BRM Reviews the 8/13/2019 Smackdown (GREAT!)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 8/13/2019 Smackdown (GREAT!)

Post by Big Red Machine » Aug 15th, '19, 21:39

OPENING SEGMENT-
Kevin Owens comes out and put over how great it felt to kick Shane McMahon’s ass at SummerSlam. Then he proceeded to cut a F*CKING AMAZING promo on how much it would mean to him to win King of the Ring and why. This was a wrestler speaking naturally and from the heart, like a real human being. This was the complete and total antithesis to the sterile, buzzword-filled, focus group-tested, branded™, emotion substitute that WWE has insisted on giving us for the past decade or so. This is how it’s f*cking supposed to be done!
Shane came out and pointed out that Owens kicked him in the nuts and hit him with a chair. The crowd chanted “YOU DESERVE IT!,” which was good, but I definitely think it would have been better to not have Owens cheat at all.
Shane teases fighting Owens himself but then says he’ll have someone else fight Owens later instead. He says he’ll tell us who will face Owens later, but first he wants to show us Owens beating up Elias last night. He shows the replay of Owens bludgeoning Elias with a chair and tells us that Elias was “traumatized” by it and thus he is “suspending the 24/7 Title.” Suspending a title? That’s f*cking moronic. Why doesn’t he just do that whenever someone he likes wins a title. If Shane wanted to protect Elias tonight, all he had to do was give Elias permission to not show up to the building tonight, and send him on a private plane home. It’s that f*cking simple, but WWE has to overthink it and come up with this dumb verbiage and do this thing that makes no sense for someone to be able to do.
This is a problem born of spending too much time in a mindset that you can just change whatever rules you want, whenever you want. Thinking like that leads to you relying on “we’ll just have the heel change the rules however he/she wants,” which leads to a predilection towards coming up with dumb ideas like “suspending” a title when there was a much simpler solution available. The heat is the same, as we know Elias clearly wasn’t traumatized by this enough to need to be sent home or else he wouldn’t have been able to win the title from Truth last night and Shane is abusing his power to favor his lackey, but you get there with an idea that isn’t completely ridiculous.
Speaking of ridiculous, Shane is going to fine Owens for attacking Elias because wearing a referee’s shirt made Elias an official. Well if Elias was a WWE official then shouldn’t beating him up have resulted in Owens being DQed? Why doesn’t Shane just overturn the results of the match given the clear evidence he has of Owens’ committing disqualifiable offenses?
Anyway, for attacking Elias, Shane will fine Owens $100,000 (he made sure to specify American dollars rather than the cheaper Canadian ones). Owens is outraged because he needs that money to pay for his kids’ college tuition etc. Both Owens and Shane were GREAT here, but I just don’t feel able to enjoy this fully. Basically, we’ve seen the heel authority figure stuff done so poorly so many times over the past five years, even in just WWE alone, that even though we’re finally seeing it done well, it doesn’t feel fresh or exciting or even particularly compelling. I can give them high marks for the execution of their art, but I’m just not into what they’re presenting.

Advertised for tonight are… New Day vs. Revival, Roman Reigns vs. Buddy Murphy, and Ember Moon vs. Charlotte Flair. Dude… this show could be pretty f*cking awesome!

KEVIN OWENS CONFRONTS SHANE MCMAHON IN HIS OFFICE- And it looks like an actual office this time! There are chairs and a table, and even some chairs in a waiting area. This was SOOOOO much better than the usual “backstage segment set” that we all know is just a makeshift stage that doesn’t have any actual walls and never looks or feels like an office so much as the place in the arena that the authority figures like to hang out and futz around on their phones.
Anyway, the segment was great. Shane managed to get Owens to not hit him by threatening an even bigger fine, and while he got Owens to not hit him, Owens out burst at the end (“A hundred-thousand dollars? You know what? Let’s make it a hundred and five” and then he threw a piece of furniture into Shane’s expensive big-screen TV) shows us that while Shane’s threat of suing and fining Owens gives him some control over things, it does not give him total control. This was a wonderfully human segment, with Owens especially feeling like a real human being more than pretty much anyone we’ve seen on WWE TV for years.
Also, props to them for the way this was all shot. First they showed us Owens storming off backstage before we went to break, so we all knew he was going after Shane, as did the production people, so they’d know to have a camera set up by Shane’s door so they could capture what was clearly going to be an important confrontation on film. This injection of believability also combined with the emotion Owens exuded to create an urgency about the situation that made their decision to show us this instead of the entrances for the match they had just told us was “up next” feel completely reasonable, and thus not something that buried wrestlers in the match by cutting out their entrances in favor of something like a random backstage promo or a video package which could have been slotted anywhere else in the show.

