Smackdown Discussion Thread

[King Pitcos]

I don't think he's being punished, he's not losing 3 second matches to hornswoggle.

Losing TV main events to Dean Ambrose is exactly the same thing as losing 3 second matches to Hornswoggle though, because burialamiright? BOOKING~

[AshC]

Don't have Ryback sell anything, have him kill everyone. It's over, he's over when doing it, it'll make money... easy.

[King Pitcos]

I wonder why they are having Ryback get beaten up a bit, especially by the likes of Titus. It might be that after the Rybaxel stuff, they think it's implausible that he completely steamrolls over everyone... But sod that, he should just destroy. At least until he comes up against someone good -- which apparently is tonight? I've seen that he's meant to be wrestling Cena. 

[PunkStep]

Ryback's return really makes you scratch your head over what could've been, because since he returned he's been over and I've also enjoyed watching him. How did they manage to fuck him up so badly, it's mental. Incredible that he can still get a reaction after everything, which is a testament to the aura this guy possesses.

 

I hope it leads somewhere. Hell, if Menry managed to become a beast after 13 years of atrocious booking then there's plenty of hope for the big guy.

[Merzbow]

Aslong as we don't have to see Ryback getting it on with transexuals and old biddies first.

[King Pitcos]

How did they manage to fuck him up so badly

Just circumstance. Because they'd started the slow burn for him vs Punk already, he was the only choice for Hell in a Cell when Cena got injured, and WWE not feeling CM Punk was a credible opponent for The Rock without the 434 day reign meant The Big Guy had to lose (or they had to come up with a better way out of the match than "reflowblowlolz").

 

The thing that fascinates me is whether it would have been any different had Cena not got injured. Ryback would still have likely been in a title match at Survivor Series and still been taken out by The Shield, but where would that have gone? If he hadn't been pinned in the cell and become expendable, would they have protected him more and fucked The Shield by having him get his revenge on them? Would he have ended up beating Big Show for the World title with a big WrestleMania Shellshocked?

[The Dart]

Bloody good show tonight.  Pissed all over Raw.

[Onyx2]

Bloody good show tonight.  Pissed all over Raw.

How did the Vince rant come across live?

[The Dart]

Well, at first it seemed like he just wanted to appear in front of the crowd as he never has in Liverpool before (that I can remember).  Then I thought maybe he was going to announce something about the Network in the ring, which would have been good.  Then it seemed he genuinely was disappointed with the crowd.  But overall it seemed like an insane old man sitting backstage and just thinking 'sod this I'm going out there'

 

What I found funny was people chanting "where's our network" when HHH and Stephanie were out there, then when Vince comes out - nothing.

[Rosler28]

Its his company he can do whatever he wants with it.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

For those who weren't there tonight, make sure you watch the IC title match, it was an absolute cracker.

[Linus]

Hey, it's Smackdown and I'm really tired!

Jericho came out to do a Highlight Reel. Hated these segments when it was Piper's Pit and The Barber Shop. Hate them now. But at least Jericho's good talky talky. He was funny. He brought of HHH & Stephanie, who looked like they were having fun. Well, Stephanie did. Poor old HHH, all this worry about the Survivor Series will put him in an early grave. Well, either that or the enlarged heart from all the steroids, amiright? They did good talky talky, building the PPV.

Hey, it's Bray Wyatt! He's fighting Sin Cara because no reasons. Pretty much a long squash, it was good to see him wrestle again. Wyatt, not Sin Cara. I see Sin Cara all the time. Wyatt won and then did talky about Ambrose. This brought Ambrose out, and Wyatt taunted him with stuff about his dad while Ambrose vibrated in the ring. Seriously, he did. Not bad.

Match number two is the Dust Brothers versus Adam Rose and the fucking bunny. Kill it already. Good while it lasted, though. Bunny fucked up after refusing to tag Rose in and gets pinned by Stardust as Rose looks on disappointingly. After the match, Rose kicks the bunny in his bunny belly and parties on.

Dolph spoke to some geek in the back. He's growing on me, but then I always did like vanilla faces.

The same geek then spoke to Ryback. Ryback has very distracting teeth. Ryback is on Team Ryback, apparently. There is no Team Ryback. Ryback FAIL.

Hey, it's Tyson Kidd! He's fighting Taz with AIDS Cesaro and Dolph Ziggler in a three-way elimination for the Intercontinental title. I've just railed elsewhere on this forum about body types but Kidd looks like an, erm, kid against these two, like a pesky younger brother that one of them had to bring along because mom had her new "boyfriend" around.

Ehh, it's a match. They did LOTS of stuff, some of which didn't work. Most did, and was I not entertained? Yes, I was. They keep pushing Cesaro as being strong and it makes me yearn for the Ken Patera/Tony Atlas bit from years ago -

- and why shouldn't I earn what I yearn? Kidd eliminated Cesaro after Dolph hit the ZigZag on TwAIDS, and then Dolph kept the title with another ZigZag on Kidd. It was okay.

Hmm, it's women. It's "British born" Layla versus Natalya. It wasn't bad, from a technical standpoint, it was just boring. Why are they on the show? There is no reason for their existence.

That one geek guy stopped Ambrose for a chat and Ambrose was not happy about Wyatt. Wyatt appeared out of nowhere and KO'd Ambrose, before cradling his head in his lap and saying nice things. Fuck him or fight him!

The Observer report for the house show that took place on the same night as this Smackdown taping noted that there was no Kane because he was "needed for Smackdown". He really wasn't. He never is. But, still, here we are, in our main event, and it's Kane versus Ryback.

This was waaaaaaay too long. There's a reason Goldberg did squashes for the first 6 months of his build. Going too long with that kind of character, against someone who's been beaten up so much as Kane, who will still demand/command enough offense to weaken you, is counter-productive. But they did, and it was.

Ryback won in the end - by DQ, because fuck you Kane - and had a good staredown with HHH to end the show.

A Nothing Show.

[MichaelMush]

Really enjoyed the IC match. They must be going somewhere with Kidd though be's been having a lot of TV matches recently and with him having a big role in Total Divas I can see them giving him a push. He's great in the ring and a feud with Ziggler would be great with Nattie maybe turning heel or Kidd just carrying on being the asshole husband.

[King Pitcos]

There's a reason Goldberg did squashes for the first 6 months of his build.

So did Ryback. Then after six months, he had his first proper match, and lost it. Then lost again every time he had a big match. I think they probably feel that there's no point trying to recapture the exact magic, so he might as well work proper matches. But I think it'd be far more effective to just have him smash people. I don't know why they had him selling for Titus. Not Kane, though. Considering Kane's their second or third top heel and is usually main-eventing the A or B tour, his TV job shouldn't just be cannon fodder.

[Statto]

Best thing about the show was that it finally gave wrestling a "tower of doom" spot that made a little sense. Kidd falling off Cesaro's back into a sunset flip-type powerbomb gave it some momentum, and then Kidd actually followed up by going for a pin rather than selling as much as the other two.