Hey, Blue Team!
After four nights in Texas, Smackdown Live brings the Royal Rumble festivities to a close. This week’s show starts strong and ends strong, but probably could have been turned off in the middle. The middle of this show feels eerily similar to a lot of other recent Smackdown Live episodes, but there’s enough good wrestling on the show for the overall episode to fall more in the best category than the worst.
With only four hours of Smackdown to build to a three hour pay-per-view, it’s interesting to see how some of the storylines seem rushed as they try to cram them in between the Rumble and the Chamber. Where other storylines have seemed to come to a screeching halt as they try to stretch two more weeks of television out of feuds that felt like they should have naturally concluded at the Rumble.
Even though I enjoyed this week’s Smackdown Live, for the first time in months I felt that it wasn’t as good as Raw. Maybe that had something to do with a certain Samoan named Joe. Man am I bummed that Joe’s on Raw and not Smackdown. How much more exciting would that Elimination Chamber match be if Joe was in it? Though I’m not sure who he’d replace.
Oh ok, it’d be Baron Corbin. He’d replace Baron Corbin.
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And now without further ado, here is The Best and Worst of Smackdown Live for January 31st, 2017.
Best: All Apologies
They cram a whole lot into the first segment on this week’s Smackdown Live. It opens up with a great video montage featuring all the important blue parts of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, including Randy Orton’s Rumble win and highlights of the AJ Styles/John Cena match that stole the show.
From there, we pan out to see AJ Styles and Shaniel Bryan backstage watching said video montage. AJ wants to make sure he’s getting a one-on-one rematch with Cena on top of being in the Chamber. They reassure Styles that he’s going to get his rematch, and they also go ahead and rattle off the names of all the other Elimination Chamber participants.
And BAM! Just like that, the Elimination Chamber main event is set and we don’t have to spend a whole episode of Smackdown pretending like we couldn’t have told you who the Chamber participants were a month ago. It’s so much better to just announce the participants at the beginning of the show so you can start building to the match, instead of spending an episode building to the build of a match.
I’m so happy we don’t have to sit through a night of predictable Elimination Chamber qualifying matches. Who’s going to win a spot in the Chamber when AJ Styles faces Apollo Crews? Or when Baron Corbin faces Konnor from The Ascension. We didn’t even have to sit through a promo train with five people interrupting John Cena to talk about how they should be in the Chamber. Nope! Just short and sweet, this is going to be the main event, let’s keep the storylines moving forward. It’s refreshing.
So after the reveal of the Chamber participants, plus the set-up of a Styles/Ambrose main event for later in the night, we leave the backstage area and out to the arena where John Cena is about to cut a promo I don’t think anyone was expecting. It turns out they had John say all that mean stuff to Styles last week so that this week, Cena could learn a valuable lesson in how apologies work. The Prototype is one step closer to understanding how real humans act and feel.
Now that John Cena has regained his precious WWE Championship, he has calmed the F down. In the weeks leading up to The Royal Rumble, Cena acted like a three year old who just dropped his fries on the floor of McDonalds. Like a true spoiled child, now that Cena has gotten what he wants, he is ready to apologize for his behavior.
After his apology to AJ, Big Promotion John then does a masterful job segueing into promoting the Elimination Chamber while at the same time reestablishing himself as the fighting champion. It’s truly a thing of beauty.
The rest of the segment is not as strong. Just as John is exclaiming where the Champ is, Orton and Wyatt show up to slowly tell us that they’re going to stop John Cena once and for all. Luke Harper teleports in and before you know it, Shane McMahon is there to tag all these guys up, presumably because he forgot to book a match for the first half hour of the show.
And that match starts right now.
Best: Jeepers Creepers, Where’d You Get Those Peepers?
I wasn’t expecting much from John Cena and Luke Harper vs. Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton. Seeing Bray and Cena in the ring together gives me terrible flashbacks to their mess of a feud from a few years ago. But I ended up liking every moment of the match, which mostly involved Luke Harper trying to avoid physically connecting with Bray Wyatt while Cena and Orton reconnect their love affair.
Very good work from all four of these men, especially Luke Harper and Bray Wyatt. I know it’s all building to an Orton/Wyatt match, but Harper/Wyatt is the match I’m excited to see. The energy between these two guys is amazing. They truly feel like warring brothers. I can feel the drama in Luke Harper’s eyes. The chemistry between Wyatt and Harper is everything the chemistry between Wyatt and Orton is not.
Where I’d really like to see this lead is a Bray Wyatt/Randy Orton double-turn. I want to see Luke Harper save Bray Wyatt from the evil Randy Orton, who has manipulated Wyatt and destroyed his family. I want to see that, but not before we get a couple of Wyatt/Harper matches in first. After all the times I’ve had my heart broken by the Wyatt family, I’m now right back pulled in, thinking of all the possibilities. And that has a lot to do with the look in Luke Harper’s eyes.
The match ends with Orton pinning Cena clean after an RKO. It was a great ending to a real good match. Cena and Orton are going one-on-one on Smackdown Live next week, and they’re teasing that it may be the two of them at WrestleMania. Even though I don’t think it’s going to happen, there is a part of me that’s intrigued by the idea of what a Cena/Orton WrestleMania match looks like in the year 2017.
