Hey, Blue Team!
I’m still not sure what a Wild Card Final is, but I like it. This week’s Smackdown is another good show with their focus remaining on the wrestling. Not a Miz TV broadcast or a trip to the Ambrose Asylum in sight. There are a couple of miscues and a little sloppiness, but that doesn’t stop the majority of matches from being a lot of fun. The show also manages to provide some surprises, which are always welcome.
It’s the last Smackdown of 2016, and what a year it’s been for the blue brand. It changed networks, days, announce teams, names, it went live … it even became its own brand again. This year gave us James Ellsworth and Heath Slater’s family, it brought back Rhyno and Curt Hawkins, and almost brought back Shelton Benjamin. They made Naomi glow this year and presented The Miz with an opportunity to shine. Not to mention the addition of Talking Smack, and what a breath of fresh air that has been. And just imagine a year ago there being an episode of Smackdown where a title would change hands or one featuring the return of John Cena, let alone both of those in one night. Impossible.
Thank you for letting me guide you through the best and worst of Smackdown this year. Here’s to more “bests” than “worsts” in the new year.
It’s the holiday season. The time of year where everyone loves giving. So why not give the gift of snarky internet wrestling commentary, and take a moment to give The Best and Worst of Smackdown Live a share on your favorite social media platform. 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 December 27th, 2016.
Best: Live From Chicago, It’s Tuesday Night!
The place-running face Johnny Big Match is back. Because he never gives up, sketch comedian and infotainment personality John Cena has returned to Smackdown. And there was no better place for him to do it than Chicago. The Second City is always first in loving to hate John Cena, and Cena’s always great at playing them like a fiddle. But I also think they kind of love being played. It’s always a good time.
What starts off as a pretty run of the mill Chicago/Cena promo, turns into Cena as hype man as he pumps up this week’s Smackdown Live Wild Card Finals. It eventually turns into the absolute perfect John Cena Return promo, that could have swayed even the most hardened Cena hater into getting at least a little excited that he’s back. This is a John Cena that knows he’s John Cena. He’s not hiding behind the “Aw shucks” of Clark Kent; the glasses are off and he’s 100% Superman.
A big part of why a lot of John Cena’s run this current decade hasn’t resonated with me is due to WWE portraying him an underdog. It’s the most unbelievable thing on the show. And I don’t fully understand why they do it. But this John Cena I love. This John Cena is flat out angry when he’s not the champion and annihilating his opponents. Because he knows that’s what he’s supposed to be doing. It feels unnatural to him to not be champion.
This John Cena is so John Cena, he just goes ahead and books himself in the WWE Championship match at the Royal Rumble. I’m surprised he didn’t just go ahead and enter himself in the Rumble as #30 just as a backup. He talks about it not being a New Era, that it’s still his era. And you can tell that he means every word of it. It’s all great believable stuff. And Cena also manages to get all worked up without getting too, um, cultural-appropriation-y.
Best: Make American Alpha Great Again
In spite of some sloppiness and the very unfortunate injury to Heath Slater, I really enjoyed the Four Corners Elimination Smackdown Tag Team Title match on this week’s show. By the time Heath Slater and Rhyno and The Usos are eliminated and we’re down to just the Wyatt Family and American Alpha, it’s a great match.
It’s Luke Harper and Randy Orton defending the belt on behalf of the Family, and it turns out Luke Harper is pretty much the perfect opponent for American Alpha. He’s a big brute who can believably manhandle Jordan and Gable, giving them a real challenge. But he’s also agile and athletic enough to do a great job being on the receiving end of American Alpha’s fun stuff. It’s also super impressive to see Jordan and Gable toss him around. This match left me wanting to see Erick Rowan get well soon so him and Harper can feud with American Alpha in a next level version of that series of matches Harper and Rowan had against the Usos a few years back.
I loved everything about the ending of this match. First off, American Alpha’s title victory came as a complete surprise to me, and I think to most people as well. I felt like they were going to keep the belts on the Wyatts for a few more months. And maybe they’ll just win them back next week, who knows.
But American Alpha winning was a lot of fun, and in my opinion, the perfect time to put the belts on them. They haven’t been getting as over on the main roster as they did on NXT. I feel like having them win the belts could help solidify them with the mainstream audience. Or it will at least hit them over the head with the fact that these guys are great and important. I also love that it happened on a fairly random episode of Smackdown. So many first time title victories these days are telegraphed for weeks leading up to pay-per-views. Having this happen pretty much out of the blue really added to the excitement of the victory.
