Last night, Sasha Banks and Charlotte put on one of the best wrestling main events in Raw history, and gave us a show to remember. Smackdown Live, heading into No Mercy this weekend, was a fairly memorable show; but wasn’t quite in the same league as the red brand this week. Coming to us from the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego,California; there were things to both like and dislike about today’s episode of Smackdown Live. So let’s continue with our analysis and examine what worked, and what didn’t in today’s show.
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THE GOOD: Here’s what we liked about Smackdown Live
#1 The Dolphumentary
All the advertising for ‘No Mercy’ showcases The Miz and Maryse, instead of the Triple Threat Main event. Somehow the Dolph Ziggler-Miz feud seems like the real main event of the show, instead of the world championship title match (despite the fact that John Cena could tie Ric Flair’s record and make history).
Dolph Ziggler is in the best form of his life, cutting promos with passion and conviction, and the Dolphumentary that was designed to ‘bury’ him, brought out his inner fire. Ziggler delivered a really passionate promo, one that echoes with truth and tragedy. The return of the Spirit Squad was, of course, an added bonus.
#2 Talking Smack
If you switch off your TV sets immediately when Smackdown Live concludes, you’re missing out on some phenomenal content. Renee Young and Daniel Bryan host one of the most exciting shows on the Network, entitled Talking Smack; and in today’s blistering episode A.J. Styles and Dolph Ziggler (especially) cut borderline shoot promos, building up their PPV matches like nothing on the show did. We weren’t excited about Clash of Champions, but this show is getting us excited for No Mercy.
#3 The pace of the show
The difference between Raw and Smackdown Live is Raw’s extra hour. However much Raw tries to fill the hour with quality content, that hour is the death knell for the hardcore wrestling fan who’s watching 5 hours of wrestling (not counting NXT and a PPV) every two weeks. It’s not that anyone minds the extra wrestling, but you know what they say...quality over quantity always! Smackdown Live moves by like a breeze, and at the end of the show, sometimes you’re even asking for more content.
#4 More on screen time for lower card talent
Heath Slater is not the only success story on Smackdown Live. Be it Baron Corbin, or Jack Swagger, or the tag teams pictured here, or heck, even The Ascension, Smackdown Live has a way of elevating the mid and lower card talent like Raw simply cannot. There at least appears to be (kayfabe or real, who knows?) hunger that runs through the roster, and through every superstar, to make his/her own mark, ever single night.
THE BAD: Here’s what we did not like about the show today
#1 JBL
Anyone who reads this piece weekly knows that this is a customary name that keeps popping up in our list, every single week. We don’t know if Corey Graves conducts after work tuition classes, but if he does, we’d recommend JBL’s enrollment for the same. David Otunga seems better on commentary, just a few weeks in; but this man shows absolutely no sign of improvement. Which is a shame really, because JBL is quite competent in his ‘Legends’ Network special. Anyway, we move on.
#2 The Bray Wyatt-Randy Orton debacle
Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt are part of cheesy, horror movie segments that would feel lame, almost 50 years ago. If this is the best the writing team can come up with, we understand why there are so few ‘storylines’ in wrestling these days. TNA, with its limited budget puts on better ‘Broken Matt Hardy’ skits than WWE does, with the money WWE has, at its disposal. It also didn’t help that Wyatt lost to Kane, for the second time in only a few weeks. Embarrassing!
#3 The wrong people went over
Be it Kane winning against Bray Wyatt via DQ, or Alexa Bliss pinning Becky Lynch clean in the middle of the ring (okay, maybe not so much), or most significantly Jack Swagger defeating Baron Corbin, who really needs a push, we felt that in tonight’s episode, the wrong talent went over. Sometimes talent needs to be protected for them to appear like legitimate stars. 50-50 booking helps no one.
IN CONCLUSION: Smackdown Live was an okay show, with some redeeming qualities and some absolute winners. As we head into No Mercy, let’s admire Alexa Bliss.
