SMACKDOWN 22/11/2016 - Chaos Chaos Chaos

Two days removed from Survivor Series, and only two weeks away from Smackdown's next PPV TLC, you would have expected this show to not reflect so much on the last PPV and focus on building up matches for the next one - and they actually did this. I will say now right off the bat that this was a very decent show, however it felt very chaotic to me and not in a good way. Let's go lay the Smack Down and see if it will Hit Up.

Shane o MacDown
I will try keep this as simple as possible. Basically Shane McMahon came out (looking very banged up by the way, but thankfully he is ok) and he talked a little bit about Survivor Series. Dean Ambrose would then come out and poke the bear a little bit before calling James Ellsworth out and ruining the surprise that James had got a Smackdown Live Contract. Shane, very annoyed at Dean for almost costing Smackdown the match at Survivor Series, told Dean to take the rest of the night off and also to leave the building. Dean would leave, AJ Styles would come out and say that Ellsworth does not deserve a contract and so challenged him to a ladder match for his contract later that night. Shane said Ellsworth didn't have to, but Ellsworth wanted to prove himself and so put his contract up for grabs, but said he wants a future title opportunity if he wins. And then it was official and that was pretty much it. It wasn't too bad of a segment and basically set up the main event of the show.
Rating: 7

Ambrose's appearances
So I thought I would just tackle this real quick because it was actually pretty good and I enjoyed watching it, but Dean Ambrose, despite being asked to leave the building, kept on appearing throughout the night. He appeared with pizza, then he appeared dressed as the Mountie, and then appeared in hockey clothes during the main event (we will get to that). It was actually really fun to watch and Ambrose really made it work. Well done.
Rating: 8

The Miz (C) VS Kalisto (Intercontinental Championship)
So I get the premise of this match because Daniel Bryan doesn't want the Miz as his champion and also he believes Kalisto could have won the Cruiserweight title at Survivor Series, but honestly I don't quite feel like Kalisto deserved this shot - although I admit that I would much rather see Kalisto get the shot than Apollo Crews. It was truly a decent match anyway and actually wouldn't mind seeing these guys go at it again in future. We saw Baron Corbin interfere in this match and once again cost Kalisto the title which also allows for their feud to continue.
Winner: The Miz
Rating: 7.5



Tag Team Turmoil Match
For those who don't know the rules of this match, it stars with two teams and every time a team is eliminated another team comes in to take their place and in continues until there is only one team left. The first few eliminations occurred pretty quickly and the main focus ended up being on the final two teams which were the USOs and American Alpha. Now I understand this could upset quite a few people to only focus on the final two, but when it works there's nothing to really complain about. The USOs and American Alpha did a really good job together and I actually had to real idea as to who would win, although I think a part of me was really wanting The USOs to win. By the end of it, it was American Alpha who won the match, but they barely had time to celebrate when the Wyatts appeared on the titentron. They told American Alpha to not celebrate too quickly because there's still one team they need to go through. I understand that some people might be confused that they weren't a part of the original turmoil match, but this was likely done because Randy Orton has a week off so that he can be there for his wife, Kim, who is giving birth to a baby. It seems as if it will be Orton and Wyatt teaming together, which is strange because Wyatt doesn't usually take part in the tag matches, but this now opens up the doors for a future feud where Luke Harper turns on Wyatt. I don't know about you guys, but I hope we see Orton and Wyatt advance to face the tag champs and that they end up winning the match too.
Winner: American Alpha
Rating: 8

Becky Lynch VS Natalya
I'm gonna make this short, this match was decent, not too bad, but nothing special. I look forward to seeing Becky VS Alexa Bliss at TLC (This should be a Ladder match).
Winner: Becky Lynch
Rating: 7

Baron Corbin VS Kane
This match was a very short one and was unfortunately cut short because of Kalisto interfering and attacking Corbin. Shortly after this it was announced that Kalisto and Corbin would settle their differences at TLC in a Chairs match. I really hope we can see a feud between Corbin and Kane in the future because I believe these two can do a really great job together.
Winner: Baron Corbin (by disqualification)
Rating: 6.5

AJ Styles VS James Ellsworth (Ladder match for James Ellsworth's contract)

I don't really feel like saying very much about this match because you don't expect anything great from a match with James Ellsworth, although seeing him do a super kick is great. It was predictable that Ellsworth was going to win because he had already announced at an Indies show that he got a full time contract with WWE, but as I have mentioned before, predictability isn't a deal breaker for me as long as the match is good. This was a fun match to watch and was fun to see how Ellsworth won.
Winner: James Ellsworth
Rating: 7.5

Overall Segment Rating: 7.5
Overall Match Rating: 7.5
Overall Show Rating: 7.5

There you have it. That was Smackdown for the week. Wasn't too bad a show and set up a lot of matches for the TLC PPV. If you missed it these are the matches set up so far:
Dean Ambrose VS AJ Styles (TLC match for the WWE World Title)
Becky Lynch VS Alexa Bliss (SD Women's title)
Nikki Bella VS Carmella (No DQ match)
Baron Corbin VS Kalisto (Chairs match)
The Miz VS Dolph Ziggler (Intercontinental Ladder match)
Heath Slater & Rhyno VS TBD (WWE Tag Team titles)
TLC is looking to be a good PPV and I look forward to seeing how Smackdown pull off their go-home show next week.

