BRM Reviews the 11/14/2017 Smackdown

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 11/14/2017 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 15th, '17, 00:33

SHANE MCMAHON HOLDS A SMACKDOWN PEP RALLY BACKSTAGE- Oh my G-d everyone here came off looking like gigantic dorks. They’re all standing around in this goofy blue room with Shane standing on a stage that is at most a foot and a half off the ground, and cutting promos too each other about how they’re going to win their matches at the PPV. Cena cares so much about this that he’s not even there. Also nowhere to be found (thankfully) is James Ellsworth. But do you know who I did manage to see? The Shining Stars! For the first time in months. They ended this with them all chanting “SMACKDOWN ROCKS!” What a bunch of geeks.

Also apparently there but way too smart and cool for Shane’s dumb little pep rally is Daniel Bryan, making his return from being injured by Kane two weeks ago on Raw.

DANIEL BRYAN PROMO- Did he get brainwashed while he was out with his injury or something? Because now he apparently buys into all of Shane’s bullsh*t. He thinks Steph was behind Kane’s attack on him even though she was already out of the building when he got there (did she call Kane on his phone and ask him to attack Bryan? Does Kane even have a cell phone?). He thinks that the reason Jason Jordan was replaced with Triple H is because Raw is “afraid” of them. Isn’t Bryan supposed to be a babyface? Shouldn’t he want Jason Jordan to have taken the time off to properly heal up before returning to action? And even if that’s not the case, how can replacing Jason Jordan with Triple H possibly be seen as anything but the right strategic decision?
He also now didn’t agree with attacking Raw not because it was wrong but because he was just worried about Raw attacking them back.
Dragon then brings out AJ and says that on Smackdown they like to treat their champions just as good if not better than Raw treats their champions, so because Raw’s Universal Champion has an advocate, Bryan is going to offer to be AJ’s advocate for tonight. If that’s true, then why is he only making this offer to AJ now? Shouldn’t he and Shane have been offering this service to AJ and Jinder and Orton since Brock won Raw’s belt? Of course they should have, but just like the animosity between the two shows, we’re just supposed to pretend that all of this has been happening all the time for months but all off-camera, I guess, because that’s the quality of storytelling that WWE strives for.
So yeah. Basically, Bryan is offering to cut AJ’s promo for him, and he’s starting off by speaking like Paul Heyman. Oh my! How clever these WWE writers are. Is there anyone in the world who thinks that this will in any way bother Brock Lesnar? Or even Paul Heyman?
Bryan’s promo was pretty good, except for the fact that it subtly buries everyone who has lost to Brock as not having even had Brock in trouble. AJ then cut his own promo, which was fine.


AJ & JINDER BACKSTAGE- Good
Jinder says that AJ will lose to Brock and then lose his title back to Jinder. AJ pretty much ignored him.

WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: Baron Corbin(c) vs. Sin Cara- 6/10
Corbin retains. Not much else to say.

SHANE & BRYAN BACKSTAGE- The previous points of contention between them still exist.

WWE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Natalya(c) vs. Charlotte Flair- 6.75/10
This should have gotten at least ten more minutes. The crowd was super-hot for this and loved seeing their hometown gal win the belt (I know! I was shocked that they didn’t do their usual stupid plan of beating the babyface in his/her home town). Charlotte’s win here means she’s probably going over Alexa at the PPV because WWE loves Charlotte and Smackdown needs some wins and WWE usually likes to put the babyface over when there are no consequences, and the prospect of Alexa losing makes me very unhappy. I also think that Nattie vs. Alexa not only would have been the better match (although the face-heel dynamic we’ll now have will certainly help Alexa vs. Charlotte), but that Charlotte vs. Alexa is a match that should be saved, as they have been the two central figures of the company’s two women’s divisions since early on in the brand-split era and they have yet to ever face each other in any match aside from last year’s ten-woman tag at Survivor Series. Quite simply, doing Alexa vs. Charlotte at Survivor Series with nothing on the line feels like a waste.

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS CHARLOTTE FLAIR- awesome babyface promo about winning the title and about her father. The moment with Ric and Charlotte at the end was touching. Also, she cut a promo on Alexa.

BLUDGEON BROTHERS PROMO- much less lame this week. They’ll be here next week.

CHAD GABLE (w/Shelton Benjamin) vs. JIMMY USO (w/Jey Uso)- 3.5/10
So not only is the injured Uso’s leg no longer injured, but they also had Gable lose here, damaging the obvious rematch for the titles these two teams should be having. I understand the need to give The Usos a win before Survivor Series, but why the hell did you book them against their top contenders? They should have had Jimmy beat one of the Shining Stars while Gable & Benjamin cut a promo demanding another title shot.

We are told Charlotte will be replaced on the Survivor Series team by a mystery woman, who will wind up being Paige, which, of course, makes no sense because Paige was drafted to Raw.

OWENS & ZAYN BACKSTAGE- okay.

NEW DAY PROMO- they make fun of The Shield and try to sew dissension within The Shield.

KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN vs. THE NEW DAY (w/Kofi Kingston)- 5.5/10
The match went on for a while, but everyone knew that there was no way this match was ending without The Shield showing up. Eventually they did, wearing t-shirts that were the Raw shirt on one half and their Shield shirts on the other half. They might well have been the ugliest shirts in wrestling history. New Day, Owens, and Zayn stood shoulder-to-shoulder against them and how can anyone possibly not see it coming that Owens and Zayn are going to turn on New Day?
Wow. Turns out they just abandoned them. Now that it was a fair fight, The Shield attacked and beat up New Day. Despite outsiders assaulting the legal wrestlers on one team, the bell hasn’t yet rung to signify a disqualification.
SHOW ENDING SEGMENT- dull.
The Usos came out and Smackdown was able to control things now that they had the numbers advantage. Then Sheamus & Cesaro came out and now that it was a fair fight, Raw was winning again. We then cut to a hallway backstage where the Raw women’s team and Alexa Bliss! were coming up on the Smackdown women’s locker room. They charged in there and beat up the Smackdown women’s division (with Lana taking the place of the mystery fifth women to receive an ass-kicking).
We cut back to the ring where we find out that no one from Smackdown has come out to help repel these invaders. Then Joe, Balor, Crews, and Titus did a run-in. Why didn’t they show up at the same time as the other group? Didn’t Raw wait for all of their people to be in place before attacking?
Only now did a bunch of Smackdown guys come out to help fight. Then Kurt Angle and Braun Strowman appeared on the stage and Kurt sent Braun down to go clear the ring because I guess Kurt isn’t fighting tonight because he’s a wuss. Braun did, including disposing of Nakamura. Shane got to face off one-on-one with Braun, and I was screaming at the top of my lungs for Braun to put Shane McMahon out of my misery but all I got was one freakin’ clothesline. More beating of Shane from other people ensued, but I will not be satisfied until Shane’s body is lying on the remains of the announcers’ table while his head is somewhere in the balcony.
This whole thing was dull and predictable, and the way it was sequenced made it feel scripted. It felt like guys were showing up when, where and how they showed up specifically because showing up in those places at those times would result in well-sequenced pops rather than it feeling organic. Anyway, Shane gets his f*ckin comeuppance for his bullsh*t, and Raw manages to do this without feeling like heels because for 99% of this it was either a fair fight or Smackdown had the numbers advantage and Raw still kicked their asses.

A less offensive episode of Smackdown than usual, and it’s sad that this show has come to the point where I am considering “mostly dull and poorly booked, but at least it was inoffensive” to be a success for Creative.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 11/14/2017 Smackdown

Post by cero2k » Nov 15th, '17, 08:35

the women's part was cringy, they're terrible actors, but overall i loved the ending brawl, that's the intensity that i've been missing from WWE, that was the angle that should had happened about 3 weeks ago to make me care about SS
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Re: BRM Reviews the 11/14/2017 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Nov 15th, '17, 10:09

I liked the ending part of the women's attack, with the sudden POW! shot on Charlotte from Alexa Bliss actually.

It just really summed up that they were doing damage and that was the exclamation point.
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Big Red Machine
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Re: BRM Reviews the 11/14/2017 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 15th, '17, 12:02

KILLdozer wrote: Nov 15th, '17, 10:09 I liked the ending part of the women's attack, with the sudden POW! shot on Charlotte from Alexa Bliss actually.

It just really summed up that they were doing damage and that was the exclamation point.
This. It was an excellent way to end the segment.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 11/14/2017 Smackdown

Post by cero2k » Nov 15th, '17, 12:42

KILLdozer wrote: Nov 15th, '17, 10:09 I liked the ending part of the women's attack, with the sudden POW! shot on Charlotte from Alexa Bliss actually.

It just really summed up that they were doing damage and that was the exclamation point.
it was well executed, they're acting is just a bit too much for me. they're all overly excited, like trying to get in a worldstar video
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Re: BRM Reviews the 11/14/2017 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 15th, '17, 13:02

cero2k wrote: Nov 15th, '17, 12:42
KILLdozer wrote: Nov 15th, '17, 10:09 I liked the ending part of the women's attack, with the sudden POW! shot on Charlotte from Alexa Bliss actually.

It just really summed up that they were doing damage and that was the exclamation point.
it was well executed, they're acting is just a bit too much for me. they're all overly excited, like trying to get in a worldstar video
I didn't feel that at all.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 11/14/2017 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Nov 15th, '17, 20:24

Just when I thought I couldn't be any more tired of Charlotte, the whole entire match she literally had to shout and pant and grunt loudly, as well as the entire time she was in the sharpshooter...oh my goodness.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 11/14/2017 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Nov 15th, '17, 21:05

You should have mentioned Shane got two triples from The Shield and Angle hit the Slam, but a running Powerslam from Strowman would have been excellent, or an Ankle lock lol.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 11/14/2017 Smackdown

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 16th, '17, 09:29

KILLdozer wrote: Nov 15th, '17, 21:05 You should have mentioned Shane got two triples from The Shield and Angle hit the Slam, but a running Powerslam from Strowman would have been excellent, or an Ankle lock lol.
The specifics aren't as important as the general idea in this case. I doubt they're going to play off of any of these specific spots in Sunday's match.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 11/14/2017 Smackdown

Post by KILLdozer » Nov 17th, '17, 07:53

Maybe Carmella cashes in and wins and takes the match from Charlotte.

That would be different.
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