WWE Smackdown: Alberto Del Rio gets his heat back
The Edge-Alberto Del Rio-Christian program took another turn on Smackdown Friday night, as Del Rio defeated Christian in a No. 1 contender’s match and more seeds were planted for a feud between Edge and Christian.
Del Rio got the win after Christian was momentarily distracted by Brodus Clay. Edge immediately speared Clay, and the announcers played up the fact that it was Edge who had inadvertently distracted Christian.
After consecutive losses to Christian and then getting beaten by Edge at WrestleMania XXVII, Del Rio needed this victory to get some heat back. He’ll face Edge in a ladder match for Edge’s world heavyweight title at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on May 1.
Earlier in the show, Edge and Christian were sitting together in the locker room good-naturedly talking about a potential match between the two. When Edge walked away, he left the championship belt behind, and Christian got up to take a closer look at it. Then Edge came back to retrieve it, and a surprised Christian said with a smile, “You better keep an eye on that thing.”
That was good stuff.
Other thoughts on Friday’s show:
I liked Del Rio’s show-opening promo in which he said that his loss to Edge at WrestleMania simply meant that his destiny was being delayed. …
Just wondering: Since Christian has beaten Del Rio twice and Del Rio just lost to Edge, why was there even a need for a No. 1 contender’s match? Shouldn’t Christian have been awarded the title shot automatically? Perhaps that will play into Christian’s motivation if he turns heel. …
It was nice that WWE gave the eight-man tag match between The Corre and the team of The Big Show, Kane, Kofi Kingston and Santino Marella nearly 20 minutes for their rematch from WrestleMania, where they were given just 92 seconds. The result of this two-out-of-three falls contest was the same, however, as The Corre was defeated (the heel group lost the third and deciding fall by disqualification). Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater may all have gold around their waists, but they sure haven’t looked like champions as of late. …
Marella setting up for The Cobra and then helping Big Show and Kane chokeslam Ezekiel Jackson was pretty funny. …
We moved one step closer to the LayCool split (how many times have I written that sentence now?) It seems clear that when it does happen, Layla will turn babyface – which is how I always thought it would go. …
Layla wants her and Michelle McCool to attend couples therapy, so I’m guessing that there will be some vignettes coming. That could be really good, really bad or so bad that it’s good. …
Michael Cole doing a victory lap with Jack Swagger was so corny that I couldn’t help but laugh. …
Cole continues to own Booker T. in their verbal sparring match. Speaking of Cole, I loved it when Josh Matthews asked him why he wasn’t wearing his singlet, and Cole replied, “Because I’m not wr -- … I’m not entertaining tonight.” That was funny on a couple levels. …
Sin Cara looked good again when he came out and hit a couple of his acrobatic moves on Swagger.
Comments
my thing on the Laycool split thing:
i really wish for them to give Layla some backbone!! it's really disappointing to see her completely act like a mistreated puppy wen she's clearly not in the wrong in the situation they're put in, but they have her apologizing for her actions and not stickin up for herself and havin Michelle just completely boss her around. i really hope that's wat happens in the big turnout wen they do actually split, w/ Layla bein sick of her(Michelle's) bullsh-t and have at her and show some fire and backbone to her character.
PS: Kevin, soooo wat did you think of that little slap that Kelly Kelly gave Layla? that personally was the highlight of the match for me.
Posted by: preston | April 10, 2011 10:40 PM
Hearing Edge commentate and take it up to Cole just shows how awful Booker is.
I want to see Cole get his comeuppance, but Booker needs to step up he just sounds like a muppet.
Posted by: Jake Elwood | April 10, 2011 11:54 PM
well, what about cody and reys program? i thought cody looked good in that squash match
Posted by: delliott | April 11, 2011 1:14 AM
Over the past few months, the mid-card has really grown. And adding Sin Cara to the table, the future looks wonderful...
Posted by: lalli | April 11, 2011 2:48 AM
If Del Rio is the champion when Christian turns heel, I hope the writers don't do that thing where Christian loses focus on the belt.
Posted by: Jack Windham | April 11, 2011 4:07 AM
Hoping that Christian will finally get a run with the belt he has earned through being a consistently awesome, and vastly underrated and overlooked wrestler.
Much like CM Punk, despite being one of the best in ring and on the mic wrestlers on either roster, they get overlooked time and time again for title reigns, while others rack up their "legacy" with multi-time reigns.
Stuns me that Edge has 11 WWE/World title reigns, while Christian has only the ECW title to show for his efforts, when Christian wipes the floor with him in all the relevant areas.
Posted by: Andrew | April 11, 2011 7:47 AM
I just wish they stop airing clips from raw, or at least shorten it to just a couple minutes. It gets annoying after sitting through 15 minutes of what I just saw on Monday.
As far as wrestling is concerned, I think Smackdown is oftentimes superior than Raw, but with Raw recaps taking up a third of the show's run time, it just makes Smackdown look like a clip show with some matches in between.
And on a side note, I vote for a 3-man ladder match with Edge, Christian and Del Rio.
Posted by: Jun | April 11, 2011 8:31 AM
Edge did a pretty good job of shutting Cole up.
Posted by: Deetz | April 11, 2011 10:12 AM
"Stuns me that Edge has 11 WWE/World title reigns, while Christian has only the ECW title to show for his efforts, when Christian wipes the floor with him in all the relevant areas."
What my might those be? Obsiously not the the most important one; popularity. Have you listened to the audience when Edge comes out? He has a great connection with the Smackdown fans! Since Edge put Mick Foley through a flaming table at WM he has been over as a singles wrestler, whereas I think Christian has only ever really been over when paired with Edge.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 11, 2011 10:59 AM
"Have you listened to the audience when Edge comes out? He has a great connection with the Smackdown fans!"
Similarly John Cena is over with certain large sections of fans as well, but that doesn't mean he deserves all those title reigns either.
I think Christian is superior on both the mic and in the ring than Edge, and find that Edge has only had so many runs with the belt because Chris Jericho has taken so many hiatuses (plural?)
Posted by: Andrew | April 11, 2011 2:49 PM
"As far as wrestling is concerned, I think Smackdown is oftentimes superior than Raw"
Jun, for the last two to two and a half years, I feel that this has been the case. Shame that the powers that be in WWE don't feel the same.
Good win by Del Rio. Ladder match at Extreme Rules should be a show-stealer.
As far as Laycool goes, I bet the first couples therapy vignette opens with them walking in the office as Ted DiBiase and Maryse are walking out.
Posted by: Rick from Carney | April 11, 2011 5:27 PM
So if wrestling is gone, what are they going to do about "Wrestle"mania? Will it be "Entertainment"mania?
RESPONSE FROM KE: What about WWE Mania?
Posted by: Maurice B. | April 11, 2011 5:35 PM
Any predictions from anyone has now gone down the drain
Posted by: Cory | April 12, 2011 12:32 AM