Rate Smackdown Live 11/01/2016

[Jacob Fox]

Sorry this is a bit late, all. Please rate the show and let us know what you think!

Spoiler: Smackdown Live Results

Opening

James Ellsworth wanted to apologize for what happened the previous week to Dean Ambrose. Ambrose came to the ring and said Ellsworth did not owe him an apology. AJ Styles then came out and tells Ellsworth that he owed his entire career to Styles. AJ tried to start something with Ambrose and Ellsworth got between them. AJ then took out both Ellsworth and Ambrose.

After the commercial, Ambrose and Ellsworth were talking to Daniel Bryan and Ellsworth kept apologizing. Bryan granted Ambrose a match tonight and if Ambrose wins, he would be the number one contender. Bryan also barred Ellsworth from ringside.

Randy Orton vs Kane No DQ match

Randy Orton defeated Kane by pinfall following an RKO

Becky Lynch and Nikki Bella vs. Carmella and Alexa Bliss

Carmella and Alexa Bliss defeated Becky Lynch and Nikki Bella by pinfall.

After the match, backstage, Naomi was added to the women's Raw vs Smackdown Live Survivor Series match. Natalya kept lobbying for a spot in the match.

Survivor Series Qualifying Match: The Spirit Squad vs. American Alpha

American Alpha defeated the Spirit Squad

Miz TV with Daniel Bryan

Bryan announces Randy Orton, Baron Corbin, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose and WWE World Champion AJ Styles for Team SmackDown. The Miz isn't happy. Bryan says Miz wasn't even considered. Miz accuses Bryan of coming out to humiliate him on his show, in front of his wife. They have words and Bryan says he lied, Miz was considered but they need Superstars that are willing to fight any time and Miz proved last week that he's afraid to fight. They argue some more until Miz says he wasn't scared to fight, Bryan was, and puts Miz in between them. Bryan gets upset as Miz leaves the ring. Bryan tells Miz to join commentary as Dolph Ziggler will be defending the WWE Intercontinental Title in an Open Challenge. Ziggler makes his way out

WWE Intercontinental Title Match: Curt Hawkins vs. Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler made short work of Hawkins for the victory.

SmackDown Qualifying Match: The Usos vs. The Headbangers

The Usos defeated the Headbangers to advance to the Survivor Series.

Dean Ambrose vs. AJ Styles If Ambrose wins, he is the number one contender

Ellsworth came to ringside and got in a debacle with security. Ambrose defeated AJ and became the number one contender. Ellsworth got hurt during the match, but seemed very happy as the show went off the air.

 

[Grievous 3D]

~ So the Styles/Ambrose/Ellsworth "dance" continues...I have no problem
with Ellsworth being over...as he's an actual wrestler and not a piece
of paper with some names written on it. Also...they should let him be
the "Water Boy" for the SmackDown Live Team at Survivor Series...So he
can hit some "No Chin Music" on Bold BigFlank.

~ So...Orton has joined the Wyatts? Didn't they do this angle with Daniel
Bryan a few years back? I mean I never saw it...but I heard about it. At
least Bray wasn't pinned this week...so I'll take it.

~ Everyone Shut Up! Alexa Bliss is here...teaming with Carmella...Is Nice!
I wonder if they shared a locker/dressing room...sorry...my mind is wandering.

The NXT Draft picks are facing off against Becky Lynch and Nikki Bella...
Wait...didn't we see this match on the SmackDown before No Mercy?

Wait...why are they already in the ring? Why do we get to see Nikki's and
Becky's entrance but not Alexa's and Carmella's? I'm calling bullsh*t!
Alexa & Carmella deserve better...they are the future of the women's
division after all.

Okay...let's watch the match and see if Becky Lynch can actually do
something or anything this week. Man...its kind of sad how weak Becky
has looked/been booked as Champion.

Wait...why am I worrying about Becky...I need to focus on Alexa...

And now I'm focused...Okay...on with the match!

So...it was short, fast and Alexa Bliss pins Becky again? Are you
kidding me...I mean I love Alexa...but Becky needed something before
the title match next week.

That was a great DDT by Alexa...Jake the Snake would be proud.

And then we get a fantastic interview/promo by Alexa & Carmella after
the match...although may-be Carmella shouldn't have said that about
Charlotte...I mean...show some respect Carmella...you wouldn't want
Charlotte to put you through an announcers table would you?

No...you wouldn't.

