Smackdown kicked off with a huge applause for JBL, who was introduced for commentary. Apparently Sacramento missed him since the last time he was in town.
The show opened with a highlight reel from Monday's Raw bringing everyone up to speed on the CM Punk and Rock and the Del Rio And Big Show storyline.
Team Hell No came out to the ring and watched completely unamused as the recap from the group hug played out on the Titantron. Kane promised to prove that Team Hell No has not gone soft and will prove it at Royal Rumble. Some friction between the two arose when Kane promised to win the Royal Rumble after beating the Rohdes Scholars. After a back and forth over who was going win, Big Show's music hit.
Big Show whined about his loss to Alberto Del Rio and ordered Kane and Bryant out of the ring. As the tension grew, Team Rhode Scholars came to the ring and reminded the group of their upcoming match. Damien Sandow called for an alliance to dispose of Bryan and Kane. As the microphones hit the mat, Alberto Del Rio came out setting the stage for a six man tag match.
Booker T came out and made the match official as the main event for tonight's show. The match had a special stipulation added making it an elimination six man tag match.
1. Sheamus beat Wade Barrett in 2:00. Fresh off of the beat the clock loss, I expected the match to open up with a lot of anger, but instead it was a pretty much a sqash with Sheamus hitting the Brogue kick out of nowhere. Randy Orton sneaks into the ring from the crowd surprising Sheamus but nothing comes of it as he RKOs Wade Barrett instead. Sheamus smiles.
WWE aired a video for Raw Roulette on the live Raw from Vegas.
2. Natalya (w/Great Khali, Hornswoggle) beat Rosa Mendes (w/Primo, Epico) in 2:44. Natalya won by submission.
CM Punk came to the ring to address the events of Raw to a surprising amount of crowd support considering the heel angle. Punk's promo revolved around his future potential and his reign as champion. As he began to say that one thing can disrupt his potential the crowd erupted into "Rock" chants.
Heyman read the executive order from the WWE regarding the loss of the championship if The Shield gets involved. Punk called out The Shield and refused to leave until they come out.
All three members came out from the crowd and circled the ring where Punk stood armed with a chair. Punk ordered The Shield to stay out of his way. After a few tense stairs, The Shield left the ring and Punk continued his best in the world rant when The Rock's music hit.
The Rock wiped the floor with Punk on the mic and then left the ring. Punk picked the mic up again and started calling Sacramento trash. The Rock came back out. A fist fight broke out followed by a huge Rock Bottom. Sacramento has apparently gotten over the rock concert from 2003 because the ovation here was amazing.
3. Randy Orton beat Drew McIntyre by DQ in 1:07. McIntyre and Orton had the unfortunate job of following the Rock and Punk confrontation. Sacramento went nuts for the Apex Predator. Orton was attacked by one of the members of 3MB, which resulted in the ref calling for the bell. As a result, Orton hit the RKO and middle rope DDT on all three members. After the match Sheamus ran into the ring and had a staredown with Orton. They looked as if they were going to come to blows but instead Sheamus gave 3MB Brogue Kicks. Stick a fork in these guys, they're done.
4. The Miz defeated Darren Young. Antonio Cesaro came to ring waiving an American flag followed by the Prime Time players. Cesaro joined the cometary team. The Miz came out to a pretty big applause. With Cesaro on cometary, I'm assuming there will be some sort of retribution for Main Event. As an homage to Ric Flair, The Miz put the figure four on his Prime Time Player opponent and made him submit while staring down Cesaro. Cesaro gets into the ring and confronts the Miz. A brawl ensues and ends up with Miz on top and he beats and chokes Antonio with the flag. The Players attack Miz and Cesaro recovers. After the beating Cesaro drapes the flag over the Miz and salutes him.
5. Alberto Del Rio, Kane, and Daniel Bryan beat Big Show, Cody Rhodes, and Damien Sandow in a six-man elimination tag. The main event kicked off with Alberto Del Rio riding high on the babyface wave slapping high fives and generating a lot of cheers. Team Hell No was also a big hit with the fans.
Del Rio and Rhodes started the six man elimination tag match in the ring. Both chain grappled back and forth until Del Rio hit a big body slam. The crowd around me had their attention diverted temporally by the drunk red neck doing a Randy Orton top rope arm stretch on a box seat rail and almost falling over.
The first participant eliminated was Damin Sandow by Kane via pinfall. There was tension when Bryan attempted to tag himself in distracting Kane.
Big Show then entered the ring and exchanged blows with Kane ultimately ending up outside of the ring. Big Show threw Kane into the ring post which knocked him to the ground. Kane was unable to get to his feet and was counted out by the ref.
Rhodes and Bryan exchanged blows and had some impressive chain grapples. Big Show was tagged in and had the upper hand on Bryan. Bryan got the upper hand and attempted a jump from the top rope but was distracted by an irate Kane, allowing him to be hit with a Big Show Punch that knocked him out of the ring. Bryan was unable to get to his feet and was eliminated via count out.
Del Rio was left with the task of eliminating Big Show and Cody Rhodes. After being manhandled by Big Show, Del Rio was able to hit a super kick on Show, who was on the apron knocking him to the outside. Big Show was ten eliminated via count out.
Del Rio and Rhodes battles it out until Del Rio hit a kick to Rhodes' head in the corner scoring the win. Del Rio's celebration was short lived as an emotional Ezekiel Jackson attacked Del Rio after the match putting him through the Spanish Announce Table. Jackson picked up the heavyweight title and held it up, he told Big Show he has next, whomever wins at the Royal Rumble is going to get a phallus to the face. Heidenreich and Snitsky appear on the Titantron with a bloodied and bruised Ricardo Rodriguez. Snitsky tells Del Rio they are about to beat him into taco meat.
Dark Match
After the show closed out, Big Show came back out and started trash talking the arena and demanded that Alberto Del Rio be rolled back into the ring. Show challenged Del Rio to a title match tonight. Jackson said he wanted in to or bad things will happen to Ricardo Rodriguez.
Del Rio asked for the bell. Show announced that the match was no DQ.
1. Alberto Del Rio defeated Ezekiel Jackson and Big Show in a No DQ match to retain the World Hvt. Championship. The bell rang and Show manhandled Del Rio. Del Rio was ultimately able to put Big Show through a table with a bulldog from the top rope and scored the win via pinfall to retain the championship. Jackson stayed out of the match and cried at the announce table. After Del Rio won Jackson beat him down with the steel steps.
Other than a kid stealing my collector cup and an idiot dressed head to toe like John Cena (Life size championship belt and all) getting in people's faces all night, the show was pretty good. I haven't been to a live show since 2005 and look forward to seeing WWE the next time they come to Sacramento
