WWE Smackdown: A big win for Christian
Could it be that WWE is actually starting to view Christian as a main-eventer?
Not only has Christian been in the past two Smackdown main events, but he has been on the winning end of both.
A week after he and Edge reunited to defeat Alberto Del Rio and Brodus Clay, “Captain Charisma” beat Del Rio in a steel cage match on Friday night’s episode.
The latter result was definitely a surprise, as I thought for sure Christian was going to be fodder for Del Rio, who will face Edge for the world heavyweight title in one of the top matches at WrestleMania XXVII in two weeks.
I can’t imagine WWE would book Christian to defeat Del Rio unless it had plans to put him in a high profile program (perhaps with Edge) after WrestleMania. I hope that’s the case, because Christian is certainly deserving of it.
As for Del Rio, he really wasn’t hurt by the loss. He didn’t lose by pinfall, as Christian won the match by dropping to the floor first while he and Del Rio were hanging off the top of the cage. And Del Rio immediately got his heat back after the match by attacking Christian and then brutalizing Edge (thanks to an assist from Clay) to end the show.
Other thoughts on Friday’s show:
Chris Jericho’s “triumphant return to the WWE” (his words on Twitter Thursday) turned out to be a video package of him promoting his appearance on “Dancing with the Stars.” Jericho must really be in WWE’s good graces for the company to allow a guy who isn’t even on its roster to promote a show whose second hour goes head to head with Raw Monday. By the way, reports of Jericho being on the show to discuss the Undertaker-Triple H match at WrestleMania obviously turned out to be wrong. …
Jericho said that he was the first WWE Superstar to be on DWTS. Well, I suppose he’s technically right. Only male wrestlers are referred to as WWE Superstars. Stacy Keibler was a WWE Diva. ...
It was announced on Raw this past Monday that Edge and Christian would face WWE tag team champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater for the title on Smackdown, but obviously the plan changed. It ended up being The Big Show and Kane against Gabriel and Slater, which freed up Christian to take on Del Rio. As cool as it would have been to see Edge and Christian teaming up for the second week in a row, I can’t argue with how things turned out. …
The Christian-Del Rio contest was the best of the eight matches on the show. The bout included a nice nearfall in which Christian turned Del Rio’s attempt at the Cross Armbreaker into the Killswitch. …
The post-match angle after the main event was well done. Just as Edge was about to make good on his threat to vandalize Del Rio’s car, Clay showed up out of nowhere and attacked Edge from behind. Del Rio hitting a con-chair-to on Edge’s arm was a nice touch. …
The Corre’s beatdown of The Big Show and Kane – which took place after the two behemoths beat Gabriel and Slater by disqualification – was impressive and put some much-needed heat on the heel group. …
The match between U.S. champion Sheamus and Intercontinental champion Kofi Kingston – which Sheamus won – was good. Kingston sure does lose a lot for a being a champion. …
The Rey Mysterio-Ted DiBiase Jr. match also was good, and – judging by how DiBiase has been booked – it was a lot more competitive than I expected. After the match, Maryse walked out on DiBiase – again. Why does she keep walking out on him and then coming back? Oh yeah, because he’s rich. But why does DiBiase keep taking her back? I know. Silly question. …
The crowd was very into the Edge-Clay match. Clay got in a lot of offense before losing, but he moved slowly and some of the action wasn’t smooth. …
Kane’s “you complete me” line to Big Show sounded like something Vince Russo would have scripted. …
I liked the more serious music that Cody Rhodes came out to before he squashed Trent Barreta. It suited the dark character he is now playing. I’m still not sure what it accomplishes by having him wrestle in his dress clothes, though. …
How great is it that Michael Cole calls his anke lock the An-Cole-lock? His heat is definitely transferring to Jack Swagger, who quickly disposed of Chris Masters. Hopefully Swagger gets another push after WrestleMania. …
Cole once again did the show from inside The Cole Mine. I thought he only did that on Raw because he was afraid of Jerry Lawler. Whatever – it was still funny. …
The Layla-Kelly Kelly match was pretty good while it lasted. Kelly Kelly’s downward spiral continued, as she took the loss. It was just three weeks ago that she teamed with Edge in the Smackdown main event. Since then, Snooki took what was reported to have been Kelly Kelly’s spot in a six-person tag match at WrestleMania, and her story line with Drew McIntyre has come to a screeching halt. Hopefully, it will be rebooted after WrestleMania. …
Michelle McCool said that “Snooki is famous for absolutely nothing.” And I thought heels weren’t supposed to tell the truth. …
Am I the only one who has trouble understanding what Booker T.is saying at times?







Comments
Kevin, you are certainly not the only one who has trouble understanding Booker T. I say replace him with Regal, who is much better and a much more entertaining commentator on NXT.
Posted by: Anthony Morgan | March 20, 2011 2:50 PM
Mike Adamle > Booker T
Unlike in your interview with him, Chris Jericho said on an interview on wwe.com that he will someday return to WWE.