~ So Natalya is going to be "the Coach" of the Women's team. I don't know...
She might go all "Tonya Harding" on someone to take their spot. Well...as
long as its not Alexa or Carmella I don't care.

~ Oh Great...The Miz is here...Ugh...but I have to admit Maryse is very
easy on the eyes...which helps. Okay Daniel Bryan is going to announce
the SmackDown Survivor Series Team...Styles, Ambrose, Wyatt, Orton and...
Baron Corbin.

Excuse Me...What?

Baron F*cking Corbin? Are you kidding me? Daniel did you bang your head
or something?

Luke Harper, Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, Old Man Kane...any one of those guys
would have been a better pick than Baron Corbin.

Its like Daniel watched RAW pick Fridge LargeMeat and thought "Oh...poor Mick
must be loosing it...I better pick someone just as "good" as Reef BlastBody.
I've got it...Baron Corbin!"

Oh God...imagine if Slate SlabRock and Baron Corbin actually face each other
in that match...Not even a topless Nikki Bella could bring the crowd back from that.

~ So...Ziggler throws an open challenge to the RAW roster for the IC title...
Rusev!!! Rusev should answer the challenge and CRUSH!!! Ziggler. Then get
drafted to SmackDown where he'll get a fair run...and Lana goes with him.

~ I honestly thought they would turn Ellsworth heel...but they didn't...Nice
work Dean...I hope you get another run with the main title...you deserve it.

 

[Jacob Fox]

~ So...Orton has joined the Wyatts? Didn't they do this angle with Daniel
Bryan a few years back? I mean I never saw it...but I heard about it. At
least Bray wasn't pinned this week...so I'll take it.

Yup. Daniel Bryan lost to the Wyatts a few times and after the last defeat, he asked to join them. This lasted a few weeks, with Bryan wrestling with them and willingly taking Sister Abigail from Bray whenever he failed. He was wrestling in mechanic's coveralls and was acting like he was in a trance. Then, when he and Bray were in a cage match and he lost, Bray was going to hit him with Sister Abigail and Daniel didn't let him and proceeded to beat the holy living shit out of Bray inside the cage while keeping Rowan and Harper from getting in the cage to save him. On the next Raw, Bryan revealed it was only a ruse to eventually get Bray in the cage so he could beat the crap out of him.

 

[Grievous 3D]

Okay...so I guess the same thing will happen with Orton
and Bray will end up looking like a chump again...

Just great...

 

[¡Tranquilo!]

I guess the secret to a good SDlive show is that it needs a PPV to build towards...8/10.


Alexa Bliss and Carmella are like the two most fluent talkers in the entirety of the
Women's division. They are so natural on the microphone, not one word sounds scripted.

The Survivor series teams are shaping up quite nice on SDLive. The Men's team surprised me with having Baron Corbin. I thought that spot was definitely going to the Miz or Ziggler but I like their choice because its what the brand split was put into action for. Sucks we didn't get to see him this episode but we got an awesome promo package!
The tag team...team? Is also looking good. We have 3 face teams and 1 heel sofar so I'm assuming either the Vaudevillians or Breezango will fill the role next week in Glasgow.
The Women's team is by far the strongest team on SDlive tbh, no Nia Jax will be able to stop them! THEY WILL PREVAIL...[HASHTAG]#SMACKDOWNMASTERRACE[/HASHTAG].

Randy Orton pulling the ol' Daniel Bryan and joining the Wyatt family. We all know he's gonna fuck Bray over eventually, but at least we got that cool visual of them posing together.

Dolph Ziggler issuing a open challenge to any RAW superstar for the IC championship is awesome. Really gives some credibility to the belt and Ziggler, I'm hype thinking about who will answer the call. Though this could be a way to just put Miz on Raw...

 

[alexb]

This is probably one of my highest ratings but I actually gave Smackdown a 9/10 this week. Why? Because…simple stuff like things making sense, booking that makes sense, storyline progression, entertainment, you know, those things that we have forgotten about when watching RAW every week.

You know, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. On one hand, we have a Smackdown show that week in week out has for the most part been consistent, enjoyable, easy to watch and entertaining. Things actually make sense, storylines in progress are interesting and overall it’s like almost everything is clicking nicely. Now, don’t get me wrong, it ain’t perfect and there are certainly a few flaws but when comparing to all the nonsense on RAW, I take Smackdown every week no questions asked.

Speaking of RAW, it’s been the entire opposite. Poor buildups, matches that generally mean nothing, people not even belonging in a ring constantly on our TV, cringe-worthy booking, silliness, lame and tasteless humor are just a few things I can think of on the top of my head. Where’s the emotional investment? What happened to common sense?

