Hey, Blue Team.
Smackdown Live is weird. It’s a weird television show. Raw feels like it came out of the draft hip and exciting, where Smackdown has just come out weird. It’s the Danny DeVito from Twins. I don’t want to give the impression that it’s bad; there’s a lot to like. It’s just very weird. This week they’ve added some new elements to make the show even weirder. They all come off as unnecessary and like they’re trying way too hard.
For instance, there are now little bios for each of the Superstars that pop up on the side of the screen for their entrances. Kind of like what they did with Matt Hardy V1 fifteen years ago, but without the fun little references. There’s also a new backstage segment with Renee Young where she sits in a place that looks like SportsCenter on a spaceship. The environment is a little much. Smackdown, I know you’re trying to distance yourself from Raw, but don’t do things just for the sake of being different. Renee Young works perfectly fine without the spaceship.
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And now without further ado, here is The Best and Worst of Smackdown Live for August 2, 2016.
Best: Ambrose From Dimension X
The completely separate, brand split, totally its own thing Smackdown opens up with a shot from the end of Raw. It’s Brock Lesnar about to be RKO’d. Looks like Smackdown couldn’t quit the Raw Rebound cold turkey. The camera pulls back to reveal Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, and Shane McMahon are watching Raw and discussing what Randy did. The WWE couldn’t go two Raws without someone from Smackdown appearing on it, and Smackdown couldn’t go two shows without Raw appearing on it.
Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan (or as they will henceforth be known, Shaniel Bryan) give Orton a bunch of local talent dressed as security guards to protect him because they’ve been watching wrestling long enough to know that Brock Lesnar is showing up on Smackdown tonight. But this is only the beginning of the backstage interactions for Shaniel Bryan. They wrap up with Orton and the camera follows as they run into Miz and Maryse. And then eventually Dean Ambrose, who’s on his way out to the ring to talk about his upcoming match vs. Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam.
Something happened when Dean Ambrose went through the portal that exiled him to the Smackdown Universe. This is a different Dean Ambrose. Not as wacky. Way more serious. A little heelish. There’s even a little more gravel in his voice. It’s interesting. This isn’t exactly the direction I thought Ambrose would go in, but it’s better than Wacky Dean from earlier this summer. It’s definitely headed in the right direction. And much like the rest of Smackdown, it’s kind of weird.
Dean talks about his accomplishments and building his legacy and then brings out Dolph Ziggler. This is also a slightly different Ziggler. We’ve seen glimpses of this version of Ziggler in the past, but not for very long. It feels a little bit like 1996 Shawn Michaels, but Dolph Ziggler’s boyhood dream hasn’t quite come true yet. Ambrose talks about how Ziggler doesn’t have what it takes to win the big one. Ziggler responds with a passionate promo that gets heated but not overly angry. It was a very nice performance by both men. Even if the material they were working with was a little melodramatic.
It’s interesting to me that this feud seems to not have much to do with Ambrose, with the focus so far being whether Ziggler can with a big SummerSlam main event match and take home the WWE Title. It’s interesting, but also following the theme of Smackdown, it’s kind of weird. I’m liking it though, and I’m really looking forward to their match at SummerSlam.
Before we get there, this week’s Smackdown needs a main event. So Bray Wyatt shows up, takes out Ziggler, and challenges him to a match later tonight with the title shot at SummerSlam on the line. It’s all very predictable and doesn’t feel new or exciting at all, but at least it makes sense. There’s motivation for Wyatt to attack Ziggler, and Bray challenging Dolph to that match is very in character. After the last few years, I feel like I have to give points to the WWE staff every time something makes sense. Overall, a really good job by all three men, but they’ve got a lot of heavy lifting to do.
Best: From Full Sail, With Love
The first match this Tuesday is a triple threat match featuring Smackdown’s entire mid-card. It’s Baron Corbin vs. Kalisto vs. Apollo Crews, and the winner becomes the number one contender to Miz’s Intercontinental Championship.
I liked this match a lot. It was fun, just the right length, and made everybody look good. Much like last week’s battle royale victory, you could see Apollo Crews winning this thing from a mile away. But you’d never know it by the way these guys wrestled the match. They made it start to feel like any one of them could win at any moment.
The Miz was out at commentary during the match and he did a good job, too. I’ve really enjoyed Miz’s Intercontinental Title run, but I assume it’s coming to an end at SummerSlam. Which is fine. Crews could use the belt and Miz deserves another shot in the main event scene.
My favorite part of the whole segment came after the match. Kalisto was still down on the mat from the pin when Baron Corbin comes back to the ring to take his loss out on Kalisto. Apollo comes back to the ring to make the save, but Miz slides in from behind him and hits him with a beautiful Skull Crushing Finale.
That’s when it happens. The first signs of white meat babyface Baron Corbin. Corbin shows up behind Miz like something out of a horror movie and hits him with End of Days, and now I want babyface Baron Corbin so bad. You know, not the one that we had when he first showed up at NXT. One that the fans would actually get behind. I’m ready to join the Lone Wolfpack.
Best: Flawless
Wow. This was my absolute favorite segment on this week’s Smackdown Live. A really smart idea executed perfectly. Becky Lynch was scheduled to wrestle Eva Marie. It’s all going off according to plan. Becky comes down to the ring with an energetic entrance followed by Eva Marie and her fantastic intro video.
Once Eva gets in the ring, she climbs the turnbuckle to pose. After she jumps down from the turnbuckle, she gets a look on her face like something’s wrong and starts holding her left leg. The ref’s about to ring the bell, he asks Eva if she’s ready, but she points at her leg and says no. The ref calls for the medic and then calls off the match.
