WWE Smackdown Review (September 30, 2011)

Welcome to another Smackdown Review. This week I will try to keep my review short. This week’s Smackdown is in St. Louis, Missouri and is the last Smackdown before the Hell in a Cell Pay Per View.

Smackdown starts with Booker T and Mark Henry doing an in-ring interview. Mark Henry talks about the Hall of Pain like he always does. Mark Henry says Randy Orton will join Kane, Big Show, and Jerry Lawler in the Hall of Pain. What about Vladimir Kozlov? I know he’s released but are we supposed to pretend he doesn’t exist anymore? It’s funny hearing Mark Henry talk about Orton going into the Hall of Pain at Hell in a Cell because I remember him saying that before Night of Champions too. Does being inducted in the Hall of Pain mean being injured? If so, I doubt Orton will be entering the Hall of Pain. Booker T asks Mark Henry what will happen if Orton hits the RKO and Mark Henry says that Orton will not hit the RKO on Mark Henry because if Orton could have, he would have done it. Orton has hit the RKO on Mark Henry several times so I don’t know why he’s so sure Orton can’t hit the RKO. 

After Mark Henry’s strong promo, The Great Khali comes out for his match against Mark Henry.

Mark Henry vs. The Great Khali 

I was expecting this match to be horrible but it was a decent match. The Great Khali is so bad in the ring that he makes Mark Henry look good. Mark Henry was the best worker in this match which is rare. Mark Henry won after hitting Khali with the World’s Strongest Slam and it’s good to see Mark Henry looking so strong. 

Winner: Mark Henry

Rating: Average

After the match, Mark Henry injures The Great Khali by putting Khali’s leg in a chair and then jumps on it just like he did to Big Show at Money in the Bank.

Evan Bourne vs. Jack Swagger

This match was disappointing. It was better than the Mark Henry vs. The Great Khali match but it was too short. Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero interfered during the match and that hurt the match. Jack Swagger won with the Ankle Lock. Swagger is a former World Heavyweight Champion so I don’t like seeing him needing help just to beat Evan Bourne.

Winner: Jack Swagger

Rating: Average

Real Sin Cara vs. Heath Slater

This was a really short match. It lasted about 45 seconds. The real Sin Cara did look good as always but I would have liked to see more. Sin Cara used Jeff Hardy’s Swanton Bomb to get the win.

Winner: Sin Cara

Rating: No Rating

After the match, the fake Sin Cara was on the titantron and revealed a black mask. He will be facing the real Sin Cara at Hell in a Cell and it’s good to know that fans won’t have to guess who the real one is and who the fake one is. 

Backstage, John Laurinaitis (Johnny Ace) is with Christian, David Otunga, Dolph Ziggler, and Vickie Guerrero. They are talking about taking legal action against Triple H and they agree that they will go after Triple H this Monday.  

Up next is the divas match. Kelly Kelly vs. Natalya. This might be a decent match.

Kelly Kelly vs. Natalya

Another quick Smackdown match. I got bored with this match very quickly. Kelly Kelly won with a cool looking pin maneuver. 

Winner: Kelly Kelly 

Rating: Boring

Cody Rhodes cuts an in-ring promo and he mentions that he had to get staples in his head after Orton busted his head open with a ringbell last week. I like it when the WWE work accidental injuries into their storylines. It reminds me of when Chris Jericho accidentally chipped his tooth in a PPV match against Shawn Michaels and then showed off his chipped tooth the next night on RAW. Cody Rhodes reveals that Sheamus is his opponent tonight. That should be a good match.

Cody Rhodes vs. Sheamus

This was another match I was not very impressed with. There hasn’t been any good matches tonight so this is probably the best match so far but I have seen better performances from these two. This match was getting interesting towards the end but then Christian inferred in the match. To be honest, this match was very disappointing and I did not really enjoy it. I’m hoping the main event match between Randy Orton and Christian is good tonight. I also hope Sheamus does not interfere in Christian’s match. 

Winner: Sheamus via DQ

Rating: Average

Up next is Zack Ryder vs. JTG. Is JTG supposed to be heel or is this a face vs. face match? 

Zack Ryder vs. JTG

This was a match between two jobbers. I still consider Ryder a jobber. I didn’t like this match. It felt like a dark match before a WWE PPV.

