Hey, Blue Team!
Very good Smackdown this week. It’s a good ol’ fashioned pay-per-view go-home show. I know the go-home shows don’t mean much anymore now that there’s a pay-per-view just about every other week to go home to, but as far as go-home shows go, this was one of the better ones of the year.
Now sit back, relax, and find out what wacky adventures James Ellsworth is getting into this week.
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 November 29th, 2016.
Best: Better, Becky, and Bliss
This week’s Smackdown Live starts off with a Becky Lynch/Alexa Bliss contract signing. Minus the table and the contract, they did practically the same segment to open up a Smackdown prior to their first title match. This week’s version however is much better. And not just because of the table spot at the end. This week’s was just a more well-written segment.
Most of the insults they threw back and forth at each other made sense. Some of them were even grounded in reality. It made for a more believable segment that had a really nice build to it. On top of the writing, the physicality between Becky and Bliss looked aggressive. I hope the end to their match on Sunday is Becky hitting that suplex through the table.
If I had one small complaint, it’s that I don’t understand Becky hitting Alexa with the sucker punch. It just doesn’t fit the character to me. Maybe if Bliss had said something really personal and super offensive, then I could see Lynch take a swing over the table at her. But things never got heated enough to justify our hero landing the first blow. Later on the show, the exact same thing goes down between Dean Ambrose and AJ Styles. Why are we supposed to boo when AJ does it but cheer for Becky? But that is a very small complaint in what was otherwise a very good segment.
Best: An Honest Day’s Work
The first match of the night finds Dolph Ziggler and Kalisto teaming up for a tag team match vs. the Lone Wolf Baron Corbin and The Miz, with Maryse in their corner. This was everything it needed to be and a little bit more. It was the perfect one of these go home matches where they put two singles matches from the upcoming pay-per-view together in a tag match. I mean, it’s just an absolute perfectly done version of one of those.
First off, they primarily kept the action in the ring between people who won’t be opponents on Sunday. For most of the match, Corbin wrestled Ziggler or Miz wrestled Kalisto, with the feuding opponents only coming together for big spots. This includes an amazing superkick from Ziggler to The Miz that would make even Shawn Michaels envious.
They also managed to plug into this match the various weapons that will be legal in their matches at TLC, without the use of them feeling too forced. It all ended in a beautifully timed sequence that goes from that superkick and ends up with Corbin hitting Kalisto with a chair. This match isn’t the kind of thing that makes best-of lists, nor will it even be remembered a couple of weeks from now, but it’s some real good sports entertainment.
Best: You Can’t See Her
I’m usually not a fan of women’s wrestling storylines that revolve around men, be it love triangles or something similar to where we found ourselves in the current Nikki Bella/Carmella storyline where one woman is bringing up the other woman’s boyfriend. But there’s something about it being John Cena that makes it seem kind of justified. Yes, he’s her boyfriend … but he’s also John Cena. Maybe I should hate it. I don’t know. But it seems alright here.
Carmella and Nikki Bella’s feud has been pretty good, but it has been going on a while and there’s not much more you can really do with it. Even though they had to eke out one more Smackdown segment before TLC, they kept it short, sweet, and to the point as they got us through that final step before Sunday.
Worst: You Can’t Win Them All
I’m ready for this to be over. I wanted to enjoy this week’s Dean Ambrose/AJ Styles/James Ellsworth segment. After all, AJ Styles is in it. He’s the best and I want to enjoy everything he’s in. And there’s a part of me that deep down wants to enjoy Dean Ambrose. But I’m just so over it.
A major problem is that I’m identifying with AJ Styles more and more every week. With each passing Smackdown, AJ’s reasons for wanting to get his hands on Ambrose and Ellsworth become increasingly justified. By the time Ellsworth was hanging by his feet from the ring ropes, being slammed in the back with a steel chair by Styles, my reaction wasn’t “oh no, poor Ellsworth,” it was “FINALLY.” I feel worse for Ellsworth when he’s being verbally abused by Dean Ambrose.
Yes, the Styles Clash off the steps was super cool. But the aftermath ruined it for me. Too much. Just way too much. From the announcers putting on their Owen voices to the stretcher job and ambulance ride. Was a foot taller Styles Clash really that much more devastating than what Braun Strowman did to James Ellsworth at Survivor Series? It doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve seen AJ jump higher than that while giving the Styles Clash in the ring. Yes, James Ellsworth is the runt of the litter, but he is a professional wrestler. Has been for a while. He’s also a legitimate WWE Superstar now and holds three victories over AJ Styles. Even the mother of all Styles Clashes shouldn’t kill him dead.
Worst: I Guess
I don’t have much to say about Kane vs. Luke Harper. It was a perfectly fine match. I could go on a giant rant about the underuse/misuse of Luke Harper, but you guys know. No need to preach to the choir. I don’t understand Kane winning the match. I just don’t know what good that does anybody, including Kane.
Like I said, perfectly good match. Just … blah.
Best: A Growing Family
Something weird has happened over the last few weeks. Not as weird as Bray Wyatt winning matches, but still pretty weird. I have found myself really enjoying the Randy Orton-included Wyatt Family. It was probably about halfway through their Survivor Series match that I started to dig this. By the end of that five-on-five match, I was all in.
After months of Bray and Randy’s interactions with each other being my least favorite thing on television, now that they’re a team it’s really working for me. No, that doesn’t excuse the months of torture I was subjected to. If anything, my enjoyment of Orton and Wyatt as a team makes the months of bad television leading up to it feel even worse.
I want them to have a better origin story so badly. How much cooler would this team be now if Randy joining them had consisted of something a little more poignant and a lot more believable than Orton just shrugging his shoulders and proclaiming, “if you can’t beat them, join them?” It’s hard to get the memory of Orton’s meandering backstage walks through ill-conceived haunted houses out of my mind, but matches like tonight’s main event against American Alpha helps.
This was a good match. And a real breath of fresh air after so many James Ellsworth-based main events recently. I hope Randy doesn’t turn on the family this Sunday. There’s a part of me that kind of wants to see Randy and Bray win the belts. I definitely want to see more matches between them and American Alpha. Even though the match was good, it barely scratched the surface of what I believe the two teams can do to each other. Just imagine all the ways Jordan and Gable can take RKOs.
I’m looking forward to The Wyatt Family vs. Beauty and the Man Beast on Sunday, maybe more than any other match on the card. Now that’s weird.
Best: Her Majesty
Just when you thought Smackdown was over, we go backstage to be sent home with a nice little extra piece of business. After watching the main event and eating chips, Rhyno and Heath Slater start an interview about their match this Sunday, but are quickly interrupted by AJ Styles. When it looks like things are about to go down between AJ and Rhyno, Dean Ambrose shows up and beats Styles down. Down, around, and all over the room, all while Rhyno did some more of his tremendous acting in the background. It was a fun and different way to end the show, and I liked it.
Yes, it was probably born less out of creativity and more out of having to change the ropes and ring apron before the Cruiserweights came out. But new ways of ending the show are always welcome, even if they are just out of necessity.
Until next week, I’m Justin Donaldson and I guess I now watch three and a half hours of WWE programming on Tuesday nights.
