Mike’s Quick Smackdown Thoughts
November 8, 2014
By: Mike Tedesco of Wrestleview.com
* I loved the way the show kicked off with a Steel Cage match. After months of just awful show after awful show, we have a week of great television from WWE. Granted, I’m writing this particular thought immediately following the opening so this show still has an hour and forty-five minutes to go straight to hell, but I don’t think it will. WWE, hopefully, is going to be turning the corner. One of the things I was lamenting in my columns was the fact that they’re in a holding pattern because they’ve sold six PPVs without even booking a match with that six-month commitment thing. So for six-months, they felt they didn’t need to put out unbelievable content. At least that’s how it felt to me. It could be a total fluke for one week, which I noted in my RAW thoughts, but without that six-month commitment, they need to be better creatively. This is all a step in the right direction. Anyway, the cage match was very good. They didn’t do any crazy stunts in it, but the match told a good story and was highly entertaining.
* I liked the promo Kane cut on the Randy Orton situation. It was quick and concise and left room for further explanation on RAW from the bigger fish in The Authority. It set the tone for what we’ll be seeing over the next few weeks as well. The Authority is going to punish anyone associated with John Cena, starting with Dolph Ziggler, who Kane booked against himself in a Steel Cage match.
* Kane was out to scout Ryback when Cesaro showed up. This is the first thing I didn’t like about the show. It was nothing Ryback did. It’s the way they’re booking Cesaro. This is a guy who at the beginning of the year had unbelievable amounts of steam following an amazing match against John Cena in Denver. He went from winning the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania and teaming up with Paul Heyman to… this. Just another guy on the roster getting punished for speaking his mind. Granted, the match was competitive. I just think Cesaro is beyond this and has unfortunately been booked to oblivion. Will he ever turn the corner?
* Are we going to see Adam Rose in a match against The Bunny? Oh god, please god, no.
* I really liked The Peep Show segment. Thinking about it now, Christian’s pop wasn’t all that fantastic. The best part was when Bray Wyatt made his appearance. Wyatt gave his reason for attacking Ambrose (he wants to fix him) before things got really fun. Ambrose went to go attack him, but the lights went out. When the came back on, the visual of Wyatt behind him was just awesome. It was really well done. I’m looking forward to seeing this match. It’s a shame that Ambrose probably can’t win this one, but hopefully he’ll look good in defeat.
* I like that they brought the Tyson Kidd/Natalya program up from NXT. I absolutely hate it on Total Divas, since it’s so obviously fake, but it works on WWE TV for some reason. We’ll see how it pans out.
* That was a really fun way to close out the show with a very entertaining cage match. Kane is no doubt past his prime, but he can still put on a good performance when he needs to. This was one of those nights where he came to play. Ziggler has been jobbed out week after week it seems like, so this was a really good win for him to get. They have to give him a few more along these lines to make him seem like he truly belongs in this main event Survivor Series match. All in all, this was a very entertaining edition of Smackdown.
* Finally, I have to say that segment with Sergeant Dan Rose is probably the greatest thing I’ve ever seen on this show. That was so moving and incredible. Good luck not being touched by that.
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