Winner: Zack Ryder

Rating: Boring

Backstage, Triple H is talking to Johnny Ace. Johnny says that he didn’t know Triple H was going to be on Smackdown. Triple H says he is not happy that Johnny is having meetings with the WWE Superstars. Triple H says if he can’t trust somebody, he should wish him well in his future endeavors. After Triple H leaves, Johnny Ace starts texting someone. 

After a video promo for Hell in a Cell, Matt Striker interviews Randy Orton. Randy says that he is not intimidated by Mark Henry. Randy then mentions the nine staples in Cody Rhodes’s head and that Randy did that to him. Randy also mentions that Mark Henry has never been in a Hell in a Cell match and that Mark Henry’s reign as champion will end this Sunday. Good short promo.

It’s finally time for the main event: Randy Orton vs. Christian. These two have faced each other a lot but all of their matches are good. I’m expecting this to be another good match. Randy Orton is from St. Louis so he gets a nice pop from his hometown fans. The cameras show a lot of Randy Orton signs in the crowd but the announcers don’t acknowledge that Orton is in his hometown. 

Randy Orton vs. Christian

This was a good match but I’m not used to seeing these two compete against each other in a non-title match. I realized that a big reason why their other matches were so entertaining was because the World Heavyweight Championship was on the line. Neither man in this match currently hold the World Heavyweight Championship so it didn’t really matter who won this match. I did enjoy this match but I didn’t like how similar it looked to the other Orton-Christian matches. They did that spot in which Christian fakes jumping off the top rope with Orton in position to hit an RKO. It was cool looking the first time they did it but now it’s getting old. They also did the Christian spear false finish with the announcers being shocked even though Christian has never beat Orton with a spear. As good as this match was, I would have liked to see some new stuff from these two. It was the same old shit but their shit is entertaining so I’m not too upset but next time please be more original. By the way, this match ended with a double count out which didn’t hurt the quality of this match at all because like I said, it didn’t matter who won this match.

Winner: No winner (double count out)

Rating: Good

After the match, Cody Rhodes, Sheamus, and Mark Henry came out to the ring. After Sheamus brogue kicks Cody and chases Christian out of the arena, Mark Henry hits Orton with the World’s Strongest Slam. Mark Henry gets a chair but before he can use it, Randy Orton hits Mark Henry with an RKO. Michael Cole then says Orton proved that he can hit Mark Henry with an RKO and maybe Orton does have some hope of beating Mark Henry at Hell in a Cell. WHAT?! First of all, of course Randy Orton can hit Mark Henry with an RKO. Cole’s acting like Orton has never hit Mark Henry with an RKO before but really he has hit the RKO on Mark Henry many times. Also, what is up with this “Orton might have a chance now” shit? I am predicting Mark Henry to win but I do not see Randy Orton as the underdog at all. Randy Orton still has beaten Mark Henry more times than Mark Henry has beaten Randy Orton so it wouldn’t shock me at all if Randy Orton wins.

Best Match: Randy Orton vs. Christian

This is an easy decision. It was probably the worse Orton vs. Christian match of 2011 but it was a lot better than the rest of the Smackdown matches.

Worst Match: Zack Ryder vs. JTG

I could go with Sin Cara vs. Heath Slater for their 45 second match but I really didn’t like the Ryder vs. JTG match. A lot of people like Ryder a lot but I still see him as a jobber. This match looked like a bad Superstars match and it reminded me of those dark matches the WWE does before PPVs for the live crowd.

Best Promo: Mark Henry

I got to go with Mark Henry because I’m really impressed with how well he has been on the mic lately. Mark Henry is not the best in-ring worker which is why he’s not a multiple time World Champion but one of the reasons why he finally became the Champion is because he knows how to cut a promo.

Worst Promos: Cody Rhodes and Sheamus

There weren’t really any bad promos this week which is expected because this was the last show before a PPV. I’ll give the Worst Promos to Cody and Sheamus only because I remember their promos the least. Their promos skills are good but you need to say stuff that people will remember. The only things I remember about Cody’s promo were when he said, “Ding ding ding” and talked about the staples in his head. I think I remember Sheamus saying something about an old Irish story.