WWE Friday Night Smackdown 11/23/2012 Review

WWE Friday Night Smackdown 11/23/2012 Review

Last weeks show is here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/wwe-friday-night-smackdown-11162012.html

"I just ended it. I gave them what they wanted. I'll admit that I liked it and AJ is a darn good kisser." - Cena on the AJ/Cena kiss.

AJ came down then Dolph followed soon after with Vickie then coming too. They argued over who deserved each other more between Dolph/Vickie and Cena/AJ. We were at the 17 minute mark before all of this ended. A total waste of time.

Ryback vs Darren Young

"Apparently Ryback didn't eat enough on Thanksgiving because his appetite will never be satisfied." - Josh Mathews
"On many people's accounts, Ryback should be the WWE champion." - Josh
"On many peoples accounts, we should be the tag champions." - Titus O'Neil

"He should be able to reverse it right about now." - Titus O'Neil

Ryback beat Darren Young with the shellshock. Not a very impressive squash and it was all the same stuff we've been seeing.

"Ryback, that boy's worth millions of dollars. What's wrong with you?" - Titus O'Neil

Titus O'Neil then ate a shellshock to end the segment.

Antonio Cesaro vs R-Truth

"Look at all these large people and greasy fingers here tonight. Clearly you all enjoyed your thanksgiving. Another ridiculous US holiday that celebrates gorging yourselves and laziness. Lucky for all of you, you have Antonio Cesaro as your United States champion." - Antonio Cesaro

The finish...whatever it is

R-Truth beat Antonio Cesaro with well I have no idea what it was. A running Flair flop? Cesaro deserves better. This was very quick and was all Cesaro until the finish. Definitely an upset win.

"At Survivor Series, that thing just broke down. You hit Big Show like 30 times with that steel chair man. He's banged up. He's bruised now." - Booker T
"And what about that parking lot brawl? Before you do something you'll regret, I cannot let you compete tonight, but I'll tell you what. At Survivor Series, Big Show got disqualified on purpose. You deserve a rematch. For the World Heavyweight Championship - TLC - Chairs match. How bout that?" - Booker T

Booker then announced Big Show vs Team Hell No in a handicap match I guess in revenge for him getting DQ'd on purpose at the PPV. Meanwhile, Sheamus still gets no punishment for starting the parking lot brawl after he was kicked out of the building.

Sin Cara vs Alberto Del Rio

"Contrasting styles here to say the least." - Josh Mathews
"Contrasting styles what do you mean? They're both lucha libre! Are you kidding me?" - JBL being totally on, thumbs up for that one.

"Mil Mascaras was such an egotistical person. It's so good to see Alberto Del Rio didn't get any of those bad traits." - JBL

"You know John, how about you do everything. You do the play by play then you can analyze your own opinions. " - Josh Mathews
"That being said, a one man booth would be better." - JBL

The finish

Alberto Del Rio beat Sin Cara with an armbar. Again, I'm surprised to see Sin Cara jobbing. This is the second time this week. The work was very very good but the commentary just killed it. Josh would say something(which was usually stupid) and JBL would ridicule him for it. Then Josh told JBL that he oughta do it himself and that kind of slowed him down a little. I was happy to see Josh stand up for himself some but I would prefered to have muted this and just focused on the good wrestling. This was a good lucha style match with lucha bumps.



"May I remind you that years ago Big Show and I were tag team champions? And even then, he was a whiny oversized baby. You know come to think of it, you and Big Show have so much in common. Why don't you team with him and you can call yourselves Team No Show?" - Kane
"Is this because I didn't invite you to my house for Thanksgiving?" - DB
"Maybe" - Kane
"You wouldn't have liked it. Vegan Turkey." - DB
"Ew" - Kane

"I'll tell you what. If we win our match tonight, you can come to my house for christmas." - DB
"Can I beat up Santa Claus?" - Kane
"Deal." - Daniel Bryan

This was awesome. I demand home videos of Kane during Christmas. Heck, I demand home videos of Kane just doing normal stuff like going to the store. I know it would be entertaining.

Team Hell No vs The Big Show

"One wrestler invites another over for christmas and gets asked if he can beat up Santa Claus and you don't call that dysfunctional?" - Josh Mathews
"Maybe Santa Claus didn't give him a gift. I don't know." - JBL

Sheamus and Regal watched from a VIP box that Booker gave to Sheamus

DB force tagged himself in so Kane left

Big Show then beat Daniel Bryan by a chokeslame right after. I guess there will be no beating up Santa this year. The match was a little longer than it needed to be but it wasn't that bad at all for a handicap match. Afterall, DB being in there with Show most of the time wasn't much of a handicap for Show.

After the match, Kane saved DB from a further beating.
Show called out Sheamus via the mic after the match:

"Did you ever think about how the giant will have a chair in his hands this time, fella?" - Big Show

"You know what fella, I'm ready. You could hit me with that thing 50 times and I'll still knock you out." - Sheamus

Wade Barrett came down to the booth for this one.

Intercontinental Title - Kofi Kingston vs Damien Sandow

"I've beaten Kofi Kingston for the Intercontinental Championship before and I'm gonna do it again, if he wins this match." - Wade Barrett

Kofi Kingston beat Damien Sandow with the Trouble in Paradise Kick. They went right to commercial as it started but the match was decent overall. Pretty much exactly the match you would expect between these two. The focus was everyone ripping on Josh Mathews at the booth though.

"Let's face it, your best isn't enough to defeat me and the next time you defend the championship, it'll be the last because you're gonna be the next victim of the great Barrett Barrage." - Wade Barrett

Dolph Ziggler vs Randy Orton

The finish

Dolph Ziggler beat Randy Orton with a roll-up with a grab of the tights. Decent match between these two with good heat. We've seen this a 100 times so you know what are you getting here. Not one of their best matches, but nothing wrong with it at all.

Ricardo then came down and got the RKO:

John Cena then put an actually believeable(!) STFU on Ziggler on the stage.

Overall thoughts: Almost all of the matches were decent minus the Ryback squash. The big problem this show had though is that it got off to a very cold start. 15+ minutes of talking didn't do it for me, but after that, the rest of the show was fine. The one big thing that hurt the show was the commentary. JBL and Josh argued all night and it took away from everything. I like JBL as an announcer but he loves getting himself over at the expense of his colleagues.