Credit Kaleb Wiginton and Prowrestling.net:
Attendance notes: The top part of the first bowl was covered, and the second bowl on the hard camera side were completely covered. Everything not covered was packed. There were roughly 4,000-5,000 fans in attendance.
Michael Cole came out to little reaction. JBL came out to a little bit better reaction.
John Cena came out to a monster pop to kick off the show. He hyped the last Smackdown of the year and said we were responsible to kick off the new year. He made stupid jokes about New Year’s resolutions. This is going to be a long two hours. He did some square root and came up with a rematch for the title for the world title tonight. Out came The Shield and they put the boots to Cena. Mark Henry came to make the save and got outnumbered, so obviously Big E Langston came out to even the odds. Once The Shield were cleared, Kane came out to book Ambrose vs. Big E, Roman Reigns vs. Mark Henry, and Seth Rollins vs. Cena tonight. I think I lost an eyebrow, Kane’s fire is ridiculously hot.
1. Luke Harper and Erick Rowan (w/Bray Wyatt) defeated The Uso Brothers. The Uso’s fire killed my other eyebrow. Total squash for the Wyatt’s in 1:15. Bray hit Sister Abigail after the match to end the segment.
Randy cut a promo backstage. He said his resolution was to retire champ and induct himself into the Hall of Fame. Dolph Ziggler popped up and said his resolution was to shut him up. Kane showed up and booked the match and pimped a safe working environment backstage, but he said not so much out in the ring.
2. Antonio Cesaro (w/Jack Swagger, Zeb Colter) defeated Cody Rhodes (w/Goldust) . Cesaro rolled up a distracted Cody for the win in 4:00.
3. The Prime Time Players defeated Curtis Axel and Ryback. The PTP won in 5:00. No one cared.
4. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton defeated Dolph Ziggler. Orton STILL has the titles that would never be together again. Mixed to borderline cheering for Orton. Very small reaction for Ziggler. Has Ziggler always had Pink in his hair? Corpus started a You Can’t Wrestle chant at Ziggler, which proves once again they don’t know what real wrestling is. Ziggler hit the Fameasser for a close fall. Randy hit the RKO for the win at 13:30. Orton hit Ziggler after the match with the belt, beat him around the ring, and sent him into the timekeeper area.
Orton almost left, but came back and did the hanging DDT off the the padding. Even after all that, he was still getting cheered.
The Shield cut a backstage promo, saying nothing changes.
Bryan came out to huge chants of yes. I take back everything I said Corpus.
5. Daniel Bryan beat Damien Sandow. There was a video recap of what happened to Sandow at Christmas Raw. Watching all the “highlights” of Christmas Raw made me lose any desire of watching next Monday. Bryan hit a running knee to win at 3:30. Cue the Wyatt’s. Bray said he was a god to close the promo.
6. Big E Langston (w/John Cena, Mark Henry) beat Dean Ambrose (w/Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins) . Big E started strong, but Ambrose quickly took over. Ambrose went up top and got caught. More dissension between Ambrose and Reigns led to Ambrose hitting the Big Ending in 2:30.
7. Roman Reigns (w/Ambrose, Rollins) beat Mark Henry (w/Cena, Langston) . Henry dominated early. Reigns hit a Samoan drop into the spear for the win in 4:00.
8. John Cena (w/Langston, Henry) defeated Seth Rollins (w/Ambrose, Reigns) . Pay-per-view quality and easily match of the night. Rollins countered the AA for a very close pinfall. Cena then hit an extremely close pin fall. Everyone thought it was over. Cena pulled out a powerbomb and Rollins kicked out. Rollins hit a shining wizard for another close fall. Cena finally hit the AA for the win in 17:00. The babyfaces celebrated to end the taping.
Dark Match
1. John Cena defeated Randy Orton by DQ in a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match. Orton hit Cena with the belt to be DQ’d in 5:00. Orton missed the punt and Cena hit the AA to send the kiddos home happy.
Biggest Pops
1. Cena
2. Bryan.
3. Henry
Notes: There is a pre-sale for the March 16 live show is Corpus that runs until 10:00 pm tomorrow. A good night of wrestling.
100% DIRECT LINK (PHOTOS): AJ Lee At Age 14! **MUST-SEE**!!!!!!