 Sheamus brutalizes World Heavyweight Champion Big Show. Entertaining Miz TV segment with all the members of both Team Foley and Team Ziggler appearing. It did an effective job of establishing tension between the teammates of both teams and almost everyone played their roles well on the mic. Furthermore, it set up the many matches for throughout the night, so this was a successful start to the show. Good match between Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston and Damien Sandow. The action could've easily been better, but it seemed as if they were holding back a bit, which is a good thing if they'll be eventually feuding at some point. This was a nice win for Sandow with it being over the Intercontinental Champion, but it wasn't what I expected it to be. Fine six-Divas tag team match with Kaitlyn, Layla and Natalya defeating Divas Champion Eve, Aksana and Alicia Fox. Regardless of Natalya's and Fox's random face/heel turns that I never knew occurred, the match itself was alright, but the main focus was furthering the feud between Kaitlyn and Eve. The action was at least given some time, even if it wasn't a five star classic. It helped give Kaitlyn more momentum going into her Divas Championship match on Sunday, so that's all that mattered. Solid tag team match with Randy Orton and The Miz defeating Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler. I have throughly enjoying Miz's organic face turn up to this point, and his mannerisms and entertaining antics throughout this bout were fun to see. Since they were in Miz's hometown of Cleveland, it was nice to see him pick up the victory for this team. The post-match RKO was expected, but at least it further foreshadowed dissension between Team Foley.  Randy Orton shockingly delivers an RKO to hometown hero The Miz. Strong segment featuring Sheamus and World Heavyweight Champion Big Show. Sheamus displayed true intensity on the mic, something that's been missing from his character for quite some time now. Show was also pretty good in his role as well and really drove home the fact that he's been a dominant World Champion thus far. Having Sheamus getting escorted from the building was also a nice touch and added an extra layer to this feud that wasn't originally there.
Brief match between Kane and Wade Barrett. The action lasted under a minute, but the post-match brawl wasn't anything special. It was mostly basic with Team Foley getting the better of Team Foley and each Superstar being given their moment to shine. Nonetheless, it was still solid build for the Survivor Series elimination tag team match on Sunday, which it desperately needed in order for it to have any relevance at the event. Fun match between United States Champion Antonio Cesaro and Sin Cara. Cara pulled off a handful of high-flying maneuvers that Cesaro sold well, so each Superstar looked good coming out of this. Cool finish with Cesaro hitting his European uppercut out of nowhere on Cara and scoring the victory shortly thereafter. R-Truth didn't do much on commentary, but at least this provided hype for the United States Championship match on Sunday. Throwaway match with World Heavyweight Champion Big Show defeating The Great Khali. The action was slow and plodding as you expect, so why even bother having it? This match benefited no one (especially not the viewers), so it was merely meaningless. However, the post-match parking lot brawl was intense and enjoyable. Both guys looked liked absolute monsters and established the bad blood between the two. I've been pleasantly surprised with how WWE has handled this feud so much better in recent weeks as opposed to how it was prior to Hell in a Cell. Overall, a good show that was all about building towards Survivor Series and it was certainly successful in that aspect. Some of the matches on this edition of SmackDown were good, but none were good enough to the point where they're worth a second look. While nothing all that exciting happened, the show really helped me has anticipating Sunday's event with the extra hype they put into Big Show vs. Sheamus and Team Foley vs. Team Ziggler respectively. |
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