SMACKDOWN 15/11/2016 - 900 Strong

Wow! Can you believe that we are 900 episodes into Smackdown already? Who knew when Smackdown first started all those years ago that it would still be going strong as one of WWE's flagship shows today. One thing I am really glad about, and I don't know if WWE ever considered doing this, is that they never ended up dropping the Smackdown show, even when the brand split became null. Smackdown has been one of the pivotal shows of WWE and there are a lot of people out there who prefers Smackdown over RAW, especially since the reinstated brand split. Before this show came on air this week, it was heavily announced that there would be two special appearances: Edge to do the Cutting Edge and the Undertaker, who hasn't been seen since Wrestlemania. I think it is safe to say that a lot of people tuned in to see what happened on this show and if I am honest, they didn't do too bad a job. They had a good mix of the past and present put in as we saw highlights from early Smackdown episodes and then focused back on the current show. One thing I am especially happy about this show is that they didn't do a RAW and make a whole bunch of tag matches. Thankfully we saw a well-structured and story-driven show. With that said, what in particular did I enjoy and what in particular might have made me a bit sour? Let us Smack the 900 Down on this show and find out.

Daniel Bryan and Shane o Mac open the show
I was going a little bit back and forth with this moment because I didn't know whether I should mention it, but as you can see, I came to the conclusion that it won't be so bad to do so. Despite it being authority figures opening the 900th episode of Smackdown, it actually ended up being fine since it was short, plus it made a lot of sense . So yeah, no complaints here, it did what it needed to do and was good.
Rating: 8

Dolph Ziggler (C) VS The Miz w/Maryse (WWE Intercontinental Championship)
A match I was expecting to be a lot further on the card, but actually made sense being where it was. This is a huge episode of Smackdown and so you want to start the show off with a bang with the two superstars that have had match-of-the-night calibre matches the last few times together. It was smart and a great way to start. I will admit that this wasn't one of their best matches, but it was still very, very good and so enjoyable to watch. These two pull of the type of matches that Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens pull off together. I think the only thing I possibly have mixed feelings for has to be the result. It seemed very strange for the Miz to win the title, however I have a theory about this because now the Miz faces Sami Zayn for the title at Survivor Series so could we possibly see Sami win and then jump shit to Smackdown? Or perhaps Sami wins and so Daniel Bryan strikes a trade? The one thing that has to happen is Sami winning because if the Miz just won the title for the sake of having a face VS heel match at the PPV then that is just plain stupid. But I will admit that it is because of it being unsure of exactly what will happen that has gotten me very interested in this match.
Winner: The Miz
Rating: 8.5

Kalisto VS Oney Lorcan
When you talk about strange things happening on a show, this has to be one of them. This was basically a squash match, but not a squash match we are used to seeing. We saw Oney Lorcan (an Nxt jobber too by the way) getting all of the offence for about two minutes before Kalisto managed to hit his finisher on him to end this match. A lot of people might think I might give this a low rating because of it being such a short match and because, let's be honest, Kalisto of all people doesn't need squash matches, but I'm actually not going to rate it low because despite it being a very short one, we got to see a very physical one from Oney Lorcan and I guess I like big sweaty men beating little people up.
Winner: Kalisto
Rating: 7

The return of a King

It's a backstage segment mother trucker! That's right, for the first time I am mentioning a backstage segment for both RAW and Smackdown, can you believe it? I felt this was a very special segment because we saw a return of an awesome king, probably the last great King of the Ring, that's right I'm talking about one King Booker! It was basically just a fun segment where he got to transition from being King Booker to Booker T, but it was so fun and awesome to watch - great job!
Rating: 8

Nikki Bella VS Carmella
I have lost track of if these two have faced off one-on-one yet because they seem to have been in a feud together forever now, but this match in itself was pretty decent. We got a chance to see Carmella do her stuff (and I might add that Carmella is tons better as a heel) and she even went as far as to mock Nikki by doing the John Cena "You can't see me" thing. So it was a decent match to watch, with a really, really, really strange ending. Basically Charlotte came out through the crowd with a ticket and sat ringside. After a few minutes we saw Nikki pull Charlotte over the barricade and next thing we knew the ref was ringing the bell. I am still unsure what the final decision was, but apparently Nikki was disqualified - it's times like these that I wonder if backstage people think about some of the decisions made. Anyways, we would very quickly see the rest of the RAW women's team come out through the crowd and start attacking Nikki. We then saw the Smackdown women come out and it ended with the blue brand out on top. With RAW being on top for RAW, and Smackdown being on top for Smackdown, it leaves the door wide open for which show will come out victorious on Sunday.
Winner: Unknown
Rating: 7

