BRM Reviews the 9/10/2021 Smackdown (Edge vs. Rollins II)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 9/10/2021 Smackdown (Edge vs. Rollins II)

Post by Big Red Machine » Sep 12th, '21, 14:59

OPENING SEGMENT- I would have sent a babyface out after the 9/11 video package, but apparently we’ve got to open the show with Roman, so that we can tease the Brock Lesnar appearance that we all know won’t come until the end of the show.
Roman starts off with a comment about how “when it comes to sports entertainment, WWE runs New York City.” I’m sure that wasn’t aimed at anymore. Roman says that he runs WWE, so therefore, he runs New York City.
Then Brock came out. Okay, so I was wrong.
I LOVED McAfee describing Brock as "if aliens came down and wanted to fight a human, this is the one we would all send." That’s the best thing I’ve heard an announcer say in a long time.
Brock gets in Roman’s face and they have a stare-down. Roman didn’t back down… but the Usos did step up and get in front of him. Then Heyman steps up and asks Brock “of all the championships we can go after together, why the Universal Title?” Notice the “we” and “together” in there. I assume it’s a diplomacy thing rather than Paul slipping up, but who knows.
Brock grabs the mic and asks Paul “why didn’t you tell Roman I was going to be at SummerSlam?” Roman the Usos looked at Paul. If they were saying anything, I couldn’t here it because the crowd was chanting “YOU F*CKED UP!” at Paul, and Fox just muted the whole thing. When we got audio back, Paul was swearing that he didn’t know and that this was just Brock trying to play mind games. Roman grabbed the Universal Title out of Paul’s hands, then he and the Usos left.
Brock laughed menacingly… and that is a big impediment to me getting behind him as a babyface. He seems like he’s about to assault this defenseless man who has done nothing to deserve it (at least recently, and certainly done nothing to Brock, which is the only thing I believe Brock cares about).
Paul nervously slipped back into his old “ladies and gentleman, my name is Paul Heyman” shtick, and Brock played along with it, then wheeled on Paul and told him he had five seconds to accept Brock’s challenge on Roman’s behalf. Brock the Bully started to count down, but then didn’t even wait until he had hit one before picking Paul up for an F-5. Thankfully, Roman Reigns came back out and saved Paul via Superman punch. Roman himself was soon caught in a F-5 position, however, but the Usos made the save for him with a double superkick. Brock clotheslined and Germaned both Usos to “win” the segment.
This was a good segment… if the goal is to build to a heel vs. heel match. At this point, the only person I even remotely like here is Heyman, who I don’t really like so much as feel bad for and think he’s telling the truth.

BACKSTAGE, THE SHARKS ROUND A CORNER AND BUMP INTO THE JETS BEFORE THEIR TEN-MAN TAG- This looked extremely staged and hokey.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS PAUL HEYMAN- good
She tried to interview the Bloodline, but they ignored her. Paul said that Brock was lying about him knowing that he would be at SummerSlam. He said that Roman would answer Brock’s challenge when Roman deemed it appropriate to do so.

THE MYSTERIOS, SHINSUKE NAKAMURA, RICK BOOGZ, & BIG E. vs. OTIS DOZOVIC, SAMI ZAYN, APOLLO CREWS, & THE DIRTY DAWGS (w/Chad Gable, Commander Azeez, & Trae Young)- 3/10
The referee clearly saw Young interfering but didn’t call for the DQ. The whole match was an excuse to get that spot in so that the crowd could pop for him getting ejected from ringside. Once that happened, they went straight into the finish, which was Sami Zayn getting hit with a double 619 and a Big Ending.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS BIG E.- bad
Big E. goes for the cheap pop by putting over the Knicks. Big E. teases cashing in MITB tonight, but we all know he won’t. Also, he says he’ll show up on Raw next week. Is he allowed to do that?

