Backlash XII

[Brian Fowler]

12 minutes ago, El Dragon said:

Alexa has been a solid heel hand to me for about a year now. She always feels like a giant upside act. She's just sucha  hateful little witch, and it's awesome.

I think she was great as a second in NXT, but this was the first time I felt it translated during a match she was wrestling in. If that makes sense?

[Greggulator]

Miz's rise has been such a great example of how the brand split has been so good for the product.

I think The Miz has been a great heel forever. I've said it so many times, but he has gotten so many people over. Awful face, but great heel.

But since the brand split:

1) Miz had that awesome promo with Bryan on Talking Smack. That promo is going to make Talking Smack something that's must-watch for a while. I wasn't watching until his awesome promo on it.

2) The feud against Dolph wasn't complex build-wise. But just the extra time they had to let it unfold was good. It ties into Miz's Talking Smack thing -- he's a total coward and hates getting hit, but he has a reason for doing that and it's because he wins. Pre-brand split, that amount of time gets truncated. There's just a little bit more detail now that puts a little bit more stakes onto the match.

3) The match certainly doesn't get that much time on a pre-split PPV. We might get the same ending (Maryse with the dastardly spray ala Precious and Jimmy Garvin), but it wouldn't have tied in so well with everything else going on.

4) Now there's an overarching "Show Me The Money" thing they just started tonight, too.

It's really great to see. It's just all really good stuff.

[Charlie M.]

One other thing I loved about the show was AJ's celebration, or lack thereof, after winning the title. Very much like an Austin at WrestleMania reaction from him. Not everyone needs to do the "OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING TO ME!" type deal where they act like they're surprised they won. AJ's the best wrestler in the world and he's not surprised, motherfrickers.

[Sammo~!]

I'm really happy that AJ's first title in the WWE is the real WWE Championship, with all the lineage and not the Horsehead Nebula Heritage Championship

[piranesi]

I don't know if they covered this on the network, but backstage Becky was attacked by the old Butterfly belt and the new blue women's belt made the save. 

But just as Becky was thanking it, it latched itself onto her hair and pulled a clump out and called her a loser and left.

[SirSmUgly]

What's nice is that the writers and bookers on Smackdown can do two things at once. Need to facilitate a Dolph Ziggler heel turn and advance the Miz/Bryan storyline? Here's a quickie Miz/Ziggler feud and match to do that! 

Need to turn the Usos, keep AA unbeaten so they can be the transcendent, hard-to-beat team, and pay off Slater not getting drafted? Hey, we can do that all in this tag team tournament!

Just simple booking that interweaves simple stories, that's all. 

[Greggulator]

I also think Mauro and Otunga have been really great on commentary. JBL's just sorta there. But Mauro sounds like an actual sports broadcaster (who still tells a narrative) and Otunga is great at explaining the psychology of what we're seeing. JBL's not really adding to that but he's not stepping on anyone, either.

I also LOVE they've been using the WWE Universe's history a lot more. Like the Bray/Kane match -- they mentioned how they've tangled before. Or they've mentioned the history between Bryan and Miz. A huge pet peeve of mine was when they didn't use their stories from before in what they're telling now. I get they don't want to confuse the audience (the most important member is the one who isn't watching, followed by the one who is watching for the first time, followed by us). But mentioning the backstories adds depth and context to what we're watching and is also a great way to remind people about the insane archive of footage they have for the low monthly rate of whatever it is I'm lying to my wife about. It's a fine line but I think they're doing a really great job.

[(BP)]

 

[Greggulator]

What has been the worst angle on either of the shows since the split? I'm guessing the Titus/Darren Young stuff? And that's lame because it's two guys who really aren't too good more than anything to do with disjointed storytelling.

[Charlie M.]

New Day vs Da Club is the worst shit by a mile.

[piranesi]

It's amazing how many things I expect them to mess up that they didn't tonight:

- They didn't put the women's title on Niki because she's Niki but instead on the woman who needs it moving forward
- They didn't hotshot some "Miz chickens out" angle to "get heat" and instead let him wrestle a long match to tell the story
- They didn't kill the Slater love just to piss us off and punish him for being popular when they don't want him to
- They didn't make it clear that AJ needs to pay more dues by talking about how he won everywhere else only to beat him in WWE.

[HumanChessgame]

1 minute ago, Greggulator said:

What has been the worst angle on either of the shows since the split? I'm guessing the Titus/Darren Young stuff? And that's lame because it's two guys who really aren't too good more than anything to do with disjointed storytelling.

I think Young has actually looked a lot better in the ring, but that storyline is pretty rank.

The New Day/Club skits have been embarrassingly bad the past few weeks.

[Matt D]

Booking can overcome anything.

