WWE Smackdown: Spear today, gone tomorrow
If world heavyweight champion Edge is going to defeat Dolph Ziggler at Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view, he’s going to have to do so with a finishing move other than The Spear.
When Edge speared and pinned Ziggler on Friday night’s Smackdown in the tag team match that saw Edge and Randy Orton defeat Ziggler and The Miz, I initially questioned the booking. Why have the champion pin the challenger before the title match, especially when the challenger has already suffered some losses as of late?
It all made sense after the match, however, when acting Smackdown general manager Vickie Guerrero announced that she was banning Edge from using The Spear. She said that if he used it during Sunday’s match, he would lose the title.
Taking away Edge’s signature move obviously makes the idea of Ziggler pulling off an upset more conceivable.
Other thoughts on Friday’s show:
This was an entertaining episode overall and it did a significantly better job of getting people excited about the Royal Rumble than Raw did on Monday. ...
The Edge and Orton vs. Ziggler and Miz main event was good and the crowd was really into it. The best match of the night, however, was the tag team contest that saw Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston defeat Alberto Del Rio and Kane. ...
I liked the angle that set up the Mysterio and Kingston vs. Del Rio and Kane match. Del Rio came out to the ring and announced that he had arranged for 39 guys to face him in a Royal Rumble-style exhibition. After he quickly disposed of two jobbers, Kane hit the ring and he and Del Rio went at it. Then Kingston came out and threw both of them over the top rope. Mysterio then made his way to the ring, and Guerrero came out and booked them all in an impromptu tag match. ...
I thought it was pretty funny when Matt Striker said that the first job guy who came out to face Del Rio was a former Western States Heritage champion, and the second guy was a former Brass Knuckles champion. Longtime fans will get those references. ...
The opening segment – a verbal exchange between Guerrero, Orton and Ziggler – got the show off to a good start. Ziggler seemed much more confident on the mic than he was the past couple times he sat in on commentary. ...
I liked the way WWE did the video recap of last week’s episode, as they had a clock showing the time when various events occurred. “24” was my favorite non-wrestling TV show, so I’m a mark for the clock gimmick. ...
Ezekiel Jackson is being positioned as the one guy in The Corre that The Big Show has trouble manhandling, as Jackson again took down the giant with a clothesline after Big Show’s squash victory over Heath Slater. ...
Cody Rhodes cutting a promo with his back to the camera because he was ashamed to show his face after suffering a broken nose last week was good stuff. It was announced that Rhodes was unable to compete in the Royal Rumble match, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he interfered and caused Mysterio to be eliminated. ...
Drew McIntyre and JTG had a good match. I liked the finish, which saw McIntyre turn JTG’s attempt at a backslide into the Future Shock DDT. ...
In the Divas tag match in which Lay-Cool beat Kaitlyn and Kelly Kelly, the kick to the face that Michelle McCool delivered to finish off Kaitlyn looked as if it legitimately connected in a big way. ...
After the Divas tag match was over, Kelly Kelly took a seat at ringside to watch McIntyre’s match. Kelly Kelly in back to back segments? Works for me.
Comments
Didn't Vicki pull the same I'm banning your finisher or you lose the title crap against the Undertaker when she was *married* to Edge?
Posted by: Michael | January 30, 2011 3:35 AM
Hey, maybe he can use the edgeecution?
Posted by: Ortonfan | January 30, 2011 9:27 AM
I guess Kelly Kelly has come a long way from pretending she was going to strip on ECW.
The banning of the spear didn't do much for me. Yeah I guess some kids might see that as a big deal but he'll just come up with a new finisher or beat him some other way. The spear is ok and all but considering he's been using it for so many years and that others like Goldberg and Rhyno used it just as much makes me wonder why he hasn't added another finisher earlier.
Posted by: Matthew | January 30, 2011 11:22 AM
Here's what I'd love to see happen in the Edge vs Ziggler match: Before the match Vickie tells the ref several times that the spear is banned, using it is an instant DQ, etc. We have a decent match, then Ziggler runs at Edge, looses his footing, and goes into Edge shoulder first. The ref signals that the match is over because Ziggler used a spear. Vickie's head explodes.
Kaitlyn, you're gorgeous, but the skunk hair has got to go. Just pick one color at a time.
Posted by: PartiallyDeflected | January 30, 2011 12:40 PM
Other than Gail Kim, Kaitlyn seems to take much more punishment than the other divas. On NXT she had to take a really hard slap from Vikki and a pretty rough Laycool beatdown and that was a vicious kick from Michelle on SD. I guess she's paying her dues.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 30, 2011 2:07 PM
For a "longtime fan" who has black spots, please could you explain those references to the jobbers?
Thanks.
RESPONSE FROM KE: They were "old-school" titles. The Western States title was a minor belt in Crockett Promotions (Barry Windham and Larry Zbyszko are the two champs that come to mind). During the territory days, a number of territiories had brass knux titles.
Posted by: John Wilding | January 30, 2011 3:45 PM
By my count, this would be the second time McCool legit connected with a kick to Kaitlyn's face. The first time was on NXT after Kaitlyn tagged with LayCool and lost.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 30, 2011 6:22 PM