Away from the silly new year’s resolutions, the first Smackdown of 2014 proved to be a decent wrestling show thanks to a good card. Although their was very little in terms of story development (away from the snippet of the Paul Heyman interview on WWE.com), you may be able to make the argument that Smackdown had a better pace and better quality matches than this week’s Monday night RAW.
Matches:
Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns w/ United States Champion Dean Ambrose vs. Jimmy and Jey Uso: An awesome opener filled with high-flying maneuvers, counters and Ambrose on color commentary. Ambrose got the match thrown out after he interfered. After the bell, the three member of The Shield beat on the Usos until CM Punk hit the ring.
Fandango w/Summer Rae vs. R-Truth w/Xavier Woods: This match lasted about four minutes, until Woods summoned Naomi and Cameron, who danced on the entry ramp and distracted Fandango long enough for Truth to hit the What’s Up for the win.
WWE Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Goldust vs. Luke Harper and Erik Rowan: Surprisingly, Bray Wyatt and Daniel Bryan were not ringside for the match. The Rhodes brother had another wonderful match, proving once again that they are deserving WWE Tag Team Champions. However, the awkward styles of Rowan and Harper made the match more interesting the Rhodes boys. After 10 or so minutes of back and forth action-in and out of the ring, Harper destroyed Rhodes with a sit-out Powerbomb and some strikes, but Rhodes was able to hit a Moonsault and tag in Goldust, who was able to get the win on the freshly tagged-in Rowan via Rollup.
Aksana vs. Nikki Bella: Nikki got in some early offense, but Aksana worked on Bella’s arm and continued to dominate throughout the match. Then, like a ball of fire, Bella worked Aksana over with clotheslines and a Bulldog before winning with a Torture Rack Buster.
WWE Intercontinental Champion Big E. Langston vs. Curtis Axel: The former champ held his own for a few minutes but Langston fought back with signature offense and finished off Axel with The Big Ending.
Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns and United States Champion Dean Ambrose vs. CM Punk, Jimmy and Jey Uso: A continuation of the action-packed opener, only this time, Punk and Ambrose got in on the action. Jimmy Uso spiced things up with a Corksrew Splash on Reigns and then the tagged in Punk kept the pace high with his signature offense. But thanks to better teamwork, The Shield kept the advantage.But after Ambrose and Reigns got their wires crossed, the Usos took out Reigns and Rollins, leaving Punk and Ambrose alone in the ring. Punk promptly finished off Ambrose with the GTS.
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