Spoilers follow for the December 16th episode of Smackdown.
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We're getting a live Smackdown on a Tuesday this week, which is weird but apparently it's for some thing in the USA. Not being in the USA, that doesn't matter to me, but there's some "WWE Week" thing happening for those of you who want to check that out.
Smackdown kicks off with ... Fandango. Well, he's in the ring as Smackdown begins, and he's going one on one with Roman Reigns. Boy, I can't wait for this match.
Fandango (with Rosa Mendes) vs. Roman Reigns
Huh. So, Roman Reigns apparently used his hiatus to get a bit better in the ring. He worked a slightly more technical style while still showing off his power, he sold Fandango's few offensive maneuvers better, and he looked just as explosive as ever. The outcome of this match is never in doubt, but it's slightly more competitive than you'd expect -- this is the "new and improved" Fandango, after all -- and Roman Reigns put on a good show. If he stick to working like this, I can actually see him as a main eventer.
Reigns wins with a Superman Punch and a spear. I still think he needs a move in between those two moves, since two corner setup running moves don't work too well together, but oh well.
Match Rating: **1/2
A flashback to Sunday's PPV match between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt is aired next, since Dean Ambrose is going to be cutting a promo. He comes out after the flashback and talks about how great his match was. He had fun. He thinks Bray Wyatt was afraid during that match. Wyatt responds on the Titantron. The only reason Ambrose is still breathing, he claims, is because of the fun Wyatt's having. So they're both enjoying this feud. Okay. That's that.
The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso) and Erick Rowan vs. The Miz, Damien Sandow, and Luke Harper
Sandow chants "We want Mizdow," happen before the match even starts. Luke Harper intimidates Miz, which leads to a good laugh. Harper watching Sandow's antics while Miz is in the ring is also funny. I kind of wish that Harper would join the tag team permanently. His stare works perfectly when joined with Sandow's antics. He also works as the "muscle" for a team currently comprised of a coward and a joke.
This match is solid. It gives both teams enough offense, it's involving because of its humor, and there aren't any real problems with it. Rowan and Sandow are kept out of the match for its majority, which is too bad, but it at least makes sense in the story that's being told. Miz can get major heat by not tagging in Sandow, while Sandow is perpetually over in this role. At one point, Sandow even starts mimicking what Harper was doing. It was funny.
Erick Rowan eventually gets tagged in, all of the heels get taken down -- The Usos were in the ring for more than five seconds and should have been disqualified, but whatever -- and then The Usos tell Rowan to do a splash from the top rope. He does and pins The Miz for the victory.
Match Rating: **1/2
Jimmy Uso talks to Naomi backstage. She has a Divas Title match later on, and he apologizes for going off on Main Event. Naomi says she wants to do this on her own, effectively telling him to stay away from ringside. Then we get a Raw flashback, which highlighted Chris Jericho and Brock Lesnar's involvement in the show.
Seth Rollins then comes out, joined by J&J Security, limping a little. He's going to face Ryback.
Seth Rollins (with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury) vs. Ryback
The match doesn't happen.
Match Rating: N/A
Rusev attacks Ryback with a couple of those jumping kicks and winds up knocking him off the stage. Rollins gets a mic and says that this is what he's talking about. Without The Authority in charge, this will happen because there are no rules and no laws. He then talks about Roman Reigns screwing him out of a victory at TLC, and also how he singlehandedly won last night. He draws some heel heat. Rollins then thinks he should get the night off, but Dolph Ziggler comes out with a mic. Here I was hoping for a Randy Orton return. Ziggler thinks we deserve to see Rollins compete tonight, against him. Rollins tries to convince Ziggler that Ziggler hasn't done anything to make him worthy of that match. Rollins then gets goaded into the match. Both men were poor on the mic, but Ziggler reminded us why he doesn't get much mic time. He was really bad.
WWE Divas Championship Match: Naomi vs. Nikki Bella (with Brie Bella)
Apparently this was made on Main Event earlier. Thanks to The Miz. That darn heel!
Naomi and Nikki wrestle a pretty physical, back-and-forth match. The Miz comes out midway through and cheers Naomi on, like that awful heel he is. She dominates for a good chunk of the middle of the bout. Jimmy Uso then comes out and attacks Miz. This distraction causes Naomi to be put into a small package, leading to Nikki retaining. A good match ruined by stupid booking. Disgusting. This better lead to an Uso turn. That's about the only way it'll be salvaged.
Match Rating: **
On the plus side, maybe WWE will see how good it was and allow an actual match between Naomi and Nikki, free of all the stupid distractions from booking that makes no sense. Yeah, I bet that'll happen...
