BRM Reviews the 2/5/2015 Smackdown

[Big Red Machine]

MIZ TV, WITH SPECIAL GUESTS DANIEL BRYAN & ROMAN REIGNS-
Miz-Dow is ordered to sit there quietly, like the “personal assistant” he is. Bryan got a big pop. Reigns got a bigger one. Then he punched out Miz for no reason like a jerk. In fact, he kind of came off as being a jerk in this whole segment here. I think starting his promo by saying “you think you’re gonna take my spot, don’t you?” colored everything he said afterwards in a more negative light. The “I’m going to do that by beating you!” line in the end also came off to me as needlessly confrontational.
Anyway, Reigns wants to fight. Bryan is okay with it. Rollins comes out and cuts a great heel promo, then tells Bryan that he will be facing off against Rollins and the Stoogerweights in a handicap match. That match will be SO AWESOME!

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS THE MIZ- Miz is going to challenge Roman Reigns tonight.

DOLPH ZIGGLER & RYBACK vs. GOLDUST & STARDUST- 5.5/10
HUGE pop for Ziggler. Far bigger than either Bryan or Reigns got. They wrestled for a while until, while encouraging Stardust to make a tag, Goldust said “Come on, Cody!” Cody chopped him to make the tag, then angrily stormed off, leading to Goldust being pinned by Ryback after a Shell Shock.

CURTIS AXEL PROMO- he’ll probably start every promo with “don’t change the channel” from now on.

DEAN AMBROSE vs. CURTIS AXEL- 2.5/10
Ambrose’s pop was even bigger than Ziggler’s. Ambrose wins handily.

BAD NEWS BARRETT PROMO- Great. Even better was the “Around the World in Bad News” ticker at the bottom of the screen, which included things like “Escaped kitten, Mr. Whiskers, never coming home.”

FANDANGO (w/Rosa Mendes) vs. ADAM ROSE (w/the Exotic Express)- 1/10
The Rosebuds dropped Rose on the trust-fall, but it wasn’t funny because Michael Cole all but told us it was coming. Rose beat the offending Rosebuds up for embarrassing him. This made Rose look dangerous and unbalanced. Like someone who could actually be an effective heel. He was then jobbed out to Fandango, who won his debut match against Chris Jericho at WreslteMania XXIX, and whose career has gone steadily downhill from there ever since.

ROMAN REIGNS vs. THE MIZ (w/Damien Miz-Dow)- 4.5/10
I never realized this before (probably because I’ve never played attention to his entrance video before), but Miz’s entrance video includes action clips of him from his movies, which is brilliant.

ERICK ROWAN vs. RUSEV (w/Lana)- 4.25/10
The fight is completely fair this time, and Rusev wins cleanly anyway. Hooray for heels being put over strongly!

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS PAIGE- okay.

ALICIA FOX vs. PAIGE- 0.5/10

FOOTAGE OF THE DOUBLE DATE- Tyson brought Cesaro along. Awesome. He claims it was all a misunderstanding, and double date meant like “Canadian Doubles” in tennis, where there are three players. I’m sure the fanfic writers will soon be hard at work churning out scripts in which Tyson and Cesaro “play Canadian Doubles” with Nattie if you know what I mean.
Jimmy Uso asks Tyson what his problem is. He seems to have everything going for him. He even has the WWE Universe behind him. He also seems to address everyone as “oose” (as in “we say ‘oose,’ y’all say ‘o!’”), the way Hulk Hogan uses the words “brother,” “Jack,” and “dude.”
Cesaro tries to grab some food, and Jimmy Uso immediately grabs his wrist. I guess we know who is paying for the meal.
Anyway, Tyson ran down the Usos. Nattie said she liked everything the Usos do. Tyson accused her of “acting like a phony,” because “nobody likes what the Usos do,” so Naomi stood up (literally) for Nattie and yelled at Tyson for not treating her right. More yelling happened (during which everyone else in the restaurant just completely ignored them), and then Tyson kicked the table over and Cesaro punched out the Uso (people finally paid attention now). Nattie blamed the whole mess on the Jimmy and Naomi because… um…
We knew going in that this was either going to be fantastic or a train wreck, and what we got was a little of both.

BRAY WYATT PROMO- okay

HANDICAP MATCH: Daniel Bryan vs. Seth Rollins, Jamie Noble, & Joey Mercury- 7.5/10
Great match.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Kane attacks Bryan after the match. The heels beat him down and Kane gave him two chokeslams, followed by a curb stomp from Rollins.


An okay episode of Smackdown, but mostly on the strength of the main event.