SmackDown Review: Big Show goes one-on-one with Bray Wyatt
By Mike Smith
WWE.com
The second-to-last episode of SmackDown before WrestleMania XXX, which is only nine days away.
Batista and Triple H promo
Batista talks about the slap from Stephanie McMahon on Monday’s Raw. He talks about how fans begged him to come back, now they’re booing him. He talks about how things have changed since he left. He said that of all the people he could fight at WrestleMania, Stephanie might be tougher than all of them. Triple H comes out and says that Batista went soft after the end of Evolution. Batista says he’s still tough, and Triple H challenges him to prove it in a match with Sheamus. The way Batista carries himself, leaning on the ropes as he speaks, the way he dresses, it’s all so perfect. Some people call it overacting, but he’s just good at what he does.
The Shield (Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins) vs. 3MB (Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre)/Kane promo/The Shield (Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins) vs. Rybaxel
Ambrose picked up the win with Dirty Deeds. 3MB got more offense than one would expect, but they’re still 3MB, so they lost.
Kane came out with The New Age Outlaws at his side. He told The Shield that they weren’t done, and they would be taking on Rybaxel.
Rollins pins Curtis Axel following the Peace of Mind, after countering out of the Perfectplex. After the match, Roman Reigns hit a Superman Punch on Ryback, and The Shield followed up with a triple powerbomb.
Great work from The Shield, they are really firing all cylinders. Rollins especially is unbelievable right now.
Sin Cara vs. Damien Sandow
Sin Cara rolled up Sandow for the victory. This match was extremely short, and was just long enough for JBL to portray Scooby Doo as a rabid dog.
Big Show w/ Renee Young
Renee asks about Show’s match with Bray Wyatt later tonight. Show says that The Wyatt Family is twisted and that he doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into, but neither do they. Show was just a little overdramatic in this promo.
Goldust vs. Fandango
Fandango gets the win over Goldust via roll-up with a little help from Summer Rae. Now Fandango and Goldust are even in their feud. It’s a little interesting that Cody Rhodes was on the SmackDown Pre-Show, but not in Goldust’s corner for this match.
Batista vs. Sheamus
Batista gets DQ’d after using a steel chair on Sheamus. After the match, Batista hits Sheamus with a Batista Bomb and asks Triple H if that’s what he wanted. He then says he will be the world champion and that people have to “Deal with it.” Batista is getting back in the swing of things, I wouldn’t necessarily mind him being WWE World Heavyweight Champion if that title didn’t belong to Daniel Bryan.
The Wyatt Family on-screen promo
Bray Wyatt is talking about how he has “broken” John Cena. He says that when a person hides behind a mask, that mask becomes them, referring to the persona Cena has put forth for so long.
AJ Lee and Tamina Snuka vs. The Bella Twins
The Bella Twins got the win when AJ and Tamina started arguing and Tamina threw AJ into the ring, and right into Brie’s Bella Buster. Decent match. Tamina not having AJ’s back would seem to spell doom for the Divas Champion.
Santino and Emma on a date
Emma and Santino are out on a date, and they accidentally order the same meal. Emma calls Santino a “friend with benefits,” because Santino is her friend, and her food and drink are the benefits. Santino then asked Emma to look into his eyes, which she took as a challenge for a staring contest. He tried to express his love for her, but she thought he was going to tell her that she’s his best friend, a feeling that she reciprocated. He went to correct her, but ended up having to throw up, so he spit wine all over her. I don’t think anything Emma does is bad, so I’m biased, but I thought this was pretty funny.
Jack Swagger vs. Jimmy Uso
Good match for the little time it had. Swagger made Uso tap out to the Patriot Lock.
Mark Henry vs. The Miz
Henry wins with the World’s Strongest Slam. Good, physical match. Probably the best match to setup the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal that they’ve done, seeing Miz get Henry over the top rope makes Miz look strong and Henry look beatable.
Big Show vs. Bray Wyatt
Bray gets the win over Show with Sister Abigail after some help from Harper and Rowan. SmackDown goes off the air with The Wyatt Family posing over Big Show.
Overall Impression
This show just dragged the whole way. It wasn’t a bad show, but the Road to WrestleMania is way too long and this edition of SmackDown showed what that can do. WWE might benefit from moving Elimination Chamber back another week into the first weekend in March. That one week could prevent shows like this from feeling so tedious.
Stick with Daily DDT for more on WWE and the Road to WrestleMania. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.