As I warned in the other thread, Smackdown was pre-empted again in Canada this week. I won't get to see it until tomorrow night. I'm opening the thread now so people who have seen it can talk about it in the meantime.
Next week I'll try to get back to the normal recap!
I finally got to see it today. Alberto Del Rio was apparently only a heel for a day on Raw, as he got a World Title match against Big Show on Smackdown after Ricardo Rodriguez's World Title match was called off due to an injury sustained at Big Show's fist backstage. This coming after Santino Marella's World Title match was cancelled when he pulled his hamstring trying to do a Brogue Kick backstage. Yeah, it was one of those shows. Big Show technically won his match with Del Rio by DQ, but only after he left the ring to get himself intentionally counted out and Sheamus appeared to attack him and try to chase him back to the ring. The entire locker room (including Antonio Cesaro and Dolph Ziggler) joined forces to attack Show and feed him into the ring, where he took the stepladder enziguiri and the Brogue Kick to close things out. Yes, eternal rivals Sheamus and Del Rio worked together at the very end of the show. At least, neither of them seemed to be enjoying it, they were just united by their common enemy.
Other happenings. Wade Barrett pinned Kofi Kingston in a 6 man tag that also featured Hell No and the Prime Time Players. Antonio Cesaro beat Zack Ryder. Dolph Ziggler beat The Miz, who then made a crude joke towards AJ and got squashed by Big E Langston as a result. The Shield did another Blair Witch promo detailing their plans for 2013. Sheamus squashed Brad Maddox, and somehow didn't get destroyed by The Shield afterwards. It was Maddox's last chance to earn a contract on Smackdown, but he can still go through Vickie on Raw apparently. I think that's about it.
I'll be bringing something new in next week. During commercial breaks here in Canada, Score host Arda Ocal and former WWE referee Jimmy Korderas have started doing segments where they praise and/or rip recent happenings, and field questions for Korderas from fans. If people want to send a question to Korderas, they can be Emailed to aftermath@thescore.com with the subject Ask The Ref. Creativity is encouraged, and don't worry too much about keeping kayfabe or anything, they're somewhat open about things. Tonight's questions included him being asked if he had trouble keeping up while reffing a Falls Count Anywhere match (leading to him recounting a story of driving a golf cart in a Wrestlemania hardcore title match) and what match he would have liked to ref most (he picked Hogan/Andre and Steamboat/Savage from WM3, seeing as his Wrestlemania debut was the year after that). I'm sure you guys can ask more interesting questions than that!
Ziggler now has pretty much the Miz Package from a few years back: he's got the MITB case, Big E, and now AJ. They're using all the heel elements to get him over as a bad guy but he's still no further up the ladder. Big E distracts Miz, and Miz loses. Miz insults AJ and Big E retaliates. Ziggler's getting lost in this gimmick, because he doesn't have an angle. What's his feud? It's him versus the clock as we all wait for Mania.
But the angle is right there: Big E clobbers the SmackDown champ and Ziggler cashes in the contract. The former champ has to go through Big E to get back at Ziggler. If this is Sheamus, that leads to a face title change at Mania (his second consecutive for the belt).
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
It's kinda like Cena/Punk. Punk got the PPV win over Cena, and Cena can only play spoiler afterward. Cena did that by sabotaging Ziggler's shot at cashing in on Show but didn't wait for the bell, and Ziggler's challenge wasn't official. Ziggler gains nothing from beating Cena in another match. AJ wants revenge, not Ziggler.
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
Originally posted by Matt TrackerIsn't it AJ vs. Cena?
It's kinda like Cena/Punk. Punk got the PPV win over Cena, and Cena can only play spoiler afterward. Cena did that by sabotaging Ziggler's shot at cashing in on Show but didn't wait for the bell, and Ziggler's challenge wasn't official. Ziggler gains nothing from beating Cena in another match. AJ wants revenge, not Ziggler.
I think Dolph is supposed to keep Cena occupied as his TV program until they commence the Road to Wrestlemania. Dunno if Ziggler's going to get his title run right after he's done with Cena or if they're saving it for at/after WM, but he just got wins over Orton and Cena on consecutive PPVs and now he's conjoined with the company's heavily-pushed pet project, so he's sitting pretty to be a significant part of the top mix in 2013.
Originally posted by OliverAm I the only one who thinks that Arda Ocal is a complete tool? His "Top Five" countdowns are washroom or fast forward breaks for me.
No you're not. Not at all. His hunched over, hand in hand stance always reminds me of some kind of scheming super villain from a kids cartoon.
It doesn't help that Ocal and Korderas are totally lost without Renee Paquette (Young?) with them. They just have no energy at all on camera, and without her it's just death.
Them trying to answer legit questions or discuss backstage news about wrestling while pretending 'it's still real to them dammit' is uncomfortable to watch too.
Originally posted by OliverAm I the only one who thinks that Arda Ocal is a complete tool? His "Top Five" countdowns are washroom or fast forward breaks for me.
No you're not. Not at all. His hunched over, hand in hand stance always reminds me of some kind of scheming super villain from a kids cartoon.
It doesn't help that Ocal and Korderas are totally lost without Renee Paquette (Young?) with them. They just have no energy at all on camera, and without her it's just death.
Them trying to answer legit questions or discuss backstage news about wrestling while pretending 'it's still real to them dammit' is uncomfortable to watch too.
Thank you!
Ocal had a top five of his favorite WWF/E video games, and he included one that should never be on anyone's list: WWF War Zone. That was enough to convince me that he's full of shit.
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Prowrestling.net reports that this week's show was the most watched episode of Impact since last January, with a 1.21 rating (up from 1.11 last week) and 1.555 million viewers.