BRM Reviews the 12/25/2020 Smackdown (it's good for once)

Post Reply
User avatar
Big Red Machine
Posts: 27378
Joined: Dec 16th, '10, 15:12

BRM Reviews the 12/25/2020 Smackdown (it's good for once)

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 27th, '20, 12:19

STEEL CAGE MATCH FOR THE WWE UNIVERSAL TITLE: Roman Reigns(c) (w/Paul Heyman) vs. Kevin Owens- 7.75/10
This is one of those cage matches where you can win by pinfall or submission as well as escaping. I wish WWE would be consistent with the rules of these things, because the more things feel tailored to specific booking goals, the more predetermined everything feels.
Owens, of course, is getting this rematch because Jey Uso constantly interfered in this title match on Sunday, and it’s a cage match to prevent Jey from interfering in this one.
These two were having a great, intense cage match until the stupid finish, where Jey Uso managed to find a way to interfere in a f*cking cage match for the second time. I don’t care that he didn’t actually enter the cage. It still hurts the gimmick.
And what’s the endgame here? All of WWE’s big gimmick matches are no DQs, so it’s hard to bar Jey Uso from ringside unless you’re doing a regular match… and are you REALLY going to do a TLC match and then a cage match just to have the feud end in a straight wrestling match? And even if you were, is it really worthy killing these gimmick matches just to get there?
(Yes, theoretically you could have Owens goad Roman into ordering Jey to not interfere, but 1) Roman comes across as far too smart for that, and 2) I’m pretty sure something similar already happened and Jey interfered anyway so Roman beat Jey up, but Jey was still with him afterwards, so that would neither solve the problem nor move the story along.)

WOMEN’S TAG TITLE TALKING SEGMENT- terrible
Asuka and Charlotte talked but said nothing of use. Bayley interrupted them and was annoying. This was followed by a parade of women who came out and were all annoying. Carmella called them “witches… I mean bitches” and then laughed. She also made the obligatory comment about being naughty or nice. Sasha hit her. Most of the time, they would have led to a big schmoz, for some reason this time the wrestlers managed to not just start attacking each other because one of their number through a punch. That was a pleasant change.
I figured this segment was going to set up challengers for Charlotte and Asuka, but then they through up an “up next” graphic telling me that a title match involving these six had already been booked, so WHAT THE F*CKING WAS THE POINT OF THIS SEGMENT?

TRIPLE THREAT ELIMINATION MATCH FOR WWE WOMEN’S TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Charlotte Flair & Asuka(c) vs. Sasha Banks & Bianca Belair vs. Bayley & Carmella (w/Reginald)- 7.25/10
Two teams who have done nothing to earn it are getting a shot at the tag titles because… um…
The Riott Squad were shown watching backstage, and Cole said they were upset that they weren’t included in this match. Under normal circumstances I’d tell them to stop complaining and win some matches, but, neither of these other teams won any matches either, so I think they’ve got a valid complaint.
Sasha pinned Bayley after a Meteora. Having her pin Carmella would have been better, seeing as how Bayley is currently in a feud with Bianca and should be protected so that it means more when Bianca eventually beats her. The eliminated heels refused to leave ringside, and got involved several times, including Bayley distracting Bianca to set up the finish. I’m not crazy about being Bianca getting pinned, but if you’re not changing the titles, I’d rather have Bianca get pinned than Sasha get pinned and set up another interminable “tag champs feuding with the women’s champion on the other show” situation.
As much as I didn’t like the booking here, I thought the action in this match was pretty great. If they actually put the effort into setting it up in the booking, I’d love to see another Charlotte & Asuka vs. Bianca & Sasha match.

STREET PROFITS & SAMI ZAYN BACKSTAGE- My future sister-in-law wandered into the room at the end of the previous match, so skipped through this.

JEY USO vs. DANIEL BRYAN- 7.25/10
Jey jumped Bryan before the match and slammed him onto the ramp. After a commercial break, Bryan insisted that he could still wrestle. Bryan had to fight from underneath for most of the match and had his midsection worked over. There was also a small story about Bryan working on Uso’s knee. Bryan won clean with the Busaiku Knee.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS DANIEL BRYAN- good… until Sami Zayn showed up
Bryan enters himself into the Royal Rumble. Sami Zayn then showed up to be annoying and paranoid.

LUMBERJACK MATCH FOR THE WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE: Sami Zayn(c) vs. Big E.- 6.75/10
Cole keeps whining that the Lumberjacks are just supposed to throw the wrestlers back into the ring, not beat them up, but the wrestlers here did it right in front of the referee who seemed to have no problem with it. Also, the lumberjacks attacking the wrestlers happens in every single lumberjack match, and yet the company keeps booking lumberjack matches and never punishes any of the lumberjacks, so it seems to me like Cole is full of sh*t.
They had every Lumberjack match ever. Big E. won, completing this long journey of a title chase that lasted all of about three weeks. Good for him.


This was a pretty good episode of Smackdown in the ring. I don’t think it’s an accident that the weakest stuff on the show was all talking, and that the worst thing on the show was the longest, most scripted, and most pointless talking segment. Hopefully a Christmas miracle occurs and WWE learns some kind of lesson from this.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests