This week's SmackDown episode was jam-packed with some great wrestling action. All three members of The Shield were in singles' competition, plus three matches that have never taken place before. 'We Fight on Friday Nights' is a fitting description for this week's excellent edition of SmackDown!
The Shield's Seth Rollins was in action for the opening contest of the night when he battled Kane. This match was hot on the heels of The Shield's triumph over Team Hell No to win the Tag Team Titles. There was a terrific contrast in the styles between Rollins and Kane, and it was evident that Rollins would try and use his quickness to outwit The Big Red Monster. However, Kane's brutality saw fit to restrict Rollins for the time being, before Rollins exploited damage to Kane's leg. Rollins was persistent in damaging Kane's leg to ground The Big Red Monster - but neither of these factors would ultimately decide the match. It was the outside interference from Roman Reigns, as he distracted Kane on the apron. Kane turned around to a kick from Rollins, before the referee's attention was turned to Reigns. When Seth Rollins ascended the turnbuckle, Daniel Bryan pushed him off, and Kane hit the Chokeslam on Rollins to score an important victory of which left Roman Reigns irate with Bryan's actions. Conveniently for both, Reigns and Daniel Bryan were in action straight after.
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| Seth Rollins exploited Kane's leg injuries to his advantage. Image Courtesy: WWE.com |
Roman Reigns came out angry with intent to damage Bryan, but then he found himself on the other end of Bryan's momentum, as The Master of the NO Lock let some frustration out on Reigns, powered by his own thoughts of him thinking he is the weak link of Team Hell No. Bryan would eventually lose some steam as Reigns used his power to gain a threshold in the match, but as Bryan got back into it, he had Roman Reigns in the NO! Lock. Reigns had to drag himself a big distance to reach the ropes, and he was assisted by his team member, Seth Rollins who pushed the rope towards Reigns so he could grab it and break the submission. Kane ran at Rollins and hit him with a thunderous boot, before Reigns hit Kane. Kane responded back by hitting Reigns, and this was in full vision of the referee who disqualified Daniel Bryan, giving Reigns the win. A series of unfortunate events for Bryan left him with a loss, and even worse there was intense arguing between Team Hell No, a sight of which only we had seen during the start of the reign, one of which could be the beginning of the end for Team Hell No.
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| Daniel Bryan lands an amazing drop kick on Reigns in the corner. Image Courtesy: WWE.com |
Damien Sandow was the host of another mental challenge as he addressed the crowd in Edmonton, Alberta. This time he had the challenge of which there was one ball, with three cups, and after moving the cups one would select the cup that they think the ball is in. Sheamus stepped up to the challenge. He was confident in his ways, but later found out he was wrong and failed the challenge, that was until it was revealed that Sandow had cheated to make Sheamus look bad, and did not put the ball in any of the cups. An action to the disarray of Sheamus resulted in the Celtic Warrior delivering a Brogue Kick to Sandow.
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| "You're Welcome" - Sheamus mocks Sandow after delivering the Brogue Kick. Image Courtesy: WWE.com |
Curtis Axel continued his momentum with an impressive performance against Sin Cara. In a repeat match from last week's SmackDown, Curtis Axel was to score a victory in relatively quick time. Sin Cara began the match with some advantages using his high-flying style to control the match, but this effort by far was not enough to defy Axel's hunger for success. When Sin Cara had it all going, he bounced off the ropes for what would be a flying elbow, but instead, Axel saw it coming and clotheslined him in the back of the head. Axel followed this up, paying homage to his late father, the Hall of Famer, Mr. Perfect with a Perfectplex, putting Sin Cara away. Curtis Axel is quickly solidifying a bright future in the WWE, and coming off wins over John Cena and Triple H, more is yet to come.
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| Curtis Axel nails the Perfectplex on Sin Cara, paying homage to the late great Mr. Perfect. Image Courtesy: WWE.com |
Big E Langston and Alberto Del Rio went head-to-head for the fourth time in two weeks. With Del Rio winning the so-called Rubber Match on RAW, Langston was looking for vengeance over Del Rio. AJ - who many thought was reponsible for Langston's loss - still accompanied the powerhouse ringside, but did not engage in the match early on. Langston showed he is a developing talent with a lot of potential, as he threw Del Rio like a ragdoll around the ring. Del Rio managed to escape what could have been the finish when he hit the backbreaker. When Del Rio was on the outside of the ring, AJ Lee came and raked his eyes, before Langston, unaware, took advantage as he smacked Del Rio's head of the ring post. He followed this up with his finisher move, and pinned the #1 contender. Impressive display by Langston but who failed to acknowledge AJ Lee's assist.
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| Langston finishes Del Rio after AJ Lee's assist. Image Courtesy: WWE.com |
Ryback showed the World that he was ready for John Cena at Payback. For the first time ever, Ryback went one-on-one with Captain of the Boom Squad, Kofi Kingston. Kingston came out fast - in fact too fast for Ryback's liking, and he struggled to deal with the frenzy of Kofi. The WWE Universe were feeling the adrenaline rush as Kofi Kingston had Ryback in a bad way, but this flux of momentum was to draw to an abrupt halt, when Ryback caught Kofi Kingston. He followed it up with a thunderous Meat-Hook Clothesline, before putting him away with the ShellShocked finisher. Even though Ryback scored the win, he was not done. Ryback wanted to send a message to John Cena, and he did so by smashing Kofi Kingston through tables not once, not twice, but three times. His demolishing attack on Kofi Kingston left him in a bad way, Kingston was not moving and WWE.com had reported that Kofi will be out for 6-8 weeks following the savage attack. Ryback had shown the World what could be coming John Cena's way at Payback.
This week's RAW was the post Payback
show and It was one of the best episodes of Raw in recent memory. 