EMBER MOON vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR- 6.5/10
These two had a solid match for what it was, but seeing a match where Ember didn’t get much real offense in and never got a real comeback due to having to tap out was disappointing. It’s an important thing to do every once in a while just to so keep all pre-comeback nearfalls alive as real false finishes, but that doesn’t mean it’s not disappointing to not be able to see these two go all out.

DANIEL BRYAN PROMO- good
He heeled on the fans while denying that he or Rowan were behind the attacks on Roman Reigns.

SARAH SCHREIBER INTERVIEWS SHANE MCMAHON- OH COME ON!
We cut to backstage and see Shane inspecting his broken monitor. Then there is a knock at the door, and it’s Sarah Schreiber, here to do an interview. WELL THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST START THE CAMERA SHOT OUTSIDE THE OFFICE WITH SARAH KNOCKING ON THE F*CKING DOOR? You can still show off the damage to the monitor when Shane is complaining about it to Sarah. THEY WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO MAKE A SIMPLE SEGMENT DUMBER.
Sarah asks Shane who will be facing Kevin Owens tonight. At that point Samoa walks into the frame. Sure, they could well be a door on the other side, but just doing this segment this way, with this framing, made it feel like after forty-five great minutes, the show is turning back into everything I’ve hated about WWE’s presentation for the past decade.

Corey Graves called the attempts on Roman Reigns’ life over the past few weeks “catastrophic accidents.” Maybe you could still argue that they’re all accidents if you want to be a real heel about it like Graves is, but considering that fact that Roman merely walked them both off, they were clearly not “catastrophic.”

ALEISTER BLACK PROMO- I’ve hit the point where he needs to start doing things now or else he’ll just be the new Bray Wyatt. Also, skipping Buddy Murphy’s entrance for this was very frustrating, considering that this is Murphy’s debut on SD and they’re sticking him in the top of the hour spot against Roman Reigns.

ROMAN REIGNS vs. BUDDY MURPHY- 8/10
They had an awesome match in which they ingeniously reversed the normal match structure by having Murphy essentially play the role of the babyface even though he wasn’t actually the babyface. This allowed him to be the one to show off his resilience, which was necessary when you’re taking someone who most fans don’t even know and letting him go fourteen and a half minutes with one of your top stars.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS THE REVIVAL- great heel promo by The Revival
Also, they’re right about pretty much everything they said.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS THE NEW DAY- okay, I guess.
Well… at least them being goofs here (Kofi mostly wasn’t one but the other two were) was clearly them playing into The Revival’s promo rather than being goofs for the sake of being goofs. Kofi said that Randy crossed a line by merely looking at his family. It would have been nice if Kofi had actually brought up Randy’s history of attacking his opponents’ family members rather than just listing off Randy’s nicknames.

SINGLES MATCH WITH ELIAS AS SPECIAL OUTSIDE ENFORCER: Kevin Owens vs. Samoa Joe-
In case anyone is wondering why Shane doesn’t just make Elias the guest referee, it’s because he wants plausible deniability that he wasn’t trying to screw Owens via crooked refereeing. We all know he’s full of sh*t, but there is a reason Vince McMahon’s “in the interests of fairness” got over as a heel catchphrase. I will admit, however, that Elias kind of screwed this up with his blatant cheating on the finish.

DANIEL BRYAN & ERICK ROWAN CORNER BUDDY MURPHY IN THE LOCKER ROOM- AWESOME
Dragon came off as wonderfully deranged here, and the mirroring of last week’s segment with Roman and Murphy played into Bryan’s earlier promo wonderfully. I will admit to being relatively confused to whether or not we were supposed to believe that Bryan brought the cameraperson with him or if we were supposed to pretend the camera wasn’t there and they wanted Murphy to go out to the ring and say so.
I will admit that I’m not thrilled about Murphy being made to look like a toady here, but he did just go through a grueling match, and doing this does allow him to remain a heel (which he really should be) while feuding with Bryan and Rowan. He and Roman will make an interesting “partners who don’t like each other” tag when the time for inevitable Bryan & Rowan vs. Roman & Murphy match comes.

