BRM Reviews the 11/27/2018 Smackdown

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

BRM Reviews the 11/27/2018 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 27th, '18, 21:17

OPENING SEGMENT- bad
Paige brings out Becky, who tells us that she won’t be “held back” (by doctors) anymore. Becky then calls Charlotte out to talk about the match with Ronda. They argued about who would have beaten Ronda up more. Neither of them came off as likable.
So yeah. These two are feuding again, although Charlotte also called Ronda out at TLC. Charlotte offered to fight Becky right now. Paige stopped them from fighting, then announced that she’ll give Charlotte a title shot at TLC in the first-ever women’s TLC Match. So much for their match at Evolution having been the blow-off and the segment two weeks ago being Becky turning babyface and exorcising her demons. Instead we get to see them in yet another weapons match for the title, but the heat won’t be anywhere near as intense as last time. Hooray for Creative!
Mandy Rose’s music played and Mandy came out, flanked by all of the other female heels, including Sonya Deville, so what happened to that angle?
Mandy came out and said that any of them could have beaten the crap out of Ronda like that but they never get the chance because Paige really only gives opportunities to the her old PCB pals. I think it’s more her giving opportunities only to the babyface than to just Becky and Charlotte specifically. Then Naomi’s music played and out came all of the remaining female babyfaces. Naomi debuted a new, glow-based catchphrase (a sing-song, “hold on! Wait a minute! Let me put some glow up in it!”). This catchphrase worked so well that it resulted in the crowd loudly chanting for Asuka.
Much to my surprise- as well as Naomi’s- Naomi agreed with Mandy. Paige said that she loved the passion everyone was showing and booked a battle royale for later tonight with the winner being added to the TLC Match. Okay… so Charlotte is just getting handed something but everyone else has to fight over one time amongst the nine of them? How does that disprove Mandy’s criticism?
The set-up here came up as obnoxiously forced, and was a clear example of why WWE’s patterned and overly-produced way of doing things makes them feel less real and thus less effective. Having Sonya come out as part of Mandy’s group was a particularly bad as it hurts the angle they seemed to be trying to build up with them, and I don’t buy that The IIconics would let ANYONE speak for them.

USOS PROMO- fine

THE USOS vs. SHEAMUS & CESARO- 7/10
They showed us Cesaro blaming Big Show for their loss last week, so Big Show knocked him out with one punch. Sheamus then told Big Show that they’d be better off without him, and thus Big Show was not at ringside with them here.
Tom Phillips told us that some team (it wasn’t clear who was talking about) “have won tag team titles only as a duo.” Yeah… that’s how it usually works Tom. The Usos won a great match, so that’s the tag champs’ second loss in two weeks… and it means we’re probably getting YET ANOTHER title match involving both New Day and The Usos.

NEW DAY & THE MIZ BACKSTAGE- passable
New Day are making fun of Miz’s loss last week. Miz portrays himself as the babyface while sucking up to Shane. New Day anger Miz by pointing out that they were the ones who won the only match for Smackdown. Miz pointed out that it was actually The Usos that won that match, not New Day, which is a valid point. Miz said he was going to go to Shane to get a match booked for tonight. After Miz left, Big E. revealed that he was actually a fan of Miz’s action movies, so the others made fun of him. Because making fun of someone for liking it will definitely help sell the product.

AJ STYLES PROMO- GREAT!
An excellent promo to build up his title shot against Daniel Bryan at TLC.

LARS SULLIVAN VIDEO PACKAGE- fine

RUSEV vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA- no rating, frustrating segment.
Lana was not at ringside for no stated reason. Nakamura attacked Rusev while Rusev was posing for his entrance and laid him out with several Kinshasas. I would have said this was a decent angle, but the fact that this was a match-up that got me really excited and now we’re not getting it made it more frustrating than anything else.

JEFF HARDY 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION- good segment
They’ve got the whole SD roster on the stage… and also the 205 Live roster, even though they’re technically part of Raw. Also, Monday Night Raw’s Michael Cole is the one conducting this interview instead of a Smackdown employee. They played a VERY long video package, then Jeff gave a speech that he emphasized was not a retirement speech.
Samoa Joe came out and brought up Jeff’s drug issues, which he claimed were “weakness.” Joe’s promo was quite great, and I did like that they had Shane try to stop Joe from talking and had Jeff insist that Shane let Joe finish. It would have been ridiculous for Joe to come up and poop on Jeff’s party and the authority figures to just let him do it. Joe cut an excellent promo, saying that just as many times as Jeff had made everyone happy, he had let them down via his drug issues even more. Jeff said he wouldn’t let Joe rain on his parade, and said he would be happy to fight Joe right now, but Joe left instead.

