The Undercard
R-Truth defeated Antonio Ceasro in the first match of the night. Cesaro gets in full control early on, but Truth is able to fight back and hits a Falcon Arrow. He hits his finisher and that is the match. R-Truth gets a win against Barrett and Cesaro in two consecutive weeks. There must be something planned for him, which I am not in support of. Instead of building the young guys who will be around and be more marketable, WWE decides to go with a long time veteran of mediocrity.
Grade: D
Damien Sandow defeated Brodus Clay after a pretty solid outing from both guys. Clay is extremely slow, while Sandow is much more fluent in the ring. His character, without a microphone, does not progess in the way that it should. I would have Sandow cut a promo on his opponents every single week. That is a way to get heat from a crowd. Sandow rolls up Clay with his tights, so it is not clean. That means we will continue to see these tag teams battle it out, like it or not.
Grade: C
Tensai defeated Cody Rhodes to even the score for his team. This occurred later on in the night, but it shocked me. I was not expecting to see the tag teams out again, but that is what happens when Sheamus, Orton, Del Rio, Swagger, and others are at the Smackdown Live Event show. I was shocked to not see them. Instead, we get a boring match that had Tensai in control for the whole match. It was simplistic and dull.
Grade: C-
Big E Langston squashes Zack Ryder. What we saw in this match was Big E hitting three backbreakers onto Ryder. He hits a big clothesline and his finisher to pick up the win. Big E Langston, in this match, was limited in what he was going to do. It needed to be quick and a squash since he has not really competed much in the ring. I like the look and the intensity of Langston. I also enjoy the fact that it looks like he loves wrestling. You can tell that in his emotions inside and outside of the ring. Ryder is in desperate need of a character change. I think that it is coming sooner than later.
Grade: C
Fandango defeated William Regal. In the smartest booking decision of the night, Fandango goes from getting a great pop, to being the heel in favor of the hometown crowd, back to a big pop. So, what WWE tried to do did not work. The crowd will cheer for who they want to. It was a slow and stiff match to begin with. Once again, this shows you the lack of mid-card wrestlers the WWE currently has. Fans make like this guy or that guy, but WWE does not know which one to push. Fandango gets Jericho in his face after the match, which is stemming from his music costing Jericho his match earlier in the night. Jericho throws Fandango off the stage and begins to dance with his dancer. This was great to watch. We have not seen vulnerability in the Fandango character up to this point. Thankfully, Jericho was able to get the best out of a situation that could have fallen flat on its face.
Grade: B-
AJ Lee becomes the Number One Contender to the WWE Divas Championship. We see a Battle Royal that did nothing for any Diva besides AJ. She is the best Diva in terms of character. She may not be the best wrestler or the biggest, but she possesses so much heart and soul into what they ask of her. It is more about building characters in the Divas Division over anything else. She deserves the championship because she is the only Diva that has gotten over the past two years besides Eve. Plain and simple, people actually care about her. It will also look good with her and Ziggler, champions and a power couple.
Grade: B-
