The Best And Worst Of WWE Smackdown Live 8/30/16: Talking Talking Smack’s Smack Talking


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Hey, Blue Team.

Another solid Smackdown this week. It may not have had the excitement of this week’s Raw, but it certainly was interesting. They handle the fallout from last week’s Talking Smack with ease. There are some fun matches on the show and another fantastic Talking Smack after it.

If you enjoy me watching Smackdown Live so you don’t have to, please consider sharing, liking, and commenting. While you’re at it, follow With Spandex on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

And now without further ado, here is The Best and Worst of Smackdown Live for August 30, 2016.

Best: You Have My Attention

The opening segment of this week’s Smackdown Live was three-tiered. The show starts off with a “Talking Smack” Re-Smack, showing the footage you’ve all seen by now of Daniel Bryan hitting a little too close to home and The Miz exploding from the world’s greatest TV show wrap-up program, Talking Smack. Chris Hardwick is no Daniel Bryan.

When the replay is over, we see that Shaniel Bryan has been watching it on a monitor in the back. Shane suggests to Daniel Bryan that in the future, don’t get in the talent’s face. Bryan agrees but thinks “it’s ironic coming from the guy who has beef with Brock Lesnar.”

Finally we’re out to the arena where The Miz and Maryse are on their way out to the ring, where The Miz continues the smack talk he started talking on Talking Smack. He defends himself against Daniel Bryan’s “sawft (official WWE spelling)” allegations, talks about how he’s bring the Intercontinental Title back into relevance, and points out that he’s the one WWE calls when they need someone to do commercials and make media appearances that John Cena has turned down doing.

The Miz runs down the audience for a while until Ziggler’s music hits. Dolph accuses Miz of being a coward and only in WWE to be famous. Ziggler wants Miz to prove he’s not a coward by engaging right here right now in some sort of unsanctioned, non-title, shirt vs. skins street fight. But The Miz backs down. They tease getting physical a few more times, but Maryse ultimately pushes Miz to the back.

All the right moves were made here and it was done impeccably well. They had to show that Talking Smack segment on Smackdown. That was fantastic television and has put real heat on The Miz for the first time in a long time. I love that this is not going to be a feud between The Miz and Daniel Bryan. We’ve seen enough authority figure storylines for a lifetime.

This all started not because of what Daniel Bryan said, but because The Miz wasn’t booked on last week’s Smackdown. So it’s only logical that The Miz would just take what Bryan said about him as yet another case of being disrespected. You can continue that storyline on anybody; it doesn’t have to be the retired Bryan. And who’s better than Dolph Ziggler? As Kanyon would say, “Nobody.”

The Miz may be the Superstar WWE calls when they need stuff done outside the ring, but Ziggler’s the guy they call when they need stuff done in it. Dolph Ziggler may not be the face of the company or the WWE Champion, but he’s become the go-to guy for making WWE function from day to day. You need a first opponent in an Ambrose championship run? Ziggler’ll get the job done. You need someone to wake up Del Rio? Put him with Ziggler. You need someone to wrestle Kofi Kingston for three years? Dolph Ziggler’s your man. Now he’s the one that’s going to help The Miz elevate to that next level.

The Miz needs to keep successfully defending that IC Championship, proving his critics wrong, the whole time complaining that he’s underused until he’s back in the main event. After he beats Ziggler at this pay-per-view, have him get a clean win over Orton at the next. And then on to face whoever the WWE Champion will be at Survivor Series. Everybody loves a Hollywood comeback.

While I’m doing a little fantasy booking, I really hope the two Shaniel Bryan storylines of Daniel Bryan wanting to get back into the ring and Shane beefing with Brock Lesnar come together at Wrestlemania. I want Shane to pin Brock Lesnar after Daniel Bryan knocks Brock out with a knee. C’mon WWE doctors, one knee’s not gonna kill him.

Best: Vaudevillains Throw-Back To The Old Vaudevillains.

