A Hot Crowd Makes For A Hot Segment

Smackdown kicked off this week with Daniel Bryan returning to the same arena he announced his retirement in almost a year ago and delivering an emotional promo before being interrupted by The Miz. It is still amazing how Bryan is probably the most over guy in the company (except for maybe Goldberg) and when this was combined with a hometown crowd, the energy in this segment was palpable. I was foolishly hoping that Bryan would announce he’d fight one more match at Mania against Miz once he interrupted him as I can’t see any other payoff here to their feud but regardless, Miz and Daniel Bryan going at it is still entertaining even if I feel like the Miz is slightly buried every time Bryan suggests he can’t wrestle.

Baron Corbin, Dean Ambrose, and Aj Styles all subsequently enter one by one and the four Superstars all banter while Daniel Bryan gets in an occasional line of his own. All five men here really shine and even if for a little, you forget how apparent the small size of the Smackdown roster has become in the past few months. The best moment here came from Aj Styles getting so much love from the crowd that he had to address them and in doing so, came off as flustered and made the crowd love him more. This man is a heel solely by necessity and the sooner he can embrace the face role, the better.

This gathering eventually led to the match which would follow, a Fatal Four Way between the four competitors.

Overall Score: 5/5

Baron Corbin’s Surprising Win

This was a really fun match with plenty of spots that made the participants look good. I especially enjoyed when The Miz, Ambrose, and Styles all attempted quick pins in a sequence. Corbin surprisingly got the win after delivering The End of Days on Styles and pinning him clean. Corbin is now firmly a serious threat of main event caliber and his rise in skill in the past year make this a warranted transition out of the mid-card. Hopefully, the Elimination Chamber will do what it should on Sunday and expand on a match like this and steal the show.

Overall Score: 5/5

Luke Harper Finally Realizes His Potential?

I’ve asserted for a while now that Luke Harper is far more talented than people give him credit and this stellar promo further helped my case. Illuminated solely by a hanging light in traditional fashion, Harper called out Orton for being a liar and stealing his family from him with both intensity and calmness. This pseudo sibling rivalry is really compelling stuff and easily the most well executed long running story in WWE right now, even if the Wyatts held the tag belts for far too short of a time, making the storyline feel a bit rushed. Harper’s comment about not wanting to simply cut the head off the Viper but make him suffer was a great way of incorporating darkness without pushing for a TV-14 rating. Although I can’t quite see Harper as a singles star yet due to how tethered he is to Bray Wyatt, I’m very excited to see where this storyline goes next and happy to see Harper taking on Orton this Sunday.

Overall Score: 5/5

And Now For Something Completely Different…

Whereas everything up until this point has been compelling, intense, and well written, this is where the show begins to fall apart slightly. Tom Phillips (the best commentator on Smackdown who isn’t a commentator for some reason) interviews Natalya and Nikki Bella simultaneously over satellite due to the intensity of their feud and it quickly dissolves into the same old garbage these two have been saying for weeks. I genuinely appreciate how they are continuously finding new ways to get these two to insult each other (interviews, hijacked microphones, etc.) but the fact that this whole feud is just over Natalya accusing Nikki Bella of succeeding based on her looks and dating John Cena is so steeped in the trends of the old way women were treated in WWE that it is hard to take this seriously. I don’t know if the whole feud is supposed to allow Nikki Bella to prove what WWE perceives as common criticisms against her wrong but if anything it just makes me dislike both these characters and wish that Natalya’s talents were being used somewhere worthwhile for once.

Overall Score: 1/5

The Downward Spiral Continues

Next, Apollo Crews takes on Dolph Ziggler to settle their problems which arose since Ziggler became heel a few weeks back. Crews rolls up Ziggler for the win in barely 2 minutes and Ziggler begins beating Crews up with a chair to get his heat back before Kalisto comes out to save the walking smile machine that is Apollo Crews. None of these characters are particularly interesting with Dolph being the most compelling only because he recently turned heel. The segment ends with Ziggler standing tall and the crowd literally chanting for him to continue beating up Crews (the face here). I understand the need for a mid-card feud heading into Elimination Chamber but that doesn’t excuse the lack of driving forces here beyond “Face helping out heel cause he’s mad”

Overall Score: 2/5

Nobody Wins

As Ziggler goes backstage, Daniel Bryan confronts him and tries to figure out what the hell he is doing. Ziggler asserts he could take on both Crew and Kalisto at the same time and Bryan takes him at his word and makes that exact match for Elimination Chamber. I have a huge problem with this match which others have already expressed online themselves: nobody wins in this match. If Dolph ends up winning, Kalisto and Crews are gonna look incredibly weak but if Kalisto and Crews win they aren’t gonna look special themselves cause they just beat a man two to one. Handicap matches should be made between competitors that are overwhelming forces and Dolph is not that, especially when he just lost to Crews with a rollup.

Overall Score: 2/5

An Uphill Battle

At this point in Smackdown, the show has gone from extremely strong to incredibly poor and a contract signing isn’t usually the greatest segment thus I had little hope in this dual contract signing. I was happy to be proven wrong. Mickie James and Alexa Bliss come out first before Becky Lynch and Naomi follow to sign contracts for their respective matches on Sunday. Every woman gets a chance to shine here and for a bit, I forgot about the terrible woman’s segment prior. James resenting Lynch for seemingly forgetting her legacy and Bliss intentionally bringing up how irrelevant Naomi has been for months only to be shut down right away by Naomi clearly making the most of her first time in the title picture in a long time and subsequently kicking her in the head. Although Lynch and Naomi stood tall here, I’m unsure whether they will win on Sunday or not as Smackdown is apt to make surprising calls. James however, needs a win as she has already lost twice (in tag matches though, not eating the pin) and needs to make an impression in this division as she hasn’t done so already since debuting a few weeks back.

Overall Score: 4/5

Speaking of Smackdown Surprises…

A 6-man tag match follows to hype up the tag title match this Sunday and it was typical fare. I was happy to see the oft forgotten Vaudevillains get some spotlight and the real shocker came from Viktor of The Ascension getting the win by pinning the “Man Beast” Rhyno. Considering the Ascension were once the most dominant team in NXT and have languished on the main roster, here is hoping they are on their way to becoming a threat again as I don’t think they are totally a lost cause yet.

Overall Score: 3/5

Cena vs. Orton Part XXII

John Cena took on Royal Rumble winner Randy Orton in what was their 22nd televised singles match in 15 years. As much as WWE wants to push that these two had a rivalry on par with Hogan and Savage, the WWE universe has clearly seen this matchup enough but this isn’t to say this match wasn’t interesting. The added Wyatt family dynamic helped and the fact that I hadn’t seen these two face off in more than 10 years kept me interested and despite Cena getting the win, the way it happened was mired in enough interference (bordering on being overbooked) that it’s hard to say that Orton didn’t still come out looking good. It doesn’t hurt that Orton and Cena’s finishers are some of the most iconic in the company right now and this match had plenty of those.

Overall Score: 4/5

Average Total Score: 3/5

It’s a shame that despite beginning and ending with stellar segments, Smackdown was still just an average show given the crap in the middle. In addition, while Elimination Chamber will have some interesting matches, there really should’ve been more buildup than what we have gotten but I guess that’s the downfall of this new PPV model.

Winner this week: Monday Night Raw

Despite both shows tying this week in terms of average total score, I’m gonna say that Raw won as although there were less 5/5 segments total, at least the show was of a consistently good quality. Smackdown could have had a hell of a show on their hands but got bogged down in a terrible, out of date women segment and a boring mid card feud.

Til next time,

Lucas