My WWE SmackDown, May 18th 2012 Recap

John Laurinaitis complained about the WWE Board of Director's decision to have him face John Cena one on one this Sunday at Over The Limit. As he went on to ask the fans to say a prayer for him WWE Champion CM Punk joined the GM and stated that everyones prayers have already been answered in the form of Big Johnny most likely loosing to Cena and getting terminated. Punk also asked Laurinaitis what it felt like to be on the other side of the stick after unmercifully firing Big Show on Monday and making everyone's life in the company miserable. As a bit of revenge Big Johnny booked the champion into a match with Kane that night, after Punk left he also told the fans to "go to hell!" after their treatment of him.  

R-Truth and Kofi Kingston defeated Titus 'O Neil and Darren Young in a fair tag team bout. The champions looked solid here and should have a good match against Swagger and Ziggler at Over The Limit. This unfortunately won't help the recent bit of momentum that O' Neil and Young have gained since their move to the blue brand, I think they were pitted against the champs too soon.

Before his proposed match with Yoshi Tatsu, Damien Sandow once again refused to face an (according to him) inferior opponent. As he walked away Tatsu called him a "chicken" and began clucking in the ring until Sandow raced in and attacked him from behind, leaving him lying in the ring. I'm really liking this character of Sandow, from the way he holds the mic and presents his promos to his aggressiveness in the ring, although we obviously haven't seen much of that just yet. 

Daniel Bryan defeated Zach Ryder in an enjoyable contest after forcing him to tap to the Yes Lock. Just like Shawn Michaels used to, and Randy Orton most of the time, Bryan has a tendency to really bring out the best in his opponents in the ring. Bryan joined the commentary for the following match up.

Kane won via disqualification versus CM Punk after Daniel Bryan smacked Kane with a steel chair, leading the 'Big Red Monster' to believe that it was actually the WWE Champion and legging it. Kane went on to then attack Punk with the same chair and choke slam him in the ring. The actual match had been solid and surprisingly entertaining. Bryan also did a good job on commentary I thought, finally mentioning him and Punk's similar paths into WWE. I've been waiting to hear either of them speak of their past time on the indies and ROH together leading into their World title match, hopefully this feud will continue after Sunday and we'll be given what could be some superb promos between the two (I know I already mentioned this after Raw, but still).

Santino Marella defeated Cody Rhodes in a brief and average bout. Marella caught Rhodes with a surprise Cobra for the victory. Marella has been made to look much more competitive over the course of the year so far, I'm just not sure how much higher WWE could really push him?

Sheamus defeated Randy Orton in a match with a rather flat first half and nice second. As I said it was a bit bit disappointing to start with, with an indifferent crowd watching on with a dull routine between the two, not bad just dull. Fortunately both men upped the pace and quality and had a finish worthwhile of a main event, with the World Champion grabbing a quick roll up pin for the victory. Afterwards in a rather heelish fashion Orton RKO'd Sheamus after shaking hands, with the look on 'The Viper's' face I wouldn't rule out a possible heel turn in the near future. I reckon this would be a wise move, freshen his character up again.