Smackdown Live Review: August 30th

Hello! Yep, there's Reviews on back-to-back days again. Hopefully you didn't die of the withdrawal symptoms after the two week gap. I'll say right off the bat, this is probably the closest week that RAW and Smackdown's had in-terms of judging which show was better. For the simple reason that you could rank either as the better show and you wouldn't be wrong in doing so. RAW had the big angle with Triple H and Owens winning the Title, as well as a few other things like Bayley and New Day- but on the whole the show wasn't all that without the main event angle. On the other hand, Smackdown was a really solid show throughout as has become the norm- but it didn't really have that one big moment that RAW did. As I said, you can really just take your pick. As I've already said it was a really solid show throughout, I might as well just get into the Review.

The Miz & Dolph Ziggler Opening Segment
I wasn't really sure how they would, and really how they could follow up on that Miz promo on Talking Smack last week. The simple fact is, Miz is too good of a heel to turn babyface- even in an "anti-hero" type way. Also, having Daniel Bryan involved in a feud would be directly contradictory to what they said Smackdown would be about in-terms of it not being about the authority figures. So in short, they couldn't really do much beyond acknowledging Miz's promo and moving on.

The Ziggler/Miz angle is an interesting one, for the simple fact that both have got a bit of an edge to their characters back in recent times. I actually have reasonably high hopes for the Miz/Ziggler feud despite the fact we've seen it a few times already because of that fact. The segment itself was pretty good. I would've preferred to just let Miz "go" on his own, especially after the promo on Talking Smack- but the simple fact is that Backlash is just over a week away and they needed to give the IC Title match some sort of build.

The Hype Bros v The Vaudevillains
The thing I took from this segment is the fact that Aiden English is 6'3. That genuinely surprised me. The match wasn't really much, The Hype Bros won to the surprise of nobody- and we swiftly moved on.

AJ Styles & Apollo Crews Backstage Segment
It could just be wishful thinking, but I can see a scenario where Apollo Crews uses this "my name is" type gimmick he's ended up with after Bryan's Apollo Creed botch and turn heel with it. I can already picture Crews just violently attacking someone either demanding that they say his name or spelling his name out with each punch. The point basically, is that there's a lot of potential in the immediate term with Apollo if they just go for it.

AJ's so great in the role he's playing now that it seems just stupid that they had AJ as a Babyface for as long as they did, and this segment wasn't an exception.

AJ Styles v Apollo Crews
In case you've all forgotten my almost standard review for these types of matches, this was a good match- but did anyone really expect anything else? The one thing I wish we'd have gotten is AJ going "full Cena". He's doing the "Never Give Up" headband gimmick, but I want him to take it further, doing the 5 Moves of Doom, he could even do the Attitude Adjustment. In general I liked this match, Crews looked alright in defeat and AJ obviously got the win he was going to get given the fact he's challenging for the WWE Title in less than 2 weeks time.

Renee Young "Meets the Slaters"
This was a weird segment to me. I personally didn't laugh at it. It's not that I didn't like the segment, and it got a few smiles out of me- especially when Rhyno did the sad face on the cracker thing. I just didn't find it overly funny, and while I understand it to an extent some of the times where there was supposedly an "awkward silence" just fell flat to me and made it feel as though they were unnecessarily dragging the segment out.

It does have to be said that these sort of segments are exactly why a lot of people prefer Smackdown, and why when the Draft happened I said it was too early to say either side had "won" the Draft. Smackdown primarily has done a great job building up Heath Slater of all people, which means it's a good time to quote what I said in my Draft Review;

"I've seen a lot of people talking about the Rosters and whether RAW or Smackdown "won" the Draft, which to be honest I don't really understand. It's Wrestling, if it was an actual competitive sport fair enough- but in Wrestling it doesn't really matter who got the "better deal" because it's now the job of the brand that supposedly "lost" the Draft to put all of their efforts into building their supposed "lesser talent"."

So without wanting to say I was right, all of the people who were saying Smackdown got the raw end of the deal in the Draft that are now preferring Smackdown were wrong weren't they? Especially headed into September and the return of the NFL/Monday Night Football and I believe one of the Presidential Debates is on a Monday, Smackdown could potentially end up beating RAW while putting on better shows as well.

Bray Wyatt's "sermon for the serpent"
This is the sort of segment where people who claim to be unbiased reviewers show their bias. Personally, I prefer a build where nobody is shouting and going really OTT- which is why I really liked this segment and really just like Bray Wyatt in general. I really liked this segment, and I really like this feud. The one thing I will say is I'm not really sure about who will "win" this feud- or even if it'll be a proper feud and not a one-off match.

I say that because my theory on Brock is that he's going to work the "big four" PPV's with the extra emphasis on them now, and Survivor Series is going to creep up on us pretty quickly. As a result Brock needs a feud, and given how close they came to doing it at Mania supposedly- Bray/Brock could very well be the feud they go with and they could use the Randy/Brock rematch to set it up if they end up putting it on the Network (although I don't think they are at this moment in time).

Alexa Bliss & Natalya v Becky Lynch & Naomi
Firstly, I hope Naomi going away from the body-suit she's been wearing is a one off- because that was so much better for her entrance than what she wore last night. I'm not usually one to critique wardrobe choices, especially after my pleas for Summer Rae to get fluffy boots while she was with Breeze fell on deaf ears. However, this one is something that needs to said.

The match was a pretty standard women's tag, which I think says a lot in-terms about the match when considering the bar set for said matches. Nikki on commentary wasn't "mute my TV" bad, the Heels got the win after Carmella attacked Nikki and that's all that can really be said about it. I will say I'm dreading Nikki's seemingly inevitable run as the first Smackdown Women's Champion. I say inevitable because with Total Bellas on the horizon it's a certainty in my mind that she wins, which is a shame because I'd say about 99% of people would rather Becky. There's a chance that the Nikki/Carmella thing costs Nikki the Title at Backlash and that branches off into the secondary women's feud on Smackdown- but I just can't see it.

Rhyno & Heath Slater v The Headbangers
Imagine saying this match would happen even a few weeks ago. The notable thing is obviously the fact that Rhyno somehow ended up in a situation where he needed 8 stitches, and I've got literally no idea how he done it. The match was pretty standard, and Rhyno and Heath won as expected. This is my first review since the Tournament was announced so I couldn't predict the opening round, but I think all of the outcomes were pretty safe bets.

For the rest of the Tournament I'll predict;
American Alpha beat The Usos
Rhyno & Slater beat The Hype Bros

Rhyno & Slater beat American Alpha with interference and a heel turn from The Usos

Kane attacks Gary "The Milkman" Millman
This almost seemed like a parody of all of the squash matches that RAW's been doing. It was just absolutely ridiculous, but I did like it. Seeing as it got scrolled on Talking Smack, I can only assume WWE's Social Media guy agrees with me- I was expecting a debut in this spot.

With Alberto Del Rio being off, Smackdown has a roster spot free. The Dudleys left and Bayley came in to replace them- and I'm expecting a similar exchange with Del Rio. So in short, I was expecting someone like Samoa Joe to show up and just destroy The Milkman. As I said in the tweet that got scrolled "... but nope, just Kane".

Baron Corbin v Dean Ambrose
The fact that they felt the need to protect Baron Corbin from taking a pin against Dean Ambrose says a lot for their plans for Corbin. Maybe not in the immediate term with the tease of the Kane feud, but don't be surprised to see Corbin rocket up the card before we reach 2017.

The match was pretty good, and I thought Ambrose worked quite well against Corbin. My main criticism of the Ambrose/Ziggler match was the dynamics just seemed off, and it pretty much killed the crowd as a result. The problem with the dynamic was that Ambrose works best in his current position when he's playing the "underdog" which didn't really fit with the story they were telling. So in this respect, Ambrose was back in his comfort zone with wrestling Corbin given the obvious size difference.

I'm not sure what to make of the show ending with AJ crotching the top rope, just because it was played off as comedy when the feud's for a WWE Title match which is just over a week away. People who regularly read these Reviews will know I've not got a problem with some wacky comedy, but it just seemed out of place in this scenario. You've just got AJ Styles who's beaten John Cena clean at Summerslam and they're doing comedy with him to build up a Title match.

As I said right at the start of this review, your preference whether it be RAW or Smackdown this week is entirely right regardless of which one you pick. Personally I preferred Smackdown, just because I value the show as a whole as opposed to having a few good moments mixed in with some bad and a lot of "meh".

Thanks for reading as always. The Reviews are back now, so hopefully you'll keep coming back after their absence in the last few weeks. There will of course be Backlash Predictions and the subsequent Review coming next week so keep an eye out for those as well. Thanks again for reading, hopefully you have a good rest of your week and may your above ground pools be filled without problem by your local fire department.

RAW Review: August 29th

Hello! Yes, the Reviews are finally back. It's been a long time between Reviews, but I'm sure most of you were aware by following me on Twitter that I was actually in America for the Summerslam weekend which basically made the Reviews impossible. Anyway, I'm back in England now- so that means the Reviews are also back. Before we jump into last night though, it's probably a good idea to give my general thoughts about Summerslam weekend. In short, Takeover was great, Summerslam was good but way, way too long and RAW was kind of "meh". One of the highlights of the weekend of course being witnessing Finn Balor's entire run as Universal Champion, and the Universal Title was the focus of last night- so without further ado let's get reviewin'.

Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Big Cass Opening Segment
I really liked this segment. I'm over the whole format of RAW with the guaranteed 20 Minute promo to kick things off, but I don't write them off because they've happened- and last night was definitely at the higher end of the scale when it comes to quality of the opening segments we've had in recent times. Cass had that one great line directed at Seth, Seth did well with what he had, Roman looked really good in the segment- but the star of the segment by far was Kevin Owens. He was just so great, from his promo, to his mannerisms to his off-mic shit-talking. Owens made this segment, without a shadow of a doubt.

Chris Jericho v Neville
The fact Jericho was paired with Neville last night and we're 3 weeks away from the Cruiserweight Division becoming a "thing" has given me some hope when it comes to my idea of Jericho having a run as the "Original Cruiserweight" out to bury all the young guys. The finish feeds into that as well, what with Jericho going over. I doubt it, but I could be onto something you never know. Although with the Main Event I think it's more likely Jericho ends up a lot higher up on the card, even if it's in a "living vicariously through my child Kevin Owens" sort of role.

