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The Valentine’s Day episode of SmackDown was a much-awaited one as diehard fans were waiting to watch Otis finally go on a date with his peach.
The show also hosted the SmackDown Women’s Championship match early in the night between Carmella and Bayley, while Sheamus continued to battle the mid-carders.
Sami Zayn and Cesaro returned to their usual antics, but The Monster Among Men had other plans for the two heels who are trying to keep Elias and Braun Strowman down.
Roman Reigns made an interesting partner to team up with to take on Miz and Morrison, just a week after the Superstar had teased a heel turn.
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In this article, we will look a the 5 things SmackDown got right on this week’s episode.
#5 Sheamus continued to dominate
Sheamus’ return to SmackDown was one of the biggest talking points when the company built towards it. Fans were hoping to watch the Celtic Warrior return and take on some major Superstars such as Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, and ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt right away.
However, the creatives decided to put Sheamus in a rivalry against one of SmackDown’s newest rising stars, Shorty G. While Shorty G was enjoying some decent bookings, his losses against Sheamus started to hurt his image.
This week, SmackDown continued to build Sheamus once again by giving him a 2-on-1 Handicap Match against Shorty G and Apollo Crews.
While it took the former WWE Champion some time to put away the two mid-carders, he did so by hitting the Brogue Kick on G first followed by Crews to pick up the win.
While many will argue that this is a waste of Sheamus on television, it seems like all the top Superstars are currently busy in rivalries and therefore the Blue brand is trying hard to make Sheamus’ return seem grand and keep him relevant.
Will he finally get a bigger match against someone like Braun Strowman?
#4 Bayley’s real challenger
SmackDown kicked off with an oddly long segment that stretched for about 30 mins or so.
Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross kicked off the show and introduced the No. 1 contender for the SmackDown Women’s Championship, Carmella.
Carmella herself called her victory last week a surprise and continued to claim that she would surprise Bayley too later in the night to win the title.
Bayley soon emerged to answer Carmella and the two got into the ring after a bit of a spat. The match was nothing special, but we watched Carmella show some heart and kick out of a Bayley-to-Belly which usually keeps The Hugger’s opponents down for the three count.
After escaping from Carmella’s Code of Silence late in the match, Bayley rolled her opponent up and used the ropes to successfully pin her.
Right after the match, Naomi arrived to help Carmella clear the Champion out of the ring, and the two women stood tall to end the segment. They will battle against each other to crown the No.1 contender for the SmackDown Women’s title for Super Showdown next week.
While Carmella doesn’t seem like the best option to dethrone Bayley, Naomi’s arrival and injection into next week’s match give fans hope of watching a better match for the title for weeks to come.
#3 Daniel Bryan continued as a babyface
Roman Reigns and a partner of his choosing were set to take on The Miz and John Morrison in a tag team clash this week. Reigns wasted little time in picking Daniel Bryan, who has worked with him several times recently, to help him defeat the heels.
The babyfaces dominated the match early, but Morrison and Miz regained control of the match. The main event saw the action trade sides among the four great Superstars, with Morrison and Miz trying all the heel tactics in the books.
Miz came close to victory on this one by Bryan helped Reigns kick out and it was all downhill for the heels from thereon. A Superman Punch followed by a Spear from Reigns was enough to put The A-Lister away just weeks before the heels will take on The New Day for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.
Last week, Bryan had shown signs of turning heel after he completely manhandled Heath Slater in an impromptu match. This week, some fans were expecting Bryan to turn on Reigns, but SmackDown protected the babyface and allowed him to continue as one.
Reign and Bryan’s win was nothing more than a reminder for the fans that they are the two biggest babyfaces on SmackDown.
#2 Two legends, one in the making
Last week’s show saw the legendary Goldberg appear on SmackDown and challenge ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt for a Universal Championship match at Super Showdown. Fans were convinced that Goldberg would choose Wyatt or Roman Reigns as his next opponent, and the announcement did not disappoint them.
This week, “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan appeared live from his home to discuss his Hall of Fame induction with the New World Order.
From there, the topic moved to Goldberg and how he is difficult to defeat, hence Hogan recommended that Wyatt would need to be careful during the match.
This prompted Wyatt from the Firefly Fun House to interrupt and remind Hogan that he didn’t need luck against Goldberg as he’s got ‘The Fiend’. The segment ended with Hogan vowing to see Wyatt in Tampa.
This was an incredible follow-up segment after last week’s challenge with Goldberg. Wyatt got to work with two of the biggest and most dominant Superstars in WWE history and yet came out looking like the star.
WWE needs to book more segments like these to propel their current Superstars and bring them to the same level as the legends that the fans worship. Wyatt is on his way to becoming a legend in his own right.
#1 A date to forget
This point has been written with a melting heart and weeping eyes.
The highlight of this week’s show was supposed to be the date between everyone’s favorite Otis and ‘God’s Greatest Creation’ Mandy Rose.
SmackDown played a video package recapping the storyline which saw Otis rise in the eyes of his love interest Rose and try to do everything right to win a date with her. The scene changed to a well-dressed Otis who arrived at the restaurant with a beautiful bouquet in hand for the love of his life.
However, Otis and his fans were left heartbroken when the camera showed Dolph Ziggler join Rose at her table, only for The Heavy Machinery star to see them chatting together. Otis didn’t utter a word, dropped his roses, and left heartbroken.
The heartbreaking segment exposed the cruel world to the WWE Universe and possibly sets up a rivalry between Heavy Machinery and the team of Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode which will see more of Otis take on Ziggler.
No one has more sympathy than Otis at this point, and it seems like the creatives are building towards a storyline that will see the babyface drift further away from Rose until they eventually come together to a great reaction from the crowd.
