BRM Reviews the 1/6/2012 Smackdown (spoilers)

[Big Red Machine]

WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Cody Rhodes(c) vs. Booker T- 6.5/10

AJ VIDEO PACKAGE- BEST VIDEPACKAGE EVER!

CODY RHODES & DUSTIN RHODES BACKSTAGE- AWESOME!

TEDDY LONG, SANTINO, & DREW MCINTYRE BACKSTAGE- good

AJ, ALICIA FOX, & DANIEL BRYAN BACKSTAGE- GREAT! Now Dragon is acting just a bit like a jerk. Someone is turning heel in this feud… but I can’t tell who!

OVER THE TOP ROPE CHALLENGE: Heath Slater vs. Hornswoggle- 4/10. Short match, but5 it did actually tell its story well. Hooray for the return of Gabriel, too.

TED DIBIASE vs. HUNICO (w/Kamacho)- 4.25. Cool finisher, though. Good pre-match promo by the heels, but it would have been a lot better if they hadn’t been ON A BICYCLE (insert Dusty Rhodes joke here).

WADE BARRETT & SHEAMUS SEGMENT- AWESOME. Terrific promo by Barrett, and a great promo by Sheamus. Then Mahal actually gets some heat.

SANTINO MARELLA vs. DREW MCINTYRE-3.5/10 NO!!!!!

TEDDY & MCINTYRE BACKSTAGE- terrible. I didn’t like McIntyre complaining. They should have had something like last week, which actually creates sympathy for McIntyre.

AIR BOOM vs. EPICO & PRIMO (w/Rosa Mendes)- 5.25/10. So Primo, Epico, & Rosa officially become heels. Good stuff.

BIG SHOW & DANIEL BRYAN BACKSTAGE- GREAT!

TAMINA vs. NATALYA- 4/10

WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Daniel Bryan(c) vs. The Big Show- 6.5/10… but I love the finish enough to excuse it not being good enough for a main event. That was GENIUS booking by WWE. Last week it looked like show would turn heel. Now it looks like it might be Dragon that turns heel.

Overall, not a good episode of Smackdown saved by its top two feuds and Wade Barrett.

[Serujuunin]

AJ VIDEO PACKAGE- BEST VIDEPACKAGE EVER!

I thought you'd get a kick out of that. Every time I see her now I think "BRM is gonna be a happy camper". You know you're a Revolutionary when...

OVER THE TOP ROPE CHALLENGE: Heath Slater vs. Hornswoggle- 4/10. Short match, but5 it did actually tell its story well. Hooray for the return of Gabriel, too.

I was pretty excited to see him on Smackdown too, but I really wish they'd stop fooling around with him and put him in a serious angle. And not with Slater again. Been there, done that. Put him in an angle with Cody!

TED DIBIASE vs. HUNICO (w/Kamacho)- 4.25. Cool finisher, though. Good pre-match promo by the heels, but it would have been a lot better if they hadn’t been ON A BICYCLE (insert Dusty Rhodes joke here).

It's hard for me to look at Hunico and not see a Chavo Guerrero ripoff. It's not his fault or anything... It just makes it hard for me to get behind him.

SANTINO MARELLA vs. DREW MCINTYRE-3.5/10 NO!!!!!

Stupid finish. I can only hope it leads to McIntyre having a huge win in a big match with his career on the line, or something, or else this whole angle has been for naught. Which would be sad, 'cause I like McIntyre a lot. He's actually one of my favourites on Smackdown right now.

The rest of it felt kinda lackluster to me.

[kiel297]

Create sympathy for McIntyre? Why? He's a heel. We shouldn't be sympathising with him. We should be enjoying his misfortune

[Bob-O]

WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Cody Rhodes(c) vs. Booker T- 6.5/10

I have no idea why they keep opening the show with these. Maybe it's because of Booker, maybe Cody is THAT good, or maybe it's because the feud was built for a PPV Showdown; but these things have that "Big Match" feel to them. I get the concept of "opening big", but giving out Cody vs Booker seems like overkill.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs. The Big Show- 6.5/10… but I love the finish enough to excuse it not being good enough for a main event.

I LOVED THIS! The whole thing. I loved the way they built to it throughout the whole show, like you said - we know one of them is turning heel, but who? and when? The match psychology was spot on, I wasn't sure if they were going to let Dragon get any offense in, I was marking out like CRAZY for the Labelle Lock! Henry on commentary was great, the intentinial DQ was good. I loved it.

