Here's the latest episode of WWE Friday Night Smackdown from Feb. 3, 2012, featuring Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett in a no disqualification match.

Also announced was the Smackdown Elimination Chamber match for the world heavyweight championship with Daniel Bryan defending his title against Big Show, Great Khali, Randy Orton, Wade Barrett and Cody Rhodes.

I know it's slow around here on the weekends, Cagesiders, but don't worry, all returns to normal tomorrow for Raw.

WWE Smackdown was taped last night (Jan. 31) in Omaha for the show to air this coming Friday night on SyFy. The show is being advertised as featuring a main event of Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett, as well as the announcement of who will be in the Smackdown Elimination Chamber match.

We know who will be in that match already and you can read all about that right here.

It's quite the rag-tag bunch and one man, in particular, is missing that presumably should be there but isn't for reasons sure to make plenty of you sad pandas.

You can read full spoilers for this week's episode of WWE Smackdown (via Wrestling Observer) after the jump.

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WWE Smackdown was taped last night (Jan. 24, 2012) for the Royal Rumble go-home show that will air this Friday on SyFy from Tuscon, Arizona.

The show features Daniel Bryan and Big Show -- as well as Mark Henry as an outsider -- continuing their feud centered around first the world heavyweight championship then Show's emotional anguish at the "injuries" he caused A.J. when he ran her over two weeks ago.

Because this is the final episode of any WWE programming that will air before the Royal Rumble pay-per-view this Sunday night in St. Louis, we can probably expect a match to devolve into an assload of superstars inside the ring tossing each other over the top rope, right?

Let's find out in the spoilers (via ProWrestling.net) after the jump.

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Remember all that talk of WWE potentially moving Smackdown to a live format on Tuesday night's because it didn't want to directly compete with UFC on Friday nights once it starts its Ultimate Fighter (TUF) series on FX?

Well, the two went head on this past Friday (Jan. 20, 2012) when Smackdown aired opposite UFC on FX 1: "Guillard vs. Miller." And the winner is ... WWE.

First, the Smackdown ratings (via PWTorch):

WWE's "Sin City Smackdown" on Friday, January 20 scored a 2.14 rating, holding up well after the previous Smackdown surged 21 percent to a 2.18 rating.

Smackdown averaged 3.3 million viewers, up six percent compared to the previous week and the most Smackdown viewers since 3.6 million viewers on February 25, 2011 nearly one year ago.

As opposed to the UFC on FX 1 ratings, which saw the event average 1.3 million viewers, including a 1.19 rating in the coveted male 18-49 demo and a 1.20 in males 18-34.

Smackdown, of course, is far more established on SyFy in its time slot while the UFC on FX 1 event was a one-off of sorts taking place on a different night than most UFC events take place. From that perspective, the events numbers should be considered largely a success.

Nonetheless, WWE should be most pleased with both their ratings win and the fact that Smackdown's numbers are once again on the rise after a short lull over the past month or so.

To watch the complete episode of Smackdown from this past Friday night click here.

Here's the latest episode of WWE Friday Night Smackdown, which aired on SyFy last night (Fri., Jan. 20, 2012) from Las Vegas, Nevada. Some takeaways from the episode:

• It's been a slow process but Daniel Bryan is finally getting over as a heel. The reality is that he may very well have the best character in WWE right now. His promo to open the show was phenomenal. One line in particular, about his girlfriend A.J., was money -- "She loves me. And I ... I have a great admiration for her as well." That's brilliant because it shows another layer to the Bryan character that could expose itself in the near future. The guy loves the belt he carries and doesn't love his girlfriend, who loves him dearly. It's great.
  
• Cody Rhodes getting heat by literally kicking around Hornswoggle was great because the Hornswoggle character sucks.
  
• Skip to the 33:00 minute mark if you want to get to the Brodus Clay segment. He's getting over BIG now and rightfully so. The Funkasaurus is one of the funnest gimmicks we've seen in years. His new wrinkle of doing the dinosaur claws, as Michael Cole calls them (which I guess makes him the Funkasaurus Rex?), now gives kids everywhere something they can easily do to dance along.
  
