Some of us were in agreement to keep the TV tapings spoilers in a separate thread from the gossip spoilers thread so as to allow people to follow the speculation stuff but still be able to watch the TV episodes without getting them all spoiled. Obviously the mods are welcome to overrule this if they want to and re-merge the content, but with this week's Smackdown spoilers out, I figured I'd put them in a new thread.
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SMACKDOWN SPOILERS 12/23

Booker T had the biggest pop so far at the TV taping and Michaeal Cole got the most boos yet.

Big Show came out to cut a promo about working hard to get the World Title back. When he mentioned Daniel Bryan, it was met with a mixed reaction. They cut to a clip from Raw of Josh Mathews asking him if he was mad about losing the title, to which Show said he was proud. Mark Henry came out to boos and cut a promo on how Show should be mad and quit wrestling. Henry demanded his re-match right before Daniel Bryan came out. He said he wasn’t big or strong, but he is the champion. Show and Henry argued over who got a re-match and Teddy Long came out to announce they would fight tonight to determine the number one contender.

(1) U.S. champion Zack Ryder beat IC champion Cody Rhodes via the Rough Ryder after Booker T distracted Cody by singing Cody the Red Nosed Reindeer. The crowd was behind Zack, and also firmly behind Booker. The match started somewhat cold and ended really hot.

After the match, Santino was in Teddy Long’s office applying to be Assistant to the GM. Aksana interrupted, then Vickie Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler came in. Dolph asked for a match with Daniel Bryan, and, of course, Teddy obliged.

Big Show vs Henry was next, but David Otunga came out and said the match couldn’t happen because Henry wasn’t cleared to wrestle. Big Show then hit Otunga with the WMD to end the segment. Coffee spilled all over the canvas from Otunga’s coffee mug.

Teddy Long was shown walking when The Miz showed up to ask what he was doing tonight. He also bragged about how many PPV main events he’d been in. He told Teddy he would interrupt the show and wait in the ring until Teddy found someone for him to wrestle.

The Miz then came to the ring and stood there. He threw to clips of him beating up R-Truth and John Morrison. After taunting the locker room, Sheamus came out to wrestle him to a big pop. The best sign I saw was “I’m dreaming of a (Great) White Shea-mas.”

(2) Sheamus beat The Miz. Sheamus won with a Brogue Kick after Miz broke out of a High Cross.

Wade Barrett then came out to to heavy boos and cut a promo about the Barrett Barrage and his victories over Randy Orton, not mentioning the loss at TLC. After he wished the crowd a “happy Christmas,” he left the ring and Orton came out to attack him. They didn’t fight in the ring, but opted for a backstage brawl. Orton eventually beat Barrett down enough to end the segment.

Primo and Epico then came to the ring and, after an extended dance from Rosa, so did Air Boom.

(3) WWE tag champion Kofi Kingston (w/Evan Bourne) beat Primo (w/Epico and Rosa Mendes). The crowd was really into this match and even started a “Primo Sucks” chant. It was a fun match between the two high-flyers. Kofi won with Trouble in Paradise and celebrated in the ring with Bourne.

(4) World Hvt. champion Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero) went to a No Contest. D-Bry and the Zig-Zag Man put on a great show with some great spots. They really are the future of the business. Jack Swagger came out during the match and leveled Bryan while Vickie distracted the ref. After that, Big Show came out to cheer on Bryan and make sure Swagger was under control. Bryan and Ziggler were stellar in the match, and the crowd went along for the ride. After a few minutes, Show and Swagger ended up in the ring, with Show almost chokeslamming Swagger. Teddy Long then came out and turned it into a tag match.

(5) World Hvt. champion Daniel Bryan & Big Show beat Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger (w/Vickie Guerrero). Swagger and Show started off the tag match and the crowd was pretty excited to see Show wrestle. All four guys put on a pretty exciting match, with some great spots and a good rhythm. At one point, Ziggler flew out of the ring and started selling his knee. Swagger put Bryan in the anklelock, which he reversed into the LeBell Lock for the win. That ended the Smackdown taping.
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Everyone can guess what I think of the matches they gave away, but I'm sure the wrestling itself this week is awesome.

Holonaminnit playa, we gonna turn this awesome match in to a tag match with Swags and Big Slow. That'll put asses in the seats.