Kane vs. Adam Rose
A Raw rematch. Kane destroyed Rose on Raw, and I don't know why anything different would happen here. The Bunny shows up at ringside in a neck brace, since Kane hit him with a Tombstone Piledriver after the match the night before. Rose checks on The Bunny before the match, because apparently any tension they once had is now gone. Rose knocks Kane down at one point, but Kane gets up right away and proceeds to squash Rose. A chokeslam later and Rose loses.
Match Rating: *
Kane begins to walk away after the match, but halfway up the ramp he sets his sights on The Bunny. He hits another Tombstone on The Bunny and then walks away. That?s now three straight singles victories for Kane, which might have tied the number he had for the entire year before this streak. (Note: He had three pinfall victories in all of 2014 prior to his current three-win streak.)
Goldust and Stardust cut a short anti-Christmas promo. Then Seth Rollins is interviewed by Renee Young. Rollins says he'll work with Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar if he must.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins (with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury)
This is the ninth time we've seen this match in 2014. Rollins has won all of them. But this time Rollins has hurt ribs. Will that give us a different result?
Well, I wouldn't want to tell you too soon. Rollins frequently distracts the referee and let's J&J Security attack Ziggler, so Ziggler comes across as the underdog even though Rollins' ribs are sore. The match otherwise really isn't anything special, at least not for the first 2/3. It gets more exciting near the end, but it's surprisingly slow and uninvolving at the beginning and for a good portion of the middle. It eventually becomes near-fall followed by near-fall, and counter followed by counter. We're reminded why Ziggler/Rollins is a good pairing.
Noble and Mercury interfere one too many times, get ejected, and the distraction allows Ziggler to hit a Zig Zag and pin Rollins to finally win a singles match against him.
Match Rating: ***
Ziggler runs away from J&J Security and celebrates on the stage to end the show.
The Good: Naomi/Nikki (before the interference). Ziggler/Rollins.
The Bad: Kane/Rose. Uso/Miz feud.
Match of the Night: Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins.
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http://i55.servimg.com/u/f55/16/09/70/40/smackd10.png
We're getting a live Smackdown on a Tuesday this week, which is weird but apparently it's for some thing in the USA. Not being in the USA, that doesn't matter to me, but there's some "WWE Week" thing happening for those of you who want to check that out.
Smackdown kicks off with ... Fandango. Well, he's in the ring as Smackdown begins, and he's going one on one with Roman Reigns. Boy, I can't wait for this match.
Fandango (with Rosa Mendes) vs. Roman Reigns
Huh. So, Roman Reigns apparently used his hiatus to get a bit better in the ring. He worked a slightly more technical style while still showing off his power, he sold Fandango's few offensive maneuvers better, and he looked just as explosive as ever. The outcome of this match is never in doubt, but it's slightly more competitive than you'd expect -- this is the "new and improved" Fandango, after all -- and Roman Reigns put on a good show. If he stick to working like this, I can actually see him as a main eventer.
Reigns wins with a Superman Punch and a spear. I still think he needs a move in between those two moves, since two corner setup running moves don't work too well together, but oh well.
Match Rating: **1/2
A flashback to Sunday's PPV match between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt is aired next, since Dean Ambrose is going to be cutting a promo. He comes out after the flashback and talks about how great his match was. He had fun. He thinks Bray Wyatt was afraid during that match. Wyatt responds on the Titantron. The only reason Ambrose is still breathing, he claims, is because of the fun Wyatt's having. So they're both enjoying this feud. Okay. That's that.
The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso) and Erick Rowan vs. The Miz, Damien Sandow, and Luke Harper
Sandow chants "We want Mizdow," happen before the match even starts. Luke Harper intimidates Miz, which leads to a good laugh. Harper watching Sandow's antics while Miz is in the ring is also funny. I kind of wish that Harper would join the tag team permanently. His stare works perfectly when joined with Sandow's antics. He also works as the "muscle" for a team currently comprised of a coward and a joke.
This match is solid. It gives both teams enough offense, it's involving because of its humor, and there aren't any real problems with it. Rowan and Sandow are kept out of the match for its majority, which is too bad, but it at least makes sense in the story that's being told. Miz can get major heat by not tagging in Sandow, while Sandow is perpetually over in this role. At one point, Sandow even starts mimicking what Harper was doing. It was funny.
Erick Rowan eventually gets tagged in, all of the heels get taken down -- The Usos were in the ring for more than five seconds and should have been disqualified, but whatever -- and then The Usos tell Rowan to do a splash from the top rope. He does and pins The Miz for the victory.
