Saturday, October 25, 2014

Smackdown Report 10-24-14

I cannot think of a recent Raw or Smackdown that didn't have an opening segment featuring John Cena, Dean Ambrose, Paul Heyman or a member of the Authority. I seriously can't. Smackdown kicked off with Dean Ambrose, who talked smack to hype his upcoming Hell in a Cell match against Seth Rollins. We also get to see a video recapping Mick Foley's appearance on Raw. He talks about what Seth did when he broke up The Shield, leading to Seth appearing on the titantron. He states that The Shield was never special and actually promises to call out Ambrose later in the show. Typical stuff, but these guys make it work. Ambrose closes by saying that he doesn't care if his career ends at Hell in a Cell because he's taking Seth with him.


Tag team wrestling started things off as The Miz and Damien Mizdow took on Los Matadores. Sheamus was on commentary to build the United States Title match at Hell in a Cell. Short and basic with Miz winning via the figure four. Mizdow stole the show again and they run away from Sheamus after the bout. Keeping with the theme of tag team wrestling, the Champions, Goldust and Stardust cut one of their goofy promos backstage. Bo Dallas interrupts and tells them that all they have to do in their six man tag tonight, is Bolieve. Goldust calls him a weirdo and that was a fun backstage segment.


WEEKLY REMATCH ALERT! Look at that, it only took one match to get our rematch. This time, it's AJ Lee taking on Alicia Fox. Fox defeated her thanks to a distraction from Paige on Raw. This time around, the match was again only about two minutes but the Paige distraction backfired and allowed AJ Lee to score the pinfall. I wish that the Paige/AJ feud was better. I love both girls and feel they could do a lot but their chemistry has just not been there for me. I enjoyed SummerSlam and thought Night of Champions was even better, but this hasn't clicked the way I hoped.


After our weekly creepy Wyatt Family promo, we go to a Big Show segment. Hooray. /endsarcasm. He has a sitdown interview with Michael Cole and discusses how he won't keep his emotions in at Hell in a Cell. He claims that he will take out Rusev for America and such. Stop me if you've heard this before. Next, we move to the match of the night as Cesaro takes on Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship. These are two guys who are pretty much incapable of having a bad match. Their recent matches on TV have been good and this was no different. Dolph wins after 10 back and forth minutes to retain following a series of counters. Good stuff.


Total Divas promotion time as Nikki Bella, Summer Rae and Cameron take on Brie Bella, Natalya and Naomi. I still don't get how the WWE expects fans to view Brie and Natalya as faces when they come off as incredibly unlikable on Total Divas. Anyway, the heels win in less than two minutes as Nikki hits the rack drop on Brie. The fact that they've pinned each other has lessened their match for HIAC. We also get a very cool Hell in a Cell "By the Numbers" video. Hypes the show well. 


After that six woman tag, we move into a six man tag as Goldust, Stardust and Bodust face The Usos and Mark Henry. For the record, Bo Dallas is not dressed like a "Dust", I just thought it would be cool to call him Bodust. This would be our second longest match at just over six minutes, which is not good. See, this is my biggest issue with Smackdown. It's a two hour show with matches that are short. Why? Because we're forced to sit through a million recaps of stuff we've seen a million times. Bo hits the Bo-dog on Henry to win, keeping his winning streak over Henry going. Renee Young, looking gorgeous, interviews Dolph Ziggler in the back when Cesaro interrupts. He says that Dolph got lucky and challenged him to a 2 out of 3 falls match at HIAC. Dolph accepts and we've got a potential show stealer folks, though I still expect Ambrose/Rollins to be the best match.


Seth Rollins promised to call out Dean Ambrose earlier in the night and he does just that to close the show. He comes to the ring with the New Stooges, Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble and there are tables with weapons around. He brags about how he taught Dean everything he knows. He takes a screwdriver and discussing how Ambrose is a screw up. It's decent stuff as it plays off of Ambrose's mannequin segment from Raw. Ambrose doesn't come out when called out, so Seth takes us to, you guessed it, clips from earlier in the week. When the clips wrap, Ambrose is behind Rollins. They brawl until the Stooges come in. This allows Seth to escape and allows Dean to hit both guys with elbows through tables. Fun ending.


In conclusion, I wouldn't say this was a terrible episode of Smackdown. While we did get two rematches, we did get a fresh six man tag and the Mizdow tag team match. No Randy Orton or John Cena allowed Ambrose and Rollins to take center stage and they stepped up. I enjoyed this two hours at the very least. 6/10.