The match was quite good, without ever pushing the barrier to get beyond that categorisation. In short, this was a pretty standard RAW match- but there's nothing wrong with that. It was good to see the Liontamer make an appearance as well, even with Cole calling it the Liontamer.

Bayley meets The New Day
The portrayal of Bayley in this segment as basically someone on their first day of school complete with rucksack was funny to me, but it also did work in-terms of being the right way for Bayley to come off. Pairing Bayley with New Day wasn't necessarily what I would have done, but it was without a doubt a smart position to put Bayley in when thinking about how to get Bayley over with the supposed "casual" non-NXT watching crowd.

Nia Jax v Hyan
Nia's squash matches just don't have quite the same impact as Braun's do. If they were smart about it, they'd be going out of their way to find the smallest women possible for Nia to kill- but instead they've just got her squashing generic looking girls every time. I'm interested to see how Nia's booked in the immediate future, because the title picture's going to be occupied by Charlotte, Bayley and Sasha for a while- but the fact they've already cut down on Nia's squash matches to every other week isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of her.

Dana Brooke, Gallows & Anderson Promo
I won't make the porn jokes I've seen a lot of other people make. What I will say is that this is up there as one of the weirdest pairings in WWE history.

Sami Zayn v Jinder Mahal
I've got no idea where this injury angle with Sami's going to end up going. Just off the top of my head, Jack Swagger does the Ankle Lock. It's not looking great for Sami at the moment is it? Doing an injury angle that probably won't lead anywhere and having competitive matches with Jinder Mahal. Although that is quite disrespectful to Jinder, because last night was his first loss on RAW since his return.

Bayley & The New Day v Dana Brooke, Gallows & Anderson
This was a really fun match, and the perfect way to really establish Bayley on the Main Roster after her debut last week. The only thing they really did wrong from start to finish was it looked like they mis-timed the Tube Men in that they inflated too early. I joked that I wished Gallows and Anderson popped one of the Tube Men, and when someone eventually does that the heat is going to really be something else. This whole segment just simply worked, and that's the best thing to say about it given what the purpose of the segment was- which was to get Bayley over with the crowd and look like a threat to Charlotte.

Also, if you haven't seen the New Day & Bayley backstage interview from after the show- watch it. There's a reference to a certain Jamaican character who's best year was 2009 that's quite funny.

Sheamus v Cesaro- Match 2 of the Best of 7 Series
My interest in this series of matches is pretty minimal. Everyone knows that these two can have good matches with each other, and to me, sometimes "just" having a good match isn't enough. Especially in this "era" of RAW where we're pretty much guaranteed 2-3 good matches every week.

It's with all that said, that I say this was a good match. I'm hoping they just switch things up a bit for one or two of the matches. Say for the next match if they're working the injury angle with Cesaro, Sheamus just Brogue Kicks him right off the bat and wins quickly. Or flip it, for one of the later matches when Cesaro's doing his comeback after going 3-0 down in the series he runs at Sheamus, Uppercuts him into the corner and hits the Neutraliser straight away. There's ways to elevate this series beyond "just" an excuse for these two to wrestle each other and have good matches 7 times.

At least the series is actually for something now in that they've said it's for a Universal Title shot.

Braun Strowman v Americo
I'd noticed a pattern over the last month or so, that they were alternating the "squash match" spot between Braun and Nia. I tweeted about my theory on them not being on the same show anymore last night, so of course they were both on last night's show. This was basically the standard Strowman squash. Braun ripping the mask off was a nice touch though.

Paul Heyman & Stephanie McMahon Promo Segment
I was quite tired by this point, and I've been a bit ill the last few days. But can anyone tell me what this segment actually accomplished? This segment was literally just Heyman coming out with a big wad of cash, Stephanie threatening Paul, Paul apologising and Steph going "okay" and walking off.

I was expecting a sort of almost comedic "apology" segment with Steph and Heyman where Heyman would apologise for Brock attacking Shane in the most insincere way possible and Steph would reply in the most insincere way possible and it would have that kind of vibe to it. Especially after they did the gimmick where Brock was "fined" $500. As it is, I'm not quite sure what we got.

Darren Young v Titus O'Neil
Titus' promo weirdly ended up being one of the highlights of the Summerslam long weekend, but then I remembered that this feud was a thing and it all fell apart. This feud is still a thing, and I think that's the worst criticism I can bestow upon it. I'm just completely beyond caring to be blunt. The worst part is, because of the finish and what happened after with Titus getting his non-existent "heat" back it likely means this isn't even over yet.

Kevin Owens v Seth Rollins v Roman Reigns v Big Cass- Universal Title
It's best to start with the finish and Kevin Owens winning. The one thing I'm wondering is whether Triple H would've been aligning with Finn had Finn stayed healthy. I say that because it's pretty common knowledge that Finn was Triple H's "guy" in NXT, while Rollins was Triple H's "guy" on the Main Roster- at least on TV. I haven't really seen that brought up, so I thought I'd at least throw it out there and get a couple of you to think about it.

I've been expecting a Triple H turn on Rollins pretty much since Rollins returned, and even toward the back end of Seth's run before he got hurt. So to say this came as a surprise to me would be a lie, but that's not taking away from just how much I loved this finish. If you had to criticise it you'd say it served to primarily put Triple H over given the fact it was his finish that put Roman and Seth away- but to me it's a non-issue because it fit the story they put and are going to put over in the coming weeks.

I thought the match was really well done, especially building up to the finish of the match. They kept Rusev off the whole show, presumably with this match in mind and everyone expecting him to fuck Roman out of the Title. That worked really well, because I think that's what most people were expecting and it made Triple H's appearance even more of a surprise. So overall I just really liked this match, and I'm interested to see what happens next. I think that's the biggest victory RAW had last night. Their best RAW by far was the one right after the Draft, but a lot of the good stuff that happened was sort of an "instant gratification" type thing like Sasha winning the Title. There wasn't a lot they could really do with it storyline wise. This on the other hand has left the whole Title picture and the dynamics of basically every Main Event guy up in the air.

Overall I really enjoyed last night. As is the case with every 3 Hour RAW it had high points and low points, but the high points this week were good enough to outweigh the low ones. It did feel a bit dragged out, but it's the same as the first Smackdown after the Draft where they packed so many of the "top guy" into the Main Event that the rest of the show suffered from it. RAW also needed this sort of moment with the NFL and Monday Night Football coming back in September, because Smackdown could potentially be beating RAW pretty soon.

Speaking of Smackdown, hopefully you'll be tagging along on Twitter tonight for Smackdown and the fall-out to the best promo in god knows how long from The Miz. The review of said fall-out and more will be up tomorrow so hopefully you stay tuned for that. Thanks for reading as always, the reviews are back baybay!

Preston v Fulham Review: Slavisa's Black & White Army

3 wins out of 3, 6 points out of 6, 3 Goals scored and only 1 conceded in the league. What has Jokanovic done to my Fulham eh? I do have to laugh that Preston were involved in our last little unbeaten run at the back end of last season, and if we beat Leeds on Tuesday they'll have been the "middle game" of us winning 3 out of 3 in the league again. The 2-1 win back in April really set us on our way to survival, and while I'm not getting my hopes up (yet) the win today has really given some belief both to me and I'm sure the players that last Friday wasn't a one-off performance and we could be capable of really doing something this season.

We didn't have everything go our way today, I think that's pretty safe to say. However, when we had our backs to wall we didn't buckle under the pressure- which was basically our trademark last season. We more than did enough to get the 3 Points today in my opinion, and even if we didn't- it doesn't matter because we got the points on the board. This is a point I was making back in the latter stages of the 14/15 season when talking why I wanted Allardyce, I don't care how we win as long as we do win. If we go up to Leeds on Tuesday and produce the worst performance ever and scrape a 1-0, I'm perfectly fine with that. Every point counts, and us not conceding a second goal today could be a difference maker in April- you never know.

The reason I'm talking about not really caring how we win, is the fact both of our goals were pretty "fortunate" shall we say. I legitimately have no clue how the ball managed to reach Sone Aluko's head for our first. The ball was rebounding all over the place, and I think the ball was effectively smashed off McDonald and that turned into a looping cross that Aluko managed to turn in. It's one to watch on the Football League Show tonight. If we saw our Goal of the Season on Tuesday, this one may well be the last on the list in-terms of ranking them come May. There was nothing fortunate about Tom Cairney's build-up for our second goal. We all know what Cairney can do, and this was really a prime example of it. He was getting past Preston players for fun, and it was just a joy to watch. The fortunate part came when Cairney put Smith in and he hit it straight at Lindegaard first time around. If Lindegaard could've directed his save a bit more, or just got a bit lucky with it not going straight back to Smith then he'd have blown his chance.

The Preston goal was bit concerning, specifically when talking about Odoi. Odoi was great going forward and defensively for the most part last Friday without a doubt, but you can't ignore his incident early on where Ayoze Perez got in behind him and he could've been sent off just because he did a back flick to get past Dummett. This was a similar incident in that Odoi seemingly just got a bit lost and ended up next to the player Kalas was marking which meant the Preston player at the back post was completely unmarked and left Button helpless. It's not worth dwelling on when we've won, but it has to be said because on another day we may not be winning and it'll be brought a bit more to the forefront.

Unfortunately Button couldn't make it 2 Clean Sheets out of 2, but as I've already said he couldn't do much for Preston's goal. However, despite conceding I thought Button did quite well on the whole. He didn't really have much to do it does have to be said, but when called upon he did well- and it's good to see generally just how much Button talks to Madl and Kalas and just in general.

It's hard to really get an accurate representation of how good our defence is off the back of his game, just because of the lack of a threat from Preston in general. However, you can only play against the team in front of you- and I thought Kalas and Madl did really well today (again). It's just so weird to know we've got two Centre-Backs on the pitch that can actually do that weird foreign thing called "defending" isn't it? I will say that I've still got my concerns over the height of Kalas and Madl, and really the team in general- especially if other Managers see that all 3 goals we've conceded so far this season have been from crosses and try to exploit it.

Aside from his being at fault for the goal in my opinion, I thought Denis Odoi was quite solid. There weren't any ridiculous skill moves today, but he had a job to do and he did it for the most part. I can't help but think Odoi would be perfect as a Wing-Back when/if we go for a 3-at-the-back, because we will at some point of the season I'll happily put money on it. When talking about Preston's goal, an argument could perhaps be made about Malone getting beaten before the cross went in and Malone perhaps doing better- but personally I wouldn't put it on him. As with Odoi, I thought Malone was generally solid, in a much different role than the one he played last Friday in the sense that we had to really dig in today.

The only properly notable thing about Scott Parker's performance today was him missing a chance that really should have put us 3-1 up and made the last 10-15 Minutes relatively comfortable. I said this in the Orient Review, Parker is mostly remarkably unremarkable- but he's in the team to do a job and he did it. I will say I was surprised to see Parker starting today- but with the type of game it ended up being late on it was good to have him on. It's remarkable that Parker's managed two 90 Minute shifts in less than a week isn't it? I'm interested to see how we shape up on Tuesday now Jozabed's in the mix now, because the Parker/Tunnicliffe spot is the one most threatened in my opinion. Kevin McDonald's spot isn't threatened at all, and rightly so. He didn't have an "amazing" game today, but positional awareness wise he's one of our better players and he's just generally a bloody good player.

The trio of Cairney, Ayité and Aluko are going to be giving a lot of defences problems this season. Cairney's gone up a gear in these early stages of the season compared to what we saw last season in my opinion. That's not even a criticism of Cairney last season because he was still one of our better players, but in these first two games he's actively looking to beat men and just generally looks like more of a consistent attacking threat. You don't have to look further than the Smith goal for evidence of that, but his play in general was really good today and for me he's MOTM.

Stupid Yellow Card aside, Floyd Ayité's looking like he's got "Signing of the Season" potential after Newcastle and then today. I highlighted it last week, but it's worth repeating- Aluko and Ayité are so key to how we want to play that goals aren't the be all and end all with them. It's exactly why I was happy to see McCormack go, however good McCormack is- we couldn't play like we've done so far with McCormack in the team. Ayité's general play was just great, and it was good to see Ayité getting so much of the ball because it showed we'd done our homework in that Preston are struggling at Right-Back. While goals aren't the be all and end all, they definitely help, as we got with Aluko's goal today. As already said, the goal was pretty fortunate but it was still a good header under pressure for Aluko to get the goal- and then his build up play was really good in general. I didn't really have Aluko as a proper "#10", but I can't argue with results- and the 100% record so far this season speaks for itself.

I do find it quite funny that if any Striker for any other club had scored 2 in 2 they'd be a guaranteed starter, yet with Smith we're actively searching for a replacement. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, because despite him scoring 2 in 2 he's just not good enough to be starting every game. There's a role for him to play at the club without a doubt- but especially now we're looking like a proper team if we can just bring in a properly clinical Striker who fits the system our chances of pushing for Play-Offs will go up infinitely. With all that said, Smith did really well today. He scored one, in my opinion the goal he scored just before Half-Time should've stood (which balances out the Beckford one late on if he was on-side) and his hold-up play in particular was really good today and his going off caused a notable shift in the dynamic of the game. So basically, short-term this Smith form is great- long-term there's not a chance I want him starting every game.

The Subs Slavisa made today were mixed, although after my criticism of Tuesday it was good to see him use all three available to him. As I've already said, Smith's going off and being replaced by Woodrow caused the balances of the game to shift a little bit. I don't know if it was directly because we lost Smith or the fact that Preston went up a gear and were pressing us more- but our hold-up play was non-existent once Smith went off. Christensen was a good option to bring off the bench, and as I've said a few times his type of game is suited to the system we're playing- so I'd expect him to be used similarly going forward. Ream for Malone was basically just to waste time as much as anything else, but Ream's definitely more suited to Left-Back so I won't complain about him being used in the role he was used in today.

Make no mistake, today was not an amazing performance. We rode our luck at times, and especially 2nd Half we were second best for the majority. However, at all times we looked like a proper team with a sense of togetherness and commitment I haven't seen from a Fulham team for quite a while. We all know we're not going to win every game, nor do we expect to- but as long as I see a team that's committed to the cause and are putting 100% in every game I'm satisfied.

I'm absolutely determined to enjoy this while it lasts, because for the first time in over 3 years we've got a team that I can look at and get excited by. I think we all acknowledge that Play-Offs/Promotion are a step too far this season, but if we can keep an upward trajectory for the most part over the course of the season then we could have a really good foundation for a proper push next season. We've got a few immediate hurdles, namely getting more players in ASAP so we don't have (probably) the smallest squad in the league. There's no point setting deadlines on them though, Jozabed took a while but he's now over the line- and as long as we've got the required players in by September I'm happy.

Unfortunately, this Review is where I leave you for basically the next two weeks. I'm flying out to New York on Tuesday, and if there's no delays I should be arriving just as we kick-off against Leeds. I'll be missing the Leeds, Cardiff and Boro Reviews, so hopefully you don't miss me too much and there's still an unbeaten run to talk about when I get back. Thanks for reading as always, you could almost get used to this "winning" thing couldn't you?

Smackdown Live Review: August 9th

Hello! We're back at it for another review, and I'll just say this now. Smackdown was in fact better than RAW this week. I know that may be shocking after the 10/10 show RAW gave us, but it was in fact the case. The thing with Smackdown is, it's already ahead for most people simply by virtue of it being an hour shorter than RAW. It was a point I made last night, it's not impossible to have a good three hour raw. However, when we get a show like we did on Monday that's painfully average and just generally a "cold" show- the three hours magnifies it and just makes it worse than it really is in the eyes of the viewer. With all that said, Smackdown didn't have much to beat this week- so the only real question that needs to be answered is how much they could beat it by.

Randy Orton & Alberto Del Rio "cold open"
I've avoided reviewing these "cold open" segments since I started doing these Reviews just because they've not really been much other than a way to pop the crowd right off the bat by showing Daniel Bryan. However, we actually had something meaningful happen tonight- so here we are. I'm really curious to see how they book Del Rio in the next few months, because it'll give us a good indicator as to whether he's leaving in October or he's carrying on. I thought he was pretty good in this segment, and we may have had an early indicator with what happened in the match they were setting up here.

Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan, Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose Opening Segment
I was expecting a show very heavy on these guys, for the simple reason that the only other "big" angle they've got on Smackdown was visiting The Shire while the show was on last night. I do like the fact that Bray's promos are seemingly getting a bit clearer in-terms of what he says in relation to the angle he's in. He's still Bray Wyatt, but he's almost "dumbed it down" a bit- which is hit and miss for me because I like his promos when they're open to interpretation. Ambrose's promo was fine, if a bit generic- and then Dolph came out.

When Dolph hit the ring and we had the standard brawl to set-up a tag match, I was a bit "meh" towards it- which I'm sure you'd all agree is understandable. Then, when Bray had Ambrose set-up for Sister Abigail and he didn't do it I thought "great, they've fucked the timing up". But, this whole segment was worth it for Bray snapping Ambrose back up with the Abigail so he'd eat a Superkick from Dolph. That was a really cool spot, so fair play to whomever thought of doing it. Overall I really liked this segment. It doesn't make up for the complete idiocy that we had last week involving Bray though.

American Alpha v Mike Vega & Mikey O'Shea
We've now had three jobbers featured, and none of them have been plays on Conor McGregor. Call one of them Conor and the other one Greg, it's not that hard. I'm not into this sort of stuff usually, but I'm more interested to see the reaction to it rather than them actually doing it.

This segment accomplished two things. The first, it highlighted just how weak Smackdown's Tag Division is. We had American Alpha in the ring, when The Ascension, The Vaudevillains and The Hype Bros came out to "watch" the match. As I understand it, one of The Usos is injured, and given their lack of appearance I'm assuming Fabreeze were in New Zealand although I don't know. How shit is this Tag Division. It's amazing if you think about it.

The second thing it accomplished, was that it put American Alpha over really strong tonight. Which they needed, just to establish themselves as the "Alphas" of the Tag Division (see what I did there?). The problem American Alpha has, is that simply put- if they lose to any of the teams in the division any time soon they're dead. Because none of the teams, Fabreeze and Usos included have any credibility with the audience.

Miz & Maryse Backstage Interview
This segment was amazing. Miz and Maryse lying on the desk was just great. It amazed me that either Miz, Maryse or Renee didn't start corpsing at any point in the segment. Well, perhaps not Miz- he is an A-List Actor after all.

Eva Marie v Becky Lynch
Ladies & Gentleman, prepare for the review of the segment featuring the most stylish, elegant, bewitching, eternally beguiling, continuously charismatic and fantastically fascinating woman to appear in this or any other segment. Allow yourself to be seduced, enchanted, dazzled and entranced by All Red Everything herself Eva Marie.

I will never get sick of that introduction. If you'd have told me, or pretty much anyone a month ago that Eva Marie would've been one of the highlights of the week every week- chances are you'd be in a mental hospital. Yet here we are, and to borrow from a certain theme song it's glorious. I genuinely look forward to Eva's segments now, and I shall continue to do so for as long as she keeps this run going. I just can't wait for Eva's excuses every week to get wackier and wackier. She can stub her toe on the steps, break a nail, get an eyelash stuck in her eye, she gets lost in the building the possibilities really are endless. It's actually amazing that in an era where nobody is really a heel like they were in the "good ol' days", Eva Marie of all people manages to attract heat that barely anyone can. She's the 21st Century Heel.

I officially love Eva Marie. I have been seduced, enchanted, dazzled and entranced by All Red Everything herself Eva Marie.

Alexa Bliss v Becky Lynch
The match was alright, but that's really the best that can be said about it. I do think Alexa looked pretty good for her first showing on the main roster. The finish came when Eva's music hit, and we had her announcer tease doing her full introduction again- which had me in absolute hysterics. Also, it appears as though Eva's introduction is actually done live on the basis of last night. It's either that or they recorded a load of different sound clips at one time. It allowed Alexa to get the win, and I didn't realise just how happy I was that they stopped calling Alexa's finish the "Sparkle Splash" until she did it last night.

