Smackdown is Unexpected Turns! Painting Yellow! ELLSWORTH!

[Rev Ray]

- Ellsworth asks to back up Dean, Dean is sort of turning him down, gets booed for it by the crowd.

- Kane vs. Bray happens.  Zzzzzzz... Harper shows up!  Let's us know it's bow hunting season... or is protesting some NFL ruling.  Randy attacks Kane. Randy teases joining the Wyatts.  I can't give a fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

- Alexa attacks Becky and paints her Yella!

- Hype Bros are on the Smackdown team for Survivor Series.  Mojo is in PACKERS~! zubas!

- Nikki beats Natty to become Smackdown Women's captain.  She also does a better STF than Cena.

- Slater and Rhyno beat the Spirit Squad

- AJ retains by DQ over Ambrose after No Chin Music by Ellsworth.  AJ lays out James twice.  Dean, seeing Ellsworth lining up AJ, does not distract the referee.  He's the moron, not Ellsworth.

 

Talking Smack!

- Kane tries to make his feud interesting... no so luck

- DBry continues to take shots at Raw booking

- Slater and Rhyno show up and are great as always.  Slater apparently has paid the Shining Stars $500 for 5 shares of stock in Puerto Rico.  Ladies and gentlemen, we now have a storyline for the Survivor Series tag match.  Rhyno promises to bring Smackdown team unity about by providing free cheez-whiz and crackers!

- Ellsworth is really sorry about costing Dean his #1 contenders match.

[bink_winkleman]

Slater's timeshare line was far and away the best thing on this show. Maybe on WWE all week. Maybe in wrestling all week.

 

EDIT: He mentioned it on Smackdown off handedly, and I'm kind of disappointed they apparently had him run with it on Talking Smack.

[Matt788]

Alexa should have spray painted NWO letters on the belt.

[Charlie M.]

AJ vs Ambrose was very good. AJ brings something out of Ambrose that no one else does. AJ's baseball slide dropkick to Ellsworth was incredible. I loved the ending with Ellsworth losing it on AJ and hitting the No Chin Music! They're getting great mileage out of this.

Orton in the Wyatts would be something different for sure. I hope he goes all-in and grows a big crazy beard.

Alexa and Becky had a really strong segment. That's what a lot of us want from the booking of the women. It was just a strong angle between two wrestlers that happened to be women.

I hope this isn't the end of the Spirit Squad. They're a solid tag team in the ring. Maybe Miz could give them a Hollywood makeover?

Heath paying off the Shining Stars storyline was awesome. Remember SLATER GATOR? Imagine if Heath has also invested in the Titus Brand?! Heath getting swindled by all his old jobber buddies would be great TV.

[Eivion]

Dug The Becky/Alexa segment. Nikki/Nattie was surprisingly solid, and Nikki's does an awesome STF. Like seriously its not a just better than Cena deal. I'm going to be disappointed if that isn't one her normal finishers from now on. Also still liking Carmella sneak attacks. It really is embarrassing how much better SDL books their women considering Raw unarguably has the better wrestlers. I really wish the women were just moved to SDL outright.

Not sure what to think of Orton possibly joining the Wyatts. It feels like a set up similar to Bryan's infiltration/betrayal.

Slater/Rhyno continue to be a highlight on the main show and Talking Smack. Glad I'm not the only one wanting to see the Spirit Squad get a makeover from the Miz.

Dean vs. AJ was pretty damn good up until the finish. Ellsworth's reaction during the match and after it on Talking Smack were great. It was damn near impossible not to feel sorry for him despite the fuck up.

[Kyuubi]

AJ is a damn good wrestler. I know his best matches on WWE are few and far between, but he gets a great to good match out of everyone. I have never seen such an inspired Dean Ambrose with anyone. AJ knows how to make everyone look good because he can read crowd reactions with the best of them. How to make a smarky crowd turn on the fan-favorite heel? Most heels just use them to taunt the face because they have no clue e.g. Seth Rollins. Guys like AJ and Kevin Owens do something so despicable that they have no choice but to AJ, for no reason, and for no sense to the match, randomly attacked Ellsworth. And then made it work to get Dean to check on the chinless wonder only to set up forearm dive outside. Then after applying the calf crusher on Dean that was actually sold well, AJ goes for a stiff diving dropkick on Ellsworth that immediately got jeers. And that sets up the finish and I just love how everything was put together about this match. I am usually indifferent to interference in matches, but this was so well set up and they actually told a story.

I know AJ has not had as many great classics as Sami Zayn this year nor did he start off on the right foot with Jericho, but he has to be the greatest last minute acquisition the WWE has ever made. I know I am stanning for the dude, but I have never said anything bad about AJStyles the wrestler. Dude is the best at what he does and it is great to see someone really excited to work in the WWE. Dude is my MVP this year because I can always count on AJ Styles to entertain me.

Bliss is awesome on the mic and I am glad she left her boy toys in NXT because she was bigger than them. 

Good show for Smackdown. Better than Raw as usual, but whatever.

[Sammo~!]

I loved AJ/Dean so much.

