PUTTIN’ THAT SMACKDOWN…What Happened Last (Tuesday) Night [Feb. 5th, 2015]

I have to say, Enthusiasts Smackdown pleasantly surprised me this week.  I had read the spoilers but wasn’t quite sure what to make of the information.   Yet, in sitting down and having a look for myself I was left with a smile on my face.  For whatever reason, Smackdown continues to give me hope and I just want it to continue.  I want them to evolve and experiment and hopefully RAW will get hip to it and start upping its game.  Then, this ship would be just about turned around.  Let us be glad that the WWE does in fact want to keep its Universe up and running and is doing what it can to ensure it does so in respectable fashion at least one day a week.

We open in Colorado Springs, Colorado to what looks like another session of MizTV.   We have The Miz, center ring greeting the crowd who promptly respond with “We Want Mizdow!” chants.  He redirects their attention.  People, people, calm yourselves.  Mizdow’s here, personal assisting and out of the way, where he belongs.   Anyway, let’s get down to business shall we.  Let’s bring out our first guest, your friend and mine, Daniel Bryan!  Bryan emerges and We the Audience cheer him loudly as We punctuate every “YES!”  He makes his way into the ring and greets The Miz graciously.  The Miz then begins to introduce his other guest for the evening, Roman Reigns but Reigns kinda introduces himself.  He gets into the ring via his usual entrance yet, instead of a kind greeting or even a sustained interview, he serves The Miz up a Superman Punch to the face.  He then grabs a mic and addresses Bryan.  You know, there's all this talk when you and I both know what this is all about. WrestleMania, who deserves to be there?  There are 3 chairs set-up for this "interview".  Reigns picks up one and throws it out the ring.  Well, instead of waiting until Fast Lane to figure it out, where I’m gonna beat you anyway.  He tosses out another chair.  Why don’t we just settle this right now.  The crowd enjoys this thought and Bryan, though he’s been quiet thus far, is up for it and tosses out the last chair.  Before any real action can begin, Seth Rollins’ music hits and he along with J&J Security present themselves to literally rain on the parade because as a Heel, it’s his duty really.   And you know what, we’re going to do what’s best for business and make everyone wait for this match.  Bryan, you know I’m a better contender for WrestleMania than that chump in the ring with you.  So, why don’t we do this.  You take me on with my pals here for a handicap match.  Let’s main event this shit!  Give the people some real wrestling to watch.  Though neither Bryan nor Reigns find Rollins’ smarmy attitude charming, Bryan agrees and we have our Main Event set.

As for the first match of the evening, we have Dolph Ziggler and Ryback paired together for a tag team bout against the fracturing Brothers Dust.  This wasn’t a bad match.  Apparently, Ziggler and Ryback work well together and put together some solid offense against the currently aggrieved brothers.   I would say the drama circling the brothers is what we're supposed to be focusing on at the moment.  It looks like they’re arranging a break-up for them going into WrestleMania.  As for the match, I have to say Stardust and Ziggler have some solid exchanges.  Both show good speed and some creativity in executing their moves.  I noticed Ziggler takes some face paint with him as it was plastered on the side of his mid-section for the remainder of the match.  Yet, as Goldust tries to get himself into the action, he lets a “Cody” slip and Stardust starts to unravel.  He exits the match leaving Goldust to get ShellShock-ed by Ryback and the Faces take the win.

Next up, Curtis Axel still isn’t finished bitching about his non-Royal Rumble appearance.  He’s supposed to be contending for WrestleMania and he still wants his shot!  Well, Dean Ambrose is still willing to kick his ass so he learns to shut-up.   Axel doesn’t go down quietly, though.  The action spills out the ring and Axel definitely shows that he means business, landing heavy blows to Ambrose.   Yet, Ambrose has one thing that Axel doesn’t.  Crazy.  He flips the switch and after getting back into the ring, he executes his finisher, Dirty Deeds, for the win.  Yet, before he can fully celebrate, the big screen comes on and Bad News Barrett is on to debut his new “BNZ” (Bad News Zone) segment where Bad News feeds stream at the bottom of the screen a la CNN.  This is actually kinda funny and allows Creative to have some fun with the faux headlines like, "Young girl returns home to find cat missing.  No one cares..."  Nevertheless, Barrett has some “bad news” for Ambrose.  Don’t get your hopes up for the Intercontinental Championship.  That title is slated to be retained.