Worst: I Don’t Understand
Who would have known that the worst part of James Ellsworth and Carmella’s relationship would be JBL? In a move that is absolutely baffling to me, they did another match involving Carmella and an “enhancement talent” that is dominated by JBL’s commentary pissing all over it. I don’t understand the point of this.
Why run these Carmella squashes if JBL’s going to make her opponents out to be so beneath absolutely everyone who’s ever stepped foot in the ring that JBL is mad at Mauro for even knowing this one’s name. At least the body shaming is kept to a minimal. I guess that’s the best I can say about this.
Eh: This Was Also On The Show
Another “good for what it is” Dolph Ziggler/Kalisto match this week. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but much like their other recent encounters it’s over before it gets started. At least we got an extra minute added on this week. By the Smackdown after WrestleMania, they should be up to another twenty minute match. The Ned Ryerson of this Groundhog’s Day is Apollo Crews, who once again appears after the match to run off Dolph Ziggler .
At this point in the show, the WWE production team has produced thirteen hours of original live programming in four days. I’m going to let them slide on phoning in the middle of this week’s Smackdown Live.
Best: Glow Fire! (Yelled In JBL’s Voice)
Though not the strongest match, Naomi and Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss and Mickie James had it’s moments. The story here continues to be the explosion of Naomi, who once again just attacked this match with energy and enthusiasm. Sometimes maybe even a little too much enthusiasm, as it looked like she almost broke Becky’s leg while breaking up a pin attempt. It’s been great to watch Naomi put the pieces together over the years.
Even though she’s probably not going to come out of this feud with Bliss as the champion, I think she’ll get the belt somewhere down the line as she continues to improve. But for now, she’s become incredibly fun to watch, both in the ring and during her entrance.
Meanwhile, Mickie James continues to come off to me as though she’s still adjusting a bit to being back in WWE. She hasn’t been bad in the ring; there’s just something slightly off. But there was none of that in her sell of a dropkick from Naomi that sent Mickie flying off the ring apron and seemingly out of the television as she disappeared out of frame.
Overall, the match had more positives than negatives and keeps everything moving forward toward Elimination Chamber, where I think we may actually see three one-on-one women’s matches on one pay-per-view.
Worst: Remember The Tag Team Division Too
It was about forty five minutes into The Magicians when I finally started to give up hope that The Revival were going to answer the challenge that American Alpha issued. I don’t know why the thought of that even popped into my mind after Roman Reigns was #30. To quote our now great former President, “fool me once, etc etc.”
I would probably start enjoying WWE more if I expected the worst instead of hoping for the best. Instead of The Revival showing up, we got the entire Smackdown Tag Team Division just so WWE can remind everyone that they exist. The whole thing started when Jordan and Gable were backstage being interviewed. They realized that the Smackdown Tag Team Division had disappeared and wanted to do something about it by issuing an open challenge to fight any tag team.
Once in the ring, American Alpha’s challenge was answered at first by The Usos. But then one by one, every Smackdown tag team (including The Vaudevillains) shows up. All the teams start brawling, or as Mauro Renallo called it, a Battle Royale of sorts. They cut to a commercial break as refs try to pull them all apart, and when we get back from the break, all the teams are still in and around the ring just kind of aimlessly meandering around and hitting each other. The whole thing fell pretty flat and didn’t do any of the teams any favors.
Great. You’ve shown everyone that these tag teams still exist. Now give them a reason to. If you stayed tuned after Smackdown for Talking Smack (now 100% less good due to the conspicuously absent Daniel Bryan), then you know this was done to set up a Tag Team Turmoil match with all these teams at Elimination Chamber.
It seems weird that that match is happening at the next pay-per-view when it feels so much like a match made to be on the Mountain Dew Kickstart Kickoff WrestleMania Pre-Show Pre-Show.
Best: The Driveway To Elimination Chamber
Dean Ambrose vs. AJ Styles is your standard very good Smackdown main event. Next to their TLC match, I probably enjoyed this week’s encounter of theirs the most. It was a breath of fresh air to see these guys go at it without the looming presence of James Ellsworth overshadowing it. And for a second week in a row, Ambrose brings it to close out Smackdown on a high note.
Outside the ring, The Miz, Maryse, and Baron Corbin sat in on commentary, allowing WWE to experiment with a seven person announce team. The Miz is of course fantastic. If he doesn’t become a heel commentator when he hangs up his boots, it will be all of our loss.
The Miz eventually says something to set Baron Corbin off, and as the two of them get into it physically at ringside, it draws the attention of the referee and Dean Ambrose, and eventually distracts Ambrose enough to cost him the match who walks right into a boot from AJ followed by a Styles Clash. Miz attacks Ambrose after the match and then Baron Corbin takes out both of them.
I like that the other Chamber participants, John Cena and Bray Wyatt, didn’t get involved. I like that the Chamber participants bookended the show and weren’t all smooshed into one segment. I’m sure they’ll all be together next week on Miz TV or something like that. But I think it’d be kind of fun to keep the six of them from being in the same place at the same time until they all step foot in the Chamber.
Ah, the Chamber. I love a big gimmick match, especially one that involves an overly complex goofy cage.
Until next week, I’m Justin Donaldson and I guess Tye Dillinger’s not showing up.
