Smackdown – August 2, 2013

Date: August 2, 2013

Location: Toyota
Center, Houston, Texas

Commentators: Michael
Cole, Alex Riley

Reviewed by Tommy Hall

After the mess that was
Raw on Monday hopefully things pick up tonight. Last week’s show was
very interesting with the focus on everything but the main event
matches. That’s the kind of show Smackdown needs to be: something
completely different from Raw and not a rehash of everything we sit
through for three hours. Let’s get to it.

Here’s Del Rio to
announce his Summerslam opponent. Alberto says when he was champion
before the fans didn’t support him so he has nothing to thank them
for. Now he’s champion again and there’s nothing they can do about
it. He does however want to thank Vickie Guerrero for allowing her
to pick his Summerslam opponent.

Del Rio says Cena
picked the troll Daniel Bryan to hide from Del Rio, so maybe Alberto
should pick the beast Brock Lesnar. Well he’s taken already so maybe
it should be Houston’s own Booker T. That won’t work either because
everything that comes out of Houston is worthless. That’s the best
insult he can come up with? Then Del Rio came up with the perfect
opponent to grant a first ever world title shot: Ricardo Rodriguez.

This brings out Vickie
who says Del Rio is trying to disrespect him. She speaks some
Spanish and calls Ricardo a jiggly little manchild. Alberto says he
wasn’t trying to disrespect her and he’ll pick Brooklyn Brawler
instead. Vickie says Vince wouldn’t like that pick so Del Rio will
face the winner of RVD vs. Orton vs. Christian tonight.

This is a good example
of why GM’s are a waste of time. The whole segment took over ten
minutes and could have easily been accomplished by saying “tonight
there’s a triple threat match for the #1 contendership.” Instead
we have to bring out Vickie and listen to Alberto when we could have
used this time for anything else. It develops Del Rio as a cowardly
heel a little bit, but the same thing could have been accomplished in
a backstage segment with him recommending Ricardo or the Brawler as
his opponents.

Kaitlyn vs. AJ for the
title later.

We recap Cody stealing
the briefcase last week and throwing it in the Gulf of Mexico.

Colter doesn’t start
talking until Cody is already on the apron. Rhodes doesn’t want to
listen so he decks Swagger to get us going. Cody hits a quick
uppercut and a knee to the side of the head for two. Swagger comes
back with his powerslam/belly to belly and a clothesline for two.
Cody fights up but the Disaster Kick is knocked out of the air and a
Vader Bomb gets two. The gutwrench powerbomb is countered into a
sunset flip for the pin for Cody at 1:57.

Post break Cody goes on
a rant against Sandow for being so stuck up and bragging about
himself. Cody compares throwing the briefcase into the Gulf to the
Deep Water Horizon oil spill. “That was a joke.” Sandow comes
in and beats him down for the bad line.

Langston runs over Cara
as the lights go orange. Cara mostly hits what was supposed to be a
dropkick for two as Ziggler is watching from the back. Big E. takes
him down with a headlock and drives an elbow in the chest. Langston
goes old school with an abdominal stretch and even gets caught
holding the ropes. Riley: “Only illegal if you get caught.”
Cole: “He did get caught. That’s why the referee was counting.”
Cara springboards into the Big Ending but slips down the back and
fires off some kicks. A standing Lionsault is caught in the Big
Ending for the pin at 2:52. It was longer than I was expecting but
Langston dominated.

Wyatt Family promo
focusing on their issues with Kane.

Layla and Kaitlyn are
in the back with the Brit saying she’ll support Kaitlyn in her match
tonight. Kaitlyn’s idea for AJ: “Fool me once shame on you, fool
me twice you’re going to get speared.” Layla says she’s been
around a long time and Kaitlyn is the real deal. They hug and Layla
smiles a lot.

Del Rio yells at Vickie
for going back on her word about letting him pick his opponent. She
accuses him of being afraid when Brad Maddox comes in. Apparently
Del Rio will be on Raw and under his jurisdiction. Isn’t he there
every week?

This is a result of
Fandango interrupting Punk last week. Fandango dances around so Punk
kicks him in the legs to take over. Punk fires off strikes but gets
caught in a headlock from the dancer. A spinning kick to the ribs
and a high elbow take Fandango down for two but he sends Punk into
the corner to take over again. A GTS attempt is escaped and we take
a break.

Back with Fandango
coming around Summer to send Punk into the steps. Punk slides back
in at the last second and Fandango starts in on the arm. He drives
knees and elbows into Punk’s face before we hit the chinlock. So
much for the arm stuff. Fandango cranks on the chinlock and wraps
his leg around Punk for extra leverage.

Punk fights up but a
hard elbow to the face gets two. Fandango misses a splash and Punk
hits the running knee in the corner. Fandango rolls to the apron and
gets in a kick to the head and a falcon’s arrow for two. The top
rope legdrop is countered and a superplex sets up the Anaconda Vice
to make Fandango tap at 9:40 shown of 12:00.

