PUTTIN’ THAT SMACKDOWN…What Happened Last (Tuesday) Night [Nov. 14th, 2014]

Well, well, well what do we have here?  Could we actually be manifesting the WWE Revival I so desperately hope will come to pass someday?  It’s early but WWE Creative has not been disappointing of late when it comes to SmackDown and I certainly hope the trend continues.  The wrestling for this week was well framed by palatable, loose story and for once, I kinda want to know what happens next.  Can’t say when the last time that was.  Very promising and like I’ve been saying, adaptations such as these can only be good for business.

We begin the evening with Chris Jericho making his triumphant return for his “Highlight Reel” segment.  Of course, the hot topic currently is Survivor Series and what would the WWE Universe look like without an Authority running it?  Would we patrons in fact make it a Democratic Republic where we constantly choose our own adventure when it comes to the roster?  Good Ol’Y2J seems to think so but, The current Authority not so much.  Stephanie McMahon does a great job of making The Authority’s case for maintaining power.  Granted, the whole thing is kinda arbitrary seeing how they’ll do whatever they please in the end anyway but, her argument is sound. Nevertheless, Jericho is a Face of the People and in his opinion, out with the old and in with the new.

As far as matches go, we begin the evening with Bray Wyatt and Sin Cara.  You look at a match like this and already know who’s going to win.  Though I think Sin Cara is underused, I understand the WWE mentality.  Yet, given how Lucha Underground is establishing itself at the moment, they may want to reconsider how they use a character such as Sin Cara and conversely, Sin Cara may want to investigate taking his business elsewhere.  This may be an instance of merely being underappreciated.  Yet, in any case, Bray Wyatt comes out and makes a quick example of Sin Cara so that he can proceed to his real agenda, Dean Ambrose.  He continues to attempt to get into Ambrose’s head by painting a sad tale of a young Ambrose pining for the love of his distant father.  And upon hitting those sensitive notes, Ambrose makes his unstable appearance.  Bray Wyatt continues to offer his services.  He can help him stop the pain and Ambrose responds by administering some to Wyatt’s face.   Wyatt laughs it off.  He forgets how quick he is.  Well, come Survivor Series we’ll all be given plenty to remember.

Up next, we have a Tag Team match with the Brothers Dust vs. Adam Rose and The Bunny.  This was a good bit of fun and seeing who’s involved, it’s easy to conclude that this match is to instigate some sort of change, which comes in the form of Adam Rose’s heel-turn.  It’s not a secret that The Bunny has been getting more attention of late and you can’t really blame him.  The whole gimmick is ridiculous in just the right way.  I mean, why the fuck not, right? He’s part of an “Exotic Express” for godsake and he’s in a fucking bunny suit.  Rock N’Roll!  Well, it appears there can only be 1 leader in this club and that’s Adam Rose.  For sloppy execution that costs them the match, Rose lays The Bunny out to the boos of all.

To follow, we have a switch up with the Intercontinental Title on the line in a Triple Threat match between Dolph Ziggler, Cesaro, and Tyson Kidd.  This match was surprisingly great.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  I know Cesaro and Ziggler are solid but I haven’t seen much of Tyson Kidd but I hear about him all the time from NXT.  So, it was nice to see that he actually knows what he’s doing too.  This match was like a “compensation match” and when I say that, I mean that it’s a match that illustrates how these guys may have been overlooked and are now getting their due.  In a match like this, they can showcase their talent and we can see that these guys are great wrestlers, period.  They put on a well-executed, clean match and deserve to receive more notoriety than they do.  And in the same vein, Ziggler manages to hold on to the title and rightly so.  To look at him, yeah, it’s hard to take him seriously but Ziggler along with Cesaro and Tyson Kidd appear to be ready to go to the next level and they should be allowed a true shot.

We then come to a Divas match between Natalya and Layla.  These ladies made me proud too.  They came out and delivered a well-executed match and my girl Nattie finally got the win.  So, I'll put a hold on the bitching (^_~) I think they were finishing off some bogus drama in this bout but they need to start getting these ladies mixed up in some more believable beef.  I know with the womenfolk, it’s hard not to let things tumble into petty bullshit, which gets my sexist flag up a little 

but at the same time, why do women generally tend to hate other women?  Petty bullshit so, it’s a bit of a catch 22 but at the same time, if the Divas can wrestle, let them have comparable beef to the men.  They should be going for titles and talking shit.  We can do it, definitely.  Whether it’ll catch on with the crowd is debatable because, like the WNBA some gender-social norms are hard to break and can’t be forced but, put out a quality product someone’s bound to buy.

Moving along, what happens next was truly juicy.  We have Dean Ambrose, marching around backstage with some bee in his bonnet and announcer Bryan Saxton tracks him down for comment.  Ambrose basically says that Bray Wyatt can suck a dick and fuck him for trying to get into his head.  Wyatt responds with a rolling travel trunk slammed into Ambrose’s midsection.  He then proceeds to bless him with Sister Abigail into the wall behind them.  With a dazed Ambrose now at his feet, Wyatt settles down with him and again suggests that they quit meeting like this and that Ambrose simply give in and accept the “help” he so anxiously wants to give him.  This was exciting.  This is the kinda shit I think WWE should do more often.  Mix the old school with the new.  Take shit outside.  Get nuts!  Fuck it, they got shit to lose and like I keep saying, all you really need is clean execution and some beef.  That’s it and this segment was living proof.  They could be talking about how Wyatt stole Ambrose’s parking spot.  As long as the throw-down is cool, who gives a shit.  We’re here to watch ass get kicked, so kick it!

Then we come to our Main Event, Dad/Korporate Kane vs. Ryback.  What can I say, you all know I love Dad and he did his job per usual.  I don’t mind him helping to right the wrong of Ryback’s previous booking but I still say he should shut people down more often than not.  I get the lead up to Survivor Series but, if you want we the audience to suspend our disbelief, we gotta think that when Dad shows up, this is a make or break time for whomever is opposing him.  In a case such as Ryback, I expect him to get the win because that’s what’s interesting heavyweight-wise at the moment but, Dad can’t always come out just to get disqualified and subsequently beatdown.  If he's gonna do whatever the fuck he wants at some point anyway, have him leave someone for dead like 60% of the time.  That way we can get a little invested because it's hard to say if the challenger will get the jump on Dad.  Don’t get me wrong, Dad still got in his hits but at the same time, they have to let him win so that we can half-care about the outcome because the winner at least beat the odds.  Though I think they went at each other hard and furious, Ryback getting the win was no surprise.  How are you gonna keep us interested if we already know what's going happen and that goes double for SmackDown.  I’m just saying, there are plenty of ways to skin a cat.  The same old formula can be experimented with.  You can put guys over and Dad can beat guys down.  We know what you’re trying to do, try having a little fun when it comes to doing it.  It can’t hurt.

We’ll see what they do.

See You Monday,

-Nicole Alexis.