Posted by: Cory | March 20, 2011 2:55 PM
Booker: "This is an assault. Someone needs to call the Po-lice!!" Hilarious.
The Corre's beatdown of Kane and Show was impressive. Poor man's Nexus? I don't think so.
Posted by: Rick From Carney | March 20, 2011 3:01 PM
The Kelly Kelly Layla match was actually pretty good and lasted a couple minutes too!
I nearly had forgot about DiBiase :/. Is he part of the Smackdown! roster now?
Cole is awesome! Get him away from the announce table and make him a manager or something cuz dang.. who would have ever thought Michael freakin Cole would be such a compelling character?
Posted by: cowboysmb3dw28 | March 20, 2011 3:04 PM
Christian is deserving of a larger role not only in terms of his work, but in terms of fan reaction, too. The crowd popped when he came out for the main event.
Posted by: Christopher | March 20, 2011 3:37 PM
Edge is so hot. :D
Posted by: Sharan | March 20, 2011 3:52 PM
Lets see your announcer is the most compelling performer on the show,yet TNA sucks,yeah right. Time for you WWE marks to wake up and smell the coffee,so sad that all you can do is dog TNA when you have so much BS right in front of your very eyes.Get serious,WWE is no better,or worse,it is wrestling,so climb off of TNA's back and look into the mirror,what you see if honest will not make you happy.
Posted by: mickfowl | March 20, 2011 5:46 PM
Raw and SmackDown the past few weeks has been predictable same wrestlers win every week i will admit the Miz and Cena story lines have been entertaining along with Rock i give the build up to Mania a B- .
Posted by: ryan | March 20, 2011 5:57 PM
the best heels are the one that speak the truth
Posted by: delliott | March 20, 2011 6:20 PM
I can't imagine the people who bought tickets behind the "Cole Mine" were too happy about sitting behind a box
Posted by: eee | March 20, 2011 6:33 PM
i think cody rhodes wears his street clothes because he feels that he isnt dashing any more so its playing on that character after all if you lost all self confidence would you go out in nothing but trunks
RESPONSE FROM KE: Interesting, although he does look dashing in his dress clothes. Would make more sense if he wore jeans and a t-shirt.
Posted by: reiss | March 20, 2011 7:06 PM
Booker T is a little incoherent, but he makes up for it with his passion.
I suppose they have to give the title to Del Rio at wrestlemania, but I've really enjoyed Edge's run and wish it could continue.
Posted by: Will | March 20, 2011 7:30 PM
I have NO idea what should be done with DiBiase. Heel? Face? NO idea, he is SO lost in the shuffle right now. Hopefully after Mania, they do something with him, as im sure he has more upside then down.
Christian is more deserved of a Push than ANYONE in the WWE. He is a verteran, he is OVER, and he makes his oppoents look good al the time. I think he will cost Edge the title at Mania on purpose, turn Heel, and Feud with Edge. Makes the most sense to me.
and Booker T is the MAN. he is somewhat, ummmmmm, different as a commentator, but being different isnt always bad. How he was looking at Cole when Cole made his entrance was priceless, and when Kane was getting attacked by "The "Core", he said "OMG, someone needs to call the Police!!! This is ridiculous.........This is ridiculous".
I think he is funny...
Posted by: CJ | March 20, 2011 7:55 PM
A fun thing to do while listening to Booker T is pretend that it's really Randy Savage on commentary. I bet if he said "oooooh yeah!" you wouldn't tell the different.
Posted by: loco | March 20, 2011 8:08 PM
Kev, how funny was Cole running around the ring with Swagger after Swagger's victory? I found that hilarious.
Posted by: Orton.1 | March 20, 2011 8:45 PM
I haven't watched NXT since it went off the air, but does anyone know what the deal is with Brodus Clay shouting "Sheeeee!" all the dang time? It's really weird...
Posted by: Snyder | March 20, 2011 9:52 PM
Kev, did you not read Jericho's new book? He states that he would not wrestle for any other organization except for the WWE.
Posted by: The Nature Boy | March 20, 2011 10:43 PM
Barrett hoisting Show up for the Wasteland was probably the most impressive feat of the night.
Did something get messed up at the end of the cage match, or did Christian forget he could win by jumping first? I have no idea why he was hanging onto del Rio instead of trying to climb or jump down himself.
Posted by: Go Fish | March 20, 2011 11:06 PM
Get Booker T off the show, now. What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell?
Ugh.
Posted by: ANon | March 21, 2011 12:43 AM
You ask why Cody Rhodes doesn't just wrestle in jeans and a tee shirt; because then he would be Dusty Rhodes.
Posted by: Magnificent Mark | March 21, 2011 1:33 AM
I'll take Booker over Cole anyday!
Posted by: Patrick Johnson | March 21, 2011 8:06 AM
i think cody rhodes wears his street clothes because he feels that he isnt dashing any more so its playing on that character after all if you lost all self confidence would you go out in nothing but trunks
RESPONSE FROM KE: Interesting, although he does look dashing in his dress clothes. Would make more sense if he wore jeans and a t-shirt.
