BRM Reviews the 8/14/2018 Smackdown

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 8/14/2018 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Aug 14th, '18, 21:54

WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH PROMO SEGMENT- meh
Carmella said the usual stuff, Becky was her usual level of good that then turns vaguely cringe-worthy, and Charlotte… I’m not going to lie to you: when she said that Carmella was “a Diva living in a women’s era” I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew that if she had said Evolution or Revolution instead of era, I would have thrown by drink at the TV. Carmella’s “I’m proud to be a Diva” promo was good.
Paige then came out to mock Carmella for no real reason. Then she booked Charlotte & Becky in a tag match against Absolution and ordered Carmella to do commentary. Dude… this isn’t that hard! You book Charlotte vs. Becky this week with Becky winning so that Becky has even more of a reason to snap after Charlotte wins the title at the PPV by pinning the clearly inferior wrestler Carmella. Why are you making them work as a team?

ABSOLUTION vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR & BECKY LYNCH- 6/10
The match was entertaining in the ring and Carmella was entertaining on commentary.

MIZ & MARYSE SELFIE PROMO- Miz & Mrs. has been picked up for a new season. Huh. I like the show, but I was kind of expecting to cut a promo to build up to MIz’s SummerSlam match against Daniel Bryan instead of… well… doing nothing.

CHARLOTTE & BECKY BACKSTAGE- they’re friends. We get it.

HANDICAP MATCH: The Bludgeon Brothers vs. The Triple Threat- DUD!
No, not that Triple Threat. Or the other Triple Threat. Or even a group composed of the surviving members of both groups joined together. This was a pointless squash, and a clear case of “it worked so well last week so why don’t we just do the same exact thing all over again this week?”

BRYAN VS. MIZ VIDEO PACKAGE, PART 1- GREAT!
Ryback in a cowboy hat LOL. AHHHHH! Matt Striker! Get him away!

SAnitY vs. THE NEW DAY- 6.5/10
New Day win because they’re heading into a title shot at SummerSlam. Which is the right thing to do, but at the same time, I’m pretty disappointed in the way SAnitY has been used. They’re pretty clearly becoming yet another main roster call-up failure. Every single non-Japanese person who has been called up in either 2017 or 2018 has turned into a bit player.

BRYAN VS. MIZ VIDEO PACKAGE, PART 2- AWESOME!

PAIGE & SAMOA JOE BACKSTAGE- She wants to know why Joe has turned down the opportunity to cut a promo tonight. She demands that he “be professional” and thus not attack AJ tonight. Joe mentally outfoxed her by using her own words from a few weeks ago about wanting someone “unpredictable” and with a “killer instinct.” I like them addressing the idea that AJ is getting to cut a promo but Joe isn’t (and Joe not doing it subtly makes him like Brock from a few weeks ago and thus more heelish) but their use of Paige in this feud has regularly made her look stupid, which is not good.

AIDEN ENGLISH SINGS- I much more enjoy English’s songs when they functions as promos like this one did, rather than singing just for the sake of singing. He vowed to beat Almas tonight to make amends to Rusev and Lana for his recent series of screw-ups.

AIDEN ENGLISH vs. ANDRADE “CIEN” ALMAS (w/Zelina Vega)- 4/10

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Vega & Almas cut a promo which was awesome, aside from that awful “it will be the end of Rusev Day!” “And the end of Lana Day!” part. Which I know is most of it, but holy sh*t was Vega awesome at the end there or what?
Rusev & Lana then showed up and cut a promo that wasn’t particularly good. Lana’s accent disappeared between sentences.

AJ & PAIGE BACKSTAGE- not good, mostly because they once again made Paige look kind of pathetic for no real reason.

BRYAN VS. MIZ VIDEO PACKAGE, PART 3- great!

SHELTON BENJAMIN vs. JEFF HARDY- 6.25/10
Their brief graphic after the picture-in-picture video package caused us to miss a big spot. That’s why you don’t do stupid sh*t like cut away from a wrestling match. The match was solid. Jeff won.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- weird
Nakamura came out and attacked Jeff but Jeff got the best off him. I was expecting Orton to show up to prevent Jeff from standing tall at the end. Instead, they just showed us Randy waiting in ambush, but no attack ever came. It was very weird. Also… where’s the heat at the end of this?
And why is Orton not in the US Title match? It feels like there was no reason to bring him back this month if he’s not going to wrestle at SummerSlam.

CLOSING SEGMENT- disappointing
AJ Styles came out and started to cut a theme-establishing promo about the importance of not losing his cool against Joe. Joe interrupted him to read “a letter from a member of the WWE Universe” claiming that AJ never wanted a family, then claimed that the letter was from AJ’s wife. Then they went off the air, with no big confrontation, or even any sort of big emotional reaction from AJ. That was weird.


Even with the odd way the last two segments ended, I thought this was a pretty damn good go-home show from Smackdown. Everything that Raw did wrong, Smackdown did right. The show was concise, hit its points, and often felt like the final chapter before the PPV match- which is what it’s supposed to be!- as opposed to Raw just giving us the same thing over and over again.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
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KILLdozer
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/14/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Aug 15th, '18, 14:38

Yeah the tag match is definitely an odd choice...isn't the usual answer to "triple threat on the PPV"..."singles matches against each other in the meantime"?
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Big Red Machine
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/14/2018 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Aug 15th, '18, 14:45

KILLdozer wrote: Aug 15th, '18, 14:38 Yeah the tag match is definitely an odd choice...isn't the usual answer to "triple threat on the PPV"..."singles matches against each other in the meantime"?
And that makes so much sense here based on where everyone assumes the story is going.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
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DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

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KILLdozer
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/14/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Aug 15th, '18, 15:26

Right, just put them in an extremely competitive situation and see what happens when it's time to make a fuckin' statement for Sunday lol. So simple.
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KILLdozer
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/14/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Aug 15th, '18, 16:19

Lana's accent has been slipping so much it's been pretty much gone completely for the past month. It actually deserves its own topic lol.
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

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KILLdozer
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/14/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Aug 15th, '18, 16:35

Oh yeah, Shelton Benjamin! Lmao.
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

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Serujuunin
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/14/2018 Smackdown

Post by Serujuunin » Aug 17th, '18, 17:25

I think part of the reason Randy isn't in the title match has to do with the recent allegations of inappropriate behavior. WWE says they're looking into it, which probably means that Randy is going to be a minimal player until they think it's blown over.

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Big Red Machine
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/14/2018 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Aug 18th, '18, 21:43

Serujuunin wrote: Aug 17th, '18, 17:25 I think part of the reason Randy isn't in the title match has to do with the recent allegations of inappropriate behavior. WWE says they're looking into it, which probably means that Randy is going to be a minimal player until they think it's blown over.
I think the allegations killed any chance there might have been of Randy wrestling at SummerSlam, but it never felt like they had even started moving him into a direction to feud with Nakamura as well as Jeff, even before the allegations, and in situations like the one with Jeff, Randy, and Nakamura, if WWE plans on doing a three-way, they usually makes it pretty clear that they're going to do a three-way early on in the PPV cycle.
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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KILLdozer
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/14/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Aug 19th, '18, 16:01

Yeah, it's like he was more just being a strong presence than actually getting furtherly involved in such capacity.
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

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