Rate SmackDown Live 7/26/16
- Thread starter Roadster
- Start date
-
Welcome to "The New" Wrestling Smarks Forum!
I see that you are not currently registered on our forum. It only takes a second, and you can even login with your Facebook! If you would like to register now, pease click here: Register
Once registered please introduce yourself in our introduction thread which can be found here: Introduction Board
I enjoyed the show tbh, the matches were alright, I actually thought Heath would maybe turning a bit of a pipebomb heel which to me would be a good way to get him relevant again but then Rhyno. I'm meh about Rhyno tbh, but its good if he'll eventually put new talent over.
I gave it an 8, would have been 9 if Orton's match wasn't on the card.
Shelton Benjamin coming back? I don't know how i feel about that, been a long while since I saw him, he used to be fun to watch. Borton match was boring and skippable. women's match was a decent filler.
What i loved was the ending, they did a smart thing by going with Dolph winning, they want to remove the whole glass ceiling image WWE has and its a step in the right direction, as frequently reminded by JBL.
I'm looking forward to AA next week. Pretty sure they'll get a squash match but atleast they'll be there! Ready, willing and all that jazz.
Totally marked out for that sequence of Attitude Adjustment, Phenomenal Forearm and Superkick though, that kick looked brutal with the way styles sold it.
I think it's gonna be a show that gets better every week, I'm keen on what stories they're gonna build. And what the IC scene shakes up to be (anyone but Kane, please.)
I gave it an 8, would have been 9 if Orton's match wasn't on the card.
Shelton Benjamin coming back? I don't know how i feel about that, been a long while since I saw him, he used to be fun to watch. Borton match was boring and skippable. women's match was a decent filler.
What i loved was the ending, they did a smart thing by going with Dolph winning, they want to remove the whole glass ceiling image WWE has and its a step in the right direction, as frequently reminded by JBL.
I'm looking forward to AA next week. Pretty sure they'll get a squash match but atleast they'll be there! Ready, willing and all that jazz.
Totally marked out for that sequence of Attitude Adjustment, Phenomenal Forearm and Superkick though, that kick looked brutal with the way styles sold it.
I think it's gonna be a show that gets better every week, I'm keen on what stories they're gonna build. And what the IC scene shakes up to be (anyone but Kane, please.)
Given that we had just come off 48 hours of amazing TV programming, between a very solid (to say the least) PPV on Sunday and a fantastic RAW the following night, Smackdown already had a big task in hand in regards to following up with just as good of a show so I’m personally going to cut them some slack. I’ve heard a lot of people bashing the show and, yes, it was rather mediocre overall but to C.M. Shaddix’s point above, let’s give it some time and not judge from one episode. That being said, I gave it a 6/10 and here are my thoughts:
- Unlike RAW, on Smackdown they decided to keep the announce team by ringside which I guess serves the purpose of things being different on each show, however I don’t think anyone would have minded if they did the same thing here. Blue ropes are back, as expected and I liked how Shane and Bryan started the show walking from backstage and into the arena as sort of a presentation; felt it was a nice touch…
- The Battle Royal card I think they’ve played too much lately. The idea of giving everyone the opportunity to earn a spot in the main event that would determine the new number one contender for the WWE championship was a good one, no doubt, however I felt the Battle Royal feel too flat and perhaps a tournament would have been a better idea.
- Speaking of, giving Apollo Crews the rub was nice and all but what he desperately needs a gimmick, a character, something….
- Becky vs. Natalya was your typical 50-50 booking. Natalya made Becky tap out at Battleground, so Becky had to get one back and so she did in the same fashion. Did it mean anything? Probably not…
- The whole segment with every women on the roster given an entrance and coming out I think looked kind of bizarre, not to mention that none of these ladies got any real reaction, except of course Eva Marie, the female version of Roman Reigns. Oh, and did not anyone tell Eva Marie that she made her entrance to an arena that featured a wrestling entertainment show and not a strip club? Also funny that while every other woman came out with a microphone in hand and cut a promo, Eva Marie got a video package instead and some narrator doing the talking; just comes to show you how much faith they have in her, unless we are supposed to believe that she is someone more special and getting a more VIP type treatment. Right….
- Burying your IC champion on the very first night to me was completely wrong. Isn’t this title the second most important behind the WWE title? If you needed someone else for Orton to squash, there were certainly other options better suited for the situation.
- Rhyno is back. Yay…I guess?
