TRIPLE H PROMO- great!
He’s back to using “Bow Down to the King” as his entrance music.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS vs. NEVILLE, THE LUCHA DRAGON, & DOLPH ZIGGLER- 6.5/10
Huh. I guess Barrett got cleared. Cool.
The match was fun, but I don’t understand why they would pin Neville instead of Sin Cara in this situation.

I know this isn’t news or anything, but this announce team would be SOOOOO much better without Byron Saxton. Every time he is speaking, I can’t help but think “whatever you are saying, I’m certain that whatever Mauro or Lawler would have to say would be more enjoyable.

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS KEVIN OWENS- Owens was good. Big Show was meh. Renee was cute. I like this kinda-sorta acknowledgement of her relationship with Dean where stuff just clicks a little more if you know about it, but everything still makes perfect sense if you don’t.

DEVON DUDLEY (w/Bubba Ray Dudley)- vs. JIMMY USO (w/Jey Uso)- no rating. Meh segment.

AJ & JERICHO BACKSTAGE- I guess they are going to the “Team” direction. Mark Henry will team with them tonight. I really didn’t like the way AJ was portrayed once Mark Henry showed up. First he was ignored so that the “former world champions” could talk, then he was made the butt of a joke.

BIG SHOW vs. KEVIN OWENS- 0.75/10
Wow. That girl in the crowd they showed during Owens’ entrance has got to be the least enthusiastic boo-er ever.
Owens wins a short match by count-out.

BECKY LYNCH vs. NATALYA- DUD!
This dud isn’t really a reflection of the quality of the match as it is an expression of my frustration at the pointless DQ ending. Couldn’t we have given them time to have a real match with Becky going over clean and THEN had Naomi and Tamina attack and do their little segment? Because this post-match segment was basically the same thing we got on Raw except that this time we learn that the #1 contendership match will take place on Raw.

R-TRUTH vs. HEATH SLATER (w/Desperation Corporation)- no rating, good segment
Goldust came out to stand in a “neutral corner.”
Holy sh*t Heath Slater actually looked like a credible wrestler for the first time since… when did the Nexus break up again? In fact, Slater was so credible that Truth needed outside interference to win (although he didn’t know about it). I actually thought the finish was very creative.

THE NEW DAY vs. CHRIS JERICHO, MARK HENRY, & AJ STYLES- 6.75/10
Jericho sacrifices himself to protect AJ, leading to AJ making Woods tap out.

An okay episode of Smackdown. It wasn’t very good in the ring, but there was nothing offensive on it and it was enjoyable enough to watch. There do seem to actually be a few storyline-important developments here, too, which is rare for Smackdown.

Hm. I can't decide from this if it's worth watching or not. Honestly, I only care about Ambrose/Ziggler/Owens and the title picture. None of R-Truth or Goldust or the Job Squad interest me haha

Serujuunin wrote:Hm. I can't decide from this if it's worth watching or not. Honestly, I only care about Ambrose/Ziggler/Owens and the title picture. None of R-Truth or Goldust or the Job Squad interest me haha

So just cherry-pick.

(Although if those are the only guys you care about, maybe you should skip it).

Big Red Machine wrote:

Serujuunin wrote:Hm. I can't decide from this if it's worth watching or not. Honestly, I only care about Ambrose/Ziggler/Owens and the title picture. None of R-Truth or Goldust or the Job Squad interest me haha

So just cherry-pick.

(Although if those are the only guys you care about, maybe you should skip it).

Fair enough. I'm awful at cherry-picking matches or segments though, because then I have to know what happened before and what happens after.

I will say though, after what I've seen and read, I'm actually looking forward to this year's Wrestlemania more than I thought I would, since every one recently has been a massive letdown. I'm actually excited to see Dean fight Brock, and I haven't been excited for Brock since like, forever haha

Serujuunin wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:

Serujuunin wrote:Hm. I can't decide from this if it's worth watching or not. Honestly, I only care about Ambrose/Ziggler/Owens and the title picture. None of R-Truth or Goldust or the Job Squad interest me haha

So just cherry-pick.

(Although if those are the only guys you care about, maybe you should skip it).

Fair enough. I'm awful at cherry-picking matches or segments though, because then I have to know what happened before and what happens after.

If only you knew somewhere to find a list of exactly what happened on each show, exactly in order.

Serujuunin wrote: I will say though, after what I've seen and read, I'm actually looking forward to this year's Wrestlemania more than I thought I would, since every one recently has been a massive letdown. I'm actually excited to see Dean fight Brock, and I haven't been excited for Brock since like, forever haha

I find myself liking it a lot, too, although I'm worried about Owens vs. Big Show (if that even is the direction they are going)... but between AJ and Jericho as a tag team and this Shane thing, this show seems so completely sideways that I'm not sure if I like the overall whole or not.

Big Red Machine wrote:If only you knew somewhere to find a list of exactly what happened on each show, exactly in order.

Yeah yeah, but what I'm getting at is, if I pick just a match, I'll end up watching the whole show. Which is why I'm bad at it. I might as well just watch the whole thing while I'm doing laundry or whatever haha. These reviews are awesome though because they mostly help me decide if something is worth watching.

Big Red Machine wrote:I find myself liking it a lot, too, although I'm worried about Owens vs. Big Show (if that even is the direction they are going)... but between AJ and Jericho as a tag team and this Shane thing, this show seems so completely sideways that I'm not sure if I like the overall whole or not.

I somehow feel like Owens might be able to get a goo match out of Show. I would really like to see Ziggler actually win the IC title and then feud with some new guys for it, with Owens thrown in there too since he's the former champ, but for some reason they just seem dead set against putting a belt on Ziggler, which I'll never understand. o_O I feel like the AJ/Jericho thing came out of nowhere too, and I'm not really a fan of how it happened, but if it gets AJ the time, I won't complain. So long as they don't snag him and them let him rot somewhere.

Shane is definitely confusing too. I really liked Shane when I was younger because, lets be real, he was entertaining as hell. But I feel like this match with 'Taker is tacked on, like they were running out of time to come up with something, Shane had apparently just lost loads of money in China and was looking to come back somehow, and they figured hey, two birds with one stone. That stupid thing about control of RAW vs. some lockbox is pure stupidity IMO, but the match it gives us in the end could be really entertaining, provided 'Taker has enough in him.

I definitely won't be throwing a Wrestlemania party this year, but I'm intrigued to see what happens.