PUTTIN’ THAT SMACKDOWN…What Happened Last (Tuesday) Night [Oct. 31st, 2014]
The
Halloween edition of SmackDown was a
fine one for the evening. As I’ve been
stating, SmackDown has been
consistently giving RAW a run for its
money and seeing how I prefer what’s good, I believe WWE Powers That Be should
take note. SmackDown writers are demonstrating that they do know how to put on
a solid show and that’s all I’m really asking for at this point. Just something that reaffirms why I watch in
the first place.
In
any case, last night begins with Big Show hyping up the Houston, TX crowd with
“Yes” chants for we are about to receive an update on our favorite Face, Daniel
Bryan. If you follow this stuff, you
already know that he’s due for a Tommy John surgery and so, his absence will be
prolonged but we should keep the support going for his return. Fair
enough, this I can do.
We
then go into a Divas Battle Royale with AJ Lee joining in on commentary. As “flustercucks” go, it could have been a
lot worse. There was a lot more actual
wrestling going on than I anticipated so, that was cool and I thought the
costumes were strangely tasteful. Most
of them were more covered up than they usually are so, I found that a funny
little twist on this night when most go their sluttiest. AJ, as usual, was quite colorful on the
sidelines. Nevertheless, once the bell
rang one-by-one, divas went flying out the ropes as the chaos ensued. As the numbers lessened, it was no surprise who was left standing. Earlier, Nikki Bella in a
previously recorded promo, sent Brie off to fetch a mis-sent Louis Vuitton purse which just happens to cause Brie to miss the Battle Royale.
So,
when the playing field gets whittled down, we’re not too surprised that Natalya
goes for Nikki once she finds an opening but ends up scrapping with Alicia Fox
who eventually pushes Natalya out the ring.
Paige, dressed as SummerRae, finds herself face-to-face with Nikki and
they go at it pretty seriously. It was
kinda sweet. Paige went a little nuts but
Alicia’s overzealousness gets them both ejected when she charges Paige and
takes them both out in the process, leaving Nikki as the winner. AJ, naturally, was unamused by this outcome
and gave her best bitch-face from the announce table. Looks
like she and Nikki will be going toe-to-toe soon.
Next
on the docket is Dad/Korporate Kane vs. Dolph Ziggler. Payback for the last time they met up and
Ziggler somehow got the win. Well, Dad
was not playing this time around and went into Merciless Mode to beat
Ziggler’s ass pretty soundly. Though the
announcers allude to this being a message to those thinking about siding with
Cena for Survivor Series, I get a feeling this was just Dad doing what Dad does best. Let’s face it, storylines aside, I think we’d
all expect this to be the outcome time and time again. Yet, Dad’s not finished.
Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble come out to
get some hits in. Seth Rollins isn’t
doing anything so, he comes out and gets in a few hits of his own. Then Dad has even more. Hey Ziggler, you still got another match and
it’s with, wait for it…Seth Rollins.
Rollins, who’s embracing Heel-dom ever so nicely, strolls over with a smarmy smile and Curb Stomps Ziggler as added punctuation to his defeat.
To
follow we have Heath Slater, donning his Scarecrow costume in the ring, who
quickly discovers that he’s been offered up as sacrifice to the returned
Ryback. As it should have been, this was
a quick match with a decent amount of humor sprinkled in. Slater tries to charm his way out of an
ass-beating but, of course, Ryback will only play along for so long. Slater is
dispatched with a Shell Shock in good fashion.
Then
we have some Miz TV and The Miz and Damien Mizdow have Mark Henry as their
guest. They probe as to why Henry
suddenly has it out for Big Show. They
were such good friends. Well, Henry says
that over time, Big Show became jealous of him.
Saw what he could do and the resentment grew. Now, I have no problem with turning Henry
heel if that’s what Creative wants to do but, again, I think this angle is weak
at best. Given what we’ve seen, it’s
easier to say Henry is just butt-hurt Big Show got one over on Rusev and he
couldn’t. If he’s so big and strong, why
didn’t he squash Rusev? Fodder they’ll probably
use in this new feud yet, still the question remains as to whether this is the best way to go
about this heel-turn. Regardless, Big
Show stomps out once Henry makes his case and they waste no time in going at it. They’re veterans and it showed in
their head-to-head. Even with the sketchy
set-up, they threw-down believably and Henry sends Big Show through a
barricade, illustrating how he feels about the matter. So, we’ll be seeing how their beef plays out
for the time being.
Next
in line, we have a Tag Team match sans
Usos for once. The Dust Bros. take on
Los Matadores in a gusty little match. I
suppose it can kinda be disputed that this match up wasn’t fair because Los
Matadores have El Torito but, in any case, with some fancy maneuvering they
manage to get the win over the Brothers Dust and remind us all that they
exist. They should be used more often, in
my opinion. I was impressed with their
debut and think they can definitely help in varying up what’s on offer.
After
that, The Great Khali sees if he can put a dent in this Rusev that everyone’s
been talking about. He starts off strong
but it isn’t long before Rusev literally gets the jump on him and works him
into his Accolade. He wins via
submission and starts to power trip a little bit seeing how no one seems able
to stop him. Well, one person would like
to challenge that notion and that’s Sheamus.
With his US Championship Title Belt in hand, he says that he’s more than willing to
defend all that it stands for. Am I the
only one that finds it funny that the guy vouching for us isn’t even
American? I’m sure he’s got dual
citizenship now but, he ain’t even from here (^_~) Suppose that’s the real American Way . I
wouldn’t be surprised if the title ends up going to Rusev in some ornery twist
that sets up some feud with someone. Could be Henry so he can get his street cred. back
officially, Big Show, maybe even Ryback since the WWE needs some strong
alternatives and quick. As always, we
shall see.
This
brings us to the night’s Main Event in Dean Ambrose and Cesaro in a Trick or
Street Fight. This was basically what
you would expect to see. These 2 go at, I
wouldn’t say mercilessly but wholeheartedly.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a lot of fun. With all the pumpkins, candy corn Kendo
sticks and Halloween decorations about, there was plenty of carnage to be had
and it was. Both parties were able to
give it to the other quite equally.
There was a lot of tit-for-tat until Cesaro lets his guard down and gets
some Dirty Deeds into some pumpkin. I couldn’t help but chuckle that Ambrose
had pumpkin smeared on the side of his face for the latter half of the match
too. Ambrose finishes Cesaro off with a
jack-o-lantern hat to close this year’s episode of Halloween madness. We’ll see how things return to "normal" come RAW.
Hope You Had a Good One!
-Nicole Alexis.
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