Saturday, January 10, 2015

Smackdown Report 1/9/15

The final Friday Night Smackdown kicks off with Mr. Money in the Bank, Seth Rollins. Of course, he is with J&J Security. He brags about the firings of Ryback, Dolph Ziggler and Erick Rowan. Seriously though, nobody in the crowd really even cares about Rowan. Seth says that he is not a bad guy and asks for a ten bell salute for the careers of those men. In a rude gesture, Roman Reigns interrupts. THAT WAS A SPECIAL MOMENT ROMAN! He gets in the ring and calls Seth a stuck up "suffering succotash." Yup. He also says that Rollins has "donkey dung" for brains, solidifying him as the new John Cena with the corny jokes. Roman attacks and Seth scurries, backed up by Kane. The Director of Operations announces that Roman has to find a partner and take on Seth and Big Show tonight.

Backstage, Miz tries to persuade Kane to change tonight's match. It's set to be a Triple Threat Tag Team Title match, pitting The Usos against Miz and Mizdow and the Dust Brothers. Kane nearly makes the change, but when Mizdow spills coffee on him, he keeps it the way it is. Adam Rose faces Big E next. Big E has the rest of the The New Day with him and Rose is accompanied by Tyson Kidd and Cesaro. The match is under three minuets, Big E wins and not much else happens. The Ascension come out for the next segment, and badmouth teams like the Road Warriors and the Powers of Pain, before squashing jobbers.

After a clip airs from Raw, showing Alicia Fox attacking Naomi, they square off. Again, I question the time constraints these girls get. Girls on NXT usually get a good amount of time and Paige and Nikki Bella got 12 fucking minutes on Main Event. But, on Raw we had a two minute match and this is under 90 seconds. Seriously? It's a two hour show and you can't find more time for these two? Alicia wins with her feet on the ropes. Good thing we spend all of that time on Raw recaps, and, on cue, we get one highlighting Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt in their Ambulance Match. Bray cuts a promo announcing his entrance in the Royal Rumble.

It's time for the big WWE Tag Team Title match. These are the only three teams of note to hold the belts this year, because fuck the New Age Outlaws. I appreciate that at least this match was given a good amount of time. All three teams are good, with the Dust Brothers and Usos being the cream of the WWE crop. The match featured multiple near falls and I have to point out Stardust's cool face paint. The Usos would retain and continue their hot streak into 2015. It went about 14 minutes. Bad News Barrett appears, saying that he wants to give Dolph Ziggler a rematch for the Intercontinental Championship, but of course, Dolph is fired. Instead, he faces Sin Cara and, for some stupid reason, he loses cleanly. Not with a rollup. With Sin Cara's finisher. I'm okay with Barrett losing, but not to a guy who hasn't had TV time in months besides NXT.

Roman Reigns needed to find a mystery partner that was crazy enough to oppose the Authority. He found one in his former Shield brethren Dean Ambrose. The crowd goes nuts for the mini Shield reunion and we got ourselves an interesting main event to say the least. Commentary puts over that he shouldn't even be standing after the Ambulance match. I am ALL for the end of Bray/Dean and putting Dean back against the Authority. It makes so much more sense. The main event is solid and fun as Seth misses the Curb Stomp and gets Speared to end it. My only real issue is that Big Show should have gotten pinned because Seth has eaten too many pins lately and, couldn't Dean finally pin him? I guess they should save that if we ever revisit that feud.

Overall, a relatively fun episode of Smackdown. The Triple Threat Tag Title match was really good, as was the main event. Everything else was decent and nothing straight up sucked except for the booking decision to have Sin Cara go over BNB. 6/10.