Friday Night SmackDown Review - April 12, 2013

Dolph Ziggler cuts his first promo as World Champion.

Excellent opening segment featuring new World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler and his various rivals. I assume Ziggler lost his voice during his championship celebration on Monday's Raw, but his promo here was still great, regardless. The interruptions from Jack Swagger, Alberto Del Rio and Chris Jericho were all well done with each competitor stating why they deserve a shot at the title. Furthermore, this was an effective way of setting up the main event match between Ziggler and Jericho for later in the night.

Fine match with WWE Tag Team Champion Team Hell No defeating the Prime Time Players. We've seen this match a number of times in the past, so it was nothing out of the ordinary. It's just a shame to see how far the tag team division has fallen, as it's basically Team Hell No and everyone else. On the bright side, it's nice to see that The Shield have set their sights on the gold based on their post-match promo.

Basic match with Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett defeating Santino Marella. To Marella's credit, he truly is a great competitor when he wants to be, so this bout was well wrestled while it lasted. The outcome was never in doubt, but it was still a good win for Barrett, nonetheless. WWE has done major damage to both him and the belt in recent months, so this was a nice way of starting the rebuilding process.

Throwaway six-Diva tag team match with the Bella Twins and Tamina Snuka defeating Divas Champion Kaitlyn and the Funkadactyls. The action was rapid fire at the start, but the bout was over before it even started. There was nothing necessarily wrong with this contest, but it didn't seem like it served much of a purpose. Nonetheless, it's still nice to see a majority of the Divas division receive television time for the for the first time in a long while.

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Triple H makes his signature entrance on SmackDown.

Solid segment featuring Triple H, 3MB, The Shield and Team Hell No. Triple H's promo was fun for what it was and touched upon his victory over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. 3MB's involvement here was painfully pointless, but The Shield's interruption made more sense and was well done. Team Hell No making the save shouldn't have come as a surprise to most viewers since we saw something similar with Undertaker on this week's Raw.

Decent Handicap match with Randy Orton and Sheamus defeating Big Show via count-out. It is not often you see two top fan favorites take on a heel in a two-on-one scenario, so it felt a bit strange. Losing the match via count-out protects Big Show, but it doesn't make me care about this feud any more than I was going into it. If an Orton heel turn is on the horizon, I surely hope they fast forward to that point sooner rather than later. While Mark Henry's backstage attack on Sheamus was intense, I'm not anticipating their pending feud since it's been done before.

Nice match between United States Champion Antonio Cesaro and Kofi Kingston. The match could've used a few more minutes in order to feel memorable, but it was fine for what it was. Kingston winning does nothing for this viewer, as we've seen him receive mid-card pushes countless times in recent years and it's no different each time. Cesaro has fallen far since the start of the new year, which is a shame because he has a very bright future and his potential is currently being put to waste for no apparent reason.

Great match between World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler and Chris Jericho. They have fantastic chemistry with one another inside the squared circle and this bout was no exception. The action was extremely entertaining throughout and the two delivered yet another instant classic. I would have liked to see Ziggler win clean here, but I'm still glad he was given the victory over a top name such as Jericho in his first match as champ. Fandango's post-match attack on Y2J was a nice momentum booster and was a good way of writing Jericho off WWE television for the being.

Overall, a mediocre show that didn't do much to leave this viewer looking forward to next week's edition. The only segments worth watching were the opening segment and main event match, as everything else seemed to fall flat. Sure, nothing on this show was horrendous, but it felt more like a chore to watch than anything else. Here's hoping the blue brand begins to feature more promising programs in coming weeks.

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