Raw had loads of surprises for us this week. What did Smackdown have to offer? There were three returns and one debut at Raw, How many debuts did Smackdown have? And how was the show overall? Let us discuss.
The show started as the new WWE champion Randy Orton addressed Bray Wyatt. Wyatt challenged Orton in a ‘House of Horror’ match. Sounds like a new match concept, hopefully, it will be cool. This segment also marks the return of Eric Rowan. Finally, a little help for Bray.
There was a total of four matches on the show. First one being the Smackdown Women’s championship between the new champion Naomi and Alexa Bliss. They are pushing Naomi which is a good thing but also they are burying Alexa by some means. Two back to back submission defeats for a two times champion does not look good for her status at all. Alexa should be removed from the title frame for a while should concentrate on some non-title feud wins.
The next match marked the much-anticipated debut of Tye Dillinger. He debuted against Curt Hawkins. Tye completely dominated the match. The whole scenario was created to promote the perfect 10. It is a good thing indeed. Tye can be a very strong star for the mid-card division of Smackdown.
Miz and Maryse came out in the attire of John Cena and Nikki Bella. The segment was hilarious. Especially Maryse was so funny at mimicking Nikki Bella. They told that we will not see John Cena or Nikki Bella in quite a while. Fans seemed pretty relieved to hear this.
And then, there was the historical moment; ‘the debut of Shinsuke Nakamura.’ Possibly the most anticipated debut of the season. It was the biggest pop of the night. Nakamura got a live music performed during his entrance. They are really utilising the crazy fame of Nakamura’s entrance theme. So a feud between Miz and Nakamura is next?
Next was a non-title street fight between Baron Corbin and the IC champion Dean Ambrose. We did not understand the point of organising a non-title street fight. They could the stipulation for the title shot when they organise it. We must say it was a poor piece of booking.
Then there was another great part of the event. We have our confusion on which was the best part of the night; Nakamura’s debut or this one? Actually, we are talking about the babyface turn of AJ Styles. And they booked it really well, kudos to the writers for this.
The main event match was a tag team contest, the Wyatt Family being on one side and Randy Orton & Luke Harper being on the other. We seriously thought Luke Harper would betray Orton in this match and will join the Wyatt family again, but no such thing happened. This is a little odd. Luke decided to part ways with the Wyatt family because of his fight with Orton. Now, when Orton and Bray are enemies, he is on Orton’s side? His main fight was against Orton, not Bray. Harper should backstab Orton to join the Wyatt family soon. Else, we would have to say, the booking is bad.
Final Verdict – Overall, it was a great show. Not as good as Raw, but there were some cool things, like the debut of Tye Dillinger and Shinsuke Nakamura, Eric Rowan’s return, Miz and Maryse’s promo and of course, AJ Styles’ face turn. But there are some poor things that should be mentioned too. First, the non-title street fight between Dean and Baron, next, no involvement of women except Naomi and Alexa Bliss, no involvement of the tag team division. Smackdown’s tag team division is already lacking strength, and having no involvement with them makes things even worse. Hopefully, some tag teams will join Smackdown on the superstar shake up next week.
Sportzwiki Rating – 3.5/5