Well, when you announce that the second longest running weekly show on television was bringing back stars from the past, including Hall of Famer Edge, The Undertaker and other surprises from Smackdown history (which turned out to be King Booker), it is bound to be a good show.
It also helped that this show was the go-home prior to Survivor Series, coming this weekend. Smackdown has been delivering such winners week after week, that it almost seems like the babyface team when compared to Raw for when the teams square off this Sunday.
So of course, we enjoyed the 900th Smackdown episode this week. But there were some segments we did not care for and some mishaps that can honestly be avoided in the future. Here’s our Best and Worst countdown for this week.
Best: The invasion
Led by AJ Styles, the men of Smackdown had invaded Raw the night before in Buffalo, New York. This time it was the Raw women who interfered during the Nikki Bella vs Carmella match! The result was explosive, and Nikki Bella chipped a tooth in the process.
We admit that we marked out when Nia Jax went through the barricade. The sad part is that considering WWE’s booking philosophy, Smackdown Women standing tall at the end of today’s segment means that they will lose the big match at Survivor Series.
In any case, this makes more sense than the women of Smackdown fighting one another, as we will talk about now.
Worst: Stupid nonsensical booking
We thought Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan wanted their teams to get along and win! Instead, they chose to put two women who hate each other in a match against one another, right before Survivor Series.
We thought Natalya wasn’t chosen into the team for this very reason so that she could be the one to be wrestling TV matches. WWE makes less sense than Matt Hardy at times, and the difference between the two is that he’s the one playing a crazy character!
Best: Explosive title match at the start
This match was everything it promised to be, despite the many ad breaks. The champion babyface risked life and limb against the desperate cheating heel, The Miz in a truly explosive contest. The involvement of Maryse and The Spirit Squad just made the contest even more exciting.
The amount of heel heat that was generated because of Maryse’s involvement in the Ziggler loss was a masterstroke in itself.
While a Ziggler vs Zayn match would have been the best thing ever, hey... we’ll take this too. The idea of babyface vs babyface is not something WWE is ever really comfortable with anyway.
Mixed feelings: The segment with ‘The Undertaker’
When Edge’s music hit, and he started interviewing the Superstars of Smackdown Live for his segment, everything was going great. Then the Deadman's music hit, and we thought he was coming out to challenge one of these men to a match at Wrestlemania 33.
The entrance was perfect, the reaction was great, but the promo was... underwhelming? We honestly expected a little more from this segment. Nevertheless, The Undertaker did indicate that he’s back in a bigger role now, and one must wait to see what transpires in the coming weeks in our beloved blue brand as a result.
One of the reasons this segment felt rushed could be because of our following point.
Worst: Boring 16 man tag team yawn fest
This match wasn’t terrible per se, but it was the most boring thing on this show. We understand that WWE wanted a cool down segment before the explosive end, but this particular match really just went on for too long.
Even our beloved team American Alpha could not save this one. The one positive in this encounter is that at least, it seemed like a team building exercise, as they’d all teamed up against non-competitors in Sunday’s event.
Worst: Botcha Dragon and Botchee Young
The two talents we would never expect botches from made it to our ‘list’ today. Renee Young mispronounced ‘fantasy warfare’ and called it ‘fantasy warfeel’ (although she did correct herself soon after), whereas Kalisto’s springboard off the ropes would lead to a stumble and collapse.
We really hope that it was an off day for both these skilled performers and that Kalisto is not going down the Sin Cara route. We still love you both, because Talking Smack is our current favourite show, and 205 Live (hopefully with the inclusion of Kalisto) is certain to become a mark out show on the Network.
Best: You can look...
8/10 like today’s show.
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