The Smackers Thread

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, FLips said:

Michin especially; rubbish name, hair like Daisy Dares You off ZZZap,

Amazing reference. Anything can happen on the UKFF Forum.

[FUM]

33 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

If they don't play Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe's 'Barcelona' as an intro song with wrestling clips as a background I'm going to consider it an opportunity wasted. 

I do wonder if Trips has been sort of holding out for these shows. He’s very much an advocate of international crowds over the US ones and it probably shows that it’s been recognised by putting the WrestleMania build around Europe.

Could also just be that Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn were carrying the place and making the overall shows look of higher quality right enough which is more likely.

Not that I’m not enjoying parts - it just doesn’t feel “can’t miss TV” at the moment.

[Chili]

It's worth letting it see it all play out over time but in some symmetry of how era's and periods match the past, this could be the Mania X8 to Mania XL's 'X-Seven' culmination of everything mad crescendo moment. 

I'd rather not have that happen to keep the positive feels of all the promotions at the moment, just a quirky little thought I had.

[TheScarlettChad]

1 hour ago, Chili said:

It's worth letting it see it all play out over time but in some symmetry of how era's and periods match the past, this could be the Mania X8 to Mania XL's 'X-Seven' culmination of everything mad crescendo moment. 

I'd rather not have that happen to keep the positive feels of all the promotions at the moment, just a quirky little thought I had.

I do wonder if the boom is ending somewhat. Everything ends eventually. 

[Supremo]

5 hours ago, FLips said:

Michin especially; rubbish name, hair like Daisy Dares You off ZZZap,

Fantastic.

The UKFF - for over twenty years, the revolutionary force in sports entertainment discussion.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I think the crowd sweetening being gone probably explains a lot, but that crowd last night were straight shite too.

I just rewatched the Cody promo, it deserved so much more than it got. Hes great when he's fired up.

If they ever pull the trigger on a Cody/Punk feud, and give them a reason to both be furious, it'll be incredible.

[Captain SlackBladder]

There does seem to be some huge Mania build up on the European leg. 

 

My hope is that it fires up the Mania crowd on the nights. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

3 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

If they ever pull the trigger on a Cody/Punk feud, and give them a reason to both be furious, it'll be incredible

Punk can be furious at the drop of a hat, in fact if you drop his hat he goes fucking mental. 2 minutes on the mic for Punk and he'll have Cody ready to chew through his own arm. Like you though, I'm not convinced they pull the trigger on a feud between them. 

[air_raid]

Here are my unspoiled thoughts.

Tiffy continues to grow on me bell to bell, even if character wise she should be a heel. I was impressed how she looked strong against a far larger opponent, again, without relying on anything unrealistic or over cooperative (i.e. strength spots) and I love that handspring elbow, though the Abe in me finds it jarring that a baby is out there doing such a lovely Swanton and it isn’t her finish. Finish of this match was obvious but well executed, it’s funny that Pipers there doing a far better big-wrestler spot like the Vaderbomb compared to the AnNialator, but Jax is the big bad. Speaking of which, feels ages since we had an old-fashioned “heel attacks the babyface and tortures them with their submission hold” angle, glad they eschewed the visual they used to insist on, where the victim “taps out” even though it’s not a match so why would you?

Magnus going full Charlie Day was both unexpected and delightful. I hope this doesn’t end up in a ladder match, but there’s either going to be a big clusterfuck at Mania or a two man sack race held on consecutive Sundays until a champion can be crowned. Why ring announcer was compelled to mangle the stip into “a WWE Tag Team Championship number one contender triple threat match” … Christ woman, remember to breathe! Bit odd to have Deadly earn the next-to-next shot in the Denslow Cup. If Denver beat Atlanta.

