The Best And Worst Of WWE Smackdown Live 10/2/18: Finger Eleven


WWE Smackdown Live

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Previously on the Best and Worst of WWE Smackdown Live: Samoa Joe went to a house where the mailbox read “Styles,” so that couldn’t possibly be AJ Styles’ actual home. Also, R-Truth got 30 minutes of TV time and it was great, and Aiden English promised to air a GTV segment of Dawn Marie and Torrie Wilson engaging in HLA, or whatever.

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And now, the Best and Worst of WWE Smackdown Live for October 2, 2018.

Worst: The Styles Network

Am I the only one who heard AJ Styles say he was going to bury Samoa Joe alive and think, “oh, that means the finish of the no disqualification, no count-out match at Super Show-Down is going to involve one of those stunt spots where they’re fighting in the production area and Styles pulls down a beam or a bunch of boxes or something and ‘buries Joe alive?'” I keep trying to think of the wacky, non-wrestling finish they’ve got planned, and I think Styles just tipped his trilby. Or, you know, he’s going to literally bury Joe alive, and Super Show-Down’s going to end with lightning striking the grave and Joe’s hand bursting up from the dirt.

If you missed the segment, Disappointed Mom Paige opened the show by announcing that everyone wanted her to fire Samoa Joe for his attempted home invasion in last week’s hilarious The Purge crossover event, but that AJ Styles dropped the charges so the match could happen. Because the response to someone literally hunting your family and harassing your wife and children for like two months is to fly to Australia and have a wrestling match with them at 7 AM in the middle of a house show. YOU DON’T MESS WITH MAH FAMLY.

Look, detached from the ridiculous booking of his match finishes, AJ Styles is great. Samoa Joe is BEYOND great, to the point that he could turn “oh Wendy” into a popular catchphrase and make a months-long Cape Fear-style haunting entertaining, but I think they’ve completely lost what they were initially going for. A guy deriding your family to get in your head works, sure, but it works less when he’s been doing it for almost an entire quarter, and when everyone’s decided to just straight-up ignore the champion tapping out on video back at Hell in a Cell. That should’ve changed the direction of the feud, but they just kept doing the same thing every week, and now you’ve got to have your authority figure open the show with some “real life consequences” because the only way to escalate the feud is to have Joe actually murder a child.

If Joe doesn’t win in Australia, please move him into a program with Nakamura or something and get him away from Styles.

Best: The R-Mella Push Continues

Yeah, I wish they had something for Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas and Zelina Vega to do besides being extremely talented Jobbers To The Stars, but I’m also into the “Fabulous Truth” pairing, and am happy that the R-Truth experiment appears to be ongoing, and not just a thing they did for a couple of weeks to push Miz and Bryan forward. Plus, how great was Carmella’s finisher transition at the end here? I thought for sure they were going to pull the “outside distraction, DISTRACTION ROLL-UP OH NO” gambit, but they stretched it out for a couple of reversals and had Carmella, the “veteran” in WWE run terms, outsmart Vega and manipulate her into the choke. Really good stuff, as Carmella continues to improve basically every time we see her.

But just to type it again, I can’t wait until they slot somebody else into this “impressive loser” spot and let Almas shine. That guy is way too good and way too at the top of his game right now to spend a year or four eating disappointing losses to anybody that’s getting the spotlight on Smackdown. He’s doing better than a lot of former NXT Champions, I guess, but I want him to be more at the Seth Rollins level than the Kevin Owens level. It’s a fine line, but he’s good enough to hang himself up and tranquilo pose on it.

Worst: Can’t Find A Batter Man

You can usually tell the segments New Day came up with, and the segments writers came up with for them. The go-home angle to the Smackdown Tag Team Championship match at Super Show-Down ended up being a cooking segment, which was zero about cooking and one-hundred about “Mr. Bootyworth,” a reoccurring NPC who I guess we’re supposed to want to hear talk? He always just seemed like a guy they found backstage to hold stuff for them during promos, like the extremely G-rated version of Big Dick Johnson.

