SmackDown Live continues WWE’s current invasion of the O2 Arena. It felt like a couple of steps up compared to the previous night’s Raw in front of the same English crowd. There was a main event 6-man tag match that was a standout, as well as some more funny stuff from the Fashion Police.
The Women’s division also took shape, while two former Wyatt family members turned their sights toward each other. There were plenty of good takeaways from this Tuesday night of wrestling. While this wasn’t a bad effort by any means, there were still the usual handful of moments that WWE probably wishes they could have another try at.
A few of those unwanted highlights include a false graphic for the United States Champion, a promo flub by the Number One Contender to the WWE Championship and a bloody nose in the main event for the Underdog from the Underground.
Sami Zayn especially felt that last botch. Five of the botchiest and sometimes outrageous moments follow, so continue on to see the all of the fun:
#5 SmackDown what?
We’ll kick off the botches by pointing out that the show is called SmackDown Live. It was simply called SmackDown in the past, but midway through 2016 Vince McMahon and company moved it to Tuesday nights and began airing it live.
Due to this episode being pre-recorded in London’s O2 Arena earlier in the day because of time zone differentials, SmackDown Live did not air live on this night.
It aired on taped delay. Raw also aired on a delay the day before even though it’s typically a live broadcast. Since the title of the show doesn’t blatantly use the word “live”, it avoided scrutinization.
This is probably a case of picking off the low hanging fruit, so we’ll move on to some of the more substantial items...
#4 It wasn’t edited out
The slow build to Shinsuke Nakamura’s first ever SmackDown Live match against Dolph Ziggler continues. The two Superstars got a little physical inside the ring, but before all of that went down, Dolph talked about how he wasn’t appreciated.
He contrasted how the crowd treated him to how the crowd fawns over Nakamura, who is yet to even wrestle on the blue brand.
However, the way he worded all of this made it sound like he was saying that Nakamura had never wrestled in WWE at all up to that point. London was quick to correct him on that issue. Dolph, like the good heel that he is, rained on their parade and told them that their smarky “NXT” chants will all be edited out. For some reason, they never were.
Was this a botch on the part of those working in post-production or did somebody decide that a comment cutting at the crowd fit Dolph’s character? Either way, Dolph was not expecting these moments to air.
Also, the fan sign in this highlight misspelled Shinsuke Nakamura’s name. They left the “m” off – which is a bonus fan botch.
#3 Take vs. took
Going back to the opening promo, Jinder Mahal wanted to make something very clear to the WWE Champion. He told Randy Orton that he didn’t take anything, but then quickly corrected himself to say the word “steal” instead. Whoops.
Accidentally saying the word “take” first made Jinder’s emphatic point that he “took” the title instead fall a little flat. After all, one word is simply the past tense of the other, meaning that they’re literally the exact same word.
#2 An untrue graphic
Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens have traded the United States Championship back and forth a few times over the past couple of months. The most recent title change happened a week ago when Y2J defended his newly-won belt right before going on a Fozzy break.
One title switch that definitely did not happen was an Owens win over Jericho at Backlash. We know for a fact that it didn’t happen at that show because that show hasn’t happened yet. Yes, the graphics guys at WWE fudged the text on the right side of the screen.
Unless both competitors are time travelers and have been playing around with the space/time/wrestling continuum, then this is a production botch.
#1 Bloody-nosed Sami
SmackDown Live was main evented by a big 6-man tag match between the babyface team of AJ Styles, Randy Orton, and Sami Zayn against the heel team of Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens, and Baron Corbin. If you noticed Zayn’s nose late in this match, then you saw that it stayed bloody.
After reviewing the match a few times, it appears that it happened because of his arch nemesis.
Jinder Mahal tagged in the United States Champion and held Zayn against the corner. Kevin was gifted a few moments to strike Zayn the #1 Contender but got a tad too snug with his right knee. Owens wasn’t even going for a knee strike, he simply caught Zayn’s face by accident while throwing some kicks.
It’s unfortunate that Sami got a bloody nose but it was a relatively minor injury. It ain’t ballet, after all.
Sami’s nose looked pretty painful off that botch but did you notice any others? Let us know about them in the comments below. Also, if you see any future Raw or SmackDown botches, let the author know during the show by sending them to Mitch on Twitter @MitchNickelson!
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