Friday Night SmackDown Review - October 5, 2012

WWE Champion CM Punk hits Dolph Ziggler with a GTS.

Absolutely asinine opening segment featuring Big Show and World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus. Show's promo was well executed and I appreciate the effort to acknowledge history by showing the footage of his 45-second World title reign from last year, but this feud seems more about Show's past embarrassments and not making Sheamus look like a vulnerable champ. Similar to Monday's Raw, Sheamus was not funny, and displayed more heel tactics than Show himself. I'm not sure where they're going with this feud, but so far, I'm not enjoying its direction.

Good match with Prime Time Players defeating Kofi Kingston and R-Truth to advance in the WWE Tag Team Championship tournament. We've seen it a few times before, but it made for some fun action. No dissension between Truth and Kingston was shown, so it's unclear as to whether they remain a tag team going forward, but Darren Young and Titus O'Neil winning here is logical and sets up a match with their rivals Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara in the semi-finals.

Brief match with Ryback quickly defeating Primo. It's the same basic Ryback match we've been accustomed to for months, but just with a different opponent. Primo and Epico are quality talents, so it's a shame to see them so underutilized. I'm glad they put over Ryback's heroic actions from Raw, though, as those will help give him momentum going in next Monday night.

Fine match with Layla defeating Alicia Fox. There were some clunky spots, but nothing all that disappointing, as it was exactly what you'd expect from these two. It gave Layla a win she needed as she looks to regain her Divas Championship from Eve, but her promo that followed the bout was confusing and I had a hard time understanding it. On a side note, is Alicia Fox heel or does the Creative Team not even care at this point?

Typical squash match with Wade Barrett decimating a local athlete. We've seen Barrett take out lower-card Superstars in recent weeks, so it was baffling as to why they took two steps back and had him take on a non-contracted wrestler. Nonetheless, it showcased Barrett's dominance nicely, but he needs a substantial feud sooner rather than later.

---

Big Show knocks out Intercontinental Champ The Miz with a WMD.

Great match between World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus and Intercontinental Champion The Miz. It had significance following their brief encounter last week on SmackDown, and they had enjoyable chemistry here. Big Show causing Sheamus to lose via disqualification I guess made sense, but the big thing here is Miz scoring yet another victory. Sure, it wasn't clean, but a win is still a win, and it helps boost his credibility after all the non-title losses he's taken in recent months.

Decent match with WWE Tag Team Champions Kane and Daniel Bryan defeating Alberto Del Rio and David Otunga. Even before the match started, Del Rio's imitation of Orton was fantastic, and it really fit his gimmick to be honest. Otunga did nothing for me, so I'm glad he was the one to take the loss. The fact Kane scored the pin was cool seeing it was fifteen years ago to the day that he made his WWE debut. This match isn't all that significant, but it was fun while it lasted all due thanks to Team Hell No.

Throwaway match between Big Show and Tensai. The two have some history, but that was nearly a decade ago, so I didn't expect that to be acknowledged. The match was fine while it lasted, but Sheamus' run-in was inevitable given what occurred earlier in the night. Giving Tensai the win was strange when they could've easily put some other face in his spot, but even still, the interferences from Show and Sheamus throughout the night failed to get me excited about their feud.

Excellent match with WWE Champion CM Punk defeating Dolph Ziggler. It had the story behind it after what's happened between the two in the last month, so it made sense, but why book a heel vs. heel match? I strongly suspected someone to interfere, but that never came to fruition. Nonetheless, both are great workers and put on an entertaining match that saw Punk look strong with his victory. I'm not sure what it does for Ziggler, but it helps progress Punk's story that he was continue to decline to face John Cena at Hell in a Cell.

Overall, a decent show that featured some good action and solid story-line progression, but unlike in previous weeks, I didn't find anything on the show to be all that exciting. There's still a few weeks left until the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, so I understand in making this a filler show for the most part.

---