Read on for my thoughts on the action of last night's Smackdown.
Analysis of draft picks and how they fit into things will be a separate post.
OH GOD A FOUR MAN ANNOUNCE TEAM. This could be awful. At least JBL's not involved.
Well that's a big first pick. Not a fan of Stephanie and Mick already feuding. McMahons in power and Foley in power are hardly new ideas for a New Era. I really hope Foley brings in casual fans and critics.
That Crossfit Jesus reference was forced. It could have been incorporated better.
I did not see Charlotte being picked so early. I'm not complaining, though. Hopefully that means the women's division is going to matter a lot going forward.
Shane one-upped Raw by picking AJ Styles. I don't think they "blew a pick" on Charlotte by any means, but they left Brock, Cena, etc. on the table.
OH WOW. That's one way to counter Smackdown getting AJ.
See, we didn't need a long Cena promo about the importance of the draft. I'm glad he's a supporting player in 2016 (finally).
- Cena vs. Gallows:
WHOA. WHOA WHAT. Who made the call to put the matches on during commercials because it's going to make a LOT of people happy.
This is going well so far. I miss Festus, but Gallows isn't bad.
Pretty wild conclusion. I'm OK with Cena beating an underling en route to the bigger six-man tag, which will hopefully focus more on Enzo, Cass, and AJ.
More big picks!
Raw getting all the titles they can.
- Rusev/Miz vs. Ryder/D. Young:
I'm really interested to see where the IC and U.S. Titles are after Battleground.
Miz and Ryder are underrated.
Solid work by everyone. I hope Miz, Ryder, and Young get to work more when the brands are less crowded.
I like that Miz didn't kick out of Gut Check. It needs to be protected.
The crossface chicken wing!!!! Glad Miz sold it like death instead of a silly finisher.
- Bray vs. Woods:
This should be interesting.
I really hope these groups are on separate brands after the split.
If Bray can't beat Xavier, there's a real problem here.
OK match. It got a little silly with its sports entertainment.
Funny Owens segment. I can't blame him for wanting to be drafted early!
I really, really hope Owens vs. Zayn is over soon. It's reached its limit.
And Kane destroys them both. Yayyyyyyy.
You'd think Kane would get picked before Zayn after that display.
- Charlotte/Dana vs. Sasha:
Hoping Bayley makes a run-in here, but I don't want all three of those names on Raw.
Sasha has a lot of energy, and Dana's going well at countering that with her power.
And that's why you don't get in a fight with two people when you don't have backup.
- Cesaro vs. Y2J:
Meme wrestler is still undrafted. That's a little surprising. It looked like WWE wanted to do more with him.
Cesaro definitely brings a lot of energy and hits hard. I can respect that.
I'm glad Jericho countered the swing.
I'm enjoying the counter-wrestling.
YES. I was expecting Jericho to job to Uppercut Man. Good to see that wasn't the case.
At least Becky FINALLY got an attack on someone else.
- Rollins vs. Ambrose:
THAT'S how you start a heated match. None of this lockup shit from Raw.
Kicking out of a Falcon Arrow early always raises my ire. That used to be a low-level finisher and now it's just another cool MOVE.
This is a fun war so far.
I guess the match-during-commercial thing was just a one-time thing.
That was mostly a good ending. I still hate the superplex not being sold, though.
More wrestling coming up.
Battleground predictions:
ReplyDelete- I'd be a little surprised if we didn't end up with Y2J vs. Orton, or them at least fighting. I'm really interested to see when we see Heyman again.
- Sasha (Raw)/??? vs. Charlotte (Raw)/Dana: I'll be surprised if Nikki is Sasha's partner, and Naomi's on Smackdown. Bayley also being on Raw would completely throw the Smackdown division under a bus. But I'm definitely ready for her to show up and be part of things. Sasha vs. Charlotte at Summerslam is hopefully happening, although I'm not ruling out Charlotte vs. Stephanie. Uggghhhhh....
- Hopefully Zayn vs. Owens leads to a Loser Leaves Raw match at Summerslam to finally end the feud for now. They could do a big match here to lead to an even bigger match then.
- The rumor is AJ vs. Cena for Smackdown's World Title, so maybe AJ pins Enzo or Cass to set that up. Or Finn Balor could make a big appearance, maybe turning Gallows and Anderson on AJ? I definitely think we're seeing Cena vs. AJ at Summerslam in some form.
- I'm leaning toward Natalya beating Becky, then Becky getting the win back for Smackdown's women's title at Summerslam.
- Either both the IC and US Titles end up in new hands or neither do. It's worth gambling on Young and Ryder as champs for the New Era. It's not like Miz and Rusev can't rebound. I could also see big retentions for the champs with these matches just being filler so they didn't have to throw a bigger name than Ryder or Young under a bus. Ryder's almost definitely going to be teaming with Mojo Rawley going forward.
- I can see Braun getting a big moment at the Wyatts' current last stand. Hopefully the split doesn't kill the Family.
- The original plan for Summerslam was Rollins vs. Reigns for the title, so I wouldn't be shocked to see one of them win. Sadly, I can easily see Reigns holding the title by the end of Summerslam. Ambrose can chase AJ for Smackdown's title.