I like this week’s match between The Vaudevillains and The Hype Brothers for the same reason I liked The Usos vs. The Ascension last week; The Vaudevillains look like a competitive tag team for the first time in months. This works to help the The Hype Brothers to look like a better team (and boy do they need the help), and helps elevate the tag team division and the tournament as a whole.

Not only did The Vaudevillains get in a lot of offense, but they also had a pre-taped interview that was shown during their entrance. Post match, we get an in-ring interview with The Hype Brothers. Or The Hype Bros? What are we supposed to call them?

What is their deal exactly? I watched them in NXT, and just watch this interview, yet I still don’t what their point is. Why are they together? Why is Zack Ryder saying “he’s hyped” when he only looks kind of hyped? I wish there would have been some sort of storyline surrounding Ryder and Rawley coming together on the main roster, other than “Smackdown needed more tag teams.”

Best: The Guys The Miz Was Talking About

Apollo Crews vs. AJ Styles feels more like a match I should be watching at BOLA this weekend instead of Smackdown. It was really fun to watch these two guys in the ring together. They’re the perfect match-up for each other. AJ: the veteran and one of the best wrestlers in the world. Apollo: an amazing athlete with all the potential in the world. That fits well in the ring and storyline-wise.

Even though the match was competitive, AJ’s victory was definitive. Once again this week, AJ wrestled like a guy who just beat John Cena. Prior to the match, AJ also knocked it out of the park once more with an in-ring promo and backstage segment, as he continues to boast about being the new face that runs the place. All of AJ’s work the past few weeks have been top notch.

Worst: Farty Farty Fart Fart

WWE is one of the most multi-faceted entertainment organizations on earth. There are so many things WWE does well — from television production, to their YouTube channel, to their current developmental system. But no matter what, the one thing WWE can almost never manage to do is comedy. And that largely has to do with the sense of humor of one Vincent Kennedy McMahon. It all comes back to the creator, and the creator of WWE has the sense of humor of an eight year old boy.

I really wanted to like this. I love Heath Slater and Rhyno, and I’m always up for expanding the WWE Universe with segments like this. just, you know, not segments like THIS. I would love to believe that this segment was some sort of ironic take on one of those old segments you’d see on TNT, maybe a fitting tribute to Mr. Fuji. But I’m afraid instead of this being a send-up of those bad early eighties sketches, this was simply just them doing another one of those sketches. Vince McMahon laughs just as hard today from a fat woman belching as he did in 1985.

I will say that as bad as the material was, all the performers did the best they could with it. Yet more fantastic background work from Rhyno, and Heath Slater is getting to the point where he can spin gold out of just about anything. But even their great performance can do nothing to save how juvenile and out of touch this attempt at comedy is.

One other thing. Does this mean Slater actually has those kids and the above-ground pool? Was he not lying to Rhyno? I’m so confused. This storyline started to confuse me more than the existence of The Hype Bros.

Worst: Another One Of These Segments

Well-written and well-performed, but Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt’s promos left me as uninterested as Orton and the guy behind him in this photo.

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If it’s not holding the attention of the people two feet away from it, it’s definitely not holding my attention through the television. Our visit to the Slaters’ House may have been cringe-worthy, but at least it held my attention. Following up that and a fast-paced match between AJ Styles and Apollo Crews with the long slow drones of Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt makes them feel even longer and slower. Luckily, Payback’s only a week away. So we should only have one more of these to sit through.

Best: Still Glowing

Becky Lynch and Naomi vs. Alexa Bliss and Natalya with Nikki Bella on commentary was not as enjoyable as the Smackdown women’s segments have been. But there were still parts that I enjoyed. I’m still really digging Naomi’s entrance, and I once again loved Carmella’s continues beatdown of Nikki Bella, especially the nice touch of Carmella stepping on Nikki and using her as a stool to climb up the barricade.

It may have been Nikki Bella’s commentary, the repeated mention of jealousy, or the fact that this is yet another women’s tag match, but this segment didn’t seem to have the same forward momentum that the other women’s segments have had lately. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I miss Eva Marie. Still I appreciate that the focus seems to still be primarily on the competition for the women’s title, even when our crack commentary team tries to ask Nikki Bella about locker room jealousy over Becky Lynch being the number one draft pick. Her answer is that everyone in the locker room is focused on the title. A Bella focusing on a championship instead of drama? That’s a real evolution.

