Rate Smackdown 09/27/2016

[Prince Bálor]

Well, this thread got deteriorated fairly quickly. lol

Anyways, to get back on topic... SmackDown was very good and easy to watch this week, as usual. 8/10

The build towards No Mercy has been damn near flawless. I may not care about the Wyatt/Orton and Corbin/Swagger stuff, but even that has the chance of delivering and being good.

Sooo... SmackDown defeated RAW yet again. Surprise, surprise.

Some people may still consider it as a "B" show, but it's easily the superior show. Keep it up, based SmackDown!

Positives:
- The Wyatt/Orton stuff throughout the show was OK. I may not care for it. But, it wasn't bad.

- Ambrose's backstage promo was a'ight. Loved him saying SD is a PG show, so he can't share his true feelings. lol

- The Usos & The Ascension vs Beauty & The Man-Beast & American Alpha was good. Loved the final stretch.
Diggin' the new look and attitude of The Usos, it is exactly what they needed to reinvigorate themselves. I can get behind the new theme, too. Oh, and I really liked the continuity here. They kept things going between The Usos and American Alpha, they handed Usos the win and of course, they took out the knee of Slater which was smart.

- Cena's backstage promo was fine.

- Carmella & Natalya vs Nikki Bella & Naomi was solid. It was a bit sloppy at times, but it wasn't bad or anything. Plus, it furthers the current programs between Nikki/Carmella and Nattie/Naomi. Also, have I failed to mention before that Naomi's music and entrance are amazing? And I mean, they're AMA-AMA-AMA-MAY-YAY-YAYZING.

- The Miz/Ziggler segment was fantastic. Loved every bit of it. Plus, they picked the right city to do this kind of thing in.

- Becky Lynch/Alexa Bliss stuff was fine.

- AJ Styles' backstage promo was solid.

- AJ Styles vs Dean Ambrose was a pretty damn good ME. Cena was pretty good on commentary.
Anyways, I felt this was better than their Backlash match. The match had a good flow, was well-built, the crowd was involved and the nearfalls were great. And just like in that match at Backlash, Ambrose looked great here, as well. Like, it felt he was more urgent and was trying to adapt to Styles. Plus, the finish worked so well, as it not only protects Ambrose, but adds some heat to the triple-threat at No Mercy. Liked the post-match stuff, too.

Negatives:
- None.

 

[Snowman1]

Ya know, 8/10 for me too. I liked this show a lot!

I'm gonna keep tabs on Raw though. There's one thing I noticed on here that shined out like a lighthouse in a fog... When people on Raw talk, I don't listen. When people on SD talk that aren't Bray Wyatt, I do. And it pays off.

To go through the list...

-From back when I was the #2 TNA soldier on this site, I'd feel like a hypocrite if I didn't give Wyatt and Orton a thumbs up. It was a show that desperately needs to try something new doing such, so that alone is a plus! Although... this idea may just stay in the closet for future purposes. This wasn't very good, but was short and inoffensive enough... well after Orton stopped trying desperately to think of nursery rhymes. That was the biggest thumbs down on the show. Vipers don't have arms! They can't hold the mic!

The backstage promos were good, really all the promos on this show - save for the girls, maybe - just have this extra intensity to them. Any backstage news on why that is? Maybe it's a morale thing in the locker room? Loosening up on scripts? Whatever it is, keep it up!

-One trend on this show was "A match that looked like filler on paper wound up having an ending that really mattered." The eight-man tag was really fun! It's so wonderful to see WWE step outside of the box of the archaic tag formula! There's still the excitement of hot tags, but not the terrible boring stuff before. Very, very happy with this and to see dudes flying everywhere for a LONG stretch, then a SLATER HOT TAG which I thought I'd never write leading to the Usos pecking him apart and me being angry and hating this finish for allllll the right reasons. Screw you, Usos, for breaking apart all the cool guys.

-A Bunch of the "Other Girls" on Smackdown had a tag match, and it... wasn't bad at all! :blackshock: It's starting to feel like there's depth when you can showcase, but limit, the Ascensions and And they are doing something I didn't think was possible... they're using Carmella as this sort of Dana-type of character, getting all these cheap fluky wins to really reinforce the fact - without even telling you all that much, just showing - that "She's having to get these little small victories because one on one, she doesn't stand a chance against the Fearless One.." and Nikki's work... lets be real, in the ring she's been mega underrated this last year when she was "standing in the way of the NXT girls" and other crap. Her ring-work is backing it up, and I can buy her wrecking balling the shit out of little Carmella and would like to see it... Am I dreaming?

-MIZ AND ZIGGLER. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Haven't seen it? Stop reading this and do it! And... the stipulation makes all the sense in the world! It sucks to see Ziggler win the IC but... maybe it'll lead to something cool? But it'll be a title change that really feels earned instead of every other mid-card change I've seen. I loved this segment and the match will rule and... Man, the Miz is perfect at having great mic skills yet still making us 2016 fans who recognize/adore "great mic skills" hate his guts. Also, Maryse.

-It's weird, but I almost wonder if Alexa and Becky were better off the sh... nah. :haha: I like Becky on my TV.

