BRM Reviews the 2/21/2017 Smackdown

Post Reply
User avatar
Big Red Machine
Posts: 27378
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

BRM Reviews the 2/21/2017 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Feb 22nd, '17, 12:38

OPENING SEGMENT- Daniel Bryan brings Naomi out and everyone is happy for her and proud of her and I’m sorry but in no way does Naomi strike me as the “waited so long for this and overcame the odds” “YOU DESERVE IT!” type of case. The chant doesn’t mean anything anymore.
Um… Daniel Bryan is apparently stripping Naomi of the title because apparently she got injured at Elimination Chamber (I don’t think this was ever even mentioned on last week’s show) and they apparently know now that she won’t be able to defend the belt for a while and so they’re stripping her of the title via the Thirty Days Rule. While I am glad to see the return of the Thirty Days Rule, I am compelled to point out that Becky Lynch got away with not defending her title in almost twice that amount of time because she was injured, and that was less than six months ago. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here looking at Naomi and I don’t see anything that indicates that she is injured in any way.
Naomi cut a good little promo here, but I still don’t even know what her injury is.
Oh. She appears to have some sort of little brace on her knee. Maybe we could have pointed this out to the viewers at home?
Naomi gives up the belt and leaves and then Alexa Bliss! shows up. She argues that she should be given the title because she is still owed her rematch. Bryan books Alexa vs. Becky for the belt for right now. Bryan really should have pointed out that Becky deserves this opportunity because Alexa never beat her cleanly (Otunga did bring this up on commentary, but it should have been said for the live crowd).
I love Alexa to death, but someone needs to teach her not to do anything to encourage the fans to chant “WHAT?”

MATCH FOR THE VACANT WWE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S TITLE: Alexa Bliss! vs. Becky Lynch- 14/10. (4/10 for the match, +10 for Alexa Bliss! winning the title). Sorry Okada. I know you’ve put on some amazing performances so far, but this is the new frontrunner for Match of the Year.
This was mostly Becky dominating the match until Alexa got a heel win via a shot to the throat while the ref was distracted, followed by a roll-up. Mickie James came out and tried to attack Becky from behind but Becky scared her off because I guess we absolutely had to play Becky’s music at the end of this segment even though she lost.

DEAN AMBROSE PROMO- great! This promo did a great job of tying Dean’s match tonight in with the feud he is building to for the next PPV (compare this with Sami Zayn’s clumsy attempt to do so last night on Raw).

KALISTO PROMO- meh

MIZ PROMO- great!

NATTIE NEIDHART PROMO- good

AMERICAN ALPHA vs. FANDANGO & TYLER BREEZE- 2/10
Fa-Breeze appear to have abandoned their “fashion police” gimmick. That makes me sad. They also jumped American Alpha before the match, which made me angry. American Alpha won a short match with the Steinerizer. OMFG can we PLEASE get American Alpha vs. the Steiner Brothers?

THE USOS CUT A PROMO ON AMERICAN ALPHA BEFORE THE MATCH- a little over top in their delivery, but I thought the verbiage was very good.

AJ STYLES BACKSTAGE- good.

DOLPH ZIGGLER PROMO- bad. This whole thing comes off as fake because both the writers with their verbiage and Dolph with his delivery are trying WAY too hard.

MOJO RAWLEY PROMO- a good promo, but it was very odd because Mojo did not appear to be hyped when he began his promo but rather seemed to ramp up to a state of hype while cutting his promo, which contradicts his usual claim that he is always hyped and thus has no need to “get hyped.” Strange.

LUKE HARPER PROMO- meh.

NIKKI BELLA PROMO- meh

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH: Natalya vs. Nikki Bella- 6/10
A good brawl, and I thought the way they set the thing with Maryse up was really clever. That spot with the mirror backstage was one of those spots that was almost too good. In hindsight, if I were booking this, I would have had that be the finish and give Nikki the clean win to end this feud, and then have Maryse attack Nikki right afterwards.

BARON CORBIN PROMO- good

APOLLO CREWS PROMO- oh yeah. They did an angle after their PPV match. Apparently Crews is good to go just nine days after getting his ankle destroyed with a chair. Too soon.

ORTON & WYATT PROMO- fine

Why didn’t Cena get to cut a promo?

BATTLE ROYALE FOR A WWE TITLE SHOT AT WRESTLEMANIA: Baron Corbin vs. Apollo Crews vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz vs. Luke Harper vs. Kalisto vs. AJ Styles vs. Mojo Rawley- 7.5/10
How did Loser Ziggler get in this match? At least Mojo Rawley is usually on the winning side of his matches.
I don’t want to shock anyone, but Mojo Rawley was eliminated first. Equally shocking was that Dolph eliminated Kalisto then got eliminated by Crews, then attacked Kalisto with a chair but was thwarted by Crews.
They did a good job pacing the eliminations in this match and letting it go long enough to make it feel a lot bigger than just a random ten-man battle royale for a title shot. Miz had been eliminated by Cena but came back and eliminated Cena. Ambrose low-bridged Corbin to eliminate him but he got pulled out under the top rope and laid out by Corbin. He eventually came back which led to a very exciting segment with all three remaining wrestlers (Ambrose, AJ, and Harper) on the apron. AJ and Harper proceeded to have an exciting final two until we got a “their feet hit the ground at the same time” finish. Bryan came out and said that we would determine a winner next week. AJ shoved Harper so Harper laid AJ out with his finisher. Then Bray magically took over the TitanTron in order to laugh because apparently that was necessary.


A good and newsworthy episode of Smackdown.
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

User avatar
cero2k
Site Admin
Posts: 20950
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 11:32

Re: BRM Reviews the 2/21/2017 Smackdown

Post by cero2k » Feb 22nd, '17, 13:02

Big Red Machine wrote:AJ shoved Harper so Harper laid AJ out with his finisher. Then Bray magically took over the TitanTron in order to laugh because apparently that was necessary.

gotta get those Randy Orton turn hints in
Image

User avatar
KILLdozer
Posts: 5930
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 22:54

Re: BRM Reviews the 2/21/2017 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Feb 22nd, '17, 13:21

Naomi's knee injury literally was the focus of the beginning of last week's show.

The "at first, I didn't even know I was injured."

I was hoping for this, simply because in no way shape of form did I want to see the glow worm as champion.
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

User avatar
KILLdozer
Posts: 5930
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 22:54

Re: BRM Reviews the 2/21/2017 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Feb 22nd, '17, 13:44

I couldn't help but notice Miz left out "former tag team champion". Lol, I guess as usual no one cares about tag titles.
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

User avatar
KILLdozer
Posts: 5930
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 22:54

Re: BRM Reviews the 2/21/2017 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Feb 22nd, '17, 13:55

Ziggler again is just not good. When will they learn and what's it gonna take with this guy?!?!?
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

User avatar
KILLdozer
Posts: 5930
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 22:54

Re: BRM Reviews the 2/21/2017 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Feb 22nd, '17, 13:57

Maybe Riley's getting a gimmick change where he DOES need to get hyped...
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

User avatar
cero2k
Site Admin
Posts: 20950
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 11:32

Re: BRM Reviews the 2/21/2017 Smackdown

Post by cero2k » Feb 22nd, '17, 14:31

KILLdozer wrote:Maybe Riley's getting a gimmick change where he DOES need to get hyped...

ugh, just suddenly made me remember Alex Riley, uuggghhhh
Image

User avatar
KILLdozer
Posts: 5930
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 22:54

Re: BRM Reviews the 2/21/2017 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Feb 22nd, '17, 14:46

cero2k wrote:
KILLdozer wrote:Maybe Riley's getting a gimmick change where he DOES need to get hyped...

ugh, just suddenly made me remember Alex Riley, uuggghhhh


It seemed like he had all the upside in the world and was really in line for a big push... I wanna say Cena stopped it though.
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests