Tuesday Night Styles – Smackdown Live Recap 4/18/2017

Smackdown is Live from the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.  You know John Schnatter is in the building somewhere, probably being held up by his bros.  I really expected him to help Mojo Rawley beat Jinder Mahal tonight, but that’s a no go.

Better Pizza, Better Ingredients, Guaranteed.

Also, in spite of being in the KFC Arena, there were no Georgia Gold ads.  That’s just odd, so here’s a KFC Ad.

Ok, less an Ad and more just a creepy laughing Colonel Sanders.

Let’s Open The Show….

We kick off with the Queen who feels like she should already be in line to win the Smackdown Women’s Championship.  She’s not wrong.  Charlotte is ridiculously athletic, and quite frankly, I’m incredibly intimidated by her.  Naomi comes out to sort of accept the challenge/establish dominance, at which point “Here Comes The Money” brings out Shane O’Mac to do the standard WWE booking, which means that Charlotte has to face Naomi in a non-title match, so that when she undoubtedly wins, the exact same match will happen again but with a belt on the line.  (Spoiler:  If Charlotte then takes the belt, the match happens again, and again, and again…..see Charlotte V Sasha feud).

This will happen later in the show, but you get a backstage segment shortly after this opening with Natalya, Tamina and Carmella telling Shane that he can’t let Charlotte skip the line. He’s going to do it anyway, but they hint at the possibility they might take matters into their own hands and perhaps jump Charlotte.  It doesn’t happen, but Charlotte does get her match with Naomi.

Charlotte defeats Naomi incredibly clean with Natural Selection.  This was a solid match.  At one point Naomi hit this weird rolling reversal stunner move that I wish I could find a clip of it.  It was awesome.  Charlotte put on a clinic, which is becoming more and more common unless she’s in the ring getting Botchamania’d by Nia Jax.

6 Pack Challenge Gets Weird

It might not actually be weird to some people, especially if you’ve been paying any attention to the absolutely weird push that Jinder Mahal is getting.  Maybe someone listened to that Triple H interview on ESPN about wanting just absolute diversity and decided to run with it.  Jinder Mahal defeated Mojo Rawley, Luke Harper, Sami Zayn, Erick Rowan and Dolph Ziggler to become the number one contender when the Bollywood Boyz held Zayn’s feet preventing him from hitting the Helluvakick.

Following the win, Jinder is met in the ring by Randy Orton….this is where it gets weird.  Randy Orton informs Jinder that he didn’t earn himself anything but an RKO, then he turns and completely disregards Mahal is still standing in the ring while he cuts an anti-Bray Wyatt promo that gets interrupted by Bray Wyatt from his fog filled closet on the campus of Ohio State University (I won’t digress too much, but good God I hate Ohio State).

Other Stuff That Wasn’t The Main Event:

• The Shining Stars are now going by The Colon’s, and apparently WWE is souring on American Alpha as they had to eat a loss to the Puerto Rican Tourism Board.
• Promo videos for:  Shinsuke Nakamura, Stripper Lana, New Day and Tye Dillinger got to introduce his own in a backstage segment with Dasha.  Seriously though, what’s the deal with Flashdance Lana?  Is she going to lose the Russian accent and start talking like she’s from Gainesville like she does on Total Divas?  If nothing else, this is the most interested I’ve been in Lana since the Enzo stuff.
• Kevin Owens, who now comes to the ring walking over a giant digital print of his face and would like to be referred to as The Face of America (North America, I suppose), squashed a local talent from the Louisville area.

AJ Styles Defends His House

AJ is interrupted during a backstage interview with Renee by Baron Corbin, who didn’t win last week, but doesn’t consider himself having lost since he didn’t eat the pin in the Triple Threat Number One Contenders Match.

AJ, being the upstanding competitor that he is, would be more than happy to show him how Phenomenal he is yet again this week.

Styles owns the first 15 minutes of this match, with Kevin Owens still on commentary from his squash victory just prior.  Corbin gets a little momentum in the final few minutes, but come on, it’s AJ Styles.  I think AJ Styles could win every match for the next decade and nobody would even consider booing him even with the Superman push.  Baron Corbin wouldn’t have to take an actual loss though, as AJ Styles hits a Phenomenal Forearm off the apron knocking Corbin over the barricade and sliding back in to beat the count and get the victory by count out.  So yeah, AJ Styles wins by count out.

Not a bad show.  It felt like there was a lot in that first hour, then the majority of the second half was the Women’s match and AJ-Corbin.  I’m ok with this sort of show.  The six-pack challenge was a damn good 6-man match, even if it had a weird ending follow up by both a reverse racist promo and then Randy Orton just sort of half ignoring his number one contender to cut a promo on someone else.  Smackdown maintains a level of consistency where even when they’re not really on it one week, it’s still not a bad show.  This women’s division desperately needed the surge that Charlotte brings to the table, so I’m really excited to see them work this women’s division more now, and when they get past the cross-branded matches at Payback and can start to work Nak, Dillinger, etc. into some programs with KO, Styles, etc., Smackdown is going to be smooth sailing through Summerslam.

See you tomorrow as I recap the other two hours of WWE television for the week, NXT and 205 Live.  Now quit reading this and go watch 205 Live.