BRM Reviews the 7/5/2013 Smackdown)

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- Punk’s promo was great. Del Rio showing up felt very random. More random than these things usually feel. He was talking to Punk, but it felt like he was cutting his promo on Ziggler. Punk really saved this whole thing. I particularly enjoyed Punk calling out Del Rio’s gimmick change. Teddy Long then comes out, invokes a painfully lame cliché, and then books these two against each other in the main event.

CM PUNK & PAUL HEYMAN BACKSTAGE- good. Heyman is being heelish by trying to convince Punk not to wrestle the match but is still able to be friends with Punk.

THE USOS vs. TEAM RHODES SCHOLARS- 3/10
Before the match, Cody and Sandow assure us that they won’t break up… which we all know means that they will because they keep hitting us over the head with it. The match was short, but I liked that they didn’t have a miscommunication between Cody and Sandow cost them the match. Instead they put the Usos over clean.

SHIELD PROMO- great!

ALICIA FOX vs. KAITLYN (w/Layla)- 2/10
Didn’t we just see this match on Raw? In fact, before this match they just showed us the finish of that match. Why the hell should I think that Fox as any chance of winning now if she got beaten so easily a few days ago?
Well… AJ comes out and distracts Kaitlyn, allowing Fox to get the win. I have to give them credit here, as they teased this two or three times with Kaitlyn quickly getting the advantage back to the point where I was certain that Kaitlyn was going to just continue to win… and then they had Fox beat her. Also, props to Kaitlyn for usually throwing quick glances back over her shoulder to keep track of Fox while she was focusing on AJ.
On commentary, JBL asks why Kaitlyn needs her BBF of the last month, Layla, out here to hold her hand. Cole responds to this heelishness by saying that JBL doesn’t get it because he doesn’t have any friends he can go to in times of emotional need.
*Flashes back to the last match, where Cole was talking up how JBL and Ron Simmons were ultra-super best friends*
Yeah.

AJ, THE BELLAS, & BIG E. BACKSTAGE- GREAT! I’m not sure what exactly the Bellas were doing here, but the stuff with AJ and Big E. was great. Big E. doesn’t want to abandon Dolph (who is now a babyface)… which could be the beginning of a slow babyface turn for Big E. (who, if I remember correctly, was penciled in to face the heel Mark Henry at Summer Slam… assuming plans haven’t changed).

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS RANDY ORTON & CHRISTIAN- decent. I loved the throwback to 2011 and the ONE MORE MATCH campaign.

RANDY ORTON vs. CHRISTIAN- 7/10
Great match!

PAUL HEYMAN & TEDDY LONG IN TEDDY’S OFFICE- Teddy wants Heyman to do guest commentary tonight, but Paul doesn’t want to go against Punk’s wishes. Teddy makes him anyway. Good excuse for Heyman to still be around ringside for Punk’s match. Heyman not wanting to do this was the most interesting part, as I thought that the story here was going to be that Paul kept finding ways to show up at ringside for Punk’s matches without actually managing Punk (because that is the sort of weasely thing Paul Heyman would do)

AJ & DOLPH BACKSTAGE ON THE WWE APP- yeah, this should have been on TV, not on the app. Showing it tonight was a good idea.

DOLPH ZIGGLER PROMO- very good

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. DREW MCINTYRE (w/3MB)- 2.5/10
This match was completely pointless. It told the same exact story as Dolph’s match with Jinder on Raw (Dolph is doing well until he takes a blow to the head, allowing the heel to take over, but Dolph comes back and wins with the Zig Zag). We even got the same aftermath with 3MB trying to attack Dolph and Dolph running away… except this time he made 3MB look even more stupid. If this match wasn’t with a member of 3MB and they didn’t do the exact same post-match stuff, I would maybe be fine with it, but doing the exact same thing that they did on Raw was just a waste of time. All that was needed was for Dolph to cut his promo. If they had given this time to the tag match or to the main event and this great show would have been even better.

JUSTIN GABRIEL vs. FANDANGO (w/Summer Rae)- DUD!
Justin kicks Fandango’s ass all match, then Fandango hits two moves and that is enough to get the win. There is no reason Fandango to even be winning right now, and the fact that he is in Money in the Bank is ridiculous. He’s barely even over anymore. The level of Fandangoing is nowhere near what it was last month. Justin would be ten times as over if they just gave him a few wins and let him hit people with the 450.

ALBERTO DEL RIO vs. CM PUNK- 6.25/10
Seemed to be going somewhere great before the bad finish. I like Punk getting angry that Del Rio punched Heyman, but I think WWE missed a big opportunity here. If Del Rio had continued working over Punk’s arm and made Punk tap to the cross armbreaker, they can have Punk keep selling the injury going into MITB (have him tap to the No Lock on Raw to put Dragon over, while we’re at it), and have Heyman tell Punk that he should have listened to him when he told him that taking this match with Del Rio was a bad idea because he might get hurt. It would have made for some great stuff between those two, and allows them to tease Punk rejoining Heyman before having Brock assault Punk again (and also sets up Punk’s arm as a weak point for Brock to go after with the Kimura).

Overall, a very good show from WWE, but I think it could have been improved (specifically by cutting the Fandango and Ziggler matches and giving that time to either the main event or the tag match and giving the main event the clean finish that I described above).