The past
few weeks of Smackdown have felt like house shows. And while I said
the Dublin house show was good, it doesn't mean that it's acceptable
that an episode of Smackdown has such a feel to it.
Last
week we saw the legends return in grand old fashion, and later
celebrated with the World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus before the
show went off the air. Overall, it was a (brutally awful) show that
left the fans going home happy.
This
week felt much like the same. It featured some less than engaging
action and also served up a jolly good end (sorry, I just had to) to
the show. With Extreme Rules just around the corner, you'd expect
these WrestleMania rematches to have a bit more of an edge to them in
terms of build up. Sadly though, they're all falling flat.
Daniel
Bryan and AJ segment
To
totally contradict myself here, I have to say that this was the one
segment that was actually engaging. Daniel Bryan is going from
strength to strength in terms of his mic work. He showed the same
tenacity that he's shown in the past couple of weeks, and also came
across as a raging dickhead while verbally abusing AJ with a smirk on
his face.
With
Bryan being really over at the minute, it's only expected to see
Bryan say such nasty things to try and stay heel. Really, the fans
(or should I say, the WWE Universe) has no reason to cheer Bryan,
considering he's such a foul mouthed man towards AJ, but if the fans
(or should I say... wait, said it already) cheer him anyway then
there's really nothing else they can do but accept it. I know they
could always edit out the 'Yes' chants on Smackdown, but if Cena is
shown getting booed every week then shouldn't they just leave the
'Yes' chants as well?
Anyway,
back at the topic at hand, I thought this was a really strong
segment, and once again proved that Bryan is the best thing going on
Smackdown at the moment.
AJ vs.
Natalya
You also
got to give AJ credit for her role in this storyline with Daniel
Bryan. She has sold the degrading words from Bryan exceptionally well
and this week she just kept it going.
The
beatdown on Natalya wasn't the most convincing, but everything
leading up to that was spot on. It's good to see the AJ character
slowly evolving.
The Usos
vs. Titus O'Neil & Darren Young
A lot of
'new signings' this week on Smackdown, two of which which were seen
when the Usos faced Titus O'Neil and Darren Young from NXT.
If this
is the team to strengthen the tag team division then I am both
extremely disappointed and extremely worried. Young may be from the
original Nexus, but he still hasn't exactly come a long way since he
made his first debut on NXT two years ago. And as for O'Neil, he's
just another athlete who isn't really a professional wrestler.
I don't
see this tag team going far, even if they do win the tag team titles
at some point.
Alberto
Del Rio vs. Big Show
Nothing
much to say here match-wise. Alberto gets the win over the giant to
give him some momentum, and Cody costs Show the match to give him
something going into their match at Extreme Rules (which is more than
likely happening).
My only
concern is how Cody's involvement hasn't done much for him at all.
He's been buried so much since WrestleMania that pretty much all of
his credibility against Show has kind of disappeared. Let's hope this
feud ends after Extreme Rules because Cody deserves better.
6-Man
Tag Team Match
The
picture on the Smackdown page of WWE.com explains everything about
this match really. This was a fairly pointless match that's sole
purpose was just to send the fans happy. That's all well and good...
if it happens at a show show.
As I
said above, things need to be applied differently on TV. Yes, the
main faces on the brand can win, but not when there's nothing to gain
from the victory. Big Show gets another victory, Mark Henry loses
again this week (even though it took 3 finishers to do so) and
Sheamus continues on with his hot momentum, leaving us with
absolutely no belief that Bryan can recapture the gold at Extreme
Rules.
The
match was fine, but I sat there on my couch wandering why they
decided to play it so safe. That match alone has defined Smackdown in
the past couple of weeks. With the exception of Bryan and AJ,
Smackdown has been one, big happy brand where nothing seems to go
wrong.
Stray
Observations:
- Why do people boo when wrestlers push Hornswoggle to the ground? Considering he just gets in people's way and annoys them I think it's fully acceptable for wrestlers to push him out of the way.
- Good to see Antonio Caesar called up to the full roster so soon. I can't wait to see him in action and hopefully European Uppercut's the shit out of everyone.
- Ryback continues to do his usual thing. Now it's just a matter of waiting until he actually gets used.
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