With a new work schedule, I should have the time to do one of these Smackdown Reports weekly now. We get off to my kind of start as the New Day show up with their hilarious signs, including one that says #Booty. Comedy. They cut a promo about how much tables need to be saved. "We wouldn't be where we are today without the support of good, hard working, tables." These guys are phenomenal. This brings out the Dudley Boyz, who remind the New Day of what they did to Xavier when they returned. The Prime Time Players show up, telling the Dudleys they need to earn their keep now that they're back. This leads to a tag match between the Dudleys and the PTP. The match is solid, New Day kills on commentary and the Dudley Boyz win. Fun stuff to open the show. This is what I would to see from Smackdown. If they insist on not putting important main event angle advancement, use it to allow the midcard and tag division to shine.
After the opener, Kofi Kingston runs in the ring to slap D-Von in the back of the head. That's it. He ran away after. While they celebrate backstage, they get word they face Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns tonight. Stardust comes out next for what looks like a match with Neville. However, the Ascension run out and attack Neville. Stardust calls them his cohorts and, after they hit the Fall of Man, he welcomes Neville to the "Cosmic Wasteland." I may not be the biggest Ascension fan but I love this. It gives them something to do and if Stardust is going to be a good supervillain, he needs henchmen. Next up, Cesaro faces Sheamus. These two had one of my favorite matches about a year ago at Night of Champions. This wasn't quite on that level, but it was still a good old fashioned hard hitting match. Sheamus won clean, which is fine since he's Mr. Money in the Bank, but Cesaro needs to rack up some wins soon. He has to have one of the worst win/loss records in the WWE. We then go to Miz TV, with Dolph Ziggler and Lana. Miz actually brings out Summer Rae, who blames Dolph for everything. Dolph and Lana show up as Dolph tries to explain what happened. Summer believes in continuity as she directs us to the tron for a video of Dolph and Summer kissing on Raw last year. Lana attacks Summer, they brawl and the segment ends. Pretty bad stuff here. The lack of Rusev, the best thing about this program, definitely showed.
There's a Bo Dallas/R-Truth match. It's short and kind of just there. They also recap Bo's trip to Suplex City recently. After a recap of the bad Beat the Clock stuff from Raw, Team PCB is interviewed until Team Bella interrupts. Charlotte tells Nikki that she put in a petition to get her shot before NIkki breaks the record for longest Divas Champion. Charlotte then competes against Tamina. Has Tamina won more than 10 matches in her career? Well, she loses here again as Team BAD continues to look like jokes and we need to drop the team thing in general. Going backstage again, Kevin Owens is interviewed. He brags about beating Cesaro twice before saying something along the lines of "it's feeding time" or "feed me more". I don't remember. It looks like we may get Owens/Ryback at Night of Champions.
Time for the main event, as the New Days takes on two thirds of the former Shield. I felt like this was a solid main event, but considering the people involved, I thought I would enjoy it more. I'm glad the champions didn't straight up lose, as Xavier Woods jumped in to cause the disqualification. After the match, the faces take out New Day and call out the Wyatt Family. They appear on the tron and Bray cuts a promo to close things out. I rather enjoyed this episode of Smackdown. The New Day, Stardust and Cesaro/Sheamus stuff was good. The Bo Dallas, Miz TV and Divas stuff, not so much, but I liked that there was focus on the lesser feuds. Solid, fun episode. 6/10.
