WWE Smackdown Review
September 20, 2016
By: Adam Martin of Wrestleview.com
After a series of underwhelming shows, things are coming together quite nicely on Tuesday night’s with Team Blue as WWE put together another sold two hours of television tonight.
It’s pretty clear that getting to the Backlash show was a very important milestone for not only the brand split, but for the Smackdown brand in general. Tonight felt very focused and got things setup for the upcoming No Mercy PPV in few weeks on October 9.
Ambrose pulls off upset
The approach WWE is taking with this triple threat match at No Mercy involving Dean Ambrose, John Cena and AJ Styles was setup quite nicely last week and continued this week with a really good main event match between Ambrose and Cena. The new role WWE has for Cena as the veteran star who is finding it hard to jump back into the ring and pick up where he left off is the perfect storyline for John at this point in his career. He’s already done so much the last decade that taking a loss doesn’t hurt and only helps guys like Ambrose. It’s a simple yet very effective role Cena. Both guys had a really good match and the flash roll up finish came off great and even more so with how Cena played it off on the outside.
Great call by WWE to setup a championship rematch for Ambrose next week with Styles.
Smackdown sets the table for No Mercy
Tonight setup a lot for No Mercy in a few weeks involving the Smackdown Women’s Championship and the Smackdown Tag Team Championships. The Usos taking out Chad Gable again told a great story including Jason Jordan being outnumbered. It’s pretty obvious Alexa Bliss is a work in progress when it comes to her promo skills, but she will get there and she has a great dance partner in Becky Lynch. Becky is really settling into her new role as the current leader of the Smackdown women’s division right now.
Dolph Ziggler comes up short again
It’s going to be interesting to see where things go next for the Dolph Ziggler character on Smackdown. The last few weeks they have been openly teasing his in-ring struggles and not being able to win the big one. Both Miz and Ziggler worked really hard tonight and put together a very solid championship television match. Maryse remains incredibly effective with Miz’s presentation. Miz screaming his title length reign days was a nice touch as well. Really good work by everyone involved on Tuesday night.
Random Thoughts
* David Otunga is still struggling to find a groove on commentary. Just not good.
* Baron Corbin still has a ton of upside a heel act in WWE.
* Curt Hawkins said more stuff this week.
* It appears we are finally going to get Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton at No Mercy.
* Good call to shorten the women’s tag to build more between Nikki and Carmella.
Final Impression
WWE is a on a roll with Smackdown Live right now putting together a solid two hours of wrestling television. It feels like the brand has picked up a ton of momentum since the Backlash PPV and you can really feel a difference between the brands right now. Television ratings aside (which are pretty irrelevant in 2016 given how people consume content now), Smackdown is really building an identity for itself and I hope they can keep it up.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know your Smackdown thoughts in the comments below.
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