WWE SmackDown Review: April 8, 2011

Hey there bleachers! I’m back with my weekly SmackDown review. This week I was a little worried that because Raw had been so good, SmackDown would not be up to its usual standard. Due to the Rock/Cena confrontation on Monday night, this may have been the first week that SmackDown did not beat Raw in terms of quality, but you can judge for yourselves.

Alberto Del Rio walked down to the ring to start off the show, accompanied by big Brodus Clay and his personal ring announcer. He did not arrive in a car once again, and I feel this is the end of that entrance. I for one am glad I will not be deafened by Del Rio beeping his horn non-stop, every time I try and watch SmackDown.

He did not look happy at all and cut a promo explaining that destiny can apparently be delayed. He also said he would make Edge and Christian pay for trashing his car. I assume he meant with violence, not a cheque. Edge interrupted this promo, arriving in the arena in a pickup truck holding Del Rio’s smashed Rolls Royce—his Heavyweight belt strewn across the bonnet.

Del Rio wanted a rematch for the Title, but Edge explained there are more worthy contenders and Christian was revealed to be the pickup truck driver. Edge started to make his way to the ring to attack Del Rio when Teddy Long appeared.

Teddy set up a match pitting Alberto Del Rio against...you guessed it CHRISTAN! Holla!—and the winner would face Edge in a ladder match at Extreme Rules. I can’t believe Teddy said Christan again. How amusing. Holla.

A WrestleMania rematch was up next—The Corre vs the mismatched team of Santino Marella, Kofi Kingston, The Big Show and Kane. This wasn’t an ordinary rematch however—it was a two out of three falls match.

I think this was a nice touch to add to a match that people aren’t really invested in—whether it is at WrestleMania or SmackDown. It is probably more suited to SmackDown and would have made more room on the WrestleMania card in hindsight, but let us not dwell on the mistakes of the past.

The Corre’s music has changed again for about the 6^th time since the group was formed. I wish they’d make their mind up.

The Corre needed to win this match to gain a little credibility back after all they have lost over the past few weeks. They could be a strong group on SmackDown but instead have been wasted like The Nexus.

Heath Slater’s team members saved him from a Trouble In Paradise early on in the match. Every member of The Corre got a good amount of time in the ring, with the match lasting through two commercial breaks, much like the tag-match last week on Raw. This is probably the match they wished to put on at WrestleMania, but didn’t get the chance to.

The first fall came from Kofi’s regular high cross body off the top rope. Barrett then evened things up with a Wasteland to Santino. By this point, I was actually getting into this match! I never thought I’d say that, but it was very entertaining and was a well worked match, accompanied by some decent spots.

However, the match completely broke down not long after that and The Corre all focused on Kane, before being ejected from the ring by the other three members of his team. I thought this was a great shame as it made The Corre look weak again. I think we can all kiss The Corre goodbye in terms of dominance in the roster. Why doesn’t WWE give stables a chance anymore?

What made things worse was the fact that Santino joined in with Kane and Big Show’s double chokeslam to Ezekiel, effectively making it a triple chokeslam, effectively making it look horrendous.

A Sin Cara promo aired next which I found a little confusing as he has already debuted.

Cody came out for what was a squash match against Trent Barreta. Trent managed to pull of one high-flying spot but that was about it, as Cody controlled most of the match with pure aggression. He gets better every week, making his character look even more sadistic all the time, just through his facial expressions.

He attacked Trent after the match, before being attacked by Rey Mysterio, who again, went for Cody’s mask. I don’t like where this angle is going because it probably signifies the end of Cody’s mask and therefore his character.

There was a brief backstage segment where Edge told Christian he was rooting for him in his match. Edge left and Christian proceeded to drool over the World Heavyweight Title.

LayCool faced Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix next. If you take my opinion of Beth Phoenix being the best Diva in WWE and Kelly Kelly being a top rising star and combine it with the general Bleacher Report opinion of LayCool being the best Divas, this should have made an incredible match.

It did—to an extent. They all had a decent amount of time in the ring but it was Kelly Kelly who stood out for me again. I think Beth Phoenix was better technically, but Kelly Kelly showed off the same arse...nal of moves she did a couple of weeks ago and excited me the most (because of her performance, not her attire) out of all the Divas.   

Kelly Kelly picked up the victory with a roll up on Layla when Michelle refused a tag. Are we seeing the end of LayCool?

During this match Cole was asked why he wasn’t in his singlet, to which he replied, “I’m not wr...entertaining tonight”. This was more than pathetic.

Cole was waiting in the ring after that and was laughing at himself throwing BBQ sauce in J.R’s face on Raw. He introduced Swagger who proceeded to cut a promo about how good Cole was. Makes me wonder if Swagger actually was an amateur wrestler or whether he has been affected by too many bumps to the head.

Guess who came to break up the party! I guess the main picture of this article spoils it, but if you said Sin Cara, you were right!

He didn’t botch his entrance this time either! He completely owned Jack Swagger. It seems Sin Cara is going after the heels of both SmackDown and Raw. He’s amazing, but I was watching him the whole time on tenterhooks, just hoping he wouldn't botch one of his complicated aerial assaults. It isn’t good for my health watching him perform...

Edge was on commentary for an adequate main event. That’s all it was, adequate. I didn’t think it lived up to the matches Christian and Del Rio had before WrestleMania, but it was good enough.

Edge constantly said “wrestling” throughout his commentary which I absolutely loved. He was basically shoving the word “wrestling” down everybody’s throats to remind them that this is what they were watching. I did wonder why Edge is allowed to say it, when Cole and the commentary team aren’t.

I think the whole of the WWE Universe wanted Christian to win, but Del Rio picked up the victory with his top rope enzugiri, while Brodus took a spear from Edge on the outside.

That was the end of an above average broadcast. However, it was not the best and Raw won this week’s battle in my opinion. It was far from being bad though and entertained me throughout.

I just have one more question. Can’t world titles be defended on television anymore? It annoys me that the champion is always safe until the next PPV. I’ll leave you with that final thought.

Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below! I do my best to reply to all comments that warrant it. Thanks for reading.

Also if you missed my Raw review last week, please take a moment to read it.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/656085-wwe-raw-review-april-4-2011