Week after week, SmackDown Live proves that Tuesday is the home of the best night of professional wrestling.
This edition of the blue brand brought several fun matches and segments including the Intercontinental Championship win by Dean Ambrose, Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler, and a WWE Championship contract signing for the Royal Rumble that the crowd was extremely vocal about.
Even the silly stuff like the La Luchadoras and Carmellsworth were all fun. SmackDown is a hot product now that can do no wrong. Perhaps “do no wrong” is is a little bit of an exaggeration because there were at least a few mistakes from the night.
Examples include a relatively new interviewer who couldn’t keep her words straight while chatting with the Lunatic Fringe, Becky Lynch’s entrance and the lack of a few vital parts, and the punch that Miz threw that was so off that JBL pointed it out. These moments and more are proof that even the best in wrestling can have some minor hiccups in its delivery.
Kicking off this list is not so much a botch or a slip-up, but rather another entry in the recently outrageous attacks on certain members of the WWE Universe...
#5 Be nice to Izzy!
On Monday, WWE moved Sign Guy on Raw because he was dressed up as Hulk Hogan and was visible on camera. He wasn’t really doing anything wrong, but his presence alone was enough to get booted to a seat off screen. Continuing this persecution against popular wrestling superfans, it seems that even the crowd is now joining in.
Visible in the background of the AJ Styles/John Cena contract signing was a fan poster that very blatantly accused Bayley’s most famous little buddy of being a “plant.”
Obviously, Izzy isn’t being accused of needing fertile soil and plenty of sunlight for her to photosynthesize. Instead, the claim here is that maybe her love for the popular women’s wrestler is more of an act. Personally, the young girl’s affection for Bayley seems pretty genuine but I guess it’s possible that she’s set up by Vince to be nothing more than a prop.
#4 Missing Some Steam
Becky Lynch made her way into the ring and several of the sprayers on stage left, failed to spout some of the steam that usually accompanies her entrance. This wasn’t a terribly shocking ordeal that set Lynch back any but it was a technical difficulty that was noticeable enough.
What is more shocking is that not only did Becky Lynch’s masked opponent turn out to be the SmackDown Women’s Champion, Alexa Bliss, but there was also a second La Luchadora involved in a post-match attack. If they keep adding women to this masked crew, WWE might be able to make an entire Survivor Series team of these La Luchadoras.
#3 Now in first person view
The contract signing between A.J. Styles and John Cena for their upcoming WWE Championship Match at the Royal Rumble was getting heated enough, but then Baron Corbin came out to kick things up a notch. John Cena removed his shirt, flipped a table, but then failed to keep his eyes on Styles as he got kicked in the back of the head.
Evidently, the chaos of the moment was so out of control that the individual who was operating the camera in the ring scrambled for his own safety. In the process, his hand briefly appeared on the screen. Look at the lower left portion of the above .gif to see these frightened fingers.
Maybe some of the gamer wrestlers on the roster can introduce Vince to first person shooter games and he can run with this one?
#2 Miz missed Dean
“He was going for a punch – looked like he barely grazed him!”
That was the line that JBL uttered right after this right-handed swing by The Miz. The camera position was on the perfect side and the cutaway happened at exactly the right moment to cover up whatever space Miz might’ve had between his fist and Dean Ambrose’s head, but John called him out on the flub anyways.
This would’ve been a way harder mistake to notice had John not pointed it out.
#1 Mindset?!
Just before the Intercontinental Championship main event began on SmackDown, this backstage interviewer stopped Dean Ambrose briefly to ask him about his head space going into this match. Sadly for her, she slipped up a few times as she tried to speak.
Dean Ambrose used some aggression in his response to keep the conversation from derailing, proof that maybe he really was in the perfect mindset to defeat The Miz on this night. Ambrose would later capture the Intercontinental strap, his second time winning it.
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