WWE Smackdown Preview: Spoiler-Included Analysis of This Week's Show (May 18)

It's time to go home on this week's Friday Night SmackDown.

Hmmm. I feel like I've typed that a lot recently. I guess it's because tomorrow's SmackDown is the third go-home edition of the show in the last seven weeks.

It's, of course, the final SmackDown episode before Over the Limit, and it's got a tough task ahead: creating some final hype for what has traditionally been a throwaway pay-per-view.

And all it really takes is one look at the show's spoilers to see if it will actually accomplish that, so guess what? 

That's exactly what we're here to look at with this week's SPOILER-included analysis of Friday Night SmackDown.

As always, I will provide you guys and gals with the full set of spoilers and then offer my thoughts on three things I like and three things I dislike about them.

Let's do it.

Full Spoilers

Here is the full set of spoilers for the May 18th episode of Friday Night SmackDown, courtesy of Prowrestling.net:

WWE has a little less than a quarter of the arena on the camera side tarped off. There were plenty of "Yes!" chants and "Woooooo's" before the dark match earlier.

Booker T came out to a big pop. Michael Cole was out next to insane heat. Lilian Garcia came out to a respectable reaction. 

John Laurinaitis came out to pretty massive heat. He said he disagrees with the decision of the board of directors. He said it will be like leading the lamb to the slaughter on Sunday. He asked the crowd to support him and then asked that they say a prayer for him.

C.M. Punk's music played and he received a massive pop. Punk headed to the ring as the fans chanted his name loudly. He said his prayers have been answered because after Over The Limit, Laurinaitis will be terminated. Punk said he would like to be the first to wish Johnny the best in his future endeavors. 

Punk said he has no respect for Big Johnny and by this time next week, Punk will be WWE Champion and Big Johnny will be on the unemployment line. Laurinaitis blamed the fans and said they can go to hell. He booked Punk vs. Kane for later in the show.

1. R-Truth and Kofi Kingston defeated Titus O'Neil and Darren Young. Truth hit Paydirt on Young for the win. Lots of love for Kingston from the fans.

Zack Ryder was filming his Youtube show when Damien Sandow walked past him. Sandow is up next. 

Damien Sandow came out and introduced himself as our intellectual savior. He said he would bestow upon us enlightenment that we so desperately craved. He said Yoshi Tatsu was not worthy of facing him. Yoshi called Sandow a chicken, and now it's on! Sandow hit Tatsu with a chickenwing neckbreaker and left. No match. Apparently, it's not on.

A Big Show vignette was shown with answers teased for tonight. 

Backstage, Sheamus said he looks forward to the four-way match because it gives him a chance to show what kind of champion he is. Orton said that while there are three other guys in the match, he would love to pin Sheamus. They had a staredown.

2. Daniel Bryan beat Zack Ryder. Ryder came out to a decent pop, but his reactions have cooled considerably from where they once were. Bryan came out to a big reaction and got a mix of "Yes!" and "No!" chants, but the "Yes!" chants definitely won out. Bryan put him away quickly with the Yes! Lock.

3. Kane defeated WWE Champion C.M. Punk by DQ. Daniel Bryan was on commentary for the match. Bryan went to hit Punk with a chair, but turned around and hit Kane with it instead. Bryan then hightailed it up the ramp, and Kane, thinking that Punk had hit him with the chair, lit Punk up with some throat thrusts and a pair of chokeslams. Jeremy notes that perhaps should Kane just pretend that all his opponents hit him with steel chairs since it seemed to bring out the best in him.

4. Santino Marella beat Cody Rhodes in a champion vs. champion match. Santino caught Cody coming off the ropes with the Cobra and pin. The crowd was actually split for this match, but popped huge for the finish.

Randy Orton came out to a very big reaction. Sheamus followed to a mix of cheers and boos and some "Sheamus" chants. Fickle crowd. 

5. World Hvt. Champion Sheamus defeated Randy Orton. Orton went for the RKO, but Sheamus schoolboyed him for the win. The crowd was about 70/30 in favor of Orton, but popped big for Sheamus's pin. After the match, they shook hands and then Orton hit the RKO to a big pop. The show should end with Orton standing over Sheamus in the ring.

Dislike: No Ryback or Antonio Cesaro

I obviously realize that this is the final SmackDown before Over the Limit, so the focus will be on building toward that pay-per-view, as it should be.

