Smackdown Spoilers for 4/25/14

[Jrag]

Ambrose vs. Maddox was the best thing.

[Curt McGirt]

Poor Swagger was in what was basically a competitive squash (man the offense he took from Cesaro...) and then got literally squashed. Dude took one for the team. He's a champ for doing that, and so is Dutch for that awesome "I might be old but I'm gonna knock your dick in the dirt" moment where he pushed over the podium to confront Heyman. They could probably play up a "former wrestler vs. manager" angle to get their heat back and it would be the best. The whole thing is very North vs. South and I dig it. 

 

Tamina kicked Nattie right in the throat. Shit. 

 

Bray is the new Jake, the new Mankind. It is now indisputable. Then we get another tag with Wyatts/Rhodes that is just great. The combination of Southern tag with highspot frenzy is the new WWE strong point and they balanced it perfectly, and also got over two storylines at the same time. 

 

Another hero: Brad Maddox for eating the wall. 

 

...and then I fell asleep like an idiot and now I have to watch the rest of this killer ep on Hulu at my drummer's house, hopefully

[CastleVania Rey]

This is probably the best Smackdown ever. You know why. They killed fools all night. Don't pretend you don't know. It's like I was in wrestling heaven.

 

And Ambrose launching over the couch is the perfect cream on the cupcake to Maddox's scene of death.

 

By the way, anyone speaking ill of Ambrose's wonderful cartoon face really should know how much the ladies love him. The swarm of Internet pages devoted to how cute and/or handsome he is will attest to that. Stop living in denial, people.

 

A lot of good talking tonight from Wyatt (who is the best talker in the company now), Dutch, Heyman, too.

 

Very glad WWE decided to let Barrett escape the pummeling, though. He doesn't need to be crushed in the midst of what is probably a big push for him.

[piranesi]

I know some people here stroke off to Dean's facial expressions, but bawd fucking gawd, I want someone to shoot him in his fucking mush so he can't make him anymore. His stupid love for these goddamn things make me roll my eyes at The Shield. I mean, Reigns is kinda small to be a hoss but good to look at and what's-his-face kills himself for da luv of da sport. They are bearable.. But fuck Ambrose and his real-life cartoon "SPLAT~!" face.

 

 

 

 

I forgive you.

 

[CastleVania Rey]

I'm going to take a break from Ambrose praise to say the following: Heath Slater was so excellent the way he stared into the face of death (ROMAN REIGNS!) while his companions were destroyed in the background by Ambrose and Rollins. He was both too afraid to look at the destruction and too afraid to look away from Reigns simultaneously! It deserves praise. I give Slater praise.

 

Okay, break's over. Dean Ambrose is spectacular.

[ebbie]

Whatever. Ambrose's facial expressions is like someone who doesn't watch wrestling cutting a promo like HULK HOGAN, BROTHER!!!! in 2000, let alone 30 years later. They just come across as try hard and trying to prove they don't want to admit they look stupid.

 

[CastleVania Rey]

Whatever. Ambrose's facial expressions is like someone who doesn't watch wrestling cutting a promo like HULK HOGAN, BROTHER!!!! in 2000, let alone 30 years later. They just come across as try hard and trying to prove they don't want to admit they look stupid.

 

 

If you want to convince people you're right, you shouldn't supply an excellent Ambrose picture with your post. It makes you seem like you're joking. Wait... Are you joking? I admit I can't tell sometimes.

 

I love the way his lower jaw seems to be recessing into his neck. Also, his eyes and the way they seem to be wide open and yet shrunken at the same time. Amazing.

[sydneybrown]

I'm going to take a break from Ambrose praise to say the following: Heath Slater was so excellent the way he stared into the face of death (ROMAN REIGNS!) while his companions were destroyed in the background by Ambrose and Rollins. He was both too afraid to look at the destruction and too afraid to look away from Reigns simultaneously! It deserves praise. I give Slater praise.

 

Okay, break's over. Dean Ambrose is spectacular.

 

The one thing that would have made it the greatest thing ever was if Seth Rollins had just knocked the shit out of Heath while he was staring at Roman.  And I was hoping he was going to since he was standing in the background hiding behind Slater.  That would have been an awesome visual.

 

And my favorite Shield moment wasn't even them kicking anybody's ass:  Paul Heyman's gloating over Cesaro's win, their music plays, and his face just says "Oh fuck, let's get out of here.  Now!"

[Curt McGirt]

Whatever. Ambrose's facial expressions is like someone who doesn't watch wrestling cutting a promo like HULK HOGAN, BROTHER!!!! in 2000, let alone 30 years later. They just come across as try hard and trying to prove they don't want to admit they look stupid.

 

 

Different flavor of ice cream I guess. That shit is great.

[Victator]

He proves your life is not over after suffering a stroke. 

[The Natural]

 

 

 

 

 

Quality.

 

 

[mattdangerously]

Reigns mocking Fandango's dancing while Rollins and Ambrose scraped him off the stage was great.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

I could watch The Shield destroy people all day & not get tired of it. I loved the animal like sounds coming from Ambrose as he attacked Maddox. If I were JBL, I would have said The Shield were tap dancing all over Fandango's face rather than they're not here to dance.

[APO]

Only one minor quibble about Bray: I think he should transition to the "He's got everybody here" verse from the song since that fits what's going on with the feud, at least IMO.

[Eivion]

Finally caught the show. The Shield were amazing all night. They looked like king-sized badasses taking people out regularly throughout the show. Watching all of this go down I'm kind of hoping that after Evolution is destroyed HHH maybes tries to make a new group in a similar vein with younger guys, maybe Barrett leading. I have enjoyed how he has escaped the carnage at least twice now.

[Newb82]

Yeah, I really liked this show too.

[Mr Harms]

Smackdown is so hard to watch with all the fake crowd noise. Del Rio threw Ambrose through the middle rope to the outside and the crowd went "OHHHHH" then Ryback delivered a weak looking punch to his head and the crowd went "OHHHHH" exactly the same as they did 2 seconds ago.

[offspring515]

Only thing I didn't like was that some of the beatdowns by the Shield were pretty weak. I mean if a couple of punches and kicks are enough to take 3MB out an hour before the match why are they in the WWE?

Fandango and Swagger got decent beatings though.

[Goodear]

I think part of what made the Shield beatings work was when they were slightly off camera.  Like Rollins stomping McIntyre and Ambrose mashing Maddox behind the couch looked really violent and you have to wonder if they come off that way because you really couldn't actually see the impacts.  Like it looks like murder and it isn't anything they don't do fourteen times a match.

[Greggulator]

I think part of what made the Shield beatings work was when they were slightly off camera.  Like Rollins stomping McIntyre and Ambrose mashing Maddox behind the couch looked really violent and you have to wonder if they come off that way because you really couldn't actually see the impacts.  Like it looks like murder and it isn't anything they don't do fourteen times a match.

 

 

It's all about the illusion. I remember they did that before with some beatdown of Daniel Bryan last year. They did their "we found a camera" style promo and talked about him. Then they showed him gurgling in pain next to a pipe on the floor before Ambrose stomped him. Such a great way to show violence without having to show actual violence.

The Fandango table bump was also another example. It looked insane at first but it's a super protected bump, since there's something under the tables. That's the difference between the PG Era and the Attitude Era. 15 years ago, Fandango would have been thrown through those things and they would have been on fire or something. But now Fandango's (probably) healthy enough to wrestle with Layla against Santino and Emma tonight!

 

It's all about less-is-more these days and it rules. The insane beatdown HHH gave Bryan looked so great because we hadn't seen a beatdown/ploy like that in so long.