-And we capped the night with quality wrestling! Really good match between Styles and Ambrose, just the right quality to make it a nice TV main event and Cena was a-ok on commentary. Inoffensive, but I expected a DQ and... didn't get it! Yay! And I LOVED the Ambrose flash pin that was 1-2-*ref starts to count*... little small things like that are what's putting this angle over as being a competitive fight instead of Rollins getting a fucking 20 count on Owens. AJ seemed like the better guy over Deano again, but still had to resort to heel tactics to put the match away. That's the kind of hidden 50/50 booking that WWE is striving for but can't get.

Overall, a show that made me feel like the mark Leo C makes me out to be.

 

[Stopspot]

Ya know, 8/10 for me too. I liked this show a lot!

I'm gonna keep tabs on Raw though. There's one thing I noticed on here that shined out like a lighthouse in a fog... When people on Raw talk, I don't listen. When people on SD talk that aren't Bray Wyatt, I do. And it pays off.

To go through the list...

-From back when I was the #2 TNA soldier on this site, I'd feel like a hypocrite if I didn't give Wyatt and Orton a thumbs up. It was a show that desperately needs to try something new doing such, so that alone is a plus! Although... this idea may just stay in the closet for future purposes. This wasn't very good, but was short and inoffensive enough... well after Orton stopped trying desperately to think of nursery rhymes. That was the biggest thumbs down on the show. Vipers don't have arms! They can't hold the mic!

The backstage promos were good, really all the promos on this show - save for the girls, maybe - just have this extra intensity to them. Any backstage news on why that is? Maybe it's a morale thing in the locker room? Loosening up on scripts? Whatever it is, keep it up!

-One trend on this show was "A match that looked like filler on paper wound up having an ending that really mattered." The eight-man tag was really fun! It's so wonderful to see WWE step outside of the box of the archaic tag formula! There's still the excitement of hot tags, but not the terrible boring stuff before. Very, very happy with this and to see dudes flying everywhere for a LONG stretch, then a SLATER HOT TAG which I thought I'd never write leading to the Usos pecking him apart and me being angry and hating this finish for allllll the right reasons. Screw you, Usos, for breaking apart all the cool guys.

-A Bunch of the "Other Girls" on Smackdown had a tag match, and it... wasn't bad at all! :blackshock: It's starting to feel like there's depth when you can showcase, but limit, the Ascensions and And they are doing something I didn't think was possible... they're using Carmella as this sort of Dana-type of character, getting all these cheap fluky wins to really reinforce the fact - without even telling you all that much, just showing - that "She's having to get these little small victories because one on one, she doesn't stand a chance against the Fearless One.." and Nikki's work... lets be real, in the ring she's been mega underrated this last year when she was "standing in the way of the NXT girls" and other crap. Her ring-work is backing it up, and I can buy her wrecking balling the shit out of little Carmella and would like to see it... Am I dreaming?

-MIZ AND ZIGGLER. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Haven't seen it? Stop reading this and do it! And... the stipulation makes all the sense in the world! It sucks to see Ziggler win the IC but... maybe it'll lead to something cool? But it'll be a title change that really feels earned instead of every other mid-card change I've seen. I loved this segment and the match will rule and... Man, the Miz is perfect at having great mic skills yet still making us 2016 fans who recognize/adore "great mic skills" hate his guts. Also, Maryse.

-It's weird, but I almost wonder if Alexa and Becky were better off the sh... nah. :haha: I like Becky on my TV.

-And we capped the night with quality wrestling! Really good match between Styles and Ambrose, just the right quality to make it a nice TV main event and Cena was a-ok on commentary. Inoffensive, but I expected a DQ and... didn't get it! Yay! And I LOVED the Ambrose flash pin that was 1-2-*ref starts to count*... little small things like that are what's putting this angle over as being a competitive fight instead of Rollins getting a fucking 20 count on Owens. AJ seemed like the better guy over Deano again, but still had to resort to heel tactics to put the match away. That's the kind of hidden 50/50 booking that WWE is striving for but can't get.

Overall, a show that made me feel like the mark Leo C makes me out to be.

Go watch Cena's promo on Talking Smack afterwards. He's fantastic at the unscripted promos

 

[Snowman1]

Go watch Cena's promo on Talking Smack afterwards. He's fantastic at the unscripted promos

Sounds cool! Is it one of those things where you can just listen over your headphones and not watch, though? Either way I'll check it out!

 

[CM Punk]

Sounds cool! Is it one of those things where you can just listen over your headphones and not watch, though? Either way I'll check it out!

 

[Fireshock]

Man Smackdown destroyed RAW in terms of quality this week.

• Styles vs Ambrose a very good world title match
  
• The build of Ziggler vs Miz at No Mercy
  
• Bliss vs Becky I am really interested in
  
• The Usos are sooo much better with a Heel character, Mr Reigns on Raw should be taking notes
  
• Only thing didn't like was Wyatt and Orton Segment I didn't hate but this feud is meh to me with Orton winning and Wyatt losing again

A really good Smackdown overall