Imagine telling someone when the Draft happened that in a segment with Alexa, Becky and Eva that Eva would be the best thing about it. I said this last night and I'll say it again now, I genuinely think Eva's first match will be one where she wins the Women's Title.

Randy Orton v Alberto Del Rio
The one surprise, at least to me was that they felt the need to protect Del Rio by not having him take the pin. That was what I was referring to earlier when discussing how he's booked and how it may play in to Del Rio's "plans" in October and beyond. The match was pretty good. The only real problem is that neither of these two really go "all out" unless they have to, so you got the feeling that while it was a good match it undoubtedly could have been better.

The stuff with Del Rio working the arm over was good, because hopefully it means Brock going back to using Kimura's and not necessarily "abandoning" Suplex City, but going on a little holiday away- at least for a part of the match. The alternative is just Brock suplexing the fuck out of Randy and they play up how the Suplex's could fuck his shoulders up. Personally, I'm hoping for the former.

Heath Slater & Rhyno Backstage Segment 
I didn't really "get" this segment, beyond the stuff with Slater's number of kids magically changing in the space of about 30 seconds. But, the stuff with the pool is apparently because it's one of Rhyno's campaign points in Michigan. Anyway, this was just a fun little segment. I'm not sure how Rhyno showing compassion to someone in need would have affected his political standing with his constituents though.

Rhyno v Heath Slater
The match was pretty much what you'd have expected. It wasn't good or bad, it was just "a match". It was too soon and not in front of the right crowd realistically for Heath to win the contract, and I'd expect to get a similar angle on RAW with someone next week. I maintain that if they build this angle for a while and do the pay-off with the right crowd whether that's in Brooklyn in just over a week, or with one of the usual "smarky" crowds in the near future it should be a really good angle.

We of course had the thing a bit later on with Heath talking himself effectively talking himself out of  contract which was fun, and it should be a fun angle next week where he asks for it.

Carmella v Natalya
I still have absolutely no clue how Carmella was called up. It's not even a criticism of her, she just simply wasn't ready for it- and now she's just desperately trying to keep her ahead above water every time she's on TV. In that sense, they were smart to put her in with Nattie who's probably the easiest woman to work with in the company. The match wasn't really much, but that's probably better than I thought Carmella would do to be honest. Carmella got the win, which makes me happy because if nothing else it means Nattie's not likely to be featured prominently on TV like I was afraid she would. I genuinely prefer Eva to Nattie. Come at me.

Baron Corbin attacks Kalisto Backstage
This was fine for what it was. Corbin's usurped Ryback as the "Pre-Show Stopper", and funnily enough he's wrestling Kalisto presumably on said Pre-Show in just over a week's time.

Dolph Ziggler & Dean Ambrose v Bray Wyatt & Erick Rowan
After last week, you may perhaps be expecting another rant when it comes to how The Wyatts were fed to Dolph and Ambrose just to further their angle. I'm not going to do that actually, because as hypocritical as it may be I was fine with this match. Everyone looked pretty good in the match, Bray's Uranage onto the apron looked absolutely brutal- and Dolph pinned Rowan. This was pretty much exactly the booking you'd have expected, because it actually makes sense. I'll never bury booking when it makes sense.

After the match, we had Ambrose hit Dirty Deeds on Dolph. I'm not surprised by it, because it does fit the build. An alternative angle would've been to have Dolph or Ambrose leave the other to Bray, but I do think it was a good angle to end a good show on the whole.

I'm not really the best person to judge, because I was quite tired last night- but it did feel to me like Smackdown did drag a bit last night. Even then, it still didn't drag nearly as much as RAW did this week- and just for that fact alone it was the better show this week. With that said, I do think it was a pretty good show on the whole. Especially when considering the fact Smackdown had two of their "top guys" in New Zealand. They probably beat RAW in the ratings this week what with Slater's 27 Million kids watching as well.

Thanks for reading as always. Hopefully you're looking forward to Summerslam, I know I am considering the fact I'm going. Yup, I'm in New York next week. I actually fly out Tuesday Morning (BST) so I'll arrive in New York early afternoon. I'm not sure how the Reviews will work next week to be honest, so keep an eye out on Twitter starting next Tuesday. Thanks again for reading, hopefully you have a good rest of the week. I'm really looking forward to the CWC tonight, if the Ibushi/Alexander match is as good as it was said to be we've got another MOTY Contender on our hands. They'll all be blown out of the water when Eva finally wrestles though.

Leyton Orient v Fulham Review: Keeping It Difficult

It's never easy with Fulham is it? As soon as I saw the team, I thought that the game was going to be a close one- and that's what it ended up being. It didn't need to be one, but through a combination of fatigue, complacency and general inexperience we found ourselves in a proper game with 10 Minutes to go tonight. But, I would've taken going through no matter how we did so as soon as the team came out- so obviously I'm happy with the outcome and the confidence it should give some of our youth players who were on show tonight.

We don't want these goal sections to be talking about 1 goal in a 1-0 win, we want this section to be filled with defensive mistakes and goals galore. The Adeniran goal was actually a really good one. After last season where we were lucky to clear the first man from corners, we've now scored from a corner in both games so far this season- so whatever we've been doing over Pre-Season has definitely worked in that respect. It was a really good delivery, and an equally good header from Adeniran to get his first goal for the club. I tweeted this at the time, two years after we said goodbye to John Arne Riise- we've finally seen a "Riise" Free-Kick go in. Woodrow won't hit a ball better than that one for the rest of his career. It was just an absolutely sublime finish. Then Woodrow showed off some of his other talents with the 3rd goal, with him showing determination to keep pressure on the Orient player, win the ball off him and put it in the bottom right corner. All three goals tonight were good in different ways, and up to around the 60 Minute mark we were looking really good.

Then, I don't know if we got complacent- or the young players who were pressing really well tired but we just completely dropped off and let Orient get back into the game. Even then, we weren't outplayed for either of the Orient goals. The first one was from our old friend the corner, and the second was McCallum being smart and peeling off to the back post where he had the better of Kavanagh ten times out of ten. It was obviously concerning at the time, and it does highlight to me the need to sign a Centre-Back who's a bit taller- but still fits in Slavisa's system in-terms of being mobile and good on the ball. However, none of the back four that started tonight will do so up at Deepdale so it's not concerning enough to start worrying about it yet.

I thought Jesse Joronen had a pretty good game tonight, even with conceding two goals. He couldn't really do much for either goal, and on the whole I thought he was good when called upon- and with one exception he looked good coming out for crosses and generally making himself "big" in the box which was my main criticism of Lonergan last season.

As I've already said, none of the back four tonight will be starting at Deepdale- but for the first 60 Minutes they looked reasonably good up against the limited pressure Orient put on. Kavanagh was ridiculously out of position at Right-Back, but he coped reasonably well I thought. He obviously got caught out for Orient's second goal, but it's more the fault of Stearman for allowing him to peel off and create the mismatch rather than Kavanagh's lack of height that was the problem for said goal. Ryan Sessegnon looks like quite a player it has to be said. You can definitely tell why Arsenal among others are supposedly after him. He made the odd mistake tonight, but he's 16 and he didn't look at all out of place up against an Orient team you'd expect to try and "bully" our generally small team.

If there was one negative to draw from tonight, it was Tim Ream's performance. Orient barely offered anything until they scored. But even with the general lack of anything directly in-front of him, Ream tried his best at times to mess things up for us. There was one moment in the first half where Ream just kicked the air and let the Orient winger get a run on goal, and he just generally looked quite unsure of himself tonight. How did Kit possibly think the Stearman/Ream partnership was good enough to push for Play-Offs last season? I know I've said about Stearman's role in Orient's second goal, but I do think Stearman was alright on the whole. Without trying to disrespect Orient, we were playing Leyton Orient. The fact these two looked as uncertain as they did at times doesn't bode well for a hypothetical scenario where either Madl or Kalas get injured.

It's a shame Denis Adeniran went off really, because he was having a great game up until he went down seemingly with cramp. He obviously got his goal, but he was another like Sessegnon who didn't look at all out of place in the team. I was worried about him when he got his yellow for celebrating in the crowd, but he was smart with how he played and displayed composure way beyond his years with how he played the game on the whole. Someone who was playing to his years of experience was Scott Parker tonight. It was a typical Parker performance in all aspects really. It was remarkably unremarkable, but he was there in the Midfield as a calming influence and he did well in keeping possession and generally keeping our Midfield together- especially as Orient got back into it.

Tayo Edun was another debut tonight, and I thought he looked really good for about 70 or so minutes. His drop off toward the end of the game was actually a contributing factor to Orient's resurgence, just because he wasn't pressing as much as he was at the start of the game. I can only assume his legs started to feel it as the game progressed, which is understandable considering this was his first game at senior level. In the 1st Half, Christensen was the best player on the pitch- and it wasn't even close. He was basically getting free reign down the Right-Hand side and he was playing with the confidence and ability of the Christensen we saw when Kit first came in. Second-Half he just completely disappeared. I'm not even quite sure why, all I know is that he did.

Luca De La Torre was another debut tonight, and similar to Aluko and Ayité on Friday- while he didn't contribute to any goals- he put in a really good shift tonight trying to press from the front. He was another one that dropped off a bit in the later stages, but again it's understandable and at the end of the day it didn't effect the end result. It just made it a bit closer than it had to be. Had we gone to Extra-Time chances are we'd have been completely screwed, but we managed to scrape through.

Cauley Woodrow put in a good case for why he should be starting up at Deepdale with his goals and general performance tonight. Especially considering some of the issues Preston have defensively at the moment, starting Woodrow who's more mobile and able to stretch the defence a bit more than Smith would be my preferred option. With that said, if we sign a Striker before Saturday all of that's moot- so we'll see what happens as the week goes on. I've already had my say on Woodrow's goals, but in general he performed well- and on another day he may have been able to get a Hat-Trick if he'd been able to hit one of his other shots a bit better.

