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.
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