WWE Smackdown Coverage: Sheamus Making His Case

Smackdown may be the WWE’s B-Show, but it has something RAW doesn’t have: three legitimate players in the World Title picture.

Over the last few months, Christian and Randy Orton’s angle has been the best angle in the ring. With the inclusion of Sheamus, it can only get better. After a solid promo to start the show, Sheamus inserted himself into this feud and made it even more entertaining.

While that was the main storyline for this week’s episode, there was much more going on the show. Smackdown continues to push Mark Henry, who looks in line for a title shot soon. At the very least, Henry’s matches are surprising. Even though it’s obvious he’s getting over, his win over Kane is a major accomplishment for him.

Overall, it’s nice to see the WWE making something out of someone who many fans didn’t see ever breaking through their role as a lower mid-carder.

Another guy getting a push is Jinder Mahal, but it’s more illogical than anything else. Squashing youngsters, Mahal may be winning his matches, but he’s more of a boring heel that the fans don’t even consider worthy of hating.

Aside from that, this episode was anything but boring. With seven matches on the card and enough promo to keep you engaged, it’s fair to say that this week’s Smackdown was better than RAW, by far.

At the very least, they have their format down to a science- fast-paced matches and short, but effective promo.

The writers on Impact and RAW could learn a bit by taking a look at it.

Matches:

Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase vs. Daniel Bryan and Ezekiel Jackson:
A decent match that saw all four competitors deliver their share of offense and get the crowd involved. However, the best moment was when DiBiase delivered his Dream Street finisher on Jackson for the win. Could this be the end of DiBiase’s over year-long demise and the beginning of his first real push in the company?

Jinder Mahal w/ The Great Khali vs. Trent Barretta: A complete squash match that had Mahal destroy Barretta with the Full Nelson slam for the win. After the match, Mahal hit the move on him again.

Tamina w/ Alicia Fox vs. AJ w/ Natty Neidhart:
AJ was impressive in this match, hitting a shining wizard and a clothesline in the corner. Tamina showed her strength, but her best work was selling the offense of AJ. Cute and athletic, with a bit of a rocker look, she has a bright future.

Kane vs. Mark Henry: Henry got the win after he hit the World’s Strongest Slam on Kane. On quite possibly the biggest role of his career, could Henry be in the running for a title shot soon?

Tyson Kidd vs. Sin Cara: A solid cruiserweight match in spite of some sloppy secondary maneuvers. All in all, Cara was able to entertain and Kidd made him look even better. The match wasn’t an epic, but after Cara hit a flipping urinage suplex from the top rope, the crowd popped and Cara’s job was done.

Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel vs. The Usos:
A quick match, but one that was fast-paced and fun. After losing to Slater and Gabriel a few weeks ago, The Usos got the win after they hit a superplex and a top rope splash on Gabriel.

Randy Orton vs. Sheamus: A routine match with both competitors doing their usual dance. Sheamus does earn bonus points for his performance, as his top rope shoulder block was a nice added touch. It all went to hell though after Christian hit the ring and cost Sheamus the match. Next thing you know, Sheamus nailed Christian with the Bicycle kick and left himself wide open for an RKO.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 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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