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Here are my thoughts on the show:
I was a bit surprised that they would start off the show with a Rey Mysterio promo, but it served two purposes. First, it allowed us to hear Rey talk about his match with Kane and how he was not the man responsible for what happened to Undertaker. The second purpose was to debut Alberto Del Rio.
I thought Rey’s promo was okay talking about his match with Kane at SummerSlam. It did not make sense for Rey to be so upbeat about not winning the title. On the other hand, he played up his fear of caskets so it made sense that he would be happy that he was not put in the casket.
They say that you only have one chance to make a first impression and Alberto Del Rio made a good first impression. He has a good cadence in his promos and it works well with his character. He was also able to elevate himself by calling himself an icon like Rey Mysterio. I also liked the way that Alberto tried to differentiate himself from Rey by saying that Rey was a commoner while he was a man of privilege. When Rey tried to tell Alberto that he was a nobody and tried to belittle Del Rio, Alberto held his own.
I was a bit surprised that Rey would challenge Alberto to a match since Rey had said that he did not have any respect for Alberto. I would have figured that Alberto would make the challenge or at least have Alberto try to attack Rey and then force Rey into a match.
I like that they are starting Alberto Del Rio with a top feud against Rey Mysterio, but if he does not connect with the crowd, it could be a very steep fall for Del Rio. The vignettes that they did for Alberto created a buzz for him and it was up to Alberto to sink or swim. After seeing what Alberto did in his first appearance on Smackdown, it was a good risk for WWE to take. Alberto did a good job on the mic and later in the show, he had a solid match with Rey and was able to get a submission victory over Rey.
I continue to enjoy the grooming tips from Cody Rhodes. I wonder if he will also provide grooming tips for the ladies as well once he gets done with all of the nook and crannies.
I have really enjoyed the feud between Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler over the Intercontinental Title. Kofi has shown a much more aggressive side over the last few weeks while Dolph continues to do whatever it takes to continue to win and keep the Intercontinental Title. I was a bit disappointed that their match at SummerSlam was cut short because of the interference by Nexus. This match followed what I thought was a good match with a disappointing finish because of Vickie Guerrero’s interference.
I thought Kofi and Dolph were having a very good match until Vickie got involved again to cause the disqualification. Kofi was not as aggressive as he has been in previous weeks but this match focused more on Ziggler’s mat based attack and his ability to wear his opponent down with a basic chin lock or head lock. The second half of the match changed to a faster pace and Kofi started to dominate. Since Kofi had not really worn down Ziggler enough, Dolph was able to roll out of the way when Kofi wanted to hit the Boom drop. There has been a lot of logic in this feud and I think that has helped both of these wrestlers.
As I mentioned, I did not like the disqualification finish. When you have two men who have done so much in this feud, it minimizes everything that they have done before by having a non-finish.
I thought the post match actions were a mixed bag. I liked that Kofi went after Dolph but I did not like the way that Vickie reacted to Kofi being right in front of her. You had a feeling that he was not going to hit Vickie, but to see her moving in front of Kofi despite being afraid of seeing Kofi came off a bit too comedic for the situation between Dolph and Kofi. It did serve its purpose of allowing Dolph to attack Kofi from behind.
In the same vein as Kofi’s recent attacks on Dolph and his aggressive nature, I really liked the attack by Dolph Ziggler. The presence of Vickie at ringside and her reaction added to the brutality of the attack. Dolph hitting the Zig Zag followed by putting Kofi in a sleeper was brutal enough, but to add the methodical action of standing over Kofi after the sleeper and raising his boot before stomping on Kofi’s head.
I liked that Striker was critical of what Ziggler did to Kingston after Kingston was knocked out from the sleeper. While Striker has admitted that he is a fan of Ziggler, he knows when someone might have crossed a line with their actions.
After seeing interference to cause the title change followed by a no contest and a disqualification affects the way that I perceive this feud. I want to see these two men have good matches where their talent is what is going to be showcased. Instead, when I watch the matches, I am starting to expect the matches to continue until someone else gets involved and detract from the athletic matches that these two men have had.
The segment with Michelle and Layla was okay. I liked how they were expecting to be punished by Teddy Long, but they didn’t really care. What does it say about the condition of the Divas on Smackdown that they are now talking about feuding with Melina?
I wonder how many people were happy to see the return of Hornswoggle in his tribute to Little Shop of Horrors?
Does this mean that Kaval is going to be moved into the ‘person who wrestles Hornswoggle’ spot now that Chavo has moved on?
The Straight Edge Society situation has gotten a lot more interesting with Luke Gallows’ recent behavior. By criticizing Punk and speaking out against Punk’s actions shows that there might be some cracks in the foundation of the group. I also like that Joseph Mercury is siding with Gallows while Serena is still supporting Punk despite what he said to her about her ‘falling off the wagon’. I also liked how they questioned Punk’s decision to walk away at SummerSlam while Serena was willing to tell Luke and Joseph that Punk had an ulterior motive.
I liked that Punk used the ‘if you lose, you are out’ concept for Luke and Serena. It also gave away that Luke and Serena were going to win the match.
I liked that we were finally able to see Serena wrestle on WWE television. She was the best Diva in the ring in FCW and it is about time that she got to wrestle. It did make sense to keep her out of the ring because she was never discussed as a wrestler when she joined the Straight Edge Society.
