BRM Reviews the 7/7/2016 Smackdown (a glimpse of the future?)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 7/7/2016 Smackdown (a glimpse of the future?)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jul 11th, '16, 18:00

SHOW-OPENING SERIES OF VIGNETTES- GREAT!
We see The Club backstage, plotting… and Mauro says “I wonder what Bullet Club will have to say about Cena’s new buddies Enzo & Cass?” Jericho cuts a short promo on Sami Zayn, then we go to Sami cutting one on Jericho to build up to a match later tonight. Then we transitioned into a short segment with Rollins bumping into Jey Uso and they cut a promos on each other to set up a match. Already, just ONE MINUTE INTO THE SHOW, right before the opening theme, I have three things to be excited about. This was almost like an inverted version of the ECW “Pulp Fiction” promos that would air at the end of ECW TV shows. THIS IS WHAT A WRESTLING SHOW SHOULD BE DOING (though the “humor” in Jericho’s was idiotic).

JoJo starts to announce that a match is about to start but Dean Ambrose comes out instead. Mauro tells us that Dean Ambrose is “known as ‘The Dude.’” 1) Since when? 2) There has got to be some sort of Big Lebowski clip I should be inserting here, but it’s been about nine years since I saw the movie.

Anyway, Ambrose takes the mic from JoJo and she plays her part well by being confused and unsure of why Dean is out here. Perhaps he is going to cut a promo before our first match because G-d dammit there is something he just has to get off of his chest?

Or we could go into standard WWE silliness and have the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world decide that he wants to try being a ring announcer.

JEY USO vs. SETH ROLLINS- 6.5/10
Valiant heel Seth Rollins overcomes Ambrose’s distractions and Jey Uso’s attempts to take advantage of them to win the match fair and square. This also made Jey look bad; not just for losing when he had someone helping him on the outside, but also for not telling Ambrose off. His whole segment with Rollins was him saying he would fight Seth on his own with no brothers or cousins in sight… and yet now here he is perfectly happy to accept help from an outside party.

ZACK RYDER vs. SHEAMUS- 4.25/10
First we get a match, then two plugs for stuff happening tonight (including the announcement of Brock’s opponent) and now we’re getting yet another match! Hooray for wrestling!
Ryder wins clean for the upset win. Then Tom Phillips comes out to interview him, saying that he was picked up some wins lately and asks what’s next. Ryder cuts a promos saying that he wants to regain the US Title because being a champion in WWE means you’re the best so he wants to challenge Rusev for the US Title. Then Sheamus comes up and yells at Tom because he is angry that he lost. HOLY SH*T! Wrestlers are happy because they won or angry because they lost? Matches that have consequences and wins to earn opportunities at championships which are portrayed as being meaningful. Where has this show been for the past decade?!

BARON CORBIN VIDEO PACKAGE- fine

A NEW INTERVIEWER INTERVIEWS RUSEV & LANA ABOUT ZACK RYDER’S CHALLENGE- great promo by Rusev. He gladly accepts Ryder’s challenge and wants the match to happen next week on Raw.

BECKY LYNCH vs. ?-We don’t know who she’s supposed to face because Nattie jumps Becky from behind and beats her up then locks in the Sharpshooter. Referees rush out to pull Nattie off to try to make her break this dangerous wrestling hold. Hooray for heels actually getting heat and being made to look dangerous.

WWE.COM INTERVIEW WITH XAVIER WOODS- GREAT!
Xavier says that they have no idea what could be in the Wyatts’ compound, including even more Wyatts. Maybe Luke Harper is back from injury. Maybe there are other Wyatts we don’t even know about yet.
Is he happy that Big E. and Kofi are rushing into this without a plan? No. But is he going to be there for them? Yes!

ENZO, CASS, & THE CLUB SEGMENT- yeah… they’re turning The Club into goofs. This results in…

AJ STYLES (w/the Club) vs. ENZO AMORE (w/Colin Cassady)- 5/10
So… early on Enzo went for a dive into the club but he caught his foot on the ropes and looked like he hit his back really hard on the apron and then his head really hard on the floor.

JERICHO & OWENS BACKSTAGE- Apparently Owens stole Jericho’s scarf. Also, he ate popcorn and got grease on it. Owens was a huge dick about this so he gave Jericho a bunch of change and a jolly rancher. I’d think maybe they were setting up for an Owens vs. Jericho match, but you’d recall that just last month they seemed to be setting up a similar feud with Owens and Del Rio and they never faced off against each other, even in a tag team match. As a result, this was just dumb WWE comedy in a segment intended to set up that Owens will be at ringside for the Jericho vs. Zayn match, which means I’ll be spending the entire match dreading a f*ck finish.

(EARLIER TODAY) A BUNCH OF UNDERCARD GUYS RE-WATCH RAW’S FOOD FIGHT- because they apparently have the sophistication of small children. They laugh at Miz and Maryse getting food thrown at them for the horrible crime of acting like adults. By the way, this group of people included The Vaudevillains, who were actually the first guys to get food thrown at them last week. Also there were Titus, Ziggler, and Kalisto.
Then Miz and Maryse show up and Miz demands to know who threw food at Maryse. Out of nowhere, and seemingly only for the purpose of taunting me with the fact that they know how to write an intelligent, realistic show but just don’t want to, Ziggler tells Maryse “no women allowed in the men’s locker room.”
Miz once again demands to know who threw the potato salad, and all of them say it was them- even the Vaudevillains, who we just saw were standing behind Miz and Maryse and thus couldn’t possibly have done it. Miz claims that this is a very serious incident because Maryse is allergic to mayonnaise… and I’ve got to admit that once again Miz has a great point about this food fight being a very irresponsible thing to do.
Kalisto challenged Miz to a fight by using terrible dialogue. Miz quoted Arnold from T2, and came off like a dork, which, while it was the point… isn’t a very good way to do it, IMO. I’d rather have him come off like a dork by doing his own shtick.

THE MIZ (w/Maryse) vs. KALISTO- 6/10
Good action, and a nice clean win for Miz.

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS SASHA BANKS- very good
Sasha was cutting a great promo but Dana and Charlotte just happened to be walking by and Dana cut a promo challenging Sasha to a match. Sasha and Charlotte cut very good promos on each other and Sasha accepted Dana’s challenge.
Also… to whoever started buying Dana Brooke these new tops: Thank you.

BOB BACKLUND & DARREN YOUNG SEGMENT- exactly the same as on Raw.

BROCK’S SUMMER SLAM OPPONENT WILL BE… RANDY ORTON!
They went to WWE headquarters for a panel discussion with Booker T, Corey Graves, and Scott Sanford. They hyped this up well.

GOLDUST & TRUTH SHILL FOR SONIC- I skipped it.

CHRIS JERICHO vs. SAMI ZAYN- 7/10
Kevin Owens was on commentary. He eventually threw his drink in Zayn’s face so Zayn threw Jericho into Owens. They used Owens for a really good false finish, but Zayn won in the end. Great match.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Jericho nailed Zayn with a Codebreaker and then left. Owens then got into the ring and beat Sami up some more and laid him out with the pop-up powerbomb.

A very interesting episode of Smackdown. There were some “new” ideas on display here (or at least ideas that feel new in WWE) and all of them were good. There was also a lot of the standard WWE frustrating “comedy.” My hope is that the “new” stuff is an example of the stuff they are going to try after the brand re-extension to differentiate two the brands, and if that is the case, I am quite excited for Smackdown’s future.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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KILLdozer
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Re: BRM Reviews the 7/7/2016 Smackdown (a glimpse of the future?)

Post by KILLdozer » Jul 11th, '16, 18:21

Well...USO just felt like a fool and a scrub challenging Rollins because it's NEVER been a question of who's so much better between them. This is that elevation problem we've discussed before.

Now all that stuff he said, only to lose. Nice going brother lol.

Yes... Ambrose is The Dude. Rollins was The Man. Reigns was of course, The Guy/That Guy.

Man Saxton is HORRIBLE! " Why is Natalya attacking Becky Lynch for no reason at all?!?"

The reason is to beat down your PPV opponent. Therefore, you missed a stupid quote lol.

Yeah... Ziggler was just standing there looking like the idiot face they love to make everyone into.

Yeah.

Woods was with the perfect sentiment. These fools holla'in about booty-o's when you're marching into an uncharted wolves' den. Hey.. maybe he'll be unfindable and unreachable but he's already there tonight... only to lay 'em out! Ahhahaha!

With what you said about Amore 's dive...STOP LETTING HIM DO THAT!

Yeah ...Dana really 180'ed into someone brand new now ...lol she even seems shorter compared to Charlotte lol.

Lesnar and Orton should be a beating from Hell ...on both sides, judging from what we've seen Orton capable of in the past . Unless Orton comes back only to get all the way destroyed and goes right back on the IR.
Last edited by KILLdozer on Jul 11th, '16, 20:39, edited 1 time in total.
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

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Big Red Machine
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Re: BRM Reviews the 7/7/2016 Smackdown (a glimpse of the future?)

Post by Big Red Machine » Jul 11th, '16, 20:18

KILLdozer wrote: Unless Orton comes back only to get all the way destroyed and hoes right back on the IR.
And that's entirely possibly, seeing as how he is coming off of shoulder surgery and Brock does suplexes.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

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