Occupy Smackdown – Smackdown Live Recap – 12/12/2017

Cincinnati, Ohio is the last stop on the Smackdown Road to Boston and the Clash of Champions PPV this Sunday night.  There are a lot of staples of a Go Home show.  Singles matches between both halves of pending tag team championship competitors.  One competitor in a match while their Sunday night opponent sits in on commentary, typically attacking during or immediately following the coming match.  Obvious winners for the PPV getting attacked and laid out on the TV broadcast to create the allure that Brock Lesnar isn’t going to win a few days later (ha, like we buy that crap).

Tonight’s episode of Smackdown really only gave us one of these.  Process of elimination takes the Brock scenario out of play because this is Smackdown, and the tag team match is now like 35 teams, so that one is a little hard to book in a two hour time slot.  Let’s get to the interference from commentary happy hour bonanza.

It’s finally One on One…..

AJ Styles kicks off the program, reminding us that he is the champ and that he’s looking forward to getting back in the ring with Jinder Mahal, a hungry competitor who is known to be willing to do anything to get the belt back from the Phenomenal One.  But AJ is excited, because Jinder won’t have help from his two minions during this match.

The Singh Brothers make their way out to agree with AJ, saying they would like to be in his corner for the match at Clash, but AJ is quick to point out that just the other day, per social media, the Singh brothers were right along side Jinder during the WWE’s tour of India and The Maharaja’s match with HHH.  As AJ continues to treat the Singh’s like idiots, Jinder comes to ringisde just in time to watch AJ take out his lackeys.

Later in the evening, AJ is doing a backstage interview when he’s attacked by the trio.  Jinder stands tall over the champion in the final moments we see of the pairing during the show going into their championship match on Sunday.  AJ will retain, and I think there’s a significant place for Jinder slightly back down the card while they move into a more interesting angle for AJ on the road to Wrestlemania.

Joining Us At Commentary:

• Dolph Ziggler def. Baron Corbin via DQ when Bobby Roode attacked from the commentary table: A Glorious DDT to Ziggler ended the match, and a Glorious DDT to Corbin left Roode standing with his two opponents for the United States Championship on Sunday laid out in the ring.
• Charlotte Flair def. Ruby Riott via DQ when Natalya attacked from the commentary table: A healed Naomi came to the rescue as Charlotte was on the receiving end from the Riott Squad.
•  They’re not in the excessively packed tag team championship match on Sunday, but they’ll finally have opponents that matter when they face Breezango.
• Speaking of Breezango, we got a short clip of The Fashion Files to set up that match, and to let us know that The Fashion Files have been moved to social media for the time being.  That’s sad.  I’m already watching USA four nights this week, now I’ve got to track down The Fashion Files?
• Rusev and Aiden English def. The Usos:  The New Day were on commentary with a giant platter of pancakes, for whatever reason, and American Alpha 2.0 were standing on the ramp watching the action.  They set us up for another interference ending, but this match actually got a conclusion, and Rusev celebrated Rusev Day following his victory.

Occupy Smackdown Movement

Mid-show, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn came out in their modified Daniel Bryan merch to push the Occupy Smackdown Movement against the tyranny of Shane McMahon.  Daniel Bryan basically called them stupid, but then let them know that in the interest of fairness, he will now be the second special guest referee in the match at Clash of Champions with their jobs on the line.  The semantics of how having two referees will work confounds the entire commentary team throughout the evening.

Later on, Kevin Owens takes on Shinsuke Nakamura in singles action (that other staple) with both partners at ringside and Daniel Bryan on commentary.  As the match got towards a conclusion, the referee would inadvertently be knocked out, and being the quality GM committed to fairness and ethics that he is, DB took the referee’s shirt and began officiating the match.  He took his time getting in to begin counting a Shinsuke pin attempt, which Byron thought was thoroughly biased.  A few minutes later, as Shinsuke was setting up for the Kinshasa, Sami climbed up on the apron and created enough of a distraction for Kevin Owens to hit a Pop-Up Powerbomb and get the win.

I don’t know what to make of it, but I’m going to count Daniel Bryan become the referee as interference from the commentary table.  It was a running theme of tonight’s episode.

Overall:

Aside from the repetition, not a terrible episode.  While the segments run way too long, I do think the Occupy Smackdown Movement being a callback to Daniel’s occupation of Raw was a nice touch in the progression towards the Shane-Bryan feud that we’re working towards.  Clash of Champions should be good.  The card is definitely crowded.