Read on for my thoughts on last night's Smackdown.
Cool to start things off with Bray. It's worth a shot to shake things up from the traditional "long promo opens the show" format.
I liked the opening match a good deal. Both teams are getting more cohesive and are working hard. I like to see it.
I still like the Bray gimmick, though I wonder how long he can keep the really weird promos up. But, hey, I bet people said the same thing about Undertaker.
Interesting stuff with Axel and Ryback. It might be best to keep Heyman off TV until Brock returns. In the meantime, hopefully Axel and Ryback don't fall off the map.
I liked the segment with PTP and R-Truth - sometimes that's all you need to set up a match.
Regal's wit is a breath of fresh air. Can WWE please put him in Lawler's place?
So much for Tamina being a big monster enforcer. I think I'm about ready for a Divas' Title change, just to shake things up. AJ does great stuff, but it would be good to get a break from it so it doesn't get stale.
I'm not a big fan of authority figure segments. It could be that I've just seen so many "power struggle" segments over the years. Are things really going to change that much if Brad or Vickie were fired by the Authority?
I really liked the ending to that six-man tag. The match itself was good, but the ending was most enjoyable. Maybe we could get a Survivor Series match with some of the other teams on the roster? Say, PTP/Truth/Los Matadores vs. 3MB/Real Americans?
That post-match made sense.
Nothing says "we're out of ideas to build heat" like an arm wrestling contest. I liked the spinebuster through the table, though. It just doesn't feel like Del Rio has any chance to dethrone Cena.
That's a better Divas' tag match than I was expecting. Everyone in the match is improving.
It's pretty cool to see Punk and Bryan on the same page. I liked their segment.
WWE pls. Hunico and Camacho deserve better than that. Were there no local wrestlers for Khali to beat up? This just felt like an unnecessary segment.
OH SHI-. That match ending was pretty cool. I liked the match itself as well.
Good ending to the show, though I'm generally not a fan of heels fighting other heels. It made sense in this context, since otherwise Bryan and Punk would be going two against five.
More wrestling coming up.
I definitely have to agree that the Del Rio and Cena angle could use more fire and tuning. I like how Del Rio has gotten the better of Cena this week to help him gain SOME momentum, but it does seem like an arm wrestling match isn't a good way to promote it. If anything, it didn't make Del Rio look as strong as to give anyone the satisfaction that he will win back the title next week.
ReplyDeleteA lot of fans give Del Rio a lot of flack for being a bit stale. That is partially true, but a lot of it has to do with the writing and angles. Del Rio can give good promos and show his aggression when placed in the right light. I personally see it more as Creative struggling to give Del Rio good segments that can help him gain credibility as a heel moreso than him struggling with those segments. Then again, on the other side of the coin, Cena's always booked to make him look strong.
What is your take on the current situation with Daniel Bryan? Do you see him no longer in the title picture (for now) as a sign of the future for him or more so along the lines of WWE just giving the angle some breathing room for Bryan to jump in for the near future to continue the feud? It's tough to really get into the minds of the company on this one.
I looked at this post here and admit I chuckled a bit with how Sandow has been booked the past year or so. The article's justification here for saying Sandow is "in line to be a top guy" is partially based on his win against Kingston this week, which certainly is not a valid reason. It's definitely mixed signals with regards to Sandow, so how do you view this article's stance at this point with him?
http://www.mstarz.com/articles/21557/20131112/major-survivor-series-2013-match-announced-damien-sandow-plans-more-wwe-spoilers.htm
It feels like Del Rio vs. Cena is kind of on the back burner compared to the Authority angle and what Punk and Bryan are doing. The booking's kind of on autopilot while Creative focuses on other things.
ReplyDeleteDel Rio's very talented. I just think it's time for his character to go in a new direction for a while.
I mainly look at the Bryan situation as there being a lot of time between now and Mania. If that's when they're going to do the blow-off, there's got to be some down time before they put him back at the top of the card. They can only do Bryan vs. Orton and The Shield so many times before the audience gets burned out.
Sandow's losing on live events to Zack Ryder, so it doesn't look like they're positioning him to be a big deal. Sometimes stories get floated around that are of questionable merit. They can always get behind Sandow again, but at this moment it doesn't look like that's in the cards.
One thing I will say about the WWE's direction on Del Rio is that they did the right thing in keep him as a heel character. I think with his natural arrogance and demeanor, that suits him well. I'm interested to see where they will take him and what they will give him storyline-wise after Sunday. I think they will definitely need to push the envelope a bit to have him get back any sort of momentum.
ReplyDeleteLet me ask you this: 1) do you think Bryan will win the title between now and 'Mania and 2) do you think Orton will keep the title between now and then? Your point that the company puts Orton on a very high pedestal probably will reign true between now and then.
By the way, I was looking upon old videos and came across this. I was about 10 or 11 when this happened and was a bit confused on the whole point of this segment. Looking back on it, it's funny, but it's a bit infamous for the wrong reasons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPNq3hGWolM
I think Del Rio could probably do pretty good work as a babyface if they developed it well enough. He worked as a face in Mexico before coming to WWE. Hopefully he'll be around long enough for us to see him get to try it out for a longer period of time. I think he's gotten about as far as he can get as a heel for now. He's got to compete with all of the Authority and the Wyatt Family on that side of the coin.
ReplyDeleteI can see a number of things happening between now and Mania. In my mind, Bryan vs. HHH for the title makes sense for then. I can see HHH wanting to take the glory for himself and doing something to take the title from Orton leading to his last (?) big Mania main event as Champion because it's "best for business".
Bryan finally getting the title at WM30 after everything The Authority throws at him makes sense for the ending. But WWE might decide to have Bryan win the title before then, or maybe even have someone else be in the title mix (which would mean a lot of upset fans if Bryan doesn't get his big win). WM30's the perfect place to pass the torch to Bryan.
Apparently that was supposed to lead to a big Goldberg/nWo feud, with the idea that Goldberg now had a lot of obstacles in his path with the reformed nWo: http://www.wwe.com/classics/foley-nash-jan-4-1999-26081539
It's one of the most infamous matches in wrestling!
WWF did a pretty similar angle in '97, but not as many people remember it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT_9P5TQ9MI
ReplyDelete