The Bar shows up, they run through a little stilted dialogue about Cesaro being nicknamed “Chef,” and a food fight occurs. Mr. Bootyworth is turned into Mr. Bootyworthless via some public humiliation, and that’s it. It’s not in the same category as “The Old Day” or Sonny Boy — his name is Sonny Boy! — but it’s not great, and definitely one of those segments they do when you’ve convinced a girlfriend or loved one to watch wrestling with you that make you embarrassed to watch yourself, and guarantees they’ll never watch again.

The Bar winning the straps in Australia is the only thing I care about as much as the IIconics being treated like heroes in their home country.

Best: THE AUSSIE FLOSS

WWE Smackdown Live
  • of course I giffed this
  • OF COURSE I GIFFED THIS
  • Billie Kay is somehow worse at flossing than Peyton Royce, which I didn’t think was possible
  • the IIconics have added a super hero pose for when they say ICONIC!, and that pan from picture-in-picture to live action where they’re doing the same pose in both is priceless
  • how do we get the Aussie Floss into Fortnite so everyone starts doing it

I’m okay with Asuka killing Peyton, because she should, and because the Great Prediction Correlation states that if someone looks terrible on the go-home show, they’ve got a better chance of winning on pay-per-view. That’s not always true, but it’s right more often than it isn’t, and if the Iconic Duo doesn’t win in Australia I swear to God you guys.

Worst: Here Comes The Bouncing Ball Of Justice

whoops, sorry, wrong video

You know that “One Night In Milwaukee” stuff Aiden English promised last week? It turns out it’s a webcam (?) video of him rehearsing his act in a hotel room — shirtless, even — and Lana coming in to talk to him. She says “I want you-” and the video cuts out, and despite the fact that she’s clearly in the middle of a sentence, everyone’s very upset about it. All I can hope is that since Rusev ran after Aiden to kick his ass and wasn’t listening to Lana’s explanation, he’s going to start the next segment about this with, “of course I know that’s doctored footage, you didn’t even do anything, I’m not an idiot, that guy’s a real dork.”

Anyway, best wishes to Rusev and Lana as they start their new life under the sea.

Best/Worst: The World’s Goatest Tag Team

The best match of the night by far, obviously, was Daniel Bryan vs. Shelton Benjamin. Benjamin’s intensity here was awesome, as he has a really legitimate beef being left “on the bench” for months while other people got matches and Smackdown seemingly forgot they’d signed him. Chad Gable leaving for Raw left him standing there with his dick in his hand.

What I didn’t enjoy so much is the finish, which saw Miz get up on the apron to cause a distraction, allowing Benjamin to get the jump on Bryan and win the match. I wouldn’t mind this so much (as it’s the world’s most common WWE trope) if just a night before they hadn’t done it three times on Monday Night Raw. I guess I can’t hold Smackdown accountable for what happens on Raw — can I? It’s all run by the same people — but if I’m tasked with running the Tuesday show and saw the Monday show do a finish 3-7 times, I’m going to make sure Tuesday finishes up with zero.

Lots of good stuff here, though. Miz’s suit game was incredible, and that might be the best tie I’ve ever seen on WWE TV. Bryan doing some basic homework on Shelton Benjamin and avoiding the “swing his leg around” feint kick thing was nice. Bryan even made Pay Dirt look good, which is almost impossible. I always wished Shelton X had a better finish than giving himself the Rock Bottom.

Best, Mostly: He’s Gonna Get A Bill For That Finger

Randy Orton has learned that he can look like the world’s deadliest and most sadistic heel by learning some basic level one sleight of hand. At Hell in a Cell he made everyone gasp by manipulating Jeff Hardy’s already stretched out and nerveless ear lobe, and on Smackdown he “broke Tye Dillinger’s finger” in the turnbuckle by cupping his hands over it like a warm mug of cocoa and sliding them around. It’s a good visual if you don’t think about it, and since almost nobody watching is going to think about it, by all means.

