WWE SmackDown 10-21-11: The Good, the Bad and the Meh

WWE SmackDown originated from Mexico CIty, Mexico.  You can view portions of the episode on the WWE's website. 

Believe it or not, there is another PPV Sunday that the WWE needed to pimp, and some storylines that needed to be advanced.  Mexico proved an amiable home for Raw.  Did they do the same for SmackDown?  We shall see.

The Good:

+ Opening Segment.  Simple and to the point.  Alberto Del Rio cut a good promo, putting over his match on Sunday and playing to the "hometown" factor, then did his necessary heelish antics.  Teddy Long was good in his bit as well.  Overall, didn't waste much time and did what it needed to do.  Compare that with the 40-minute opening segment on TNA this week, and you get the idea.

+ Henry/Morrison.  Simple and quick match, more or less to get Henry over as a monster.  Couple of fun spots here, with a little storytelling.  Efficient as it needed to be.

+ Teddy segments.  Teddy was actually in good form tonight, both in the opening segment and the segment with Christian and Vickie.

+ Barrett/Bryan + promo.  Solid stick by the Englishman during his quick segment.  The match itself was pretty good and had a nice finish.  I'm a little surprised Barrett went over Bryan, but there is time to recover the American Dragon's credibility.  I hope they will try anyway.

+ Sheamus/Ryder vs. Christian/Ziggler.  All right match with the usual tag formula.  Done to sell the respective matches for Sunday.  It felt more like they were going through the motions.  The crowd helped the match, however, and made it feel worth more than it really was.  

+ Rhodes/Orton promo.  Solid job by the Martyred One, with good variance to his usual monotone style. This was a good sell for the match to play upon the theme of the PPV.  I love feuds that recap history due to the depth that it adds.  He managed to elevate the title a bit as well, noting how he was now the champion where Orton was not.  Orton was better than average, which is always a good thing.

+ Sin Cara/Sin Cara.  Fun match, though I'm a little surprised they gave the Mask vs. Mask stipulation away on TV.   Some good ringwork with a good story and plenty of time.  I doubt the feud is finished however, as Sin Cara Negro should get repackaged.  Match of the night for me.

+ PPV sell.  They did a nice job with the "go home" aspect of the show tonight, including adding some unintentional intrigue on how they handle Ziggler doing double duty at the PPV.   Overall, good performance in this respect.

+ Crowd.  Good job, Mexico, you did wrestling fans proud during the tour.  The various pops and heat from the crowd didn't feel canned one bit, and I don't think it was judging the crowd while they were rooting or booing the various talent.  Unusual for a SmackDown broadcast. 

The Bad:

- Main Event.  I had a few issues with the match and the end segment.  The first was the domination by Big Show over Del Rio.   Alberto is the WWE champion, and he was, more or less, manhandled.  They missed a great opportunity to give Del Rio some credibility by giving him just a bit more offense.

The second was the two or three minutes Big Show spent in the Cross Armbreaker.  The issue was Big Show was never on his back, to it made Del Rio look like he was hugging Big Show's arm vs. trying to break it.  Bad botch, but that's on Big Show, I believe.

The third was the ending sequence, where Henry got knocked out by Big Show.  I'm okay with Big Show dominating Henry once in a while as it's believable, but Henry was built as an unstoppable monster over the past four months.

The flushing you heard was part of that build being flushed away in two seconds.

Beyond that, the match didn't really do anything for me.  Ricardo was a highlight when he was fanning Del Rio with the scarf.  The ending to the match was needed to protect Big Show. 

Nothing else to say.

The Meh:

~ Divas Promo.  The gals did a good job on the stick to add a little heat to the Divas Title match on Sunday, but there wasn't enough time to do much with it.   But it does put it past the "time filler" status to "minor intrigue."  Again, however, there wasn't enough time to put the segment itself beyond filler.

Miscellaneous Thoughts: 

Barrett still needs pyro.

"GO!"  "BOOO!"  Nice to see Christian finally get some heat.

"As GI Bro, right?"

Last Hit PPV Theorum:  If it holds, Big Show, Orton, and Eve will lose on Sunday.

Did Sin Cara Negro cut a face promo on the WWE.com exclusive segment? 

Beth went from spikes to Galadriel tonight.  A buff elf?  I'm sure Gimli was paying attention.

"Well, it's the Big Slow..."

I am not looking forward to Henry/Big Show on Sunday.   Not one bit.

Overall Grade:  B

Up to the ending, this was heading towards solid A- territory, but the main event left much to be desired.  They did a solid job selling the PPV tonight, though; all the memorable segments geared towards it gave it some meaning.

I'm intrigued by how they will deal with the potential double-title situation with Ziggler, and if Big Show makes a permanent move to SmackDown if he wins on Sunday.  The Divas put in a good segment tonight as well, and both Orton and Rhodes were very good on the mic.   

Good "go home" show for the Blue Brand, but it could have been more.