WWE SmackDown Review: April 29, 2011

Hey bleachers! I’m back with my weekly SmackDown review. I can only apologise for it being late, but I got engaged yesterday. Hurrah! Now let’s get down to business.

We were treated to a new title sequence featuring the newly acquired stars of SmackDown. The vacant World Heavyweight Championship was still hanging above the ring symbolically—who will have the honour of holding it at Extreme Rules?

Randy Orton kicked off the show by arriving in a SmackDown top—a theme that continued throughout the night. I’m assuming this is so the crowd would not be confused by what Superstar is on what brand.

He introduced himself to the SmackDown supporters to a thunderous ovation and told everybody he had unfinished business to deal with at Extreme Rules. Drew McIntyre then made the mistake of interrupting the viper in a Raw top.

He told Randy he was moving onwards and upwards (thanks for putting down SmackDown) and tried to give him a FutureShock DDT. This was reversed into an RKO by Randy—as if you expected anything less.

This was not the only interruption the Viper had to deal with however.

Alex Riley walked to the ring to make himself heard, but Randy wasted no time in treating him to an RKO.

The third and final interruption was made by Alberto Del Rio, who approached the ring with Brodus Clay and his personal ring announcer—creating a three-on-one situation. Christian however, rushed to the Viper’s aid.

Teddy Long arrived before it all kicked off and set up a tag match between the four superstars. Just in case you were wondering—he did say “Christan."

Kofi Kingston came out for his last night on SmackDown, but was viciously attacked by Sheamus. He shoved him into the stairs and the barrier, and then Brogue kicked him in the ring. I’m really glad Sheamus is dominant once again as I was really into him—especially when he was WWE champion.

Michael Cole (whose face was a total mess) introduced Jack Swagger who took on Sin Cara. Sin Cara once again perfectly executed his entrance and started the match with many fancy moves—only to have his momentum cut short by boots and clotheslines from Swagger.

Sin Cara won with a roll up when Swagger was distracted by Cole screaming instructions at him. Swagger attempted revenge but was sent outside to be met with a high cross body. Sin Cara is excellent in the ring but I hope his moveset does not become stale as Mysterio’s has. I feel there is a real danger of this and he needs to keep his matches fresh to keep me interested.

A tag team Championship match was up next and it consisted of the only two tag teams that are seemingly in existence in WWE at the moment—Big Show and Kane versus Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel.

It was a fairly decent match but nothing to write home about. It really surprised me that Big Show and Kane retained the titles as I expected The Corre to regain them—due to the nature of the draft. Booker T made a comment that made me laugh; “I can't think of a team that will stop Kane and The Big Show” That’s because there are no teams Booker.

I didn’t understand what the backstage segment with The Great Khali was supposed to achieve, so I’ll move swiftly on.

Rey Mysterio addressed his fans before his match, thanking them for supporting him during his time on SmackDown. Mark Henry came out and said it was unfortunate that Rey’s last match is his debut. I thought it was excellent and was looking forward to seeing Henry demolish Rey.

Again, Rey annoyed me by actually being in control for quite a while in the match. How did Mark Henry let that happen? Anyway, Cody Rhodes interfered just before Rey was about to pull off the most unconvincing win ever. He served Rey up to Mark Henry for the win, and then proceeded to put yet another paper bag over Mysterio’s head.

At least Rey got in no offence against Cody Rhodes. (As it should be)

Michelle McCool came out for a match with Layla but it just ended up in a total brawl—both women losing by count-out.

They set up a no DQ match at Extreme Rules—Loser leaves...WWE. Now, if you read the breaking news on Bleacher Report, you will have known that it was originally intended to be a loser leaves SmackDown match. So you can imagine my surprise when the worst dub ever, revealed it to be WWE.

They could have announced it at Extreme Rules and I felt WWE were a bit patronising to assume their audience wouldn’t notice such a horrendous overdub.

Matt Striker interviewed Christian about his career up to this point and I don’t think I’ve ever been more bored when watching SmackDown.

It was then time for the main event of the evening---the tag match that had been set up earlier. Randy Orton came out to a huge ovation and I must admit it was extremely refreshing to see him on SmackDown.

I have a question though—what was with Brodus’ bald spot to the right of his Mohican? When did that happen? On the subject of Brodus, I think he is an excellent performer and is good at portraying a beast of a character. He is gorilla like in his mannerisms—I don’t think I’ve seen anybody like him before.

Naturally, Orton and Christian won in what was an entertaining match. Del Rio escaped an RKO, which was a rather smart move by WWE as he hasn’t lost any credibility in his move to Raw. Randy had the crowd in the palm of his hand as SmackDown went off the air.

I thought it was rather a good episode but it felt like filler at times, before the draft really kicks in after Extreme Rules. However they began to set the scene and I believe it was a successful preview as to what SmackDown is going to be like in the future.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below. I do my best to reply to all comments.

Also, I would like you to visit my overlooked article regarding the match between Cody Rhodes and Rey Mysterio at Extreme Rules. Please view it here.

Thanks for reading