PUTTIN’ THAT SMACKDOWN…What Happened Last (Tuesday) Night [May 28th, 2015]

What’s goin’ on, Enthusiasts.  I hope you all are having a great Friday night.  So, here we are, on the cusp of Elimination Chamber and like the good sport Smackdown is, it got in there and gave us some entertaining fodder.  Was it the best Smackdown?  Gracious, no but it did steadily make me laugh and the action was exciting enough.  I’ll see Elmination Chamber just ‘cause but I wouldn’t say I’m dying to see it but at least I'm a little curious to see what does go down.  With Rusev probably out and all sorts of rumors floating about, it’s hard to say what will drop.

We open in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and we’re greeted this evening by a Dean Ambrose.  In extended fashion, he regales us with his “stint in jail” that he had to endure due to The Authority trying to teach him a lesson.  Well, the only lesson he learned is that not all policemen are bad and that some of them must be fans because he was subsequently released due to the skirmish in question being posted on the YouTubes.  Well, with the “evidence” clear, Ambrose is released and the cops said he could have at one of their own paddy wagons.  He just had to have it back before he left town.  After all that, Ambrose just has one conclusion.  At Elimination Chamber it will be his foot, Seth Rollins’ ass and the title belt, around his waist.  This wasn’t a bad opening, as far as openings go but Ambrose did seem to go on and on.  He’s great on the mic, so it’s tolerable but Ambrose may want to learn to be a bit more concise in his delivery unless he’s sure he’s spitting gold.  He may have Our Favor at the moment but our attention spans are quite short.  Show the Ambrose charm and keep to the point.

The supposed experimentation continues as instead of Ambrose leading us into a match, the first actual match of the evening is a Lumber Jack Match with Cesaro & Tyson Kidd against The Lucha Dragons.  This match was a lot of fun to watch.  Of course, you expect it to tumble into chaos as these frays often do but, with these skilled wrestlers a great show was put on.  Kidd and Sin Cara get to show off their fancy stuff to the delight of all and Cesaro even manages to land a defensive dropkick during one of the exchanges that surprised me.  He never gets his ass off the ground. The ring is flanked with the likes of the Prime Time Players, The Ascension, The New Day, and Los Matadores. Yet, the opposing teams don’t seem too intent on exiting the ring so the “lumberjacks” don’t really have to do much.  Xavier Woods continues with his leg-grabbing hijinks but it’s Kalisto of the Lucha Dragons that lands what I hear is called a “Salida del Sol” to take the win.

To follow, to keep interest up for the Elimination Chamber match for the Intercontinental Title, R-Truth and “King” Wade Barrett have a little dance. The match is fair enough.  Nothing we haven’t seen though I do like that they have been giving R-Truth more of a chance.  I don’t care for the rapping but I think he’s fun as a character and talented in the ring.  There’s a lot of depth in the mid-card wrestlers and I think they should utilize them with abandon.  Why not?  Can’t hurt.  In any case, R-Truth connects with his finisher, The Lie Detector for the win but before he can have a decent celebration Sheamus, a proud heel now, makes an appearance and gives out free Brogue Kicks to both Barrett and R-Truth, officially stating his intentions for Sunday.

Next up, we have the ultimate “hoss fight” in Ryback vs. Rusev.  I expected this to be a huge power match but these lumbering fellows combined to create one of the slowest paced matches I’ve ever seen.  It was like watching a couple of loaded up tractors try to have a race.  These 2 just couldn’t work up any momentum but they do a good bit of wrassling.  This is also the match where Rusev got his injury and after a commercial break, you see him limping quite visibly.  He’s a trooper, you gotta give him that.  Well, this match spills out the ring and after busting each other up on the ringposts and announce table, the referee calls it on a Double Count-out.

After that, we have the Divas Match of the evening and it’s a solid outing between Naomi and Paige.  Now Enthusiasts, you’ve seen me go on and on about how the Divas need to sell their shit better and well, it seems like these 2 agree.  They come out and have themselves a very believable match.  Naomi sets the tone as if she’s on the playground.  Nyah-nyah!  Your clothes are stupid!  Your face is stupid!  She pokes and picks at Paige, trying to prompt a response and Paige plays being the “bigger girl” but soon feels she’s just being disrespected and pushes Naomi into the ropes and it’s on!  And by-gum, it’s a “real” match.  Both lay into each other.  Paige landed a few good superkicks of her own and gave Naomi “what fer!” when she was kneeing her over the ropes.  Naomi didn’t hold back either.  She connects with her forearms, throws Paige into turnbuckles, kicks her in gut.  These ladies were serious and it was a vast improvement in terms of “going for it” as opposed to the “playfighting” I usually see. It was fun and promising.  Yet, in the end, Paige gets hold of Naomi and takes the win with her RamPaige.

Moving along, Michael Cole has a little talk with this new upstart in the form of Kevin Owens.  Word on the street is that he officially signed his main roster contract so he’s “in” and his first beef is with John Cena.  Fitting, given his NXT track record.  I’m actually very excited about the new NXT recruits and I think they’ll inject some dearly needed fresh blood into this Universe.  Again, this is something I think only helps given its reputation.  If Creative can stay true to the hype these cats bring in, the WWE can’t really lose and the Hope starts to manifest for once.  The reinvention may be nigh.   In the meantime, Owens plans to lay Cena out at Elimination Chamber.  The New Guard is coming.  As Owens takes his leave, he and Ambrose share a glance as Ambrose approaches the ring for the main event.

Speaking of the main event, it’s another tag match between Seth Rollins and Dad (Kane) against Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns.  This was what we’ve seen so, there’s not much to report.  It’s a fun exchange but it's nothing new so no need to get into too much detail. Yet, they do mix it up at the end.  It ends in a disqualification because, naturally, J&J interfere but not only that, The New Day has apparently been commissioned for henchmen work by The Authority because they come running out with Dad right behind them.  Well, that sends Reigns flying over the ropes again and so, everyone has to deal with that for a bit.  Rollins and Ambrose get into it and when Reigns tries to come in again for the save, Dad takes him by throat and sets him down with a Chokeslam.  He’s had it up to “here!” with him for a while now.  Rollins then dishes out a Pedigree to Ambrose to make his statement.  I liked that the Bad Guys won this time around but only for Dad.   I don’t know if Creative is going to start evening out his record but it did feel good for him to enforce as he ought and especially against Reigns.  I get it. By default Reigns is gonna win more often than he loses regardless of what side he plays for so, I don’t mind him getting the win or DQ more often than not but, Dad has to be intimidating.  He’s Dad!  He hates these kids!  Everyone’s out of line!  He should be crumpling up a paper, putting a foot up it and yelling at everyone to be quiet!  And we should shiver and shut-the-fuck-up.  That is a fair evolution of the Demon Kane in a corporate sense.  It writes itself.  Half the time, Dad wins is all I’m saying.  He’s still in good shape.  Still looks good, play him for as long as he can play and him being “Dad” would just work and respect his history.

 

As for Elimination Chamber, makes it interesting…kinda but, you know whatever.  And that’s all right because this is just the monthly PPV.  So, it’ll be a little bit better than usual but not all that great.  I can deal with that.

See You Sunday,

-Nicole Alexis. (^_~)