Smackdown
Date:
April 26, 2013
Location:
O2 Arena, London, England
Commentators:
Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, John Bradshaw Layfield
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
We're
still in London and still in the 02 Arena for the blue WWE show. The
main event tonight is a rare singles match on free TV for the
Undertaker as he faces Dean Ambrose of the Shield. Other than that
we've got Swagger vs. Del Rio in a No DQ match which should be good
if it's anything like last week's match. Let's get to it.
We
open with a recap of the six man tag from Raw where Shield beat
Undertaker and HELL NO. We also hear a bit about the No DQ match
tonight.
Alberto
Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger
No
DQ as mentioned twice already. Del Rio starts fast and clotheslines
Swagger out to the floor. A suicide dive takes Swagger down and Del
Rio's seems to be fine. Alberto pulls out a kendo stick but gets
whacked in the now injured knee with it. Del Rio blocks a shot to
the chest but gets sent to the floor, down onto the knee. They slug
it out in the aisle and Del Rio suplexes him onto the ramp.
Del
Rio pulls out a ladder and launches a charging Swagger face first
into it as we take a break. Back with Swagger holding a front
facelock on Del Rio after gaining control with kendo stick shots
during the break. A belly to belly suplex gets two for Jack and he
gets a chair from ringside. Since he's a heel though, Swagger talks
a lot of trash and gets caught by an enziguri on the apron. Del Rio
pounds away but Jack takes out the knee to slow him down again.
Swagger
wedges a chair between the top and middle rope, only to walk into the
Codebreaker to the arm. Some clotheslines to Swagger set up the
tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, followed by some kendo stick shots to the
back. For someone who uses an arm submission, Del Rio certainly
works on the back a lot. A Backstabber gets two on Swagger but the
armbreaker is countered. Del Rio settles for a low superkick for two
but Swagger grabs the ankle lock from the mat. Del Rio rolls through
into the armbreaker but Jack escapes and sends Alberto face first
into the chair for two.
Jack
knocks the chair to the floor and opts for the ladder instead, only
to have Del Rio see-saw it into Jack's chin. Colter tries a cheap
shot and the distraction is enough to let Swagger get a running
ladder shot to Del Rio's face. The Vader Bomb hits knees and Del Rio
puts on the armbreaker again. Colter slides in the kendo stick
though and Swagger pounds away to break the hold. Jack beats on
Alberto with the stick to escape, drops the ladder on his body and
gets the pin off the gutwrench powerbomb at 11:00 shown of 13:30.
Rating:
B-. Good match here but not as
good as last week. It seems that the more time these two get the
better matches they can have. This was designed to even things up
going into the triple threat, but as usual it just makes both guys
look the same while crippling the momentum that either guy has. But
hey, wins and losses mean nothing in WWE right?
Layla
vs. Aksana
Layla
is her usual bubbly self again, so I guess the heel tease from a few
weeks ago is added to the list of dropped angles. Aksana is sent to
the apron where she poses, only to charge back in for some near
falls. Layla gets caught by a running knee to the head for two
before she starts working on Layla's hand. Aksana bends Layla's arm
around the ropes and easily stops some martial arts from Layla. The
British chick gets a running start and hooks a side roll after a
bunch of flips for the pin on Aksana at 3:04.
Rating:
D+. Dang it why did it have to
break three minutes? This was just a way to have the home country
girl get a win and look good in British flag shorts. As usual, the
Divas continue to be nothing of note and a mere time filler on most
of the shows. Aksana wasn't as terrible as she usually is here
though.
Apparently
the spinning side roll is called Infinity. They're naming glorified
rollups now?
Video
on the Divas show coming to E!
Video
on Shield being awesome.
We
get most of the six man tag match from Raw, as in over ten minutes of
it.
Shield
says justice prevailed on Monday when they broke the unbreakable.
It's an injustice that HELL NO still has the tag belts but they won't
be doing so for long. Ambrose wants to finish the job tonight
against Undertaker. After tonight, Shield is going to be immortal
instead of Undertaker.
Fandango
vs. Justin Gabriel
Gabriel
dances a bit to start and Fandango lunges at him. An armdrag and
legsweep put Fandango down and the fans are singing the Fandango
theme song. The fans keep getting louder as Fandango ties Gabriel up
in the ropes for some forearms to the back of the head. Justin fires
off some kicks including a nice spinning one to take Fandango down.
He goes up top and dives into a knee to the ribs though, allowing
Fandango to hit the spinning downward spiral and guillotine legdrop
for the pin at 3:03.
Rating:
C-. Not bad here and this is
the kind of win that Fandango should have gotten last week. Gabriel
is a good choice for a jobber as he's not going anywhere but is still
good enough in the ring to believe there's a chance of a big upset.
They seem stalled with Fandango though as there's nowhere to go with
him from here. Hopefully he doesn't fall into the midcard abyss
though as that would be horrible for him.
Big
Show vs. Sheamus
Before
the match we recap Sheamus' issues with Mark Henry. Show shoves him
down to start but Sheamus pounds away in the corner. Big Show will
have none of that and fires off chops to Sheamus' chest while the
Irishman is tied up in the ropes. They head to the floor with Show
in control, but as they come back in Sheamus hits a shoulder to the
ribs, followed by the forearms to the chest.
