Mike Tedesco’s Smackdown Thoughts
November 21, 2014
By: Mike Tedesco of Wrestleview.com
Ah yes, just what I needed in my week. I definitely needed a third long promo by Triple H to recap. Oh yes, that was fantastic. It was more of the same from Triple H at first. He basically reiterated every point he made on RAW about what would happen if The Authority went down. Then he called out the members of Team Cena (minus Cena, who has been such a great partner all this time anyway) and put the stipulation on that they’ll be fired if they lose on Sunday. First of all, I don’t know why they wouldn’t have added this stipulation on RAW when there were more eyes on the show. It’s well known that Smackdown doesn’t pull in the numbers that RAW does. Secondly, why add this stipulation at all? To me it really ruins the match. Before I had some slight doubt about Team Cena coming through on Sunday, but now I have no doubts whatsoever, unless they want to go through a horrible firing storyline, which they’ve proven in the past that they can’t pull off well. Remember John Cena being fired during The Nexus storyline? That was brutal. This was a highly unnecessary stipulation that really didn’t need to be added to the match. My gut feeling says if you were going to subscribe to the WWE Network or order the PPV to see the show, you’ve already made up your mind.
I enjoyed the match with Dolph Ziggler and Rusev. The finish was a foregone conclusion, but to both men’s credits, they worked hard and got the crowd to pop big when Ziggler hit that Zig-Zag. It really looked like it could be the end for Rusev, but Ziggler took too much time. This crowd is already infinitely better than the crowd from RAW. A good crowd is sometimes the difference between a match that is “blah” and one that isn’t. In this case, their excitement added to the match and heightened my enjoyment of it. The one thing I’m tired of seeing is Ziggler getting crushed constantly. Hopefully that’ll start to change after this Sunday. I actually hope he has a really good showing at the PPV and isn’t one of the first ones eliminated like I fear he will be.
I’ve got to admit that I’ve really enjoyed the comedic styling of Damien Mizdow this week. That spot on RAW where Miz took a double hip toss from Los Matadores only for Mizdow to run to the middle of the ring and flip himself to mimic him was absolutely hilarious. Then tonight when Mizdow threw himself into Gold and Stardust because Miz had been thrown into The Usos… forget it. I was actually laughing, and that normally isn’t my reaction to WWE comedy. This was good. They need to give these guys the titles and run this tandem as far as it can go.
I wasn’t all that in love with the Dean Ambrose Survival Kit segment. I just don’t like the addition of the back-story. It’s just so generic and hokey. It’s sounds like something out of a lame, Hollywood soap opera writer’s room. Oh… wait. I think that’s exactly where it came from. I feel like they could have gone in so many different directions here, and they took the worst course of action. It’s never even mentioned that Wyatt cost him the chance at Seth Rollins that Ambrose had been fighting for since the beginning of June. Now it’s just this stupid story about his dad. The whole thing is just one giant missed opportunity.
Yikes. That was an awful match between AJ and Brie Bella. The whole thing with The Bella Butler angle has been atrocious. No backstage skits or really any advantage given to Nikki. The one upside of these things are the comedy bits they could do, but they didn’t do a single thing. Yet another missed opportunity. As for AJ… she’s about as stale as year old bread. She has no real competition or anyone on the roster than can push her to be better, so she’s stuck in a real rut. There’s no character. She just skips and looks off into space. Compelling television! The divas division is back on life support, but I think that’s fair to say for the mid-card as well.
It really saddens me to see Cesaro being used as such an unbelievable joke. The guy is so super talented. He’s too good for where he’s at right now. Does his character need help? Sure it does, but that’s why you have 500 guys in the writing room — to come up with some solid ideas for solid workers! It’s not rocket science, people. As for Erick Rowan, he obviously was booked to look strong and succeeded. I’m curious to see the feud between him and Luke Harper, but the crowd wasn’t exactly buzzing when they were teasing it.
The Renee Young interview is everything you need to know about why the company is in the shape it’s in. We’re subjected to storylines with plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon, poor writing for the most part, and a complete and total lack of logic. Renee asked the members of Team Cena for their reaction to all of them EXCEPT John Cena being fired if they lose on Sunday. This was never, ever clarified in the Triple H promo from earlier in the night. I had to go back and check. The way they made it seem was that the entire Team Cena would be fired. Now it’s only four of the five. Yet another unclear stipulation or storyline plot.
There wasn’t much to the main event that’s really worth noting, though Big Show and Ryback did seem to have a lot of fun chopping the ever-loving hell out of Rollins’ chest. The notable thing is the post-match assault of Team Cena. This was really well done. Triple H looked like a madman as he unleashed chair shot after chair shot on the guys. Those weren’t wimpy little shots either. They were stiff as all hell. It was a very cool visual to leave off with before the PPV on Sunday.
Bump of the Night: Seth Rollins getting back dropped to the floor
Match of the Night: Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev **
Final Rating: ** 1/2
E-Mail – MikeyT817@gmail.com
Twitter – @MikeTedescoWV
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Thanks for reading!
Mike Tedesco is the official recapper of WWE RAW and Smackdown for Wrestleview.com.