Sheamus and Randy Orton defeated Team Rhodes Scholars (Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes) in a solid tag bout to open the show. Each man gave a worthy effort and provided an enjoyable outing. Afterwards The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns) claimed that after taking out The Rock and Cena in the past, it was a travesty that they weren't even included on the card for WrestleMania XXIX, so they challenged Orton and Sheamus to a six-man tag match on the grand stage, which they accepted.
Backstage Big Show asked Sheamus and Orton to be the third man in their team for 'Mania, but they revealed that they'd already asked Ryback instead.
Kaitlyn and Layla bested Aksana and Tamina in an average tag contest. As usual with the current Divas division it all just felt very pedestrian and very similar to what we see each week from the female performers.
Backstage the Bella Twins took out Naomi and Cameron as a way of introducing themselves after putting down the way they act and dress. I presume this will lead to a tag match no one really wants.
Dolph Ziggler pinned Kane in a decent outing. Nothing exceptional but stellar enough wrestling from both men, as you'd expect. Towards the end Daniel Bryan and Big E Langston began tangling outside the ring, causing Kane to be distracted and Ziggler to capitalise for the win. Big E then helped deal further damage to Kane afterwards. Could this be leading to a tag team title match at 'Mania involving these four? It would make sense, but I'd rather Dolph didn't end up back in a team.
Fandango mocked The Great Khali's dancing ability, then once again refused to compete due to his name being announced to a sub-par standard for him.
During an interview backstage The Shield took out Orton and Sheamus, chucking the Irishman through a table and 'The Viper' into a wall. A frantic Booker T told the concerned Ryback to just go ahead with his match with Mark Henry. But as their match begun, The Shield made their way out and began briefly attacking Ryback until he removed them from the ring.
This was short-lived however as the trio made a comeback and took out Ryback with a triple powerbomb. After they left Henry then crept back into the ring and applied multiple World Strongest Slams.
Jack Swagger pinned Chris Jericho in a largely solid affair. Again much like the Kane Ziggler bout this was an enjoyable watch, but it wasn't anything outstanding or that special. Swagger managed to apply a gutwrench powerbomb to Y2J for the one-two-three after he'd collided with the ropes head first.
Overall it was a fair SmackDown, with the opening tag match, Ziggler versus Kane and main event upping the quality and providing some matches worth a look at. We also finally had The Shield versus Orton, Sheamus and most likely Big Show set up officially for WrestleMania, with a healthy amount of time to build it up some more. Unfortunately the rest of show was either quite pedestrian or just average and unmemorable.
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