The Smackers Thread

[Devon Malcolm]

17 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

I can't see Roman going Hollywood. He's a pretty shite actor. Not that it stopped Cena or Batista when they first started out but he's not really been in much. Apart from Hobbs and Shaw and zootopia 2 

So, actually he'd be well advised to follow the Cena / Batista route if they were shite actors and he's a shite actor?

[TheScarlettChad]

11 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

So, actually he'd be well advised to follow the Cena / Batista route if they were shite actors and he's a shite actor?

Nah, Because I don't think he has it in him to improve. He'd stay shite, and be more of a Hogan. 

[Devon Malcolm]

1 hour ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Nah, Because I don't think he has it in him to improve. He'd stay shite, and be more of a Hogan. 

Apparently you can tell a lot from small role in a Fast and Furious film and Zootropolis 2.

[wordsfromlee]

1 hour ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Nah, Because I don't think he has it in him to improve. He'd stay shite, and be more of a Hogan. 

Or he could be shit like The Rock and become the highest paid actor in the world.

[JLM]

11 hours ago, Merzbow said:

I'm only watching the Cody/Punk segment and that might be the deadest crowd I've ever heard, a bunch of rich fans that don't really give a fuck in a town that's dying (there's a lot of analysis on Vegas being purposefully killed off recently, but that's for another thread) sitting down and watching a couple of storylines that are already long dead.

 

Yeah this made a pretty bad show veer into being genuinely difficult to get through. Entrance pops followed by sitting on hands. 

I watched this. Did a lot of skimming for my sanity, but still: 

 

- Opening package was fantastic. Brilliant stuff. I'll even allow Jade bullshitting about her fond memories of Chyna turning on Kane because it was so good. They should have played it on loop for 3 hours instead of this episode. Or played it at the end of the show instead of whatever Punk and Cody were doing. 

- Pat McAfee is fucking AWFUL in this role. Good grief. It's not only because it's derailed the story and makes no sense for him to be involved. Even with that aside he is just so terribly unconvincing. I'm glad they at least kept his screen time very limited. 

- Not a great promo from Orton. Definitely not helped by having to bolt on the McAfee nonsense at the beginning, but even after that it wasn't strong material. Cody called on Seth to help him instead of Randy because all he does it take take take? What? Luckily Orton is bulletproof with the audience, so his reaction at Mania will not be hampered by all of this rubbish. It is a shame, as Randy reverting to form, the people wanting to see that and the cooling off of Cody meant that the match already had an interesting dynamic to it and lots you could do with that story. That's not even counting the tonnes of history these two have between them. A very very easy feud to book/write and instead they have cooled it down as much as humanly possible right up until the night before the match. 

 - Wyatts vs Non Fungible Tongans was certainly on screen for several minutes. Decent reaction for the Wyatt entrance but then it was ice cold. Graves marvelling at how good young Talla Tonga (35) is for a man so new to the industry (10 year pro) was funny. Rowan looked good. I've always had a soft spot for him and he had some good big man intensity here. It makes me very very sad to see Jeff Cobb doing fuck all. I love that man. 

- Priest and R-Truth bit was painfully unfunny to me. I swear there have been times when I thought Priest had a bit of cool factor to him and maybe a bit of understated charisma, but he is so unbelievably dull right now. He had nothing to work with here though. Truth can definitely be funny in the right moment with the right material and he always commits 100% to the bit, but this was dreadful. 

- If the Priest/Truth bit was painful then the Danhausen/Miz bit was excruciating. I like Danhausen but man they are going to run him into the ground if they put him in stuff like this. Let him be a little wandering backstage weirdo who pops up from time to time and adds a bit of levity. This was way too much. Tessitore dropping a "this is TOO GOOD" here was absurd. 

Those two segments back to back made me think of LaGoosh's "you must fucking LOVE jingling keys" comment, and thankfully that did make me laugh a bit. 

- Speaking of Keys, the Royce Keys video was superb! Genuinely brilliant stuff, showcasing his vulnerability and humanity and making it impossible not to root for him. I really hope tonight is the start of a long term plan for him as I've always been a fan. 

- Fatu promo was decent but he looked very very uncomfortable standing on top of that car. He looked like was trying to find his footing for half of the promo and I found it distracting. He has buttery smooth delivery and sounds cool as fuck, so he was able to power through. He did repeat himself a bit in the first half but managed to bring it around in the end. I was hoping for a bigger reaction but this crowd was not giving big reactions. 

- Tag title match was an amusing enough house show type thing. Kingston and Waller felt very cold. 