The Tunnicliffe for Adeniran sub was obviously necessary, and I thought Tunnicliffe did alright when he came on. He's another player who, because of his role- it's almost better for him to have an unremarkable game than something happen associated with him. Because chances are if his name comes up, it's not good news for us. The exception being Bristol City last season of course. The Tom Cairney sub was entirely just to bring on a calming influence for the last few minutes of the game, and it obviously worked because we got through it. I'm sure Slavisa wouldn't have wanted to bring him on, and when he went down briefly he was probably thinking many four letter words- but there was seemingly no harm done.

If I had to have one criticism of Slavisa tonight, it was that he only used two subs when it was quite clear- at least to me that we had a few players completely dead on their feet still on the pitch. I understand why he may have been wary of bringing on our First-Teamers, but would it have killed us to bring Ayité on for Edun for the last 10 Minutes? We may have been able to get a fourth and kill the game if we had done so.

As I've already said, at the end of the day we're through and in the Draw for tomorrow. With Cup Football that's all that really matters. We shouldn't have let Orient back in the game, but we still managed to get through- so long-term there was no harm done. The Draw for tomorrow will be an interesting one, and the selection for said game will be interesting as well. The selection we had tonight was exactly what I want us to do in the Carling Cup. Play our young players, if we get through great- and if we don't it's a learning experience for said young players.

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to review the next round, unless we get moved to Thursday for TV. So I'm hoping we don't get a "good" draw tomorrow. Thanks for reading as always, the Reviews will be back on Saturday where hopefully we can keep our unbeaten run going. We're off to Wembley, folks. Might as well get your tickets now.

RAW Review: August 8th

Hello! We're back for another week of good ol' fashioned wrasslin reviews. It's funny I decide to use that as my opening sentence after the RAW we've just had last night. I said it at the time, the RAW we had just after Battleground chances are won't be topped this year. There was too much stuff that all came together on that one show to make it a truly great one. So, this isn't me having unrealistic expectations when it comes to shows and the general standard of them. With all that said, I'm just going to jump right into the Review- because I'm a bit short on time and this RAW wasn't exactly one I want to relive.

Enzo, Big Cass, Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens Opening Segment
Jericho had a whole week to reconsider Owens and go back to Jimmin Marvenluder as his tag partner, and yet here he was with Owens in the opening segment. That's a massive mistake on Jericho's part. Aside from the idiocy on show from Jericho, this was a fine opening segment. It was basically a theme of this show that we had segments going too long for their own good, and this wasn't an exception. However, I can't remember the last time an opening segment didn't go "too long" and that's just the nature of having 3 Hour RAW's. Jericho was doing the wacky comedy we've come to expect from him as of late, Enzo was great as always just by being Enzo and overall I was fine with this segment.

One thing I did have to laugh at was Owens saying he "liked Cass in NXT" in his promo, when coming down the ramp Michael Cole had said something to the effect of "Owens hasn't liked Enzo and Cass since NXT". So either Cole tried to take some initiative with that line, or Owens went off script. I'll let you be the judge of that one.

Chris Jericho v Enzo Amore
I don't have a problem with the finish, in the sense that it's good they decided to protect Enzo a bit. My problem with that however, is there's not really much to protect now. Enzo on his own has lost the majority of the matches he's been in, and just last month he was getting pinned by AJ at least once a week. While I wouldn't say Jericho's on the same level as AJ, it's just something that annoyed me a bit with how he's been booked now. The match was fine. Jericho's great at what he does, and Enzo will only get better by being in the ring with guys like Jericho who he can learn from. So overall I thought this was a fine opening match, to match a fine opening segment.

We of course got the announcement of the Enzo & Cass/Jericho & Owens match for Summerslam as well, because Summerslam's less than two weeks away believe it or not. As I said last week, Owens would've probably hoped to be higher up the card- but being in a Tag Match in Brooklyn against Enzo & Cass isn't a bad spot to be in.

Sasha Banks & Mick Foley Backstage Segment
We had the stipulation made that it was going to be Sasha against Dana, and if Dana won it'd be a handicap match- and if she lost she'd be banned from ringside at Summerslam. My problem with these stipulations, is the person who stands to lose their person at ringside could just get a DQ finish and the Handicap match in an instant. I know "suspension of disbelief" and all that, but to me this is just so obvious it annoys me. Especially when considering Charlotte's the daughter of the "dirtiest player in the game".

Braun Strowman v Jorel Nelson
Firstly, the fact they didn't call Strowman's jobber "Jimmin Marvenluder" or take a shot at Conor McGregor by calling him "Greg Connors" or something like that genuinely surprised me. Secondly, and this is relevant for something later on- Strowman's jobber got an actual entrance. Strowman came out first, and Jorel Nelson got a ring entrance complete with generic theme music. This was how much they needed to fill time on the show last night. The match was what you've come to expect from Strowman's squash matches at this point.

I do want them to start adding to them after Summerslam, ideally by using by booking idea for him last week- combined with giving him a "fight promoter" type manager. Weirdly Sylvester LeFort would've been good in my opinion, for those of you who watched NXT before it went on the Network you'll know who I mean.

Puffy Daddy meets Mick Foley & The New Day
I wasn't expecting much from Puff Daddy's appearance last night, but this was actually a pretty good way to use him. He got all of his plugs in, and then we just had a fun little 2 minute segment with New Day- which included the now immortal quote "How's Big E's nuts?". The one thing I was surprised about is that we didn't at any point last night get a reference to Big E "busting a nut".

Darren Young v Titus O'Neil
This was the point of the show where it just felt like the writers went "You know what, everyone's gonna be watching the Olympics so who really gives a fuck?". Last week's match wasn't exactly anything to write home about, so you know what they did? They did it again, and by "did it again" I mean they did exactly the same match. The only difference was the roles were reversed for the finish. Isn't this build great though? They've got Darren and Titus wrestling each other every week, to build up to them wrestling on the PPV.

Rambo Apocalypse Promo Segment
If you take away all of the stuff Rollins said, the point of his promo was Rollins saying how good Rollins is and how Balor was disrespectful. Basically, standard heel stuff. This Promo took approximately 15 minutes. It may have been shorter, and I didn't have a stopwatch- but that's my rough estimate. Again, this is the problem with 3 hour RAW's in general- it's nothing new. But this promo just felt so ridiculously dragged out to me it was stupid. The problem really is, there's not much of a story that Seth can play off in his promos. Balor just showed up two weeks ago, won the two matches and now he's there. There's not much of an angle, and at this point of the show- Balor didn't even have much of an established character.

Cesaro v Sheamus
I believe when talking about their match last week I said something to the effect of "one of the reasons it was good, is because it's a match we haven't seen that often". So of course they went and did it again the next week. The match was pretty good, but it suffered from the fact we'd just seen it the previous week- and the finish turned into a bit of a clusterfuck. I'm not sure why, after openly acknowledging Sheamus hit him, the Ref wouldn't DQ Sheamus as a start. If I start pulling thread at this finish, chances are I'll be here for a while, so I'll just leave it there.

Brock Lesnar & Randy Orton Video Package
I actually thought this was really good. The one area where WWE really excel at all times is their video packages, so after last week where we actually got them on the same show plus all of the OVW stuff- they got a really good video package out of very limited resources. The two interviews with Orton and Brock were good, and it was actually quite fun to get Brock talking a bit more- especially in the environment he was in where he could do re-takes and just generally get his delivery right.

Neville & Sin Cara v The Dudleys
If there was ever evidence of the fact they didn't really give a fuck about this RAW, the fact Neville's mystery partner ended up being Sin Cara is top of the list. I wasn't expecting a return or anything, but I at least thought it would be Sami Zayn given the fact chances are both Neville and Sami will be in the Cruiserweight Division when it comes around in just over a months time if my theory is correct in that it'll start as soon as the CWC is over.

The match was pretty much what you'd expect. Neville in particular is just treading water until the Cruiserweight Division does start. At least it seems like Bubba will be turning on D-Von based on the looks he was giving D-Von after, presumably after Summerslam. So that's something to look forward to at least, because a Heel Bubba can be really good as he showed in his TNA run. Whether they allow him to be the type of character he was in TNA remains to be seen, but for now it's a good thing.

Rusev & Lana's Wedding Celebration
The thing some people don't seem to realise, is that this segment was intentionally way too long and drawn out- specifically so when Roman interrupted the crowd would go "Thank fuck for that". This isn't one of the segments that I had a problem with length wise, because they knew exactly what they were doing when they planned it out.

As soon as you saw a Cake, you knew exactly what was going to happen. It goes back to the New Day segment they did a few months ago where they said Weddings never end well, and Cakes will always end up on someones face. So why not find the perfect hybrid of both? I will say, last night was the best promo Roman's done in a while. You could tell he was just being a bit more like himself in the promo, and in this day and age authenticity rules all when it comes to promos. He was just having some fun with it, and while I doubt many of the "hardcore smarks" will accept him any time soon because it's the "cool" thing to boo him- it's a good start for a rebuilding process that'll take at least a year in my opinion.

Also, fair play to Lana for basically hugging the cake after Rusev had knocked her into it for maximum effect.

Sasha Banks v Dana Brooke
This match was back to the women's booking we were getting around this time last year. A 2 minute match, in the 3rd hour, when the crowd was already dead and nobody could really give a fuck. I actually thought when Charlotte slapped Dana we'd get the DQ finish I was talking about earlier, but no, the Ref just looked at it and decided against it. If they were on both shows I'd have expected them to make something of that on Smackdown, and then repeat the match next week- but obviously now they don't have the time so I doubt they will.

Nia Jax Vignette
This was one thing that annoyed me, especially coming a week after saying that they need to be "all in" on Nia if she's to succeed. On a show where Strowman's jobber got an entrance, we had god knows how many 10+ minute promo segments and some of the matches featured included Neville and Sin Cara v The Dudleys and Darren Young v Titus O'Neil- they couldn't find time for Nia to kill someone in a minute. I know they went over, but this whole RAW was an exercise in how much time they could fill by doing the absolute bare minimum. Yet, one person who can actually benefit from being featured while doing the bare minimum wasn't on the show last night. So this really annoyed me.

It also seems like they're teasing her getting involved with the title picture after Summerslam, so that's another mistake already. I know Charlotte's requested time off, but they've got the easiest angle in the world at their doorstep after Summerslam when Bayley's called up with Bayley and Sasha.

