Good morning, good afternoon and good evening and welcome back to the latest article of the 10 ‘Things you might have missed out’ series. As you may or may not already know we here at Sportskeeda were in Orlando, Florida throughout WrestleMania week and as such, we attended all of the main shows.
Some were good, some weren't so good and some were great - but one way or another they got fans talking.
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In this entry, we'll be discussing the SmackDown Live after WrestleMania 33, which served as a curtain call for the week-long festivities in Orlando. It was the first time that the blue brand had the spotlight on them in a post-‘Mania setting for quite a few years, with the re-introduction of the brand split giving them the chance to get one over on their Raw counterparts.
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Unfortunately, they didn't really succeed, but we did still get a string of fun moments that made the whole show feel more than worthy of signing off a really entertaining week. Sure, we didn't really get any definitive closure from The Undertaker as we were expecting, but then again who's to say he won't end up coming back for one more ride next year?
With that being said, here are 10 observations from attending the SD Live after Mania.
#1 Jumping the gun
Everyone in attendance for the episode of SmackDown Live after WrestleMania wanted to see Tye Dillinger, also known as the Perfect 10, debut on the show. We weren't entirely sure whether it would happen as an extended run down in NXT would've seemed equally likely, meaning that it was a nice little surprise once he eventually made an appearance on the blue brand.
Unfortunately, the execution wasn't great as they seemed to jump the gun when it came to actually bringing Tye out. First of all, Curt Hawkins' line about giving his competitor until the count of ten didn't really come across that well as the fans were chanting so loudly, and second of all Tye's tron is quite quiet so by ramping up the excitement we weren't really able to take it in until he was virtually out on the stage.
From one debutant to another.
#2 Nakamura confusion
In the same way that fans were anticipating the arrival of Finn Balor, pretty much everyone was awaiting the appearance of Shinsuke Nakamura on the main roster over WrestleMania weekend. As you all know by now, their wishes were granted as the King of Strong Style made quite the impact by coming out alongside a violinist who played him to the ring.
Unfortunately, the whole thing seemed a little bit odd from the get go as it originally seemed like he was trying to call out The Miz - only for The Awesome One to retreat to the back. Then, Dolph Ziggler came out and challenged Nakamura to a match in the main event of the show only for us to then learn that the bout was going to be a dark match. Weird.
Mr McIntosh, take a bow.
#3 The true hero
You're probably curious as to why we have a random "Inside The Ropes" logo as the image for this entry. Essentially, ITR is a company that brings both former and current Superstars over to the United Kingdom for Q&A events throughout the country.
It also happens to be run by Kenny McIntosh who, if you aren't already aware, is a hero among men.
Why? Because he single-handedly put a stop to the Beach Ball Mania. Yup, that's right - with a parade of beach balls flying around the Amway Center, it was Kenny who took it upon himself to pop as many as he could to shift the focus back over to the in-ring product. Is it a bird, is it a plane, no - it's Kenny. Not all heroes wear capes.
How long have we got left?
#4 Out of energy
WrestleMania week is a long old haul, starting off with independent events on Thursday onwards with the Hall of Fame, NXT: Takeover, Axxess, ‘Mania itself and then Raw and SmackDown Live to finish off the festivities.
Naturally, that's a pretty tiring schedule and it seemed as if the fans in attendance were starting to feel the effects of this marathon period of professional wrestling.
During some of the matches there just wasn't the same kind of enthusiasm that we'd seen on the likes of Raw and NXT, which may be one of the reasons why SD Live fell a little bit short in terms of quality by comparison to its red brand alternative.
Still, the crowd gave it their best shot and the fact that they were still better than 90% of the audiences all year round is a testament to their dedication.
#5 Tempting the crowd
When the aforementioned confrontation between Nakamura and Ziggler took place, it soon became evident that the company was going to save the bout until the very end of the show. That wasn't seen as a problem by many until, of course - the fans realised that WWE had put 205 Live on before the Nakamura match to entice people into staying as opposed to beating the traffic.
It was a clever marketing tool by the WWE as they knew that a lot of fans were dying to see Nakamura's actual in-ring debut on the main roster. The match wasn't all too great, but the visual alone of seeing Shinsuke in a SmackDown Live ring was enough to warrant staying the extra hour or so.
Oh, and the beach balls came out again because wrestling fans hate fun.
Let the good times roll..
#6 New Orleans hype
It's become a tradition of sorts for WWE to air a promotional video at every WrestleMania for the following year's edition of the showcase of the immortals. It's something that a lot of fans look forward to as it keeps that momentum going throughout the remainder of the WWE calendar, with the WWE Universe knowing where next year's 'season finale' of sorts will be.
Bizarrely enough, however, WWE chose not to air any kind of video at WM33 and instead decided to broadcast the footage for WM34 on both Raw and SmackDown. It was a clever tool in a way, as they knew many people were heading home the following day, meaning that the last few images they would've seen were a reminder of what's to come twelve months down the line.
Now onto the actual venues themselves.
#7 Amway expenses
We've decided to wait until the last event of the weekend to bring this up, as we felt it would have more of an impact. When you're going to an event in the United Kingdom, more often than not, the price of fizzy drinks or even alcoholic beverages range from about £2-£5. In America, however, the equivalent of a pint came to a grand total of $11.
Then, you've got the food at the venue which - whilst tasty - certainly wasn't worth the extravagant fees that were demanded. The venue itself was nice and you kind of got used to it towards the end of the four shows, but it put a pretty big hole in our spending money and we sincerely hope the same thing doesn't happen next year at the Smoothie King Center.
Oh, those poor old ‘Mania blues..
#8 Mania blues
When you're walking around the outskirts of the Amway Center, you can see Camping World Stadium in the distance. When we witnessed this sight during the Hall of Fame and Takeover it was pretty cool, but by the time SmackDown Live came around, it was a stark reminder that ‘Mania had been and gone and that we were heading home the following day.
The ‘Mania blues began to kick in as WWE's headline event of the year wasn't going to roll around for another year. Obviously, everyone was able to reminisce about some of the fantastic moments that took place, but for some people, this was a once in a lifetime occasion.
They never learn.
#9 They screwed up
Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton was one of the most highly anticipated bouts of the night heading into WrestleMania 33, but the second that Orton hit that RKO, we as fans collectively knew that the wind was about to be taken out of our sails. Fast forward 48 hours to SmackDown and things didn't get a whole lot better, to say the least.
The main event of Harper & Orton vs. Wyatt & Rowan only served to further deflate the fans, as it became increasingly obvious that the WWE had screwed up the booking of the WWE Title match. The match itself was average at best, but the main problem was that nobody was anywhere near as interested in The Viper as they were with The Eater of Worlds.
It's time to look ahead to the future.
#10 The bar has been set
WrestleMania 33 is in the books and what a truly incredible weekend it was.
So many Superstars made a name for themselves and grabbed that oh-so-elusive ‘Mania moment, with others slowly beginning their climb towards the top of the company. As such, WM33 has put a catastrophic amount of pressure on the New Orleans event next year.
With WM30 also being such an overwhelming success, more eyes than ever will be on the WWE when it comes to delivering the goods in Louisiana. People obviously had low expectations coming into Orlando, given what happened in Dallas, but now it seems as if ‘Mania has had the complete opposite effect as the Superdome prepares to host the showcase of the immortals for the second time.
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