- Shelton Benjamin baby!!! I only wonder how soon enough he comes back cause, as of now, we really don't have a contender for the IC title...
- Look forward to MVP being announced soon enough as well...
- The main event was okay for what it was, the basic multi-man match where for the most part two of the guys fight in the ring while the rest three, four or five are taking a nap outside waiting for their spots. I think they could have made this match look a lot better with some chaos in and outside the ring (at least for a few minutes anyway) with everyone going after everyone but regardless, we got what we got and the end of it saw Dolph Ziggler picking up the win.
Now, as far as this being a surprise outcome, indeed it was and that alone is enough to give WWE some credit but in the grand scheme of things, does this really make any sense? I mean, here’s a guy that has basically been unimportant, insignificant and irrelevant to the fans for the better part of the last two or three years, whom for the most part has been jobbing to other talent and, please, before I receive any heat from any Ziggler fans, notice how careful I am in choosing my words and underlining the key word. There is no doubt that Ziggler has been very valuable to the company and him jobbing for younger talent is obviously a good thing and part of the process for putting the upcoming stars over, however that is a totally different matter and not something that us fans, in storyline at least, give a shit about.
Therefore, while I may understand the aspect of this perhaps being somewhat of a reward towards Ziggler for what he’s been doing these past couple of years, in storyline I don’t see it really making much sense when he has practically done nothing for us to invest in him or care about it. Does Ziggler vs. Ambrose really create intrigue and excitement for a main event at Summerslam? Furthermore, would it make any sense for Ambrose to drop the title to Ziggler after the push he's received these past couple of months? Probably not, thus making this match quite predictable...
Given that Styles and Cena will most likely have a rubber match at Summserlam, Corbin and Apollo Crews will probably have some feud going between them and that Orton is already booked with Brock, I personally felt (and I’m sure many will agree) that Bray Wyatt was the way to go. They gave him somewhat of a different look, Strowman is on RAW, Rowan was barely anywhere to be seen and Harper is out anyway so why not FINALLY give this guy the spot and have him live up to his gimmick of having the whole world in his hands, aka, the WWE WORLD title. After all, they are referring to it as the world title again, aren’t they? Daniel Bryan said it, the announce team called it a few times, right?
Anyway, it is what is so we'll just have to see how this story plays out. Maybe they are taking this direction in order to set up a Ziggler heel turn? Idk...
- Stat note: when was the last time someone actually won with the Superkick cause I honestly do not remember. It almost seems like routine for everyone to be kicking out of it...
All in all, it wasn't the best start for Smackdown but, again, let's give it some time. Oh, and by the way, shut the fuck up already JBL.....
P.S.: With several guys on these rosters getting minimum to almost no reaction at all from the fans, kind of makes you still wonder why Damien Sandow, of all people, was released...
- Unlike RAW, on Smackdown they decided to keep the announce team by ringside which I guess serves the purpose of things being different on each show, however I don’t think anyone would have minded if they did the same thing here. Blue ropes are back, as expected and I liked how Shane and Bryan started the show walking from backstage and into the arena as sort of a presentation; felt it was a nice touch…
- The Battle Royal card I think they’ve played too much lately. The idea of giving everyone the opportunity to earn a spot in the main event that would determine the new number one contender for the WWE championship was a good one, no doubt, however I felt the Battle Royal feel too flat and perhaps a tournament would have been a better idea.
- Speaking of, giving Apollo Crews the rub was nice and all but what he desperately needs a gimmick, a character, something….
- Becky vs. Natalya was your typical 50-50 booking. Natalya made Becky tap out at Battleground, so Becky had to get one back and so she did in the same fashion. Did it mean anything? Probably not…
- The whole segment with every women on the roster given an entrance and coming out I think looked kind of bizarre, not to mention that none of these ladies got any real reaction, except of course Eva Marie, the female version of Roman Reigns. Oh, and did not anyone tell Eva Marie that she made her entrance to an arena that featured a wrestling entertainment show and not a strip club? Also funny that while every other woman came out with a microphone in hand and cut a promo, Eva Marie got a video package instead and some narrator doing the talking; just comes to show you how much faith they have in her, unless we are supposed to believe that she is someone more special and getting a more VIP type treatment. Right….
- Burying your IC champion on the very first night to me was completely wrong. Isn’t this title the second most important behind the WWE title? If you needed someone else for Orton to squash, there were certainly other options better suited for the situation.
- Rhyno is back. Yay…I guess?
- Shelton Benjamin baby!!! I only wonder how soon enough he comes back cause, as of now, we really don't have a contender for the IC title...
- Look forward to MVP being announced soon enough as well...
- The main event was okay for what it was, the basic multi-man match where for the most part two of the guys fight in the ring while the rest three, four or five are taking a nap outside waiting for their spots. I think they could have made this match look a lot better with some chaos in and outside the ring (at least for a few minutes anyway) with everyone going after everyone but regardless, we got what we got and the end of it saw Dolph Ziggler picking up the win.
Now, as far as this being a surprise outcome, indeed it was and that alone is enough to give WWE some credit but in the grand scheme of things, does this really make any sense? I mean, here’s a guy that has basically been unimportant, insignificant and irrelevant to the fans for the better part of the last two or three years, whom for the most part has been jobbing to other talent and, please, before I receive any heat from any Ziggler fans, notice how careful I am in choosing my words and underlining the key word. There is no doubt that Ziggler has been very valuable to the company and him jobbing for younger talent is obviously a good thing and part of the process for putting the upcoming stars over, however that is a totally different matter and not something that us fans, in storyline at least, give a shit about.
Therefore, while I may understand the aspect of this perhaps being somewhat of a reward towards Ziggler for what he’s been doing these past couple of years, in storyline I don’t see it really making much sense when he has practically done nothing for us to invest in him or care about it. Does Ziggler vs. Ambrose really create intrigue and excitement for a main event at Summerslam? Furthermore, would it make any sense for Ambrose to drop the title to Ziggler after the push he's received these past couple of months? Probably not, thus making this match quite predictable...
Given that Styles and Cena will most likely have a rubber match at Summserlam, Corbin and Apollo Crews will probably have some feud going between them and that Orton is already booked with Brock, I personally felt (and I’m sure many will agree) that Bray Wyatt was the way to go. They gave him somewhat of a different look, Strowman is on RAW, Rowan was barely anywhere to be seen and Harper is out anyway so why not FINALLY give this guy the spot and have him live up to his gimmick of having the whole world in his hands, aka, the WWE WORLD title. After all, they are referring to it as the world title again, aren’t they? Daniel Bryan said it, the announce team called it a few times, right?
Anyway, it is what is so we'll just have to see how this story plays out. Maybe they are taking this direction in order to set up a Ziggler heel turn? Idk...
- Stat note: when was the last time someone actually won with the Superkick cause I honestly do not remember. It almost seems like routine for everyone to be kicking out of it...
All in all, it wasn't the best start for Smackdown but, again, let's give it some time. Oh, and by the way, shut the fuck up already JBL.....
P.S.: With several guys on these rosters getting minimum to almost no reaction at all from the fans, kind of makes you still wonder why Damien Sandow, of all people, was released...
Battleground delivered, RAW delivered in a big way, but SmackDown? Nope. The show was a snoozefest. 4/10 Oh, well.
It's taken me a bit to process why I liked the show, probably because I expected a real letdown after a terrific Battleground PPV and an awesome episode of Raw. Smackdown was entertaining and set up some very good storytelling. Does that mean the show was perfect? No. But, it was very good. 8/10
Good opening segment and the battle royal offered some falso finishes and interesting interactions. I like Crews winning as a counter-point to Balor being the upcoming man on Raw.
Very entertaining match. It got a lot of flack for not being Charlotte-Sasha from Raw, but these two worked a different style of match than those two. Different, not worse and not better. The reality is that these two women are going to carry a for-now thinner women's division on Smackdown for the next few months and that's not a bad thing.
This was probably the worst segment of the night just because it seemed so completely random. Also, it featured Eva Marie, who got as roundly booed as Roman did on Raw. Other than her (and Carmella, who was terrific with Enzo & Cass, but whose shtick isn't nearly so entertaining without them), it was good to see Alexa Bliss and even better to see Naomi come out and look serious again.
This was a good return match for Orton. Putting him against the Miz isn't a bad choice either, since he's a far stronger heel than Jericho (whose heel status is hurt by the fact that he's too over and that's just because he's Jericho). For just a moment, I wondered if they would fight for the IC title, which would have been an interesting choice, but I'm glad they didn't. Either way, though, fun match and it ended the right way.
This was a fun segment. I love the outraged, unhappy Heath Slater, all pissed off he wasn't drafted. But, seeing Rhyno come up behind him to take him down was a special kind of cool.