Finn Balor Vignette
This is a better environment for Finn to cut promos, for the same reason it is for Brock. They can just keep doing it until they get that one take that "works". I actually really liked this, and I do wish I was Irish for this- just because it would've been hilarious to have Finn telling a story you presumably grew up with. Anyway, this was a good tease of Finn bring the demon out at Summerslam and will presumably have people who don't know about the demon curious and looking up some of his NXT stuff. So this really worked on all levels.

The one thing that does have to be said, if Finn's bringing the demon out at Summerslam- he'd better be winning. Even if they do a double turn and have The Club interfere and help Finn win, Finn needs to win with his debut of the demon- because otherwise they're leaving money on the table.

Gallows & Anderson Promo
I'm convinced this whole angle was just someone on the writing team wanting to do a "hint hint nudge nudge" to Gallows' former persona and working backwards from there. I was pretty sick of the show by this point, but I'll acknowledge a fun segment when I see one- and this was one.

Luke Gallows v Kofi Kingston
Can someone explain the logic to me of having the matches in the build up to this match at Summerslam being no more than 2 minutes? There's a difference between "leaving the audience wanting more" and "making the audience lose interest", and the booking of these two teams is very close to crossing that line- if they haven't already. Gallows beat Kofi in about 2 minutes, and then Xavier stopped them from "ringposting" Kofi. That was literally that.

Goldust, R-Truth & Scooby Doo Segment
It was like they were actively trying to make people watch the Olympics.

Rusev v Cesaro
The stuff with Foley and Bryan was fun. The problem was they didn't really have much to work with, because they're both Babyface GM's- so they couldn't really take digs and generally be dicks to each other. I was surprised to see Rusev come out, and the same can be said with Cesaro- but it did highlight a point I was making for basically a month building up the Draft about Roster Depth or lack thereof. So at least I can say the three sweetest words in the english language "I was right".

I was surprised by the reaction I saw from many people when it comes to Rusev winning, because I don't know what people were expecting to be honest. Before the finish, one person said that this wouldn't have been the Main Event unless Cesaro was winning the title- to which I said my earlier point that last night's RAW was an exercise in trying to fill as much time as possible. The fact is, Cesaro wrestled twice last night, including in the Main Event- and he only lost said Main Event by being fucked over by Sheamus. I don't really know what else you could ask for within reasonable expectations.

The only real criticism I have of this, is the Main Event of RAW less than two weeks away from Summerslam featured Sheamus, Rusev, Cesaro and Roman Reigns- all of whom had been on the show already. I doubt they're turning the US Title match into a 4-Way unless they feel the need to protect Rusev by having Roman pin Sheamus- so I just don't really "get" why they did this as the main event to be blunt.

I think it's safe to say that there's been better RAW's in recent times. I won't actually go as far as saying it was a "bad' show last night, it was just ridiculously average. The problem with it being ridiculously average, is that when it's average it sometimes feels worse just because it's 3 fucking hours long. The only real issues I had was with the people not featured on the show in Nia Jax and Sami Zayn, also what happened to Jinder? But anyway, we can only move on to Smackdown where if it isn't better than RAW we may as well give up on this brand split now.

Thanks for reading as always, you may notice this is up an hour earlier than usual- it's not going to become a regular thing but I'll be on the Tube when I usually put them up tonight. As I said, we can only pray to god Smackdown's better for the sake of our sanity- and I'll look at whether it was or not tomorrow in the Smackdown Review so hopefully you'll be back for that. Thanks again for reading, and let's look forward to Smackdown and Heath Slater winning that contract baybay!

Fulham v Newcastle Review: The Perfect Start

Well, it doesn't get any better than that does it? No, really, we may as well call it a day now. Was it the absolute perfect performance? No. But, the crucial thing to me to take from tonight is the fact we actually looked like a proper bloody team for the first time in god knows how long. From the first minute we were playing as a cohesive unit, pressing from Smith all of the way back to Madl and Kalas. We dropped off a bit as the game went on, but I think that's more to do with fitness levels at this stage of the season than anything else- and even with that said I was ridiculously impressed by how fit we looked tonight. This is such an alien concept after the last few years, but tonight, we saw what a team looked like when a Manager who has a clue actually has his team. At the end of the day, that means we're already streets ahead in-terms of where we are in comparison to our first two seasons back in the Championship.

The game in many ways was the perfect introduction to Championship life for Newcastle. If any Newcastle fans are reading this, yes, the refereeing is as bad as that every week. To add to that, we scored from a set-piece for what feels like the first time in absolutely ages. It wasn't a pretty goal, but I don't want pretty goals- I want goals that win games regardless of how they come as was the case tonight. Given how scattered the Reviews were last season, I don't think I said this in a Review- but the whole second half of last season I was saying I was desperate for a scrappy 1-0 win. Just to prove we actually could do it. I had to wait until May for one last season, but we've started with one tonight. Hopefully there's many more to come.

Given all of the build up to the game, and talk of how Newcastle were going to walk the league (which they probably still will once they've gelled and got Mitrovic back) David Button didn't actually have that much to do tonight. It was far from the bombardment of Button's goal that I think most people would have been expecting, let's put it that way. He made one really good save in the second half against I believe Ritchie, and apart from that there wasn't really much else he had to do. His distribution looked a bit dodgy, especially in the 1st Half- but I'm hoping that's just a confidence thing and his first Clean Sheet with help to settle him down.

Michael Madl is one of the best defenders I've seen at Fulham. It was fitting in a way that on the day one of our other "best defenders" retired, Madl turned in a performance like that tonight. While Gayle and Perez aren't at their peak fitness-wise, Madl made them look ridiculously average for the most part tonight. I still have my doubts about the Madl and Kalas pairing once we come up against teams with more of an aerial threat (which Mitrovic would've provided) but as I said in my Preview, tonight that wasn't an issue and we got to see them do what they do best. Kalas wasn't as good as Madl tonight, but that's not exactly a criticism. They just defended absolutely immensely, as the whole team did to be honest.

How weird is it to be reading one of these reviews and the section on the defence isn't filled with discussing Dan Burn mistakes and how we conceded our 70th Penalty and 120th goal from a set-piece. It's funny to watch Centre-Backs who can actually defend after the last few years isn't it? To add to that, because we defended properly as a team- it was harder to expose any weakness in our defence that teams did way too often last season.

I don't know who "found" Denis Odoi. Whomever did, make yourself known and I shall personally give you a 6-Pack of Strawberry Ribena. When Odoi brought Perez down around the 10th minute I was worried, but he thankfully stayed on the pitch and he didn't look back after that. Odoi put in a ridiculous shift tonight, and he had Dummett's number all night long down that wing. It was of course all topped off with probably the most ridiculous bit of skill I think I've ever seen from someone in a Fulham shirt. Madl was my MOTM tonight, but Odoi was a very close second.

I was expecting a lot worse than what we got from Scott Malone tonight. I still want us to sign a Left-Back, if only on loan until Fredericks is fit and Odoi can go to Left-Back. But, I thought Malone gave a good account of himself all things considered. Odoi gave what was close to an attacking masterclass down the right, but that isn't really Malone's game. He didn't look very comfortable in possession of the ball, but defensively he did fine I felt. He got a bit busier once Ritchie went to his side, but even then I wasn't really worried by him at any point.

The obvious incident to discuss is that of the Ryan Tunnicliffe handball in the 1st Half. I'll say right now, having watched it back- it is a penalty without a shadow of a doubt. However, at the time, my first reaction when seeing it was that it wasn't. It all happened so quickly that there wasn't really time to react, and I can only assume that was the Ref's opinion because he obviously didn't give it. Aside from that incident, Tunnicliffe gave the performance we've come to expect of him. He never stopped running and pressing, and especially with the way the team's made up now it really suits his style of play.

Kevin McDonald had a really good debut tonight. I was actually surprised by Newcastle's selection in midfield, because while Newcastle don't exactly have "bad" players- the Colback and Hayden pairing in midfield looked ridiculously lightweight next to McDonald in particular. It was quite similar to when McDonald came to the Cottage with Wolves last season in that regard. We need a bit more creativity without a doubt, and really just make it so everyone isn't afraid to shoot like they seemingly were tonight. However, if we can get that level of performance from our Centre-Mids every week, we won't be looking down with the table this season.

We did look a bit toothless up-front, but even with that said- the shifts put in by Ayite and Aluko in particular in our efforts to press Newcastle can't be undersold when talking about the end result. They ran themselves into the ground tonight, and I was just surprised Ayité in particular was actually kept on for the whole 90 Minutes. To add to that, Ayité looked lively up against Janmaat and he had some great moments up against an actual international Right-Back. So that can only bode well for the future. I haven't been able to see it back yet, but the maybe penalty incident in the First-Half with Aluko I felt summed up what he offers the team in that he can be on the ball and pressuring in a flash with his pace.

Tom Cairney was our Captain tonight, and he really did play like one. I will say I'm not quite sure how Sky gave him MOTM, because while he was really good tonight- our defence was by far and a way the best part of the game for either side. With McCormack gone, Cairney's on set-pieces- and on the basis of his delivery for Smith's goal tonight- that's another positive to take from the McCormack leaving situation.

I don't think anyone's under any illusion that we need to sign at least one, ideally two Strikers in the next month. However, Matt Smith put in a really good shift tonight as limited as he is. Smith obviously got the goal, and he nearly got an assist in the second half with his knockdown to Aluko. So overall, while I want a Striker in ASAP- Smith gave me some hope and something positive to think about when talking about Smith and his contributions to the team.

The three subs made by Slavisa were all good ones I thought. With the type of game Tunnicliffe plays,and how early this game was- he couldn't last the 90 Minutes. I was expecting it to be the other way around in that Tunnicliffe would be coming on for Parker, but it obviously worked out alright because we've got those 3 Points on the board. I don't know how it came across on TV, but how the Ref and Linesman missed the most blatant pulling of a shirt to stop someone running onto a ball I think I've ever seen on Parker at around the 88th-89th Minute I have no idea.