It’s all very well done. Eva is obviously faking the injury, but she doesn’t lay it on thick at all. She doesn’t grab her knee and start screaming like most people would do. I’m about to use a word I never thought I would associate with Eva Marie. Her performance was subtle. Becky’s reactions were all great too. I want to see how long they can keep these two from actually wrestling each other. I hope Eva Marie comes up with a different excuse for why she can’t compete for months. Like a “Golden Truth hasn’t tagged yet” amount of time. Great stuff.
Unfortunately what was not great stuff were the segments involving the other Smackdown women’s feud. Carmella and Nattie start a feud during one of Renee Young’s spaceship interview segments. Then later in the night, Nattie attacks Carmella on her way to the ring. Yep. It’s yet another one of those segments. A carbon copy of the way she attacked Becky not that long ago. Smackdown’s Women’s Division may not be big, but it sure does cover the spectrum of good to bad.
Worst: Ready, Willing, And Rushing Into Things
Maybe I set the bar a little too high in my own mind, but I was slightly disappointed in the Smackdown debut of American Alpha. They took on The Vaudevillains and it was perfectly fine, but I was looking for something slightly more exciting.
I don’t think this was a bad debut. It’s not going to hurt them in any way. But I really wanted to see the Jason Jordan/Chad Gable debut pack a punch. I wanted a completely one sided squash against local talent. I wanted every move they did to feel explosive. I wanted the rest of the world to feel the excitement that we have felt on NXT. The Vaudevillains were just a little too competitive for my tastes. JBL compared American Alpha to the young Steiner Brothers, and that just made me want to see their debut match be more like one of those old Steiner Brothers WCW Saturday Night matches where Rick and Scott would just effortlessly destroy their opponents.
The other problem I have with The Vaudevillains being American Alpha’s first opponents is that they’ve now already defeated one of the five Smackdown tag teams they have to face. Why rush it? Why not take your time and build up to The Vaudevillains? Are they rushing them past The Vaudevillains to get to The Ascension? This is the beginning of the end of The Vaudevillains, isn’t it? I hope not. There’s still a whole lot of potential in them. And with so few tag teams on Smackdown, we need every team that we can get.
Worst: Roderick Strong Is Next
We have seen this so many times. We’ve seen it done better, we’ve seen it done worse, we’ve seen it over and over again. We’ve seen John Cena have this exact segment with CM Punk, Kevin Owens, Daniel Bryan.
If you didn’t see this segment, I don’t have to tell you about it because you already know what it is. This is so lazy. You have two people as talented as John Cena and AJ Styles, and you’re just having them rehash the same old stuff over and over again. Did they even attempt to come up with new ideas? If we ever get to see John Cena and Samoa Joe, is it just going to be this all over again?
I’m sure their Summerslam rematch is going to be great, but this segment tells me I can totally check out on their feud until then. Nothing new to see here.
Worst: F5 From A Mile Away
Next up is Randy Orton vs. local Smackdown talent, Fandango. This is exactly the kind of match I wanted to see Orton have last week when he was having his first match back. But this week when it happens, it’s less about Orton and more about when and where The Beast is going to materialize. This should have been one of those beat the clock challenge matches. They should have put a little clock in the corner of the screen counting down to Brock Lesnar’s arrival. How many times can Randy pin Fandango before Lesnar shows up?
When Brock does show up, it’s kind of lackluster. He’s just standing in the audience, smiling. He nonchalantly walks past the security guards and easily hits Orton with an F5. I’m sure it was fun for the live audience to see Brock Lesnar, but watching at home it just seemed like a pretty uninspired moment. Especially considering how exciting Orton’s similar appearance on Raw was.
Best: I’d Be Perfectly Happy If Rhyno Never Wrestled Again And Only Showed Up To Gore People
Best: Better Late Than Never
Dolph Ziggler vs. Bray Wyatt may not set the world on fire with excitement, but it was a really good match. And not one we’ve seen a whole lot. Ziggler and Wyatt did a great job telling the same story in the ring that Ziggler and Ambrose told on the mics earlier. Can Dolph Ziggler do it? Ambrose did a good job furthering that outside the ring on commentary.
I can’t help but think about how hot this story would have been if it had happened in December of 2014 instead of August of 2016. It’s like the WWE forgot Ziggler existed for almost two years. I’m glad it’s happening, but I’m constantly asking, “Why now?” They’re doing a good job of building Ziggler back up.
A hard fought win over Bray Wyatt is great, but a post-match beatdown of Ziggler by Erick Rowan means next week’s Smackdown probably features a tag match with Rowan and Wyatt vs. Ziggler and Ambrose, and that already feels like a momentum killer. That feels like a match we would have seen on non-live Smackdown. Hopefully they’ll zig instead of zag (pun intended), and have Ziggler score victories over other formidable opponents leading up to SummerSlam until Ambrose finally considers Ziggler a formidable threat. But unfortunately I smell a formulaic tag match in our future.
I like the match a lot, but I’m afraid I have to get a little wrestling nerd on you here and complain about the turnbuckle spot. What was the idea behind this? Was the ref supposed to be looking directly at the exposed turnbuckle? Because that’s exactly what happened. The ref looked at the exposed turnbuckle like he was having a staring contest with it. He saw Ziggler purposefully slam Wyatt’s head into it, clear as day, yet did nothing about it and let Ziggler pin Wyatt.
I was willing to look past an earlier incident where Tyler Breeze jumped into the ring during Randy Orton’s match with Fandango and attacked Orton. It should have been a disqualification, but the ref let it slide. I can also let that slide because technically Randy touched Tyler first. This exposed turnbuckle is totally blatant, but I’m not going to let this spoil a perfectly good match for me. And I’m not going to let the fact that it’s two years too late ruin this Dolph Ziggler storyline for me either.
Until next, I’m Justin Donaldson and stay tuned for the Best and Worst of Talking Smack.