But no Ryback or Antonio Cesaro this week? That's not a good idea.

Whenever you introduce, or reintroduce, a new superstar to the main roster, it's imperative that the WWE audience is able to familiarize itself with them, and the only way to do that well is for that superstar to appear on the show every week in some way, shape or form.

Yet it appears that neither Ryback nor Cesaro will get so much as a vignette or backstage segment this week, which is a great way of making them look irrelevant.

If a guy can't even make his way onto a two-hour show for a few minutes, then it screams, "Hey, this guy really isn't that big of a deal."

That's not what you want, especially early on in the careers of two guys who have only had a handful of appearances on SmackDown so far.

Like: More Tag Team Wrestling

Tag team wrestling was once one of my favorite things about the WWE, so it's nice to see it coming back.

I have to give credit to the creative team for taking some small steps toward rebuilding the tag team division, by pairing Kofi Kingston with R-Truth, bringing up Darren Young and Titus O'Neil from NXT and so on and so forth.

These steps aren't going to instantly fix the WWE's tag team problem, but the WWE is definitely moving in the right direction and that will apparently continue on this week's SmackDown when Truth and Kingston take on Young and O'Neil.

The reason fans have lost interest in the tag team division over the last few years is because creative has, too, but now that creative seems to be interested in putting at least a minimal spotlight on tag team wrestling, I'm starting to get interested in it as well.

Hey, what do you know? Focusing on tag teams actually makes me want to see them more!

I'm glad the WWE finally realized that.

Dislike: The Continued Burial of Cody Rhodes and Zack Ryder

While I like what creative has done with the tag team division, it's borderline infuriating to see what it's done with Cody Rhodes and Zack Ryder lately.

Ryder has a hard time even getting on TV these days, and when he does, it's usually only to job, just like he'll do on tomorrow's SmackDown against Daniel Bryan.

One question: Why Ryder? The dude was majorly over at the end of last year, and now he's become just another guy.

Unfortunately, the WWE is now dangerously close to doing the exact same thing with Rhodes.

I don't know what's up with the creative team, but the booking of Rhodes since WrestleMania 28 has been atrocious, as he's lost more matches than I care to count and has simply been portrayed as a loser.

Rhodes is one of the WWE's top talents and should be getting elevated, not de-pushed. But you have him lose to Santino Marella via the Cobra?

Come on, WWE. You're burying a heel who's one of the best overall talents in the WWE and a baby face who got himself ridiculously over last year.

What's the deal?

Like: 5 Matches, Down from 10 Last Week

Last week's SmackDown had way too many matches.

We got 10 matches in a two-hour show when we usually get seven or eight on a three-hour pay-per-view, and as a result, the majority of the show felt incredibly rushed.

This led to short matches, non-finishes and multiple squashes.

I guess the WWE learned from its mistake, though, because the number of matches was cut in half from five to 10 on this week's show.

That should, in turn, result in multiple, lengthy matches, which is what we fans have sort of grown accustomed to from the blue brand.

SmackDown used to be highlighted by very good, 10-plus-minute matches.

Perhaps we'll get two or three of those on tomorrow night's show.

Dislike: Where Were Alberto Del Rio and Chris Jericho?

You know when it's hard to sell a pay-per-view? When two of the four participants in one of the PPV's biggest matches aren't there.

And that's exactly what will happen on tomorrow's SmackDown.

I realize that Alberto Del Rio couldn't be at the show because he was doing promotional work for the WWE, but where was Chris Jericho?

Why wasn't he on the show whatsoever?

It's not exactly a great philosophy to leave two guys completely off of the final show before Over the Limit when they're going to play huge roles on the PPV.

I think Chris Jericho is actually the favorite to win the Fatal 4-Way for the World Heavyweight Championship on Sunday, so not having him (and ADR) on SmackDown really hurts the final buildup for Over the Limit.

Like: Orton Hitting Sheamus with a Post-Match RKO

I don't like seeing Randy Orton lose again, but you know what I do like?

Seeing Orton hit Sheamus with another RKO after the match.

I've felt like Orton has lost his edge as the anti-hero/tweener over the last year or so, so it's nice to see him going back to RKOing anyone and everyone in his path.

That's the Orton that became one of the WWE's most popular stars. That's the Orton that made the fans start cheering for him.

Welcome back, the real Randy.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.