So…why is that? How is it that these two shows have been so different? I’m sure the first thing one could come up with as an answer is the 3 hour RAW versus the 2 hour Smackdown. Yes, that extra hour is obviously a very important factor in favor of the blue show but I’m not even going there; quite frankly, though a legit excuse, I feel it’s been overplayed and overused once too many times already. So…again…why?

This may come out as stupid and ridiculous but I’m actually starting to think this might be happening on purpose, as part of a storyline, going back to when Vince made the decision of putting Stephanie in charge of RAW and Shane in charge of Smackdown as the respective commissioners. The idea behind this to begin with was competition, correct? Vince himself said that he didn’t care if either one had to break the law (as long as they didn’t get caught, that is), that wanted to see “blood” and…let the games begin. Bottom line, could it be possible that RAW is being made to look bad on purpose only so that eventually Shane can get one over on his sister?

Again, I know this sounds kind of idiotic of an idea and I’ll be the first to say that it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense given RAW is always considered the flagship show, not to mention the impact on viewership and ratings. I guess I just find it impossible to comprehend how they can produce such a good show every Tuesday and such a mediocre one on Mondays.


Other than that, good stuff this week:

- As many pointed out, this Orton thing is obviously a rehash of the DB/Wyatt angle from a few years back but it’s still interesting so keen to see where this goes…

- Speaking of DB, him and Miz had yet another excellent segment and, I’ve said this from the very beginning and that first epic Miz promo on Talking Smack, if it wasn’t for the medical issues, I’d bet the house, wife and cat they are building for a DB vs. Miz match for Mania.

- Video packages are great and if anything, it has constantly been one of the strong suits of WWE over the years but I’d much rather see Corbin destroy someone in the ring…

- I absolutely love the open challenge to RAW that Ziggler issued for the IC belt at Survivor Series and very interested to see who answers the call. Our fellow member Grievous above mentioned Rusev and frankly, that would be a very interesting option. Come to think of it, if we are to assume that this challenge “has” to be answered by a heel, who else is there really on RAW that is currently available?

- Only blemish on this show last night was that idiot interviewing Ambrose shortly before the match calling Ellsworth…James Ellis. Really? Ellis? How can you fuck that up???

 

[C.M. Shaddix]

I'm still kinda hung over following Halloween weekend. Orton is joining the Wyatts?! If he stays with them... this makes the Wyatts something much more.

 

[Prince Bálor]

SmackDown was great and easy to watch. 9/10

The show was focused on Survivor Series and everything meant something.

Also, I love the vibe I'm getting from SmackDown, it's coming off as if they WANT to win at Survivor Series. That is great.

God, I love this show!

Positives:
- The opening segment with Ellsworth, Ambrose and Styles was good.

- Ellsworth playing a sad panda in that backstage segment involving himself, DB and Ambrose was great.

- The video package for Baron Corbin was good. WWE is really good with this kind of stuff.

- Alexa Bliss & Carmella vs Becky Lynch & Nikki Bella was solid given the time constraint and it was also a fine way to continue both feuds. Bliss picked up the win, pinning the champ, in order to look like a threat to Becky's Women's title next week. Also, both Carmella and Alexa's post-match promos were pretty solid.

- American Alpha vs The Spirit Squad was a fun enough squash.

- The MizTV segment with DB was great all the way through.

- Dolph Ziggler squashing Curt Hawkins in like 5 seconds... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Man, that was great.
Post-match, DZ issued an open challenge for his IC title to any RAW superstar. The Miz got pissed about that, so it makes me wonder if this'll lead to The Miz jumping ship to RAW and either Sami Zayn or Cesaro (if he isn't on the RAW tag team) to SmackDown? I'd dig that.

- The Usos vs The Headbangers was fine and exactly what it needed to be.

- Dean Ambrose vs AJ Styles was a good ME. Not as good as their previous outings, but good, nonetheless.
This being Ambrose's "last chance" to earn a shot at Styles was interesting, since it made Ambrose throw caution to the wind by constantly going for pins, submissions and whatnot to try and defeat Styles because it was his "last chance", and the Ellsworth stuff at the end was good and had a good pay off, as Ellsworth sacrificed himself in order to pay back Ambrose.

Negatives:
- The usual Wyatt Family/Orton/Kane stuff that I don't give a toss about. Although, I admit that Harper giving Orton the side eye could lead to something interesting.

