WWE Smackdown Coverage: Ho-Hum

By the controversial finish of Sheamus and Del Rio’s match from Summerslam, it seems as if this feud will never end.

Will we ever get a break?

Hopefully with Randy Orton thrown into the mix, we may get the closest thing to it. Perhaps all of this “controversy” is a good thing.

That’s what it seemed like at the beginning of the show anyway.

But by the end, it was back to the same old, same old.

MATCHES:

Ryback vs. Jinder Mahal: The rivalry continues. Mahal attacked Ryback on Raw and Ryback sought revenge. In a short, rather disappointing Goldberg-esque squash, that’s exactly what Ryback got as he clobbered Mahal hit with a clothesline and the Shell Shock. Mahal barely put up a fight. What was that?

WWE Divas Champion Layla vs. Alicia Fox: Kaitlyn delivered commentary at ringside. Pretty ho-hum action. Fox had Layla in a Boston Crab. Layla kicked herself free. Fox walked back over to Layla and Layla rolled her up for a two-count. Layla charged at her with a clothesline attempt, but Fox avoided it a la The Matrix and turned around into a Round House Kick. 1-2-3. Layla wins. Post-match, Kaitlyn hit the ring and shook hands with Layla and they hugged. Then Eve came out and went in the ring and raised both Layla and Kaitlyn’s arms. Huh?

Sin Cara vs. Heath Slater: Cody Rhodes was at the commentary booth and ran down Sin Cara, yet dismissed any “obsession” with removing his mask. How ironic that less than two minutes later, he ran right to the ring where Sin Cara was down and turned his mask around, which put Sin Cara at a huge disadvantage as he turned into Heath Slater’s Reverse DDT finisher. The One Man Band came out victorious. Rhodes attacked Sin Cara after the bell.

World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero): While Vickie Guerrero creeped us out on commentary, Sheamus and Ziggler delivered in the ring in a match reminiscent of past encounters. Sheamus hit the White Noise and looked to hit the Brogue Kick. Ziggler saw it coming and attached himself to the bottom rope and screamed for Guerrero’s help. She slid him his MITB briefcase and he blatantly attacked Sheamus in the shoulder with it in plain sight of the Referee, which caused the DQ. As he saw a weakened Sheamus in the corner, Ziggler handed the Referee the briefcase and wanted to cash in. Sheamus quickly got up and Ziggler changed his mind.

Primo/Epico (w/Rosa Mendes) vs. Kofi Kingston/R-Truth: Pretty standard tag team match. The Prime Time Players did commentary and mocked Michael Cole, which made for some good entertainment. Primo tried to hit the Back Stabber on R-Truth but R-Truth hung on to the ropes and followed up with the Lie Detector for the win.

World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender’s Match- Randy Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio (w/Ricardo Rodriguez): Decent effort from both men. Orton hit his Second Rope DDT and gestured for the RKO. Del Rio hung on to the ropes to avoid it and then tacked on the Cross Arm Breaker for the surprise clean submission win. Del Rio taunted Sheamus, who got up from the Announce Table where he did commentary. Del Rio knocked down Rodriguez and took his shoe off and threw it at Sheamus. Sheamus ran into the ring and attacked Del Rio, until Rodriguez knocked him off. Sheamus went after Rodriguez and Del Rio kicked him in the face. Rodriguez gave Del Rio his other shoe and Del Rio hit Sheamus in the face with it, which laid him out. Dolph Ziggler ran down to the ring and looked to cash in. He gave the Referee the briefcase and turned around right into an RKO.

Final Thoughts: The last twenty minutes aside, this show was a drag. As the future is concerned, another Del Rio-Sheamus title match just isn’t innovative. With Orton out of the picture and Ziggler with his consistent failed cash-ins, we can only hope for a Three-Way for the Title come Night of Champions. WWE also took the chance to dig some tag teams out of the dirt and maybe the Tag Division will show some life again. That said, there was nothing memorable from this show.

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