Smackdown comes to us tonight from The Allstate Arena in Chicago, IL—formerly known as the Rosemont Horizon where I saw many house shows as a kid in the mid/late-80s … a bloody King Kong Bundy (substituting for Adrian Adonis) vs. Hulk Hogan, Macho Man vs. Tito Santana, the Can-Am Connection, a near-first appearance of Hercules Hernandez, Corporal Kirschner constantly doing jobs, Leaping Lanny Poffo consistently getting huge pops from the hometown crowd, the emergence of Bret Hart as a main-eventer, and many other memories (most pretty well faded I guess, since I can only remember a few moments here and there). Oh well, I look forward to taking my daughter soon enough. If you can’t tell, I’m happy to cover a card from Chicago, even if it won’t likely include CM Punk on this brand.

We’re just 48 hours from Wrestlemania 27 (but you knew that) and we get right to business with The Corre’s music kicking in and Wade Barrett coming down to the ring solo to defend his Intercontinental Title. This is the way I like it—no lame skits, long promos, or other build-up…just start us up with a decent matchup—and a title match no less. Kofi’s music hits next and he comes to the ring wearing his usual red trunks and boots. Not much fanfare from Kofi as he looks ‘all business’. I don’t know what it is (or isn’t) about Kofi but I respect him as a wrestler, and he’s not annoying or lame, but I just don’t “get it” from him. I could take or leave him basically and he just seems so overused and stale as a mid carder. Just my opinion is all. Barrett comes out on top early and lands a clean abdominal stretch suplex after doing some damage outside the ring. For a moment it’s just Booker and Josh on the commentary and it actually sounds quite nice…unfortunately Cole starts cackling after not too long and I realize how his presence really is a genuine annoyance and adverse distraction as a commentator now. It’s one thing to be a heel announcer—guys like Ventura, Heenan and even Taz to some extent on TNA have proved that is combination that works well. But he is just something so odd, different and just plain bad that it’s come to a point where he needs to go. He doesn’t work in any capacity and he needs to get beaten and hurt badly at WM 27 so he goes away. I’m immediately furious as I him crow about being the headlining main eventer at the PPV. Despite the fact knowing this is all a work, I’m still very bothered by him…probably because I realize he’s not really acting too hard and this is pretty close to who and what he really is in person. Wow! Apologies for the rant…

Back to action, a nice, elevated and extended dropkick from Kofi and he lands his upside down kick in the corner followed by the ever-pretty flying body splash from the top. He’s in firm control now as he hits the double leg drop and sets up that silly ‘boom slapping’ ritual. As he’s in the midst of Trouble in Paradise he is absolutely deleted by a big boot from Barrett. Wade is still a step behind the speed and quickness of Kofi, and within seconds Kofi hits TiP and suddenly The Corre come into the ring to do the bum-rush. Santino and Koslov come in next and do little to help, and then as you guessed, next come Kane and Big Show as Kane’s music briefly hits. This combination of faces clears The Corre and we have the obligatory build to Sunday’s 8-man tag match.

We get a replay of Cody Rhodes’ attack on Rey Mysterio last week during his match with CM Punk. We go backstage and see Matt Stryker (hey, good to see him on Smackdown, despite being underutilized). Cody goes on to bitch and whine about his handsome, rugged face now being embarrassing and he doesn’t even want to be looked at. He is bitter, angry, and vengeful. I will say I like this new edge from Cody…at least he has some character now. He has a bit of the white collar psychopath thing going…if that is a thing.

Coming back from commercial we get some promo time down in Atlanta with that little jerkoff Hornswoggle and the Bella Twins. Let’s just skip that, shall we? Next is a replay summary of the Undertaker/Triple H showdowns and the build of CM Punk vs. Randy Orton since Royal Rumble and Orton’s punting of Punk from two years ago back when their face-heel roles were reversed. Again, it would be a cool angle if creative had even thought of it. But regular readers of wrestlingtruth.com remember that it was Punk himself who brought the angle to WWE writers. It would’ve been a cool idea if they had thought of it, but I will not give credit where it’s not deserved.

