WWE SmackDown Review: April 1, 2011
Hey bleachers! I’m back with my weekly SmackDown review, but this week there isn’t much to tell. There were two matches on the SmackDown card and the rest of the show consisted of filler and promos.
I know, it sounds like Raw, doesn’t it? Fear not, the two matches that were featured were actually very good and did a satisfactory job of promoting the WrestleMania matches.
The Intercontinental champion Wade Barrett came out to defend his title against Kofi Kingston.
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Kofi started off strong until Wade Barrett put a stop to his momentum, with a strong kick, during an attempted aerial offence. This caused the action to spill to the outside where Wade took advantage of the environment.
Back in the ring, Barrett hit a good ol’ fashioned pump-handle slam, which led to a near fall.
Wade Barrett and Kofi Kingston have put on good matches two weeks in a row. They complement each other beautifully in the ring and the matches just seem to flow.
It’s a shame a match for the Intercontinental title will not be happening at WrestleMania, as it could have been a classic.
Barrett derailed a Trouble in Paradise with a brutal kick in the same fashion he blocked the aerial attack earlier in the match. The only gripe I had about this match was the fact that Kofi went for the Trouble in Paradise so many times.
He literally tried to fire it off every two minutes. It’s OK to do it a few times in the match but I feel it was excessively used.
Kofi eventually hit the Trouble in Paradise on the 23rd try, but The Corre interfered to save Barrett and his title. This led to interference by Santino and Kozlov, who were unable to fend off The Corre.
The Big Show and Kane arrived to clean house and the mismatched four stood tall as The Corre fled to the back.
I was informed earlier that Kozlov will not be wrestling at the big event anymore. I think Kofi will probably replace him. If this is the case, then it makes the eight-man tag match a bit more appealing.
We will have to see. If anyone knows who is the replacement, then just say in the comments if you feel the need to. I have been avoiding spoilers, as I would like to be genuinely surprised if something shocking happens.
There was a promo next by Cody Rhodes. He proved tonight why his gimmick will be extremely successful if kept up. His mike skills are excellent.
He stood in his towel talking slowly and had an eerie tone to his voice. He said Mysterio changed him from a rugged and handsome individual, into the monstrosity he is now.
“I’m a bitter man.”
It was an excellent promo and only made me more excited for their match at WrestleMania.
A lot of WrestleMania Axxess borefest followed, I’m not going to lie and my finger was on fast-forward until we returned to the arena for another match...about an hour later.
Cody came out with what is now his signature black towel, distorted music and new black trunks—and I can’t be the only one to think WWE has something special here with this character.
They are constantly improving him in the run-up to WrestleMania.
He faced Chris Masters. I like the way Cody stews in the corner before the bell rings then whips his towel off and becomes psychotic.
It was a good match with Masters actually getting in a lot of offense as opposed to Trent Barreta a couple of weeks ago. As he went for the Masterlock, Cody Rhodes used his mask to set up his finisher.
Another win for Cody before WrestleMania, as if anyone expected anything different, but it was not just a simple squash match as it had been the past couple of weeks.
There was good offense from Masters, which made sense due to his frame. Just because Cody is psychotic doesn’t make him invincible.
Rey Mysterio came running out and two kicks and a dropkick to the shin were all it took for Cody to be set up for a 619. Is it just me, or did it look like that scene was edited? There was a cut between the penultimate kick and final dropkick that didn’t look right as Rey Mysterio wasn’t standing in the same place in the ring.
Cody thwarted this attempt, went for a powerbomb and was huracanrana'd into the same position he just left. Cody managed to escape a face-shattering 619, as Rey revealed he had been wearing a huge knee brace.
The rest of the programme just consisted of Raw recaps.
Fan Axxess is a big part of WrestleMania and there isn’t really another show that allows them to get this content out to the mass television audience. This is the reason they utilised SmackDown for this cause.
I think it was a bad decision as SmackDown has out-shined Raw consistently over the past couple of months, and this filler has just re-iterated the fact that it is considered the B-Show.
On the other hand, the matches that were needed were there, and there are more Raw contests on the show than SmackDown ones. If Edge and Albert Del Rio had featured on this episode, it would have been overkill, as they were on Raw this week.
SmackDown was what it needed to be and I don’t think we can really complain about being treated to two great matches this close to WrestleMania.
Thanks for reading! Please leave your thoughts and comments in the section below and I will reply as best I can to those who warrant one. Please check out my other articles listed below.
If you missed my Raw review this week please give it a read.
To see my slideshow regarding who will be the top 5 performers at WrestleMania, please follow the link below.
Or alternatively, if you want to see who I think will be the 5 worst performers at WrestleMania please read this slideshow.
Also, if you missed it, please read my slideshow on how WWE could benefit most from the matches scheduled for WrestleMania
Thanks once again to all who read these articles.
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