- Rhea sounded a bit off at the start of the promo but found her way half way through and sounded good by the end. I thought Jade sounded great, loved "since you didn't lean your lesson, this Sunday I'm putting belt to ass" in particular. Perfectly effective go home segment. Very encouraged to hear the closing theme of both of them promising to make it quick. This only needs to be 7-8 minutes of well rehearsed haymakers, I really hope they can pull it off. 

- Solo trying to give the big pep talk while his leadership appears to be hanging by a thread was fun. I enjoyed him here, great little side eye glances throughout. 

- Tiffy vs Grace was a fine TV match but man what a brutal non-reaction for Grace's return. Her abysmal theme song with the very confusing intro definitely doesn't help, but they've also done basically nothing to establish who she is or why anyone should care. Stratton also needs some rehabbing as her star has fallen a lot. Again needs her character fleshing out. She's potentially very very good, so I hope they get this right.

- I mostly enjoyed the Trick/Sammy segment. Trick is such a star. The material here was a bit of a mixed bag, with some great lines and some flat bits, but his delivery is consistently excellent and he is just brimming with charisma and screen presence. He is genuinely cool and I like that they're letting the face turn happen organically without trying to take away his edge. The gingerbread man schtick was silly but  I did like the angle of Sammy calling him out on this pissing about and not taking this mania match seriously enough, and Trick getting a bit more serious in response. I loved Sammy's performance here, the "ride or die Sammy Zayn fans" bit is very funny and him chastising the gingerbread man made me smile. Kicking the gingerbread's head 180 degrees was also a fantastic visual. This should be a good'un at Mania, Sammy will make sure it's a cracking match, Trick can definitely hang with a good opponent and I am intrigued by the outcome. 

- Charlexa has to end soon, I can't do it any more. They seem to be telegraphing it will happen when they fail to win at Mania, let's hope so. I love the Nia/Legend monster heel team. 

- Keeping Oba/Brock to video packages this episode was absolutely correct. No more build required. The real main event of Mania without a doubt. 

- Rey Fenix did a few moves in the battle royal. I miss that guy. Akira Tozawa getting one of the biggest pops of the match made me smile. Love him, can't quite believe he's still employed. This ended up being quite fun in the second half. Good stuff from Otis, Aleister Black and promising rookie Talla Tonga. Keys getting the last entrance and the video earlier in the show meant there was only one winner, but the booking here was effective and he got a good reaction. 

- Cody Rhodes is such a mug during Mania season. I know he acknowledged this himself, but pointing this out isn't enough when he keeps letting it happen. Was so funny to me that he was interrupted mid promo by the bigger boy World Champion and had to be happy about it. This segment was a difficult watch. I see what they were going for but this attempt at damage control and restoring some good will fell so devastatingly flat with the crowd. Cody is virtually dead to these people. It was clear at the start of the show and I can't imagine they thought this segment would go any better than this after that. Punk looked and sounded great. Some of the material was OK, but the sentiment of the whole thing was just not in step with the audience at all, and Punk's rallying cry at the end felt utterly desperate. Oof. 

 

Pretty bad go home show that. Still, there is enough stuff here that has potential to deliver on the night. I hope the crowd is a bit more lively for it though!

Stuff I'm looking forward to:

- Oba vs Brock remains fascinating. By far the number one point of interest.

- I am cautiously excited for Jade vs Rhea. It feels like a Mania-worthy spectacle and I believe Rhea can pull this off. I may be delusional. We shall see. 

- Sammy vs Trick has been built effectively and I don't think the outcome is a certainty. There is more mileage in the feud and I think prolonging it would be good for Trick as Sammy can help him level up both in-ring and on the mic, but equally it'd be a great star making moment for Trick to win. Also think it'll be a good match.

- Jacob and Drew should be a belter.

- Stephanie Vaqeur vs Liv Morgan has had a quietly excellent build. I'd say the least fumbled of the four world title match builds. I'm still not fully convinced by Morgan in-ring but she has produced bigger performances on big occasions before and Vaqeur is outstanding, so I think this could be very good.

- I wish Gunther was facing anyone other than Rollins, but Gunther will make sure this is at least a good match. 

- Punk vs Roman is big. The promo battles have varied wildly in quality but it is a big enough pairing that it should work on the night regardless. 

- The Penta ladder match has a fun line up and I am particularly looking forward to any Penta vs Rey exchanges.

Edited April 18 by JLM

[Supremo]

Yeah, the Gingerbread Man angle had a bit more nuance and thought put into it than a passing glance would suggest, and turned into a reasonably good segment.

More evidence that Trick is such a star that he can make almost anything work, and it was a good laugh watching the Gingerbread Man selling fear and then getting decapitated, all whilst still having the same smiley face.

