We Tricked You Into Watching Smackdown – A Recap

Tonight, we come to you from Toledo, Ohio.  And by we, I mean the WWE, not me.  Why would I go to Toledo?  -Pause for the cheap heat-

As always, this is in no particular order, just what I felt like commenting on.

Wasting More Time

It’s clear with the Brock announcement, that WWE knows how irrelevant the last couple of weeks of Smackdown are.  They made sure to not even do it during the Canadian or UK broadcasts (which happen on Wednesday).  They kept it a complete surprise.  If you checked out Matt’s post, Asking the tough questions, you know by now that The Beast will be facing The Viper.  Here’s hoping that we get an F5 to RKO.  Of course, Randy might be lacking a dance partner if Brock goes down in his fight against Mark Hunt.  We’ll examine that on our podcast on Sunday!

Ryder or Rusev push?

That’s my biggest question after last night’s broadcast.  Ryder came out and soundly defeated Sheamus via the ElBro Drop.  It wasn’t a squash, Sheamus dropped Ryder on the apron for a rather nasty bump.  But yeah, Sheamus didn’t get a lot in.

Supposedly Ryder had different music but it just sounded a little tweaked to me.

I feel Sheamus is at a point where he’s the heel equivalent of Dolph Ziggler.  He’s a solid worker who seems to be the heel gatekeeper for New Era and low carders to enter the mid-card.  I don’t really know how I feel about that really.  It’s a strange spot to be in for a guy who was World Champion just 7 Months ago.  It’s a far drop in the card for him.

After the match, Ryder gave a breathless interview to Tom Phillips on the ramp where he openly challenged Rusev for the U.S. Championship.

Rusev is not impressed.  He accepts Ryder’s challenge and will defend the title on Monday.

Is Ryder getting a real push here?  Is this another low carder to feed to re-monstrify Rusev?  Also is “re-monstrify” even a real word?  We will find out on Monday.  But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s some sort of schmoz finish leading to a US Title Match at Battleground.

Bizarre Beginnings

We kind of had sort of the same openings as we did last week, short pre-recorded setups to matches later in the evening.  Classic WWE.  We got The Club standing around, a bizarre one from Jericho, another from Sami Zayn (where he seemed to pause for cheers that didn’t happen), and finally we follow Seth into the arena where he bumps into Jey.  He calls Roman a cheater and hurls a bunch of insults Jey’s way, setting up a match to start off the show.

Jey Uso Vs. Seth Rollins

Dean interrupts Jo Jo and decides he wants to be the next Howard Finkel.  He’s the special guest announcer for tonight’s opening match with Seth.

Dean interrupted several times during the match for various announcements (a truck is parked in the fire lane, check out the souvenir stand, etc.).  I thought it was flat, not great, not bad.  Matt mentioned that he hated it.  My only problem is that Dean walks the fine line between legitimate threat and comedy act.  Perhaps because he wasn’t in a match himself is why it felt out of balance.

I’m upset that this match was decent, mainly because I’m in a fantasy WWE league and got stuck with the other Uso for last night’s show.  I got zero dimes points.  Jey actually put on a good match with Seth.  Check out the highlights here:

Enzo Vs. AJ Styles

After verbally sparring with the Club.  A one-on-one match is made between Enzo and AJ.  Enzo’s ring work was a little off tonight.  Or perhaps he was in the ring with someone on a way higher level than him.  I don’t know.  It could have also been because all three members of the club seemed unable to catch Enzo for his dive out of the ring.  Perhaps he was rattled after that.

Gallows and Anderson inevitably started causing trouble once Enzo had AJ down and Cass took care of business.  He handily took down Anderson but both Cass and Gallows put each other out with a Double Big Boot.  AJ knocked Enzo off the top straight into the setup for the Styles Clash.  A cool finish to a bit of a mess of a match.

The Canadians

O Canada!  As setup in the beginning of the show, we have Jericho Vs. Zayn for the main event.  Of course, Owens has to be on commentary.

It was a decent match with some good zingers with Owens on commentary.  Most of the zingers toward Saxton, of course.  Zayn gets Jericho with a roll-up.

There was something a little off on this match for me.  It’s not a bad match by any means, I just think the psychology was off a bit.  A great Helluva Kick to Owens though to advance that 10-year storyline towards Battleground.

The real question is what’s Jericho’s ultimate goal here?  Is he being booked to just keep Zayn and Owens separate? I have a feeling that he might cause some kind of problem or issue to give the WWE an excuse to continue the feud.  I hope I’m wrong but apparently Jericho isn’t going anywhere for the rest of the year.

Everything Else

• Who’s the boss?  Sasha calls Charlotte Tony Danza backstage.  Thank you Sasha for an excellent Gif opportunity.
  
  Not to be outdone with an 80’s reference, Charlotte calls Sasha the Taco Bell Chihuahua.  So yeah, not the best interview/promo.  Try again next week Creative.
  .
• A bunch of low carders, including Dolph (sigh), are watching the food fight footage from Monday.  Miz arrives with Maryse demanding to know who threw potato salad on his wife.
  

  “There’s no women in the men’s locker room” – DZ
  “Maryse can go where she wants.” – Miz
  “I wasn’t talking about her.”

  Kalisto takes the blame and accepts a match to put the issue to bed.  After Miz dodges a springboard corkscrew and puts a Skull Crushing Finale on Kalisto.  Solid match but nothing crazy.

• Becky is ambushed by Natalya on the way to the ring, put into a Sharpshooter on the floor.
• Dana Brooke will be fighting Sasha Banks on Monday.
• Jerry “The King” Lawler is back after being suspended while his domestic violence case was being investigated.  I’m surprised to see him back so soon.  I wonder how this recent trouble will impact his job going into the draft.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s replaced with Corey Graves on Smackdown.  I’d rather have King than JBL though.  So there’s that.
• Kevin Owens stole Jericho’s scarf and was found wearing it backstage.  Jericho demanded money for dry cleaning.
• They played some clips from Xavier’s WWE.com interview about the Wyatt compound fight.

One More Episode

Only one more episode before Smackdown goes Live.  Will next week’s episode be worth watching?  Eh.  Probably not.