and sends him head first into the middle turnbuckle to regain momentum. Punk tosses him to the outside and delivers a front faced suplex. He drops Axel over the barricade as we head to break.

-Commercial Break-

Punk goes for a GTS as we return. Axel escapes and rolls to the outside but ends up getting hit with a baseball slide. Punk goes back to work and Axel turns the tide now. He hits Punk with a back breaker and drops an elbow from the middle rope for two. Punk fights back with chops. He misses a crossbody and Axel hits a stiff lariat for two. Punk doesn’t let that mess up his game for too long and comes back with a back suplex. Both men make it to their feet at 5 off a 10 count and Punk delivers a dropkick and a swinging neck breaker. TWO. Punk goes upstairs for elbow drop and the lights go out to the Wyatt Family sound effect. Axel hits a lariat from behind when the lights turn on. TWO. That was a great near fall. The crowd rallies behind Punk and Axel pummels him on the mat. Punk escapes a neck breaker and hits the GTS for the three count.

This was a very good match. Punk took on a majority of the offense which helped the match from dragging like some Axel matches do. The false finish after the lights went out was a really nice touch as well. I’m not complaining if creative doesn’t want to stay behind Curtis Axel at this point, but they should probably get the IC title off him sooner than later.

OFFICIAL RESULT: CM Punk @ 9:45 aired via pinfall
RATING: ***

– Bray Wyatt is heard laughing after the match. The lights turn off again and their tron intro shows up. Wyatt blows out the flame and we go to break. Kind of a weird ending to the segment.

-Commercial Break-

The Usos and R-Truth vs.3MB Slater starts off with Jey. I can’t remember the last time Slater didn’t start a match for 3MB. The Usos quick tag and beat up Slater until he can escape and tag in Jinder. Jinder hits the scene with a running knee strike for two. He tags in McIntye. Slater and Mahal hit a double assisted suplex for two. 3MB are making very quick tags and doing a great job. We get a triple team back breaker as Slater gets back into the thick of things and locks in a headlock on Jimmy. Slater goes for a scoop slam that ends up resulting in him taking an enziguri. Jinder Mahal tags in but falls victim to an atomic drop, R-Truth comes in and takes it to Mahal with funky jabs and kicks. WHAT’S UP!? He hits the Lie Detector and Slater breaks it up. The Usos send Slater and Mcintyre to the outside and hit stereo crossbodys. Truth finishes off Mahal with his finisher for the win.

This was a fun little tag team match. It definitely didn’t light the world on fire but they did what they could with their alotted four minutes. 3MB are actually improving quite a bit still. They’re gelling as a unit more than ever and coming up with some nice team moves.

OFFICIAL RESULT: R-Truth and The Usos @ 4:02 via pinfall
RATING: **

-Commercial Break-

– AJ cuts a pretape promo ripping Total Divas and putting over herself and her title reign. So AJ loses the title for the season finale, right?

AJ Lee and Tamina Snuka vs. The Funkadactyls The faces take out Tamina almost right off the bat with a double clothesline to the outside. Cameron goes for a dropkick through the bottom ropes but Tamina stops that from happening and lands on the floor. Tamina rolls her in and covers for two. AJ tags in and goes to work on Cameron. She goes for the submission to wear Cameron out. The announcers aren’t talking about anything but Total Divas. Naomi tags in after AJ got hit with a kick to the face. She hits a crossbody and covers AJ for two. She charges at AJ but hits the corner. Cameron hits a nice bulldog for two on a fresh Tamina. She goes upstairs for a huricanrana but Tamina turns it into a powerbomb. TWO. Naomi breaks it up. Tamina grabs Naomi by the hair and delivers some headbutts. AJ wants back in to clean up. She locks in an arm bar for the wins.

From AJ’s pretape to the closing seconds of the match, this was all one big Total Divas ad. The announcers didn’t call the action and instead opted to talk Total Divas for the majority of the time. The Funkadactyls are either getting better in the ring or getting better chemistry with AJ and Tamina. Still though, this was nothing special..

OFFICIAL RESULT: AJ Lee and Tamina @ 4.09 via submission
RATING: *1/4

– ADR is headed to the ring.

-Commercial Break-

– Big canned heat for ADR as the crowd behind him sits on their hands. He talks about how him being Mexican makes him better than all of the gringos in attendance. Next week, Alberto Del Rio attacks a handicapped woman and still gets no heat. He bitches about losing the title with Cena. He was sick. He was hurting in multiple places. Most of us lazy Americans would have called in sick. Not him, because he’s Mexican and has pride. After his rematch with Cena, he’s going to tell every gringo that the champ is here. Cue Cena. Cena’s not very excited to be out here because we just heard ADR is sick. He feels bad. Cena wants to send him an edible arrangement. A good one, but not the best one. He wants to get him a car and a message apologizing. ADR says that Cena is acting like a stupid little kid. ADR tells him to leave his show. Cena says that if he wants him to leave, make him. Cena wants to do the rematch right… here… in this very ring. ADR wants a referee and a doctor out here because he’s going to win the title and send Cena back to the hospital with a broken arm. Here comes Vickie, who has been playing both sides lately which kind of makes her ineffective at both roles. She books the match for Survivor Series because that’s what is best for business. Cena isn’t happy. The two things she did best since being hired was getting fired and shutting the hell up. ADR says that little Juanito is right. I like it. She makes Cena vs. Ryback for later tonight. She also books Alberto Del Rio vs. The Great Khali right now.

