Smackdown's opening video package is cool this week, focusing on the J&J Raw segment. Seth Rollins and J&J come out to open the show and brag. Seth brags about the gifts he got them and what they did to Brock Lesnar. He is making the matches tonight, so he pits Dean Ambrose against Bray Wyatt and himself against Roman Reigns. On paper they're good but why waste Reigns/Rollins, an obvious PPV match, on Smackdown of all places? Ambrose runs out with a kendo stick and cleans house, so Seth says that his match is coming up now, bringing out Bray. They work their usual solid match. With Bray having an actual angle right now, we're in that stage where he has to win TV matches before losing the big one on the PPV, so he goes over with Sister Abigail in about seven minutes. Solid opening stuff to the show, but it's stuff we've seen countless times in the past year.
Adam Rose and Rosa Mendes are in the ring and Rose says the fans don't get their love and they're jelly. That's the entire fucking promo. R-Truth comes out for a match, which he wins in about two minutes. There are some recaps next, focusing on Rock's house show appearance and hype for John Cena/Kevin Owens. Ryback faces Mark Henry in a non-title match next. Henry gets mad when he hears Ryback say his name in a backstage interview and seems to go heel. BUT HE WAS FACE ON MONDAY! You know what? I can't even bother to care at this point. Ryback beats him with an impressive Shellshock in under seven minutes. The best part about this was Jimmy Uso getting excited on commentary.
Time for some Divas as Brie Bella takes on Naomi and I'm not sure if Naomi is still heel. I don't blame myself for not knowing, I'm pretty sure that creative doesn't know either. Brie is accompanied by Alicia Fox and no Nikki. I assumed it was because Nikki was over in Japan already, but Naomi is scheduled to be there too. This is your standard stuff between these two girls. Neither is bad, but neither is really that good either. They're more in the middle of the pack when it comes to the Divas. Brie wins after Alicia trips Naomi. Alicia Bella is still really fucking weird. Again, Jimmy Uso is a highlight on commentary. We move into a promo from Bray Wyatt about Roman Reigns. You know, Bray falls into the category of "the less said, the better." I like his promos, but when asked to do them over and over again, they can get repetitive. Is there a reason for him to cut a promo here? He already worked a match. Save it for Raw or something. Next up, the Tag Team Champions, the Prime Time Players, take on the Ascension. Again, I would consider this a basic match. Nothing special and the champions beat the Ascension. Well, really, who doesn't beat the Ascension these days?
Rusev and Summer Rae come out for a promo. Summer apologizes for slapping Lana before talking about how kind and gentle Rusev is. Though when Rusev mentions that Summer knows her place, she does seem offended by it. When the fans chant for Lana, he shouts "I HAVE A BETTER LANA-WOMAN NOW". Summer Rae is a better Lana in Rusev's eyes. I do consider her an upgrade. After Dolph Ziggler and Lana went public on Raw, Rusev will go public now. He promises to eat Dolph's eyes when he sees him. Well then. Time for the main event between Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. Reigns isn't there, so Rollins gets the official to count to ten. He does, but then Roman appears and is somehow not counted out. Why is the match starting? They work a decent five minute match that ends via disqualification when J&J Security get involved. Dean Ambrose runs out with his trusty kendo stick. Seth ends up trying to get him in the Pedigree, but Reigns makes that save. The former two Shield members run off Seth and J&J to stand tall. This was your typical Smackdown episode. The matches weren't bad, but it's just spinning the wheels. Everything is just running in place. Nothing about this show is something you need to see. We'll see the matches again on Raw soon probably. 3/10.
