WWE SmackDown Grades: RKO Outta Nowhere Sets Stage For The Royal Rumble

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4. The Miz vs. Cesaro

Who would have ever thought that The Miz and Shane McMahon would be a tag team heading into the first pay-per-view of the new year and that team would be competing for the tag team titles?  However, that’s where things stand with the Royal Rumble just days away.

The Miz had tried to get Shane O’Mac to join him in a tag team for several weeks, and after much deliberation, he eventually agreed and the two are now the number one contenders for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at the Royal Rumble against The Bar.  Last week saw the two build team cohesion, but last night wouldn’t turn out nearly as good for the new besties.

After The A-Lister knocked off Sheamus last week, he had to try to knock off Cesaro last night in one-on-one action.  The match itself was pretty good, even if it wasn’t spectacular, but the outside presence of Sheamus paid major dividends for Cesaro in the end.  After more interference by Sheamus, Cesaro took advantage and would defeat The Miz.

However, The Bar wasn’t done there and after the match, the two would end up taking out both The Miz and Shane.  Shane initially had Cesaro set up on the announce table and was set to crash through him from the top rope, but Sheamus pushed Shane off of the top rope and The Bar would send Shane crashing through the announce table and through The Miz.  This was a pretty good match, but an even better post-match sequence to help this feud out.

In terms of just the match itself, it wasn’t anything special, but it did what it needed to do in anticipation of an unexpected tag team championship match.

Final Grade: B