The Shield victorious once again. Photo credit: WWE.com
Ryback pinned Daniel Bryan in an enjoyable opener, largely thanks to the hard work of Bryan who really can bring out the best in any wrestler. In Ryback's finest ever singles match both men played their part well as they battled back and fourth, each giving worthy efforts. It was also nice to see Bryan made to look very competitive here too, he deserves another World Title run somewhere down the line.
Fandango beat Zack Ryder in a rather forgettable contest. Neither man looked terrible by any means, but they failed to really engage me at all. Fandango gained the winning pinfall after applying his signature flying leg drop.
Ricardo Rodriguez versus Zeb Colter ended in a disqualification after Jack Swagger and Alberto Del Rio ran in and began attacking each other and their rival's allies. This cued Teddy Long (who was in charge for the night) to play a classic Long move and put the four into a tag match. But once again the tag bout ended in a DQ after Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston ran in and began beating on the World Champion's rivals, so Long once again booked another tag match, but this time a three way one. It was all a bit overkill I felt.
Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez bested Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter and Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston in a decent enough three way tag bout. Del Rio and Ziggler were the two standout performers here, each giving fine displays. The match on the whole was quite enjoyable, with a fast pace and effective short bursts from most involved. I'd have much rather had more of this match than the waste of time that was the two previous ones, just strange booking.
After a message from The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns) from backstage regarding The Undertaker and Kane, it was revealed that they'd taken out Daniel Bryan as he lied beaten on the floor. Not very nice, eh?
Randy Orton defeated Damien Sandow in a fair encounter. The wrestling was stellar enough, but nothing exceptional. After the win Big Show accused Orton's selfishness and ego of costing them the match against The Shield at WrestleMania. This then gave Sandow the chance to apply a Terminus, which Show found very amusing, but warned 'The Viper' that at Extreme Rules things won't be so funny.
Mark Henry beat Sheamus in an arm wrestling contest, so the Irishman goaded Henry into doing another one with the left arm. But once again this was a ploy by Sheamus, much like in the tug of war on Monday night, and he punched Henry and applied a Brogue Kick to topple the 'World's Strongest Man'. Much like the tug of war segment on Raw it was also a bit drab.
Dean Ambrose pinned Kane in a solid main event. Both men worked well here and sold like pros, which is a rarity for most matches in WWE nowadays where the majority of wrestlers seem to recover a bit too quickly from attacks.
Kane getting some retribution on Reigns and Rollins at ringside also added some excitement to the bout, but the numbers caught up to him as the Shield members distracted Kane towards the end which allowed Ambrose to apply a headlock driver for the one-two-three. The trio then beat down 'The Big Red Monster' and triple powerbombed him before taking the tag team title belts and posing with them over the fallen champion.
Overall it was a fair SmackDown, with a mixed bag as far as match quality goes. The highlights were the triple threat tag team match, Bryan versus Ryback and the main event. The rest of the contests were pretty unremarkable to be honest, and there was a lack of any substantial promos or segments. Fortunately the most promising young act in WWE today The Shield are still looking strong and providing solid matches.
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