What’s the story?
The latest episode of SmackDown Live wasn’t one of the best episodes that the blue brand have had since the brand extension. However, there were some interesting events that took place after the show went off the air.
News and reports have surfaced featuring Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura and Dolph Ziggler. It’s needless to say that the events that occurred after the latest episode of SmackDown were far more intriguing than the episode itself.
The Background
The matchups that took place on the blue brand looked great on paper but were extremely predictable, except for a few occurrences (Jinder Mahal stealing the title). The events that were built up for Tuesday night included a promo from Shinsuke Nakamura, a ‘No Disqualification’ match between Randy Orton and Eric Rowan and a SmackDown Women’s Championship title match between Naomi and Charlotte.
All of the aforementioned events were either lacklustre, ruined or predictable. Orton’s match was only a decent one and was mostly a build up to the ‘House of Horrors’ match scheduled for ‘Payback’ and the Women’s Championship match ended in the most predictable fashion, with the interference of the entire SmackDown Women's division.
The way the episode ended is what made the events that took place after they went off the air something to look forward to.
The heart of the matter
After the episode went off the air Baron Corbin settled a score with Sami Zayn on Talking Smack and Shinsuke Nakamura faced Dolph Ziggler in a ‘dark’ match after last night’s WWE 205 Live in Des Moines, Iowa.
The thrashing that Baron Corbin gave Sami Zayn was a result of Zayn bad mouthing the ‘Lone Wolf’ on the latest episode of ‘Talking Smack’. Zayn spoke about how he knew Corbin back in their NXT days and referred to him as someone who isn’t a ‘likeable’ character and was someone who was very similar to what Sami had to face in Braun Strowman back on RAW.
It was at this point that Corbin entered the set of ‘Talking Smack’ and proceeded to absolutely crush Sami Zayn. Corbin only stopped the beating when two officials entered and tried to calm the 6’6 monster down.
Another incident that occurred off the air and by far the more fascinating of the two events was Shinsuke Nakamura’s dark match against Dolph Ziggler after 205 Live. Nakamura defeated Ziggler with a crushing Kinshasa, which is likely to further fuel their rivalry.
However, it is interesting to note that Nakamura’s ‘Strong Style’ has yet to be seen in a TV match since coming to the main roster.
What’s next?
With the way things are proceeding currently on SmackDown Live, the blue brand should look to spice things up in future episodes if they have any hope of pulling ahead of RAW. The higher ups of the brand may look to finally push Shinsuke Nakamura onto the big stage on SmackDown.
SmackDown may even be looking to start a rivalry between Corbin and Zayn, which may add some of that spice that the brand is in dire need of. No matter what happens, a Corbin-Zayn rivalry should bring ratings SmackDown’s way.
Author’s take
The way things are developing on SmackDown over the past few weeks isn’t a good sign for the blue brand. ‘The Land of Opportunity’ is a moniker that most WWE fans will be hoping that the brand can live up to.
While the brand has given opportunities to many of their wrestlers such as Jinder Mahal and Mojo Rawley, they should really get their priorities right and start focusing on some of their more newly acquired and brighter talents like Shinsuke Nakamura and Sami Zayn.
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