In the aftermath of a decent show at TLC on Sunday, there were questions that the fans wanted answers to, going into SmackDown Live this Tuesday.
What consequences would James Ellsworth face, after he cost Dean Ambrose the WWE World Title? And what’s next for The Miz and Dolph Ziggler, after their final encounter on Sunday?
Also, with eight SmackDown episodes between now and their next pay-per-view, Royal Rumble, will this give the blue brand a chance to tell detailed stories or will the feuds be dragged out much too far?
We would have a much better idea of where things are heading after this week’s edition of SmackDown Live.
#1 AJ Styles injured
As had been rumoured over the last couple of days, AJ Styles was unable to compete this week due to a minor ankle injury. Therefore the scheduled WWE World Championship match between AJ and James Ellsworth did not take place on this week’s SmackDown Live.
Styles opened this week’s show and appeared wearing a medical boot, before making the announcement that he was medically cleared to compete and would have to postpone his Title match. This lead to Ellsworth coming out to confront the Champ.
#2 Delusional Ellsworth
Although I have grown tired of seeing James Ellsworth play a significant role in SmackDown’s top feud over the last few weeks, his recent character development has been quite entertaining.
As seen on the post-TLC edition of ‘Talking Smack’ and the opening segment of this Tuesday’s show, Ellsworth is now portraying a more delusional and over-confident persona, who genuinely believes he has AJ Styles’ number.
To be fair to Ellsworth, his performances haven’t been the problem, and it’s more the booking of his character that drew the ire of some fans. Obviously, he still has a Championship opportunity in the near future, but when he eventually transitions away from the title picture, he could potentially be much more interesting to watch.
#3 The Wyatts retain
Former Tag Team Champions, Heath Slater & Rhyno, decided to exercise their right to an immediate rematch against Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton, after losing the title to them on Sunday.
Orton & Wyatt retained their newly won Tag Team Championships and did so by debuting a new tandem finisher. Bray would hold Heath Slater in the ‘Sister Abigail’ position before throwing him to Randy Orton, who hit his ‘RKO’ finisher on him for the win.
What’s next for the Wyatt Family after this victory? Is there any team in the SmackDown Live tag team division that can be considered as a genuine threat to them?
#4 Carmella continues to stir the pot
Carmella once again denied any involvement in the attack on Nikki Bella at Survivor Series a few weeks ago and continued to point the finger at Natalya. While I have no genuine interest in this storyline currently, Carmella continues to impress me, as she grows in confidence as a performer both in the ring and on the microphone.
Although it appears that Carmella will be involved in this tedious ‘Who done it?’ storyline, for the next few weeks, do you guys think that she will be ready to have a more significant role in the Women’s division in the near future?
#5 Miz presents Ambrose with a ‘Participation Award'
Dean Ambrose was the guest on this week’s edition of Miz TV, and he was asked for his thoughts on the ending of his TLC match from this Sunday.
Strangely, Ambrose claimed he wasn’t angry, although he did seem impatient with The Miz’s line of questioning and was clearly unimpressed when the latter presented him with a patronising ‘Participation Award’ for his efforts at TLC.
Just as things were beginning to get heated between Ambrose and Miz, SmackDown Live General Manager, Daniel Bryan, interrupted proceedings and announced that the two men would face each other in this week’s main event for the Intercontinental Championship.
Could Dean Ambrose make up for Sunday’s big loss by defeating Miz for the Title?
#6 Corbin defeats Kalisto again
In a rematch from Sunday’s TLC pay-per-view, Baron Corbin would once again pick up the victory over Kalisto.
While their ‘chairs’ match at TLC was very good and exceeded many people’s expectations, their match on this week’s SmackDown Live was very underwhelming and felt completely pointless. I hope that this doesn’t take away too much momentum from both men who worked hard to get people talking about them on Sunday.
I would much rather have seen both men, particularly Corbin, go on to new feuds on this edition of Smackdown. Instead, it felt as they were treading water this week until something else comes along.
#7 Who the hell is Sophia Grace?
Who on Earth is Sophia Grace and why was she on WWE television?
I genuinely thought this was a WWE ‘Make-A-Wish’ segment when I saw Nikki Bella talking to this 13-year-old girl, but apparently, she’s a pop singer and was plugging a new single, which features some of WWE’s female stars including Naomi and Lana. Frankly, that just sounds terrible.
Maybe I’m out of touch with pop culture things and maybe this Sophia Grace is somewhat of a big deal, but I couldn’t care less about her new single, let’s move on and hope she doesn’t appear on WWE television again.
#8 Gable beats Breeze
After American Alpha was issued with tickets by SmackDown’s resident fashion police, Breezango, earlier in the night, Chad Gable would face Tyler Breeze in a match. Gable got the victory in this match by executing an ‘O’Connor roll’ into a bridging-German suplex for the pinfall.
I like both these tag teams, but they need to start being booked more seriously, particularly American Alpha, especially if they are to be seen as a genuine threat to The Wyatts’ tag team titles.
#9 “This b**** is running the Women’s division”
Alexa Bliss had a ‘celebration party’ on this week’s SmackDown Live, after winning her first Women’s Championship this past Sunday at TLC.
I couldn’t help but feel that this segment could have been so much more, it felt rushed, which may have been due to time constraints, and only made Bliss’ title victory seem fairly minor, instead of the big deal that it could have been.
Bliss saying, “this b**** is running the Women’s division”, in response to Becky Lynch calling her a ‘b****’ last week, was the highlight of this segment; but overall it was fairly pointless and has slowed down the momentum that Bliss had, coming out of TLC.
#10 Ellsworth costs Ambrose again
As mentioned previously, The Miz defended his Intercontinental Championship against Dean Ambrose in this week’s main event.
James Ellsworth would once again get involved in the main event and inadvertently distract Ambrose, which gave The Miz the chance to hit his ‘skull-crushing finale’ finishing move for the win, which means that Ellsworth has screwed Ambrose out of two Championship matches in three days.
I know I said that Ellsworth’s recent character development has been entertaining, but I am still sick of seeing him getting involved in every main event match. The sooner he stops being the deciding factor in SmackDown’s top feuds, the better the show as a whole will be.
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