Hey, Blue Team.
This week’s Smackdown was pretty good. Much better than Raw, but that’s not saying much at all. It suffers from an uninspired main event scene, but overall, Smackdown’s doing some pretty fun stuff. Especially considering their roster has an extreme lack of depth. There’s real potential for Smackdown Live to become consistently good. That’s why I think I have a tendency to be a little harsh on the parts of the show that weren’t great.
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And now without further ado, here is The Best and Worst of Smackdown Live for August 9, 2016.
Worst: The Build-Up To The 1992 SummerSlam
The opening to this week’s Smackdown is the epitome of lazy television writing. I was immediately intrigued when Dolph Ziggler won a multi-man match on the first brand extension episode of Smackdown to become the number contender to Dean Ambrose’s WWE Championship. Not only did I think the two could put on a great match at SummerSlam, but I was also happy that Ziggler got that kind of spot on the card. But mainly I was extremely intrigued by the idea of a face vs. face feud featuring Ambrose vs. Ziggler at this point in their careers.
These are two unique individuals. They’re not two guys that you right off the bat think of putting together. Their clash of personalities had the possibilities of leading to some interesting storylines, so I became legitimately curious as to where their road to SummerSlam would travel.
Turns out, the car’s stuck in reverse.
With Erick Rowan by his side, Bray Wyatt comes down to the ring to babble about Ambrose and Ziggler. This of course brings out Ambrose, who doesn’t get in the ring, but talks about how much he wants to. This brings out Ziggler who gets right in the ring and goes after The Wyatts. Predictably, Ambrose follows, and ends up eating a superkick from Ziggler that was meant for Bray.
Instead of creating something new and exciting between Ziggler and Ambrose, They have ham-fisted Bray Wyatt into this and turned it into the same build to SummerSlam we’ve seen countless times. Seriously. Like 80% of SummerSlams are built up to this way. You can go back to 1992 to watch Macho Man and The Ultimate Warrior primarily feud with Ric Flair with a little Papa Shango on the side on their way to facing each other at SummerSlam. Or back to 1998 when the build to Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker was them feuding with Mankind and Kane.
If there was another month until SummerSlam, Ziggler and Ambrose would probably win the tag titles. Y’know, if Smackdown had tag titles.
But that’s my overall complaint about the Ambrose/Ziggler build at this point. As far as my feelings on this particular segment, well even if you put aside my dislike for the rest of the feud, there’s still no reason for this segment to exist. Just start the show with the Ziggler/Ambrose vs. Wyatt/Rowan tag match. There’s no need for this segment. We all knew that match was coming at the end of last week’s show. Nothing new was accomplished here.
I guess now that Smackdown can’t redo the ending of the previous night’s Raw on its show, they’ll just redo the ending of the previous week’s Smackdown.
Worst: Coming Soon, The Smackdown Tag Team Division
I was very excited to see that the WWE had obviously received my cards and letters and had booked my dream match between American Alpha and “local talent.” But before the match could begin, I was overtaken by a new emotion.
The Ascension’s music hit, and as Viktor and Konnor enter the arena, I literally burst out laughing. I feel really bad about this. I have enjoyed The Ascension in the past. I believed in them long past most people. Comedy is subjective, so I’m not sure how you reacted to this, but this was the most intense laugh I’ve had in months. A real stress reliever.
The Ascension is then followed out by The Vaudevillains and The Hype Brothers. The three teams hang around ringside and watch Gable and Jordan squash Bakersfield’s best, then all jump in the ring and fight afterwards. This segment made me change my mind; I now believe that Smackdown does not need a Tag Team Championship.
American Alpha is the only team left standing at the end of the brawl, which is the way it has to be because no one on the roster remotely poses a threat to them. Don’t get me wrong; I like a lot of these teams and I love The Vaudevillains, but they were already destroyed by American Alpha last week. And after laughing out loud at the mere appearance of The Ascension, it’s apparent that I can’t take any team on the blue brand as a legitimate threat to Jordan and Gable. So there’s really no need for tag team titles at this point.
At least until Rhyno and Baron Corbin get back together.
Best: All Good Everything
This was a perfect follow-up to last week’s segment with Eva Marie and Becky Lynch. This week, Eva can’t compete because of a wardrobe malfunction. It’s great. They could have easily had her come out on crutches and say she was still injured from last week. But unlike other segments on this show, they actually thought to do something different this week. Not only was Eva’s wardrobe malfunction a perfect follow-up, I also liked that Becky Lynch still got a match even though Eva couldn’t compete. They moved the storyline forward, but we still got to see Becky wrestle.
Alexa Bliss vs. Becky Lynch was less like a full match and more like a preview of matches that’ll happen in the future, but it was good while it lasted and helps establish Bliss as a credible opponent for Becky. This is the kind of building they need to start doing over in the tag team division. The match also featured one of the very few times the old worn out distraction finish actually kind of worked for me.
Becky was in the midst of a comeback against Bliss, when the lights turn red and Eva Marie’s entrance music plays again. The voice of the announcer then states “Ladies and gentlemen, Eva Marie is now ready to compete.” I could actually see this distraction working on somebody. It caught me off guard. I actually believed Becky Lynch could have been distracted by this, and Lynch sells it well.
