WWE Smackdown TV taping report
September 2, 2014
Lincoln, Neb.
Report by Reyal Pollard, PWTorch correspondent

Smackdown SPOILERS 9/5

- Right at the top of the show, John Cena came out to the pop of the night. It was a Serious Cena promo that didn’t go into “preacher” territory. He did a little pandering to the Husker fans to keep down the vocal males. If there are tons of “Go Big Red” chants during Smackdown on Friday, it is Cena’s fault. He confirmed that he is the one who absolutely will be facing Brock Lesnar at Night of Champions, despite The Authority questioning his ability to beat Lesnar. He went into hype mode, but still managed to avoid saying anything about winning the championship.

Seth Rollins and Kane entered to Kane’s theme. Cena called Kane The Devil’s Favorite Demon in a Men’s Warehouse ad and told Rollins that Mr. Plan B can kiss his Plan A. Rollins and Kane taunted Cena being over the hill and having a mid-career crisis. Kane let Cena know that they were stacking the deck against him tonight. This prompted Roman Reigns’s music to a big ovation.

Reigns gave a paragraph-long promo about ending things with Randy Orton next Monday and making sure Rollins doesn’t make it out of Smackdown. The lights went out and the Wyatts appeared in front of The Authority who were standing on the ramp. They stared at the outnumbered Cena and Reigns until “Break the Walls Down” began playing to bring out Chris Jericho, Big Show, and Mark Henry. No sooner were the three out there than Triple H’s music began to play. Triple H booked a 10-man main event between the promo participants. The Smackdown theme played to close the segment. Unfortunately, Triple H did not dance like Teddy Long after making the impromptu match.

(1) IC champion Dolph Ziggler beat Cesaro via roll-up pin. U.S. champ Sheamus sat in on commentary for this one. Ziggler got a decent reaction for his second match of the night. Cesaro had one of the quietest entrances of the night. The two had a Smackdown-caliber match that had some good spots in the second half. Fun TV match between the two.

Post-match, Cesaro puts the boots to Ziggler until Sheamus stopped the assault by distracting Cesaro. Sheamus tossed him the U.S. Championship and then Brogue Kicked him to close the segment.

- The Rhodes Bros. cut another gibberish promo on the Tron. This is going to have to stretch pretty far if it’s going to lead to a Goldust vs. Cody match at WrestleMania.

(2) WWE tag champ Jimmy Uso beat Heath Slater with a Superkick/Splash Combination. Jimmy was accompanied by Jey Uso on a crutch and Slater was joined by Titus O’Neil. Lots of “Go Big Red” chants aimed at Titus’s anti-Husker mic work from earlier in the night. Fast-paced fun start to the match that stopped abruptly with a rest-hold. Not a whole lot to it after that.

- Rusev and Lana came out next. Lana is bordering Vickie Guerrero-levels of heat when she picks up the microphone. She said that despite being in the Heartland, America has no heart. And if it did, it was made in China. Good line that got a reaction from the adults who chuckled before starting a "USA" chant. Mark Henry came out to a big reaction. He cut a good, no-nonsense promo and challenged Rusev again to a match. This time, Lana accepted.

- They showed some hype for Jerry Springer being on Raw to help the Bellas out. And they wonder why Michael Sam wouldn’t show up on Raw...

(3) Divas champion Paige beat Brie with her Package DDT. A.J. was at ringside for this along with Nikki. Brie, being ever defiant, came out to the ring to the theme she shares with Nikki. Paige received almost no reaction from the crowd. Her music got turned up two times during her short entrance. The match featured some "C-M Punk" chants early on and some “Yes!” chants for Brie’s babyface comeback. At ringside, A.J. got in Nikki’s face, which led to a brawl. Brie looked torn, but wound up breaking up the fight by pulling A.J. off her sister. She went back in the ring and ate Paige’s finisher to end the match.

- Wyatt family promo. Not much to say here.

(4) Bo Dallas beat Zack Ryder in a squash match with the Bo-dog. Dallas let us know that “If you live in Nebraska, something must have gone terribly wrong in your life.” Good laughing/boos on that one. He began to do Zeb’s "put your hand over your heart" schtick, but was interrupted by Swagger’s theme. Swagger rushed to the ring and the two go into a brawl. Swagger got the Patriot Lock, but Bo escaped and bailed to ringside. Zeb finished the segment with “We The People.”

- Next was the 10-man tag main event, which had no winner...

(5) John Cena & Chris Jericho & Roman Reigns & Big Show & Mark Henry vs. Seth Rollins & Kane & the Wyatts (Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper & Erick Rowan) went to a No Contest. The crowd was very into Jericho and Cena in this one going back and forth on who got the most reaction. Towards the end, the fans were overwhelmingly pro-Cena. A few Reigns chants got started while he was the face-in-peril thanks in large part to Big Show acting as director for the crowd when it was time for a chant. The match was entertaining, although a big part of the first half had Show playing the face in need for a hot tag. Cena finally got the hot tag from Y2J, which brought everyone in ring to take spotlight moves until Cena and the other legal man was left, Rollins. Cena locked on the STF, but he was jumped by the Wyatts. The ref called for the bell.

Post-match, everyone came back in for another massive brawl. The faces took turn hitting finishers on the heels with Jericho giving Bray the Codebreaker, Stereo Chokeslam/World Strongest Slam for Harper and Rowan, Spear for Kane, and finally an AA for Rollins. The faces stood tall to end the show.

After the taping, the faces made their way around ringside slapping hands with fans. Mark Henry stole Roman’s SWAT vest and tried to put it on and zip it. Roman saw this and laughed hard before taking it from him. Jericho was the last to leave and took extended time saying bye to the crowd. Lilian thanked us, but did not announce a return date.

Biggest Pops: Cena, Jericho, Usos, Ziggler (Main Event appearance), and Mark Henry interrupting Rusev.

Most Heat: Lana, Lana, Lana, Titus O’Neil, Bo Dallas.

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