BECKY LYNCH VS. BIANCA BELAIR CONTRACT SIGNING- great!
Bianca cut a good promo and signed the contract before Becky came out. Becky then made her entrance. Like with the Young Bucks’ recent fashion choices, Becky’s giant sunglasses and giant fur coat come off far too much like someone trying to dress like an asshole, and thus they don’t feel authentic.
Becky teased not signing the contract, openly asking “what happens if I don’t sign the contract?” I’ll bet you WWE doesn’t even have an internal answer to that question. I’d love to know why some matches have contract signings while at other times we see authority figures booking people into matches they clearly don’t want, but at this point I’m certain that no promotion will ever give us an answer.
Becky cut a great promo, Bianca got the crowd to get on her case, and Becky gave in and signed the contract. I don’t know if this was sweetened or not (WWE is supposedly doing that a lot more now), but the way it came across to me was that Becky and Bianca managed to do what just a few weeks ago I would have considered impossible, which was get crowds to boo Becky Lynch, so props to them for that.

TEGAN NOX AND SHOTZI BLACKHEART RUDELY INTERUPT PAUL HEYMAN WHEN HE’S ON THE PHONE TO BE ANNOYING- Remember when Brock Lesnar destroyed Seth Rollins’ new car? I hope he does the same thing to this stupid tank. And then laughs in Shotzi’s face when she cries about it.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS PAUL HEYMAN- meh
The previous bit was done to set up Kayla being able to surprise Paul by being there when he turned around. Paul says that Roman will answer Brock’s challenge after the main event. Kayla leaves, and when Paul turns around, Big E. is there. He holds up the MITB briefcase.

SETH ROLLINS vs. EDGE- 8.5/10
I hope Hunter isn’t watching this. Seeing his finish get kicked out of probably isn’t good for his heart.
This was a great, long match, with the story of Rollins working over pretty much everything but Edge’s neck to set up for using the stomp as the death-blow… and when they finally got to it, the big stretcher-job afterwards sold it as pretty close to that for Edge’s career, if not the man himself.

SETH ROLLINS INTERVIEW- He feels odd and conflicted about having possibly crippled Edge. I’m sorry, but it’s hard to blame Seth. This wasn’t a post-match attack. He was trying to put his opponent down during the course of a wrestling match. If there is any blame to be had, it’s on Edge’s doctor for clearing him, and I don’t even think that there is any blame to be had there.

BLOODLINE BACKSTAGE- fine
Roman gives the Usos a pep talk, then sends them on their way. Once they’re gone, he turns to Paul, reminds Paul that he just saved his ass, and then asked Paul why he didn’t tell him that Brock was at SummerSlam. Then we cut to a commercial, because this isn’t a live show but rather something where even the commercial breaks are pre-planned to maximize drama.

WWE SMACKDOWN TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Usos(c) vs. the Street Profits- 7/10
Ford jumped the bell on Jimmy for what seemed to me like no reason, but at least his opponent was facing him when he struck, so it wasn’t completely cowardly.
Montez Ford lost his shoe but still did all of his stuff. The crowd chanted “ONE SHOE!” How about instead of chanting “ONE SHOE!” because lol the guy lost his shoe, you chant “MONTEZ!” to support him?
These two teams were having a great match that ended when Roman Reigns ran in for the f*cking DQ. If you’re going to do this to set up a PPV match, that’s fine, but don’t do it in the f*cking main event!

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- snore
The Bloodline beat up the Street Profits. Roman said he’d accept Brock’s challenge once he was done with Balor. That was Balor’s cue to come out in his demon paint. Cole screamed about “for the first time ever on Smackdown” we were getting to see “Finn Balor’s alter-ego,” even though Balor doesn’t act any different when he is “the Demon” so it’s not really an alter-ego. Just paint. He had a stare-down with Roman, but who could possibly care? We already know he won’t win because otherwise Roman and Brock wouldn’t be a thing right now.



This was a meh episode of Smackdown elevated by one awesome match and a related major angle. This isn’t going to make me tune in any more often.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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