KELLER'S WWE SMACKDOWN REPORT
NOVEMBER 5, 2010
TAPED IN BRIDGEPORT, CONN.
AIRED ON SYFY NETWORK

[Q1]

-The Smackdown opening aired. Todd Grisham, Michael Cole, and Matt Striker introduced the show. Edge's ring intro promptly began.

1 -- EDGE vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO

Ricardo Rodrigues tried to enter the ring to introduce Del Rio, but Edge stared him down and intimidated him into backing away. He introduced him from the ringside steps instead. They fought briefly at ringside. Back in the ring, Edge applied an armbar. Edge missed a charge into the corner when Del Rio moved. As Edge recovered at ringside, they cut to a break at 2:00. [c] Del Rio remained on offense after the break. Del Rio settled into an armbar himself as part of his signature casually-paced in-no-hurry soft pace and style of offense. Del Rio dove at Edge, but Edge moved and Del Rio flew to the floor. Grisham said it was like a Slip 'n' Slide at 8:00. Edge scored a two count after a crossbody block off the top rope. Del Rio came back with a German suplex into a bridge for a two count at 10:00.

[Q2]

Del Rio caught Edge with a kick as Edge mounted the top rope. Edge grabbed the rope to halt the three count by the referee. Edge came back with a boot to Del Rio's face. As Edge set up a spear at 13:00, Nexus music played and they charged to the ring. They surrounded both Edge and Del Rio and attacked both.

WINNER: No contest in 13:00.

-David Otunga stood in the ring with Health Slater, Justin Gabriel, Husky Harris, and Michael McGillicutty and said last time they came to Smackdown they dominated and this time they're taking over. He stressed, "You're either Nexus or against us." Big Show's music played. He then waved Rey Mysterio to the ring. Kane's music also played. The guy who buried Undertaker alive came to the rescue of a higher cause - Smackdown. Kane beat up on Nexus and helped Show, Del Rio, Rey, and Edge clear the ring. Striker said Kane was defending the sacred ground of Smackdown.

KELLER'S REAX: I'm not crazy about Kane breaking away from his maniac horror movie villain character and having him show some odd loyalty to the Smackdown brand. I mean, he just buried his brother alive and showed no remorse, but we're to believe he cares about what Nexus does on Smackdown to other wrestlers? It just doesn't fit his character. I'm not even crazy at this point of Del Rio showing any ambiguity about his self-centered nature or being put in a position to have fans sympathize with him. I get they're setting up Nexus as being on an island unto themselves, but it's a big tradeoff to compromise Kane's character and jeopardize Del Rio's heel heat this early. [c]

-They showed the exterior of the Bridgeport arena. G.M. Teddy Long walked out and booked the Nexus wrestlers against the Smackdown wrestlers involved in the last angle. He said it's the biggest tag match in Smackdown history.

-They went to Grisham, Cole, and Striker at ringside who complimented Long for his decision-making and wondered where Wade Barrett was.

- A clip aired of Vickie Guerrero getting a cake thrown on her on NXT. She didn't seem to like it.

[Q3]

2 -- J.T.G. vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER

Grisham said J.T.G. is "young, fly, and flashy." Ziggler won with his Zig Zag and sleeper.

WINNER: Ziggler in 2:00.

-Afterward Kaitlyn came out to congratulate Ziggler. Vickie stormed to the ring after her and slapped her. Grisham said, "The cougar showing her claws!" Ziggler didn't like being caught in the middle.

-The announcers plugged MVP vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre battling for a shot at Ziggler's IC Title next week. [c]

-WWE Fact: Including Smackdown vs. Raw 2011, WWE has released 49 video games and has sold over 50 million games globally.

-Grisham recapped Ziggler's win and the post-match issue with the women.

-Backstage Hornswoggle was panicked, but Long said he had everything under control. Vickie barged in and yelled, "Excuse me!" She reminded Long she is the official consultant of Smackdown and refused to be embarrassed by Kaitlyn. She said she was just embarrassed on national TV. She demanded justice. Long said she'd have to get it in the ring, so she'd face Kaitlyn one-on-one later.

KELLER'S REAX: This is just a small pet peeve of mine, but when matches are just made on the fly like the five-on-five main event and this Vickie match, it'd be nice if Long said something along the lines of how he would cancel or postpone a scheduled match to make room for this new match. For the five-on-five, for instance, he could have said the plan was to have, say, Kane face Big Show in the main event, or Rey face Kane in the main event, but now he's changing it. When they fill the show with impromptu matches without taking three seconds to explain it's replacing another match, the whole show seems totally made-up-as-they-go and as a result, it actually kind of undercuts the idea that this new match is as important as it is. If the new match or matches are replacing scheduled matches, it seems like a bigger deal. This has happened gradually over the years and I used to point it out more often when it first started happening during the Raw-Nitro era where things were winged more, but there's no reason not to make it seem like Smackdown is important enough to have had a full two hours' worth of matches planned, even if those plans changed due to circumstances breaking out during the show.

-Backstage Nexus group-attacked Mysterio. Otunga eventually called them off when Rey was sufficiently beat down. [c]

[Q4]

-Josh Matthews asked Otunga backstage what they are doing on Smackdown. Otunga said they wanted to show the world that there's more to Nexus than just Wade Barrett and John Cena. He said Barrett left for the U.K. to visit some friends last night and they're going to join him later this week.

-Cole wondered if Barrett would approve of what Otunga was doing on Smackdown tonight.

3 -- MVP vs. CODY RHODES vs. DREW MCINTYRE

MVP came out to his new music that sounds, at first listen, a bit like Rey Mysterio's old intro song mixed with Scott Steiner's siren entrance and RVD's new TNA theme song. He needed a fresh entrance. It works at giving us reason to give him a fresh look as a contemporary, relevant factor in the mix on Smackdown. They played a clip of the Cody-Drew break-up last week. Drew proposed to Cody that they work together to get rid of MVP, then fight it out like men afterward. That seemed to work for Cody. They both turned to MVP. After a minute, though, Drew yanked the top rope down as Cody ran toward it, so Cody fell to the floor. Drew attacked him at ringside and they cut to a break. [c]

Cole defended Drew, saying you have to step on people's toes in WWE to get ahead. Cody re-entered the ring and missile dropkicked Drew as he had MVP in an armlock. Cody worked over MVP for a while, then fought Drew at ringside, throwing him against the ringside barrier. Cody climbed to the top rope, but Drew yanked him off balance.

[Q5]

At 10:00 MVP joined Drew in superplexing Cody to the mat. MVP covered Drew for a near fall. MVP shifted over to Cody for a two count, also. Drew set up MVP for a Future Shock DDT, but Cody intervened. MVP tossed Cody out of the ring and then charged at Drew with a boot to the face and the win.

WINNER: MVP in 12:00.

STAR RATING: **1/2

KELLER'S REAX: That worked well for what it set out to accomplish. MVP gets a solid win and the Cody-Drew feud heats up, although I'm not sure fans care about who comes out on top between those two.

4 -- KAITLYN vs. VICKIE GUERRERO

QUOTE: Matt Striker: "We all know 'I do' is essentially the longest sentence in the English language." This shouldn't be pretty, but can it be worse than Velvet Sky vs. Sarita on Impact on Thursday? Vickie bailed out seconds into the match after getting hit. Cole stood up and asked her if she was okay. Kaitlyn leaped off the ring apron and hit Vickie from behind, then threw her back into the ring. QUOTE: Cole: "If we let this match go any longer we might end up on DotCom like NXT is." Cole shouldn't joke about that given the disappointing start and downward trajectory of the ratings so far for this show on SyFy. Grisham said the crowd was sending a message with their silence. Cole said this is what WWE is all about. Well, that's often true. Vickie scored a pin with her feet on the bottom rope for added leverage. QUOTE: Grisham: "It was a Match of the Year candidate, no doubt about it." Cole said, sarcastically (we hope): "That was awesome." That was awful, but probably better than Sky-Sarita only because this was played for laughs where Sky-Sarita failed in an attempt to be a real-looking fight between title contenders.

WINNER: Guerrero in 3:00.

-A video package aired on how fantastic celebrities believe WWE is, the same video that aired on Raw in which suspiciously all the celebrities said almost the same thing in their soundbites: Professional, Cordial, Down-to-Earth, Good Environment, Family. Dennis Miller needs to quit smiling like that. I don't trust people who smile like that. He and Nancy Pelosi should have a smiling contest. My money would be on Miller to last longer before breaking.

[Q5] [c]

-Cole said it's so cool celebrities bring their families to WWE. Grisham plugged "Stand Up For WWE" on the DotCom. Striker plugged the TV main event tag match. [c]

-They showed MVP and Kaval backstage comparing zippers. Kelly Kelly congratulated MVP backstage for his win. Nexus then jumped MVP and Kaval and beat them down.

5 -- CHRIS MASTERS vs. TYLER REX

This is Smackdown, not Superstars, right? They took it to the floor early. Rex held Masters on the mat, but Masters flipped onto Rex a minute later for a quick two count. Rex blocked a Masterlock attempt at 3:00. Rex lifted Masters into a torture rack position and then flip slammed him to the mat Attitude Adjustment style for the win. Cole keeps talking about Smackdown wrestlers as a foreign entity, saying to Grisham and Cole, "You guys have a real gem here in Rex." Is Cole not a part of Smackdown yet after all of these weeks?

WINNER: Rex in 3:00.

-Grisham plugged the ten-man tag match. [c]

-Nexus's ring entrance took place.

[Q7]

-The rest of the ring intros took place one at a time. Kofi replaced the fallen Mysterio. Kane's was the last ring entrance. Grisham hyped it as the "biggest tag team match in Smackdown history." [c]

6 -- NEXUS vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO & KOFI KINGSTON & EDGE & BIG SHOW

Striker said that many people call Gabriel the "spark of Nexus." Name one person. Does Husky owe his WWE career to Roy Nelson, his virtual UFC mirror image? Random action early with various pairings except no Show or Kane.

[Q8]

Edge tagged in Show at 3:00. He smashed Slater in the corner, then tagged in Kofi. He whipped Kofi into Slater in the corner. Kofi mounted Slater and punched him and then dropped him with an uppercut, adding a nice zip of energy to the match. Del Rio walked out on his team because Big Show bounced against the top rope and knocked him off the apron to the floor. They cut to a break. [c]

Kofi launched a charging Slater onto Husty and Gabriel at ringside. Kofi then dove onto all three of them and McGillicutty at ringside. Slater knocked Kofi off the ring apron a moment later, sending him into the announce table. Gabriel settled into a chinlock on Kofi at 12:00. Striker began siding a bit with Nexus over bringing intensity and competition to Smackdown. Kofi hot-tagged Kane at 14:00. It seemed they missed hands, but it counted anyway. Kane stepped up to Otunga, who tried to talk himself out of being hit. Kane hit him anyway, then hit each member of Nexus. The evil nasty Kane is now being positioned as someone to cheer, even if just for a moment. Crazy. Kane hit Otunga with his top rope clothesline and then set up a chokeslam. Nexus attacked Kane, but Show cleared the ring of all but Otunga. Kane then chokeslammed Show, thinking Show hit him, not Nexus. Edge tagged Kane's arm as Kane lifted it to signal for a chokeslam. Edge went for a spear on Otunga, but Otunga moved. Kane went for a chokeslam, but Edge ducked it and speared Kane. He also speared Otunga for the win.

WINNERS: Edge & Co. in 16:00.

STAR RATING: **1/2 -- What you'd anticipate in this setting with those wrestlers.

KELLER'S REAX: The finish made sense, giving Edge some momentum and "a moment" with Kane headed into Survivor Series where he challenges Kane for the title. The whole situation of Kane being put in a sympathetic position is just strange and really undercuts any sense that what he did to Undertaker is more serious than most things that happen in WWE.

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