The tag match was okay and it served its purpose of showcasing Serena in the match. I was a bit surprised that Luke would want to start the match since a loss meant that he was out of the group. I liked the way that Punk reacted from the stage after their victory. While he seemed to be pleased that Luke and Joseph were still part of the group because of the victory, I think he would be more seriously affected if Serena was no longer in the Society.
I wonder if we will find out that it is a Stockholm Syndrome situation for Serena and why she is so supportive of Punk’s actions and will blindly accept whatever he says.
I thought that when Kane finally realized that he could not escape the fact that he was the one who attacked the Undertaker, he gave a very good promo this week. I think that most of what Kane has said during this angle has been very good. The focus on the sin of pride was a good way to tie everything together. I liked that they gave us the family history to add to the back story and give a better reasoning for why Kane would do what he did to his brother. It made sense that the younger brother would be jealous of the success that his older brother had and that he was waiting for the time when he could usurp his older brother as the alpha male in the family. He did a good job talking about how he sat by and waited for that moment to strike.
One of the things that I had issue with in Kane’s promo was how he said that he has been plotting against Taker since they first met at Wrestlemania. That means that he has been thinking about this since Wrestlemania 14.
I thought one of the highlights of the show was Cody Rhodes’ commentary during the Drew McIntyre/Christian match. Cody was in character throughout the segment but he did not use the opportunity to cut a promo and sound foolish like some people have at the announce table. He did not try to insult the announcers like some wrestlers do. He provided analysis of the match and also talked about the alliance that he has formed with Drew McIntyre.
I also thought Cody did a great job explaining why he was working with Drew and why they were going after Christian. He talked about how him and Drew were the future of the company and that they were going to go to the top by taking care of people who are perceived as being on top, even if they are past their prime. But he did not do it in a way that overlooked what Christian has done in his career.
I also liked that Cody cared enough about Todd’s grooming issues to bring a present for him at the announce table. Cody also did it in a way that you would not expect from a heel because he was being nice to Todd.
I do wish that they wouldn’t have gone to commercial when Cody was asked about how his father would react to Cody’s current character.
I thought the match between Drew McIntyre and Christian was the match of the night. I liked how the story of the match was Drew continuing to work on Christian’s arm throughout the match and Christian’s ability to fight through the pain to get the surprise win over Drew with the crucifix. Christian did a great job selling the arm, especially whenever he would hit a move and he would land on the left arm and he would take more time to get up instead of popping up immediately. This was in addition to his inability to apply the Killswitch again due to the work on the shoulder. Cody’s commentary during the match also helped this match, as I described above in a little detail.
The post match brawl involving Hardy, Christian, Drew, and Cody was well done. Based on the performances from these four men over the last few weeks, this could be a very good angle for Smackdown. I hope that they will give these four men a chance to showcase what they can do on a pay per view.
After hearing what Swagger was saying about his summer, he was right about how crappy it has been for him.
The segment with Swagger and Porter was different than what you would expect from a heel/face promo where they are face to face. They were very respectful of each other and it worked. I think the match between the two of them will be good when it happens.
I was worried for a moment that Swagger was going to call it the Jack Swagger Senior Memorial Challenge when he said he was going to name it after his daddy.
They did a good job teasing that there could be some fireworks when the Undertaker returns next week with Kane in the building as well.
I thought the addition of a personal ring announcer for Alberto Del Rio was good because it was something different in WWE. Did Alberto’s official ring announcer look like a mix of Benicio Del Toro and Butch Patrick?
I did not even think about this until Mike mentioned it on his quick Smackdown audio summary, but there was a lot of JBL in Alberto Del Rio’s character.
I like that they have recycled Christian’s ‘golden pyro’ entrance from Christian’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ themed entrance music.
I liked the way that Matt Striker snuck in Alberto’s masked persona by suggesting that Alberto has two faces.
The Del Rio/Mysterio match was a good way to debut Del Rio. I thought Del Rio looked good in the ring and worked well with Mysterio. Del Rio worked on the arm throughout the match and it set up well for his cross arm breaker finisher.
Watching Smackdown showed the difference that the announcers can make. Even though we had never seen Alberto Del Rio wrestle on WWE television, Todd Grisham and Matt Striker talked up all of Alberto’s past achievements and gave him credibility. Compare that to the way that Daniel Bryan or Kaval are talked about by Michael Cole. For the people who have see Bryan and Kaval wrestle in other companies, we know what those men can do in a ring, but they are treated as a joke by Cole and that they don’t belong in a WWE ring. While Kaval and Bryan can have their actions in the ring counter anything that might be said about them being ‘rookies’, Del Rio does not have the same resume as Bryan or Kaval in a professional wrestling environment. If I did not know anything about these three men prior to their debut in a WWE ring, I would think that Del Rio is a star because he beat Rey and it was not portrayed as a fluke victory. Even though Daniel Bryan had a great debut against Chris Jericho, he lost the match and was then dressed down by the commentary.
What to watch on your DVR: Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio promos at the start of the show; Kofi versus Dolph and the post match attack; Kane’s promo; Drew versus Christian for the match as well as commentary; and Rey versus Del Rio. The whole show is worth watching except for the return of Hornswoggle.
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