Tonight's spoilers for Friday's SD episode:

* Booker T opens the show with an in-ring promo. He thanks the fans for all the support this year, but is interrupted by Cody Rhodes. Cody insults the fans, then turns his attention to Booker, saying that his career in the ring is over. Goldust comes out without any makeup in a suit, and warns Cody not to insult legends. Cody begins talking down to Goldust, but Booker defends him and challenges Cody to a rematch for the Intercontinental Title next week. Booker then exited the ring and Cody attacked Goldust. Booker ran back to save Goldust.

* Jinder Mahal b. Ted DiBiase with a Camel Clutch

* Drew McIntyre interrupts a Teddy Long/Aksana segment. Drew announces that he is back on Smackdown, but Teddy says that he thinks Drew has lost his passion for wrestling. He says that if he loses tonight, he may have to start looking for new work.

* Alicia Fox & Kaitlyn b. Natalya & Tamina. After the match, Tamina turned on Natalya, attacking her with a superkick and a Superfly splash.

* Daniel Bryan & AJ appear to cut a short promo, but Big Show interrupts and tells Bryan that giants like him don’t need to be saved. Teddy Long comes out to the ramp and announces that Big Show will face David Otunga tonight, and Mark Henry will be in his corner. He then says that maybe Big Show will need Bryan’s saving after all.

* Hunico b. Justin Gabriel

* The Big Show b. David Otunga. Mid-match, Daniel Bryan ran to the ring and attacked Mark Henry with his World Heavyweight Championship. Henry then chased Bryan to the back.

* Ezekiel Jackson b. Drew McIntyre

* Sheamus cuts a promo in the ring about winning the upcoming Royal Rumble. Hornswoggle then comes out and Sheamus asks him who will win the Rumble. Hornswoggle says himself. He is then interrupted by Heath Slater, who tells Sheamus that his dreams will never be realized. Sheamus tosses Slater over the top rope. Lilian Garcia announces that Slater will face Sheamus tonight.

* Sheamus b. Heath Slater

* Big Show and Daniel Bryan speak with Teddy Long. Bryan says that he’s become Show’s good luck charm, but Show says he’s tired of Bryan trying to help him. Long announces that Show will face Bryan next week for the World Heavyweight Title.

* Randy Orton faced Wade Barrett in a Falls Count Anywhere match. The match went backstage and at one point, their brawl went into an elevator. The match ended when Barrett threw Orton down a flight of stairs.

Orton apparently injured after being thrown down the stairs. Could be bad. I'm not sure they would have put Barrett over in that match if that hadn't happened, so this might work out very well for him. If Orton can get back in 2-3 months then they've got a ready-made match there at WM for him.

I think there is a chance its a work. I hope Orton is out 6-12 months. Then he wont be as stale lol

* Alicia Fox & Kaitlyn b. Natalya & Tamina. After the match, Tamina turned on Natalya, attacking her with a superkick and a Superfly splash.

Lol, that is so dumb. OK, lets count the things that are wrong:
1, Kaitlyn isnt teaming with AJ, but she is a face so she didnt have that heel turn breaking up with AJ (if she did it was on one of the lesser programs anyway so who cares?). I mean she has to be a face cos she is working with Fox.
2, Kaitlyn doesnt have any reason to dislike Natalya or Tamina, nor does Fox have any reason to turn to her. BUT, AJ does have legit beef with Nattie who turned her inside out the last two times they wrestled and like Kaitlyn she was turned on by Nattie way back when the Divas of Destruction were formed. So presumably Fox was like "i need a tag partner" and instead of former Divas champs Eve and K2 she chose K1?
3, I thought Tamina was a face. But in any case, Tamina has no reason to be working with Nattie as they have no past history nor does she have past history with Fox or Kaitlyn, though i have seen Tamina lose a singles match to AJ on Superstars. Long story short, why is she included and not Beth who is facing Fox at the Royal Rumble and is strongly allied with Nattie?
4, Tamina turned on Nattie, but she is a face, or is now a face, i dunno, long story short the heel should always turn on the face and god damn if Nattie doesnt need some cheap heat considering she is a career jobber
5, has Nattie won a match since forming the Divas of Destruction? To a similar note, what is her motivation of teaming with Beth at this point? "We are going to prove that there is no place in wrestling for models who beat me every single show". Ive never particularly understood the Divas of Destruction, their message was never clear, but at the same time Nattie's part in it made zero sense.

Sure, considering it will be a 2 minute match i shouldnt have spent 10 minutes thinking and writing about that match. But jesus, how about a little logical consistency across the board?