Rating: C+.
Nice match here as Fandango got to show off here. This is the kind
of match that can do midcarders a lot of good. Punk gets a
competitive win and Fandango gets to look good as well, but he
doesn’t lose anything because he has no business beating the star.
Good booking here and it gives Punk something to do for a week.

We recap the opening of
the show.

RVD says Christian and
Orton aren’t pushovers but they’re not Rob Van Dam. Christian comes
in and says he deserves one more match. Orton comes in and says he’s
fine with winning the World Heavyweight Champion while still holding
the briefcase. Van Dam says he’s here to win titles, not to stroll
down memory lane.

AJ is defending and
Kaitlyn, the hometown girl, has Layla with her. Kaitlyn takes her
straight into the corner to start but AJ comes back with a quick
sleeper. She wraps Kaitlyn up on the mat as Layla plays cheerleader.
Kaitlyn gets up and rams the champion into the corner but AJ trips
her up and dances around the ring. The blonde comes back with a
gutbuster to send AJ to the floor but Layla gets in the way of the
spear and smiles. AJ gets in a cheap shot and the Black Widow gets
the submission at 3:02.

Rating: D.
This falls under the category of turns that surprised no one and that
no one cares about. It’s a good way to shift away from AJ vs.
Kaitlyn though as that story has been played out for months now.
Layla works better as a heel but hopefully she doesn’t ditch the
shorts. Match was nothing.

The Raw ReBound recaps
the Vince/Bryan situation and the double main event from Monday.

We get most of the
tables match and the aftermath from Raw, which is likely to be
clipped way down on the American version of this show.

The winner gets Del Rio
at Summerslam, but the booking makes little sense. Cole says Orton
and Christian are here because they pinned the champion. Van Dam
lost to the same guy clean in less than three minutes but he gets the
same reward as guys who got clean pinfalls? The champion comes out
and says he’ll be watching the three stooges beat the guacamole out
of each other. One of them will be tapping out at Summerslam and
does anyone really believe him?

Orton is sent to the
floor and Van Dam kicks Christian down but Randy trips up Rolling
Thunder. Van Dam sends Orton into the steps and puts him on the
barricade followed by the spin kick to the back. Van Dam celebrates
but gets caught by a spear from Christian as we take a break. Back
with Christian getting two on Van Dam off a tornado DDT. Rob rolls
to the floor and Orton pounds away on the Canadian. Randy hits a
superplex for a delayed two and Rob is back with the kicks all
around. A monkey flip (which isn’t unique Cole) sends Christian
flying and the split legged moonsault gets two on Orton.

Van Dam charges into
Orton’s knee but Christian counters Randy’s Elevated DDT. Rob is
sent to the floor as well and Christian joins them. Rob slams
Christian down and goes back in for a BIG flip dive to take everyone
out as we take another break. Back with Orton and Christian slugging
it out and Van Dam on the floor. Orton catches Christian’s middle
rope dropkick and starts a pinfall reversal sequence. Christian
takes over and knocks Van Dam off the apron but the spear misses.
The middle rope back elbow puts Orton down but Rob kicks Orton down
before the Killswitch.

Another kick puts
Christian down and the Five Star connects for a delayed two, allowing
Orton to make the save. Van Dam hangs on to avoid the powerslam but
Orton pops up to catch Rolling Thunder in the powerslam in a cool
move. Rob fights out of the Elevated DDT but Orton dropkicks him to
block a springboard. The Elevated DDT lays Christian out but Orton
has to hit the RKO on a charging Van Dam. The distraction allows
Christian to backslide Orton for the pin and the title shot at 10:20
shown of 15:50.

Rating: B.
Very good triple threat here with the crowd loving Van Dam, Orton
being the likely winner and Christian being the man in the middle who
steals the win at the end. They didn’t really get to near falls
until the end which made the match flow much better. Good stuff here
and nice to see Christian getting a shot at a major show. And he got
it with a backslide!

Post match Orton teases
turning on Christian but shakes his hand instead. Rob shakes his
hand too. Christian is about to say something but Del Rio jumps him
from behind to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-.
This was a pretty solid episode as we’re finally getting somewhere
with the Del Rio losses. The main event was good and the Punk match
was fine, giving us two good matches in two hours. Only the Divas
match was bad but at only three minutes long there isn’t much to
complain about. It’s a good show as Summerslam finally has more than
two matches with about two weeks left before the show.

Cody
Rhodes b. Jack Swagger – Sunset Flip

Big
E. Langston b. Sin Cara – Big Ending

CM
Punk b. Fandango – Anaconda Vice

AJ
b. Kaitlyn – Black Widow

Christian
b. Randy Orton and Rob Van Dam – Backslide to Orton