Match Rating: **1/2
Jimmy Uso talks to Naomi backstage. She has a Divas Title match later on, and he apologizes for going off on Main Event. Naomi says she wants to do this on her own, effectively telling him to stay away from ringside. Then we get a Raw flashback, which highlighted Chris Jericho and Brock Lesnar's involvement in the show.
Seth Rollins then comes out, joined by J&J Security, limping a little. He's going to face Ryback.
Seth Rollins (with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury) vs. Ryback
The match doesn't happen.
Match Rating: N/A
Rusev attacks Ryback with a couple of those jumping kicks and winds up knocking him off the stage. Rollins gets a mic and says that this is what he's talking about. Without The Authority in charge, this will happen because there are no rules and no laws. He then talks about Roman Reigns screwing him out of a victory at TLC, and also how he singlehandedly won last night. He draws some heel heat. Rollins then thinks he should get the night off, but Dolph Ziggler comes out with a mic. Here I was hoping for a Randy Orton return. Ziggler thinks we deserve to see Rollins compete tonight, against him. Rollins tries to convince Ziggler that Ziggler hasn't done anything to make him worthy of that match. Rollins then gets goaded into the match. Both men were poor on the mic, but Ziggler reminded us why he doesn't get much mic time. He was really bad.
WWE Divas Championship Match: Naomi vs. Nikki Bella (with Brie Bella)
Apparently this was made on Main Event earlier. Thanks to The Miz. That darn heel!
Naomi and Nikki wrestle a pretty physical, back-and-forth match. The Miz comes out midway through and cheers Naomi on, like that awful heel he is. She dominates for a good chunk of the middle of the bout. Jimmy Uso then comes out and attacks Miz. This distraction causes Naomi to be put into a small package, leading to Nikki retaining. A good match ruined by stupid booking. Disgusting. This better lead to an Uso turn. That's about the only way it'll be salvaged.
Match Rating: **
On the plus side, maybe WWE will see how good it was and allow an actual match between Naomi and Nikki, free of all the stupid distractions from booking that makes no sense. Yeah, I bet that'll happen...
Kane vs. Adam Rose
A Raw rematch. Kane destroyed Rose on Raw, and I don't know why anything different would happen here. The Bunny shows up at ringside in a neck brace, since Kane hit him with a Tombstone Piledriver after the match the night before. Rose checks on The Bunny before the match, because apparently any tension they once had is now gone. Rose knocks Kane down at one point, but Kane gets up right away and proceeds to squash Rose. A chokeslam later and Rose loses.
Match Rating: *
Kane begins to walk away after the match, but halfway up the ramp he sets his sights on The Bunny. He hits another Tombstone on The Bunny and then walks away. That?s now three straight singles victories for Kane, which might have tied the number he had for the entire year before this streak. (Note: He had three pinfall victories in all of 2014 prior to his current three-win streak.)
Goldust and Stardust cut a short anti-Christmas promo. Then Seth Rollins is interviewed by Renee Young. Rollins says he'll work with Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar if he must.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins (with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury)
This is the ninth time we've seen this match in 2014. Rollins has won all of them. But this time Rollins has hurt ribs. Will that give us a different result?
Well, I wouldn't want to tell you too soon. Rollins frequently distracts the referee and let's J&J Security attack Ziggler, so Ziggler comes across as the underdog even though Rollins' ribs are sore. The match otherwise really isn't anything special, at least not for the first 2/3. It gets more exciting near the end, but it's surprisingly slow and uninvolving at the beginning and for a good portion of the middle. It eventually becomes near-fall followed by near-fall, and counter followed by counter. We're reminded why Ziggler/Rollins is a good pairing.
Noble and Mercury interfere one too many times, get ejected, and the distraction allows Ziggler to hit a Zig Zag and pin Rollins to finally win a singles match against him.
Match Rating: ***
Ziggler runs away from J&J Security and celebrates on the stage to end the show.
The Good: Naomi/Nikki (before the interference). Ziggler/Rollins.
The Bad: Kane/Rose. Uso/Miz feud.
Match of the Night: Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins.
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<url=http://www.patreon.com/Marter><img height=150>http://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/16/09/70/40/oo4th_11.png
If you wish to be notified whenever I post something new, please join this <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/2-50-Reviews>user group.
For an archive of all my previous WWE reviews, please go <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.846764-Marters-WWE-Reviews-Archive>here.
Talk to me on the Twitter, <url=https://twitter.com/martertweet>@martertweet.
