Tuesday Night’s Alright for Fighting – Smackdown & 205 Live – October 24, 2017

Milwaukee plays host to The House That AJ Styles Built this week, as the superstars of Smackdown Live are fresh off their “siege” of Monday Night Raw.  Senators stay longer during a filibuster than the Smackdown crew did in their siege, but they definitely sent a message.  Let’s see what our Tuesday night holds.

Here Comes The Money

The formula for an episode of Smackdown is pretty simple.  If they announce that Shane will be there, you can just about guarantee that Shane will open the show so that he can put people in matches they don’t like.  I’m cool with it.  But this time he’s here to do that and to address the Hell in a Cell controversy and Sami Zayn in particular.

Speaking of Zayn, he interrupts the Commissioner during his walk down the events of Monday Night, when the Smackdown roster walked into Kurt Angle’s house and sent a message to the Raw locker room that they aren’t scared of the “flagship brand”.  Zayn was hoping to smooth things over, offering up “no hard feelings” to a disinterested Shane O.  Sami then offered the services of himself and Kevin Owens to helm the Smackdown team at Survivor Series, which Shane still had no real interest in, but given that it is The Land of Opportunity, Sami could earn his spot by defeating an opponent tonight…..and that opponent would be The Viper, Randy Orton, who Sami hit with a low blow just a week ago and is out for revenge.

Later: Sami and Kevin Owens in the back discuss team Sami and Kevin, as Owens has been granted his opportunity to earn a spot next week in a match against Shinsuke Nakamura.

Later: Sami would take on Randy Orton, and as Orton was gearing up for the RKO, Kevin Owens ran to the ring for a distraction.  It wouldn’t work, and Orton methodically landed a brutal RKO right in front of Owens to pick up the pinfall and become the first official member of team Smackdown.

The Rest of The Show

• Fatal Five Way for Smackdown Women’s Team Captain: Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Naomi, Tamina and Carmella face off to determine who will lead the team against team Raw at Survivor Series.  It was fine, but not given enough time to really let each woman shine.  In the end, Becky Lynch locks the Dis-Arm-Her on Carmella to become the team captain.
• Tag Team Action: In an effort to build up Benjamin and Gable, they were booked to square off with The New Day (getting Big E and Xavier) with the Usos at ringside to watch the action.  It wasn’t a terrible match, I still just find Shelton Benjamin boring as f***.  Gable and Benjamin pick up the win.
• The Fashion Files – Fashion Dogs: Breezango and The Ascension go for another Tarantino spoof with this week’s Fashion Files.  They’re still no closer to knowing any answers, about anything, but we found out that James Ellsworth has been keeping his sh** stained underwear inside Carmella’s Money in the Bank briefcase.  Next week, they’ll take on the popular Netflix series Stranger Things (convenient with the show returning this week) with The Fashion Files – Strangerer Things.
• Because we have to fill several weeks before getting to any story consistency beyond Survivor Series: The Singh Brothers completely rip off Paul Heyman for their intro of Jinder, who then starts trash talking anybody with a pulse.  At one point, he refers to Heyman as a human walrus, which seemed like body shaming, but he was just under fire for being racist so I don’t suppose this is going to get much attention.  AJ Styles comes to the ring for a match….with whichever one of the Singh Brothers it was, and wins in about 45 seconds with the Calf Crusher.  Next week, he will take on the other Singh.  It feels like he’s stuck in a loop with Ellsworth again, which is a waste of his talents.
• Baron Corbin did Baron Corbin things: Baron Corbin had another match with Sin Cara, losing the contest by DQ for refusing to break in the corner and beating his opponent to what appeared to be unconsciousness.
• A disconnect between Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon about Shane’s decision to pull his roster and take them to invade Raw.  DB fears the retaliation, Shane doesn’t care because he fired the shot across the bow and got all the way through Smackdown unscathed.

Decent show.  Aside from invasions between the brands, I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of continuity or anything for a while, just decent “qualifier matches” such as next week’s 2 out of 3 falls affair between The Glorious Bobby Roode and Dolph Ziggler.  While I’m pulling Roode, remember Ziggler is quite renowned for his Survivor Series match performances.

No, I have no explanation for the Elton John gifs, but since our Raw recap found itself flush with Steven Seagal, I felt like going an inexplicably different direction.

The most exciting hour on television features Kalisto’s contractual rematch opportunity, Swann & Alexander in tag action again, and hopefully Drew Gulak’s Powerpoint Presentation.

And Still…..

This match was pretty impressive.  Kalisto did Lucha things, Enzo played the part that he has perfected in 30 years of existence because this is not a character or a role, this is who Eric Arndt actually is.  He gets better every week in the ring, working with quality competition tends to do that to you, and even without his voice he manages to work promos, this week through his right hand man Ariya Daivari.  But seriously, holy sh**:

You NEVER want to find yourself on the ring apron with @KalistoWWE! @real1 #205Live pic.twitter.com/HqtgYwL2JQ

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) October 25, 2017

There’s no way they could have known how the situation with Neville was going to go, but they should thank their lucky stars that the needed to find somewhere to put Enzo so he could keep selling merch, because he’s exactly the thing that the division was going to need in lieu of the King of the Cruiserweights.  Want to know how he won this match?  He kicked the referee into the ropes to knock Kalisto off the top.  What a rat.  I love it.  Kalisto gets the win via DQ, Enzo retains, Kalisto beats the champion down on the ramp to close the show.

The Other Stuff:

• Rich Swann and Cedric Alexander defeated Noam Dar and Tony Nese’s Abs: Putting him with Swann has done wonders for my interest in Alexander.  They work incredibly well together and Swann has enough charisma for an entire faction of partners.  Following the match, Gallagher and Kendrick came to the top of the ramp and said they wanted Alexander to join them, because he’ll go a lot farther with them than he ever will with Swann.  Some part of me worries that it is all a trap and Swann is going to turn on him, because everybody that gets close to Alexander on this show turns on him.
• #POWERPOINTFOREVER: Drew Gulak’s frustration is mounting, particularly with his presentation getting cut for time on Sunday night.  He is determined to start at the beginning and claims he’s doing a sit in until he’s had the opportunity to go through his entire production.  He’s interrupted by Gran Metalik, who defeats Gulak in a single’s match.  Gulak attacks after the loss, drawing Akira Tozawa to the rescue.  AH AH AH AH AH AH AH.
  • I absolutely love Drew Gulak right now.  He sells this stuff like he wholeheartedly believes it.  He’s also a wildly talented ring technician.

205 Live is still great.  Sorry I’ve been slacking of late, but the work that pays the bills needed my attention.