How I imagine this going:
SD Writer 1: First main event: we put Cena, Styles, Wyatt, and...somebody who can bump for them...Ziggler!...yeah, Ziggler in the ring.
Vince: We need Corbin, too. He's big and I like that!
HHH: Somebody put the tape back over Vince's mouth, please! But, he's right. Fans'll expect a big guy, so we put Corbin in, too.
SD Writer 2: We can't have a five-way match.
SD Writer 1: Let's put in Crews, too.
HHH: We just put Balor over on Raw. We can't "just put in Crews".
Writer 2: He could win some sort of qualifier.
Vince (having gotten the tape off somehow): A battle royal! A battle royal!
(Somebody smacks the tape back over Vince's mouth)
Writer 1: Actually...that's not a bad idea. What if Crews won a battle royal?
HHH: Okay. So, we got Cena, Styles, Wyatt, Ziggler, Corbin, and Crews. Who wins?
Writer 1: The one guy in this whole match who literally nobody expects to win.
Vince (muffled through the tape): Ziggler?
HHH (with a cocky grin): Brilliant!
wk
Good opening segment and the battle royal offered some falso finishes and interesting interactions. I like Crews winning as a counter-point to Balor being the upcoming man on Raw.
Very entertaining match. It got a lot of flack for not being Charlotte-Sasha from Raw, but these two worked a different style of match than those two. Different, not worse and not better. The reality is that these two women are going to carry a for-now thinner women's division on Smackdown for the next few months and that's not a bad thing.
This was probably the worst segment of the night just because it seemed so completely random. Also, it featured Eva Marie, who got as roundly booed as Roman did on Raw. Other than her (and Carmella, who was terrific with Enzo & Cass, but whose shtick isn't nearly so entertaining without them), it was good to see Alexa Bliss and even better to see Naomi come out and look serious again.
This was a good return match for Orton. Putting him against the Miz isn't a bad choice either, since he's a far stronger heel than Jericho (whose heel status is hurt by the fact that he's too over and that's just because he's Jericho). For just a moment, I wondered if they would fight for the IC title, which would have been an interesting choice, but I'm glad they didn't. Either way, though, fun match and it ended the right way.
This was a fun segment. I love the outraged, unhappy Heath Slater, all pissed off he wasn't drafted. But, seeing Rhyno come up behind him to take him down was a special kind of cool.
How I imagine this going:
SD Writer 1: First main event: we put Cena, Styles, Wyatt, and...somebody who can bump for them...Ziggler!...yeah, Ziggler in the ring.
Vince: We need Corbin, too. He's big and I like that!
HHH: Somebody put the tape back over Vince's mouth, please! But, he's right. Fans'll expect a big guy, so we put Corbin in, too.
SD Writer 2: We can't have a five-way match.
SD Writer 1: Let's put in Crews, too.
HHH: We just put Balor over on Raw. We can't "just put in Crews".
Writer 2: He could win some sort of qualifier.
Vince (having gotten the tape off somehow): A battle royal! A battle royal!
(Somebody smacks the tape back over Vince's mouth)
Writer 1: Actually...that's not a bad idea. What if Crews won a battle royal?
HHH: Okay. So, we got Cena, Styles, Wyatt, Ziggler, Corbin, and Crews. Who wins?
Writer 1: The one guy in this whole match who literally nobody expects to win.
Vince (muffled through the tape): Ziggler?
HHH (with a cocky grin): Brilliant!
wk
I gave it an 8. I liked it a whole lot. I think it might take a few episodes for Smackdown to find it's identity but I am glad that it does have one again. It's definitely on the right track. I look forward to seeing it develop.
6/10, Becky and Nattie was a lot of fun though
Why in the actual fuck didn't Becky win at Battleground?! Ah yeah, 50-50 booking.
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2014
- Messages
- 44,470
- Reaction score
- 4,214
- Points
- 118
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
To get her win back, on SmackDown. Battleground was the last chapter in the "old era", so the face getting her win back and ending the feud on SmackDown was a way to usher in a "new era".
It's not a new era, they said that a few months ago to.. Stop buying everything they sell you... It's a way to manipulate you and it's working.
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2014
- Messages
- 44,470
- Reaction score
- 4,214
- Points
- 118
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
- Favorite Wrestler
-
Every time I hear about 50/50 booking all I can think of is the Dudley's receiving the wrong end of 100/0 booking against the Wyatts, which accomplished dick.
I can understand not wanting one of SD's top two girls looking weak