Friday Night SmackDown - June 17, 2011

Randy Orton, Christian, and Sheamus continue to deliver strong opening promos each and every week. It furthers the story-line, contains intensity, and sets up the main event for later in the show. General Manager Teddy Long played his part well here too as well.

I'm glad we got a rematch of the six-man tag team match from RAW including six future break-out stars. The action was entertaining, but the confusing finish ruined it. Two referee botches in the same week doesn't come across too good on television.

Jinder Mahal has looked very good thus far, and defeating Vladimir Kozlov gives him more credibility as an in-ring competitor. Khali has played his role nicely as well, and expect them to begin his first feud next week. 

I cringed a bit when I saw Big Show appearing on SmackDown, but I grew more intrigued by what he accomplished. I'm really enjoying this new side of Show seeing that this is the first time in a while that he has ever seemed intimidating. Although it was pathetic to stretcher out Mark Henry after only a few punches, it makes him look that much more dangerous. 

Although the Divas match wasn't terrible, they really have no direction. We have no reason to care about any of them with their lack of characters, but giving them minute matches does them no favors.


The Usos and Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater put on a quality tag team match, which is something that is currently desperately needed in the dying division. You can tell by their entrance that the crowd didn't care for the Usos when they came out, but grew to enjoy them following their talented move set. I'd love to see them strive for the WWE Tag Team Championships, while Slater and Gabriel finally split to bring out Gabriel as a breakout face on SmackDown.

Alberto Del Rio's promo finally got me excited about his feud with Big Show, and shows that it holds importance going into Sunday. Big Show going completely berserk was well needed to show how badly he wants his hands on Del Rio, and I hope it doesn't mean he dominates him during their match.

The main event was once again very solid, and it shows how much chemistry these two have with each other. It had a unique finish, and gave Christian a good boost going into their upcoming World title match. The punt post-match to Sheamus was needed to hold him off the show for a while, and made Orton look dangerous in the process.

Overall, another enjoyable show. It had decent action as a whole, and did a great job hyping three matches booked for Capitol Punishment. It may be too little too late as far as buying the show goes for some viewers, but it has potential to be a very entertaining show on paper.