With the Royal Rumble creeping closer and closer, SmackDown Live brought us a fairly eventful show. The announcement of the upcoming Elimination Chamber, as well as the return of Mickie James, were some of the more notable developments, and the wrestling wasn’t too bad either.
Three solid matches filled the show, including the main event Cage Match between Becky Lynch and Alexa Bliss. Overall, the blue brand is holding strong to its claim as the A show in WWE.
Now that I’ve gotten some praise out of the way, it’s time to move on to the other end of that spectrum. A few of the botches and outrageousness ahead include Miz being confused with the timeline of his and AJ Styles’ careers and a forgotten shopping spree between WWE’s oddest couple.
Also, JBL offered a botched run-in to aid Jerry Lawler that will likely become one of the biggest botches of the year. So without further delay, here are four of the biggest slip-ups of the night...
#4 JBL trips
Jerry “The King” Lawler brought his King’s Court to SmackDown Live, attempting to get the story regarding the recent dark choices Dolph Ziggler has made with his career. The in-ring interview segment devolved into a heated conversation, resulting in a superkick straight to the fragile heart of the WWE Hall of Famer.
Color commentator JBL was immediately concerned for his friend and frantically sprinted toward his aide.
Layfield was so concerned here that he completely tripped himself up as he left the announcer’s desk. He regained his composure and made it to his colleague’s side, but this won’t be a moment that’ll be quickly forgotten. Even after SmackDown returned from a commercial break, David Otunga remarked that John looked a little clumsy earlier.
#3 Randy bumbles into Dean
By the end of their time on SmackDown Live, the Wyatt Family was in full implosion mode. Luke Harper and Randy Orton can’t stop themselves from getting at each other’s throats, but Randy’s Tuesday night woes first began with Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose.
Not only did Randy lose this one-on-one matchup, he also was involved in this slight slip up coming off of an Irish Whip. He did complete the move that he intended when he grabbed Ambrose by the head and slammed him back-first into the mat, but Dean was much closer than Randy planned.
The Viper collided with Ambrose before he even found his footing again off of the ropes. He had to reach pretty far behind himself to get a hold of his opponent’s head. Hopefully, Randy can work out his frustration when he faces his Wyatt brother Luke next week in a singles contest.
#2 No Carmellsworth shopping spree
The above .gif actually didn’t happen on this week’s episode. This was from the January 10th edition of SmackDown Live when Carmella told James Ellsworth that she was going to take him on a shopping spree in one week. January 17th would’ve been one week later, yet there was no shopping update from anyone.
To be fair, very few people were probably upset that this segment didn’t happen but why bring it up in the first place, if there was never any plans to follow through on it? This would be one of those moments where it would benefit WWE to have a crack at a storyline continuity team.
#1 Miz’s timing is off
The Miz has had quite a career resurgence over the past year. It’s great that he can be in the same ring for an opening promo alongside WWE Champion AJ Styles and John Cena and not feel like the odd man out.
He’s been putting in a tonne of good work. Miz belonged here as he verbally took Styles to task, however, his memory seemed to fail him during this promo.
Miz simply wasn’t beating John Cena at WrestleMania while AJ was in Japan. Miz defeated John Cena at WrestleMania 27 while Styles’ NJPW run was during 2014 and 2016. Miz stated this as if they were happening at the same time but there were full three years between Miz’s win and Styles’ trek to Japan.
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