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.