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.