Ryback joins Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus, Kane, Randy Orton and the rest of the Smackdown crew

* The feud between Intercontinental champion Big Show and Cody Rhodes seems poised to continue. Big Show once again showed pictures of their match at WrestleMania before his match with Heath Slater. The match was a squash and a set up for the post-match angle, which saw Show call Rhodes to the ring, knock out Slater and scare the former champ to the back. This was the smart play at this point in the game, to keep the two physically separated for a while. Hopefully they have a blow-off match at Extreme Rules and both men move onto better things.

* Laurinaitis' plans to punish Nikki Bella, who supported Long, backfired as she defeated Divas champion Beth Phoenix in a non-title match because of a distraction from Kelly Kelly. Laurinaitis gave Brie Bella, who supported his team, the night off. Nikki Bella still seemed to playing the role of a heel, so it will be interested to see if the oft-teased Bella break-up will actually become a reality this time around.

* My hopes that Laurinaitis' victory at WrestleMania would be the last we saw of Long seem to be going unfulfilled. Under threat of losing his grandkids' college trust fund, Long admitted Laurinaitis is better than him (it's the truth) and accepted an unspecified job in his foe's administration. I would much prefer if Long rode off into the sunset, as this seems to be setting up some embarrassing segments of Long doing backstage chores in the coming weeks.

* Smackdown next week will air live Tuesday night and feature a "Blast from the Past" theme. The commercial said nothing like this has ever been done before. Did we forget about that "old-school" episode of Raw a year or two ago?

Match Rundown

David Otunga and Mark Henry d. R-Truth

Randy Orton d. Kane in a no-disqualification match

Ryback d. Barry Stevens

Big Show d. Heath Slater

Nikki Bella d. Beth Phoenix

Alberto Del Rio d. Sheamus via disqualification

My Take

Friday night's episode of Smackdown was a strong follow up to an exceptionally good Raw. Coming out of WrestleMania, the show featured two really strong matches in Kane vs. Orton and Sheamus vs. Del Rio and planted early seeds toward Extreme Rules feuds, both new and continuing. This has been a strong week for WWE, and I'm hoping they can continue to ride the momentum.

Ring Posts’ Adam Testa has teamed up with My 1-2-3 Cents and All American Pro Wrestling to bring you "From the Rafters Radio," a weekly pro wrestling talk radio show airing on Monster Radio 1150 AM in Southern Illinois and streaming worldwide on wggh.net.