2013 Discussion

Discuss Smackdown in 2013.

The Miz Vs Heath Slater (SD, 04/01/2013)
Urgh. Miz is the Chavo of WWE. The fact his first move in this match is a dropkick is awesome. Couldn't have written it better myself. I like how WWE are making Miz a face... by having him have no likeable qualities whatsoever. But who cares, he can just chant USA and get over like he did on Main Event. Jinder Mahawful and the talented 3MB member Drew McIntyre get sent to the back. And with McIntyre gone, my interest in this match went from 0 (because he wasn't in it) to -10000 (because he isn't on screen any more). As I watch this, the best match so far of the year is **3/4. This ain't touching that match. Urgh. Oh hey, match is actually picking up a bit. Slater is doing alright controlling things, and Miz isn't screwing the match up doing his shit because he's just taking offence for the most part rather than giving (Miz taking rather than giving. Sums up my thoughts on the guy tbh). Couple of nice cut off spots from Slater too. In fact, the longer this match goes on, the better Slater looks. I was starting to warm to him during his "getting killed by legends" period leading up to Raw 1000. Then they did this 3MB crap and I just stopped caring, but yeah, guy looks good. And of course Miz wins. Because... I dunno. Surprised with how good this match turned out tbh. I went into it bored, but it got better and better thanks to Slater. Current MOTY? I think so. **3/4

Big Show, Antonio Cesaro vs. Randy Orton, Sheamus (SD, 01/04/13)
Well this is pretty good. Orton stays the fuck out of the match right up until the inish basically, so we get Show and Cesaro battling with Sheamus which is always fun. I like how Sheamus gets chokeslammed and Orton doesn't even attempt to break up the pin. Either that's a complete burial of Show's chokeslam or Orton is a cunt. BROGUE KICK. Sheamus makes the tag to Orton, Orton does... very little then Sheamus tags back in and Orton doesn't look happy. So as Sheamus is setting up a Brogue kick on Cesaro for the win, Orton jumps in with an RKO! Sheamus ain't pleased but makes the cover anyway. Nice finish tbh. I can see they are already planting seeds for an Orton heel turn. Let's hope he gets a character with the change. New MOTY! ***

Big Show vs Alberto Del Rio (SD, LMS, 01/11/13)
Really strong contender for TV MOTY that I'm not sure will be beaten. Two great individual performances on top of a really well worked gimmick. Really liked how they just got right to the bulk of the match with the hardcore spots and Show dominating. Made Del Rio's uphill battle feel more sympathetic and desperate. Show's an awesome monster in control when he gets the chance. Wonderful intimidating presence in control. IT'S GONNA BE A LONG NIGHT PEDRO. Del Rio's babyface performance was equally as great. Got over the uphill battle and the miracle of winning perfectly. The 10 count being stopped by falling out of the ring onto his feet was brilliant. The armbar over the top rope was brilliant too, both as a visual and in setting up the shoulder as Show's weak spot to go after later. Show's subtle sell of the arm after the barricade spot was great too just to remind people of the chink in his armour. Comeback itself is brilliant too coming off the fortunate opening. Thought it was a wonderful slaying the dragon type finish with Del Rio just going all out to topple the giant and take his one opportunity. Encapsulated the story of the match so well and was such a fitting finish with the relentless shots at the arm and toppling the table over to finish the monster off once and for all. Ricardo's awesome during this too playing cheerleader. Feels like a really big feel good moment when it finishes too. Fantastic way to get Del Rio over as a babyface. Managed to steer away from the obvious drawbacks of LMS matches too by not having too many long breaks during the ten counts and turning into spot - count - spot. Show's reactions to when Del Rio would make it back up were really great as well. ****

