WWE Smackdown Review
October 4, 2016
By: Adam Martin of Wrestleview.com
With only five days remaining until the second Smackdown-only PPV this Sunday, WWE made one final pitch for No Mercy and tried to keep up the momentum from recent weeks.
While you can’t knock it out of the park every week, WWE did a pretty good job still keeping interest for the special event providing us with a new match for Sunday and bringing back an old act in The Spirit Squad that we have not seen on WWE TV since 2006!
The hype is real for No Mercy this Sunday
WWE has done an excellent job making this Sunday’s triple threat match between AJ Styles, John Cena and Dean Ambrose feel special and interesting. Everyone involved in this match has given you an easy answer as to why they are involved and why they want to win. Styles wants to continue being the face that runs the place. Cena wants to become a 16-time champion and reach Ric Flair territory. Ambrose wants his title back and finds the involvement of Cena in this match to be a joke. Some times with wrestling you just need to follow the K.I.S.S. principle: Keep it simple, stupid. I’m interested and I couldn’t have asked anything more from WWE in building up a main event worthy match for this Sunday.
Old WWE act returns to TV
While The Miz presenting a “Dolphumentary” mocking the career of Dolph Ziggler was entertaining and a nice touch, I was equally surprised and entertained by the return of The Spirit Squad to reunite with Ziggler (aka Nicky). We only got Kenny and Mikey (Johnny and Mitch must have been busy), but it was definitely an act I thought I would never see again on WWE television. Miz had some killer lines tonight including how Ziggler will have the opportunity to go on a ton of podcasts and sign $5 autographs when he loses on Sunday. This has been another excellent build by WWE and who would have thought something with The Miz would have been this interesting in 2016?
Quick Thoughts
* Where is Shane McMahon?
* The Randy Orton/Bray Wyatt stuff was more tolerable this week.
* Alexa Bliss has been getting a lot better in the ring since her start on Smackdown.
* The Vaudevillains are starting to approach Ascension territory of disinterest.
* American Alpha seems poised for some kind of a run following Backlash.
* Swagger and Corbin had a match.
Final Impression
While this wasn’t one of the better episodes of Smackdown in recent weeks, it definitely kept my attention and did another good job of building up No Mercy this Sunday. I certainly had my doubts about this brand-only shows, especially going three hours long. However, I think WWE has been able to create a really fun atmosphere for Smackdown and make you genuinely interested in a lot of the stories taking place right now. No Mercy has a lot of potential and I’m eager to see the delivery this Sunday night.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know your Smackdown thoughts in the comments below.
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