A new look at the latest Smackdown:
-The Bloodline arrives-Wacky handshakes from everyone as Roman side-eyes Sami's attempts at greeting him which is a nice little bit playing off the last week.
-Sheamus/Drew MacIntire vs. The Viking Raiders-Fun, hard-hitting way to start off this tournament which was to be expected, they had some time and plenty of back-and-forth spots keeping both teams looking strong and capable of winning. I didn't mind this in the slightest, a great way to start both the show and the tournament itself.
-Sami and Roman speak-Fantastic backstage bit with the two discussing Sami's frustration from last week with The Usos interference in his match because he didn't know the plan. This causes Roman to blow up and kick him out for constantly doing the same thing about not knowing the schedule which is a nice series of callbacks to start the dissension.
-Raquel declares herself-Almost an afterthought from last week, Raquel says she's ready to win in her home state so we have one more woman in their Rumble.
-L.A. Knight/Bray Wyatt-So after punishing some nameless jobber, Knight is interrupted by a returning Firefly Funhouse that talks about what undisturbed darkness has been uncovered with the two about to clash. Finally, some advancement in this as it's been long enough with Wyatt finally talking about something with everything Knight has done undoing the work he's had trying to make sure the darkness he's locked inside before. It hasn't been totally salvaged but I kinda liked this whole thing.
-Los Lotharios vs. Hit Row-Short and not really too special as it's all about getting the heel turn established beating on a smaller, lower-card team.
-Braun declares himself-Ugh, can we stop with the announcement bits as that makes about half of the Rumble announced so there really shouldn't be any more to go thankfully.
-Charlotte calls out Sonya-I love how everyone is rightfully pointing out that Sonya took her shot and lost with the open challenge several weeks ago so that makes this a simple placeholder feud until after the Rumble. Other than that, the mechanics of the feud aren't bad with Sonya trying to get under Charlotte's skin by constantly trying to attack her from behind and refusing open invites to get anything together which is what a lesser fighter would do so although it paints her as weak that's all fine for what's going on.
-Heyman counsels Roman-After the blow-up from earlier, Paul talks to Roman about how useful Sami might be to have him on their side against Owens which is a solid way to keep him around while furthering the distrust being sold about the upcoming match so I'm fine with this.
-Lacey Evans will return-So she knows the Cobra Clutch now, I don't really care I just want her in the ring.
-The Brawling Brutes vs. Imperium-A solid enough bout, they've fought each other enough and are familiar enough with each other that they can have this kind of match quite easily and that's what we get here with them playing well together including some nice counters, a few fun brawling spots, and a frenetic pace. Probably could've used a face team win here but otherwise, there's not a lot to dislike here.
-Shyna Baszler declares herself-Another woman is confirmed for the Rumble, I hope it stops soon. We're really pushing the limits on how many should be revealed but at least they're doing something with her.
-Karrion Kross is preparing for Mysterio-Another brief bit about Rey being the next target on his road to the title which is nothing new and does nothing to help out these two beyond stoking the fires for one more week.
-Maximum Male Models vs. Legado del Fantasma-Short affair that was quite fun with Zelina mocking the commentary while Legado easily handled the lower card team. That was a bit more fun than what happened here as the two heel teams being pitted against each other makes this bracket less interesting than the other side. The only face teams being the Drew/Sheamus team as well as The Brutes leaves way too many heels factions around so that's going to lead to too many heels here so it's obviously going to be Drew/Sheamus vs. Imperium so that's going to take the sting out of next week's matches.
-Roman and Sami speak again-So one more meeting between everyone where Roman apologizes once again realizing that Sami was just trying to do the right thing thinking of the little things and not missing details. They go over what's going to happen and head out, making for another great bit here putting them together for some magic in this saga. Roman has been established as having a temper, Sami is clearly looking to fill in all the details and not overlook anything, and Paul has been playing the Wise Man to perfection like everything that's come from this.
-Contract Signing-Not much to say here, as the sneak attack from KO taking out Solo and The Usos before targeting Roman is a nice way to balance the feud from the last weeks as Owens should need to look a little stronger against Roman with him getting laid out last week and getting revenge on Monday for that but needing to make an impression on Roman. The fact that Sami wasn't there for the save should set something in motion with the rest of the group finding that to be an issue worth pressing after everything that's gone on and it looking like a planned spot with the hit-and-run nature of it so that could be intriguing but overall, this was a fine way to get it going.
No comments:
Post a Comment