This week’s Smackdown was a setback comparing to last week’s episode. We had only three matches which is really not good for a two hour show. The week was more of in ring and backstage promos. But we must admit, two segments of this episode were just hilarious; the first one and the final one. Another bad side of this week was no involvement of the tag teams. After last week’s cool promo from the Usos, we seriously expected to see some good continuation. But there was no involvement of any Tag Team.
The first one was a segment between The Miz and John Cena. Miz cut an amazing promo where he accused John Cena for taking his spotlights and one he told that almost every smark Cena haters accuse him for; for manipulating the creative team.
Cena came out with even a better promo. He answered to all of the fans who accuse Cena for the reason we already mentioned. He said if he had the power to manipulate the creative team, he would go to WrestleMania with the Undertaker instead of standing with the Miz. These real life controversies under the curtain of kayfabe are really cool if executed well.
We got three matches on this week’s episode. The first one was a 2 out of 3 falls match between Becky Lynch and Mickie James which Becky won. Becky needed to win this match and Becky looked really strong in it. However, the match could have been way better if they got a minimum of fifteen minutes of booking time. Stipulated matches need to be booked for a little ling time, hell, this match was not even booked for ten minutes. Now it is pretty clear that Mickie has returned to WWE just to promote new talents, similar to Dudley Boys.
AJ Styles and Luke Harper went one on one to determine the no 1 contender and it was won by AJ clean and clear which was pretty surprising. We were all thinking Luke Harper might be going to WrestleMania main event but that did not happen. The involvement of Shane McMahon during the match gives a slight possibility what we all feared; AJ Styles vs. Shane McMahon at WrestleMania. Yes, even though AJ won and it looks like he is going to WrestleMania now but after the last segment, things might change.
Another match we had from this week was a chairs match between Dolph Ziggler and Apolo Crews which was not worked really well. It was not booked very well either. You are making a chairs match and 90% of the match is not much physical either. Ziggler did win the match but such matches are not good for his current status at all. We hope not to see this feud having any continuation.
Moving on to the main event segment where the WWE champion Bray Wyatt was scheduled to invoke the whole world but surprisingly Randy Orton turned on his ‘master.’ He put the whole Wyatt compound on fire at the end of the show. Holy cow it was some segment! Orton’s promo was marvelous. His story telling, invocation, it was all hilarious. Bray was seen pleading to Randy that is not very common, we always see Bray smiling and laughing, but in this segment he was literally crying, which is a great sign for the buildup of WrestleMania main event. The segment was a little scary for the kids too. Orton kept talking about sister Abigail and how the compound was built over her corpses. This story and the buildup can be a little frightening for the kids.
So where is it all heading towards? Orton said that he would go to WrestleMania and he will challenge Bray for the title. What would AJ do now? If you care about the storyline between Orton and Wyatt, it would not be a good option to include AJ Styles in this match. But involving AJ can make this match better of course.
Here is what we think is going to happen; Shane McMahon won’t allow AJ to compete in the main event of WrestleMania and he will say that they needed a no 1 contender because Orton did not want face Bray earlier, but now as Orton is ready, they do not need another no 1 contender, so they will take AJ out of the main event and this might lead to the AJ Styles – Shane McMahon match at WrestleMania.
Final Verdict – Overall, the show was okay. It was not boring in spite of not featuring much matches, which indeed is a good sign; the Smackdown creative team can make things interesting even without a lot of matches on the card. But on the other hand, it is a wrestling show, you need to book more matches in spite of promos, even though all the promos that took place were no nonsense. It all had connection with WrestleMania and building up the storylines. Still, things would have been better if more matches were added.
Sportzwiki Rating – 3/5