Last week, SmackDown knocked our socks off with a truly phenomenal episode. Well, you cannot create magic every week, and as a result, SmackDown Live did slip in quality this week. However, it was still an eventful show. All the same, it won’t be remembered as one of the better SmackDown episodes a few months down the line.
Without further ado, let’s begin at the very start, in Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis with a packed crowd in attendance, and with Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan approaching the ring. Here's the best and worst of Smackdown Live.
#1 Worst: Repeating the obvious
Yes, Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan did get massive pops when they opened the show. However, they came into the ring and all they did was repeat what we already knew quite well. We’d only seen a million posts on social media and a hundred thousand promos for the same.
Due to the events that transpired over the past few weeks, Randy Orton would face AJ Styles and the winner would get Bray Wyatt at Wrestlemania's main event.
This entire segment added nothing of value, and just ended without any interruptions or interesting storyline twists. The time devoted to this could have been better utilised by giving American Alpha a segment (they weren’t on TV last week either) or even to even build Apollo Crews and move him onto his next programme.
It was just a colossal waste of everyone’s time.
#1 Best: Pay-per-view worthy main event for free
Randy Orton is the one big name from Smackdown that AJ Styles hadn’t faced in his explosive first year. While this match certainly wasn’t of the same calibre as his classics against John Cena, it was still a big ticket match and solid for what it eventually was.
We’re surprised that their first contest wasn’t on pay-per-view and was just given away on TV. Perhaps the best spot of the night was when Styles checked his Phenomenal Forearm so that he did not fly into an RKO.
It was quite obvious to long term fans of the product that Orton would eventually go to Wrestlemania to culminate his feud with Bray Wyatt, but this was a nice detour along the way. We look forward to the eventual Orton-Styles program when it does happen. It’ll be explosive.
#2 Worst: Massive botch from Ranallo
Curt Hawkins has not really made a big impression since his return on SmackDown. So much so, that the lead play-by-play announcer has even forgotten his first name. Like he had done once in the past, Ranallo referred to him as Chad Hawkins. Thankfully, the other announcers saved this fiasco by making light of this embarrassing botch.
We don't really know if this counts as a botch, but the Five Knuckle Shuffles (or is it Ten Knuckle Shuffle) from John Cena and Nikki Bella weren't coordinated. In fact, it seemed like Nikki had to wait a while before the two could deliver the move in perfect sync. It was a small detail, but awkward to watch.
#2 Best: The Corbin/Ambrose segment
Dean Ambrose and Baron Corbin have both been tearing it up with their segments. The whole feud has an Attitude Era hardcore style vibe to it, and the backstage brawl this week just added to the overall heat.
We hope that when these two men do eventually meet, presumably at Wrestlemania 33, that it’s a street fight or a no-holds-barred match. Ambrose will finally have an opponent who’s not ‘lazy’ like Lesnar was, and with a lot to prove, we're certain Corbin will bring his A-Game to the grandest stage of all.
#3 Worst: A joke of a mixed tag match
Coming off the promo last week, where The Miz and John Cena spat venom at one another, this was the wrong match to really do. From what seemed like a heated feud, John Cena and Nikki Bella went into this joke of a match and made us forget the seriousness of the original encounter.
While it was great to see the couple working in sync, we wish it had been against some real opponents who’d pose a challenge to them. At least Carmella has been booked as a real wrestler, and hence she saved this mixed tag match from being a total disaster.
#3 Best: Every woman for herself
On the surface, it was just another match.
However, if one were to look closely, there are a lot of little things that the women did that made it special. Notice how Becky never tagged in Natalya? Notice how Alexa scored the eventual pin even though Mickie James should have? Heading into Wrestlemania, this all-out, every woman for herself title match should be very interesting indeed.
While this show wasn’t the best, here's a woman who always looks the best, irrespective of how the show was. The co-host of Talking Smack: Renee Young.
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