It could be that when he was dashing all he had was suits so it makes sense for him not to be wearing jeans and a t-shirt.
Posted by: reiss | March 21, 2011 10:32 AM
Is Teddy Long still on probation?
Posted by: T-Tonal | March 21, 2011 12:30 PM
JEricho will also be the first natural heel wrestler to compete on DWTS.
That will make it interesting in that I assume we will see a different side of CJ than we are used to seeing in the ring.
Posted by: AMC | March 21, 2011 12:48 PM
Wouldn't it be glorious if Christian were added to title match at mania, and he actually won the world title? It doesn't make sense for Edge and Christian to fued over nothing. The world title is more than enough to come between friendship and spark a legitimate fued.
Christian can win the world title and then fued with Edge. Del Rio can resume a normal path to the top and take the Intercontinental Title off of boring Kofi Kingston, allowing the WWE to keep a belt on a minority. Kingston can undergo a gimmick change and leave the stupid Jamaican/African gimmick behind and turn heel as a modern day "Ochocinco" diva style athlete.
Posted by: Maurice b. | March 21, 2011 2:04 PM
Here's my take on Rhodes wrestling in a suit.
He's insecure about his appearance, so the suit hides a lot of his skin. He opts for the suit instead of jeans because there's a part of his character that still cares about looking good.
Then again, I might have spent more time and thought on the character in that last paragraph than the creative department did.
Posted by: Jack Windham | March 21, 2011 3:57 PM
"Am I the only one who has trouble understanding what Booker T.is saying at times?"
WHAT??
Posted by: W | March 21, 2011 6:12 PM
To go along with the talk about Cody Rhodes, whenever he comes out the announcers use words like "disfigured" and talk about facial reconstructions surgery. However the only thing that appears to be different about him is the mask. And if they wanted to give the illusion that his face really is disfigured then why make the mask clear so that is apparent that there is nothing really wrong with his face?
Posted by: Ryan | March 21, 2011 7:02 PM
"Christian can win the world title and then fued with Edge. Del Rio can resume a normal path to the top and take the Intercontinental Title off of boring Kofi Kingston, allowing the WWE to keep a belt on a minority. Kingston can undergo a gimmick change and leave the stupid Jamaican/African gimmick behind and turn heel as a modern day "Ochocinco" diva style athlete."
all black wrestlers don't have to have the same gimmick (MVP). And Kofi doesn't have a "gimmick" so to speak, he's just got dreds and was born in Ghana.
Posted by: leno | March 21, 2011 7:59 PM
Who do you think will be the commentaters for Mania? Surely it wont be Lawler and Cole since they have a match. Please dont let us get for hours of Booker T.I would love to see Jim Ross do Mania and how about having Howard Finkel do the ring announcing for WrestleMania .
Posted by: sean lang | March 22, 2011 2:58 PM
I really hope the WWE and Vince have decided it's Christian's time. He deserves a run at the top. I'm not sure why it hasn't happened before because the guy is a great in ring performer and is very good on the mic. If guys like Edge and Jericho (who are great) can be multi-time champions then Christian can because he's up there with them in terms of ability and has similar levels of experience. He must have enough supporters behind the scenes to get him the further success he deserves.
Posted by: Andy | March 22, 2011 6:22 PM
Leno, I never said all Black wrestlers have to have the same gimmick. Yes MVP had that gimmick, but in my opinion he didn't play it very well, that's why he was buried at the mid card. I think Kingston has more charisma than MVP and could play the gimmick better, so why let it go to waste? At this point what does Kingston have to lose? He's not going to be a main eventer doing what he's been doing, so I think a change is needed.
And it's hard for wrestlers to come up totally original gimmicks any how. Chris Jericho has been pointing out that The Miz is basically playing a similar character to what he did before he left the WWE, and if you think about it he's right. Alberto Del Rio is basically playing a Mexican version of JBL. Don't tell me you haven't noticed that. And I don't believe the WWE really knows anything about creating good Black characters any way.
Let's face it, a white man (John Cena), with his hip-hop gimmick was portrayed with a lot more street credibility and ethnicity than just about any Black man the WWE has had. And John Cena a white man who raps and wears hip-hop gear, is more over with Black people than MVP, Kofi Kingston, and R-Truth combined. That should tell you something right there. Kofi Kingston's character as it is right now is stale and is going no where fast. If he doesn't do something soon, he's going to be a future endeavor just like R-Truth is about to be.
Posted by: Maurice B. | March 22, 2011 7:15 PM
if u don't have nthn good to say about cena don't say nthn at all. u ppl r just hating an him for no reason at all.every bad report that u write cena's name has to b in it.why?
Posted by: tina-shay | March 25, 2011 1:44 PM
Christian is about as exciting as watching grass grow. Captain Charisma? Most inaccurate nickname ever.
Posted by: Bird | March 26, 2011 11:45 PM