Friday Night SmackDown Review - March 15, 2013

Randy Orton connects with an RKO onto Cody Rhodes.

Good match with Randy Orton and Sheamus defeating Team Rhodes Scholars. It mostly a rehash of what we got on Raw, but it was still well-wrestled nonetheless. The outcome was never in doubt, but Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow still looked good in defeat. The Shield challenging Orton and Sheamus to a match at WrestleMania made sense from a story-line standpoint and gave viewers a hook for the rest of the show to find out who Sheamus and Orton's tag team partner would be.

Exceptional tag team match with Divas Champion Kaitlyn and Layla defeating Tamina and Aksana. The in-ring action was surprisingly better than expected and maintained a nice flow throughout. The match wasn't a classic by any means, but it received enough time to feel somewhat significant. Based off the post-match antics, it looks like Layla is headed for a heel turn in coming weeks to contend for the Divas title.

Solid match between Dolph Ziggler and Kane. The crowd was flat for the bout at certain points (most notably during mid-match), but the pace picked up down the stretch. The outside interference was well done, which allowed Ziggler to score a rare victory. It's nice to see him back to his winning ways again, but this seems to be indicating he'll be involved in a tag title match at WrestleMania, which is something I'm a bit skeptical of.

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Jack Swagger scores a hard-fought win over Chris Jericho.

Basic promo from Fandango. It was the same promo he's been cutting for weeks just with a different opponent in The Great Khali. I have no problem with the gimmick itself, but he should make his in-ring debut (or at least change things up) soon to avoid his shtick from growing tiresome. On the same token, it's garnering mild heat from the crowd, which is reassuring to hear.

Smart booking by having The Shield interrupt Ryback's match with Mark Henry. This is a match I want to see go down at WrestleMania, so I'm glad they held off on it here. Their attacks on Randy Orton, Sheamus and Ryback over the course of the show were pretty standard, but they were effective. Although I initially didn't want any contact between Henry and Ryback going into 'Mania, the World's Strongest Man looked strong by dominating Ryback with three World's Strongest Slams following the bout.

Great match between Chris Jericho and Jack Swagger. It certainly felt fresh and the two had excellent chemistry with one another. Both guys hit their signature spots and received a substantial amount of time to shine. The final few moments of the contest were suspenseful and this victory gives Swagger another momentum booster going into WrestleMania. I'm not sure why World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio didn't make an appearance on the show, but on a side note, his parody of Swagger was absolutely atrocious.

Overall, a decent show that didn't anything noteworthy, but what we ended up getting was satisfactory. From what I've read, the match between The Miz and Darren Young aired on WWE Active, but I didn't include it in this review because I didn't watch it. It was nice to see this show used as a stepping stone for WrestleMania rather than a filler edition, which has become the norm as of late.

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