Bianca confronting Naomi was the first talky bit I’ve really watched on the weekly telly (not including Soul Reaver) for ages, and I really enjoyed it. No problem with the content, if I’m alone in that feel free to pile on, but it felt a lot closer to people going through a personal issue than pro wrestlers out there doing a pro wrestling angle. I’m not going be my usual “I told you so” about Naomi being the perp, because an awful lot of us saw it coming from kick off, or even the Rikishi comparisons (yes, I’ve seen the memes), but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t satisfying to see play out. The jilted lover style fallout between Belair and Naomi could be very interesting assuming Jade doesn’t murder Naomi dead first - and how refreshing it feels that with four singles titles to compete for, they’ve fallen into an engaging story between two women that doesn’t need to focus on a belt. Speaking of Jade… I don’t mean to sound like The King circa 98 during a Sable match, but while she isn’t “my type,” she’s rather captivating to look at.

On 3/6/2025 at 4:07 PM, air_raid said:

IThey did a DQ finish to the Chelsea vs Michin title match how many weeks ago with no follow up or payoff?

Whoops! I wanted to like this match so much but… here I go again… as soon as the Van Terminator was used for just a nearfall, I checked out. I was surprised (positive) when the B-Fab turn I envisioned didn’t happen, then laughed out loud when the old “mystery hooded interference runner” eFed finish went down yet again. At least we know now why Unholy #2 was the only one let go, they have something of a plan for #1. Although given how few matches happen these days, we don’t know what it is until about mid May.

This was the first Solo match I’ve paid any attention to since probably Backlash.. I quite enjoyed it too. Maybe been turned off by his crap finish. I wish him and Jacob were properly on the same page, they’d walk the tag division. Pretty sure they could beat DIY, the Guns, lWo shirts, lWo skins and Pretty Deadly all at once. However, as plenty of people of have said in multiple threads, the production was off again… why send Braun out to the ring to cut to a backstage tiff between Charlotte and B-Fab, delaying the match? Feels a bit WCW. About fucking time Charlotte actually has a match, mind. Good post match skirmish involving Fatu, in lieu of an actual match.

Cody segment was fantastic but it speaks again for the amount of filler they pump into the shows between the matches that the recap of Cena’s turn was the third segment about it. We know! We watched it, Christ!! Anyway, Cody delivered brilliantly. I don’t blame Hunter for not wanting to piss away his goodwill to play heel for John Cena to play hero on his way out, after a couple of years with an undisputed top heel (Reigns) but no proper main event babyface to come knocking. Oh, the irony. And did you spot Cody cut a great promo making his match with Cena seem deeply personal, and I don’t think he actually mentioned Dwayne From The Board once?

Cody stood out, as he should, as top reason to watch the show, so I was a bit surprised that there were 44 minutes left. The downside to Big Jim upsetting Big Match Drew in their seemingly foregone conclusion match the other week is that this rematch had less than 0% doubt who was winning on the way to Mania, then he got attacked by Priest, obviously. Hey, if Damian’s in the building, it would have been nice for him to wrestle. Conversely, probably sucks to be Jimmy right now. Is his brother that much better than him, or did he just have the good fortune to fall into “Yeet”? Has Jey even wrestled on TV since the Rumble? That’s not how I like my main eventers kept hot for Mania to be blunt.

Finally, there was a UST match. Why do they keep dusting Lilian off for “big matches?” Watching Nakamura enter, I got really strong empathy for pilled up HBK thinking he’s looking at Y2J being Doink as his new gimmick. Because all I could think about that outfit, music and video was “Shinsuke, I just don’t understand why you have to be Tensai.” Match was eh, when Little Naitch took a bump I swear I could smell Dusty finish, but one didn’t materialise. My theory has evaporated about Carmelo winning that title fairly soon, wonder how competitive he’ll be allowed to look against Randy Orton. That’s as far as my interest goes in that belt, it’s fallen far since the Logan-Knight switch felt a big deal.

Overall I still find more to enjoy than I do on Raw.

12 hours ago, Supremo said:

Speaking of which, I saw a report that Jade had a backstage fight with Shayna Bazler, back when they were stinking up the joint last year.

Beating up Baszler because of rubbish matches? Bet that’s a long queue.

 

 

Edited March 8, 2025 by air_raid
Finally tally: fourteen injured, three dead.

[Supremo]

My favourite thing about Cody’s promo has been the reaction online.

