Mike Tedesco’s Smackdown Thoughts
November 28, 2014
By: Mike Tedesco of Wrestleview.com
If you celebrated Thanksgiving this year, I hope you are well and had a great holiday.
I really liked the opening of the show. It was nice to see some logic brought back and some follow up to storylines. I blasted this past Monday’s RAW for being an illogical (and unentertaining) mess, as I have for most of the episodes of RAW this fall. I cannot express to you how refreshing it is to see some logic brought back. Daniel Bryan said Rusev would have to say the Pledge of Allegiance on RAW or defend his US Title in a Battle Royal. Rusev did neither, and that was that. I’m glad to see Bryan came back tonight and made him defend the title in a Battle Royal as promised. It’s not much, but little things like that really make a difference. Dolph Ziggler was also booked in an Intercontinental Championship match. That’s another great move. Ziggler was screwed so badly last Monday when he lost to Harper since three men attacked him before the match started. It’s only logical to make things right with him and give him a fair shot at the title. Stuff like that makes sense and doesn’t insult my intelligence.
I didn’t really mention this in my thoughts from RAW because I was too busy talking about how awful that show was, but it really is great to see Daniel Bryan come back. Even though he’s probably a ways off from being in shape to wrestle, it was great to hear the very real reactions he gets from the crowd. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that no one active on the roster at this moment gets a reaction like he does that isn’t named John Cena. I’m interested to hear the reaction Randy Orton gets upon returning as well.
The battle royal was just like any other battle royal you’ve ever seen, but that’s not a bad thing. It was pretty much by the books, and I found myself really enjoying it. Even though I really don’t understand why they’re feuding, I liked the quick little skirmish Big Show and Erick Rowan got into before the first commercial break.
That was an absolutely fantastic promo from Bray Wyatt tonight. Wyatt was so on point with his delivery. Even though the feud started off in a bizarre way (Ambrose wasn’t even mad that Wyatt cost him his shot at Seth Rollins, which he was waiting months for), it’s really starting to pick up now. They had a very good match at Survivor Series, and I think the upcoming one at WWE TLC will be even better. This promo is a signal that it’s going to be an out and out war, and I cannot wait for it. Kudos to Wyatt on a great promo to get me excited for their match.
I don’t think any of us were interested in hearing the “real truth about AJ Lee.” I think a lot of people are wondering why the Bella Twins are back together. What an awful storyline they have had. They had all those awful segments throughout the end of summer and beginning of fall that wasted so much time, and for what? For Brie Bella to eventually turn heel? That doesn’t make any sense.
By the way, I absolutely loved the Concessions Kane segment tonight. Seeing Kane in all of his rivals’ merchandise made me crack up.
I really enjoyed the Ryback vs. Seth Rollins match tonight. I criticized his match against Cesaro last Monday on RAW because it was two big power guys in front of a dead crowd with not much excitement in the match. This was a longer match, but it worked because you have a guy like Rollins who can bump around for Ryback and use his crew to gain an unfair advantage. I didn’t mind the DQ finish as it was building to a match in the future between Kane and Ryback. This feud started as a food fight, but I’m willing to overlook that for now.
I thought it said on RAW that The New Day would debut on next week’s RAW? I don’t mind. I really like the energy of all three men, and The New Day chant is pretty catchy. It could be a good platform to get Big E to the next level. For the time being, they should be a really good tag team. I can see people getting into what they’re doing.
The main event with Dolph Ziggler and Luke Harper was ok. I thought the commentators did a really good job putting over how resilient Ziggler is. I still don’t think they’re going to do anything of substance with Ziggler in the long run, but at least they’re letting his character have some dignity. All in all, this was a very good edition of Smackdown. This two-hour show blew RAW out of the water.
Bump of the Night: Ryback giving Rollins a back body drop on J&J Security
Match of the Night: Seth Rollins vs. Ryback ** 1/4
Final Rating: ***
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.