Smackdown Discussion Thread

[King Pitcos]

But I agree otherwise. What do the tag teams and women on SD have to aim for?

 

WWE one day treating the two brands as separate, and giving them their own titles.

[I Bent My Wookie]

Unsure on Spoiler rules as it was Live on Sky but who knows...

 

 

JBL WAS BEARABLE!

 

Like that's possibly the best 8 hours of WWE TV produced this year in a row, with NXT and CWC tomorrow night, they may have had their best week in years. They didn't throw all the chips out at once as well. Still Alpha to go, Shelton back and Rhyno signed, looks like they'll have a Women's title on SmackDown as well.

 

Title match should be good as well. Both guys are known for bringing it and trying to raise the bar a bit so should be a decent undercard to the Universal title they'll probably make a bigger deal out of being the inaugural champion.

 

Great week of TV. Flew by.

 

[JLM]

 

Oh man the opening segment did not look good having to follow Raw's.

Very sketchy line up of number one contendership hopefuls there. Styles and Cena sure. I like Bray a lot but he'd need some serious rehabbing for me to be into a world title program. Ziggler, Corbin and Crews are all shite. I know with both Corbin and Crews the point is to make them into somebodies but I really don't see either of them getting close to main event level. Crews winning a battle royal filled with absolute wastemans to fill that last spot was not quite up there with the four ways from last night was it? Oh dear.

Oh, and the absolute death battle royal was followed by a coming soon promo for Shelton Benjamin, who I would argue is LESS CHARISMATIC THAN APOLLO CREWS. Just let that sink in for a moment. Holy fuck there is some dullness ahead. I think my battle royal highlight was JBL's thoroughly unconvincing ''I think Mojo Rawley's dead good I do'' spiel, just as the useless berk was being chucked out.

Womens bit was not good. Nice to see Becky get a win as she's been made to look like an absolute chump in everything she's done lately. The rest of them just coming out and saying their names was not the most creative or memorable way to introduce them though. Was initially pleased to see Alexa Bliss turn up to shit on Becky's victory speech. Think those two could have a fun feud and I think Alexa Bliss has a lot of potential and had just started to get good towards the end of her NXT run. She's a decent natural heel, does a lot of the good little incidental bits of character work, looks stunning and is getting better in the ring every time I see her. All for her getting a push.

Then everyone came out and none of them got much reaction and it was shit. Carmella is awful. She's improving in the ring but her persona makes me want to claw my eyeballs out and I start to cringe whenever I see she has a mic. Her character is that she's a total bellend but she's meant to be a babyface. I don't get it at all and I can't stand her. It's even worse when she starts screaming and getting fired up in her matches to zero reaction from the crowd. At least she didn't say bada-bing.

Speaking of cringeworthy personas, Randy Orton making wanking jokes and pandering to the crowd is the worst. Miz/Orton was OK I suppose.

Looking forward to American Alpha next week. Love those guys.

Heath Slater is tremendous and the Sign Heath Slater thing is great. Little bit surprised to see Rhino show up. Thought they might keep him on NXT just as an extra body and bit of experience after all the call ups.

I like that Smackdown is also doing the in-ring interviews. Those character-select-screen-from-WCW-Nitro-on-PS1 promos can be pretty handy as well. Let people talk. If they're shit they're shit but at least give them the chance.

Main event was good fun. Some cool spots and an exciting finishing sprint. Loved the ref doing the Peter Griffin knee clutch on the outside. Can't say I'm inspired by Ziggler vs Ambrose at Summerslam at all. Also didn't really like everyone milling about in the ring at the end. Would have liked a nice serious promo from Dolph and some time for him to celebrate, then maybe the staredown with Ambrose. As I say I'm not a Ziggler fan and think he's hugely overrated by the internet, but if you're going with him then let him be the star of the closing segment.

Not a very convincing start to Smackdown for me, especially following what I thought was an excellent episode of Raw.

 

[PowerButchi]

It was what it was, I thought. An alright wrestling show, certainly didn't hit the heights of Raw. I can't say I'm massively excited by the impending return of Shelton Benjamin. Really don't fancy Noodle boy vs Ambrose either.

[JLM]

Be funny if USA demanded another hour. Get that Usos/Ascension feud brewing.

[PowerButchi]

Unsure on Spoiler rules as it was Live on Sky but who knows...

 

 

JBL WAS BEARABLE!

 

Like that's possibly the best 8 hours of WWE TV produced this year in a row, with NXT and CWC tomorrow night, they may have had their best week in years. They didn't throw all the chips out at once as well. Still Alpha to go, Shelton back and Rhyno signed, looks like they'll have a Women's title on SmackDown as well.

 

Title match should be good as well. Both guys are known for bringing it and trying to raise the bar a bit so should be a decent undercard to the Universal title they'll probably make a bigger deal out of being the inaugural champion.

 

Great week of TV. Flew by.

 

 

The spoiler rules these days are pretty much "Fine in the show thread as you'd have to be a bit dopey to go into the show thread after the show not expecting one, don't be stupid putting them in other threads though without prior warning". I suppose me and Chest should probably review them with Smackdown going live.

[PowerButchi]

Be funny if USA demanded another hour. Get that Usos/Ascension feud brewing.

 

I'd be leaping off the Aqueduct if that happens.

 

Actually, that's an exaggeration as I think this is the first time I've watched SD all the way through in a few years, and I don't see it becoming regular either! Can't wait for that Shelton Benjamin vs Apollo Crews match which they'll surely do as they are both black and wrestling is inherently racist. Athletico Bland.

[I Bent My Wookie]

Super.

 

I get a lot of the Ziggler hate here, like he is a bit all over the place, looks a bit shit at present and resembles a noodle but I am excited to see him lock up with Ambrose. Don't think they've had a match since Ambrose turned after the Shield split so its fresh at least. With Cena and Styles facing off I assume as well, there's nobody else to really elevate unless they went down the Miz route and had him step up to be "the face of SmackDown".

 

The thing for me I liked as RAW did though in some sense, there wasn't a straight away need to fix the 'wrongs'. They don't have a Womens or Tag belt but that wasn't as important as finding a guy to challenge for the top belt. Counted 5 or 6 tag's that were in the Battle Royal (as well as Alpha) and obviously the 6 women's wrestlers. With Bryan being about competition, with SummerSlam 3 Smackdown's away and Backlash 6, could easily start a round robin league next week, with the top 2 from each facing off at Backlash. Keeps it fresh, especially if they utilise Main Event, rather than just having single elimination and then having to make up time elsewhere.

 

Backlash card of:

 

Cena vs Styles vs Ambrose vs Ziggler

Wyatt vs Orton

Tag Title Final

Divas Final

Corbin vs Crews

Shelton vs The Miz

 

Wouldn't be the worst opening in the world for a Smackdown PPV brand. 

[JLM]

I like a Crews/Benjamin team personally. Can play off Shelton's past and call it The World's Greyest Tag Team.

 

Or The New Beige Outlaws.

 

Their gimmick is that they're athletic and sometimes smile. Or you could turn them heel and have them do a gimmick where they're athletic but smile less frequently. It's Money either way.

[DCW]

Women's segment after Becky/Natalya match was a bit of a mess, wonder is a new SD women's title in the near future. Is Bayley the last woman left in NXT then so? bit of a pisser for her if true.

 

Alright show, I dislike Corbon, Crews and noodle head so wasn't arsed about the main event.

[Guest]

The Eva Marie bit was awesome. Whoever's voice that was did an amazing job.

[Nick Soapdish]

I like a Crews/Benjamin team personally. Can play off Shelton's past and call it The World's Greyest Tag Team.

 

Or The New Beige Outlaws.

 

Their gimmick is that they're athletic and sometimes smile. Or you could turn them heel and have them do a gimmick where they're athletic but smile less frequently. It's Money either way.

^ +1 a fantastic observation

[hallicks]

Thought it was a pretty dull show overall. Ryder was all over the place at the end of that battle royal. I get that Kalisto is small and everything, but there should be enough surface area not to miss a pretty straightforward dropkick like that.

 

JBL still seemed awful to me, Ranallo's got a lot of adjusting to do. Better yet, get rid of JBL entirely, a total fucking shitarse. Otunga seemed far less rubbish than Saxton, just by virtue of saying simple things quickly and correctly.

 

Ziggler needs some serious rehab in the next few weeks if he's going to seem like a credible threat at the PPV, unfortunately I think he's just a bit too shit at this point.

 

EDIT: Trouble's a-brewing when Heath Slater is the best thing on your show.

[Brock Goldberg]

It was an hit and miss start but encouraging enough going forward.

 

Raw being an hour longer have more depth in terms of talent but I still think SD is worth sticking with.

 

Loved the Eva Marie entrance and she looked stunning!

 

The Heath Slater segment was fantastic.

 

The main event was fine and pretty much the best you can do with that type of match. Ziggler winning was a shock but a match up with Ambrose feels fresh and I'm sure they will have a great match at Summerslam.

 

Shame they didn't keep Lawler on commentary and put JBL on the panel with Booker and co.

[tiger_rick]

Didn't think it was particularly good but not bad either. The sort of show Raw is most weeks, ironically.

 

Battle Royal was a botchamania episode and Zack Ryder was the star. Thought JBL was still annoying and shit but he did a good job covering for Ryder's fuck ups. Not sure what to make of that soft-hard camera. Quite strange.

 

Liked the opening wwith Bryan and Shane, genuinely but then they said it wasn't going to be about them and proceeded to be all over it.

 

Liked that everyone got interviews for the main (except Cena) but didn't like the black hole feel to them. Thought this on Raw too - they just don't know how to present sport. I know it's not sport but it kind of is so it'd be really easy to add little touches that are common in sport to add to the feeling. Like on Raw, Sasha Banks shouldn't be warming up in a fucking corridor so Tom Thingy can wander up and interview her. She's a fucking superstar, they say, so why's she reduced to warming up in a hallway? Every sport uses a sponsored board behind people being interviewed. That would look so much more legit than a black background (Bray Wyatt excepted).

 

Ziggler winning was a surprise but a nice one given his previous interview - he'd have looked a div if he'd failed. Typical WWE though to take a guy who is floundering and give him the big win before they rehabilitate him. Over to them now to make him interesting in three weeks.

 

Heath Slater was ace and it was nice to see Rhyno. He's a pudgy fucker who is knackered after one move but he still hits a spear better than Roman. I'm enjoying Randy Orton for the first time in ages. American Alpha video was a great tease. Women's segment was odd but Alexa was in it so all good. Agree about how good Eva Marie's entrance was.

 

Thought the six man showed how much talent there is on Smackdown - the Battle Royal showwed how little depth there is though.