PUTTIN’ THAT SMACKDOWN…What Happened Last (Tuesday) Night [Nov. 28th, 2014]

After a disconcerting RAW, I would say that the bulk of us took a collective sigh of relief to see that those behind SmackDown seem to understand what they have to do to at least not garner criticism.  I’m sure people will always have something to say but compared to RAW they just seem to “get it” more.  Perhaps it’s the Friday (soon-to-be Thursday) time slot and the sentiment that SmackDown should be about the wrestling/action anyway but, whatever leeway that SmackDown gets that RAW doesn’t should probably get reconsidered.  Needless to say, a solid show was presented and some of my more pressing concerns are presently assuaged.

We begin our evening with The Miz and Damien “Mizdow” in the ring to have ourselves another installment of MizTV.  Tonight’s guest, Mr. Big Show, no doubt here to continue to validate his predictable heel-turn.  Yet, before Big Show can get started, we hear Daniel Bryan’s music and Bryan appears to announce that he’s got the GM gig for tonight too.  Lucky us!  And to be honest, I don’t mind this at all.  I like Daniel Bryan.  He’s like a Tom Hanks, there’s something very likable about him.  He just seems like a good guy.  Why wouldn’t you like him, really?  Anyway, Bryan goes on to announce the evening’s matches.  Seth Rollins and Ryback are gonna go at it, then Dolph Ziggler and Luke Harper are gonna dance for the Intercontinental Championship but, before all that, let’s get the night started with a big ol’Battle Royal for the US Championship so that Rusev knows who’s boss.  And so, MizTV wraps up and the ring clears for the madness to begin.

So, just about everyone and their Mom comes out and at the sound of the bell, the party begins. These things always kinda crack me up.  I would like to see how they choreograph stuff like this.  Do they just say partner up and go for it, just make sure that these guys remain at the end? Or do they fully map all this chaos out?  In any case, the typical jobbers in Justin Gabriel, Sin Cara and Heath Slater get tossed out pretty quickly.  Big Show shows consideration in finding a clean opening to dispatch of Los Matordores.  Curtis Axel gets ejected soon after to be followed by Adam Rose.  Erick Rowan and Big Show find each other after that and Rowan’s apparently still pissed about being bullied and nixes Big Show from contention.  The Miz and Mizdow find themselves mixed up with The Usos, which I thought should have been choreographed to be synchronized if Mizdow is gonna be going out of his way to mimic The Miz all the time.  It’s perfect set up for mirror moves with a set of twins.  It’s a no-brainer.  Regardless, The Miz and Mizdow get chucked along with Gold/Stardust and The Usos, which soon leaves Rusev, Cesaro, Tyson Kidd and Jack Swagger left to finish the battle.   Here’s where it got interesting for me.  The last quarter of this match was actually exciting.  Though we all know that Rusev gets the win, they really made it more of a nail-biter than I anticipated and I was thusly more enthralled. The final 4 are all solid wrestlers, despite their varying styles, and made for a compelling final showdown. I found it funny that the “fer-renners” attacked Swagger first with Kidd jumping in with what hits he could land, then Swagger returned the favor with Kidd landing what hits he could to the "fer-renners”.  Kidd gets booted out first in what seems like a move to just get him out of the way.  Then Swagger takes Cesaro out only to get kicked out by Rusev.  I liked how the win wasn’t a cake walk for Rusev.  He actually had to “fight for it” which shows that he can be beaten, you just gotta be smart about it.  Whomever they set him up with going forward should try to be strategic in beating him. Approach him right, and he can be defeated.

Since the Battle Royal lasted 7 years, we go into a series of promos/asides afterwards.  We see Kane/Dad still suffering under grunt work by manning a merchandise stand.  Dad juxtaposed by little kids is my point exactly about him. He’s not mean, he just plays that on TV but at the same time, I want no part of him.  Then Bray Wyatt goes into another soliloquy about the conquering of Dean Ambrose.  "Truthishly", these sorts of spots should only be filmed and replayed.  To get in the ring and do this sort of thing without getting down to anything is just aggravating.  Though Bray Wyatt has no problem with the mic, we are a crowd of action and I’m sure the bulk of us would rather see him throwdown as opposed to ramble on about what’s to come.  For what it’s worth, we then wrap up the alternative programming with The New Day’s final vignette.

Back in the ring, Emma squares off against Nikki Bella with Brie accepting Heel-itude at her side.  Emma’s loss was no surprise but she put up more of a fight than I expected.  After Nikki hits her Rack Attack to shut Emma down, she gets on the mic and calls AJ Lee out for being just a manipulative little bitch from Jersey who so wishes.  Well, AJ isn’t going to take that sort of shit-talk lying down and charges out to give them a piece of her fist.  She gets her hands on Brie and roughs her up a bit before the Twin Heels scamper off.  I like how this feud is getting personal.  Like I said on the Twitters, I hope someone “keys someone’s car”.  If we’re gonna go there, let’s get nuts!

Next up, we have Ryback and Seth Rollins go at it and again, my main gripe is why is this match longer than 5 minutes?   True, I’m sure Rollins is tougher than he looks but against a Ryback, if you take this match outside I just have a strong suspicion that it doesn’t last too long.  Unless Rollins is implementing some Martial Arts or a baseball bat or something, I don’t see him putting a dent in Ryback.  It’s hard for me to believe and I’m sure it is for most of us too.  If you’re going to put him in a match like this, either level the playing field or have him get squashed.  Ryback is about to get around to doing that when Kane/Dad shows up and takes over.  So, Ryback picks up the DQ win but Dad lays him out mercilessly and we get the lead up for TLC next month.  I’m glad Dad got the jump on him this time around.  I feel he should more often just in general.  If going up against Dad is a big deal, he should lay someone out at least half the time so we wonder what will happen.  It doesn’t take much to keep the interest going, just do it right.

To follow, we finally get to see The New Day in action which is fine.  They go up against Slater Gator (Heath Slater and Titus O’Neil) and Curtis Axel.  Equipped with matching outfits I guess they take the open trio spot left by 3MB but as for the long term appeal of this team, I can’t really say.  They looked like a very cohesive unit but in terms of rivalries and such, not sure where they’re gonna go but…it may not really matter.

Before the Main Event, Renée Young has a little talk with Daniel Bryan and asks him when we could expect him back in action.  He lets us hang a little before using “YES!” chants to convey he’ll be back soon.  My money’s on some time in January but we’ll see.

As for the Main Event itself, it was well done.  It took its sweet time but I didn’t view this as a negative.  With Luke Harper being “special” it’s completely believable to have things take a while to get started as his character comes to grasp the scenario.  Ziggler gives it his all, as is looking to be the norm now, and he manages to Superkick Harper out of the ring, stunning him at the end.  Dazed, Harper gets counted out and Ziggler gets the win.  Feeling slighted, Harper tries to retaliate anyway but Ziggler pulls off a ZigZag to remain undisputed.

So, SmackDown does the job of picking up the slack and keeps us from washing our hands of this whole thing.  How will RAW follow up?  It’s best to keep expectations low and hopefully the 2 will get on the same page some day as opposed to SmackDown having to do damage control.  But, until then, let's just hope RAW breaks even.

See You Monday,

-Nicole Alexis.