Smackdown Survivor Series Tag Teams VS the Rejects
I didn't feel like naming every single team in this match so basically just labeled it as this because this is pretty much what this match was. It was all the tag teams for Smackdown (except Heath Slater and Rhyno who were at ringside) verses everyone who lost the qualifying matches. It wasn't really anything special, but wasn't terrible either - sort of somewhere in between. I still think it is pretty obvious as to who will win the tag team and women's Survivor Series matches, but it's quite ok because it will be very interesting to see how they play the matches out.
Winner: Smackdown Survivor Series Tag Teams
Rating: 7

The Cutting Edge feat. Smackdown male team

That's right, this special edition of the Cutting Edge featured none other than the five members of the male Smackdown Survivor Series team and this was actually really great. This allowed for these five members to be featured on the show without having to wrestle a pointless match and risk possibly getting injured in the process. Unfortunately, we didn't actually get to see a lot of talking from Edge himself, which was a shame because he is a special attraction and who knows when we will see him again and so should have been given a bit more mic time. However, it didn't affect the show too much at all as we got to see some good and enjoyable promos. My favourite part of the whole Cutting Edge, however, had to be when the Undertaker came out (and I am sure a whole lot of others consider this their favourite too). The Undertaker looks in great shape by the way. He came out and said that Wrestlemania will no longer define who he is and that he is back digging holes and taking souls. Like holy crap, does this mean we are going to see Undertaker more often on the blue brand? Or perhaps just that we will see him be in more PPV matches? Regardless, you have to be excited to see what WWE has in store for the Deadman going forward.
Rating: 8.5

Overall Segment Rating: 8
Overall match Rating: 7.5
Overall Show Rating: 7.75

And there you have it, that was the 900th Episode of Smackdown! Now looking through the review again, there is no doubting that the show could have been a bit better than it actually was, but comparing it to last week's show, they did a ton better this week! So huge props up to them for doing that. Survivor Series is now just around the corner and I highly look forward to seeing how they plan to wow us on this special 4 hour edition of the PPV.

SMACKDOWN 08/11/2016 - Down on the Smack

Just a week away from Smackdown celebrating their 900th episode, you would have expected for the show to have hyped it up really well and to give you a reason to tune in next week. Unfortunately, from my point of view, it did not feel like this was achieved. Sure there were a couple of announcements such as Undertaker returning and Edge doing the Cutting Edge, but there was zero enthusiasm during these announcements and will not bring in a casual fan. With that being said, let's see just how hard this show Smacked Down on the card.

RAW Rebound
I find this title very fitting for this opening segment because it really felt like a rehash of what they did on RAW. So let's go through it: It started with AJ Styles in the ring talking about a whole lot of stuff involving Dean Ambrose and James Ellsworth and this really struck my attention and I honestly thought we were about to see a good and interesting segment. Unfortunately before I knew it, the rest of Team Smackdown (male superstars) were in the ring. Thankfully we didn't actually get a lot of talking from the rest of the superstars and mainly heard from Dean Ambrose and AJ Styles. We would shortly see Baron Corbin leave the ring, which I felt strange because if he wasn't going to do or say anything then why did he even come out? Answer: WWE Logic. Shane McMahon would then come out and announce that Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Randy Orton would go against Dean Ambrose, James Ellsworth and Baron Corbin in a six man tag team match. Backstage we would see Corbin ask to be removed from the six man match which he was and we would then find out his replacement was Kane. So overall an ok segment, but in no way a strong one which is disappointing because I had high hopes of it when it started.
Rating: 7

Breezango VS the Vaudevillians (Qualifying match to be on Team Smackdown)
What can I say, I'm disappointed. Not in the superstars in this match, but in how these guys have been used. I was kind of hoping that Breezango wouldn't be a thing anymore since we haven't seen them in ages, but alas this was not to be. All four of these guys are actually really talented and I can't believe how much they are being under-utilised - actually screw under-utilised, they're being used absolutely shit! I have been mega pissed off with the way they have been used and had hoped that they would be used differently since the brand split - I can't believe they haven't been used better since the brand split especially considering the limited number of teams they actually have. You knew going into this match that regardless of which team won the match, neither would look good and will likely ultimately become the loser in the Survivor Series match by not only getting eliminated first, but probably eliminated very quickly.
Winner: Breezango
Rating: 3

