The Keg Stand (November 5, 2011)

This weekend is going to be very busy for me. I want to give my opinion about this week's Smackdown and I also want to write my Keg Stand column. The problem is that I had a hard time thinking of five topics and I didn't watch half of Smackdown. So for this week, I will discuss two WWE topics and review three matches from Smackdown. I'm not gonna say "Never before...never again" but I don't plan on having The Keg Stand and my Smackdown Review be tag-team partners every week.

The Muppets invade RAW

I liked the Muppets. They weren't great and probably weren't the best guest hosts RAW has ever had, but they made RAW more interesting. I didn't mind the special RAW guest host era. Many of the guest hosts were bad but when RAW had a guest host that was good (Bob Barker, William Shatner, Jesse Ventura, Dusty Rhodes, and Mike Tyson), that RAW episode would be very enjoyable. The Muppets made the show better and that's good enough for me. I think the Kermit and Miss Piggy segments were the best. The other segments were okay. The line of the night was when Kermit thought that Vickie Guerrero was Jack Swagger's mother. One of the most funniest moments on RAW this year.

Dolph Ziggler loses to Zack Ryder only three days after almost beating Randy Orton

What the hell? How did Zack Ryder defeat Dolph Ziggler on RAW last Monday? Was it because Zack Ryder is so good or because Dolph Ziggler is so bad? I'm not sure what message the WWE is trying to send. Let's assume they are trying to make Zack Ryder look good. Ziggler is the United States Champion so that's a good win for Ryder. However, that makes Randy Orton look bad. Orton barely defeated Ziggler on Smackdown last week but that was okay because Orton had to worry about Vickie Guerrero interfering in the match and also because Ziggler is a tough opponent. Then three days later, Zack Ryder beats Ziggler and he did it in a more impressive way. So now Orton didn't defeat a future WWE Champion on Smackdown last week. He defeated a guy who lost to Zack Ryder. That's not good for Orton. Also now this seems to suggest Zack Ryder could actually defeat Randy Orton! Ryder is the same guy who lost to Sheamus in five seconds last year. Orton has defeated Sheamus several times so the WWE shouldn't be hinting that Orton and Ryder are similar. Orton would KILL Ryder in a match.

This is bad for Ziggler too. He looked so impressive against Orton but looked so weak against Ryder. The WWE doesn't seem to know who Dolph Ziggler is. On Smackdown, Ziggler looked like a main event superstar after almost defeating Randy Orton. On RAW, Ziggler looked like a jobber whose job is to make Zack Ryder look good. A guy like Ziggler should destroy Ryder and that wouldn't be a good win for him because Ryder sucks. So when Ryder defeats Ziggler, that's a loss that kills any momentum Ziggler had after Smackdown. I started to believe that Ziggler could be a future WWE Champion after seeing how good he looked against Orton. After seeing him lose to Zack Ryder, he looks like someone who doesn't deserve to be the United States Champion. I don't care what the majority of the fans are saying...I still think Ryder is a mediocre at best WWE Superstar. He's a funny guy and deserves to be on RAW but I don't want to see Ryder defeating superstars who are less than a year away from being in Pay-Per-View main event matches. If Ziggler is going to be a future multiple-time World Champion in the WWE, he can't be losing to Zack Ryder. That's bad for business because Dolph Ziggler will be relevant in the WWE longer than Zack Ryder will be. Dolph Ziggler is the future. Zack Ryder is just having brief success. And Orton needs to have a more impressive win against Ziggler if Ziggler is going to lose to Ryder just three days later. 

Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes in a street fight (****)

That was a great Smackdown match. It was so good that the WWE should have saved it for PPV because they definitely gave away a PPV match on Smackdown last night. I think Orton and Rhodes have had a great rivalry and that was the best Orton vs. Rhodes match I have ever seen. I have only two complaints. One, it was not really a great street fight. They did wrestle outside the ring a little bit but they spent a lot of time in the ring. It felt more like a no disqualification, no count outs match. A real street fight spends more time outside of the ring and uses more weapons. A good example of a street fight is the Cactus Jack vs. Triple H street fight at the Royal Rumble in 2000. THAT was a great street fight. I know WWE is PG now and they can't have really good street fights any more so they should stop having street fights. Next time, just call it a "no DQ" match.

My other complaint is that Cody Rhodes should have defeated Randy Orton last night. Randy Orton doesn't need to win every match. I like Rhodes but I still have a hard time seeing him as a future World Champion. A win against Orton would have been arguably the best win in the career of Cody Rhodes. Even though Rhodes lost, I think that the Orton-Rhodes match was probably the Smackdown Match of the Year in my opinion (even better than the first Christian-Orton match). It was a great match that I didn't want to see end. It started with Orton dominating most of the match but then Rhodes took control of the second half of the match. After that, they went back-and-forth until Orton finally beat Rhodes after hitting a barricade hung DDT outside the ring (yes, a BARRICADE hung DDT not a ROPE hung DDT...ouch) and then hitting an RKO in the ring. I liked seeing Orton bleeding a little from the top of his head and Rhodes bleeding a little bit from his nose. A little bit of blood can make a match better and the blood helped a little bit in this match. It made the fight look a little bit more real and more violent. My rating for this match is ****. I believe in giving out four stars to matches that are among the best of the year and that match was definitely one of the best WWE matches in 2011. 

Sin Cara vs. Epico (**)

This was a short match but it was okay. I liked what I saw from Epico. When I first saw Epico, I thought Primo changed his name and the WWE were just pretending he was a new WWE Superstar. So I looked up Epico on Wikipedia and Epico's real name is Orlando Colón. He is Primo's cousin! I'm not surprised they are related. I'm surprised that they aren't twins because they look alike. It was a great debut for Epico even though he lost. After the match, Hunico attacked Sin Cara. It looks like Hunico and Sin Cara could have a great feud and I think Hunico and Epico would be a great tag team.

Mark Henry vs. Daniel Bryan in a non-title match (**1/4)


Last week, I wrote that I would like to see Mark Henry vs. Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania. Last night, I got a WrestleMania preview. It wasn't a great match but I liked how Daniel Bryan and Mark Henry looked. I am convinced that they could have a historic match at WrestleMania. I would have Mark Henry dominant most of the match and just when it looks like Henry is going to win, I would have Bryan make his comeback. I think Daniel Bryan's underdog win would get a good crowd reaction and I think it would be a great WrestleMania Moment. If this match does happen at WrestleMania, last night was a good teaser. Mark Henry looked dominant but Daniel Bryan was able to get in some good offense during the match. I really want to see this match happen at WrestleMania.

If I'm not busy, I hope to write The Keg Stand and my Smackdown Review separately next week. I don't plan on writing for the rest of this week.