It FELT like a championship match, something DB and Cody failed to do Monday night.

[Lynas]

I loved Booker vs Cody, but I have no idea why it was first. I loved it, because it also felt like a Championship match, although Booker was going after Cody, Josh Matthews did a great job of convincing me Booker T also wanted to be Intercontinental champion, and that was important. If there's an announcer better than Josh Matthews at putting situations/matches & superstars over, I haven't heard him...

Good Match, the finish was a bit slow and sloppy, and judging by Booker's actions afterwards, his "big" bow-out.

[Verdun]

I was watching Booker and Cody, I got the impression that they sort of messed up at the end and improvised the finish.

I like to hope that this is build up to a strong McIntyre angle. I'm really just happy to see him back on TV.

Hunico and co. need to ditch the bicycle. It's ridiculous looking. Almost as ridiculous as Hunico's ring attire. I'm tired of the cliche Mexican gangbanger look.

Primo and Epico hooray for more tag wrestling.

Tamina and Natalya... more time with credible female wrestlers please.

Bryan V. Show. I was holding my breath hoping that he wouldn't drop the title. Thankfully he didn't and won in an extremely plausible way. I think the match was pretty good given that Show is ridiculously large and it limits a bunch of things.

[Rabid619]

I like to hope that this is build up to a strong McIntyre angle. I'm really just happy to see him back on TV.

Reminds me VERY strongly of what they did with MVP a few years back where he kept losing and then turned face. McIntyre as a face just wouldn't work for me.

[Big Red Machine]

Create sympathy for McIntyre? Why? He's a heel. We shouldn't be sympathising with him. We should be enjoying his misfortune

Unless they are turning him babyface slowly.

[Big Red Machine]

It FELT like a championship match, something DB and Cody failed to do Monday night.

Because this match had build and time.

[kiel297]

Create sympathy for McIntyre? Why? He's a heel. We shouldn't be sympathising with him. We should be enjoying his misfortune

Unless they are turning him babyface slowly.

I think if they were doing that, they wouldn't have had him beaten by Santino Marella, or have him be threatened with being fired by Teddy Long. If a heel then comes along and starts trying to sabotage Drew's chances of keeping his job, then I'd see it as them slowly turning him face. At the moment, his character's still the same cocky jackass it always has been to me.

[Big Red Machine]

Create sympathy for McIntyre? Why? He's a heel. We shouldn't be sympathising with him. We should be enjoying his misfortune

Unless they are turning him babyface slowly.

I think if they were doing that, they wouldn't have had him beaten by Santino Marella, or have him be threatened with being fired by Teddy Long. If a heel then comes along and starts trying to sabotage Drew's chances of keeping his job, then I'd see it as them slowly turning him face. At the moment, his character's still the same cocky jackass it always has been to me.

What happened last week was that Zeke beat him with a roll-up using the tights, so I figured they were going to go in the face-turn direction.

[Lynas]

With McIntyre, it's almost like he's a bastard, but he's unlucky and had a bunch of decisions and situations against him where we're supposed to feel sympathy... it's almost a low key John Cena opposite. Cena - EMBRACE THE HATE. McIntyre - EMBRACE THE LOVE....

How it looks to me now is the more unfortunate McIntyre gets, the more sympathy the crowd will feel, the more he's treated shit, the more people will get behind him... I can see a slow burn face turn here.

[Bob-O]

It FELT like a championship match, something DB and Cody failed to do Monday night.

Because this match had build and time.

Absolutely the build had a lot to do with it, but my problem with Dragon/Rhodes from Raw goes beyond that. It even goes beyond the Underdog Gimmick. I know champion vs champion means absolutely nothing these days ( :ymsigh: ) , as fans we're used to what aught to be HUGE matches get thrown together last minute and shoved down our throats. Even with that in mind, this match did not say "World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan" to me.

His match with Big Show DID. I got a big Ric Flair type of heel vibe off of him. He's the champ and he was leaving with that title by hook or by crook. SHOW had to beat HIM, not the other way around.

[Big Red Machine]

I know champion vs champion means absolutely nothing these days ( :ymsigh: )

Go watch some FCW.

[yourcrapsweak]

I know champion vs champion means absolutely nothing these days ( :ymsigh: )

Go watch some FCW.

True. While the fact remains that most FCW wrestlers suck in the ring, the booking on the other hand is great. Very simple and very effective. I dunno who the booker is, either Steve Kern or Norman Smiley, but they know what they're doing.