-Commercial Break-

Alberto Del Rio vs. The Great Khali (w/ Natalya and Hornswoggle( They feel each other out for about 30 seconds before Khali hits some chops and some elbows. Khali sits him up on the top rope and chops ADR to the outside. JBL says that it isn’t fair because he hit ADR too hard. Khali follows him out and goes to work. That’s usually a bad call for faces. Of course it is this time. Khali gets back in and ADR hyper extends the arm over the top rope. Khali moves in slow motion and ADR picks apart the broomstick’s arm. Del Rio goes for an ax handle off the top and you know it’s going to be reversed because Khali isn’t standing. ADR gets a boot to the face and some overhand chops. ADR heads to the outside again. Khali looks blown up to all hell after laying around doing nothing for four minutes. He rolls in ADR and you know, hits some chops. ADR hyper-extends the arm over the top and holds on to the arm bar. Khali slams him on the apron but it doesn’t shake ADR. He eventually locks in the cross arm breaker for the victory.

This was every Khali match wrapped into one. He’s extremely incapable of working anything but the most formulaic matches. Bad match. Also, just a little pet peeve, but it took ADR longer to put Khali away than it took Fandango who used the same formula with a different limb.

OFFICIAL RESULT Alberto Del Rio @ 5:08 via pinfall
RATING: *

-Commercial Break-

Luke Harper (w/ Wyatt Family) vs. Daniel Bryan( Harper goes right to work on Bryan with some forearms as Wyatt and Rowan look on from the ramp. He locks in a front face lock and gator rolls D-Bry around the ring momentarily. Harper delivers a running splash on Bryan and catapults him throat first into the second the second rope. Harper charges at Bryan but gets sent to the outside. Bryan dives through the ropes and takes him out. KICKS ON THE OUTSIDE~! Harper gives very little amounts of fuck about those kicks and sends him into the barricade before break.

-Commercial Break-

Harper is in full control as we return from break. He has Bryan cornered and tosses him around like a rag doll. Harper hits Bryan with a nice looking big boot and covers him for TWO. Harper locks in a headlock and as the crowd begins to chant yes. They must want a Big Show run in. Bryan fights back with kicks to the thigh of Harper and corkscrews him to the mat multiple times. Bryan tries to hulk up and hits his running strikes. He charges up and goes for a dropkick but Harper catches him and powerbombs him for two. Bryan locks in the Yes Lock out of nowhere and Rowan interferes for the DQ.

They were chugging along very nicely. Harper is more than capable of holding his half of a big man vs. little man match and D-Bry is D-Bry. The ending really turned me off though. The Wyatt Family doesn’t seem like the type of characters that should care about breaking up pinfalls and interfering to avoid losing a match clean. This was a very well worked match until the finish which hurt it a bit.

OFFICIAL RESULT Daniel Bryan @ 6:10 via DQ
RATING: **3/4

– Punk hits the ring and makes the save after the match. In ring vs.ramp staredown to close the segment.

– Big Show/Triple H/Stephanie Raw drama. As an advocate of this entire power struggle angle for the first two months, I fully admit that this didn’t create stars like I had predicted. Triple H didn’t relinquish the spotlight and Daniel Bryan is back in the midcard while his chants are stolen and given to Big Show. It may have given a lot of guys something to do, but they didn’t follow through with any of it. D-Bry didn’t need to win the title, but he needed to do more than hit HBK with a superkick.

-Commercial Break-

John Cena vs. Ryback Is the plan just to job out Ryback until he has nothing to offer left? Eventually the crowd isn’t going to buy into Ryback’s big matches. Ryback gets in control quickly and locks in a side headlock. Ryback works Cena over with an on and off headlock for like three minutes before body pressing him and dropping him on the mat.

-Commercial Break-

Cena fights out of a Boston Crab as we return from commercial break. The announcers say that Cena was in it for a very long time. That doesn’t surprise me. Ryback tackles him to the mat and strong whips him into the corner. Cena escapes a long bear huge but eats a spine buster. Ryback lifts him up but Cena hits a DDT. Ryback escapes an AA attempt and delivers the Jackhammer for two. That Jackhammer looked busted. He’s tends to make any of his non-regular moves loom sloppy. He walks towards Cena and finds himself in the STF. Ryback makes it to the ropes. Ryback hits the spear and Cena kicks out. Now that they actually want the Goldberg chants, the crowd isn’t playing along. Ryback calls for Shell Shocked but Cena ducks and hits a great elevated neckbreaker. That really surprised me. If Ryback can
take it good, I’m sure everybody else can make it look good. Cena goes upstairs and hits a crossbody. AA attempt? Ryback hangs on to the top rope. He hits a running powerslam for two. They start exchanging slugs out of desperation. Cena hits the ropes and Ryback hits a huge meathook clothesline. Shell Shock? Cena escapes and hits the AA. It’s over.

Ryback was in control of the match for the first half and it was really boring as a result. Long rest holds with little substance in between. They eventually hit their stride and really entertained with their power move exchange. This was a solid way to close the show.

OFFICIAL RESULT John Cena @ 11:38 aired via pinfall
RATING: ***

OVERALL: Smackdown wasn’t very exciting tonight. The in ring quality was fine but beyond the Punk/Bryan vs. Wyatts rivalry, I’m just not as invested as I was a couple months ago. Cena vs. Ryback and Del Rio vs. Khali isn’t what I’m trying to watch. Luckily Cena and Ryback delivered a lot more than I expected and the show closed on a high note. Punk and Bryan both had good matches and the rest was average in my opinion.

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