 

[Snowman1]

There was an episode of Impact from back in the day... September 12, 2013, I think it was. No Surrender. The end of the BFG series... and the last show that I rated a 10/10. While comparing these two shows are apples to oranges... when I finished this episode of Smackdown, I seriously considered making this the latest 10/10 show. It was really close. Damn close, but... It wound up "merely" being a 9 due to the presence of JBL on commentary. He's so so SO bad.

Still, this show was spectacular in so many ways. James Ellsworth is my favorite WWE character right now - whether he sticks around or not - because I can feel his emotion. When he's firing up and superkicking Styles because THIS IS A ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY and he can't pass up a chance to tell his kids he superkicked the WWE Champion not once, but twice?... Amazing. When he talks about how grateful he is that someday he can tell his kids he wrestled for the WWE Championship, I believe him. When he's overly apologetic in this opening segment, it truly felt like he was down in the dumps over repaying a guy whose done so much for him by screwing him out of the title... and when he smiled at the new #1 Contender at the end of the show, I popped HUGE for Ellsworth. Thanks in part to his interference, he was able to make up for the mistake last week. lease: Fantastic stuff... And for the people wondering what Smackdown does better, how many happy moments have we had on this show since the brand split?

On the other side though, Ambrose was talking about not wanting to give the guy his number and wanted him to go away and eventually locked the guy out of the building. What a dick! Screw you, Ambrose. :tough: I don't know if they were trying to turn him heel but I can see a somewhat-subtle double turn possibility here and it's probably pretty damn good... but AJ Styles is just too good in his role right now. I LOVE that these two aren't "WWE Top Babyface Template" and "WWE Cowardly Heel Template" like Rollins and Owens are. Feel like I'm watching a TV show, not writing. A+ for everything involved here, INCLUDING how Ambrose is going for different counters and different submissions in his matches with Styles to keep them feeling different. I'm not even remotely bored of this series.

Also the obvious bonus points for the stipulation that was perfectly laid out. There was a lot of drama to the main event, which made the whole angle work. Great!

Also great is WWE's Feud of the Year, Miz vs Dolph Ziggler... and there actually being CONSEQUENCES FOR ACTIONS! I was waiting for Matanza to come out behind Daniel Bryan any moment. Miz was afraid to defend the title so Bryan PUNISHED him for that, by giving his spot to the practically undefeated since the brand split Baron Corbin. He's done nothing to not include him in storyline while Miz... yeah. And he was pissed, and... I LAUGHED AT THIS SO HARD. So I'm sure whenever they came up with that side-thingie for SD's entrances someone had to be like "lol with all these facts we need a Chuck Norris gimmick!!!" And then I sat down and had a glass of chocolate milk ready, seeing what Curt Hawkins had left to prove and quickly spat it out. HAHAHAHAHAHA THAT WAS AWESOME!!! And D'Z's simple act of being a fighting champion, combined with Miz's Miz-ness... Both guys are playing off each other so well to get them both so much over in their direction. This was GREAT.

As for the worst feud of the year, the Orton/Bray stuff on this show was inoffensive... Hell I'll even say the pose-thingie and the flashing eyes in the backstage promo were pretty awesome. This feud got two cool things in it, two more than it did before. As much as I want to say it's a Wyatt feud and nothing will happen... This got me wondering. Good job, SD!

Elsewhere, seeing American Alpha - I totally forgot about those guys - interrupting the Spirit Squad made me LOL, and it's so much fun watching those two mop the floor with dudes. Usos' squash was also perfectly fine, and I love segments with a purpose... And the Womens' tag was tailor-made to piss me off, it was a formula tag match with Nikki Bella and generic booking, but the fact that they cut out Nikki trying to sell during the heat spot made me laugh out of my chair! That was awesome, and watching the girls just having fun after the segment was a blast as well... *insert stuff about Alexa's outfit here*

So yeah, fantastic Smackdown. Can't wait for next week! (See how that works? )

 

[Grievous 3D]

and watching the girls just having fun after the segment was a blast as well... *insert stuff about Alexa's outfit here*

Yeah...Alexa & Carmella seem so natural on the mic...and they clearly
have great chemistry from their NXT days...Although...didn't Carmella
have an "accent" at one point (Not sure what kind of accent it was...
Brooklyn?)

May-be she dropped it because unique accents are not in at the
moment *Insert Kevin Dunn is a dipshit remark here*

Alexa's Outfit...

Inserted...