- Christian got his entrance before SmackDown officially began being taped. Good pop - people actually popped when they saw the ring crew changing the mat and putting up the "Peep Show" signs on the ring posts. Alberto Del Rio got awesome heat and is an awesome man. Christian began introducing Alberto as his guest, but ADR's official ring announcer found this quite inappropriate and ranted in Spanish about it. Del Rio also called the PPV "Night of THE Champions", so I guess I can't get annoyed if/when Bryan does it now. Good segment.
- Hart Dynasty vs Cody and Drew was a solid tag match that went a little under 10 minutes. Biggest surprise here was that at the Over the Edge PPV, when the Hart's were in theory a much hotter act and had stars the level of Jericho and Miz to work with, no one cared at all for them. Maybe because they were too into Jericho, but on this night, with a smaller crowd, people LOVED the Hart Dynasty and were always doing the rally-claps and hot for the comebacks. DH Smith was pinned when Tyson was on the floor and Natalya seemed to have some concern over his condition, but I don't think it was an injury angle.
- People were into Kofi's promo about his quest for the IC title. I also thought a fight was going to break out when his shirt landed in my section as the woman who caught it at the same time kept tugging the shirt while the man explained he wanted it for his kid. The man got it in the end.
- Kofi vs. Swagger: I think this match will be awesome on TV if they can add some noise and put in a well placed commercial, but up until Kofi FINALLY went on offense, it came across very flat live. Basically, Swagger beat on him, Kofi tried a rally, the crowd got behind him... then he did nothing and Swagger was still in control. I could sense on the floor, people were getting tired of this quickly (as I was thinking that, two people behind me started yelling "THIS IS BORING"). This also seemed to lead to a large heel section in the lower deck behind the floor seats loudly chanting "Let's Go Swagger!" (they also immediately began chanting for Punk in his match). 10 minutes into the match Kofi nailed Swagger with a sweet kick on the apron and that got people back in, and the match was pretty great from that point until the end where Jack kept going for the Ankle Lock but Kofi kept getting free. Kofi won at the 14-15 minute mark. The match itself was perfectly fine, but as I said, I believe a break during some of Swagger's rest hold offense and some added crowd noise will help this one greatly.
- Awful Hornswoggle comedy, and this is coming from a guy that normally tries to laugh and give them a comedy pass. The gist was a nun was trying to teach him and Teddy English but Swoggle played some tricks and got Teddy in trouble (he drew picture of the nun as the Devil when he was supposed to be writing ABC, then switched papers with Teddy). At the end she was going to use a ruler on Teddy's wrist, Hornswoggle confessed, she was going to hit him, Teddy kicked her out. I've spent far too may words describing this.
- I have nothing of note to add about the Divas match as the standing usher blocked most of my view of what I would assume was Rosa's bad wrestling. It was only 3 minutes.
- Punk vs. Christian was a good, solid match that lasted almost 10 minutes. Del Rio came out to do commentary during the commercial (between Punk and Christian's entrances). Punk also still had "Straight Edge Society" branding the video wall during his entrance, but he was by himself (Joey Mercury was nowhere to be found on this show). When Christian set Punk up for the Killswitch, Alberto began talking on the mic as if he was going to accept Christian's challenge. Punk hit the GTS and won, Alberto put a chair on Christian and sat down... then told him the answer is still no.
- Kane spent 4 minutes telling us he was glad his brother suggested a No Holds Barred match because that's exactly what he wants. After he finally acknowledged this stipulation, Undertaker came out. When the lights went out, Kane snuck up behind him and spent a few minutes beating him up before giving Taker a Tombstone, then doing the Undertaker's victory pose to set of his pyro. As silly and drawn out as all this was, Kane was pretty good at delivering all his material. Speaking of...
- After the show, Kane said we were going to see a title match. He then proceeded to do his and Undertaker's match introductions on his own, and I have to say, it was pretty awesome. This was 4 minutes long and mostly Kane dominating, but Undertaker had a comeback that led to a chokeslam. Kane bailed - teased beating the 10 count - then left. As short of a flurry as Taker's offense was, it legitimately got the loudest cheers of the night.
So, that's that - apologies if I'm being a bit lengthy about a show no one really cares about, but that's how I am.
Take care,
Stephen Gray