Naomi VS Natalya
Despite me never being a big fan of Natalya's matches, even I know how shit she has been treated as of late, much like the above two teams. I honestly got really behind her after she did her heel turn and she still put on a good performance at Backlash, but ever since then she has just been lost in the shuffle again, which is a shame considering she is a veteran and still deserves a good run with a title. This match was ok, about average I would say, and I think it was especially ruined by the whole fighting thing between Nikki Bella and Carmella at ringside. I feel like WWE are just starting to show things just for the sake of showing them each week, but honestly there is no need to show things if people don't enjoy it and if it doesn't even mean anything.
Winner: Naomi
Rating: 6.5

Kalisto turns heel
This was originally meant to be a match between Baron Corbin and Kalisto, but we would see Corbin attack Kalisto before the match would even begin. Corbin was done with Kalisto and was busy leaving the ring when he misstepped on the apron and fell knee first and so getting hurt. Kalisto would see this and would then dropkick Corbin's knee into the steel steps. Corbin would roll into the ring as it looked like Kalisto was looking to leave. However he changed his mind and decided to dive onto Corbin's injured knee. So my thing is, doesn't this technically make Kalisto a heel? Because Kalisto saw Corbin was injured and basically is trying to end Corbin's career. Last I checked, faces are supposed to take the high road, but what do I know? This would lead to a backstage segment where Shane would report that to Daniel Bryan saying Corbin is injured and won't make it to Survivor Series. He then handed Bryan a roster list saying anyone on the list Bryan can choose to replace Corbin on the Survivor Series team.
Rating: 7

Becky Lynch (C) VS Alexa Bliss (Smackdown Women's Championship)
So before we get into the match, I need to get something off my chest. This will not affect the match rating, but I found myself highly pissed off when the announcers would say throughout the night that this match was going to be the main event, only for it to go on second last. Basically, WWE are trying to drill into our heads that a main event doesn't mean the last match - which we all know is absolute bull. By definition, the main event is what is considered the most important match on the card - by that we could call anything the main event. But truthfully, we know that since WWE make the decisions that they will order the matches in order of importance. By putting the six man tag match on last, they obviously considered this match of most importance, making the women's match feel less special. However, on a much lighter note, this women's match was actually really good. I certainly enjoyed watching it and believe it could have done a lot better. What made this match even better had to be the ending. Despite being a controversial one, this ending allows for the feud between Becky Lynch and Alexa Bliss continue and could allow us to possibly see Bliss win the title in the very near future - and I wouldn't mind seeing that.
Winner: Becky Lynch
Rating: 8.5

Apollo Crews VS Curt Hawkins
I cared so little for this match that I was actually already getting ready to review on the six man tag match because I completely forgot that this match even occurred. An OMG moment had to be that Hawkins actually lasted longer than 10 seconds in this match. Crews is still the same old character I've been rambling on about for ages. As I have said countless times before, there is no doubting Crews has the in-ring talent, but he has zero charisma and zero character and even though he has that in-ring talent, his matches just feel like the same old shit. There is no doubting that Crews got called up way too fast and needed more time in NXT to build his character.
Winner: Curt Hawkins
Rating: 2

Dean Ambrose, James Ellsworth & Kane VS The Wyatts
I will just brush over this match because it wasn't anything too interesting. It was average at best and the only real good thing that came out of it was that Ellsworth came in the ring for a minute before being pinned by Bray Wyatt. Now the aftermath of this match almost saw the Wyatts lay a beat down on Dean Ambrose, but before anything could happen Shane McMahon came running down to the ring to stop anything from happening. We then saw Daniel Bryan come down to the ring with his roster list and mention that the final member he wants on Team Smackdown at Survivor Series is Shane McMahon. Now, I don't think this is such a bad thing. Even though I would rather have had Corbin stay on the team because I was expecting big things from him during the match, I think we could possibly see something special with Shane being involved in the match. I still want Braun Strowman to walk out sole survivor, or if Braun is going to be eliminated it needs to be by count-out or disqualification so as to make him still look strong by the end of it.
Winner: The Wyatts
Rating: 7

Overall Segment Rating: 7
Overall Match Rating: 5.5
Overall Show Rating: 6.25

As I type this, I honestly wonder what went wrong in WWE this week for the shows to have been this bad. I actually had pretty high expectations going into the respective shows because of it being in Scotland. There is no denying that the respective crowds were great as they were constantly loud, but that did not help the shows feel great in regards with matches and segments. I find myself highly disappointed that they were not better, but have huge expectations going into next week. With it being the go-home shows for both shows, it should be extra special for Smackdown considering it is their 900th episode and so they will hopefully pull of something great. Only time will tell and I hope to report back next week with better feelings.