To follow, we have a match between Adam Rose and Fandango.  Rose gets to a rough start when his Rosebuds don’t quite catch him after his “Trust Fall”.   Rose seems to sublimate his upset on to the Rosebuds and into the match.  It’s a short one but, these guys display a little of why they’re in this biz with their spirited exchange.  Both are more or less filler/comedic relief yet when they get to it, there’s a little animosity in the air.  They were kinda going for it and I didn’t mind it at all.  Fandango manages to come off like less of a joke this time out and gets the win via Flying Leg Drop off the ropes.

After that, we come to a furious Miz ready to box Roman Reigns.  Seeing how the show opened with The Miz getting punched in the face, his anger is understandable.  He even complained to Renée Young about it in a promo.   And so, with that scene set, The Miz opens by attacking Reigns rigorously.  He barely allows him to get any hits in.  He just corners Reigns up against a turnbuckle and goes for it. They even end up outside the ring and The Miz sends Reigns into the “steel” steps.  This caught my attention because Reigns’ talent of taking hits comes to the fore yet again here and I’m left feeling bad more for the steps than Reigns.  Nevertheless, he manages to get into the match and displays a few more moves than we'd expect, which is refreshing.  Reigns also displays a couple things we don’t see much of from him, emotion and personality.  No doubt these past couple weeks since the Rumble have been rough and humbling for him.  As many of us know, nothing quite brings out a person’s true colors like a crisis and Reigns was purposely put through it.  It may have been done to prompt the transformation that I spoke of in my inaugural post.  It may have just been a misjudgment.  Whatever the case, the ordeal has changed him and I think for the better.  It prompted some depth of character that is beginning to surface in his performances and slowly but surely, he is manifesting.  This match served as a good start. Though The Miz came in spitting hellfire, it’s Reigns who gets the win with a Spear and the crowd rewards his effort with cheers.  Some banter about the internets suggests that much of Smackdown’s crowd reaction was edited in for this episode but, the crowd did seem to honestly support Reigns and I think he deserves it this time around.  He’s putting in the work and steadily improving.   He’s stepping up to the plate and though I wouldn’t say we saw his pivotal “Moment”, I would definitely say a moment was had and this time he earned it, which is all We the Audience wanted in the first place.
 

Moving along, we come to another face-off between Rusev and Erick Rowan.  Rowan being used to somewhat accentuate Rusev’s Heelitude is a little perplexing to me.  I suppose it’s to make Rusev appear all big and mean for Fast Lane when he goes against John Cena.  I’m sure during a RAW or something, Cena will call him out for it.  Nevertheless, Rowan puts up a brief fight against the so-called “Super Athlete”.  Rusev does amaze me with how spry he is for such a big dude.   I’m always surprised when he gets himself up to do those double-footed kicks.  Would never have thought he could move like that.  He soon gets Rowan on the ground and after dealing him a stomp to the back, he settles into his Accolade and ends our special hero yet again.

We then have some Divas action with Paige going at Alicia Fox.  This match is the first time I kinda liked Paige.  After being “tanned” at the hands of the Bella Twins with Alicia Fox holding her up, Paige is back for vengeance.  In a promo, she explains her differences and how she’s who she is, no matter what so suck it!  She does do the angst-ridden, Goth chick quite well and she also sells her payback with great intensity.  We all know that Alicia Fox can turn up the “bitch crazy” whenever she wants but principle is on Paige’s side this night and she relentlessly wears Alicia Fox down and gets her to submit to her PTO.

We check the clock and realize that it’s time for the main event and it’s a solid one. Our Hero, Daniel Bryan is always up against It and tonight, it’s in the form of Rollins and J&J Security again.  This was an entertaining match.   Everyone, even J&J got to show why they’re closing the show.  Naturally, they throw everything they got at Bryan but he always has a counter, a foot or a lock to get him out of whatever pickle he ends up in.  Rollins feels he has to show Bryan why he should stay his ass out of WrestleMania by serving him up Lesnar-style suplexes o’plenty and keeping light on his feet just the same.  We the Audience start to feel for our hero, so mercilessly beaten.   Yet, Bryan always manages to figure something out and he gets himself to his feet and after a few more exchanges, he manages to lock up one of the J’s for the win.  But wait!  Dad’s (Kane) here and as Bryan makes his exit, Dad greets him.  Even “helps” him back to the ring where Rollins sets him up and executes the Powerbomb to close the show.

All in all, a solid night of wrasslin’ I would say.  Smackdown remains the saving grace at the moment and I’m glad there’s at least 1 night I can count on not being disappointed.   Let’s hope that RAW gets jealous or something and starts swinging for the cheap seats. For now though, let’s prepare for the weekly “downgrade” and keep expectations cautiously low.

 

See You Monday,

-Nicole Alexis (^_~)