Curt Hawkins Is Still Coming. So… Yeah.

Best: When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Gets Goring

I’m a sucker for ’90s nostalgia, so I was totally onboard with a guest appearance from The Headbangers right from the get go. They stopped by to have a tag team title tournament match against Heath Slater and Rhyno, and Mosh and Thrasher were looking pretty good … right up until Mosh opened up a rhino horn sized gash on Rhyno’s face. But accidents happen. So I’m totally open to seeing more of The Headbangers in Smackdown Live’s future.

I like Slater and Rhyno a lot more in the ring than I did back at the homestead. Heath Slater gets destroyed the entire match. But right when it looks like The Headbangers had the match won, Rhyno broke up the impending winning pin and then drags Slater back to their corner, where he tagged himself in. Rhyno gores Thrasher and gets the win. This should be how every one of their matches goes.

Worst: Dead Milkman

From the people who brought you Heath Slater’s wife, comes Gary “The Milkman” Millman. I understand the idea behind this, but the execution of it was very weird. Especially considering how well-done the Braun Strowman squashes have been on Raw. If he went through the trouble to get sanctioned to wrestle, why didn’t he have any gear? Do I even care enough to ask that question? Does Kane really want to be doing these squash matches, instead of starting his political career in Tennessee?

The only redeeming quality of this entire segment is the couple of seconds where Kane walks past Baron Corbin. That means Kane vs. Baron Corbin is coming our way, and I can’t wait. Dear WWE: Please find a way for Baron Corbin to take Kane’s powers. I know this isn’t Lucha Underground, but crazier things have happened.

By the way, what ever happened to Baron Corbin’s feud with Kalisto? In fact, whatever happened to Kalisto? Did Corbin bury him somewhere off the highway?

Best: The Lone Wolves

Between the screwy finish and outside interference by AJ Styles on commentary, tonight’s main event of Baron Corbin vs. Dean Ambrose was a little too much like Smackdown Non-Live for my tastes. But still, there was more I liked about this match than disliked. For instance, this is the version of Ambrose I want to see. A little less cocky, a little more reckless, not wearing a giant novelty cowboy hat.

Even the bit at the end where he bounces the interfering AJ Styles crotch-first on the ropes seemed a little less wacky than the way Ambrose would have played it up a few months ago. I liked Corbin in this match too. I like that he didn’t appreciate Styles getting involved in the match. And he didn’t feel out of place being out there with Ambrose and Styles.

The match had a nice slow build to it that really had the audience into it by the end. It is weird to me though that we’re headed into another pay-per-view with the build for the WWE Title match being one of the least interesting on the show. There’s only one more Smackdown before Backlash, yet Ambrose and Styles have just barely started to feud with one another. It kind of makes you feel like this Ambrose/Styles Backlash match isn’t that important. Kind of like the Ambrose/Ziggler match felt at Summerslam.

Maybe they shouldn’t wait a couple months to get Miz in the main event scene. Maybe he should be in the main event scene right now. I guess that’s The Miz’ point.

Best: The Real Main Event

Once again this week, my favorite WWE show is Talking Smack. There was no way it was going to reach the heights of last week, but it was still excellent from top to bottom. It started off with a heartfelt apology from Daniel Bryan about the way he acted last week, followed by Bryan talking about the difficulties that have come from transitioning out of being an in-ring competitor.

Daniel and Renee then has a fantastic interview with Heath Slater and Rhyno. That was sooooooooo much better than the trip to Slater’s trailer on Smackdown Live proper. It made me love Slater and Rhyno even more and now I want to see them win the tournament. There are also moments of the interview that are legitimately funny. So we know Vince must be on his plane and halfway to Connecticut by the time Talking Smack starts.

Until next week, I’m Justin Donaldson and I want to trade Kalisto for Sami Zayn.

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