For two weeks in a row, Becky and Eva provide the most interesting segment on the show.
Best: The Old Era
By far the best match of the night was Randy Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio. Was it the freshest, most innovative match? Of course not. But it was a solid match-up, with very crisp work from both men and a good story to tell.
Del Rio spends the majority of the match working Randy’s arm. That’s the framework for a pretty standard Del Rio match as he builds to finishing his opponent with an arm-breaker. But what I like about it here is that it stretches beyond the match and helps create more of a story for Orton’s match against Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam.
The match ends when Del Rio is disqualified for hitting Orton in the arm with a chair. He continues hitting him with the chair after the bell and eventually slams Randy’s arm into a post. Not only does it help to build to the SummerSlam match, it’s also perfectly in line with Del Rio’s character. I like when it all seems natural, and this all had a good flow to it. Now all we need is for Lesnar to work Randy’s arm at SummerSlam.
Is that even a possibility? Does Lesnar do anything other than suplexes now?
Best: Love And Scooby Snacks
This week’s Smackdown Live MVP was definitely The Miz. And not just because of the above segment where The Miz’ car is stolen by a man in a Scooby Doo costume that The Miz apparently believes is the real Scooby Doo. Earlier in the night, The Miz appeared with Maryse inside Renee Young’s spaceship for what was my favorite Smackdown segment of the week. Unfortunately the folks at WWE’s YouTube channel must not have appreciated it as much as I did, because they didn’t bother to upload it. But it was amazing.
Miz and Maryse are sitting at the desk with Renee Young in the middle. When Renee says they’re going to take a look at his opponent for SummerSlam, The Miz says “Why don’t we take a look at Maryse,” then Miz and Maryse crawl on top of the desk toward each other. They cut to a video package for Apollo Crews.
When they return from the video, Miz and Maryse are laying on the desk staring into each other’s eyes. Their love is so palpable, I’m surprised that Roman Reigns didn’t come out and spear them. It’s a really fantastic segment and worth looking up once this episode hits the network, in case you didn’t see it.
Best: So Much Slater
I was pleasantly surprised by Rhyno vs. Heath Slater. For whatever reason, I just kind of assumed this would be a one-sided squash. Just Rhyno goring Slater and pinning him. But instead, we got a nice back and forth match with a fun finish where Heath loses because he attempted to cheat. I like the idea that Slater probably could have won this match if he had just played by the rules and maybe had a little more faith in himself and his abilities.
I also enjoyed the two backstage segments the match was sandwiched between. The first showed Slater approaching Rhyno in the locker room to throw the match so he can win a Smackdown contract, and Rhyno refusing to do so because of his current political campaign. I guess that makes sense.
Following the match, Heath gives another great performance in a backstage segment with Shaniel Bryan. Slater confronts them about not wanting to sign him, tells them off, and leaves without knowing they were about to offer him a contract. It’s all fun stuff. Better than almost everything that was on Raw on Monday.
Best: Okay, This Division Can Get A Belt
Natalya vs. Carmella was another match that exceeded my expectations. And much like the Orton/Del Rio match from earlier, it wasn’t the flashiest or fastest pace, but told a great story.
The match was pretty much all Nattie as she beat down Carmella and wore her down with submission holds. But Carmella never gave up and kept kicking out, until she finally catches Nattie by surprise at just the right moment. She brings Nattie to the mat and locks in the Code of Silence.
It was a really nice way for Carmella to make her in ring debut on Smackdown Live, as well as building more framework for the Women’s Division.
Worst: Still Not Good This Week
Smackdown can’t do the Raw Rebound anymore, so this week’s time killer features AJ Styles and John Cena’s horrendous promo from last week recut to music. Music couldn’t do much to spruce this up. In fact, it was so bad it made Baron Corbin angry enough to do this:
Worst: Limping To The Finish
I don’t want to give this a worst. I want to love main event Dolph Ziggler. I want to love World Champion Dean Ambrose. I’ve always wanted to love Bray Wyatt. And Erick Rowan seems like a nice enough guy. Have you seen that video where he goes and visits that terminally ill fan? It’s adorable. The “worst” is not for these four men. They’re doing the best they can with what they’re given. It wasn’t a bad match, but at the end of the day there’s just nothing exciting going on here at all. Nothing that should be the climax of your show.
This main event feels very much like something you would have seen on Smackdown six months ago. The throwaway main event on the B show. For the first time in a long time, Smackdown actually has the opportunity to be the best WWE show on the USA Network. Raw has been pretty bad the past two weeks, so just by being “not too bad,” Smackdown has the opportunity to be the best. But to do that, they’re going to have to stop treating Smackdown like Smackdown and start treating it like it’s this new thing it’s claiming to be: Smackdown Live.
I thought one of the big points of going live was to generate a feeling like anything could happen. But this just feels like the same old ending to a pre-taped Smackdown.
Until next week, I’m Justin Donaldson and I think Daniel Bryan should host very TV wrap-up show.