Team Rhodes Scholars, Wade Barrett vs. Team Hell No, Randy Orton (SD, 01/18/13)
Bryan is his usual awesome self early on in the match here. Does his NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! kick sequence to the chest, then Cody manages to avoid the big shot to the head, tags in Sandow who runs right into a NO! Lock . He of course escapes to the outside. Guess it shows that Rhodes Scholars know Bryan and Kane well, which is good because they've wrestled a bunch of times already and shows they are prepared for their match at the RR. Nice stuff to take down Kane with a blind tag, so Barrett can come in and kick him in the head. Shame it unfortunately leads to Barrett being part of the match lol. Kane FIP doesn't land long because, you know, its fucking KANE. Nice uppercut to counter the beautiful disaster kick. Orton gets the hot tag, some nice stuff with Kane and Bryan taking care of Barrett and Cody, then Orton wins with an RKO. Fun tag match. Stuff at the end with Kane and Bryan HUGGING Orton was amazing. Orton: I'm not really into the whole hugging thing. Bryan: OH YOU WILL BE. **1/2

Sheamus vs. Wade Barrett (SD, 01/25/13)
Sheamus continues to be the ultimate workhorse. His matches with Wade really are always solid - really good. It hasn't failed yet. I know there are some out there who loathe Barrett. I personally don't so it's nice to see the guy have a good opponent to work against. Solid match.

Team Hell No vs. Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara (SD, 02/01/13)
Awesome match. These guys incorporated quite a bit of fast paced & interesting spots into this match to make it much more than the same run of the mill type WWE match. Usos, take notes. Rey was looking about as hot as ever, Sin Cara pulled his weight around when he needed to, & Danielson/Kane were perfect in their roles. A whole bunch of fun here. Not sure which I liked more: this or the British Ambition vs Ohno/Kruger from NXT as the best tag team match in WWE so far. Both were so good they might hold up for quite a while. Check this match out. ***1/2

Alberto Del Rio vs. Dolph Ziggler (SD, 02/01/13)
Two athletic and good wrestlers giving us a spirited contest here. I've said it plenty and I'll say it again, Del Rio's ring work as a face is so natural. Busting out all of the exciting lucha offense rules. Dolph was Dolph and he was doing everything that makes it quality too. Another match worth a watch. That's right, TWO good matches on a Smackdown. Hell froze over. ***

Antonio Cesaro vs. Sin Cara (SD, 02/08/13)
CESARO. His ability to work well with high flyers helps here. One of the better Sin Cara matches in his WWE career. It was only 2 minutes, filled with no botches, and had a few fluid moves crammed in. Toss in a GREAT springboard crossbody attempt by Cara only to get slaughtered by the European uppercut and it was a highlight of the week.

Mark Henry vs. Randy Orton (SD, 02/08/13)
Orton sucks. Luckily Henry's swag was enough to make this worth a little something. Henry takes the rope elevated DDT. What a champ. He'd eventually avalanche Orton in the corner, finish him off with the WSS, and qualilfy for the ELIMINATION CHAMBER. YES! I'm not going to call this a "good" edition of Smackdown, but I did leave it liking quite a bit of aspects. If I have to settle for this kind of program, well, it beats a shitty 2 hour show with nothing worth mentioning. This had moments I managed to say "I'm glad that happened."

Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry (SD, 02/15/13)
Same ol thing as last week. Only not as much fun since Orton got all of this bogus unrealistic offense on Henry this week. I didn't mind the DQ finish considering it meant Henry didn't have to job to the piece of trash. Henry demolished Orton post match. Everything is great.

Big Show vs. Chris Jericho (SD, 02/15/13)
Good little 6 minute main event. Jericho looked impressive and more importantly so did Show. He needed this big clean win after being made to look like a putz lately. Shame Jericho lost again, only it was to Show. I think that's a touch more credible than usual. Jericho ate so many hard bumps in this match. The topper was the freaking SICKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK knockout punch. Punch of the decade quite possible. David Otunga's has been trumped. **1/2

Sheamus vs. Damien Sandow (SD, 02/22/13)
These guys continue to deliver the goods. This wasn't as good as some of their previous encounters, yet it falls in line of being solid & plenty watchable. I really like these guys' chemistry with one another. A good grappling affair each time. Something about Sheamus' gritty side brings out the same in Sandow. I think both are good at working a form of pretty & gritty in each match. Almost like a bit of a hidden side. Sandow tends to be pretty, but can turn it on it's head in a moment's notice. Sheamus has shown his hard hitting gritty side since day one, only to surprised a lot of fans when he decides to add a bit of finesse to his game. As seen evident by his encounters vs Danielson. Solid match. I wouldn't object to another. This combo hasn't disappointed each time it was given enough time to form something. Tables match is still one of my personal favorites of the year. **1/2

