PUTTIN’ THAT SMACK DOWN…What Happen Last (Tuesday) Night [Nov. 21st, 2014]

The “Go Home” SmackDown show perhaps had to “dumb itself down” to meet where RAW left off yet, I was not all that disappointed.  If anything, I was a little intrigued and somewhat at a bit of an impasse because I’m not sure what the intention is, going forward, for the WWE.  It’s in a strange place it appears.  They’re either paving the way for a true changing of the guard or they’re going to continue going with…whatever they’ve got going on.  It’s hard to say and the manner in which they are proceeding leaves me feeling like I have to see how this pans out before I can make an honest decision as to whether it’s a bad thing or not.  In that respect, they have my full attention.

SmackDown opens with Michael Cole asking Triple H a few questions.  Here’s where I start to get intrigued yet confused at the same time.  With the livelihoods of everyone supposedly on the line, I understand why we’d want to hear what Triple H has to say, yet Michael Cole opens with how the WWE Universe more or less, “loathes” him.  That we would love to see The Authority out of power.  How does Triple H feel about this?  I wouldn’t say we loathe him.  Hell, I don’t even hate him.  I’ve already admitted in this blog that I did, back in the day.  I could not stand Triple H.  Hated everything that he stood for but, in retrospect, I understand what he was doing.  Then, I just was so caught up in the action, I couldn’t differentiate fact from fiction but now, I can.  So, from that former perspective, I understand Cole’s angle but in current terms, I think it’s a bit of a stretch.  Even with teens that are discovering this stuff, they would at least notice how Triple H and Stephanie are playing roles.  And the recent beef hasn’t been so incendiary that I really feel that emotionally invested in any real direction so…I guess what I’m saying is that Cole’s kinda putting words in our mouths when it comes to speaking for us.  Yet, Triple H sticks to his theories.  Shit, he knows what’s good.  He was a facet of the greatest era Wrestling has ever seen in this modern day context.  He knows what’s what and a WWE Universe without him and Stephanie is no universe at all.  Whether we like it or not, The Authority will remain in charge and will always be in charge.  We never had it so good!  Here again, I’m not sure why Triple H is coming at us like this.  If he’s merely serving as example, putting on a proverbial “master class” on “Heel-itude”, then I’ll scrutinize this more forgivingly but, I don’t really get why he’s playing for hate.  When he’s in the ring, when’s he got beef with someone he can actually fight, he can be the “bad guy” all he wants but in his role as COO, I’m not sure it’s necessary in this regard.  He’ll never fight the audience so, why is he kinda starting shit with us?  I would say, fuck if we care if this shit goes under.  If it sucks, it sucks.  That’s not our fault.  If it didn’t suck, there wouldn’t be a problem.  Under H’s and Stephanie’s supposed “rule”, things are okay at best.  They’re not completely horrible but with factions like Lucha Underground coming up, they may have to be leery of competition in their market.  I think that will be more discernable in a year or 2 but they can’t honestly say that what they’re churning out is the best.  It may be what they think is the best with what they got to work with but, it’s more outmoded thinking that’s stifling things than lack of talent.

In any case, he eventually calls for Team Cena and they all walk out to Dolph Ziggler’s theme.  We get Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Erick Rowan and Ryback standing shoulder-to-shoulder.  Triple H then says here’s another stipulation guys.  When you guys lose, and believe me you will, you’ll lose your jobs but Cena will be fine.  How’s that for camaraderie.   In the meantime, let’s get this party started with someone on my team kicking one of your asses.  Rusev, take Ziggler out.

And in no time, we hear Rusev’s music and he and Lana appear to do just that.  Well, it was no surprise that Ziggler lost.  You just look at the 2 and you come to that conclusion, but he does give it a good, believable go and even looks like he may pull off a surprise victory but Rusev lands a big foot to his face and it’s basically over.  He locks in The Accolade to confirm the kill.  He continues to look formidable and impressive and Ziggler still gets props for staying scrappy.

Next up, we have some Tag Team action with Los Matadores and The Miz and Damien “Mizdow” to remind us of the Fatal-4-Way set for Survivor Series.  Yet, to mix things up, we’ll have both The Usos and The Brothers Dust on commentary.  This match actually got overshadowed by what went down on commentary but, that wasn’t a bad thing.  It was great actually.  JBL was pretty funny calling StarDust out on some character-based nerd-itude.  And The Usos were hilariously silly as usual.  They should probably do that more often when the match is so-so.  It wasn’t a bad match really but, seeing how I was more taken by listening to commentary and the commentators were, as well says a lot about the match is all.

To follow, Dean Ambrose takes a moment to share some back-story and introduce us to his “Survival Kit”.  Apparently, as a kid Ambrose got his first taste of violence and got jumped one day.  Upon returning home, he told his mother of the ordeal and she responded in kind by giving him a set of brass knuckles.  With those in hand she instructs him to make sure such a thing never happens again.  Well, now Ambrose is all grown up.  Though I’m sure he has some somewhere, he no longer needs brass knuckles.  He’s got his fists, his feet, and his knees, shit his whole damn body is his fucking survival kit now.  And when it comes to Survivor Series, Bray Wyatt will come to know that firsthand.  Then the Trinitron flickers on with Wyatt imagery to settle on a scene of Bray Wyatt in what looks like a prison cell.  He begins by asking Ambrose if it looks familiar.  I’m sure it does to your daddy.  He goes on to further attempt to get in Ambrose’s head, trying to get Ambrose to believe that he knows more than he even wants to admit and so on and so forth… As I said last post, I have no problem with these guys getting on the mic and talking all day but, is it necessary?  It’s good that they can hold our interest without fighting but it’s something that could easily go against them as well.

