WWE Friday Night SmackDown hit the SyFy airwaves last night (June 7, 2013) from Long Island, New York, with a taped show featuring the continued push of Daniel Bryan that doesn't really look like a push but most definitely is a push.
Push.
If you missed the show, or just want to go back and read the live blog again, click here. That's enough with the potatoes, let's get to the meat:
- Just want to start by apologizing for this being up so late. As noted in the live blog, I jobbed to my television and things got a bit crazy around these parts. Better late than never, though, right?
- Daniel Bryan most definitely got a push when he won the Money in the Bank contract and went on to win the world heavyweight championship. You can't do those things without getting pushed. Well, you can, but that wasn't the case with him. He was one of the top guys on SmackDown at the time and he was finally getting his due. But it wasn't really all about him. It was also about AJ Lee and it was also about Big Show and it was also about Mark Henry and, eventually, it was also about Sheamus. Now, he's getting pushed and it's ALL about Daniel Bryan. The entire story he's involved in revolves solely around him. Everyone else is just a bit player. He's becoming the whole damn show and I can't get enough of it.
- Bryan's suicide dive >>>>> everyone else's suicide dive.
- WWE usually does the best with its characters when the creative team stops worrying so much about the line between good and bad and writes the wrestlers to stay within the confines of who they are, or are supposed to be. Randy Orton having a short temper with Bryan and his "whining," leading to a misunderstanding that Orton responds to with an RKO is exactly how it should play out. And that doesn't mean he's going heel or staying babyface or any of that shit. It just means that's how the Orton character would react in that kind of situation. Simple as that.
- The Miz badly needs to adopt the gimmick he was using last night on a full time basis, something along the lines of a slimy talk show host who goads everyone around him into taking issue with everyone else. I can handle a subtly manipulative Miz far more than I can handle the cocky brash Miz who breaks out the duck face far too often.
- Fandango smashing Zack Ryder in Long Island warms my heart. That leg drop off the top rope gets harder and harder to watch, though. It's nice and all but his hip is going to explode one of these days.
- DOLPH! ZIGGLER! THE CHAMP! WE MISSED YOU!
- Normally, the "music plays to distract wrestler allowing opponent to sneak up and get quick roll up victory" match booking is annoying but I enjoyed it for the Chris Jericho vs. Curtis Axel match. For starters, it fit for the feud Jericho is (trying) to build with CM Punk, Paul Heyman manages both Punk and Axel, so he had two horses in the race here, and Heyman's delivery was pitch perfect. I could go for Heyman standing on announce tables, tapping his watch, and shouting "IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME" far more often. That pop for Punk's music was nice to hear too. It's going to be huge when he comes back for good.
- Curtis Axel never loses, you guys. I'm pretty sure he's going to win a world title soon.
- Damien Sandow playing chess against Deep Blue was awesome. Sheamus, the big bad bully that he is, just had to come out and try to be cute with the whole "I know the one move to win this game," that move being to Brogue Kick the supercomputer. Really, it was great when Sandow just beat the shit out of him because it wasn't that a heel was beating on a babyface to build sympathy for his ultimate comeback, it was a bully getting his comeuppance. Sheamus is just the most awful character in every single way anymore.
This wasn't a bad show, but it wasn't anything special. A run-of-the-mill SmackDown carried largely by the work of Daniel Bryan, which is something we're saying more and more these days, isn't it?
Grade: C
That's it from me, Cagesiders. Now it's your turn to sound off with all your thoughts in the comments section below. What did you think of last night's show?