The only thing of note from Christensen was him hitting a shot so high it'll probably land in the Olympic Cauldron midway through the Opening Ceremony. But I thought this at the time, at that stage of the game it's better to send it into orbit than give it straight to the keeper. Amazing how a win makes you put a positive spin on things isn't it? It also has to be said that Christensen's style of play fits perfectly with what we saw on show from the team tonight. In that it was a very athletic style of play, and that suits Lasse. I'd expect him to start on Tuesday against Orient where hopefully he can turn in a really good performance. Tim Ream's sub was more about wasting time than anything else, and when he did come on he didn't do anything to cost us the win- and at the end of the day that's all you can really ask for.

While Newcastle on paper are the hardest team we'll play this season, obviously now we've played them I think it's safe to say we'll have harder games. At times it seemed like Benitez had read a book over the summer titled "How To: Play in the Championship", and the book was filled with the philosophies of the (to quote Tony Xia) the failed footballer, failed manager, failed pundit Ian Holloway. They just didn't really look like they had a game-plan to me, and their only opportunities- especially in the 1st Half came from them launching balls up the pitch which didn't really suit Gayle and Perez. With all that said, while tonight's obviously great- we can't afford to get carried away. We can start to get carried away when we've gone 46 unbeaten.

Thanks for reading as always. Hopefully you enjoyed this Review as much as you did the performance on the pitch tonight. I've said this already, but I'll say it again- the Orient Review may not happen depending on travel times. But either way, keep an eye out on Tuesday where hopefully I'll be reviewing an equally positive performance and our progression into the 2nd Round of the Carling Cup where we can hopefully draw Carlisle Away. Thanks again for reading, and tonight just makes enjoying our weekend that much easier doesn't it? Which is a good thing considering Saturday's my Birthday.

Fulham v Newcastle Preview: Baptism By Fire

Hello! That's right, Football is officially back! It's been an interesting summer from a Fulham, Football and general world perspective- but now all of the talking can stop and we can jump into a new season. I was going to open by saying "there's not going to be a harder game than this", or words to that effect- but I'd be lying if I did so. Because tomorrow night isn't going to be the hardest game we have this season, it's the second hardest- the hardest being Newcastle away in Mid-March when they'll presumably be trying to get themselves over the line in-terms of promotion/the title. I don't think there's a "good" time to be playing Newcastle this season, but playing them tomorrow while they're still working out the kinks in the team and while players aren't at their peak levels in-terms of match fitness can't really be considered a bad time.

Seeing as there's not really much in the way of news from a Fulham perspective, I've had to really dig to try and find something. Not much has been made of it, but we've actually sold one of our fringe players called Ross McCormack to Villa. In all seriousness though, I pretty much covered my general opinion on McCormack in the Season Preview I put up on Monday so if you want my full in-depth thoughts on it you can read them here (https://t.co/B4t1AcOCSI). However, the condensed version is that losing McCormack isn't the end of the world in my opinion. I'd rather take the 12 Million we've got from McCormack and invest the money into players that'll fit Slavisa's system and crucially actually want to be here than keep McCormack and give him his 4th and 5th Fulham contracts this summer and next January. Also, I hope the Club Shop didn't over stock on number 4's for shirt printing.

On the other transfers front, there's not been a lot of stuff- especially with Strikers where the attention will obviously need to be. The news came out yesterday that we're signing Jozabed from Rayo Vallecano, and as with my transfer "analysis" in my Season Preview I'm not going to claim I know stuff about him that I simply don't. I will say, based on his stats last season in a team that didn't exactly perform well- he looks to be a pretty good signing for us.

I'm curious as to where he'd fit in the team, because I thought this season would be Cairney's chance to play in his best role which is that of a #10. From what I can understand, Jozabed's not necessarily a #10- but he's definitely more attack than defence-minded. So we could end up in a situation where we're almost entirely reliant on Kevin McDonald to protect the back four.

I think the Eddy Silvestre deal is meant to be close, so that's another Midfielder being brought in- and I'd assume our Midfield business will be done after these two signings because Midfield isn't exactly an area we need to keep strengthening at this stage. The areas we need to be looking at improving in the next month, for me, is another Centre-Back, ideally two Strikers and a Left-Back.

If you want my general thoughts on all of our confirmed transfers both in and out, I covered them all in-depth in my Season Preview. But for now, let's see how our new signings will fit into the team tomorrow night by discussing our team selection.

The Goalkeeper selection is actually going to be quite interesting, because as I discussed in my Season Preview with Joronen's performance against Palace- we've got 3 Keepers who can all be properly considered for selection. While I don't think Joronen playing will happen, and chances are we'll loan him out- he did himself a world of good with his performance against Palace. It's definitely more likely that Button starts, because to be blunt- we wouldn't have actually spent money on getting a second choice Keeper the way we're doing business. I'd expect Button to start tomorrow, and keep his run going in the league until he gives Slavisa a reason to think otherwise- while Bettinelli starts his season at Brisbane Road next Tuesday.

The Centre-Back situation, at least for tomorrow night is fairly straight-forward in my opinion. If Mitrovic (I nearly typed Mitroglou there) wasn't suspended, I'd have a lot more concern when it comes to the Tomas Kalas/Michael Madl pairing and their physicality and general stature. The only real worry I've got when it comes to the Kalas/Madl pairing for tomorrow's game is if there's a lapse of concentration at any point in the game we will be punished given the quality Newcastle have got going forward even without Mitrovic. But I don't think Kalas and Madl will be overwhelmed from a physical perspective by Dwight Gayle and Ayoze Perez- especially with Perez playing more of a #10 role based on Newcastle's Pre-Season.

The Full-Backs, specifically Left-Back will be one of the more interesting decisions that Slavisa has to make for tomorrow night. Ryan Sessegnon hasn't really put a foot wrong in Pre-Season. I was really interested to see how he coped against Palace, because while Palace are still a bit of a way off from the start of their season- Sessegnon was still put up against Andros Townsend. On the whole I thought he did really well against him, and personally I really hope he starts tomorrow night- where hopefully he can keep Matt Ritchie contained. At least until Fredericks is fit and Odoi can move back over to Left-Back, I'd prefer signing a better Left-Back whether that's a loan or permanent- or just giving Sessegnon a proper chance in the First-Team.

The alternative if Slavisa wants a more "experienced" player is to start Scott Malone- and despite his "reputation" I'm not writing him off. Just in-terms of personal preference I'd rather Sessegnon started tomorrow. The Right-Back spot will be occupied by Denis Odoi as was the case against Palace. Basically, in-terms of the defence keep it the same as with was against Palace.

I'm working on the basis of Slavisa playing a 4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 for tomorrow, because again that's what he played against Palace. I don't think there's a question as to whether Kevin McDonald starts, and it's more about who plays with him in the middle of the pitch. The options are Scott Parker, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Lasse Vigen Christensen. The key to any success or failure we have tomorrow night is likely dependant on the level to which we can contain Jonjo Shelvey. As such, I'd prefer to be starting Parker- and make it his job to just continuously press Shelvey all game long. I wouldn't expect Parker to go 90 Minutes tomorrow in said role, but after 60 Minutes we can bring Tunnicliffe on and have him do the exact same job.

I don't think there's much debate to be had as far as wingers go, for the simple fact that with the George Williams loan we've not really got much in the way of competition. The debate is more about who plays where, as opposed to if someone's going to play. Floyd Ayitè should be starting out on the left, I think that's a settled debate. I'm absolutely desperate for Tom Cairney to be played as a #10 this season. Especially in these early stages of the season where everyone isn't completely match fit, pace can be a big asset.

With that in mind, I say I want Aluko to be played on the right-wing with Tom Cairney playing centrally behind the striker. I know Aluko played as a #10 behind Smith against Palace, and did a good job of it as well- but I want pace on the wings and our most creative player in his preferred position. Surely that's not too much to ask? I'm not saying I want that to be a fixed selection for the entire season, and the introduction to the squad of Jozabed will obviously be another option. But for tomorrow, I think we're best served playing Aluko out wide.

With McCormack's departure confirmed, if he was even in consideration for selection tomorrow given his fitness issues at the start of every season- he's not now. That leaves us with a choice between Matt Smith & Cauley Woodrow (and Aluko of course but he's in another position in my selection). It's not ideal is it? Ideally we'd have had a Striker signing lined up and all but confirmed so when McCormack had left we could instantly get a replacement in- but that's obviously not the case. I'd lean more towards starting Woodrow tomorrow, because despite some of his short-comings he's infinitely more mobile than Smith- and he's actually looked pretty good in Pre-Season. While Pre-Season isn't an indicator as to how someone will perform in a competitive season, he's probably gotten some confidence so we might as well see how he gets on.

Then as with what I was saying for a lot of last season, we can bring Smith on with 15-20 minutes left to change the dynamic of our attacking line if needed. Whether that's a straight swap with Woodrow or changing to something along the lines of a 4-4-2 with Aluko or Ayité making runs in behind for Smith's knock downs.

Team for Newcastle

It's likely a dream, especially with the McCormack sale being announced today- but I'd hope that our fans wouldn't go overboard if we do lose tomorrow. As I've already said, tomorrow night is literally the second hardest game of the season on paper heading into the season. Given the fact we're still making signings and generally trying to gel an almost entirely new squad, I'm willing to be patient up to a point. At least at this stage of the window. If I'm sat here doing my Deadline Day Live Blog and we haven't brought in a Striker then I'll happily start bashing those involved at the club. But to be blunt, there's not really much point in doing so right now.

I talked about my general expectations for the season in my Season Preview, but to add on to what I said in the Preview. I said at the start of last season that I didn't want any excuses when it comes to losing points early on in the season. Which is pretty much exactly the opposite of what I've just said, and I do realise that.

My thing is, I don't think many (if any) people will be expecting us to win tomorrow. But aside from tomorrow night I'd say the vast majority of our first 10 games could be classed as "winnable". So despite what I've said about the team gelling etc. depending on the number of points we pick up between tomorrow night and the end of September I may yet end up ranting like I've seen various members of the posters on Friends of Fulham do already. Just quickly skimming through the games between tomorrow and the end of September I'd estimate we should be picking up roughly 12-13 Points. That points total based on last seasons table will put us roughly where I'd expect us to finish, which is basically as Mid-Table as we could possibly be. So if we exceed that, then I'm happy.

