It's a Rare Occasion. SmackDown Must Follow RAW...

Happy Friday, Enthusiasts!

 

Hope it’s going well for you. So, there are few things to chat about tonight. Let’s get into what stood out for me.

 

Let’s first start off with Bryan Danielson’s debut AEW match against Kenny Omega this week. Given the nature of it, I had to sit down and have a look. It was a good match, no surprise there but I didn’t care for the “Draw” finish. I know it makes perfect sense since this is but the beginning yet, it can also be viewed as formulaic. Though there was interference at the end, we won’t see who wins just yet. I don’t mind a build but to be honest, it’s a match I don’t need to see again. It was kinda hard to watch Danielson lit up like that. His chest was all marked up. I’m glad he’s having fun but I don’t want to see him hurt. At the same time, we can’t fill the ring full of pillows. Oh, what to do? Well, it’s best to let him have his fun. We can say we told him so when he gets a really bad “owie”.

 

Also regarding AEW, there’s a lot of fan/commenter flak directed towards Cody Rhodes and I kinda don’t understand why. Yeah, he’s a bit of a ham but that all seems to be on purpose. I find how he went after Malakai Black somewhat hilarious. He does his job and makes it seem like he’s talking shit the entire time. “I bring you over here and this is how you repay me! I give you all this money and all I get is disrespect…” he goes about it with his internal monologue, I love it. But everyone is clamoring for him to turn heel so he can get in front of the subjective dislike. It seemed like he might when he slapped the ref so I guess we’ll see. For what it’s worth, I just don’t know what everyone’s problem is. He’s doing his job if you ask me. Remember, he’s WWE born and bred. Of course he’s over the top.

 

Moving over to WWE, we have to congratulate Karrion Kross and Scarlet. Apparently, they are an actual thing because he just proposed and she said yes. You never know with these sorts of things so I don’t presume until something like this happens. Well, maybe this will be incentive to revamp his entrance. I’ll say it again. His entrance was the best thing about him so far. Let’s see if he catches up.

 

Besides that, the only thing that has my interest is speculating how the one and only Extreme Rules Match at Extreme Rules is going to play out. WWE jumped the gun by putting “The Demon” to work with little lead up making me think they’re headed towards making the same mistakes. The lack of general buzz leads me to believe that most fans feel the same. So, we’ll be watching to see how they make it work or don’t. I hope they make it work but alas, they’re trying to make this more an actual alter ego and not follow lore which means we have less incentive to believe it. The “alter ego” as is kinda worked in the past but after Garth Brooks crashed and burned with “Chris Gaines”, there’s none of that working in pop culture. Just take The Undertaker for WWE mythology’s example. He’s “The Undertaker”. It’s not an alter ego and though I never bought it, I couldn’t say he wasn’t intimidating. Now, Finn Bálor is not intimidating but saying The Demon is how he copes with the ills of the world just makes it sound like he needs a therapist. So, he’s Batman now? Did he witness is parents’ murder and now he wrestles as The Demon to avenge them? That shit doesn’t work now. One must address the point of trauma not dress up and revel in it. This is why I say they should just go for it and let him embody the Bálor myth. It can start in this clunky way, though. It could be him trying to do just what they’re trying to do. How do I relate this to all you common mortals? These hits and misses could be him trying to do it the “WWE Way” but how would WWE know what to do with the true likes of him? At some point, he should stop listening and simply do as a Dæmon does. We’ll see if they ever sharpen up otherwise, don’t be surprised if we see The Prince back in NXT.

 

The other end of that is that a lot of fans/commenters are predicting Brock Lesnar crashes the party and leaves both Roman Reigns and Finn Bálor for dead and I’m strangely fine with that, especially if it keeps them from crashing and burning Bálor again. I have to admit, I didn’t get him to start because he looks like he’s 50lbs but he’s solid in the ring. Can’t say he’s not so he doesn’t deserve the half-assedness. Again, if they aren’t going to do this right, they just shouldn’t bother at all.

 

Anyway, that brings us to tonight’s SmackDown and Go Home Show. RAW surprisingly did its job this week and was a solid silver level show as it should be prior to a PPV which we all hope will be “gold”. And the big 4 (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam & Survivor Series) should always aim for platinum or natural diamond. That’s in a perfect world. I know that we’re lucky to get bronze or copper sometimes. The only thing that’s giving the state of WWE any hope is AEW. With them creeping up the ranks, WWE wants to hold onto its top spot. That won’t happen with subpar material. Whether they like it or not, they have to up their game. Thankfully, that means we the fans/Enthusiasts get to benefit from better efforts all around. It’s unfortunate that sometimes feet have to be held to fires but whatever works.

 

So, back to tonight’s SmackDown. They’re underselling this time around since Roman Reigns was on RAW. Happy Corbin is going to get his own “show” since everyone believes Owens is peace-ing out once his contract is up. Zelina Vega will continue to workshop Liv Morgan and Apollo Crews will yet again face Shinsuke Nakamura for the Intercontinental Title. It’s still hard to say if WWE is learning the lesson but if the talent performs well, does it really matter if the goal is to entertain? Only time will tell. Funny tweets and Likes get retweeted. Let’s see if they can get us to release a drop of saliva for Extreme Rules.

 

See You in a Bit,

-Nicole Alexis (^_~)