Saturday, November 8, 2014

Smackdown Report 11-7-14

With a chance to deliver arguably the best week of WWE television this year, Smackdown opens with a Steel Cage match for the Tag Team Titles. The Dust Brothers took on The Usos in another in their long line of matches. Because they're wrestled so often, these are two teams who can have good matches together in their sleep and this was one of their better ones. I think that starting with a Steel Cage match was an excellent idea as it got the show off to a rocking start. Near the end, an Uso hit a superplex on Goldust, leading to the other Uso splashing him. He covered but Stardust rolled him up to retain in about 10 minutes. Good opener and The Dust Brothers are playing the resilient champions very well.


After a recap of the big finish to Raw, Kane was in the ring. It's weird to see the fire all over the tron and then see him in a suit. He announces that he will take on Dolph Ziggler tonight as a punishment for Dolph denying the Authority, inside of the Steel Cage. Two Cage matches? Yes, please. He calls out someone the Authority is scouting and out comes Cesaro. He cuts his usual awkard promo but it wasn't him that Kane was talking about. He says that if Cesaro wants to prove himself he should beat the guy Kane was scouting, which is Ryback. Ryback wins in about four minutes and, as Kane claps for him, ignores him because Ryback doesn't give a shit.


Uh-oh. Smackdown is threatening to fall off of a cliff as R-Truth is out and to make matters worse, out comes Adam Rose for one on one action. Thank goodness this lasts less than two minutes but it was actually of some importance. See, the Bunny got on the apron and this upset Rose, allowing Truth to score the pin. Adam Rose shoved the Bunny after the match and it looks like he might have turned heel.


Things pick up as Christian returns to host the Peep Show! Before we dive into this, I think that this should become a weekly Smackdown thing. If Christian isn't going to wrestle due to injuries, allow him to host the Peep Show weekly, exclusive to Smackdown. It gives someone promo time and Christian can work with anyone, even helping those who need help and it will also be cool to have ti only be on Smackdown. His guest is Dean Ambrose, who discusses his issues with Bray Wyatt. Ambrose was his usual great self but the star was Bray here. He talked about how he saved Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. He wanted to save Daniel Bryan but Bryan wouldn't listen and now he's never seen. He wants to do the same for Dean. FINALLY SOME SORT OF ANSWERS. Bray hits a verbal low blow by discussing Ambrose's father being in jail. Not sure if that's a real thing. Ambrose goes to attack but Bray uses his tricks to avoid and freak Dean out. This is the stuff I've been waiting for when it comes to this feud. Bray delivers a promo that makes sense and this thing is heating up for sure.


We pretty much see a full recap of the Sheamus/Rusev match that was exclusive to the Network on Monday. For those who don't know, Rusev would capture the United States Title there. My love Renee Young interviews another of my loves, AJ Lee about being attacked by Brie Bella. Brie comes to apologize, allowing Nikki to get in a sneak attack. We get a fantastic shot of some AJ booty and I guess we're heading towards AJ/Nikki. Not bad. 


That segment leads to a Divas match putting the ultimate Total Divas rivalry into the ring. Summer Rae takes on Natalya but the key is that Tyson Kidd continues to be the MVP of the week as he is on commentary. They also show a clip of Summer and Layla flirting with Tyson before the match, which upset Nattie. Tyson calls himself the Wayne Gretzky of the WWE as he assisted on Rusev's US Title win. He accidentally distracted Nattie, allowing Summer to win! 


A long video airs about a Sergeant named Dan Rose, who is a paralyzed army vet. Through a non-profit organization he was provided with a robotic exoskeleton and can now walk. It's pretty cool and the dude is basically a cyborg. We then move into the main event, which I appreciate as it gives Dolph Ziggler a chance to shine. Another thing I feel could help Smackdown would be if the Intercontinental Title got the chance to be the focal point of the show. Especially with Brock Lesnar making limited appearances as WWE Champion. The match was better than I expected and Dolph wisely used an exposed turnbuckle to help him climb over and out.


Well, Smackdown accomplished the feat of a clean sweep of damn good WWE TV. Raw, Main Event and NXT all got at least a 7/10 and tonight's Smackdown earns a 7.5/10. The two Cage matches were very good, the Divas stuff was fine, but the show stealer was The Peep Show segment.