I said it at the start of my Season Preview but I'll repeat it here as well- these Previews aren't going to happen for every game. The simple fact is that they end up becoming quite repetitive, but equally the Previews aren't completely off the table depending on what's going on and who we're playing. The Reviews will continue, although they'll be quite patchy in August. Then I'm also going to try and do some more Fulham posts beyond Previews and Reviews. For those of you who don't know, for weekend games I aim to put the Reviews up at 8pm and for Midweek (or Friday) games I aim for Midnight.

So hopefully you'll keep coming back to these posts throughout the season, starting tomorrow night for the Newcastle Review which will hopefully have some positive stuff contained within it. In the meantime, hopefully you're looking forward to the new season and some degree of success after the last few years. Thanks for reading as always. We've only got 1 more day to wait now.

Smackdown Live Review: August 2nd

Hello! Based on RAW, I thought things were getting back to the "status quo" a bit in WWE in general- and I think it's safe to say after last night that it is indeed the case. I was actually looking to Smackdown this week, for the simple fact that they weren't dead in the water in-terms of being able to top RAW before they'd even started like they were last week. With that in mind, and the fact basically every main-event guy wasn't going to be in one match as was the case last week I actually had reasonably high expectations for the show. The only thing left to do now is to see whether they were met or not.

Dean Ambrose & Dolph Ziggler Promo Segment
This segment was odd in the sense that I wasn't expecting Ambrose to be the one to be a bit dick-ish. I'm not necessarily against it, but it caught me off guard- as has been the case for the last two weeks where Ziggler and Ambrose have been involved. Ambrose's promo was really good to me, if nothing else than for the fact every word he said when he was talking about Dolph was true. I thought Dolph did a good job playing up the whole "this could be my last chance" "fiery babyface" type promo. So on the whole I thought this whole thing was pretty good.

The Bray attack on Dolph was an interesting way to set-up the Main Event, because as I'll discuss later with what they ended up doing it's definitely not what I would have done. But we got the Main Event out of it- so in that respect the segment did do its job.

Apollo Crews v Kalisto v Baron Corbin- IC Title #1 Contender Match
I talked about this with someone on Twitter last night, and I'll repeat it here for obvious reasons. I just don't understand the logic of having a segment that's designed to set-up Apollo Crews vs The Miz for the IC Title and having Baron Corbin standing tall to end the segment. The person I was talking to last night said they had to do it "to make Baron Corbin look strong". If that was the case, it begs the question why book him in a segment where he wasn't going to win? We could just as easily have had Crews/Kalisto in a singles match where Kalisto did more Lucha things, and then have Corbin squash someone later on in the show.

I thought the actual match was pretty good on the whole. All three guys got their moves in, and Apollo Crews is going to Summerslam. I wouldn't be surprised if this Crews/Miz match ends up on the Pre-Show thought to be honest.

Eva Marie v Becky Lynch
Ladies & Gentleman, prepare for the Review of the segment featuring the most stylish, elegant, bewitching, eternally beguiling, continuously charismatic and fantastically fascinating woman to appear in this or any other segment. Allow yourself to be seduced, enchanted, dazzled and entranced by All Red Everything herself Eva Marie.

I'm sorry, that introduction is officially the best thing in Wrestling. I said it in last week's review, I just wanted Eva to make her entrance and then leave. That's exactly what we got here, and it was absolutely amazing. Genuinely, the only conceivable way this segment could've been better was if we had Corey Graves on commentary marking out for her entrance and then acting like his world was falling apart when Eva got "injured". I simply won't hear a bad word about this segment.

I actually talked about this in one of my Takeover Reviews absolutely ages ago when discussing Baron Corbin. WWE want Heels to be booed, as surprising as that may be. A "good heel" isn't a heel anymore, because the crowd are too intent on cheering the bad guys. That's where guys like Miz, Corbin and indeed Eva come into play- because the crowd doesn't want to cheer for them. They want to boo them, and that's why despite all of her shortcomings- of which there are many there's a spot for Eva in WWE.

Carmella & Natalya Backstage Interview
I like the new backstage set-up they've got for Smackdown, just because it seems more "professional" in a way I suppose. Carmella still has a lot of work to do, in basically every possible aspect of what's needed- but she'll only get that with screen time I suppose. I'm not even going to talk about Nattie's talking ability, I've had my say too many times in that respect.

American Alpha v The Vaudevillains
Two things caught me off guard in this segment. One, Aiden English was the one to take the pin. After Simon Gotch's escapades last week I would have thought he'd be getting pinned for the foreseeable future. Two, the fact this match went as long as it did. That second one isn't necessarily a bad thing, because Alpha need to get over with their ring-work and general in-ring charisma with the "casual" crowd like they did in NXT. The match was good as a showcase, Alpha got all of their moves in- and I can only assume we're getting matches like this until they introduce the Smackdown Tag Titles hopefully by having a Tournament for said Titles.

John Cena & AJ Styles Promo Segment
I'm quite torn on this segment, and especially the Cena promo. It was a really good promo, I don't think anyone will dispute that. However, how many times have we heard Cena do what is in essence this exact same promo? How many feuds has he had since becoming "the guy"? That'll give you a rough estimate. As I've already said, it was a good promo- but if I'd been doing these Reviews for the last 10-12 years or however long it's been since Cena became the guy I could just Copy & Paste my review of said good promo.

I liked the AJ stuff, and his subtle name-drop of The Elite and his not-so-subtle shot at TNA/Dixie. He nearly said Slammiversary instead of Summerslam at one point, so that would've made this segment absolutely hilarious. On the whole it was a good segment though, and I liked it because they didn't do any bullshit build to the match. Both guys wanted the match, so they agreed to have a match. Wrestling can be so simple, and yet so effective at times.

Randy Orton v Fandango
I'd like to open this part of the review by stating that Fandango wasn't in fact pinned, and I can only assume Fandango was going to win before Brock interfered. The actual match wasn't much, although that was to be expected given what was going to happen to end said match. The surprise to me was that Brock showed up to a show unadvertised, which I don't think he's done since he beat the streak. I don't know if that's a response to Brock not necessarily drawing a big rating on RAW or what- but it's definitely an interesting development in the booking of Brock with around about 8 Months left on his current contract.

The one thing I'll say that I loved in this segment was that Brock managed to hop the barrier and get in the ring to immediately hit the F5 on Randy- all in the time it took Randy to hit the RKO on Fandango. The man's just a freak athlete.

Heath Slater & Daniel Bryan Backstage Segment
This was a fun little segment. It's where I'm expecting them to go with Heath, in that he's just going to keep losing "contract matches" for at least a month- and then he gets an upset win over another returning guy who's only doing a one-off appearance. Rhyno's Gore from outta nowhere was quite fun though, I will admit. I'll start the Over/Under on Rhyno's win next week at 1 Minute and 30 Seconds.

Dean Ambrose Backstage Interview
This was fine, and it continued the whole angle with Dolph and his perceived "self-sabotaging" in the eyes of Ambrose so it got the job done.

Natalya v Carmella
Both women's matches on the show last night didn't start. I understand that given the general lack of depth, and really lack of talent with the Smackdown women they have to work really hard to establish the characters and get some feuds going- but both matches not starting was just stupid. Have Nattie DQ herself by just refusing to stop attacking her once the match starts or something. This was just lazy, and exactly the type of booking I thought WWE had gone away from with the women.

Dolph Ziggler v Bray Wyatt
The whole night was building to this match, in the sense that they basically spent the whole night saying how stupid it was of Dolph to put his #1 Contender spot up when he didn't have to. I thought this would give us an angle where Bray won, likely with shenanigans- leaving Dolph with "nothing" and he would then go on a really aggressive and "focused" run through some of the Midcard and actually build his character up to a point where people are invested in him for a match with Dean somewhere down the line.

As it was, Dolph won via the exposed turnbuckle- and that was that. I tweeted just before this match that last night was better than RAW, if nothing else than by virtue of it not being 3 Hours. I'm not necessarily saying that this Main Event changed my opinion of whether Smackdown was better than RAW- but it made it much more of an even contest.

I just can't understand the logic of having Bray Wyatt, who's one of two Heels on Smackdown who would look credible in a Main Event spot losing just to further an angle with Dolph fucking Ziggler. I'm not ruling out Dolph winning at Summerslam, as surprising as that may be. For the simple fact that he's going into the Kent State (?) Wrestling Hall of Fame at around the same time. It goes back to my theory on Mark Henry winning the Title on RAW, WWE may not want to turn down the easy publicity. However, the best Dolph can hope for is him getting a run as a transitional champion and either dropping the Title back to Dean or dropping it to Bray.

To add to that, Dolph pinned Bray- okay if that's what you want to do, fair enough. As with the Corbin case, this segment is designed to put over the Ziggler/Ambrose match. So why must you insist on letting Bray "get his heat back" as soon as the match has finished?! I will say I was happy they did this, for the simple reason that if Bray had gotten properly hurt like I thought he had at one point I doubt they'd have done the ending they did. Take that out of the equation though, and fucking hell is it stupid.

With the end to the show they acknowledged that they need Bray to look decent because they let him "get his heat back" albeit with Rowan's help. That's another thing, why wouldn't Rowan... you know... help Bray win?! What's the use of having him attack Dolph (and Ambrose) after Bray's already lost. The more I think about this the more angry I get about it, so I'm just going to stop before this becomes an completely unintelligible rant.

You may be able to tell that I didn't really like the ending to the show, but on the whole I do think the show was pretty good. I'm interested to see where they go with a few things on the show, especially with the way they book Bray- because I can't help but fear that him and Rowan are just going to be fodder for Ambrose and Dolph in the next few weeks as annoying as that'll be.

Thanks for reading as always, hopefully you've enjoyed the Reviews of the last two nights of wrestling. If you haven't already feel free to read the RAW Review. Thanks again for reading, hopefully you'll be back for the RAW Review next week and then the Smackdown Review as well, where you should have had enough time to be suitably prepared to be seduced, enchanted, dazzled and entranced by the most stylish, elegant, bewitching, eternally beguiling, continuously charismatic and fantastically fascinating woman to appear in WWE.