Five Things We Learned From The 12/7/12 Edition of Smackdown

FILE PHOTO: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 15: CM Punk wrestles Shelton Benjamin during WWE Smackdown at Acer Arena on June 15, 2008 in Sydney, Australia.

Well, Smackdown was the same as usual. Good matches and little story progression. We saw some stale promos with Sheamus and Big Show, some great matches with Orton, Barrett, Sheamus, and Del Rio, and we learned a few things about TLC and WWE in general.

CM Punk will not compete at TLCAlthough this story was made available to the public on Tuesday, a lot of the more casual fans have just learned about CM Punk’s exclusion from the December PPV due to a recent knee surgery. My thoughts? Although it kinda sucks that there won’t be a WWE Championship match OR a WWE Champion at TLC, WWE made the right move. CM Punk has been penciled in to face the Rock since Raw 1000, and risking a more serious injury at TLC that could stop this hyped match from happening would be bad news for the WWE.

Damien Sandow looks to be the Miz’s first face feudTonight on Smackdown, the amazing Damien Sandow did his running gag where he tries to find an apprentice. He picked a fan *cough* actor *cough* out of the crowd, and preceded to give them the ol’ Holy Grail skit, asking them 2 easy question and 1 difficult one, and then sending the “stupid” fan on their way. But this time was a little different, as the Miz interrupted the Intellectual Savior of the Masses. Miz did what good guy Miz has been doing for the past few weeks. He said a few lame jokes, and left. Although the segment didn’t give any momentum to either Miz of Sandow, it’s clear that these two will be facing off at TLC.

Alberto Del Rio can do a MoonsaultSince when could ADR do a Moonsault? Seriously though, those Moonsaults were pretty slick.

R-Truth’s character is getting staleLet’s be honest, R-Truth was 2000000x better as heel. R-Truth, as talented as he is, has been stuck with a child-catering, repetitive, unbelievable gimmick, and his promos show that. This is basically the format for an R-Truth promo: “What’s up!? USA! USA! USA! Little Jimmy doesn’t like you!”. Tell me none of those things were in Truth’s promos from the last few weeks.

Dean Ambrose is a starDean Ambrose is the flat-out best thing in the Shield. Seth Rollins you are amazing, and Roman Reigns, you are, um, good? But Dean Ambrose on his mic skills alone is ready for the big time, and at TLC we’ll see if his in-ring ability is on par with his mic skills (spoiler alert: they are).