Dolph Ziggler entered the ring and out came the United States Champion, Rusev. So, after losing his Intercontinental Title to Luke Harper on Raw, he is going to be fed to Rusev. I still say he should not have lost the title, but this one made more sense. Rusev is an unstoppable monster and shouldn't lose just yet. What Dolph did do, was put on a good match with the Bulgarian Brute and picking up a huge near fall with the Zig Zag. He did eventually fall to the Accolade but it was a damn good opener.
In the back, Kane calls Cesaro an honorary member of the Authority because his loyalty has not gone unnoticed and he is booked to face Erick Rowan today. On Main Event, The Usos took on The Dust Brothers so tonight, Los Matadores faced The Miz and Damien Mizdow. The other two teams were on commentary. This was kept short but was fine in taking us to Survivor Series. Los Matadores get the win but Damien Mizdow absolutely stole the show as usual. I can't take Los Matadores seriously as potential champions.
Time for the hyped up Dean Ambrose "Survival Kit" segment. I wonder if this will be in the same vein as the Seth Rollins dummy segment. He tells a story about his mom giving him brass knuckles as a kid so he could survive and that used to be his survival kit but now his whole body is one. He admits the father stuff has gotten under his skin but he's going to break Bray Wyatt's face. Bray appears on screen, behind bars just like Dean's daddy. He speaks in riddles and talks about Dean's dad more. It's the same old stuff with Bray.
A recap of Raw is shown where Brie Bella dressed as AJ Lee and looked damn good doing so. The Bellas are in the ring and AJ Lee comes out, dressed as Nikki. Complete with stuffed bra and stuffed booty. It's pretty great but becomes even better when, during her match against Brie, AJ uses her stuffing as a weapon. Pretty great stuff. You know, this has been one of the better built matches heading into Survivor Series and I'm looking forward to it.
We are told that Sheamus will be out for an undisclosed amount of time due to an injury. I thought it was kayfabe but he did tweet out a photo right before going under the knife, so get well soon big man. Cesaro faced Erick Rowan next and guess the outcome. Cesaro suffers another loss but I'm okay with this one as Rowan needs some momentum if he's going to be thrown onto Team Cena last minute. He won with the torture rack, which was surprising. Luke Harper seemed like he was going to come to the ring, but decided against it.
After an interview with Renee Young, Team Cena said that they're together until the end. Of course, this was without Cena, who is the by far the worst partner in history. They put their fists in together like they are a sports team and shouted "freedom" together. Mel Gibson would be proud. The main event pitted Big Show and The Big Guy" against Corporate Kane and Seth Rollins. This was your basic Smackdown main event that was decent and ended via disqualification. After the match, a huge brawl ensues with both Survivor Series team, minus John Cena. Even Triple H gets involved with steel chairs and hits a Pedigree. The Authority stand tall to close the show.
This wasn't a bad episode of Smackdown. The AJ Bella segment was good as was the Triple H interview segment and the Ziggler/Rusev match. All in all, this earns a 6/10.
Now, I'm not getting paid for this or anything and it is a bit random but I would just like to let everyone know that they should listen to thefanspodcast.com. Especially the "Getting Networked" series. They review Pay-Per-Views on the WWE Network and it is always entertaining and knowledgeable. Most recently, they have covered Survivor Series 1998, 2001 and 1994. So give them a download if you're in a Survivor Series mood heading into this Sunday. You can find it here http://thefanspodcast.com/podcasts/
