Friday Night Smackdown Review: January 6th
Syfy aired the first broadcast of Friday Night Smackdown of 2012, featuring Cody Rhodes and Booker T for the Intercontinental Championship and Daniel Bryan versus the Big Show for the World Heavyweight Championship
To start, Happy New Year to Everyone, we begin with the match for the Intercontinental Championship as Michael Cole and Josh Mathews call the show from ringside.
Booker T and Cody had a great match but Booker looked gassed(due to ring rust) and after losing the match, Booker was met with cheers and was praised by the crowd. Match time 12:36, Rating 8.5/10 Afterward, Dustin Rhodes aka Goldust(without makeup) congratulated Cody on the win but Cody immediately put down Dustin and called him a “joke”.
Hornswoggle and Heath Slater had an over the top rope challenge. I hate seeing Hornswoggle on TV, to me he adds nothing to the show.
He won in 1:24 and after that Justin Gabriel gave Heath Slater a 450 Splash (spinning at 450 Degrees) which they had the camera laying beside Slater as he took the hit. Rating (for the move) 9/10 (for the “challenge”) -5/10.
Ted DiBiase, Jr faced Hunico in a match that lasted 3:05, which Hunico won by using a cool-looking submission/pinning combination, which I thought that Ted was going to tapped but it was a pin. Rating 8.75/10, extra points for the pin.
Wade Barrett talked about Randy Orton’s medical condition after their “Falls count Anywhere” match which concluded last week’s Smackdown (12/30) in which he explained that Orton had a herniated disk.
Sheamus would come out and talk about his Irish relatives while insulted Barrett and Jinder Mahal came out and slapped Sheamus. Mahal and Barrett would end up doubleteaming on Sheamus and eventually Mahal would put Sheamus in the Camel Clutch.
Santino Marella faced Drew Macintyre (a recent transplant from Monday Night Raw) with the stipulation that if Santino won the match he would become the Assisstant to GM Teddy Long and If Drew won, he would be kept on SD! for another night.
The reason for Drew’s participation, Drew was told that if he does not improve his performance he may be cut from the roster due to him not living up to his lucrative contract while on Raw.
Santino won the match in 2:38 with “The Cobra”. Santino is trained in MMA, yet they have him being a comedic character which I don’t find funny.
Epico and Primo (with Rosa Mendes) competed against WWE Tag-team champs “AirBoom” (Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne) in a high-paced match that lasted about three or so minutes. The match featured great athleticism but the crowd didn’t give the match credit (which is what I hate sometimes about live crowds) Epico and Primo would win the match. Rating 8.85/10
Matt Striker held an interview with Big Show over the main event for the WHC. Show was in a cheery mood and respectfully put over his opponent Daniel Bryan until Bryan walked in and insulted Show which angered him.
Tamina Snuka would face Natalya Neidhart in a bout that lasted 1:43, when the girls were introduced WWE aired videos about their fathers who worked in WWE (Jim “the Anvil” Neidhart and Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka).
Nice move by WWE to show the connection and helped bridge a generation gap for television purposes.
Tamina would win the match by way of Superfly Splash but not before a crossbody that may not have been executed property. Rating 7/10, the match should of lasted longer because these girls are extremely talented.
In the main event, Big Show faced champion Daniel Bryan for the World Heavyweight Championship as former champ Mark Henry served on commentary scaring Cole and Josh. The match lasted 9:44 in which Bryan won by intentional DQ which was caused by Bryan getting in Henry’s face in plain view of the referee and Henry shoved him away.
The irony of this match was when Henry said “the referee was getting paid- that was the slowest count I’ve seen in my life” and the ref, Scott Armstrong tweeted that he should count slower.
Match Rating: 9/10, this match was great as it showed that Bryan was going the opportunist route and Show was screwed by way of DQ.
FINAL THOUGHTS— With the exception of Santino, Heath Slater and Hornswoggle, This Smackdown not only did a great job of starting off the new year with in-ring action and the Show/Bryan dynamic continues to keep me entertained and intrigued.
I don’t understand why the need why they keep trying to shove Jinder Mahal down the viewers throats, especially with him using the Camel Clutch (a move not seen since the 1980s) if they spent months burying him and making the viewers not care less about him.
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT— If Daniel Bryan turns heel, will AJ Lee turn too? Will Show and Bryan compete in a No DQ match? Will Cody face his brother Dustin in a match? Will Smackdown keep the two announcer format? Will Hunico get a better gimmick? Will the Divas get a longer match? Will Velociraptors attack? Find out on the next Friday Night Smackdown on Syfy.
My Tweet/ Facebook status of the week!
Over this past week, (December 4-10) Ive sent updates to my Facebook and Twitter(@andy_salcedo) pages about random things that pique my interest.
To start, I was watching the Family Guy episode aired on December 4th in which The Simpsons made a cameo as jurors of Peter Griffin’s “peers”:
The Simpsons are on Family Guy????!!!! I Cant!!
A new trend in adding a clip-on feather to one’s hair ( not making that up):
Theres a trend to add feathers to your hair? Who creates these trends? Who would do that?
