The show starts with The Big Show making his way down to the ring. He explains that he has had no choice in his actions over the last few weeks. He has too much built up anger. He tells us that he is going to release all that anger tonight on the Shield.
Triple H makes his way to the ring; he tells the Big Show that all his problems are his own fault and nothing to do with him. Triple H tells him that because he considers him a good friend of twenty years, he has taken it upon himself to pay off the Big Shows mortgage and now The Big Show is in debt to him.
Triple H tells us that he has changed the main event for tonight and The Big Show will have to face The Shield plus Randy Orton.
Fandango vs. RVD
First match of the night starts off pretty standard nothing really impressive. RVD is just cruising going through the motions. He sets up the Five Star Frog Splash then Summer Ray gets involved and pulls one of his legs away whilst he is perched on the top rope. Good to see a manager actually doing something heelish for once. This involvement by Summer Ray causes Fandango to get disqualified. Fandango continues to attack RVD. Ricardo distracts him on the outside and RVD hits Fandango with a drop kick and a Tornado DDT. He then grabs a trash can and sets it up in the corner against Fandango and climbs to the top rope and delivers the Vanterminator.
Ryback vs. R-Truth
Ryback gets a jobbers entrance followed by R-Truth with the annoying ‘What’s up’ chant. Silly fans chant Goldberg at the start of the match as Ryback starts offence on R-Truth. R-Truth manages to land a kick to Ryback and Ryback exits the ring. Paul Heyman tells Ryback that R-Truth is a bully and he needs to get bully’s. Ryback re-enters the ring and the two of them exchange some big blows.
R-Truth lands a big missile drop kick from the second turnbuckle. R-Truth tries to follow up with a big kick but misses and Ryback pummels him with a crushing clothesline. He sets R-Truth up for the Shell Shock but instead of chanting ‘Feed Me More’ he now has a new mantra, ‘I Hate Bully’s’. Ryback lands the Shell Shock. One Two Three Ryback wins.
I was surprised that this was not the out and out squash match that I thought it would be. R-Truth did manage to get across a decent level of offence before the end.
After the match Curtis Axel attacks R-Truth for no reason and tells him to remember that he is the Intercontinental champion. I’m not sure if he was telling R-Truth or reminding the people at home how unmemorable his title run has been.
Alberto Del Rio vs. Dolph Ziggler with Damien Sandow on commentary
JBL and Cole try to convince Sandow to cash in on Del Rio tonight. He responds by saying that he will cash in the noble way. Meanwhile in the ring Del Rio has control of the match. The two go back and forth with a couple of good spots until Dolph runs his shoulder into the post. Del Rio regains control until Dolph is able to kick Del Rio to the outside with a drop kick. They exchange a couple of big rights and lefts. Dolph get the big splash in the corner followed by a swinging neck breaker.
Del Rio recovers and hits Dolph with a beautiful spinning back breaker. Del Rio tries an unconvincing attack form the top rope and Dolph hits him with a drop kick. Dolph delivers a big backslide to Del Rio off of the top rope. Del Rio hits Dolph with the Big Kick and gets a two count.
Del Rio attempts an Arm Bar but Dolph reverses and executes the Famasser but only get the two count. Sandow is seen sitting back down in his seat as if he was about to use this opportunity to cash in. Del Rio manages to lock on the Arm Bar and Dolph taps out.
As much as I hate to see Dolph Lose, this was still a good match and I would recommend checking it out. It had a great pace with some big spots plus Sandow was amusing at times on commentary.
Jinder Mahal and Heath Slater of 3MB vs. Los Matadores
Making their Smackdown debut with Torito the little bull at their the side the Los Matadores make their way to the ring to a well received entrance. After a couple of ‘Ole’s’ and one decent double tag move from the Los Matadores the match starts to pick up a bit but not much. The Los Matadores win with an unimpressive double man back breaker finisher. I’m not sure if the cheers were piped in after this match but it sounded like the crowd were really into it.
I think if they can polish the gimmick a bit more and come up with a better finisher that has something to do with their gimmick, then I could see it working. As it is at the moment I am a little underwhelmed considering the build up. The funniest thing Cole said was that Torito’s suit looked like a mini Giant Gonzales, which is absolutely what I was thinking at the time.
Backstage Paul Heyman tells us that CM Punk will be Shell Shocked and flat on his back looking up at his big bad beautiful Ryback and himself Paul Heyman the best in the world on Sunday.
Aksana vs Brie Bella w/Nikki
By no means was this match awesome but it wasn’t bad. Brie actually showed some improvement in her offence at times.
After the match AJ accompanied by Tamina, interrupts and tells Brie that when her and Daniel Bryan have a baby it’s going to be so hideous that the doctor is not going to smack the baby he is going to smack Brie.
Despite the fact the Bella’s are such horrible characters are we supposed to assume that they are actually faces now? When did this happen? I am still unsure what the hell is going on here.
Big E Langston vs. Kofi Kingston
Big E gets a jobbers entrance. What begins as a predictable squash match. Kofi somehow manages to role Big E up for the three count. What the hell is going on? Why is Big E jobbing to Kofi Kingston? I would of assumed a guy that big and athletic could be useful to have around in a wrestling company. Why do they appear to have given up on him already?
After the match the Wyatt family announce their arrival. Bray comes to the ring holding a Lantern. The Wyatt’s surround Kofi on the entrance ramp. Bray delivers another great promo and that’s it cut to commercials. Huh. Hope this is leading somewhere.
Directly after they show a video promo for Big E Langston, which is completely nullified due to the fact that we just witnessed him jobbing out about a minute ago.
Main Event
The Shield and Randy Orton vs. The Big Show
The match begins with The Big Show against Dean Ambrose. He dominates pounding on each member of The Shield allowing them to tag each other in and out freely. Eventually Randy is tagged in and the balance begins to shift.
Rollins is tagged in and he takes down The Big Show with a Missile Drop Kick from the top rope. The momentum is now firmly with Team Shield. Each member takes turns to inflict damage on The Big Show. The Big Show eventually fights back and hits Reins with a clothesline followed by a spear. He shows the signal for the choke slam but he is stopped by the shield and Orton.
They attack him until he manages to throw them off of him like a scene out of a comic book. It looked great. He then delivers a couple of big head butts followed by a punch to Ambrose holding a chair. At this point the official calls for the bell, should this have happened when The Big Show was being attacked by four men in the middle of the ring?
The Big Show attempts a chokeslam on Rollins but Orton attacks with a chair. He doesn’t sell the chair shot, but instead he sets up Orton for the choke slam with his other hand. Reigns enters the ring and Spears The Big Show. The Shield lift up the Big Show and Randy delivers the RKO.
Randy picks up a chair and then the Usos make their way to the ring. Whilst they are battling the shield outside the ring, Randy place The Big Show’s head in between the chair. The crowd erupts as Daniel Bryan makes his way to the ring. He immediately pounces on Orton with a series of punches and kicks followed by the Yes Lock in the middle of the ring. It’s quickly broken up by Ambrose who is rewarded with a knee to the face by Bryan for his efforts. Bryan stands victoriously in the ring to Yes Chants.
Final Thoughts
I thought The Big Show was practically good in this match. I enjoyed moments when he embraced the stereotypical nature of being a giant. He is somebody that I have slowly come to enjoy over the years and I believe he is getting better with age.
I enjoyed the majority of the matches tonight overall I thought it was a good show. Two of the matches that stood out for me were the Dolph and Del Rio match and the Last one. A nice build up for Sunday’s main event, I’m looking forward to BattleGround.
– By Sebastian Bowen