I'm pretty sure Tamina has been a heel as of late, but they just kind of flip her around from one side or the other based on what they need for that episode. Much like Alicia Fox, who I don't think ever did anything to face turn but randomly started allying with faces, they mostly don't bother even having these divas turn. They just say "**** it, whatever" and team/ally them with whoever suits them. The whole thing is a mess.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure Kaitlyn turned on AJ and joined Beth and Nattie at a Smackdown taping, but then it never aired. So, in WWE's world, that means it didn't happen.

Yeah, a quick trip to YouTube and here it is.

Alicia face turned when she got new music. Like, im not sure that is even sarcasm. If she goes back to the old music watch out for her turning on Eve, lol.

PA-PA-PA-PA-PARTY!

Great name for a song, or greatest name for a song?

Awwww, poor AJ in that video

Weird, im guessing McCool signed a contract at the time and so they held off on Kaitlyn to bring Michelle in or something like that? Im pretty sure that recent tweet from Layla about the WWE becoming flawless again which was reported as her teasing a return is actually her teasing a return of Michelle.

I watched SD! on the tubes today. Despite SD having better writing than RAW in general, I just can't seem to get behind most of these guys. Cody promo was great, the D-Bry/Show/Henry stuff was done pretty well, and I thoroughly enjoyed the Barrett/Orton match before its abrupt ending, but after that.........man.

Whereas on RAW the midcard is pretty strong and I at least like watching the interactions of Ziggler, Ryder, Swagger, Air Boom, Miz, Truth and the ME stuff with Cena, Punk, etc is at least worth talking about (good or bad), the whole SD! scene beyond the above (and Sheamus, though not today) is abysmal. Jinder sucks, Dibiase is awful at everything, face or heel, the Diva stuff on SD is even more pointless than on RAW, don't care about Slater/Gabriel, Hunico lost the appeal he had when they turned him into generic cholo #498 riding lowrider bicycles (wtf). I'm not sure why I should care about Drew getting 'fired' since AFAIK he has been on my TV like twice this year? It's just a black hole of intrigue, where any interest I had just gets collapsed into nothingness. If SD was an hour long, and it just cut out all this ****, it'd be amazing.

Also, **** Hornswaggle.

This week's Smackdown:

1) Cody Rhodes def. Booker T to retain the Intercontinental Title. This said to be a very good and lengthy opener, Cody winning with the Beautiful Disaster after blocking the axe kick attempt.

Backstage segment with Cody and Dustin Rhodes where Cody says he is better than Goldust ever was and one day he will be better than their father Dusty. WWE seem to be slowly moving Cody Rhodes into a program with Goldust.

Zack Ryder is backstage and says he is too busy to work for Teddy Long. Drew McIntyre comes in, followed by Santino Marella. Teddy makes a match between Drew and Santino where if Santino wins he will become Teddy Long’s new assistant and Drew will be fired. If Drew wins, Teddy might not fire him. Sucks to be Drew. Aksana appears at the end.

Another backstage segment with Alicia Fox and AJ Lee. World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan came in to talk about his title defence tonight against Big Show.

2) Hornswoggle won an Over the Top Challenge against Heath Slater. Once again Slater’s incredible losing streak after his wellness policy suspension continues and against Hornswoggle of all people. After the match, Slater attacked Hornswoggle until Justin Gabriel made the save.

3) Hunico def. Ted DiBiase

Wade Barrett comes to the ring and says he is going to win the Royal Rumble while Randy Orton watches at home. Sheamus comes out and interrupts and says he is going to win the Rumble. Jinder Mahal comes out next and is joined by Wade Barrett in a beat down on Sheamus, who fights back before getting hit by Barrett’s finisher and the Camel Clutch by Mahal.

Sheamus vs. Jinder Mahal announced for next week’s show.

4) Santino Marella def. Drew McIntyre to become the new Assistant to General Manager Theodore Long. Presumably Drew McIntyre is now fired.

5) Primo & Epico def. Air Boom in a non-title match.

6) Tamina def. Natalya in a squash match. Poor Natalya.

7) Daniel Bryan def. Big Show by DQ to retain his World Heavyweight Title when Mark Henry interfered.

WTF is this ****. One of these kids is not like the other ones.

Obv Racist ban

Yeah, Sheamus is a lot whiter than the other two.

They moved Drew back to SmackDown just so they could have an angle where he gets fired? WTF? Sucks to be him. Gotta hope this is part of a bigger angle where he gets pushed somehow.

Not sure where those spoilers are from but the Drew M. part is wrong and lol @ presuming something from the outcome of something on a WWE show anyway. Courtesy of WON:

There was also allegedly a segment showing a clip from WWE '12 of Michael Cole beating Daniel Bryan for the WHC. I assume Cole screaming over that will be a lot of fun to watch and not at all blueboyaids! Speaking of small people who are aids:

holy lord lol.

