WWE Smackdown 18/12/2012

This is the first time in a long time that I have bothered to watch Smackdown. I thought I'd give it a try as it was commercial free and was on the back of the Raw that debuted another NXTer (NXT Champion, Big E Langston). Also, where it's WWE week, I thought Smackdown would have something about it worth watching.

The main, and pretty much only, story of the show was the Cena/AJ/Dolph situation. At least after the last couple of months of crap love triange (square?) they have had a decent payoff to this all - predictable, but finally gone somewhere!

AJ and Dolph came out (for Miz TV) and kissed on the entrance ramp. Oh, so they are together then? That wasn't clear from their kiss at the Slammys?! Obviously, they were accompanied by Big E Langston. AJ finally explained herself - John Cena broke her heart - join the club AJ; he breaks mine every time he brown-noses all the time and doesn't get pissed about losses... or anything?!

This segment ended with Dolph berating Miz before giving Big E the nod to destroy him. Miz was knocked down before taking the Big Ending finsher. I've looked into this guy and he's a former Powerlifter - Mark Henry v2.0 then.

Teddy Long convinced Booker to give Brad Maddox a tryout (third time's a charm). Later in the night Maddox would face Brodus Clay for another chance at a contract - I suppose after Monday's win over JTG, Clay might be on the way back up, so any chance Maddox had went straight out of the window. Clay would dispose of Maddox and then became another victim of The Shield.

Speaking of The Shield; they continued to add new Superstars to the list that had seemingly caused injustices to fellow heels. This week, Sin Cara felt their wrath - his knee taking a beating, which is kind of fitting that now he can have the time off to sort out that nagging injury. I suppose the injustice is that he should have sorted the injury out sooner?! It was also revealed a little later in the show that Rey (who hadn't accompanied Sin Cara to ringside) had been ambushed before the show and had a 'severe' neck injury to go with Sin Cara's 'severe' knee injury - does that mean they'll both be out for a while then?

If they, or just Sin Cara, are out for a while that might explain The Usos decent showing on Raw last week - when Cody and Damien eventually win the tag titles, they're going to need a credible face team to get wins over until they face Kane/Daniel Bryan again.

The show started and finished the same way; AJ kissing Dolph's face off and Big E looking mean and moody.

The main event was a rematch of Raw from a couple of weeks ago; John Cena and Milky-white Cena (Sheamus) vs Big Show and Dolph Ziggler (now accompanied by AJ & Big E Langston). The end of this match came when Big E got the nod from AJ to get involved and destroy Cena again (same finish as Raw).

Other notes from Smackdown;

• Punk/Heyman out to keep Punk's face on TV. Smart move - he might not be able to wrestle at the moment but he's doing something else that he does best - talk. Quote of the night was when he asked what's more impressive: Winning a title 16 times over a 95 year old career; or winning it once and holding it for nearly 400 days?
• Ryback beat Cesaro clean. I suppose this was always going to happen after the Raw finish to the match. Good offence from Cesaro throughout, but a bit of an easy finish for Ryback. Two bright stars here.
• Kaitlyn and AJ confrontation in the back to show AJ's heel side further.
• Sheamus explaining Father Ted to Cena would have been totally lost on the American audience?! Cena then explained all the gory details of he and AJ to Sheamus (whispering) which was pretty funny due to Sheamus' facial responses to it all... ah you guys! It's like you're made out of the same mould...