Back
in and Sheamus charges into a side slam followed by a big elbow drop
for two. Final Cut gets the same and Sheamus is having trouble
breathing. Sheamus fires off some right hands but Show falls on him
during a slam attempt for two. Big Show keeps him on the mat as the
pace slows down a lot. A hard slap to Sheamus' chest sounds like
it's ripping skin off as we take a break.
Back
with Sheamus being sent shoulder first into the post and out tot he
floor. Show sends him into the steps as this is still one sided for
the most part. Sheamus makes it back in at 8 so Show sends him into
the buckle. Off to a top wristlock but Sheamus fights up and hits a
DDT to get himself a breather. They slug it out from their knees
with Sheamus taking over and hitting some shoulder blocks.
The
top rope shoulder puts Show down but Sheamus can't hit White Noise.
Scratch that actually as he escapes the chokeslam and connects with
White Noise before loading up the Brogue Kick. Show bails to the
floor so Sheamus dives off the steps to take him out. Back in again
and Sheamus loads up the top rope shoulder, but here's Henry to
distract him, allowing Big Show to knock Sheamus out with the WMD for
the pin at 10:52 shown of 13:52.
Rating:
B-. As usual these two have
good chemistry together and they had the slow build going here. I've
always liked seeing these two have their battles of the titans with
both guys hitting each other with harder and harder shots until one
of them can't get up. They did that here and it worked quite well,
as always.
William
Regal vs. Wade Barrett
Non-title
here. Before the match, Barrett says there must be something to the
idea of grave robberies in London since it's standing right there in
the ring. Barrett pounds away to start but gets sent into the corner
where Regal pounds away as well. The knee trembler misses though and
it's the Bull Hammer from Barrett for the pin at 56 seconds.
We
get the HHH/Heyman segment from Raw.
Randy
Orton vs. Mark Henry
The
World's Strongest Slam is attempted less than twenty seconds into the
match but Orton slips over the back and pounds away with right hands.
We head to the floor with Henry getting in some hard shots, only to
head back inside and get stomped down. Henry runs Orton over again
and beats him down in the corner but Randy comes back with
clotheslines of his own. Orton covers but Henry kicks him out hard
enough to have Randy land on his feet. The Elevated DDT puts Henry
down but he rolls to the floor to avoid an RKO. Mark gets back in
and walks into a Brogue Kick from an interfering Sheamus for the DQ
at 4:19.
Rating:
C-. No time to go anywhere here
but the match wasn't bad or anything. This is where the WWE style of
booking gets annoying as you knew the ending to this as soon as
Sheamus vs. Big Show ended. Sheamus vs. Henry should be good and
hopefully the match doesn't have some stupid gimmick that limits what
they can do in the ring against each other.
Orton
gives Henry an RKO post match and doesn't seem mad at Sheamus at all.
We
look at the end of Raw with Foley, Ryback and Cena.
Undertaker
vs. Dean Ambrose
This
is quite the rub for Ambrose. Apparently HELL NO isn't here tonight
so Undertaker is on his own. Ambrose takes it to the corner to start
which is about the dumbest thing you can do against undertaker. As
expected, Taker launches Dean into the corner and pounds away before
hitting the apron legdrop. Back in and Taker misses a big boot in
the corner, crotching himself in the process.
Ambrose
sends him to the floor and goes off on the big man before sending him
into the apron. Back in and Dean pounds away even more with that
cocky/psycho look on his face. After a quick two count, Dean pounds
on Taker's jaw and yells about justice. He shouts a bit too much
though and gets grabbed around the throat. Taker tries to run the
ropes but gets caught with a running knee to the ribs. That gets him
nowhere though as Taker snaps off a chokeslam but he has to fight off
Shield. Ambrose grabs a DDT for a VERY close two but walks into the
Hell's Gate for the tap out at 4:40.
Rating:
C+. You want to talk about a
rub, look at what you just saw here. The Shield debuted just six
months ago and now one of them is fighting the Undertaker in the main
event of Smackdown. Ambrose had Taker in trouble too and never once
looked like he was in over his head. This is one of the best initial
pushes I've ever seen and is showing no signs of slowing down at all.
Post
match the Shield attacks but Taker actually fights them off since
Ambrose is down. He loads up a chokeslam on Rollins on the floor but
Reigns hits the big spear through the barricade. Ambrose hits him
with a chair and shouts that Taker didn't beat him. Shield
TripleBombs Taker through the table, presumably writing him off TV
for the a long time.
Overall
Rating: B. This was a STACKED
show with a Wrestlemania rematch, two matches which could headline
the Smackdown half of a PPV, and a big rub to Shield. The matches
were almost all decent to good and nothing on here was really bad.
This is what Smackdown is known for and it worked quite well here.
Very entertaining and big time show.
Results
Jack
Swagger b. Alberto Del Rio – Gutwrench powerbomb
Layla
b. Aksana – Infinity
Fandango
b. Justin Gabriel – Guillotine legdrop
Big
Show b. Sheamus – WMD
Wade
Barrett b. William Regal – Bull Hammer
Mark
Henry b. Randy Orton via DQ when Sheamus interfered
Undertaker
b. Dean Ambrose – Hell's Gate
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