WWE Smackdown Coverage: Christian gets Another Chance

While Smackdown is the WWE’s B-Show and the storylines aren’t nearly as intriguing, the wrestling action on Smackdown this week was much better than what was seen on RAW.

Light on promo, it appears the angles between Daniel Bryan and Cody Rhodes, Christian and Randy Orton and Mark Henry and The Big Show will continue for the foreseeable future.

And that’s a good thing. While Rhodes needs to develop his character more, that angle can pick up steam in the ring thanks to Bryan’s ability. As far as Orton and Christian go, every pay per view match these two have had has been a classic, so why not continue the angle? Big Show and Henry have no one else to wrestle in the company essentially, but Henry has been solid as a heel the past few weeks. As well, it’s nice to see Show on the defensive for once.

Overall, again, while the show lacks the flair of RAW, its ability to deliver a ton of action and as little filler as possible is the key to what can be more than a B-show.

Matches:

Sin Cara vs. Ted DiBiase: It’s obvious now that Sin Cara is beginning to get used to the pace of a WWE match. His high spots are much cleaner and his overall polish is starting to show. At the same time, DiBiase was solid here. Not only did he sell well, he had several solid counters to Cara’s offense, which provided a nice back and forth pace to this contest. While you knew he wasn’t going to win, he was allowed to paint a bit more than the average jobber.

Cody Rhodes vs. Daniel Bryan: Bryan is easily the best worker in the company, but Rhodes, who sometimes shows flashes of solidity, wasn’t on his A-game in this match. From the lackluster selling of a frankensteiner, to the overall sloth-like pace this match had, Rhodes need to work harder. There are dozens of wrestlers that would love to work with Bryan; Rhodes needs to prove himself worthy.

Ezekiel Jackson vs. Wade Barrett for the WWE Intercontinental Championship: Barrett definitely showed how strong he is here with several power moves. However, Jackson, who was working an “injury” during the contest, came back strong and got the win with Torture Rack. Overall, this is good feud that should continue, but needs to be developed with microphone time and longer matches.

The Usos vs. Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel: A good tag team match between two great young tag teams. A nice variation of quick tags and high impact moves, with both team showing charisma in the ring and an ability to captivate the crowd. While the Usos where the dominant team in the ring, Slater was able to get the pin with a school boy. The WWE can only benefit from putting these four in the ring more often.

Jinder Mahal vs. Yoshi Tatsu: After a brain chop from Great Khali and a full nelson slam from Mahal, Tatsu was put out to pasture. The bell never rang.

Christian vs. Kane: A decade ago, this would have been a squash match, but on this night, Christian was in control for most of the contest. Keeping Kane off his feet with a variety of short cuts and submission holds. However, once the show came back after a commercial break, Kane fought back and all of a sudden, this became one of the best matches on Smackdown this year.

It was all for naught though, as Mark Henry hit the ring and took out Kane and cost Christian the match.

Things got spicy right after, as Teddy long hit the entrance ramp and made an impromptu tag match between Christian and Mark Henry and Kane and Randy Orton.

Christian and Mark Henry vs. Kane and Randy Orton:
This match was almost a predictable one in the fact that Henry dominated at times, while Christian played the role of the opportunist. At first, none of it appeared to matter once Orton got the hot tag after a Kane Chokeslam. After an assortment of clotheslines and his usual posturing, Orton eventually hit the RKO on Christian, but in the process, left himself wide open for Henry’s falling front slam finisher.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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