Read on for my thoughts on last night's Smackdown.
Pretty fun opening segment. Predictable? Yes. But still fun.
I like that they're treating Sandow vs. Rhodes as important. It's that whole "building new stars" thing people say is missing in wrestling at times.
Nice change of pace from having another Colter promo. I hope Rhodes becomes successful as a babyface.
Rhodes vs. Swagger was pretty nice. I would have liked a longer match, but there's always the possibility of that later.
Impressive segment with the former Team Rhodes Scholars.
I really liked Big E vs. Sin Cara. It was a nice contrast between styles. I have high hopes for both young stars.
I liked the Kaitlyn/Layla segment. I'm glad that Kaitlyn's still an important part of the show after losing the Divas' Title.
I wasn't too crazy about the Alberto/Vickie/Maddox segment, since it didn't really advance anything. I would have rather have seen a promo from AJ or one of the competitors in the #1 Contenders' match.
Punk vs. Fandango was pretty nice. Obviously Punk needed to go over to look like a threat to Brock Lesnar, but Fandango didn't look like a scrub in defeat.
Now THAT was a good segment getting over the importance of tonight's World Title match.
Kind of a disappointingly short match between AJ and Kaitlyn, especially in Kaitlyn's hometown. My guess is that Layla was fed up with being in the background while Kaitlyn went for the Divas' Title. But you'd think that she'd want to challenge AJ for the Title? It will be interesting to see where things go from here.
Nice little Del Rio promo.
That match was AMAZING. I would have pegged RVD as being the winner, so this is an interesting surprise. I like Christian a lot, but I think a win over RVD would have been bigger for Del Rio. Plus, Del Rio vs. RVD is a bigger match for Summerslam.
Fine post-match to continue the road to Summerslam. I'm willing to see where this goes. I don't doubt that Christian is capable; it just seems like RVD is a bigger deal to WWE.
More wrestling coming up.
This may sound a bit late here, but I'm still a bit confused with the Del Rio heel turn. They turn him into a good guy after multiple years as a bad guy- which he does well with - but after just a short amount of time, they make him a heel again. I like Del Rio better as a heel, but what is the justification there when you mentioned the WWE was really pushing for a good guy to be a Mexican-American champion? Maybe that there are a lot of upper-card good guys?
ReplyDeleteDoes it also seem a bit like Del Rio is being featured as a "beatable" champion? Aside from his recent losses to Christian, Punk, and Orton, it seems like he hasn't been getting as much air time (especially on Raw) to showcase his heel turn. In fact, just last week he was getting "Si! Si!" chants from the crowd from back when he was a good guy. It seems like even when he does get promo segments, it's mainly on SmackDown and not Raw, where the ratings are noticeably lower. I'd just like it if he was showcased a bit more favorably with him being a World Champion.
I'm also a bit perplexed on the Henry face turn. Just weeks after delivering one of the most notorious heel promos in which he fooled almost everyone, he goes back to being a good guy. I just think with his size, aggression, demeanor, he is better booked as a heel. On top of that, most of his success (World Heavyweight and ECW Championship) have been as a heel. What is your take on it? I know you're a big Henry fan.
I think it could be as simple as they think that Del Rio will do better as a heel going forward. Maybe he wasn't catching on as much as a face as they wanted? I do think that as Mysterio's career slows down, it will be important for WWE to have talents that Latinos want to cheer. There are some talented Latino/Hispanic talents in the company, but none are pushed all that prominently as faces other than Mysterio.
ReplyDeleteWWE loves to have their champions look beatable, and they don't view the World Title as as important as the WWE Title, the McMahon saga, or Punk vs. Lesnar. I'd definitely like to see the World Title presented as more important, although it gets pretty good treatment on Smackdown I think.
Maybe they felt that he had gone as far as he can as a heel? I don't know who he would have gone on to feud with after losing to Cena. It was weird at first, but I look at it as an opportunity for them to use him to help The Shield (and to a lesser extent, the Usos) get further along in their careers. His character hasn't really changed much, so I can't complain on that front. If he starts being too "goody-goody", I probably won't like it, but so far I just look at it as something fresh.