PUTTIN’ THAT SMACKDOWN…What Happened Last (Tuesday) Night [Feb. 12th, 2015]

Have to say, Enthusiasts I didn’t really know how I felt about this rivalry brewing against Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns but, it is starting to grow on me.  Leave it to Smackdown to cook things up just like I like them. This evening, Tag Team Turmoil is the name of the game and it’s fun to watch. These 2 “Faces” continue to battle for their chance at glory this year and it’s proving to be quite the little competition.  Well, it’s kinda hard to view it that way entirely because of the whole thing being more or less scripted but how it’s executed, as always, is key and so far, our would-be heroes are churning out some interesting “sports entertainment”.

The night opens a little differently in Dayton, Ohio.  Dad (Kane) addresses all the Tag Teams backstage about the Turmoil set to transpire for the main event.  He gets their juices flowing because, of course, he wants them to win.  Bryan and Reigns shouldn’t last through all of them anyway but, they should make sure they don’t stand a chance.  The Tag Teams agree and begin to psych themselves up.

As for the first match, we have R-Truth doing some jobbing for Bray Wyatt.  Truthishly, this match is more involved than I anticipated but the “Eater of Worlds” is focused on a win and though Truth shows some great athleticism, Wyatt manages to show flexibility.  After which, he lands a Sister Abigail and takes what he feels is his.

To follow, we have some Divas action as Paige works up her charge to the Divas Championship, warming up against Summer Rae.  Meanwhile, The Bella Twins bitch it up on commentary.  Summer Rae reminds me of some sort of anime villainess, like a haughty spoiled brat who cries or whines whenever she doesn’t get her way and is generally snooty and atrocious as a human being.  She plays the part well, not incurring any crowd sympathy.  Meanwhile, as Paige administers her attack strategy, The Bellas yammer away making you wish they would just shut-up.  Since most of what they say is simply supposed to be gas on their Heel fire, it’s easy to tune them out.  As for the match, Paige dominates as you would expect and finally gets Summer Rae into the PTO to take the win and toss some trash talk at the Bellas who remind us who still has the title belt.

After that, Adam Rose and Fandango strut out to box in all their campy greatness.  Rose is another one who continues to surprise me as a wrestler.  He’s not all that bad and he goes at Fandango relentlessly.  It’s hard to take these guys seriously but with half the roster abroad in Abu Dhabi, I suppose they feel this is their time to shine.  Rose beat-up Fandango for much of the first half of the match yet, Fandango changes the tune with a decent PowerSlam and then finishes Rose off with a Last Dance off the top rope. 

We then come to the Pièce de Resistance in the Tag Team Turmoil match.  It’s actually fun to watch and has just about everything.  There’s humor, drama, angst, competition, internal conflict, the whole shebang.  To start it off, The Miz and Damien Mizdow make their way to the ring, Mizdow taking all the praise and The Miz attempting gain it.  In any case though, as the match progresses, we see that Bryan and Reigns are having a hard time being “friends”.  To look at them, they don’t seem like they would hang out and regardless of the reality of their relationship outside of the WWE Universe, they play up that fact.  Reigns is kind of a dick about tagging himself in when he sees fit and Bryan, though a nice guy, can give as good as he gets.  They egg each other on a little before Bryan handles The Miz with a Flying Knee.

The next team to come out makes everything very interesting seeing how it’s Reigns’ cousins, The Usos.  How oh, how will this play out?  Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if these guys have all rough housed in their youths so, I wasn’t all that taken in by the plausible drama but, I was certainly intrigued to see how The Usos would approach Reigns.  To my delight, they kept their game faces on and Reigns didn’t really hold back either. Yet, when Bryan gets in, he goes for The Usos’ jugulars.  At one point, he just punishes one of them with kicks outside the ring, prompting Reigns to intervene. Bryan pretty much responds with, you wanna win or what!  And practically lands another kick for good measure. Yet, The Usos take advantage of the distraction and the action continues with Splashes and Superman Punches and dives off the ropes into a big heap.  Eventually, Bryan locks Jey up and gets him to submit but he holds the YES! Lock longer than necessary, forcing Reigns to pull him off again and naturally, words are exchanged.

Los Matadores are next and Bryan decides to handle this one himself and in quick fashion gets the win via submission.  Reigns basically says anything you can do, I can do better and proceeds to decimate Slater Gator by taking out Titus O’Neil and then pinning Heath Slater with a Spear.

Well, if that was easy for them, The Ascension finally make a strong showing and display what true Tag Team dominance looks like.  They show absolutely no mercy to Bryan and Reigns.  They send Reigns over the Announce Table and Bryan into the Time Keeper Booth.  They then proceed to toss them into the turnbuckle poles and just continue to obliterate them.  They certainly are making a statement.  So much of one in fact, referees come streaming out to hold them back.  Their assault gets them a disqualification but they did what they came to do.

As The Ascension are ushered out, Dad (Kane) and Big Show stalk their way in to try to handle these guys as everyone else should have.  You know what They say, if you want something done, you gotta do it yourself.  Well, Dad has definitely been regressing to his old self of late, and I love it.  It’s the way he should be.  He’s big and mean.  Just let him be big and mean.  Big Mean Dad is what I like.  I think the more We the Audience feel he’s no joke, the more weight is given to his appearance.  It only adds to the suspense.  Big Show does as Big Show does and the 2 brutes set out to level our hodgepodge heroes.   Yet, Dad and Big Show can’t seem to get along as the match progresses.  They begin to bicker and squabble amongst themselves while Bryan and Reigns, having had their asses handed to them by The Ascension, decide to get over their bullshit and do what they can to win.  Nevertheless, Dad and Big Show soon find themselves in another spat and Big Show loses his cool and KO punches Dad.  Reigns takes the opportunity to Spear Big Show and a battle weary Daniel Bryan manages to muster up enough strength to land another Flying Knee to Dad and clinch the win.

Overall, I liked this change of pace.  This was the first Tag Team Turmoil match I’ve witnessed and it wasn’t the melee I was expecting, which isn’t so much a surprise as it was unexpected.  Instead of an “Oh!” it was more a comprehending “Oh…” as I realized how this all works. I also liked how Bryan’s and Reigns’ characters were displayed in a more…layered manner.  Reigns having to face The Usos seemed to make him come off a bit bi-polar in the sense that one second, he’d be pulling Bryan off of one only to shoulder-check him and Superman Punch the other seconds after.  I guess he took the, “If anyone is gonna beat ‘em up, it’s gonna be me” approach.  I also found it really intriguing when Bryan seemed to get in Reigns’ head a bit by being so merciless with The Usos.  Bryan being our “Nice Guy” Face and all, the added malice against The Usos who, for all intents and purposes, would have no beef with Bryan and vice versa, it seemed like a brutally out-of-character assault.  Was Bryan simply trying to piss Reigns off or was he sublimating angst against Reigns onto The Usos or was he just trying to take them out?  I don’t know.  I don’t mind Bryan taking on a little edge.  If he’s gonna go up against Brock Lesnar, he can’t exactly expect a “friendly competition” but it just seemed a little “Heel-ly” for such a Face.  I also thought The Ascension finally performing as you’d think they would, given the hype, was great.  They just came out and bullied Bryan and Reigns.  I kinda want them to have a rematch.  Don’t really think they should let that one go.  What do you think, Enthusiasts?  Next Smackdown maybe?  Suppose we will see (^_~)

See You Monday & Happy Valentines Day!

-Nicole Alexis.