Second, it’s great that American Alpha got to pin Randy Orton. No offense to Luke Harper, but it adds just that much more legitimacy to them that the victory comes over Orton.
Finally the third thing I loved about the ending is that it involved tag team wrestling. The Wyatts lost the belts due to miscommunication. American Alpha is simply the better tag team. They may not be able to dominate Harper and Orton, but they were able to take advantage of their weakness as a team.
Congratulations to American Alpha. With Heath Slater possibly joining Zack Ryder on the shelf, you may have your work cut out for you keeping the Smackdown Live Tag Team division alive.
Jury’s still out on this one. I’m not going to speculate any more on how bad a James Ellsworth/Carmella relationship storyline could get, because there is the off chance that it could end up being good. Especially if they’re going to use him to help her get over in the ring. We shall see!
Worst: Sparkle And Fade
The Smackdown Live Women’s Title Match between Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch was far from the best match these two have had together lately. At times, they both seemed a little off. It wasn’t necessarily even a bad match, just not up to the standards that they have set. I like Bliss retaining. I also like her coming up with new ways to beat Becky, since she knows she can’t outwrestle her.
The surprise return of La Luchadora was a far better ending than the fake injury count-out they attempted a few weeks ago. But overall, this match just didn’t click with me. It felt like the weak link in an otherwise strong show.
Best: No Small Roles
Even with very little screen time this week, The Miz manages to be one of the most memorable parts of the show in two backstage segments. Once again, The Miz proves to be the smartest character on the show, while Dean Amrose proves to be the stupidest. The Miz has hired a bunch of local talent to be security guards, and Ambrose is dressed up like them for apparently no reason whatsoever. Because instead of blending in with the security guards and attacking Miz from behind, Ambrose just strolls up behind The Miz, waits for him to turn around, gives it a couple of beats once Miz sees him, then attacks him. What was the purpose of the security guard uniform? Did Ambrose just want to play dess up or do a bit with the walkie-talkie? As little sense as it made, I’m still giving it a best. Because duh, The Miz is awesome.
Best: Except That One Part
This week’s main event is a triple threat match for the WWE Heavyweight Championship. AJ Styles puts the title on the line against Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler. It’s a great match with one spectacularly mistimed moment. There’s a point in the match where Corbin’s gone through a table on the outside due to a real fun Ziggler/Styles double-team. He’s out, so it’s down to Ziggler and Styles one-on-one. They’re tearing it up back and forth, when BAM! Ziggler catches him with a fantastic looking superkick. Ziggler goes for the pin, which Corbin is clearly supposed to break up, but he doesn’t quite make it back to the ring in time, forcing Styles to have to kick out what looked to be slightly after the three-count. So Ziggler probably should be champion right now. It’s a real shame because the rest of the match was so good. A nice capper for AJ’s year.
Corbin’s miscue didn’t really take the wind out of the match’s sails for long. Not too long after, they pull off this End of Days/Zig Zag combo that brings the fans right back to their feet. Another really solid Smackdown Live main event.
Since Hulk Hogan can’t let the Macho Man have his moment, out comes Cena after the match to remind AJ that the clock is about to strike midnight on his Cinderella story. Cena extends his hand to Styles and AJ shakes it. The whole time, Cena has this smile on his face like he’s already booked himself to win their match at the Royal Rumble.
As much as I’ve enjoyed their other matches, I’m slightly disappointed that AJ’s opponent at the Royal Rumble is going to be John Cena, once again. We’ve seen Styles wrestle a lot of the same people over and over again during his first year in WWE. I’m really itching to see him face someone new. My mind has been running wild with dream opponents AJ could have at the Royal Rumble and for the rest of his title reign. And not just pie-in-the-sky fantasies like Shawn Michaels. Matches they could actually make happen, like The Undertaker or Randy Orton.
I feel like I’ve spent so long getting through James Ellsworth and Dean Ambrose to see who AJ’s going to wrestle next. It’s a little disappointing now that we’re there that it’s just John Cena again. And not just at the Royal Rumble, but it looks like they may be wrestling each other yet again at the Elimination Chamber. I know they’ll be good matches, and I know it was inevitable that at some point Cena had to get his wind back. But it still would have been nice to start 2017 off fresh with something fresh.
Until next year, I’m Justin Donaldson and I’ll see you for the Smackdown Live Wrestle Kingdom Pre-Show.