40 minutes into tonight’s episode and it’s one quick match and mostly just more promos and recaps for WM 27. Sorry there’s not much more to report…I guess this was a good week for me to get a bit tangential as I did earlier. More replays include the Road Warriors Hall of Fame induction (great move, what took so long?) and the Cole vs. King showdown this past Monday on Raw. Speaking of the HoF, I liked what I read earlier this week on this website about Triple H wanting to really ‘class up’ the Hall of Fame so we get the right people in there, and guys like Drew Carey, Pete Rose, and hell, even Koko B. Ware aren’t a part of it. I distinctly remember B. Ware as a jobber.

We finally get a little live action as King’s music hits and he comes down to the ring in street clothes to cut a promo. Cole is conveniently not in his little rodent cage. Lawler talks about how Cole has disrespected his mother’s passing, his father’s memory, and brought his son out to discredit him. I like Lawler’s tone and approach—he’s very calm, smooth and matter of fact. He reminds Cole that it will be just him and Lawler, and he’ll be all alone with nowhere ‘fortress of solitude’ to hide in, because Stone Cold will be there to take care of Jack Swagger. He will do what the entire world wants him to do…”shut his mouth”. YES…YES we do want that…so very much. Let’s hope this oversaturation of Cole on both brands was POSSIBLY a pre-meditated way of really pissing fans off to where we’ll be so fed up with him and the Stryker demotion was all part of the plan and he’ll be back in a booth soon. I doubt it though.

I literally fast forward 40 minutes past more replays, hype, and summaries of recent events. This is the worst episode ever in terms of action, but the easiest ever to recap. I guess the gent who recaps Raw episodes had it right last Monday when he wrote ‘the road to Wrestlemania is officially over’ at the end of his summary. At first I thought, “hey c’mon, what about Friday’s Smackdown?”, but this is disappointing. I guess it’s a good episode if you haven’t watched any WWE in 2011.

With about 20 minutes left we get Cody Rhodes coming down to the ring with his towel covering his head. Next up is Chris Masters and this one has squash written all over it I am assuming. Heck, didn’t Rhodes just squash him like 3 weeks ago already?? Cody comes out swinging but Masters briefly counters with some chops. I was enjoying the absence of Michael Cole (is it obvious yet this guy’s voice and appearance is tantamount to fingers on a chalkboard to me?), and suddenly they show him strutting down the entranceway to the ring with security escorting him. Whatever. Meanwhile, Rhodes is smothering Masters’ face into the mat. He delivers a knee to the solar plexus and a forearm to the back of the head. Masters counters with a real nice somoan drop and inverted atomic drop. He nearly locks in the Master Lock but Rhodes gets to the ropes. On the ropes, Cody face-butts Masters with the mask and this enables him to hit Cross Rhodes for the relatively quick victory. Suddenly Rey Mysterio rushes in and hits some kicks and of course the convenient little dropkick that gets every opponent draped across the middle rope. He tries for two 619s but neither attempt comes to fruition.

We get a recap of Jericho on Dancing with the Stars, which actually is new content for me. I dig Y2J and wondered how he was doing on that show, but not enough to actually watch it. This answers my question—he’s tied for 4th which is decent.

The Smackdown show predictably ends with last week’s Rock/Miz/Cena triple showdown and we fade to black with nothing much new to go on…I won’t bother commenting further or rating the episode. It was just a big commercial for WM27, of which I’m still on the fence and leaning towards not purchasing. I can’t think of a single match I’m really that interested in so it’s just a matter of whether the accumulation of action, and hopes of seeing Cole get his ass handed to him, as well as Rock do something to make Cena look bad is enough to warrant the bill. It’s the not the money I’m as worried about as the heat I get from my wife when the cable bill arrives with a PPV buy. Anyhow, those of you purchasing, enjoy the show and the pre-mania buildup.

Peace,
Deadhead-Dan

Source: wrestlingtruth.com