OPENING VIDEO- very good.

AJ & BRYAN BACKSTAGE- fine
Bryan is talking to someone on the phone, telling them what is going to happen on Smackdown. That was wacky. Then AJ shows up and yells at him. He promise to cut a promo later.

Or maybe right now. So did Bryan really go on the air without anything booked to start the show?

AJ STYLES PROMO- F*CKING AWESOME!
And he even called out Randy’s criminal activity for what it was!

Tom Phillips and JBL are our commentary team tonight. Otunga is off filming a movie while Mauro couldn’t make it because of the blizzard.

BECKY LYNCH vs. NATALYA- 5/10
The number of times JBL and Tom said either “WrestleMania moment” or used the phrase “every available woman on the roster” was absolutely infuriating. Vince needs to let the announcers talk like normal people instead of having them use the same phrases over and over again.
Becky wins, but it doesn’t matter because they’re both getting a title shot at WrestleMania no matter what.
Carmella attacked them both after the match. That was kind of interesting.

AJ STYLES IS WAITING FOR SHANE- AJ is waiting in the parking lot because apparently Shane can’t be bothered to show up to work on time.

DASHA INTERVIEWS CARMELLA BACKSTAGE- Carmella says she attacked the other two because they are also in the title match at WrestleMania. If she is trying to take them out then why didn’t she keep beating them down?

MIZ TV WITH SPECIAL GUESTS THE MIZ & MARYSE- awesome!
Apparently I missed quite the fantastic episode of Talking Smack last week.
Okay… so did they seed that Total Divas plot specifically to set up for this feud at Mania, are they just making excellent use of something that randomly happened on Total Divas. Either way… excellent.
So Miz and Maryse cut some F*CKING AWESOME promos on Cena & Nikki. Cena & Nikki then come out to fight but Miz and Maryse run away. Nikki cuts a promo that was a lot better than usual, challenging Maryse to a match right now. Miz tried to get out of it but Bryan showed up and cut a great promo on Miz before officially booking Miz & Maryse vs. Cena & Nikki at Mania.

ALEXA BLISS! vs. MICKIE JAMES- 5.25/10
Can someone please explain to me why this isn’t the title match at WrestleMania?
Mickie wins clean, which was the only finish that made any sense. Alexa had a great heel “I’M STILL THE CHAMP” reaction on her way up the ramp, downplaying Mickie’s victory while also still selling it.

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS AJ IN THE PARKING LOT- excellent segment.
Shane finally shows up. AJ assaults him. Two extremely cowardly extras don’t even try to do anything about it. They really should have been removed from the shot. HOLY SH*T AJ JUST SLAMMED SHANE’S HEAD THROUGH A CAR WINDOW! Fit Finlay repeatedly calls for some paramedics. This was a really great angle.

AJ IN THE LOCKER ROOM- he is coming to get his bags. Curt Hawkins and The Usos- yes, HEELS- tell him off for this. Then Daniel Bryan shows up and fires him. Great stuff, but they’ll need to explain why he doesn’t just show up on Raw on Monday.

MOJO RAWLEY vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER- DUD!
Boring stuff happend until Dolph got counted out.

RANDY ORTON PROMO- meh. I didn’t like Randy’s explanation very much, and any time you talk about Bray’s magical powers I get annoyed. Bray showed up on the Tron, presumably sitting on the burned down ruins of his compound, which has some amazing overhead lighting for the middle of the night. He says standard Bray Wyatt stuff. He has Sister Abigail’s power or something like that. He “baptizes” himself in her ashes.

DASHA INTERVIEWS BARON CORBIN- fine

THE USOS vs. AMERICAN ALPHA- 6/10
The crowd wants Angle. WWE would be kind of crazy to not have him interact with American Alpha in some way at WrestleMania. The match was short. The Usos picked up the clean win to set them up as the #1 contenders for WrestleMania.

SHANE MCMAHON PROMO- he will face AJ at WrestleMania.

Some really good promos on this week’s show and a great angle with Shane and AJ, but there was really nothing going on in the ring.

Big Red Machine wrote:


AJ IN THE LOCKER ROOM- he is coming to get his bags. Curt Hawkins and The Usos- yes, HEELS- tell him off for this. Then Daniel Bryan shows up and fires him. Great stuff, but they’ll need to explain why he doesn’t just show up on Raw on Monday.


SHANE MCMAHON PROMO- he will face AJ at WrestleMania.

So is it universally understood that Shane challenging AJ un-fires him? I feel like that's what's happening but it's not explicitly stated

NWK2000 wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:


AJ IN THE LOCKER ROOM- he is coming to get his bags. Curt Hawkins and The Usos- yes, HEELS- tell him off for this. Then Daniel Bryan shows up and fires him. Great stuff, but they’ll need to explain why he doesn’t just show up on Raw on Monday.


SHANE MCMAHON PROMO- he will face AJ at WrestleMania.

