Thoughts on WWE Smackdown: July 29th 2011

Photo: WWE.com

This week on WWE Smackdown:

• Triple H announced the return to Smackdown of John Morrison and R-Truth and their matches against Christian and Randy Orton respectively.
• Triple H appointed Zack Ryder as assistant to the Smackdown GM
• Christian def. John Morrison
• Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes & Tamina def. Natalya, Kaitlyn & AJ
• Mark Henry def. Bobby Howard
• New Nexus def. Usos to defend the Tag-Titles
• Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase def. Ezekiel Jackson
• R-Truth def. Randy Orton via DQ

Some quick thoughts on this weeks edition of Smackdown. I must admit I wasn't expecting much from this show, especially given the two very strong episodes of IMPACT Wrestling and RAW that we received this week. But I must say the much needed addition of some new faces, really did freshen up the show and I was positively surprised by this weeks episode.

The show did open with a rather repetitive feel as far as Christian being in the opening segment and being surprised with a match after the first break, but it being against John Morrison was at least something new and held some anticipation, not to mention it was easily the match of the night.

Regarding some of the lesser plot lines, I thought the addition of Zack Ryder as Teddy Long's assistant was a master-stroke, it gives Ryder some TV exposure and there's just endless amounts of comedy material to work with.

I was also surprised to see the inclusion of the Mark Henry "squash" match over jobber Bobby Howard. I'm not a fan of Mark Henry and will never really be interested in much of what he does, but they did a great job in reminding us just how effective a good old fashioned squash match can be when building a monster heel.

The Orton vs. Truth main event was passable and the finish was understandable given that their trying to portray Orton as a guy who goes off the handle very easily and thus will have nothing to get in his was come the NO DQ match with Christian, but come on - does anyone really care to see these two face each other AGAIN?

Well folks, thanks for reading. As ever, any questions, comments or opinion in relation to this post, feel free to drop me a line at raymullan@gmail.com or alternatively tweet me via @raymullan.