Friday Night SmackDown Review - October 7, 2011

Big Show chokeslams Mark Henry through the table.

I'm liking the rebellious heel stable, but their promo to start the show was primarily focused on the aftermath of Raw, not SmackDown. Cody Rhodes received the most heat of all the heels, but that was about it. Nice way to hype matches for later in the show.

Very short, but fun match from WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio and Sin Cara. These two have excellent chemistry, and could have easily gone for another ten minutes. However, I'm glad Del Rio was able to score a clean victory over Sin Cara. The dark Sin Cara attack post-match progress the rivalry, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not given their lackluster match at Hell in a Cell.

Good tag team match from WWE Tag Team Champions Air Boom and the team of Jack Swagger and United States Champion Dolph Ziggler. The pre-match attack from the heels was a smart move in getting heat back on them. It was hard to take this bout seriously seeing their previous match together was nearly eight minutes this past Sunday, but it's a great way to continue the rivalry between the two teams.

A thirty-second Divas match does not benefit anyone nor the division by any means. Sure, it makes Phoenix come off as a dominant beast and recuperate from this past Monday, but people won't care about the matches if there is hardly any actual wrestling involved. Isn't that what the championship is supposed to be for?

Boring, yet truly emotional promo from the returning Big Show. Having World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry decline an offer from Show for a title match contradicted what he said a while ago about taking on all challengers, and it's also not smart to have Henry scurry away in the fashion that he did. Nonetheless, the segment provided a nice hook for the remainder of the show.

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John Laurinaitis confronts Teddy Long.

Throwaway match from Ezekiel Jackson and Jinder Mahal. Jackson looked good here, but it seems as if Mahal has taken Heath Slater's role as the lead jobber in the WWE. It's a shame too, seeing how much potential Mahal has if booked correctly. Losing random matches will obviously get him no where.

John Laurinaitis showing up on SmackDown was a waste of time, and didn't do anything to do with SmackDown or to hype Raw. Less is more for Laurinaitis, which he should know by now.

Pointless comedy crap from Hornswoggle and Booker T. I could care less about Hornswoggle's "return" to SmackDown, as if he ever left in the first place. Anyways, solid tag team match with Randy Orton and Sheamus defeating Christian and Cody Rhodes. I'm not sure what this does to get viewers intrigued as to what happens next with these four, but I would have rather seen Sheamus pin Rhodes to secure himself a future rematch for the Intercontinental Championship.

The main event segment featuring World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry and Big Show was horrible booking. I understand that Show deserves some redemption after being buried a few months back, but Henry is not the Superstar who he should be taking his aggression out on. This is the weakest the World's Strongest Man has looked in a long time, and I surely hope this doesn't mean Show wins the World Championship come their eventual match-up.

Overall, a pretty pointless show that managed to feature too much filler as well as more its focus on Raw instead. Once again, the action was way too short to mean anything, and the story-lines have quickly disappeared from Friday nights. Personally, the World Title picture with Show and Henry does not intrigue me to keep watching, but one can presume Henry reverts back to his dominant status sooner rather than later.

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