[Jiji]

9 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

I also think Mauro and Otunga have been really great on commentary. JBL's just sorta there. But Mauro sounds like an actual sports broadcaster (who still tells a narrative) and Otunga is great at explaining the psychology of what we're seeing. JBL's not really adding to that but he's not stepping on anyone, either.

I also LOVE they've been using the WWE Universe's history a lot more. Like the Bray/Kane match -- they mentioned how they've tangled before. Or they've mentioned the history between Bryan and Miz. A huge pet peeve of mine was when they didn't use their stories from before in what they're telling now. I get they don't want to confuse the audience (the most important member is the one who isn't watching, followed by the one who is watching for the first time, followed by us). But mentioning the backstories adds depth and context to what we're watching and is also a great way to remind people about the insane archive of footage they have for the low monthly rate of whatever it is I'm lying to my wife about. It's a fine line but I think they're doing a really great job.

When Mauro mentioned that Dean beat AJ earlier this year, the first thing that popped in my head was Vince yelling at him through the headset. It just is something WWE hasn't done since the '90s. Everything is done in a vacuum. It's a fresh of breath air to hear stuff like that. Mauro is great at so many things Michael Cole is not. He's not nearly as polished as Cole, but I'm okay with that and I find that stuff endearing and human.

[Brian Fowler]

I was enjoying the Club/New Day stuff until this past RAW all-time terrible segment

[Burgundy LaRue]

36 minutes ago, Greggulator said:

What has been the worst angle on either of the shows since the split? I'm guessing the Titus/Darren Young stuff? And that's lame because it's two guys who really aren't too good more than anything to do with disjointed storytelling.

While the angle stinks, at least Young/O'Neil/Backlund seem to be actually trying to put forth effort to make things work.  They just don't have anything to work with. The New Day/Club mess is atrocious and while their writing also stinks, they're trying to sell the angle as something hot. We all know it's not.

[piranesi]

The Backlund angle should be so simple. The more Darren becomes like the crazy old man who is training himand goes shit crazy, the more he wins.  It starts with him losing it when someone attacks Bob. Then it starts happening more often. Then Bob is taken out and Darren has to figure out how to harness this power on his own.

It's literally the plot of every late 1970s Jackie Chan movie.

[Eivion]

Crews/Corbin was good and the best match either guy has had in WWE. I really want to see Baron move up soon.

Women's Title match was fun, and I'm pleased to see Becky win the belt. I loved the ending stretch. Curious to see who is Becky's first opposition.

Usos vs.Hype Bros & Usos vs. Slater/Rhyno were both solid with some satisfying story.

Kane/Bray was probably the weakest stuff on the show and it was still enjoyable though I wish Bray won. Hopefully he does int eh actual match against Orton.

Miz/Ziggler was great and MOTN and a MOTYC for me. It is the best I think Miz has ever looked. he has been having good matches and performances this year, but nothing on that level.

Wasn't sure how Dean/AJ would turn out, but it was a fine match. I loved the leg work moments and Dean's bursts of crazy adrenaline along with the finish.

I thought this would be a solid show,but it went a decent bit above my expectations. Great show.

11 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

When Mauro mentioned that Dean beat AJ earlier this year, the first thing that popped in my head was Vince yelling at him through the headset.

They mentioned it on one of the previous two SDLs.

[Fallacy!]

I cannot overstate how much I loved the booking of AJ-Ambrose and how despite the loss, Dirty Deeds is STILL the most protected finisher in the company.

That's exactly how a finisher should be. "Can he hit his finisher and end it?" is a much more compelling story than "how many times does he need to hit his finisher to end it?" which is what they seemingly do with everyone in the company except Ambrose.

[SirSmUgly]

Also, the jumping superkick to the back of the knee is my favorite move in wrestling right now. It is nasty, and it should be death. I don't want to see some face fight out of a submission after being kicked with it. It either gets whiffed, or it gets the win. That's how that move should be treated. 

[Web Conn]

This was a good wrestling show and like its been said good show from a storytellers standpoint.

Besides Bray vs Kane, I thought it was a fun match but bray should have kicked out after that RKO/Chokelsam combo then pinned Kane. Would have made Bray seem impervious to the RKo and furthered the Bray/Orton feud.

[Go2Sleep]

I'm happy for Becky. A big win/celebration for her was long overdue.

I was definitely digging the heel Usos. Bringing back the tequila sunrise was awesome.

The Miz/Ziggler match felt like a standard Miz or Ziggler match, outside of that odd run in the middle where Miz started doing all of Bryan's moves, which was hilarious. If he did the missile dropkick/kip up combo when he went to the top, I would've lost it. They really should've saved that for the end because it stood out in a good way, but it felt weird just cramming it between a standard Miz heat segment and a standard Ziggler finishing run.