Ultimately, I like to think Hunter is panicking and just throwing any old shit out there now.

”The fans are campaigning for shit booked by Vince! Quick! Open the costume box and see what we’ve got!”

Ask for 2019. You get 2019.

 

[Onyx2]

4 hours ago, JLM said:

Non Fungible Tongans

I absolutely love this.

[TheScarlettChad]

Cody referenced TKO again. They're determined to make this a thing. 

[RedTwoster]

I’ve not watched the show, but I did see the call-ups. I’m intrigued as to how Ricky Saints will do on the main roster. He’s not been particularly good in NXT, and I’m struggling to see where he’ll fit in on Smackdown. 

Blake Monroe has the potential to be a megastar for them. It’s nice to see Jacy Jayne and co get a chance, they deserve it.

[BarryOVega]

I thought they should have brought Saints and Ethan Page up as a tag team on Smackdown, tag division was shit before the releases so they could’ve dominated before going off on their own (Page to be a star if he bins off the crappy grin thing and Saints to be a mid card heel before being binned off in a couple of years)

Edited April 25 by BarryOVega

[Snitsky's back acne]

2 hours ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Cody referenced TKO again. They're determined to make this a thing. 

ECW, Paul Heyman and "The Network" immediately comes to mind. 

[DavidB6937]

So relieved that they brought the girls up with Jacy. They work really well as a group as a whole. Would've been more of an uphill struggle for Jacy getting called up solo.

[Arch Stanton]

2 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

I’ve not watched the show, but I did see the call-ups. I’m intrigued as to how Ricky Saints will do on the main roster. He’s not been particularly good in NXT, and I’m struggling to see where he’ll fit in on Smackdown.

Honestly, he's been absolutely dogshit in NXT. They have probably called him up because they need some fresh comedic heels to sell for Danhausen's schtick with OTT facials.

[JLM]

It’s a shame he had to shoehorn in the “external forces” bollocks as I thought Cody’s promo was fantastic otherwise. The eye definitely helped too, both his delivery and that look gave him the edge he often lacks. An extremely fiery babyface promo and it got the crowd rabidly behind him, but also the unspoken “to the undercurrent of Cody haters in the audience, I’m still champ, fuck you!” 

Other stuff: 

 

- Very hot crowd made this a lot more watchable than last week’s miserable episode. 

- Tiffy/Giulia wasn’t bad once it got going. 

- Good booking of Fatu throughout the show. He always sounds good, decent match with Solo and it seems smart to incorporate the Backlash Challenger role into a larger story to get some value out of it. 

- Jacy Jane’s call up is a welcome one and she did a superb job dealing with the very very very loud booing. It sounded like that KO/Elias promo where they upset the local Sportball fans. Lot of call ups could have been deer in the headlights there but she powered through it impressively. Solid match with Rhea too. 
 

- Two Smackdowns in a row Solo has cracked me up with the level of disrespect he tolerates. “He thinks he can beat Roman?!?  He couldn’t even beat YOU!” And Solo’s like “yeeeah and I’m proper shit lol!” I understand the never ending feud with the Wyatts has left this act very cold overall but Solo as a leader who has completely lost his people but is still in denial really entertains me. 

- Charlexa sadly rolls on. Charlotte was particularly dreadful on the mic this episode. The whole women’s tag segment was quite rough but the people were happy to see Paige and Fatal Influence (still hate that name) got amazing heat on their debut. 

- Another great Royce Keys video. Hard to believe the same company that makes these also churns out…

- The Miz/Danhausen skits, which made me want to die. AWFUL. Stop trying to make me hate Danhausen you bastards. 

- Blake Monroe call up also welcome, hope she does well and the Smackdown division could use her. 

- Tag title match happened. Mostly the same as last week: Priest is snooze material and the anonymous lackey jobber role for Jeff Cobb makes me cry. I pray there’s still time for another New Japan run or an AEW run after WWE cuts him. 
 

- Lil Yachty stiggidy staying did not get the pop he hoped for. Otherwise a good outing for Trick though. Great reaction, effortless promo, dripping with confidence. Very predictable and hokey angle buuuut Sammy was an utter delight here from the moment he revealed himself. Glad they’re keeping this going, again I think it’s the perfect opponent to help Trick improve. 
 

Not a bad episode, with the caveat that I did a lot of skimming to trim it down to about half the length. 

[Arch Stanton]

28 minutes ago, JLM said:

Tag title match happened. Mostly the same as last week: Priest is snooze material and the anonymous lackey jobber role for Jeff Cobb makes me cry. I pray there’s still time for another New Japan run or an AEW run after WWE cuts him.

Or even better, Lucha Underground! Depending on what that news is.