By Jake Barnett

The purpose of this editorial is to rundown the latest edition of WWE Smackdown by highlighting the top angles on the show, list where I think they succeeded and where they failed, and give it a final letter grade in the traditional grade school format. I will also give the overall show a letter grade. The following Report Card pertains to the April 29 edition of Smackdown.

Angle 1: Christian vs. Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship

This Week’s Successes:

• This was the best Randy Orton match I think I’ve ever seen. As much as the outcome was controversial, the content of the match was phenomenal and I think Randy Orton may have silenced many of his detractors with this match. Christian was excellent as well, and I think we’ve only seen the beginning of where these guys can take this feud.


• This will sound like a repeat of what I said on the Smackdown Audio, but Christian proved to me that he was ready for a Main Event run in WWE with his performance this past Friday. I’ve always been high on him as a talent, and I thought at some point he would get his lengthy run as champion, but I think we saw WWE turn taking the title off of him into a positive. He is better as a heel, and we haven’t seen that since his return to WWE, so I think this is a perfect opportunity to set him up as the top heel on Smackdown. There are plenty of Mid-Card heels on the show that could use him as a mentor as well. Overall, I like the move, despite the internet kneejerk that happened after the announcement on Tuesday.

• Christian’s face character was definitely running out of gas, as was seen in the latter half of his promo to open the show. The emotional high from his best friend’s retirement and winning the title were temporary, and when that thrill faded the promo had nothing else to run on. It was a good move to take the title off of him because of this and this alone. He would have had a regrettable run as champ because his character only could have taken a step back in emotional investment on the part of the fans.


• Randy Orton needs to shave his beard. He looks like a 17 year old late bloomer with a patchy beard.

• Kharma took some heat backstage for the injury sustained by Alicia Fox on this show. As Chris Shore and I both concurred in our Smackdown Audio, this didn’t appear to be anyone’s fault. I think the clothesline combined with Alicia’s leg being held caused her to fall in an odd way and land awkwardly on her shoulder. I hope the bad blood backstage diminishes quickly, because this was another great segment that both girls deserve credit for. Alicia took the Implant Buster better than any of the Divas so far, and Kharma looked like a beast in the best way possible.


• It was odd to see Layla scamper off after Kharma made her way out to the ring, after Jim Ross did the hard sell on Monday for Kelly Kelly being “frozen with fear” in the ring. Hopefully we get some consistency on that in one way or another, because it would be odd for Kharma to have super powers that work on some people and not others.

• I don’t understand why you’d make Zeke the first guy to break out of this faction. He doesn’t really seem like he’s got it all figured out on the microphone yet, and we haven’t seen him sell enough offense to really determine if he can work with wrestlers of varying styles. Call me a skeptic on this one but I don’t really know where he goes after he gets done feuding with his Corre faction mates, if my assumption about this feud is correct. I hope to be proven wrong, honestly.


• Why is Wade Barrett not getting mic time? It makes me wonder if he has some issues backstage that we aren’t aware of. Or Maybe he never ingratiated himself to the Smackdown locker room, I have no idea. Whatever it is, I hope it gets resolved soon because he has a lot of talent that we’ve yet to see tapped on Smackdown.

• Cody Rhodes needs to move his character in a new direction, any direction. He has given the same promo now for several weeks, and the crowd is just not responding to him.


• The Great Khali and Jinder Mahal could be interesting. I know The Great Khali has a huge fan base in India that probably is just about as happy with how he’s used as the Christian marks are about his title loss. Will we see a return of the heel Great Khali? I’m not sure yet, but if used sparingly in the right situations it could be a lot better than what they are getting out of him now.


• Daniel Bryan and Sheamus had a great match with little fanfare surrounding it. Given a decent build and an actual storyline, an eventual win by Bryan over Sheamus could be, as Joe Biden said, a big f’n deal.

  RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE:

  
  READ OUR INSIDER NEWS BEFORE ANYONE ELSE! BECOME A MEMBER FOR JUST $7.50 A MONTH (or less with a year-long sub) - GET THE FIRST LOOK AT EXCLUSIVE INSIDER DOT NET NEWS, TONS OF EXCLUSIVE AUDIO CONTENT, MEMBER MESSAGE BOARD ACCESS, START YOUR OWN BLOG, AND VIEW THE SITE WITHOUT ANY ADVERTISING: SIGN ME UP (or MORE INFO)

  ---

  Email This Article | Printer Friendly Page | Back to Main Listing
  
  RELATED ARTICLES FROM MGID AFFILIATE SITES...

  ---

  Loading...

  Barnett Editorials • Latest Five Articles

  Barnett's WWE Smackdown Hitlist: Daniel Bryan gives Ryback a fantastic match, Fandango continues to impress, as do the Shield, but the rest of the show leaves much to be desired

  Barnett's WWE Smackdown Hitlist: Follow-up show to WrestleMania 29 and the raucous Monday Night Raw crowd, reaction to Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho, Fandango, Randy Orton, Sheamus, and Big Show

  Barnett's WrestleMania 29 Preview and Predictions: The Rock vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship, Undertaker vs. CM Punk, Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar, and more

  Barnett's WWE Smackdown Hitlist: The Divas get some attention, Kane and Ziggler impress, as do Swagger and Jericho, but The Shield and the World Heavyweight Championship feud need some work

  Barnett's WWE Elimination Chamber 2013 Preview and Predictions: Can I improve my accuracy this time? History says no

  Barnett's WWE Smackdown Hitlist: The Shield continues to shine, Del Rio and Big Show impress, as does Dolph Ziggler, but several others do not.

  ---