SmackDown General Manager for the night John Laurinaitis started off the show by announcing a Steel Cage Match for the United States Championship. Not a bad start 'Mr. Excitement'.
Santino Marella (c) defeated Jack Swagger in a Steel Cage Match to retain the United States Championship. It was a more entertaining match then I was expecting and quite decent overall, it certainly gave the US Title some much needed exposure. It was also ten times better then Swagger and Marella's awful match on Monday which was hindered by way too much going on outside of the match. For the finish Vickie Guerrero accidentally slammed the door in Swagger's face thinking it was Marella behind her, allowing the champ to crawl out of the cage.
Backstage Teddy Long pleaded with Laurinaitis not to go through the proposed Kane versus Aksana match. Laurinaitis made a deal that if Long beats him in a match that night then Aksana will have to face Kane. What a git, eh?
Drew McIntyre announced that although he'd been fired the week before, Laurinaitis was giving him another chance to keep his job if he won against his mystery opponent. This then cued the Great Khali to make his way to the ring, but David Otunga then asked Khali to exit the ring and announced Hornswaggle as McIntyre's real opponent. Booker on commentary claimed correctly that "the ratings are about to plummet right now."
Drew McIntyre defeated Hornswaggle in a predictably worthless bout that only served to explain Drew getting his job back on the blue brand. Afterwards Khali entered the ring and took out McIntyre, why is the useless Khali still around again?
Mark Henry defeated Ezekiel Jackson in a brief and quite drab match up.
Teddy Long refused to lay down for Laurinaitis in their match up so Laurinaitis called Kane down to the ring to face Aksana, but he didn't make it as Randy Orton attacked him from behind. As a livid Laurinaitis screamed at Orton, Long snuck in a roll up pin and beat Laurinaitis. All the while this segment took place we had to endure the absolutely awful acting skills of Aksana. She brings nothing to the table except her looks for WWE, why they promoted her from NXT I don't know.
R-Truth and Kofi Kingston defeated Epico and Primo in a decent enough tag team match, although not as entertaining as the match ups involving Air Boom from last year. I was hoping Kofi may start building up his singles career once again but it looks like he's entering the tag team division once again, which means he's at least adding some more interest to it along with R-Truth.
Michael Cole introduced World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan and his WrestleMania opponent Sheamus for an exclusive interview. Cole first asked both men how luck had played a part in their careers in WWE. Bryan claimed he hadn't had any luck at all and his success was due to his skill and knowledge in the ring, which was a very honest answer. Sheamus said that he'd made in own luck in working his way back to the top, and felt lucky to just be wrestling in the company. In one of the funniest moments I can remember in WWE, Bryan then took the mic away from AJ's mouth as she was talking to Sheamus and said "AJ, shut up," it was priceless.
Sheamus ended the interview by stating that at WrestleMania Bryan's luck will run out as he's going to win the World Heavyweight Championship. I am quite looking forward to their match more and more, their encounters last year over the US Title were entertaining and now they'll be battling on the big stage over a World Title which should be even better. My only gripe with their feud so far is that it doesn't have much depth to it, there's no real storyline happening with them like you normally get for a World title match at 'Mania, like with CM Punk and Jericho.
Randy Orton, Sheamus and Big Show defeated The Miz, Cody Rhodes and Daniel Bryan in a solid and action packed main event. The crowd were especially into it once 'The Viper' entered the ring and finally scored the winning pin over Miz after applying an RKO.
Afterwards Kane began attacking Orton as payback. Their brawl travelled through the crowd as SmackDown came to an end.
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