Superstar Shake Up

[Strummer]

AJ/Owens coming up

[El Dragon]

Yep, SD is gonna be fun.

[FMKK]

Who are they going to programme Orton with after this Wyatt shit finally ends if AJ already has a feud lined up?

[KawadaSmile]

The Face that Runs the Place vs The Face of America.

 

Another good triple threat involving AJ and Corbin. Baron looked very good and dominant throughout a big portion of the match, which is great.

[FMKK]

In terms of male singles, Smackdown blows Raw out of the water. Raw probably has stronger women and tag divisions though.

[El Dragon]

Who are they going to programme Orton with after this Wyatt shit finally ends if AJ already has a feud lined up?

 

Corbin, if I had to guess?

[sek69]

It seems to be forgotten that they did a stupid injury angle a couple weeks into American Alpha's run on SD that completely killed any heat their debut had. They were arctic cold when they came back.

[KawadaSmile]

Wasn't the injury angle made because Heath and Rhyno got many times more over than AA though? Besides it also set up The Usos as very good heels and got them over as well.

 

They are just bland, sadly. Good wrestlers? Sure - Gable's moonsault today was a thing of beauty - but so are Jimmy and Jay and both have personalities and can talk.

[stro]

The injury angle was because one of the Usos got hurt. Otherwise AA/Usos would have happened back in September.

[Migs]

"Ready Willing Gable" is also a terrible catchphrase.

[Jimmy Redman]

Smackdown thoughts:

 

I like Owens in a suit. I also like the running gag of, even though they have two separate brands and a draft and everything, they still can't keep Owens and Sami away from each other. I also like how booking has become so meta that they used the fact that nobody wanted AJ to leave SD to get a face pop here.

 

JBL shaking Byron's hand and being nice to him for pretty much the entire show has to be some sort of rib on us.

 

Tag team title match ruled. Fight forever. LOOOOOOOOOOVED the Alphas catching the double tope and hitting suplexes. Of all the teams I thought would come out after this, the Colons was not one of them. Jesus they look so much better in jeans!

 

Fucking Jinder. I did laugh at him getting his receipt for knocking Balor the fuck out on Raw.

 

I never knew that I wanted Naomi to forearm the shit out of James Ellsworth until now. Book it Shane!

 

OK I laughed at the Tamina troll, but poor Tamina. Hopefully she gets to work regularly now, because if there was ever a chance for her to improve. "We Want Sasha" chants. I swear this heel turn is going to bomb because they've ruined Bayley and Sasha is still more popular, they're going to choose Sasha. Charlotte getting the big push and coming out here in her fucking PEACOCK ROBE was glorious. Her overpush was grating in the very beginning but now that she's grown into it and become the God damn Queen she fits it like a glove and just comes off on a level above everyone, including most of the men. I liked when we saw Becky's reaction for a split second and she couldn't hide her overwhelming glee that she gets her BFF back. These girls kill me.

 

Audible pop for Rusev coming over.

 

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY SHIT AIDEN ENGLISH MUSICAL THEATER PERFORMER~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SPOTLIGHT PLEASE!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

 

Aiden English vs Tye Dillinger, what a flashback to the glory days of NXT.

 

Dolph. If Seth comes out here I'm going to spew. OH GOD SHINSUKE~!!!! So the furthest possible thing from Seth Rollins then, thank God. Dolph came off like ten times the fuckwit for saying "I don't know who you are" after the crowd was chanting his name for like three hours. SING THAT SONG BITCHES~! NXT is a beautiful pro wrestling dream that I don't ever want to wake up from.

 

So New Day it is. I like these vignettes they've been doing for the main event. It's funny because now that I think about it, when I watch Raw or SD, the point when they start coming out for the main event is usually when I check out for some reason. But they managed to hold my interest for this and it was a super fun main event. My favourite part was Corbin running around the corner and getting KO'd by that knee.

[stro]

"Ready Willing Gable" is also a terrible catchphrase.

Idk, people liked it in NXT. The main issue with AA is that they settled into their formula and lost any and all authenticity in their matches after Takeover Dallas. Compare the match with Revival at that show and then the 2/3 falls match and it's like AA is an entirely different duo by the second match. They brought that with them to SD and the excitement around them quickly faded when crowds realized they were just going to do their match regardless of opponents and didn't have an angle for months.

[cm funk]

"We Want Sasha" chants was because they were in Boston. They were all excited for Charlotte and the Tamina swerve kind of killed the heat which led to the chants. I thought it was clever (saw it coming tho) but not the best thing to do if you want a big pop

 

On Alpha, they showed a lot of personality in backstage skits in NXT, they just haven't had the chance to do it at all since getting called up. Also agree that the injury angle right after they debuted stalled them out of the gate and they haven't really recovered. Bottom line though is that they've kind of just been thrown out there and fans haven't been given a reason to care aside from them being a great in-ring team. In NXT they were built up organically and showed personality. I think they'll be fine in the long run. Heck, it wasn't that long ago that fans in the arenas and online were turning on the Usos, now a little character change and everyone loves them again. They just need to give people who didn't necessarily follow NXT during their rise a reason to care. It's not that hard.

[Jimmy Redman]

"We Want Sasha" chants was because they were in Boston. They were all excited for Charlotte and the Tamina swerve kind of killed the heat which led to the chants. I thought it was clever (saw it coming tho) but not the best thing to do if you want a big pop

 

Well shit, they mentioned Boston like a hundred times today and yet at that moment I completely forgot where they were.

 

Also, can I go back and say just how great the women's stuff on Raw was. Nia beating up Charlotte was pretty fun and using her departure to put over Nia was nice. Then Dana is backstage reading "How To Be Your Own Protege" which has to be like the most subtle joke ever made on WWE television. Emma trying to recruit her again and getting burned, allowing Dana to speak for herself and sound like an actual babyface for the first time.