On December 6, I was watching Rugrats as part of Teennick’s ”[The] 90′s are All That”12a-4a block and my brother and his friends call me (and a friend of theirs via 3-way calling) at 1am and although i wasnt into the idea, i decided to put them on blast online:
Watching rugrats while my brother calling me pretending that hes on ”El vacilon”( local Spanish morning show). hilarious. Real hilarious(sarcasm).
I also got excited when I learned that Code Lyoko returns for a fifth season come next year and when a tweet i sent out was read on-air on New York’s CBS 2 This Morning
First i hear that code lyoko is coming back next year and that this morning On
@CBS2thismorning@rhiannonally read my tweet(involving TSA safety regulations):-).
Now my tweet which was also sent to my blog’s account @thecitymylife which got a reaction from Code Lyoko’s Kabillon page:
@thecitymylife Your Code Lyoko tweet was on CBS?
I clarified via @thecitymylife:
@CodeLyokoTV no (i wish). i was excited that code lyoko is coming back next year and that an irrelevant tweet made it on CBS/channel 2.
Apologies to @CodelyokoTV for the misunderstanding about that. and P.S. I am a Lyoko fan, which may explain the screwup 
Friday Night Smackdown is always edited for time, what’s the big deal?
Since April 1999, WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown has always been edited, and there is not just one edition of Smackdown.
On the 9/23/2011 episode of Friday Night Smackdown (taped on 9/20/11) Following the Randy Orton/Cody Rhodes bout which ended in DQ (Orton took of Rhodes’s mask in front of the referee, the mask is cleared to be worn in matches) Rhodes would be on the receiving end of a hellacious beatdown by Orton that featured unconventional weapons such as Cody’s own mask and the timekeeper’s bell.
Since Smackdown has been taped on a Tuesday since its inception (barring episodes when they went live on a few occasions) the WWE edits SD! (taking out and adding certain elements for the airings, such as video packages and advertisements mentioned on-air) and sends three versions of SD! to their carriers:
- An abbreviated version that only feature matches for the International Markets (which lasts about 30-60 minutes including commercials, like AM RAW for example)
- An extended cut of Smackdown which features a “From the Vault” segments looking at past Smackdown matches (primarily from 2008-10 SD! years) also going out to international markets(Lasting 2 Hours, including commercials
- and the North American version of Smackdown airing via Syfy and TSN in Canada. (same running length as extended cut, TSN gets a clean feed from Syfy to air SD!)
It should be noted that not all things that are taped on SD! make it to any of its editions, some segments are either re-shot (like the Sin Cara/Heath Slater Match from the 8/26 SD! tapings, with the original Sin Cara being sent home) or dropped altogether, preventing that segment from appearing on television (i.e, a Chris Benoit/ John Cena segment from 2004, a Muhammad Hassan segment from 2003 involving the mention of a New York Post writer, and a Jim Ross/Jack Swagger segment from a 2009 episode of SD! from Oklahoma)
So when the match aired on Syfy, they showed the beatdown with a noticeable edit which featured a shot of a bloody Rhodes taking an RKO on the announce table (which didn’t sell the RKO, btw).
However, this was a different outcome for the SD! airings in the international airings which edited out the complete beatdown and in the abbreviated cut a “Smackdown continues…” flashed on screen after Orton laid out Rhodes in the ring.
When the International airings were released on Youtube by other parties (both the abbreviated and the extended cuts air before SD airs on Syfy) there was an outrage online by internet wrestling fans known collectively as the IWC, ” [the] Internet Wrestling Community”
IWC AND THEIR OUTRAGE
Since the Internet became available in the homes of average wrestling fans dating back during the 1998-2001 Monday Night Wars (between the now-closed WCW and the company formerly called World Wrestling Federation) the IWC has built a habit to spoil the results of any taped wrestling show before it airs on North America and upload the shows online without realizing that there is two sides to the very same program.
The IWC created their outrage based on the International Cuts, which in some places air SD! on an earlier time or later time (depending on markets and regional TV laws) without seeing the Syfy/TSN cut of Smackdown which is the OFFICIAL broadcast for North America.
Sure, the International cuts whether abbreviated or extended air before the North American airings (the International cuts would air when its normally Thursday Afternoon in North America while its Friday on the other side of the planet)
On some occasions, I can agree with or can justify the IWC’s anger. In this case, I disagree with the IWC. The IWC can overreact over the smallest things and will act like there is an international incident.
The only people who had the privilege to see the entire segment was those who bought a ticket and attended the SD! tapings. The IWC knows that SD is a taped show and the IWC themselves spoil said taped program so they really should’nt overreact they way they did and will do again, i assure you.
If they want to see the full SD! experience, attend the tapings.
There is so much that the WWE and others are willing to give to its fans on free TV.
The IWC tends to ask for too much and not giving much to them (the companies)
The IWC shouldn’t only go on what airs in the International markets, but as well as the official Syfy/TSN cut of SD!, which is the one WWE always talks about and hypes over.
