Friday Night SmackDown Review - September 14, 2012

World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus battles Daniel Bryan.

Decent opening segment featuring Alberto Del Rio and company. He's opened the show countless times in recent weeks saying the same thing, so this felt extremely repetitive. I'm glad Christian appeared in some fashion in his home country of Canada, but his involvement felt strange since he's a face. The save grace of this promo was Daniel Bryan coming out, who has the tendency to make any horrendous segment ten times better just because of how entertaining he's become. Not only that, but it also helped hype the main event and give it significance as well.

Nice match between Intercontinental Champion The Miz and Sin Cara. Of course, it had its share of botches, but the action was good for what it was worth. While I was a bit disappointed Miz lost yet another non-title match, it was logical in order to get Cara involved in the Intercontinental Championship match at Night of Champions.

Brief match with Kane defeating WWE Tag Team Champion Kofi Kingston. The action was fine while it lasted, but it was enough to hype the WWE Tag Team Championship match for Sunday. Obviously, the best part about the entire ordeal was Kane hugging Kingston following the contest, which was almost as hilarious as the anger management segment from earlier in the night.

Good match with Randy Orton defeating Tensai. It was certainly better than expected and made both participants look good. Tensai came off as a beast and Orton sold his offense very well. Granted, it was predictable victory for Orton, but still an enjoyable match nonetheless. The post-match angle with Orton preventing Ziggler from attacking him was something out the ordinary and a nice change of pace, while also building their feud going into Night of Champions in the process.

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Randy Orton delivers a brutal RKO to Tensai.

Effective segment featuring United States Champion Antonio Cesaro, Tyson Kidd and Brodus Clay. Given the fact the pre-show battle royal was advertised at the last minute, I'm glad they gave it some sort of build by having Cesaro cut a promo regarding its winner. Since Kidd hails from Canada, I was glad to see him interrupt Cesaro and show off his mic skills while doing so. Clay's involvement also helped foreshadow a potential feud with the U.S. Champion at some point.

Fine match between Kaitlyn and Beth Phoenix. Kaitlyn isn't all that great inside the ring, but she certainly has improved over the last two years. This was a nice tune-up match for her Divas Championship match on Sunday and Phoenix looked good here as well.

Solid match with World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus defeating Daniel Bryan. These guys nearly never have a bad match, and this contest was no exception. Sure, the ending result was never in doubt, but Bryan still looked strong in defeat. I'm not high on Sheamus' character and his lack of vulnerability in recent months, but he still manages to provide excellent matches regardless of his opponent. I would've liked to see Del Rio make an appearance, but I was fine with the fact that he didn't.

Overall, a pretty good show that contained some great in-ring action and successful hype for Sunday's Night of Champions pay-per-view. The night flew by and nothing on the show was horrendous by any means. I was entertained throughout most of the show and was glad to see different approaches taken for a number of the feuds that were furthered.

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