 

Then in the ring, Sasha makes her most insincere sincere introduction of Bayley possible, then has to stand there and hear Bayley make her heartfelt speech thanking the fans. Lines like "you guys have ALWAYS been on my side" and "I got to have my Wrestlemania Moment ™ " were sure to push all the right buttons on Sasha, the frustrated babyface ace. This is the next evolution in Sasha Banks the character - not only did she fail repeatedly to defend the title against Charlotte, but now Bayley has come in and supplanted her as the babyface champ, not only keeping the title for longer than 3 weeks, not only defending it successfully, but defending it AT MANIA and getting the Wrestlemania Moment ™ that Sasha has been denied two years in a row now. So Bayley is the babyface ace that Sasha wants to be in her dreams but just isn't good enough to be, so all that insecurity and frustration is eating away at her until finally, it's going to make her snap on the best friend she's ever had.

 

I love Sasha.

 

AND THEN WE GET ALEXA BLISS! Bliss and Sasha staring stark sassy death at each other here was the stuff dreams are made of and I hope we get a proper Sasha/Alexa match before she turns. Alexa was the best, cutting that great promo and Jesus the LOOK ON HER FACE when the crowd started cheering for her....I have never seen someone look so disgusted at anything in my life. Alexa DISDAINS cheers. A true heel. And then we get Mickie James to even the score and just when you think you know what's happening BAM MICKIE IS KILLED TO DEATH BY NIA. Alexa LOLing at this was amazing, everything she does reminds me so much of heel Trish and it's glorious. She is the fucking boss. I love the way the next stuff was set up, where Alexa pushes Sasha into Nia, so Bayley goes after Alexa for doing that which allows Nia to kill her too, while Alexa walks off cackling. Alexa looking Nia right in the eye like "Hmm, I could use you" was awesome. She pulled so many strings in the space of like 5 minutes here.

 

Bayley and Mickie are going to have a lot of work to do, Raw will be so top heavy on heels when Sasha turns.

[sek69]

Alexa being able to pull the human equivalent of Grumpy Cat face at a moment's notice will never not be funny to me.

[stro]

Balor getting concussed in his second match back after being out for 8 months due to an injury in his second match on Raw is something. Jinder won't stop until he gets his top spot via putting everyone else out of action.

[KawadaSmile]

Jinder is kinda getting some love on twitter. His RIDICULOUS body transformation and in-ring improvement may be reasons. The stiff as shit elbow also might be a cause, I dunno.

[sek69]

Balor getting concussed in his second match back after being out for 8 months due to an injury in his second match on Raw is something. Jinder won't stop until he gets his top spot via putting everyone else out of action.

 

 

The funny thing is with WWE's line of thinking Balor will get a rep for being injury prone out of this and Jinder will get a pass for nearly killing him twice (the spot where he kicked the rope into Balor's face and left rope burns on his forehead).

[stro]

Those were mat burns from when he face planted after the elbow. He also drilled Roman with a shot like that a few weeks back. Being a walking wellness violation and stiffing the shit out of top talent is probably not the best way to improve your position in the company.

[KawadaSmile]

I guess Jinder wants to work like Sheamus, who is a goddamn stiff motherfucker sometimes, but also is more than willing to take his potatoes. That itself is cool, since Sheamus is one of the company's best workers, but he needs to control himself. You can be stiff and still take care of your opponent.

[El-P]

That damn Indian guy...

[cm funk]

I like the new shredded/gassed/whatever Jinder, and I like guys working "snug" or "stiff" or whatever.......the problem is if you're going to work like that you need to be good at it.......and Jinder just isn't a good worker. There's a way to work stiff and make it look stiff and still protect your opponent. Jinder doesn't seem skilled/coordinated enough to do that style. He blasted Balor, and I'd forgotten about Roman til someone here mentioned it but that was another one. I remember when he was teaming with Rusev he was just killing dudes with potatoes......and Rusev is a good example of a guy who works snug and hard and physical but doesn't kill his opponent.

[NotJayTabb]

Nakamura working with Ziggler makes sense as a first match, as it's a "name" that Nakamura can plough through - picture Tom Phillips calling "he just destroyed a 2x world champion" - who doesn't have a shred of value going forward. If they do something dumb like have Nakamura go 50/50 with Ziggler, I'll despair.

 

If they run a Smackdown tag division properly, they could have a something really special. Usos/Breezango/AA/New Day/Primo & Epico is a really solid base to run from, heck even the Ascension can have some use. They need to overhaul their presentation of AA though. Gable's goofy personality that helped get him over is nowhere to be seen, they're now just Team Angle cosplaying as the Steiners

[goc]

I don't look at the tag division on Smackdown as anything but a victim of not having enough time. Smackdown has been trying to keep nearly everyone on the roster involved in some kind of issue unlike Raw where a lot of guys just kind of float aimlessly (the way for example Sami Zayn often did on Raw) which has come at the expense of the tag division. I'm not sure how they can really fix that except doing a better job of cycling everything so maybe if the WWE Title feud gets a lot of time one week, the next week it only gets a little.

[Jimmy Redman]

It's a time thing but they've also, like, not really put any effort into giving them a storyline or something to fight over. Like, the Usos cut a cool heel promo or something, but there's no real storyline between them, and certainly not for any team below the title picture either.

 

They could do a 1 minute skit every week and it would help progress a feud better than whatever they're doing with them now.

 

Also, Jinder Mahal is the dirt fucking worst. And has been from the minute he debuted. One of those rare anomalies who works for WWE for years and somehow never improves or has any good matches.