Alberto Del Rio

This year I've had the opporrtunity to enjoy all the action from Los Angeles in the days leading up to Summerslam 2012. Here are the tidbits I have collected from several WWE Superstars: Stephanie McMahon gives an interesting answer on whether or not she will return to WWE TV. Wade Barrett  says he is 99 percent healed from injury and details the character changes we can expect when he returns to WWE TV. Antonio Cesaro...

If Paramount Pictures is searching for the perfect new summer blockbuster, they may want to take a look at "The Curious Case of Alberto Del Rio. " After failing to defeat Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship at Money in the Bank, many believed -- and several hoped -- Del Rio's time in the title picture had come to a close. Randy Orton was returning from injury, bringing back another legitimate main event star and filling a void at the top of the card. But WWE showed it wasn't quite done with the Del Rio experiment yet. Del Rio defeated Rey Mysterio soundly, earned a rematch for the world title and declared he was above the competition and wouldn't compete until his next world title match at SummerSlam.

By this point, it seems like beating a dead horse to say there's a lack of depth at the top of the card in WWE. But it's a statement that remains true and was evidenced by tonight's Smackdown, in which a new No. 1 contender for Sheamus' World Heavyweight title was named. Four superstars -- Rey Mysterio, Alberto Del Rio, Kane and Daniel Bryan -- competed in a fatal four-way match to determine The Great White's top challenger. That's a lot of talent in the ring, and it paid off with a good match that Del Rio won, but there's a deeper-seated problem.

Tag-team wrestling has become a lost art in the WWE. There was a period where tag-team wrestling dominated the landscape, and duos like the Hardy brothers, the Dudleys and Edge and Christian would steal any show they were on. Those days are long gone. Now, fans just ask for there to be some semblance of attention and focus given to the tag-team division. And in recent weeks, there has been some sense of promise on the horizon, as WWE has been reminding fans there are more than two tag teams on the roster.

Money in the Bank is a pay-per-view that can help change the landscape of WWE for the remainder of the year. This year's installment featured two Money in the Bank ladder matches, two title matches and a number of additional unannounced matches. In the end, both champions retained their titles, and new -- yet familiar -- challengers have emerged. Here's a match-by-match look at the show: Pre-Show Match Tag Team Championship R-Truth and Kofi Kingston (c)

A disappointing trend has been developing in WWE in recent months. Rather than actually using television programs like Raw and Smackdown to build undercard matches for pay-per-views, the company has been announcing minimal matches and then having "surprise" contests on the monthly showcases. This strategy wouldn't be so bad if the surprise additions were matches of any consequence or interest. Instead, they wind up being standard-fare squash matches. just as fans see for free on weekly television.

The Money in the Bank pay-per-view has quickly become an event on WWE's events calendar that fans greatly look forward to. What started as a match at WrestleManiabecame a match that could be counted on to consistently provide excitement, if not steal the show on the grandest stage of them all, so much so that it became its own event in 2010. Much like the Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank is a speciality match with something important at stake and happens only once a year. Unlike the Royal Rumble, the winners of the Money in the Bank ladder match aren't typically elevated in status by the win in the long term.

The card for next month's No Way Out pay-per-view continued to take shape after Friday night's episode of Smackdown, but recent events have parts of the show left with question marks. Alberto Del Rio defeated Randy Orton and Kane in a triple threat match to be crowned the No. 1 contender to the Sheamus' World Heavyweight Championship. But it is the other two participants in that match that are at the center of the most interesting scenarios leading into the next PPV event.

Alberto Del Rio, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton and World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus will all battle in a Fatal 4-Way for the gold at the Over The Limit pay-per-view. On Smackdown, a tag match between Orton/Sheamus and Jericho/Del Rio disintegrated into singles matchups later in the night - Orton defeated Del Rio by disqualification and Sheamus and Jericho got interrupted by Del Rio. The show had these four as a focal point as a push for the upcoming pay-per-view. I personally wasn't thoroughly entertained by their interaction on Smackdown.

Post-WrestleMania is usually the beginning of a new fiscal calendar in WWE, where many things start fresh. While that may not necessarily be the case as it pertains to rivalries (this year there were four WrestleMania rematches at Extreme Rules, tying the record set in 2010), it seems to be the case when it comes to fresh faces and new ideas being implemented on WWE programming. Extreme Rules was a perfect example: subtle nuances such as a slight increase by the commentary team of calling moves and holds (and Michael Cole shedding most of his heel persona)