-A huge and very long 10-man tag between the Wyatts, Rollins and Kane vs Cena, Reigns, World's Biggest Show and Jericho. Very chaotic and a pretty fun match with lots of back and forth. Probably not the 'biggest Smackdown main event ever!' like the announcers were advertising it ... though in terms of sheer weight, that's probably true. While it wasn't exactly an A-grade match, it was tremendously entertaining. Surprisingly, Big Show and Henry spent the most time in the ring for the faces, with Cena not getting tagged in till the finish. Wyatt was hamming it up like he does, even busting out the spider-walk. I think he's the only person on the roster nuts enough to have a big grin on his face when he gets tagged in against the Big Show.
-A surprisingly good Brie/Paige match ... I still hate the Bellas, but Brie is demonstrating an ability to at least be carried to a good match. Both AJ and Nikki were at ringside, but thankfully AJ was the only one with a mic. Nikki just sat there and glared at everyone. AJ went nuts after several minutes of back and forth and attacked Nikki, Brie pulled AJ off of her, and then the Bella without implants slid back into the ring to eat a nasty-looking cradle DDT from Paige. The Internet tells me she calls that the Rampage. I just wish they'd given Emma/Paige this much time to put on a good match last week, but alas, Emma is still in No Storyline hell.
-Cesaro and Ziggler putting on the match of the night, with Shaemus on commentary. After Ziggler picked up the duke, Cesaro freaked out and started attacking Dolph, only to eat a Brogue Kick from the Fella. Didn't really make Cesaro seem like that credible of a contender but it's good to see Dolph finally getting a push, even with a secondary belt.
-A bunch of recaps I totally ignored
-Cena cutting a Cena promo and either getting cheered more than I've seen in years (possible) or having a lot of cheers overdubbed (more likely). I avoided the promo because, well, it's Cena. OTOH, we did wrap up the promo segment by HHH coming out and giving a nod to former GM Teddy Long, even using Long's old music. HHH was actually kinda funny when he made the 10-man and actually played it as a fairly neutral party, quite a departure from the power-hungry heel he's been playing lately. Too bad Stephanie isn't following her husband in that direction, I know the IWC likes her now for some reason but I still can't stand that nasal voice of hers.
-An Uso (I really can't tell them apart) vs Heath Slater. I went about as you'd expect, fast-paced match that was fairly short and ended with a top-rope splash by the Uso. Slater did do a great job selling Uso's offense. Also, apparently JBL eats roast rabbit on Easter. You do you, boo.
-Double Dust cut a charmingly insane promo, which featured Stardust arguing with himself Gollum-style. I love these guys, lol. Even if Goldust is getting kinda old, these guys cut some awesome promos. Cody seems to really be enjoying his Stardust character.
-A shitty Zack Ryder match where he jobbed in about a minute to Bo Dallas. Afterwards, Swagger came out and I changed the channel to the American Pickers.
Actually a pretty well-booked show, one of the better Smackdowns I've seen in a few weeks. Gives me hope that they might have let the good writing team out of their cage for the 'Season Premiere' of RAW on Monday. Speaking of, can a show that plays 52 weeks out of the year really be said to have a Season Premiere?
Originally posted by Blind_Guardian -Cena cutting a Cena promo and either getting cheered more than I've seen in years (possible) or having a lot of cheers overdubbed (more likely). I avoided the promo because, well, it's Cena.
This would have been a great promo to cut before Cena went out and squashed Bray Wyatt. It almost feels like they've got all the right parts for this Cena/Brock rematch to be a really good story, but they've aired them all out of order. The story to tell should have been, Cena invokes his rematch, but he's not sure if he can get the win, and the legends panel tells him that he can't do it, but he realizes that the match is happening no matter what (Friday's promo) and he finds the will to go out and fight (demonstrated by the Wyatt squash), and that takes us into NoC with a believable contender with a good story.
For Triple H to explicitly invoke the spirit of Teddy Long to the point of having his music played at the end of the segment...that's exactly the type of self-awareness that Creative should be AVOIDING in place of actually - you know - using some creativity. But it's nice to see they're still reading tweets... even if they always seem to choose the wrong way to react to them.
Originally posted by CRZFor Triple H to explicitly invoke the spirit of Teddy Long to the point of having his music played at the end of the segment...that's exactly the type of self-awareness that Creative should be AVOIDING in place of actually - you know - using some creativity. But it's nice to see they're still reading tweets... even if they always seem to choose the wrong way to react to them.
I don't keep up with the Twitterverse ... has Teddy Long been bitching about losing his job? I personally thought it was kinda entertaining but it did seem a bit out of place. Should have known there was something more to it than just a random shout-out to a former employee.
It's not them making fun of Teddy Long or Teddy complaining about things on Twitter. It's more them acknowledging the WWE trope of "We have people arguing in the opening segment, so this will result in a tag team match later in the show". Yet rather than accepting that what they do is predictable and people are making fun of them on Twitter for it, they've gone and made fun of it themselves instead of actually addressing it.
I have to give their writers applause for that segment. The amusing prospect of Triple H using The Ballad of Rodney Mack proved to be sufficient to make me check out that segment on youtube.
Originally posted by DionysusI have to give their writers applause for that segment. The amusing prospect of Triple H using The Ballad of Rodney Mack proved to be sufficient to make me check out that segment on youtube.
Originally posted by DionysusI have to give their writers applause for that segment. The amusing prospect of Triple H using The Ballad of Rodney Mack proved to be sufficient to make me check out that segment on youtube.
YOU'RE the problem! STOP ENCOURAGING THEM
In Dionysus' defense, I kinda enjoyed the bit myself, tho I admit I was more confused than anything else. Honestly if it's a choice between them lampshading the trope and pretending it's the most unique and exciting thing that ever happened in THE HISTORY OF OUR SPORT, I'd take the latter. Tho now that I think of it, that is kinda how the announcers sold it ... nor did they acknowledge Teddy Long's catchphrase and music for a moment.
Originally posted by El NastioDidn't they recently fire the head writer for Smackdown? Maybe it's a rib on him since he likely came up with said trope.
(edited by El Nastio on 7.9.14 2131)
I believe the NXT head writer is now the head writer of Smackdown and the Smackdown head writer was demoted to NXT head writer.
As cubs pointed out, this trope is hardly a new thing. I've been watching this ludicrous company for 17 years, and they were doing the 'you guys wanna fight it out, let's make a tag team match so we don't blow a PPV match on free TV!' thing AT LEAST since I started watching. Hell, they were probably doing it back when the Von Erics were still doing their thing.