Also AJ has an actual match on FCW this week! Read that it sucked badly but she at least shows up and does stuff and gets a roll-up win.

It appears to me like they're recycling MVP's face turn of a few years ago.

don't we already have one of these threads?

This is way worse though. The segment with Teddy last week was arguably the dumbest promo I have ever heard on Smackdown. Teddy basically buried everything and everyone *including himself* when he admitted he signed Drew to Smackdown without knowing that he made a lot of money. He also buried Smackdown as a show when he conceded it was the B-show and Drew couldn't make it on the main show. It was unreal lolwat if you have not seen it.

Pretty sure Drew has been fired from Smackdown before.

As for Slater, sucks to be him, but he was never getting pushed as a serious contender so meh. At least Tyson Kidd isnt getting Hornswoggled this year though he doesnt seem to be getting many bonus payments for being on TV either.

Going for a DQ finish on the title match makes sense, im sure it will be fine on TV, but they should have gone for a Bryan win imo to really start the ball rolling on a heel turn from Show. Presumably this sets up a triple threat at the RR?

Smackdown Tapings/Spoilers

* Daniel Bryan opens the show with a promo. Mark Henry interrupts him and announces that he is banned from ringside in tonight’s World Heavyweight Championship match against The Big Show, but he wants a title shot next week.

* Justin Gabriel b. Heath Slater

* Drew McIntyre is talking to Teddy Long in his office. Long reminds Drew that last week was Strike 2, and if Drew loses again tonight, he will consider firing him. Drew leaves as Aksana walks in.

* Cody Rhodes b. Ezekiel Jackson. Rhodes stared Booker T down from the ring after the match.

* Cody Rhodes and Goldust have a short backstage segment in which Goldust tells Cody he doesn’t have any respect.

* Ted DiBiase b. Drew McIntyre. Hunico and Camacho were on commentary during the match.

* Sheamus b. Jinder Mahal

* David Otunga b. Santino Marella

* Brodus Clay b. Tyson Kidd in a squash.

* Drew McIntyre is outside Teddy Long‘s office. He considers walking in, but stops himself and walks away.

* Tamina b. Natalya

* Wade Barrett came to the ring and cut a promo on taking out Randy Orton. Sheamus interrupts and challenges him to a match next week.

* The main event is Daniel Bryan vs. The Big Show for the World Heavyweight Championship. AJ was ringside in support of Bryan. Big Show inadvertently hit AJ with the WMD after Bryan dodged it and ended up being taken out on a stretcher. The match then ended in a no contest and Bryan accompanied AJ up the ramp.

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All pretty standard until the main event. With AJ taking the WMD there are two ways they can play it (ive no idea which they did). Either Bryan goes First Blood on Show for what he did to AJ who is canonically his g/f or he shrugs it off as the title is more important.

I also think they can begin turning the crowd on Big Show at this point. If they move Bryan away and onto Henry (if he is healthy already its interesting news, i suspect he wont get that shot next week though for some reason) using the move as a punishment of Big Slow for hitting AJ he can take umbrage with it playing it off either as "she shouldnt have been there" or "he shouldnt have ducked" or something like that.

Im really interested to see what the next chapter in the Bryan turn is. I think repeatedly keeping his title due to DQs and no contests against guys like Big Slow and Henry but having really strong performances against guys like Kofi and Cody is really smart booking as it tells the story going into WM where it directly sums up Bryan's confidence level at the various levels of competition. He thinks he is better than all the midcarders, but he doesnt think he is a main eventer yet, something which his promos tend to back up.

Having Orton go over at the Rumble, do the stare down with Bryan on Smackdown with some promos as he dodges a couple more big challenges from guys like Sheamus and then he gets a really dominating performance in the Elimination Chamber then they begin to ramp it up towards WM with his confidence rising directly related to him turning in the weeks running up as the crowd solidly start to turn on him due to their backing of Orton - im genuinely excited for how this story could turn out, even if its not quite like what i hope.

Big Show hitting AJ is actually pretty promising news. When was the last time the WWE allowed any sort of intergender violence on TV. I can't even remember. Even if it is inadvertant, this is huge.

Also, I really like the looks of that Smackdown. Lots of standard wrestling matches it seems like, and I think the story in the main event is going to be solid. I'm sure after Big Show hit AJ he felt terrible in kayfabe, and it makes the no contest believable.

I'm looking forward to that part the most. Sounds new and interesting.

kane just raped eve not 2 days ago