Dot Net reader Erik Beaston attended the WWE Smackdown taping in Hershey, Pa. and sent in the following report.

Booker T made his way to ringside for Smackdown and received a HUGE pop. Maybe second loudest of the night. Michael Cole out to a loud chorus of boos and Josh Matthews to, well, nothing (sadly).
 
Smackdown started with Teddy Long coming to the ring and admitting a poor refereeing decision was made at Capitol Punishment during the World Heavyweight Championship match between Randy Orton and Christian. He called Christian out and immediately he claimed he was screwed and that he deserved another title shot.

Teddy once again admitted the mistake but also said the referee’s decision was final and that, if Christian wanted a shot, he had to earn it against Kane. Christian was far from happy and jawed with Teddy before the first commercial break.
 
1. Sin Cara defeated Ted DiBiase. Decent pop for Sin Cara but not what you would expect from a crowd full of kids. DiBiase worked hard to try and reign Sin Cara in and, for the most part, did just that. There were no noticeable botches and, outside of the Sin Cara-Daniel Bryan match from a few weeks back, this may have been his best match since debuting. That said, I still do not buy into the Sin Cara hype.

After counting four or five headscissors throughout the match, and waiting for his to set up his next high spot, it is more than evident that Sin Cara is a whole lot of flash and not much substance. Where Rey Mysterio has proven he can adapt his style to that of his opponent, Sin Cara’s matches are quickly becoming repetitive. I can only hope he is soon programmed with a veteran that can reign him in and teach him how to have a more complete, American-style match and move-set before the novelty of the flippy, flying stuff wears off. How about Christian, after the title program wraps up?

Jack Korpela is backstage with Randy Orton. Orton says he isn’t typically a funny guy but says Christian’s continued attempts at beating him have become almost comical. He claims he is laughing on the inside and that tonight, the closest Christian will get to the World Heavyweight Championship is when he hits him upside the skull with it.

Cody Rhodes was out next, claiming he despised Hershey because they produced so much chocolate a year that they are solely responsible for the grotesque and obese people he meets every day. Daniel Bryan interrupted and showed a picture of Dusty Rhodes on the Titan Tron. Daniel Bryan says Dusty wasn’t the prettiest Superstar but he made up for it by being charismatic, entertaining, and generally, a good person (I think there may be some guys from the NWA days that dispute that). This led to a match between the two.
 
2. Cody Rhodes pinned Daniel Bryan. A very good match was tarnished by an abrupt finish. Bryan was crotched on the top rope and Rhodes hit the corner and came off with his enzuigiri. As Bryan came down, his foot and knee were caught between the middle and bottom ropes. The referee tried a few times to help Bryan out and eventually did but literally had to pull him to his feet and hold him up for Cody to hit another enzuigiri. Cross Rhodes finished seconds later. I could not tell if Bryan was helped to the back by anyone or not but it definitely appeared that, at the least, he tweaked his knee when his foot was trapped between the ropes. Hope it is nothing serious.
 
Matt Striker is backstage with the Big Show. He asks Show how he is, then about his attack on Mark Henry from last week’s show. Show says Henry was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Striker then showed footage from Capitol Punishment and then a video package focusing on Henry’s hot streak as of late (really?) aired. Show said it is a good thing Henry is on fire because he is going to need it. Henry came from out of nowhere and sent Big Show through part of the backstage set. Why am I not excited for Show-Henry?
 
3. Intercontinental Champion Ezekiel Jackson defeated Wade Barrett by submission. The feud that will never die. As many times as we have seen Kofi and Dolph on Raw, at least they have been able to produce a good in-ring product. Barrett and Jackson, on the other hand, have not. Jackson just cannot work and Barrett has seemingly become disinterested. Another bad
 
4. Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel defeated The Uso Brothers. A decent match but the crowd clearly had no idea who they were supposed to cheer. The Usos tried playing to the crowd but most were more into the more familiar Gabriel and Slater. It made for a weird dichotomy. Slater picked up the win for his team when he got his knees up on an attempted-top rope splash from one of the Usos and executed the small package for the win.

Jinder Mahal versus Yoshi Tatsu never got started because Jinder and Khali attacked Tatsu before the bell. Jinder then grabbed a microphone and claimed Khali’s days of dancing and kissing "fat American women" were over. There will be no one that stops their dominance, or so he claimed.
 
5. Kane defeated Christian via disqualification when Mark Henry interfered. Nice pop for Kane and Christian still continued to be cheered by pockets of fans throughout the arena. A decent match between the two, with Kane obviously putting on his work boots and Christian continuing to make the most of the biggest push of his WWE career. A lot of close near falls before Henry interrupts the match. Christian, angry that he lost his chance to earn a rematch against Orton, gets in Mark’s face before Teddy Long appears at the top of the ramp. He says he is going to give Christian another chance...if he and Henry can win the tag match he just signed. He then brings out Randy Orton to be Kane’s partner. HUGE pop for Randy, maybe one of the two loudest I have heard in a very long time.
 
6. Christian and Mark Henry defeated Randy Orton and Kane. Randy has got to be on the hottest streak of his career. The man is absolutely on fire right now, with everything he touches turning into gold and this was no exception. A quality Smackdown main event. Kane played the face in peril. Christian’s effort cannot be forgotten. Between the full-length match with Kane, the tag team main event, and the dark match main event, guy wrestled three matches in succession.

Cool finishing sequence saw Henry attempt the World’s Strongest Slam, only for Orton to escape. He attempted an RKO on Henry but Mark shoved him off. Randy caught Christian with the RKO but walked right into the World’s Strongest Slam by Henry for the win. Smackdown went off the air with Christian holding the World Championship over a fallen Orton.
 
After the show, we got the advertised dark match, a Street Fight between Orton and Christian for the title. It was a three-minute, walk around the ring hitting things along the way deal before Sheamus interfered. He accidentally caught Christian with the Brogue Kick before Orton took both out with the RKO for the win. Orton slapped hands and chatted around ringside to close out the evening’s festivities.
 
Notes: All-in-all, a quality show from an in-ring standpoint. When seeing the Smackdown brand in person, however, it becomes much more obvious just how depleted the roster really is. Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, Christian, Kane, Orton...the all had very solid-to-very good matches. But the star power on the brand is so severely lacking that there were people sitting around me who did not know who half of the guys were.

Sin Cara has a star quality about him but until he fine tunes his in-ring work, he’ll constantly be in and out of the doghouse. On one hand, it is a shame ratings are as low as they are because fans are missing out on quality wrestling. On the other, with Randy Orton as the only true superstar on the show, it should not be a surprise, either.
 
With that said, the best story in wrestling, Orton versus Christian, was advanced, Mark Henry was finally pushed as the dominant big man most expected when he was drafted to Smackdown, Jinder Mahal and Khali continue to get heat, and the Rhodes-DiBiase-Bryan-Sin Cara deal was heavily featured. Cannot ask for more than a show that continues to develop and advance characters and storylines.
 
Biggest Pops of the Night:
1. Randy Orton, by far
2. Booker T
3. Sin Cara
4. Kane
5. Christian

Most Heat:
1. Cody Rhodes
2. Mark Henry
3. Jinder Mahal & Khali
4. Christian
5. Michael Cole

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