Next on the night’s agenda, we have a preview to the Survivor Series match between AJ Lee and Brie Bella.  Yet, seeing how The Bella Twins started the impersonation party, AJ comes decked out as “AJ Bella” with the T&A padded accordingly to mock Nikki.  This was actually pretty fucking funny.   AJ is no stranger to mockery since I remember her doing something similar to Kaitlyn when she was on the roster but, I think she started that one.  This time around, she counters with it and pretty effectively.  Using the sisters’ in-fighting against them, she pushes Brie into Nikki and rolls her up for the win.  As for Survivor Series projections, it’s still hard to say.  Rumors of AJ Lee leaving the WWE have swirled up again and depending on what happens Sunday that may fuel or squash them but as with rumors, best not to give them much mind until more facts come out.

The next match was one of the intriguing moments for me.  We have Erick Rowan against Cesaro.  To start, it was hard to say who’d win but seeing how Rowan is gi-normous and somewhat touched in the head, him simply overpowering Cesaro wasn’t much of a stretch. The match was well-executed.  Rowan was delectably intimidating but I still feel Cesaro should get a few wins than serve as the base frog to leap over.   Yet, after the match, Luke Harper meanders his wide-eyed self out with Intercontinental Championship Belt in hand and he appears to offer it but we’re not sure if he’s issuing a challenge to Rowan or simply offering to share it like kids would share toys.  These 2 are obviously being played as “special” characters so in that, there’s a lot of places it could go because…they’re fucking crazy. What I’ve been gleaning from the “interwebs” is that this burgeoning feud is poorly fueled but with characters as these, it doesn’t really need to be intricately thought out.  I mean, Rowan could find a hole in his mechanics’ outfit and blame Harper for it.  Who knows what would set these 2 off.  It could be as simple as Rowan choosing Team Cena, really.  Aren’t they supposed to be together forever?  Maybe Harper’s hurt? (^_~) I expect some sort of beef to develop between Rowan and Harper but the beauty of it is that it doesn’t have to make sense.

This leads us to our main event, Big Show and Ryback vs. Dad/Kane and Seth Rollins.  I liked the match.  It was a little tough to watch Show and Dad go at it, though because you could sense a sympathetic tone to one another, which is fine.  I’m not going to fault 2 aging heroes going at it because they do have a few more years left in ‘em but at the same time, it’s obvious that they only have a few years left in ‘em.  Don’t get me wrong, they both look great given the life, Dad especially, but it’s tough getting all that going.  It’s tough taking hits and falling, and in their interaction it seemed like they were just taking it a little easy on each other because hell, they know where they're at.  But, I loved how Ryback handled Rollins.  In mis-matches, Rollins should always get his ass handed to him.  He’s heel enough to warrant it and if he does manage a “win” it has to be because he used a kendo stick or something, other people intervene like they usually do. It can’t be fair because how would it be?  Before anything shady goes down though, Rollins tries to put a dent in Ryback but each hit just seems to make him mad and that’s why I wouldn’t fuck with him.  Ryback was actually a little scary, as he should be.  That’s what being up against him should conjure if you’re not about his size.

Yet, this move prompts Team Authority to cause one of those standard issue disqualifications since the real point becomes keeping Team Cena in their place, Ryback specifically.  Once he starts to get singled out, Team Cena start coming out to back up their boy and heat up their respective or potential beefs but Triple H eventually decides that if you want something done right, you do it yourself and lays everyone out with a “steel” chair.  He then has Ryback held down, thrown up against a turnbuckle and gets in his face, very much like how Vince McMahon did to Steve Austin back in the day.  You want to go your way? This is what happens when you go your way!  My way kicks your ass!  He has his team set Ryback up and Triple H proceeds to end Ryback with a Pedigree and that’s the fact, Jack!

On “Twitters” I ended with how I both loved this and hated this at the same time.  I loved it because that’s why you like Triple H in the end.  He is truly the “Ultimate Heel”, he seems to live for our hate.  I don’t know how healthy that is.  I’m sure if you keep it in context, it’s fine but, like I said at the beginning of this post, I’m not really sure why he’s playing this angle under the Survivor Series context.  I guess that’s where my hate seeps in.  I’m not sure where this is going as for leading up for this “pay-per-view”.   I’ll be watching tomorrow because I can, might as well so, my question becomes, should we expect to see Triple H mix it up in the ring?  Because if he’s not going to be fighting, why is he getting into this fray?  If it’s just to give us something to watch, whatever, not going to knock that but Triple H getting into it, isn’t really a draw.  Now, seeing the obvious parallel to the Steve Austin/Corporation assault, perhaps this segment is more symbolic.  Maybe every era must have a showdown with whoever is in charge yet, wouldn’t it make more sense to have the assaulted be someone like Dean Ambrose?  His character would have a definite beef with The Authority but I see that he’s currently preoccupied with Bray Wyatt’s head-trips.  If you’re going to so blatantly re-create so iconic of a scene, I just feel it should have more weight overall.  I don’t really think they’re going to put Ryback that over.  Besides, we’ll be the ones to decide anything like that and I think we’re all pretty okay with Ryback but far from singing his praises.  Here’s where some chagrin bubbles up.  How the WWE proceeds is integral to its success.  They have to smarten up, basically.  I know that with a genre such as this, it’s easy to think that it doesn’t take much to entertain us.  The majority of us can’t be all that bright and probably drunk so, we can get away with some shoddy work but, times have changed.  Regardless of intelligence, it doesn’t take much to get informed.   We know that the WWE needs shit that works and so, that may be all they’re doing but at the same time, we’ll see that if it’s too obvious and thusly not be impressed.  It’s hard nowadays.  What they need to figure is how to keep the spirit without forgetting the Times.

See You Sunday,

-Nicole Alexis..