Read on for my take on Friday night's Smackdown.
Awesome segment from Kane. I feel like WWE is turning into a police state on-screen. It's a good angle (though it feels like it's gone on for quite a while).
Ehhh... not crazy about that first match. Talented performers, though, and this was a nice break from the really brutal Bryan segment.
I liked Sandow vs. Ziggler pretty well. It was a little odd to see Sandow pull out a spinning heel kick, but the match itself was good. I'm ready for a new chapter in Sandow's character in particular. I've loved some of his promos, but I think it's time for something fresh.
The Wyatt Family continues to be really creepy. I enjoy there being such an engaging gimmick. There are some more fun goings-on in NXT that I hope make it to the main roster.
I expected Kane involved in this one. Pretty good match while it lasted.
I enjoyed the chaotic post-match IF it leads to some kind of Tag Team Turmoil match at Mania. They haven't had one of those in a while. I'd like The Shield vs. Kane, Rowan and Harper, but I don't know how realistic that is.
I had hoped for a ShowMiz reference, but other than that, WWE put together a pretty good segment there. I was also surprised with Titus being in but not Darren. I don't know if that will be the case at Mania or not. I'm guessing WWE's thought process was more focused on Titus becoming heel than there being any long PTP feud. I had hoped for a big grudge match to wrap things up. It used to be that grudge matches were what WWE saved gimmicks and weapons for, but not so much anymore.
Del Rio vs. Big E was good for what it was. Del Rio could use a character facelift as well, but I think he's on his way out when his contract's up. I don't think WWE's going to do much with him with that rumor floating around.
I know that feel, Santino. ;_; I like this silly little relationship.
Not a bad Divas match. I wouldn't have cared much at all without the tension between Summer and Natalya.
I wonder what kind of crazy clustermess match the Divas will have at Mania (since it doesn't look like they're setting up AJ vs. Tamina or AJ vs. Naomi or anything). I'd hate for them to get stuck in a pole match or something since there's already a battle royal.
Or maybe we're getting Kane teaming with NAO against The Shield? It feels like WWE keeps changing their minds on things. There's actually history of DX working with Kane, with X-Pac helping Kane speak after the whole "fire scarring him" thing.
Can Rusev win the battle royal? I think I'd be down with that. He's probably too untested to get such a big push, but it's an idea to bring up. He's certainly not doing much else.
I'm glad WWE kept Bryan out of the ring to sell the beating from HHH. I love seeing him wrestle, but that's a smart move storyline-wise.
I was very impressed with Harper vs. Cena. Cena winning made sense. Props to HHH for bringing Harper to WWE in the first place. He's had quite the list of signings.
More wrestling later in the day.
Chuck, I admit that after I saw Sunday's live event results that I chuckled a bit. Scroll on down to result No. 6 and let me know what you think? I know live events are surely not a sure bet that how a heel is booked on that show determines his or her fate on the main shows, but it is rare to have been booked that shabbily for this guy. Aside from live events, it's not like this guy has been booked like people thought he has been. My theory that he will have to "pay his dues" before he ends up receiving a push - and may not even receive that push - may reign true.
ReplyDeletehttp://dailywrestlingnews.com/results-wwe-live-event-trenton-nj-32314/
I talked about this with yesterday's news post: there is the caveat of live events being pretty loose booking-wise and barely any fans paying attention to the results, but it's certainly something to keep an eye on.
ReplyDeleteUltimately I wonder what the point was of breaking up PTP if neither performer's getting any kind of push. There's the old joke of instead of booking people to get over, they're booking them to get "under", i.e. less well off than they were previously. Winning via rollup doesn't really establish Young all that well, and Titus losing several times in a night makes a win over him not really mean much of anything.
If I had to guess, they just like Titus as a loudmouth who gets his comeuppance. I see some similarities with Heath Slater getting beat so much going into Raw 1000 or, of course, Chavo losing to Hornswoggle.