So is it universally understood that Shane challenging AJ un-fires him? I feel like that's what's happening but it's not explicitly stated

Yes (although I guess it's theoretically possible for him to be fired from SD but still be a WWE employee so he could only show up at Mania to wrestle Shane but still sign with Raw).

That's what I was gonna say... I suppose he's obviously not fired ,or the Heck with it. You're fired but we're fighting anyways!

I guess no Erick Rowan after all.

Oh...Two other things to answer some of your questions... They're both classic obvious WWE clichés you should have jumped on instantly-

Why didn't Carmella keep going to injure Becky and Natalya?

"Making a statement", that's why!

Why isn't Bliss vs James the title match? "Every woman on the roster!" Of course!

Big Red Machine wrote:RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS AJ IN THE PARKING LOT- excellent segment.
Shane finally shows up. AJ assaults him. Two extremely cowardly extras don’t even try to do anything about it. They really should have been removed from the shot. HOLY SH*T AJ JUST SLAMMED SHANE’S HEAD THROUGH A CAR WINDOW! Fit Finlay repeatedly calls for some paramedics. This was a really great angle.

i take it Finlay doesn't love to fight anymore

also, Styles on the site has been moved to the alumni page, so he is technically fired, and Shane should have 'brought him back', unless it's an unsanctioned match

cero2k wrote:
also, Styles on the site has been moved to the alumni page, so he is technically fired,

Well... at least we're following up well on the website.

cero2k wrote:
and Shane should have 'brought him back', unless it's an unsanctioned match

It's possible he didn't know that Bryan had fired AJ.

Big Red Machine wrote:

cero2k wrote:
and Shane should have 'brought him back', unless it's an unsanctioned match

It's possible he didn't know that Bryan had fired AJ.

for the first time in GM storylines, this is totally plausible, Shane did not only have a concussion, but probably spent the rest of the show he got late to in an ambulance .

MIZ TV WITH SPECIAL GUESTS THE MIZ & MARYSE- awesome!
Apparently I missed quite the fantastic episode of Talking Smack last week.

I keep telling you man, if you like Smackdown, Talking Smack is even better on most weeks

The whole internet is speculating that Shane vs Styles will be RAW vs Smackdown when Styles gets signed by RAW

cero2k wrote:The whole internet is speculating that Shane vs Styles will be RAW vs Smackdown when Styles gets signed by RAW

Which is what I said above. But I don't think they'll do it because then who is Smackdown left with?

Big Red Machine wrote:

cero2k wrote:The whole internet is speculating that Shane vs Styles will be RAW vs Smackdown when Styles gets signed by RAW

Which is what I said above. But I don't think they'll do it because then who is Smackdown left with?

just debut Kenta, Nakamura, and The Revival on Smackdown and it kinda works out

So what on Earth is this whole AJ Styles Shane McMahon debacle supposed to be building to anyways?

I think it's obviously more than a delusional heel being paranoid. There seems to be a legitimate conspiracy at work here. I hate to say it, but it almost seems like a double turn in the making, even reminiscent of The Authority. Bryan though I don't see being fully involved.

e-moose wrote:This was the worst SmackDown this year. Very disappointed @ AJ Styles being booked vs. Shane McMahon. Very lame. Show really dragged on with half the time being given to Shane McMahon replayz and other stuff he wuz barely doing throughout the show.

We've already discussed that around here . As I've said in the past...Who really wants to see AJ Styles....Vs Shane McMahon? I mean it's kind of cool that it's happening, Because who'd ever thought it would happen, but he deserves so much better.

e-moose wrote:This was the worst SmackDown this year. Very disappointed @ AJ Styles being booked vs. Shane McMahon. Very lame. Show really dragged on with half the time being given to Shane McMahon replayz and other stuff he wuz barely doing throughout the show.

I thought the first half was well paced. Everything until after the attack. I don't blame them for the replays. It gets the angle over as important, and, due to the booking in the women's division and the lack of midcard, they really didn't have much else to put on, anyway.

I've actually been given a thought by the people on the WWE FB page... But ponder this for a minute- he never said that HE would be the one fighting him at WM. It would fit in with the whole story they're telling about Shane having an agenda and slowly but surely revealing it, I.e. ducking AJ like a coward.

I'm just hoping we get some sort of closure on all this Ziggler/Crews and Kalisto nonsense at WM once and for all. Definitely up there with worst feuds of the year.

KILLdozer wrote:I'm just hoping we get some sort of closure on all this Ziggler/Crews and Kalisto nonsense at WM once and for all. Definitely up there with worst feuds of the year.

Yeah. It's a huge waste of three very talented guys, and it has gone absolutely nowhere for months. Just running in circles, with no ending in sight.

It's just occurred to me they're desperately trying to pretty much turn Ziggler Into late 2000's super hot, super over, mega heel Edge. It just isn't working because this is "Make Ziggler a huge star attempt #7".