BRM Reviews the 9/20/2013 Smackdown
Posted: Sep 24th, '13, 08:04
OPENING VIDEO PACKAGE- AWESOME! We got replays of the whole thing about Dragon getting stripped of the title interspersed with Cole having a sit-down interview with Hunter in which Hunter utterly kicked ass. If he wasn’t a heel, you would think it would be a completely reasonable guy doing his job.
OPENING SEGMENT- Vickie introduces Dragon as “the laughingstock of the WWE” because he can’t even hold the title for a full day. Vickie pretty bad here, but the end result of this segment was a cool idea for a punishment match for the guys who helped Dragon at the end of Raw: A Gauntlet match in which they will all take turns facing The Shield 3-on-1.
AJ LEE vs. NAOMI (w/Cameron)- 2.75/10
AJ has started an angle where she wants to beat all of the Total Divas one by one. Natalya was doing commentary here once again and she really came off heelish a lot of the time. I’m also quite confused how she can be so angry at AJ for “being out for herself.” Aren’t all singles wrestles out for themselves, first and foremost?
ZEB COULTER PROMO- bad. Being strongly anti-immigration and wanting everyone to speak English is one thing, but a racist heel is just so passé.
SANTINO MARELLA vs. JACK SWAGGER (w/Zeb Coulter & Antonio Cesaro)- 3/10
The problems here is that Santino’s character has stalled so much over the past few years so I don’t have any faith that him getting a win against the Real Americans will go anywhere, meaning that all they did was job Swagger out to a comedy guy.
Heyman cut a decent pre-match promo, but the real highlight here was Ryback, accused his jobber opponent of not only refusing to sign an autograph for a little kid, but of then intimidating that little kid in a parking lot. F*CKING HILARIOUS!
NICK NARDONE vs. RYBACK (w/Paul Heyman & Curtis Axel)- ONE OF THE BEST SQUASHES I HAVE EVER SEEN!
All of Ryback’s moves here felt tailored to his new bullying character, and when the jobber charged out of the corner and landed a punch or two on Ryback, the crowd went ape-sh*t. AWSOME!
RANDY ORTON PROMO- awesome. A good explanation of Randy’s internal logic for his turns.
SHIELD GAUNTLET OF DEATH- No rating. Great segment.
Darren Young just got f*cking mugged! The Shield were absolutely vicious here, and any time someone got offense in on them, the crowd went nuts. Just as RVD has The Shield down and is about to hit a Five Star Frog Splash, Triple H comes out and demands that the match be shut down. He is furious at Vickie for booking it and demands that she come backstage with him right now.
HUNTER YELLS AT VICKIE BACKSTAGE- GREAT! He says that Vickie punishing these guys will piss off the rest of the locker room and there will be more people revolting. He says that the wrestlers need fair competition, so he makes a main event for tonight: The Shield vs. Dragon and the Usos.
HUNTER BACKSTAGE WITH GABRIEL AND RYDER- good.
JUSTIN GABRIEL & ZACK RYDER vs. THE WYATT FAMILY (w/Bray Wyatt)- squash
HUNTER APOLOGIZES TO RVD, THEN DEL RIO JUMPS RVD- good
R-TRUTH vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO- 4/10
THE SHIELD vs. DANIEL BRYAN & THE USOS- 7/10
Overall, a good episode of Smackdown. I loved the way they played Triple H here, and Orton's promo, the Shield Gauntlet and the Ryback squash are all worth going out of your way to see... so just watch the whole show!
OPENING SEGMENT- Vickie introduces Dragon as “the laughingstock of the WWE” because he can’t even hold the title for a full day. Vickie pretty bad here, but the end result of this segment was a cool idea for a punishment match for the guys who helped Dragon at the end of Raw: A Gauntlet match in which they will all take turns facing The Shield 3-on-1.
AJ LEE vs. NAOMI (w/Cameron)- 2.75/10
AJ has started an angle where she wants to beat all of the Total Divas one by one. Natalya was doing commentary here once again and she really came off heelish a lot of the time. I’m also quite confused how she can be so angry at AJ for “being out for herself.” Aren’t all singles wrestles out for themselves, first and foremost?
ZEB COULTER PROMO- bad. Being strongly anti-immigration and wanting everyone to speak English is one thing, but a racist heel is just so passé.
SANTINO MARELLA vs. JACK SWAGGER (w/Zeb Coulter & Antonio Cesaro)- 3/10
The problems here is that Santino’s character has stalled so much over the past few years so I don’t have any faith that him getting a win against the Real Americans will go anywhere, meaning that all they did was job Swagger out to a comedy guy.
Heyman cut a decent pre-match promo, but the real highlight here was Ryback, accused his jobber opponent of not only refusing to sign an autograph for a little kid, but of then intimidating that little kid in a parking lot. F*CKING HILARIOUS!
NICK NARDONE vs. RYBACK (w/Paul Heyman & Curtis Axel)- ONE OF THE BEST SQUASHES I HAVE EVER SEEN!
All of Ryback’s moves here felt tailored to his new bullying character, and when the jobber charged out of the corner and landed a punch or two on Ryback, the crowd went ape-sh*t. AWSOME!
RANDY ORTON PROMO- awesome. A good explanation of Randy’s internal logic for his turns.
SHIELD GAUNTLET OF DEATH- No rating. Great segment.
Darren Young just got f*cking mugged! The Shield were absolutely vicious here, and any time someone got offense in on them, the crowd went nuts. Just as RVD has The Shield down and is about to hit a Five Star Frog Splash, Triple H comes out and demands that the match be shut down. He is furious at Vickie for booking it and demands that she come backstage with him right now.
HUNTER YELLS AT VICKIE BACKSTAGE- GREAT! He says that Vickie punishing these guys will piss off the rest of the locker room and there will be more people revolting. He says that the wrestlers need fair competition, so he makes a main event for tonight: The Shield vs. Dragon and the Usos.
HUNTER BACKSTAGE WITH GABRIEL AND RYDER- good.
JUSTIN GABRIEL & ZACK RYDER vs. THE WYATT FAMILY (w/Bray Wyatt)- squash
HUNTER APOLOGIZES TO RVD, THEN DEL RIO JUMPS RVD- good
R-TRUTH vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO- 4/10
THE SHIELD vs. DANIEL BRYAN & THE USOS- 7/10
Overall, a good episode of Smackdown. I loved the way they played Triple H here, and Orton's promo, the Shield Gauntlet and the Ryback squash are all worth going out of your way to see... so just watch the whole show!