WrestleMania 33 keeps creeping closer and closer and maybe it’s foolish to be optimistic but it feels like WWE is “go home-ing” as well as they possibly can. This edition of SmackDown Live saw many interesting developments for the big Thrillride on Sunday.
The former Women’s Champion will be competing in Sunday’s title match to reclaim the belt she, unfortunately, had to forfeit due to injury. Her surprise appearance and hurricanrana down the entrance ramp got quite a positive ovation, too.
Another notable segment from the night was the follow-up to last week’s Total Bella parody by The Miz & Maryse.
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With so many strong segments and matches, this article gets to take more of a positive tone, which is rare. Sure, there was the moment Cena turned non-PG but a couple of outrageously funny segments are featured this time around.
With so little time before WrestleMania, it’s good to have a few things to praise on this episode of SmackDown Live.
#4 Sharing gum
The women’s action all started as a singles match between Carmella and Becky Lynch and that’s when things got weird really quick. As the match was just getting underway, the Staten Island Princess stepped to the apron to have an intimate moment with her man.
James Ellsworth got possibly the most amount of action with Carmella that he’ll ever get when she inserted her used gum into his mouth. The camera cut away to the announce team when the action went down, only to show a disgusted JBL looking into his monitor.
#3 Breezy Bella back in action
When contrasted against his NXT career, Tyler Breeze’s entire main roster run so far could be considered a botch if it wasn’t for how hilarious he and Fandango are. Building off of last week’s Nikki Bella-inspired drag experiment, Tyler wore the same getup in an attempt to get himself entered into the SmackDown Women’s Championship Match.
Daniel Bryan ultimately figured out that he wasn’t speaking to his sister-in-law. He then offered both members of Breezango a spot in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. There was also an outrageous chant between the three of “Buckle Up,” which was quite a bit of fun.
#2 The Miz as Daniel Bryan
It’s not everyday that WWE gets comedy right - in fact, it’s pretty rare. However, these Miz & Maryse Total Bella parodies of John Cena & Nikki Bella have been an absolute riot. From the cue card guy to Maryse portraying twins who can’t tell themselves apart from each other, The Miz has elevated his already stratospheric character work.
Miz has been so good with this feud against Cena that it’s almost easy to forget that he’s also very recently been talking stellar trash at Daniel Bryan over the past several months. In one of the outrageously funny moments of this skit, Miz appeared as Daniel Bryan but on his knees.
Just the sight of him doing the “Yes!” chants with the flannel shirt and fake beard is a home run of an impression.
#1 Potty mouth John
Twice during the amazing segment between The Miz & Maryse and John Cena & Nikki Bella did the recent host of Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards need to be censored for extremely foul language. The first edit came when production cut out John’s microphone for using the synonym for a female cat.
The other time was more of a self edit by inserting a break between “sh” and “it”.
It’s hard to believe that The Miz and John Cena have done so fantastic with the build to a match that will likely end in a proposal payoff but this really has become one of the best stories heading into the upcoming WrestleMania 33 card.
If WWE can find a way to keep this momentum while simultaneously keeping their family-friendly rating then that will be the real success.
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