Either people have complained about Travis Scott (“how could they let an untrained musician cause that level of damage to their top guy this close to Wrestlemania?!”) or have used it to praise Cody (“taking that amount of damage for the love of the game!”). It seems beyond most people’s comprehension that Cody might have been wearing makeup.

Let’s hope these folks don’t binge some 1999 Smackdown. “Triple H is a hero for taking that amount of damage for our entertainment.” “Stone Cold is an idiot for letting an untrained rattlesnake bite Hunter’s face.”

It’s great to see. Kayfabe never died, it just morphed.

These fans are going to be so shocked in a few months when The Rock inevitably ruins everything and tells everyone on-air that he, Cena, Cody and Travis actually celebrated the Elimination Chamber angle with a tequila together on Cody’s bus.

Edited March 9, 2025 by Supremo

[FUM]

18 minutes ago, Supremo said:

It seems beyond most people’s comprehension that Cody might have been wearing makeup.

I think the idea it’s legit comes from the reports earlier in the week that Travis Scott had given him a black eye and a busted eardrum rather than people just buying into the angle to be fair.

Finally got round to actually watching the show and didn’t think the crowd was as bad for Cody’s segment as made out. They were also pretty hot for the title change. I think some may have become accustomed to the more raucous crowds so any that is making normal levels of noise seems disappointing.

They’d be as well just disposing of tag teams on one of the shows to give themselves a bit more options week to week, boring stuff. Make the men a niche of either Raw or Smackdown and vice versa with the womens tag straps.

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, FUM said:

Make the men a niche of either Raw or Smackdown and vice versa with the womens tag straps.

I mean, the women’s division has come on leaps and bounds but this is a bit much.

?

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

I mean, the women’s division has come on leaps and bounds but this is a bit much.

?

It has definitely improved a lot. They can all leap and bound now at least. For a while half of them could leap and half of them could bound, but no one could do both. 

[Devon Malcolm]

I watched this last night because I made the mistake of drinking Coke late and was thus wired.

As reported, the crowd were fucking shite. It's like they can sense the Smacksown malaise right now whereas on Raw they're always mental.

The long Randy Orton promo was met with absolute silence throughout. I like Orton and he seems a good lad these days but I don't think long promos will ever be his strength. This went on forever.

The crowd woke up for Tiffany Stratton and I liked Charlotte's beatdown of her and subsequent sniffy promo backstage, although quite why she's now going to be wrestling B-Fab is mystifying.

Feeding Piper Niven losing into coming out in a mess for Chelsea's match was great continuous storytelling. Niven's been really good and funny in this role. I'm all in favour of Chelsea's stable growing though. She needs protection. I want to like Michin but she knows that she's never getting over and her finisher is absolute crap. She'll be in GCW by the end of the year. Obviously all the stars for Chelsea's t-shirt.

Pretty Deadly wins! Like what they've been doing with them lately. You can see they're trying with the tag division but nobody fucking cares about most of the teams and they really need Street Profits back and murdering everyone. Why did they stop their taped promos? They were ace.

I have mixed feelings about the Naomi / Bianca Belair segment. It did get a bit overact-y, and I shuddered when Bianca used the dreaded 'g' word (it's gaslighting, lads) but at least it had some emotion and back into it. Didn't feel as though there should have been another beatdown at the end of it but ok.

Solo Sikoa will pay dearly for leaving Jacob Fatu alone to get mullered by Braun Strongman. That's the story there. Solo's doomed, I think, and has been ever since Jacob signed.

Cody Rhodes' promo was excellent but wasted on a terrible crowd. And the fact that nobody answered it. Ridiculous that you would not have Cena appear on one of the shows after that turn, what a wasted opportunity.

Drew McIntyre and Damian Priest had a fight. Point at the sign, lads.

LA Knight won the US title back. Bye bye, Shinsuke.

I mean, I guess it was alright but it's a chore as well. Raw just never feels like that now.

Edited March 10, 2025 by Devon Malcolm

[Callum1993]

Smackdown is on Netflix at 7 tonight as it’s in Barcelona. For the next 3 weeks that and Raw are all on early which is ideal!