RANDY ORTON PROMO- GREAT!
This happened after New Day’s entrance for the main event. Randy cut a promo on Kofi calling him a coward and saying that he “ran away from a fight” in front of his family. Randy suggested that they turn the main event into a six-man tag. When we got back from a commercial we were told that everyone (including management) consented, so we got…

THE NEW DAY vs. RANDY ORTON & THE REVIVAL- 6.75/10
Revival get the clean pin on Woods, then beat New Day up after the match. Kofi made the save but then got laid out with an RKO. Great build to what are almost certainly going to be our title matches at Clash of Champions 2019. Then he gave each member of New Day another RKO just to be a dick.

ROMAN REIGNS MEETS DANIEL BRYAN & ERICK ROWAN BACKSTAGE- decent
The important takeaway here is that Bryan and Rowan want an apology from Roman. They also claim to have conducted their own investigation and now know who attacked Roman. They tell Roman they’ll give this person to him next week.

A GREAT episode of Smackdown. There were one two things that made me scream, but on the whole, there was a lot more that I liked than that I disliked. If every WWE show was this easy to sit through and this straightforwardly booked, they would be doing a lot better right now. This was the easiest episode of Raw or SD to sit through in a very long time, so you have no excuse not to watch it.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/13/2019 Smackdown (GREAT!)

Post by KILLdozer » Aug 16th, '19, 12:24

I think the best way this "who is it" thing with Reigns turns out is out of nowhere, Heel turn Seth Rollins.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/13/2019 Smackdown (GREAT!)

Post by cero2k » Aug 16th, '19, 12:54

KILLdozer wrote: Aug 16th, '19, 12:24 I think the best way this "who is it" thing with Reigns turns out is out of nowhere, Heel turn Seth Rollins.
who is in the other show and have yet another Rollins vs Reigns feud? I don't think that'd get over that much.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/13/2019 Smackdown (GREAT!)

Post by KILLdozer » Aug 16th, '19, 13:28

cero2k wrote: Aug 16th, '19, 12:54
KILLdozer wrote: Aug 16th, '19, 12:24 I think the best way this "who is it" thing with Reigns turns out is out of nowhere, Heel turn Seth Rollins.
who is in the other show and have yet another Rollins vs Reigns feud? I don't think that'd get over that much.
Did he just say "other show"????
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/13/2019 Smackdown (GREAT!)

Post by cero2k » Aug 16th, '19, 14:01

KILLdozer wrote: Aug 16th, '19, 13:28
who is in the other show and have yet another Rollins vs Reigns feud? I don't think that'd get over that much.
Did he just say "other show"????
[/quote]

yeah, wait, Seth and Roman are in different shows, right?
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/13/2019 Smackdown (GREAT!)

Post by KILLdozer » Aug 16th, '19, 14:35

cero2k wrote: Aug 16th, '19, 14:01
KILLdozer wrote: Aug 16th, '19, 13:28
who is in the other show and have yet another Rollins vs Reigns feud? I don't think that'd get over that much.
Did he just say "other show"????
yeah, wait, Seth and Roman are in different shows, right?
[/quote]

I meant that as comedic sarcasm...implying that there is actually "another show...", and not just one with everyone on it regardless lol.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/13/2019 Smackdown (GREAT!)

Post by cero2k » Aug 16th, '19, 14:37

KILLdozer wrote: Aug 16th, '19, 14:35

I meant that as comedic sarcasm...implying that there is actually "another show...", and not just one with everyone on it regardless lol.
we're coming in close to the fox debut, i'm just kinda assuming that they'll need to part the rosters by then, otherwise it's gonna be hell for them
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/13/2019 Smackdown (GREAT!)

Post by Big Red Machine » Aug 16th, '19, 15:07

I'm shocked that no one has Theorized Haroer as a possible culprit yet.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/13/2019 Smackdown (GREAT!)

Post by KILLdozer » Aug 16th, '19, 17:52

Big Red Machine wrote: Aug 16th, '19, 15:07 I'm shocked that no one has Theorized Haroer as a possible culprit yet.
Definitely be thinking it.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 8/13/2019 Smackdown (GREAT!)

Post by cero2k » Aug 16th, '19, 19:43

KILLdozer wrote: Aug 16th, '19, 17:52
Big Red Machine wrote: Aug 16th, '19, 15:07 I'm shocked that no one has Theorized Haroer as a possible culprit yet.
Definitely be thinking it.
I've assumed he's just waiting out his contract
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