BRM Reviews the 8/15/2014 Smackdown

[Big Red Machine]

MIZ TV WITH SPECIAL GUEST ROMAN REIGNS- Miz is a jerk and interrupts Reigns to talk about himself instead of letting Reigns answer the questions he is asked. Reigns finally gets fed up and punches Miz in the face.
Taken in isolation, this very good. It played into both character’s strengths, got a big pop, and set up for the main event. It was just one punch, and that was all they needed because they made the absolute most of it. Between Miz’s selling here and the later segment with the ice-pack, this had a fantastically old-school feel.
The one thing I didn’t like about the execution was how quickly Reigns resorted to violence. I have no problem with a babyface resorting to violence, but this was too quick. I think it would have worked a lot better if Miz had asked Reigns a question then immediately interrupted his answer to talk about himself about three or four times before Reigns punched him. That would allow us to get annoyed at Miz along with him instead of it seeming like he just had a bad day and is taking it out on Miz because Miz just happens to be a convenient target.
Many people have noted, however, that it seems to cut Ziggler’s balls off to have Reigns be the one to punch Miz in his “money-maker” just two days before Dolph’s match with him at Summer Slam. While I agree that maybe it wasn’t best to have Reigns do this, I don’t think it hurts Dolph at all. Dolph’s feud with Miz has not been about trying to hit Miz in the face. That aspect of their feud has merely been a consequence of Miz’s character (remember, it was a factor in his feud with Sheamus, too, and unless I’m remembering wrong, Sheamus did indeed kick Miz right in the face, so this isn’t the first time it has happened). The real feud between Miz and Ziggler is about the WWE Intercontinental Title, which Miz’s underhanded tactics screwed Dolph out of. THAT is what Dolph really wants, and Reigns punching Miz in the face does not prevent Dolph from getting it.

DEAN AMBROSE vs. CESARO- 6.75/10
One month ago, Cesaro was a Paul Heyman guy. In two days, at Summer Slam… he is going to be a lumberjack for someone else’s match. That’s a pretty quick fall right there.
The match was great, but just felt like it was missing something to me. I’m not sure what. It just felt like 6.75/10 instead of a 7/10.

SETH ROLLINS PROMO- very good

KANE & MIZ BACKSTAGE- Miz has a HUGE ice-pack on his face. Miz is understandably angry because Reigns punched him. Miz demands that Roman Reigns be banned from Miz TV. Instead, Kane books Miz vs. Reigns for later tonight.

DOLPH ZIGGLER vs. TITUS O’NEIL (w/Heath Slater)- 4/10

JERICHO VS. WYATT VIDEO PACKAGE- eh. It’s not limited to this particular feud, but no one has ever said what exactly it is that Bray is saying that is so dangerous that first Cen and now Jericho have decided that he needs to be shut down.

LUKE HARPER (w/Erick Rowan) vs. MARK HENRY (w/Big Show)- 0.75/10
They hit each other a bit. Eventually Henry was going to hit the World’s Strongest Slam but Rowan interfered for the DQ. When we came back from commercial we had a tag match going. Teddy Long might be gone, but his spirit still remains. Seriously, though: If you want to book a tag match, JUST BOOK A F*CKING TAG TEAM MATCH! Or if you really want to give Mark a DQ win first, do exactly what you did, except have Big Show make his surprise return by coming out to save Mark instead of totally wasting the return. Or even better, have Show save Mark, but instead of booking the tag team match now, BOOK IT FOR THE PPV IN THREE DAYS and see if you can maybe make some money off of this gigantic hoss-fight.

THE WYATT FAMILY vs. MARK HENRY & BIG SHOW- 4/10

MICHAEL COLE INTERVIEWS STEPH- okay.

AJ LEE vs. EVA MARIE- no rating. TERRIBLE segment.
As they showed us, Eva did pin AJ on Raw… so shouldn’t this be a title match? You’d think that maybe they would want to do that here to both wrap up that lose end (especially before the heel Paige might win the belt on Sunday), and to give AJ a win so she looks strong going into Summer Slam.
Well, instead WWE decided to do the following:
AJ beat Eva up for a bit. Then Paige came out, so AJ attacked Paige. There was no DQ because Paige did not fight back at all. AJ was the one who landed all of the punches. In the process, though, AJ got counted out. AJ noticed, though, so she stopped punching her mortal enemy to instead make sure she didn’t get counted out in a non-title match against EVA MARIE. AJ then glared at Eva rather than going back to beating up her mortal enemy, so AJ apparently cares more about feuding with Eva than she does about her mortal enemy. Said enemy then jumped AJ from behind and hit her with the Paige Turner.
This was SO STUPID!
They had AJ take away all of Paige’s heat, then stop caring about her because not losing a pointless match was more important than the feud. Then they had Paige get her heat back, but it is less heat than before! What is a worse crime: Shoving AJ off the stage (and the other attacks before that) or just hitting her with the Paige Turner? AJ should absolutely not have gotten her hands on Paige before the PPV. And in the process they only made the “Eva Marie should get a title shot” loose end even longer and looser.
BO DALLAS vs. JACK SWAGGER (w/Zeb Coulter)- squash.
Yup. Bo’s a jobber now. WWE has brought three people up from NXT so far this year (and all really since Mania). Two of them are jobbers now, and the third got made to look like she was only given the Divas Title because AJ wanted to take time off.

LANA PROMO- eh.

BO DALLAS PROMO- AWESOME! He claims he wasn’t tapping out. He was just crawling to the rope, but the referee misinterpreted it as tapping out.

ROMAN REIGNS vs. THE MIZ- 6.5/10
Very short, but very good for the time it got. They told their story extremely well, and also got in a spot for Dolph to hype up Dolph vs. Miz.

A pretty good Smackdown, and a decent go-home show (aside from the AJ-Paige stuff), but between this and Raw, they build pretty much everything up well.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Michael Cole thinks that using a Polish Hammer is part of the “unorthodox style of Dean Ambrose.” How is a Polish Hammer unorthodox?