THE MIZ vs. KOFI KINGSTON (w/The New Day)- 6/10
They did a spot where Miz took the turnbuckle pad off and went o ram Kofi’s head into but dropped his plan after Big E. created a pad out of pancakes. Miz tried to use a chair but Woods pulled it away from him, then Kofi hit him with Trouble In Paradise for the pin.

RANDY ORTON PROMO & SEGMENT WITH REY MYSTERIO-
Randy cut a decent promo on Rey, burying him and his mask. Rey then came out in a NECK BRACE and started to brawl with Orton. How the hell did no one come out to try to stop Rey from doing this? If they wouldn’t even let AJ Styles SHOW UP to a PPV because he “was not medically cleared” then how the hell do they let a guy in a neck brace show up?!
Rey was even winning for a while but Orton took over and ran Rey’s throat and a chair into the steps (it’s that chair move that SvR used to call a “guillotine”). Only when this was about to happen did some road agents finally start to come out, showing up WAY too late to save the guy in the neck brace.

MIZ & SHANE BACKSTAGE- bad
We start with Shane- you guessed it!- futzing around on his phone. Miz showed up and asked why Shane wasn’t at ringside with him. Miz is acting completely delusional.

BATTLE ROYALE WHERE THE WINNER IS ADDED TO THE WWE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH AT TLC: Naomi vs. Lana vs. Mandy Rose vs. Sonya Deville vs. Billie Kay vs. Peyton Royce vs. Asuka vs. Carmella vs. Zelina Vega- 4.5/10
Mandy and Naomi had a cool little spot on the apron to lead to Mandy’s elimination. Mandy would later try to help Sonya win when it was down to just Sonya vs. Asuka, which completely goes against everything they seemed to have spent the last few weeks trying to build towards. Asuka won. I… don’t want to see Asuka face Becky or Charlotte or rally anyone in a gimmick match. She’s Asuka. I want some kick-ass singles match out of her.

This was a passable 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
Serujuunin
Posts: 2441
Joined: Dec 17th, '10, 19:56

Re: BRM Reviews the 11/27/2018 Smackdown

Post by Serujuunin » Nov 27th, '18, 22:14

I won't lie to you... I was so scared Jeff was retiring that I was legitimately crying...

And then I was just emotional, and then I realised that I remembered all of that and felt really old...

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

Re: BRM Reviews the 11/27/2018 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 27th, '18, 22:30

Serujuunin wrote: Nov 27th, '18, 22:14 I won't lie to you... I was so scared Jeff was retiring that I was legitimately crying...

I got this vibe, too. And I think Jeff added in that "don't worry, this isn't a retirement speech" line because he realized he was giving off that vibe too strong.

Jeff will keep going forever. Bryan Alvarez noted the other day that between Edge, Christian, Matt, Jeff, Bubba, and Devon, Jeff was the one that everyone was certain would retire first because his body was so beat up, but Jeff is now one of only two left still working, and the only one of them wrestling a full-time WWE schedule, which is the toughest in the world.
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
Serujuunin
Posts: 2441
Joined: Dec 17th, '10, 19:56

Re: BRM Reviews the 11/27/2018 Smackdown

Post by Serujuunin » Nov 28th, '18, 00:32

Big Red Machine wrote: Nov 27th, '18, 22:30
Serujuunin wrote: Nov 27th, '18, 22:14 I won't lie to you... I was so scared Jeff was retiring that I was legitimately crying...

I got this vibe, too. And I think Jeff added in that "don't worry, this isn't a retirement speech" line because he realized he was giving off that vibe too strong.

Jeff will keep going forever. Bryan Alvarez noted the other day that between Edge, Christian, Matt, Jeff, Bubba, and Devon, Jeff was the one that everyone was certain would retire first because his body was so beat up, but Jeff is now one of only two left still working, and the only one of them wrestling a full-time WWE schedule, which is the toughest in the world.
This is hilarious to me because in the Hardy Boys biography from like, a thousand years ago, Jeff said he wanted to retire at 31. That was ~10 years ago if I remember Jeff’s birthday correctly. But here he is!

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

Re: BRM Reviews the 11/27/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Nov 28th, '18, 10:07

I hate Tom Phillips so much. He's "classic ridiculous announcer voice # 3"
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 11/27/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Nov 28th, '18, 10:31

Jeff Hardy 20 years? False. That would require him having never left...which just isn't true. I understand it's "20 years to the date..." But it's not quite the same thing.
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 11/27/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Nov 28th, '18, 10:59

So what is this...Shane and Miz thing...it started somewhat meaningful seeming...now it just looks like insane pointless comedy.
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 11/27/2018 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Nov 28th, '18, 11:01

They should have cut Naomi's microphone the second she started lol.
When they come, they'll come at what you love.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests