Smackdown Discussion Thread

[PunkStep]

New intro: Ok-ish, but the sound effects were a bit loud

New music: Shiiiiit! Same old bollocks

New set: Uninspiring- looked the same MINUS a ramp. So it looks like a step down

New ropes: Hooray! The blue is back!

New announcers: Ear cancer

Start of the show: I liked the opening bit with D-Bry and Shane, until they got to the ring and you realised they were opening with a poxy battle royal

Roster: It's a bit shit. When they were surrounding the ring, you realised that overall they'd been dealt a pretty cack hand compared to Raw.

New number 1 contender: FFS

 

I don't think I'll keep my series link active for very long if this is a sign of what to expect. Incredibly underwhelming, and not just in comparison to a very good episode of Raw.

[Your Fight Site]

I want a new opening for NXT now that RAW and SmackDown Live have new ones. That awful “whooshing” sound during the current NXT theme that they recently added is already annoying.

[ColinBollocks]

The goal should always be to keep you wanting to watch next Tuesday and I really have no inclination to do so. It totally felt like they spunked all their good ideas and energy away on Monday, so instead of having anything fresh decided to do a 6-pack challenge, which felt like re-hash of what they did on Raw. As did them opening with all the talent out there with Shane and Bryan. It was typically lazy, really.

 

It was quite the comedown from Monday and a grand way of highlighting that, despite all the talk of change and what not, it will probably be business as usual every week soon enough.

 

JBL is indeed poopy.

[DavidB6937]

I've seen some people say that at least Smackdown has somewhere to go, while Raw will struggle to keep the quality high like this week.

 

It might be the case, but I want to see Raw next week and I'm not bothered about Smackdown whatsoever.

[Supremo]

I haven't seen the show, so maybe the way they present it will change my mind, but Ziggler is the weirdest choice imaginable. I get the thought process behind it, I'm sure there's a certain subset of fans who are rejoicing that Dolph is finally, "getting his chance," but in reality, you've got a chump with no momentum suddenly fighting for the WWE Title on one of the biggest shows of the year. Rubbish.

 

If they wanted to give the impression of Smackdown being the wrestling show then they should have done Styles vs. Ambrose at SummerSlam. At least AJ has been featured on TV these past six months. I genuinely can't think of anything Dolph has done since that storyline with him, Summer, Lana and Rusev went tits up.

 

I wonder if they're going to do Roman vs. Cena in a RAW vs. Smackdown match at SummerSlam? It feels like it's now or never to finally have that match.

[MVP RULZ]

Surely Its AJ vs Cena at Summerslam isn't it?

 

I Imagined that was the thought process behind doing the 6 Man Tag at Battleground to save the 1 on 1 Rematch for Summerslam

[TildeGuy~!]

Cena to take on Corbin maybe?

 

Thought they would try to out do Raw last night but I ended up being bored. I hate Randy Ortons jokey baby face character and as soon as I noticed the battle royal participants I realised Smackdown didn't really have many stars apart from Ambrose and the 5(and Apollo Crews) in the main event.

[Daaaaaad!]

Yeah, frankly I'll be pissed off if having not put AJ in the title match, they also don't put him against Cena at Summerslam.

[PunkStep]

 as soon as I noticed the battle royal participants I realised Smackdown didn't really have many stars apart from Ambrose and the 5(and Apollo Crews) in the main event.

 

It was quite glaring, wasn't it? It really hit home when the 'hard cam' (or whatever that annoying, weird camera angle is called) was in use during the opening segment, you had The Ascension, Kalisto, Carmella, Naomi and a couple of other absolute jabronis in plain view.

[The Clint]

I think they could do with giving SD an overrun just like Raw.  It's ended bang on 3am (UK time) for the last 2 weeks.

 

Ranallo has his work cut out sitting in the middle of JBL and Otunga. I think Otunga adds fuck all to the commentary team. I would rather Saxton pull double duty again to be honest.

 

Don't like the idea of Ziggler being in a WWE title match at SummerSlam. 

 

For me Raw definitely drew first blood this week.

[The King Of Swing]

Kalisto is tiny even by small guy standards. He stood out like a sore thumb standing between Eva Marie and Becky Lynch.

[The Clint]

It's ironic that Shane and Bryan keep banging on about how it's not about management and more about the superstars, but yet they couldn't resist getting themselves back on camera to close the show along with Bryan's music for the usual YES pop. 

[Jackpot]

One or two iffy decisions were made. Shane announces the battle royal is for everybody, yet two of the biggest names (Orton/Miz) on the roster can't be arsed with it - or did I just miss them completely?. Now fair enough Orton is facing Lesnar at SummerSlam but surely the WWE Title is a big enough carrot to be prepared to pull double duty on it. And Miz, as IC champion, it would have suited his character down to a tee to try and have both titles.

 

Then Apollo Crews, does a backflip, smiling like mad, going over board on his celebrations before telling Renee that he won't celebrate until he's won the main event. Straight after saying that, he goes and celebrates with the crowd - again.

 

Ziggler winning was a total shock, truth be told I thought he was in the match to take the fall - but instead they put that on AJ Styles. Now on the draft show, Ziggler had a rant about how he'd walk away forever if there was ever anybody who outperformed him (or words to that effect) so part of me hopes that's why he's won so Ambrose can go over him and he can go away forever (in WWE, forever means a couple of months of course where he'll come back with some new gear/attitude/music).

 

American Alpha debut next week, despite being on this week's show.

 

Bryan tells us at the start it's not about him, it's about the wrestlers. Then he's yessing like mad at the end of the opening segment. 

 

Rowan still wearing his sheep mask but throughout the show there were no signs that he and Bray were still together.

 

JBL still took swipes at Byron Saxton, which really came off as pathetic. It was bad enough when they were together, now they're on different shows and he's still doing it just comes across as petulant.

 

You have two champions on your show and our your first show of the New Era, you have one of them lose. Losing to Orton isn't an embarrassment but surely you need your champions looking as strong as possible, especially when you've only got two to begin with. That victory for Orton could have come against anybody else and achieved just as much.

 

Announcing Backlash for September 11. Given what that date means in history, especially the US, I found it an odd date to have them all cheering about their very first SmackDown exclusive pay-per-view. It also runs the risk of them playing homage to the date so much that it overshadows the pay-per-view itself.

 

Then there were the good bits to;

 

I genuinely enjoyed the Miz TV segment, I thought Orton played his part well and Miz was Miz. 

 

Returns of Shelton and Rhyno will add something to the roster, they have to be credible veterans though and not just allow everybody to go over them because then their worth becomes diluted.

 

Becky won and looked absolutely gorgeous in doing so.

 

After that, all the women coming down and essentially claiming that SmackDown's women division is about them was a good way to bring them all into the spotlight with Eva Marie being the brightest star of them all.

 

Heath Slater again getting a gimmick over, he's like Cody Rhodes in that sense.

 

A crowd that seemed willing to get involved in the right way, rather than just trying to get themselves over or sitting on their hands and not showing any interest.

 

A surprise victor in a big match, just like Sasha on RAW. It installs the anything can happen back into their shows.

 

So overall, it was a up and down show but hopefully now they've got the main event for SummerSlam sorted they can start to work on the rest of the card. Is their any announcement of how many matches will be allocated to each show at SummerSlam? 

[Statto]

Shelton fucking Benjamin.

 

Dolph cunting Ziggler.

 

Guess I'm Team Raw.

[neil is brill]

Dolph Ziggler is just white Shelton Benjamin for me.

 

Any time anyone says anything about either of them, it's usually something along the lines of "WWE should give them the push they so rightfully deserve."