PUTTIN’ THAT SMACKDOWN…What Happened Last (Tuesday) Night [Dec. 12th, 2014]

These are interesting times, interesting times indeed.  Though SmackDown was taped on Tuesday, the NXT Takeover inadvertently served as a direct challenge to the late week mainstay and the WWE infrastructure in general.  In truly inspiring fashion, these up and comers displayed that what they bring is actually what we as wrestling fans want to see.   Though the cleaner execution in the WWE seems to be the true distinction between the 2, it is resoundingly clear that what NXT is doing would certainly work.   And so, with that fresh in our minds come this past Friday, it was easy to compare and contrast.   Whether the WWE wants to be or not, they seem to be riding the cusp of an upheaval.

SmackDown opens this week with John Cena coming out to start the psych-up for TLC this Sunday.  Yet, to little surprise, Seth Rollins has something to say as well.  You’re washed up, Cena.  We’ve been seeing you hold it down for over a decade so, thanks but your time is up and mine has just begun so pack your bags and have yourself a nice extended vacation after TLC because I’m gonna destroy you and you won’t really have a choice.  I’m the future, old man.   Deal with it!  John Cena is patient, even courteous in hearing Seth out and then, as he does with young upstarts as this, proceeds to “set the record straight”.  Cena’s been up against worse than Rollins and prevailed.  TLC will be no different than any other “big show” that Cena’s participated in and he’s quite confident that Rollins will have the great inconvenience of having to figure out how to get Cena’s foot removed from his ass.

To follow and speaking of NXT, we get our first teaser promo from The Ascension, this Tag Team that I’ve been hearing so much about.  These fellows are widely praised about the interwebs but this promo came off comically hokey.  Now, if that’s the point well done but, given the make-up, unless they’re supposed to replace the Brothers Dust when Goldust inevitably has to hang it up for good, I’m not sure that was exactly what they were going for but…I’ll wait until I see them in the ring before I make a full judgment.

For the first, actual match of the evening we have The Usos vs. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro. For added interest, The Miz and Damien Mizdow sit in on commentary.  This was a great match.  Everyone had a chance to display their strengths.  Cesaro and The Kidd actually make a good team seeing how they’re clean wrestlers yet offer different, light tastes of heel-itude.   Yet, again, to push the feud going on between The Miz and The Usos, while he’s chatting away on commentary, The Miz happens to get a call and it’s from who?!  Naomi!  Well, The Miz being the gentleman that he is excuses himself to take it and the match picks up from there with The Usos displaying fine form as we head into TLC.  It’s still a little disappointing to see Cesaro continue to get booked as he does but, perhaps his story lies in overcoming that.

After the match, we are taken backstage to see The Miz and Naomi conversing.  It’s looking like The Miz is using his “contacts” to further Naomi’s interests yet, Naomi’s not fully sold.  She’s not so focused on her goals that she doesn’t see how the timing of all this may affect the upcoming Tag Team Championship match.  Naturally, The Miz is taken aback.  He really thinks Naomi has something and would like to see her succeed.  There’s an offer on the table and if she can’t figure out the drama going on with her husband, it may tarnish her reputation.  She may get labeled as a drama queen since there’s always some sort of personal turmoil in effect.   If she’s gonna make it in Hollywood, Jimmy is going to have to understand that she’ll be coming into contact with a lot of people.  What good is it to her, if she can’t do that because he’s out of control?  She’s forced to think about this.

Elsewhere, The Usos have a discussion amongst themselves.  Jimmy does not like what’s going on.  The Miz is messing around with his wife and it ain’t cool, man.  It ain’t cool!  Well, to get Jimmy’s head right, Jey pulls the family card and voices how if The Miz is looking to get them off their game, he’s succeeding because they’re all fighting right now.  I wasn’t expecting this to get interesting and though it is taxing everyone’s acting abilities, it’s nice to have a little backstory going into these fights from time to time.

Next up we have a digestible Divas match between Alicia Fox and Nikki Bella still accompanied by her new yet long-standing partner in crime, Brie Bella.  AJ Lee keeps things interesting by sitting in on commentary, as well.   This went better than I anticipated and Nikki shows a little about herself with her taunts to the crowd.  She gets the win predictably but she and AJ are really selling their building feud.  The “bitch” stares are landing well.

We then have The New Day’s, Big E. Langston up against Goldust in a, “Maybe There’ll Be Something…” match.   Langston gets the win in quick fashion and is also doing a great job at selling this New Day gimmick, though I’m still not so sure about it.  I fear putting all the black guys together on a team sends the wrong message.  Not that it should send any, really, it’s just…it comes off like WWE’s token “ethnic bunch” in a blatant attempt at urban appeal and…I’m not sure the demographic they may be going for would think this is all that cool…I’m just saying.  Be sure of what you’re trying to do.  Though, conversely one could question what does that say about all the white teams ‘cause unfortunately Los Matadores and The Usos kinda prove my point.  My point is that I like these guys individually but, putting them together just accentuates an obvious fact, one that really doesn’t need addressing.  Just focus on being awesome.  You want fans.  If you’re good, they’ll come regardless of anything.

Up next, we have Jack Swagger and Titus O’Neil in what was a surprisingly good match.  These 2 went at it for no real reason other than being professionals and it was refreshing to see.  These 2 have good chemistry and I’m fairly sure being similar in size and booking has something to do with it.  These guys I think are a little underrated and I understand why.  Swagger has a slight lisp and O’Neil is intimidating but comes off flat, that doesn’t mean they don’t do what they do well.  Something can be done with these guys and, as we can see, the goal for the moment is to set Swagger up with Rusev because all they got is the Russian thing with him at the moment.  Speaking of Rusev, once Swagger got O’Neil to tap out via his Patriot Lock, Lana and Rusev march themselves out so we remember what’s going down tomorrow.

To also remind us what’s on tomorrow’s docket, we have Bray Wyatt bestow us with a haunting monologue promo, illustrating why and how we have come to now.  And though these have been unfortunate events, it has brought us to this definite moment of truth and tomorrow it will be revealed.  Then, Dean Ambrose in something that reminded me of high school drama class, stood ‘neath a ladder and elaborated on how the truth would certainly come out tomorrow and what that is, should already be clear.  Well, this pot’s thoroughly stirred.  All we can do now is wait.

We close the evening with what now seems like the typical 6-Man-Tag featuring Ryback, Dolph Ziggler and Erick Rowan against Big Show, Kane (Dad) and Luke Harper.  This actually wasn’t a bad match.  Everyone’s been stepping their game up of late, Ziggler especially, and though we’ve seen them do-si-do many times before in various rehashings, there was a little more pep in this one.   I heard that Ziggler’s dive off the ladder was a good pop for the Faces' win but, I wasn’t really all that impressed.  Something about it came off a little “too staged”.   I know, this is all for show but the difference between the professionals and the amateurs is that the pros sell it in a way that makes it very hard to tell the difference.  That’s why they’re “professionals”.  They’re so good, they do this shit for a living.  I suppose it was the time it took to set-up the ladder.  The time it took, took away from the momentum so it was obvious that this wasn’t so much a fantastic finisher but a set stunt to be executed.   That took away some of the fun but overall a solid showing.  Yet, with these NXT whippersnappers selling it like there’s no tomorrow, the Main Roster needs to start proving why they’re not back in the minors and how that happens, depends on Creative.  Changes are a-coming…and if the Old Guard wants to keep their positions, they’ll show us what they got over the New one…or else.

 See You Monday,

-Nicole Alexis (^_~)