I also want to give a Best to Dillinger himself for actually changing his approach to a match based on what happened the week before. Last week he got the ever-loving shit kicked out of him by two guys for no reason, so this week he doesn’t just demand a match and wrestle it like normal; he shows up ready to fight, and physically tells that story by being more aggressive, hitting faster, hitting harder, and staying on the attack. I could’ve lived without him still doing the “ten” taunts while he was on the table punching Orton in the face, but it’s Tye Dillinger, so what’re you gonna do.

I don’t ever want to see Randy Orton matches, but asshole Randy Orton feud builds are great. I also love that he’s this dozen-plus-time legendary World Champion and he’s picking on the show’s lowest hanging fruit. Jeff Hardy? Tye Dillinger? Who’s next, Mr. Bootyworth?

Best: The Champ Is Here

Finally we’ve got the latest in a series of Becky Lynch segments where Becky’s great, Smackdown insists that she’s a heel in every piece of written dialogue from her or her opponent or the announce team, and the crowd insists she’s a conquering hero who should be showered with love and praise. It’s a rare example of a person getting (I guess) the “wrong” reaction by being so good at getting the right reaction. It’s a hard thing to explain. More or less I’m just happy that Becky’s the champion, and that she’s being cheered no matter what happens, because it makes perfect sense in my head. And in the heads of other people for once!

Becky’s out here doing everything she can to be a heel, too. She’s got a condescending poster she’s designed to inflate her ego, she’s running down the company, she’s running a video package recapping all her attacks, and the crowd’s like like, WOO YEAH BECKY IS SO GREAT. Charlotte shows up to be a scrappy babyface and fight instead of talking, or whatever, and the crowd’s still booing her. I’m not sure I agree with WWE’s mission statement of, “any reaction is a good reaction,” and I can’t claim to understand why WWE will see something not working for YEARS AT A TIME (see: Reigns) and decide to just keep doing the thing that doesn’t work because “reactions,” but as long as Becky doesn’t eat a spear and a bad moonsault in Australia and drop the title, I’m fine with it.

Also, can I buy one of those Super Show-Down posters on Shop yet?

Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Week

notJames (technically a MMC comment, but I’m counting it)

Braun should have teamed with Ruby Riott.
They could have called themselves Monster’s Ink.

Dave M J

A list of things Becky Lynch is bad at

Well, that was easy!

Blade_222

I hope James Ellsworth returns and R-Truth reveals he was Little Jimmy this entire time..

Endy_Mion

Becky Lynch: I got a surprise for ya!
*pulls out a box*
Becky: this box is full of fucks!
*opens box, reveals it is empty*
Becky: Oh wait, looks like I am all out of fucks to give!
*crowd goes wild*

Ahh now I want Asuka to borrow Kairi’s tugboat and go sailing, fighting cancer round the world.

IC champion Pdragon619

Dillinger: oh man…I didn’t get to have my match tonight, Orton broke my finger, and Truth won’t hang out with me anymore now that he’s with Carmella… could this day possibly get any worse!?
*Asuka’s music hits while Peyton is in the ring*

Amaterasu’s Son

I don’t like The Bar saying, “Well Well Well” when I hear “Well Well Well” I still expect a Joel Gertner promo behind it.

blacksnakemoan

Miz should shockingly come up with the rest of Aiden’s tape.

“I want you….to help me set up my DVR to record Miz and Mrs.”

Baron Von Raschke

Unfrozen Bulgarian Wrestler: I am just humble Bulgarian Wrestler who was unfrozen from a glacier on Musala. Your world frightens and confuses me….I don’t understand edits or pausing. There couldn’t possibly have been anything that followed where that video ended suddenly.

The Real Birdman

Synergy Alert: Big E puts #@!% Sauce in his pancake mix


WWE Network

That’s it for this week’s Smackdown. Join us this Saturday in the dead of morning for Triple H vs. The Undertaker: Last Time Ever Until Crown Jewel!

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