Can't believe Bray got pinned by Kane in 2016, even with interference.

AJ/Dean was pretty good. It has to be Dean's best singles match since the Rollins street fight that ended with the cinder block curb stomp. AJ was in top form and Dean actually wrestled like the crazy man he's supposed to be. It was good clash of styles, if you will. Also a nice bookend to the show with AJ getting a long overdue WWE championship.

AJ/KO is the coolest set of dual champs since Punk/Bryan in 2012.

[Burgundy LaRue]

The women's match was very good, but extra props go to Alexa and Naomi.  They were doing great work out there.  Alexa gets it--character, how to get heat during a match.  She's just this nasty little witch and she is so damn good at it.  Everything she hit looked crisp.  She's a star. Love the Harley Quinn/Lollipop Chainsaw look she went with, too.  Naomi's springboard plancha was daring and you can tell her attitude was I'm hitting this if it kills me.  She showed some nifty moves tonight. Her entrance/gear keeps getting better.  I know Becky just got the belt, but both of those ladies need to be in the championship mix and soon.

And Maryse!  A woman after my heart.  The perfume to the face was something I needed in my life! Where did she pull the bottle from?  I'm guessing her bra.  Whatever, what a classic heel move. I was digging her look, too.

Congrats to the women.  They nailed their performances.

[Goodear]

I was there live and fighting my fear of heights in the second to last row in the building and now am chasing a gas station sub down with coffee M&Ms in a hotel room hoping I don't get murdered tonight!

Corbin-Crews was good stuff and I think this is the setting where Crews works as a white meat baby against a big old natural heel like Corbin.  Corbin still has the bad habit of missing 17 clotheslines a match but he did some neat stuff, the Irish whip counter to the outside and then sliding back inside was a nice piece of business.  The Deep Six looks CRAZY live and Crew's fallaway Samoan Drop on the floor was bonkers.  Did Corbin catch him with a knee right before the finish?  It was kind of hard to tell from the top of K2.  Anyway, this was a nice opener and both guys could use some things to do.  Corbin really came off well here to me.

Ladies 6 man challenge was fine and dandy.  I think they booked it well with the exception of Naomi going out to the sharpshooter which just felt deflating.  Alexis sure didn't lose anything going out to the powerbomb / blockbuster combination and she looked good I thought with the double knees to the backflip knees being pretty on point.  Carmella needs to tighten up a bit as her strikes can come off very much like she's flailing and I'm not sure that's what she was going for?  I thought she really botched up the Cone of Silence on Nikki before Bella stood up and Alabama slammed the Jersey out of her.  Nikki's forearms look like freight trains, holy shit.  Crowd was super into Becky and I agree it was the right cal to put the strap on her.

Usos-Hype Bros was okay filler.  I was sort of hoping Mojo would be able to work large enough to get a sense of his energy but it didn't reach the cheapest of seats.  His tackle on the outside was pretty awesome though.  He is a project that is coming along fine as a hot tag.  Ryder looked good to me but he looks so big in person that its a little harder for him for him to build some heat.  Usos changes were appreciated by me with the gear changes being more appropriate than being neon something.

Miz is awesome and if he could have done a tiger wall flip after the three corner dropkicks I would have died.  I await him breaking out the yes knee so much.  Dolph starting out working amateur was interesting if he could find a way to not make it such a hard transition from that to his normal stuff.  Also I wish he would have turned over the figure four rather than get to the ropes because 'he's no coward' and I think that would have made better narrative sense.  Other than that I have no complaints.

I'm tired Jesus.

The crowd (aka the people around me) were kind of hoping Luke Harper would be the one to take on Bray.  Alas it was not to be.  Kane is immobile at this point but he took a nice running Senton thing on the table

Tag Titles were fun but I wish Heath could have done something a little more Mikey Whipwreck out of it and really had that one big moment where he stands up and becomes a man.  I guess tagging himself in was that moment but I needed a little more from him to be honest.  I'm not a huge fan of starting the tag titles on then Rhyno/Slater paring but I'll live.

Main event was good, I wish Ambrose would have been able to channel the work he did in the final third of the match during the whole thing.  The crowd would have been turned more to his side I think if he had gone full wildman rather than a standard opening act.  The head pounding on the mat to escape the Calf Killer was the turning point I identified.  I think the match suffered only because there was no heat on AJ and most of the crowd was on his side.  They need something to draw some heat on him or he's going to end up a cool heel and that doesn't help anyone.

[HumanChessgame]

It's amazing how much better things get when they give the wrestlers angles and characters that they're actually well suited to play and motivations that makes sense.