Jack Swagger vs. Randy Orton (SD, 02/22/13)
Hmm. What can you say here? It gets over 13 minutes and doesn't manage to exceed past a decent mark. I swear I've said it 50 million times already, but dammit here it comes again: Orton doesn't have anything left. No spark. No x factor. Nothing to make him exceed past a decent or even bad performance. All the highlights to take away here were on Swagger. Orton came out with his slew of crappy looking offense per usual. Seriously, his clotheslines are TERRIBLE. Meh. Swagger wins Josh Matthews comes off like he's got a fatty boner for Orton much the same of Michael Cole for Batista circa 2007 during this match/post match. Claiming Swagger somehow stole the Chamber match from Orton when he won clean. A point JBL backed on MANY occasions during the match. Yet Josh decided not to listen. What a muck savage he is. It was obnoxious until JBL kept putting him in his place. JBL did make a daft comment on this show though. Can't remember if it included Orton or not, but it was on par with Josh calling Khali a "future Hall of Famer" level dumb. He can't be perfect every week I guess. **

Alberto Del Rio vs. Wade Barrett (SD, 02/22/13)
Solid main event here. A fresh match to boot so I was into it. I like Wade - waits for GASPS. Del Rio is the man in the ring when working as a face. I've gone back to view some 2012 work and he was the worst booked guy for a long time. I'm so glad he's being booked 100x better now. His matches are good what seems to be weekly now. Instead of once a month b/c the bulk of his matches a heel were useless squashes to try and make the fans care about him. Anyways, I'd like to see these guys have one more match against each other. Not to the point of where it is happening EVERY DAMN WEEK. But, keep it up for some fun. They fed nicely off each other. One thing I do have a gripe with Del Rio atm is, I hate his set up for the rope assisted lungblower. His 10 count clubs to the back is VERY similar to Sheamus' clubs to the chest. How hasn't WWE noticed this? Bad enough the "Si" crap is a ripoff of Danielson, and now he has this. He needs to do something else to get the fans cheering for a move, imo. It might be such a minuscule personal gripe, but the guy can easily switch one move for another. I like the guy. I want him to be as original as possible. Use kicks to the arm as a replacement. It aids with the finisher & fans will get behind it too. Easy as pie. Wade is lost atm. Is he going to work vs Sheamus or is that lame Bo Dallas thing still on? Who knows. I'm ecstatic Kofi isn't the IC Champ anymore, but damn WWE. Do the last few people who have that belt have to float around while holding it? At this rate the US championship is used MUCH better. **1/2

Alberto Del Rio v. Jack Swagger (SD, 04/17/13)
This was pretty great for a tv match, probably the best match Swagger has had since the Christian feud in 09. I really have to give Del Rio a ton of credit as he has transitioned very well into a solid, credible, underdog face. I thought his selling of the leg and ring positioning/transitions really made this match. Lots of creative ways to sell the leg damage and/or bump or get in position for big Swagger spots. Dutch had some really entertaining facial expressions at ringside and while this had some of the staples of WWE main event matches, it never even approached getting overboard in finisher application. In fact I thought the finishers were worked really smart and dual psychology of arm work v. leg work made for a fun story. Really solid stretch run for a stretch run that was built around ankle lock applications too. One of the better tv matches I've seen all year.

Mark Henry/Big Show v. Randy Orton/Sheamus (SD, 04/17/13)
Perhaps I'm just in a generous mood, but if this same match took place in NJPW or on the indie scene I think it would have been nominated without a second thought. Yeah Orton kind of stinks in it and this isn't high end Henry, but Show was really great in this and Sheamus hung real tight with him. When those two were in together the match really peaked with some really stiff and violent looking exchanges. Show is bumping his ass off throughout this and Henry is fun as the shit talking hit man who spends most of his time getting in little licks and bridging the gaps. This succeeded in making me excited for a Henry/Show team if nothing else