• William Regal is awesome and should be on my TV far more often than he is. He was fantastic during his short time on camera. What was also great was how we got to see Clay rebound from a spot that could have gone bad. Regal got over as a babyface with the crowd for his dance moves, enough so that they loudly booed Clay when he did his running splash spot. So how did he get the crowd back? He picked up the mic and said, "My bad. Somebody call his momma." Nice recovery, sir.
  
• Hey, Sheamus actually lost a match.
  
• I give WWE plenty of credit for finding new and interesting ways for Bryan to retain his title without ever actually beating anyone. They've executed his heel turn well and have found a way to make it acceptable that we keep getting robbed of actual finishes.

Overall, this was another good Smackdown show.

Bad news for Smackdown. According to The Wrestling Observer, Big Show suffered a back injury during tapings last night in Las Vegas.

Big Show suffered a back injury last night. We're not sure of the severity but we're told he landed wrong and hurt (himself) in the dark match against Daniel Bryan.

If this is even kind of serious it would deal another crushing blow to Smackdown, considering the fact that they're already stretched thin in the main event with Mark Henry still nursing a groin injury. "The World's Strongest Man" has been booked about as easy going as it can get to protect him and if they have to start doing the same for Show, I'm not sure Daniel Bryan is ever going to get a clean win.

Then again, it's a good thing his current character is taking the turn it's taking, which is to say it's acceptable for him to be booked to retain his title without ever actually having to cleanly defeat anyone.

This could also mean we'll start seeing some triple threat matches involving both Show and Henry with Bryan tasked with doing all the heavy lifting. Not an easy task but he's a talented performer capable of pulling it off. We'll pass along whatever information comes out regarding the severity of Show's injury. Let's hope it doesn't affect his potential match with Shaquille O'Neal at WrestleMania.

In the meantime, you can read complete spoilers for the Smackdown show that will air this Friday by clicking here.

WWE Smackdown was taped last night in Las Vegas for the show that will air this coming Fri., Jan. 20, 2012, featuring Daniel Bryan defending his world heavyweight championship against Mark Henry.

And because they were in "Sin City," they decided to get all gimmicky and bring back the roulette wheel to determine stipulations for each match on the card.

Can you imagine if the UFC did stuff like this? Instead of letting the Chael Sonnen vs. Michael Bisping fight at UFC on Fox 2 on Jan. 28 in Chicago determine the next challenger to Anderson Silva and his middleweight title, let's just spin a big wheel with names of all the top middleweights (and maybe even a few light heavyweights) to see who "The Spider" fights next. It would be incredible.

Complete Smackdown spoilers (via Wrestling Observer) after the jump.

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Though it's taken some time, it appears as though the possibility is there that Daniel Bryan as world heavyweight champion is starting to get over with viewers.

That's because last Friday night's episode of WWE Smackdown saw an big increase from the previous week, garnering a 2.18 ratings, up huge from the previous week's 1.80, which was uncharacteristically low, admittedly enough.

The competition was less stiff on Friday night but WWE has shown remarkable commitment to their storylines on Smackdown, playing them out from start to finish, at least in the main event. This has led to Bryan winning the world title and feuding with Big Show as a babyface who is slowly but surely turning heel with a character something like Kurt Angle circa 2000.

Another big reason Smackdown ratings are likely up is because they'e been doing a good job of making sure to promote it properly during Raw each week, announcing world title matches or shooting angles that lead to fans wanting to see how they pay off.

Tonight's tapings, for example, will see the explanation for the show-ending angle last week with Big Show running over Bryan's girlfriend, A.J., to bring an end to their world title match. They've also advertised Bryan vs. Mark Henry for the belt and Wade Barrett vs. Sheamus.

The booking is solid, the characters are starting to get over and believe it or not, little Daniel Bryan is really starting to catch on. His chewing out Big Show last week while Show was sobbing uncontrollably due to knocking out A.J. was a particularly nice touch and a strong close to the night, even if it left the match without a conclusion (take notes TNA).

What do you think, Cagesiders, is Bryan making you tune in each week?

To watch last week's complete episode click here.