This is the 2nd time in two nights on WWE TV that someone has kicked out of the Perfect-Plex. Curt is spinning in his grave.

[Matt788]

Main Event tonight was Crews vs Hawkins and also Alpha vs Vaudes.

 

[mattdangerously]

They're gonna do AJ vs Dean vs Ellsworth at Survivor Series, aren't they?  Kind of feels like it.

[Phantom Lord]

With the debt Puerto Rico is in, Heath Slater might just have bought the island.

Someone posted this on Reddit. I have no idea how to embed the video since it's not a youtube video.

Curb Your Enthusiasm starring James Ellsworth and Dean Ambrose.

https://streamable.com/i9c2

 

[DreamBroken]

Always great SDL. Legit shocked when Orton turned on Kane, did not see that coming at all. Alexa Bliss just killed it again with an amazing promo performance, great to see Becky back as well. Nikki/Natalya ruled too. The Spirit Squad are not guys I ever thought I'd care to see back but I've been really enjoying them since returning, they could be a great mini-feud for Slater & Rhyno. Very solid main event, lots of great stuff from Ambrose and Styles. Fun finish, amusing how long Chioda took to call for the bell as he was in such disbelief at Ellsworth. JBL's reaction was great too. SDL is the best, great feuds & stories.

[Cristobal]

How is it Raw can't figure out anything better for Sami Zayn to do than to try to get Blimpy Snootweasel over but Smackdown can make a hugely over babyface out of one of the randos Blart Snickerdoodle squashed in passing?

[Niners Fan in CT]

Another very solid show.   I said many months ago that I thought Alexa could be the next Trish and I can still see it, she is such an awesome character right now and she's getting great heel reactions. I'm loving the feud. 

The Ellsworth stuff again was so well done.  I did feel for the guy. It was smart as hell on AJ's part to goad Ellsworth into it.  Ellsworth got carried away but then was devastated when he realized what he had done.  And Dean was visibly frustrated but I also sensed that he felt bad for James.

[Rev Ray]

I figure the next step would probably be for ellsworth to be named #1 contender because of his 2 wins over aj but to try to make up for costing Dean his shot by offering to wrestle him for it.  Figure this would result in aj attacking ellsworth costing Dean his shot for another week.

 

Knowing wwe, this will all be a conspiracy between ellsworth and aj and he'll turn heel and be dead in the water like Colin Delaney.   But I think if they use him sparingly,  ellsworth showing up as the random guy sometimes might have legs i.e. showing up in the royal rumble.

[The Green Meanie]

I predicted that two turns were going to occur tonight, I'm glad the second one didn't happen.

 

Spoiler

Saw the Orton turn a mile away. The key here is, is the swerve that he's actually going to join them, or is the swerve that he's making them think he's going to join them? Thought Ellsworth was going to turn on Dean at first when Dean told him no, then the second time when Dean relented, and the third time right before The No Chin Music. Glad they didn't pull that trigger.

 

[Infinit]

Nikki really needs to teach Cena how to properly cinch in an STF. DAMN.

[The Comedian]

8 hours ago, Eivion said:

It really is embarrassing how much better SDL books their women considering Raw unarguably has the better wrestlers

I don't really see much of a difference between Becky/Nikki/Alexa and Sasha/Bayley/Charlotte...the addition of Emma is the only real reason I'd give Raw a talent edge, but it's still not like it's a wide gap...

[J.T.]

8 hours ago, Rev Ray said:

- Nikki beats Natty to become Smackdown Women's captain.  She also does a better STF than Cena.

She is in good company when it comes to using her significant other's finisher better than her significant other.

 

[J.T.]

Alexa is like my favorite heel right now, seriously.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

8 hours ago, Phantom Lord said:

Someone posted this on Reddit. I have no idea how to embed the video since it's not a youtube video.

Curb Your Enthusiasm starring James Ellsworth and Dean Ambrose.

https://streamable.com/i9c2

 

Raw should have the CYE theme piped into the arena for the entire 3 hours.

[Beech27]

15 minutes ago, J.T. said:

She is in good company when it comes to using her significant other's finisher better than her significant other.

 

This is really pedantic, but: The Northern Lights Bomb was invented by Hokuto. Still, any excuse to get it in a smackdown thread is worthwhile. And Nikki's STF did look great, which, she's had one of the best elbow strikes in the company forever, so we can't be too shocked.

[J.T.]

Well, if we're being pedantic, Akira used Sasaki's Strangle Hold Gamma for a bit, but Kensuke's looks better.

[RIPPA]

Let's also remember that Nikki is applying her STF on more flexible people.

So naturally that will lead to it looking better

[J.T.]

No wonder The Fearless Lock submission finisher looks so crisp.  From the look of Nikki's celebration tweet last night, Nikki's submissions coach is none other than Shayna mother fucking Bayszler.

My cousin was in the audience when the QoS neck cranked poor Keiko Tamai on the ShowXC card in Cali back in '08.  That shit was vicious.

I really respect Nikki for getting some legit ground grappling under her belt to make her kayfabe work look a bit more shooty.  If you gotta to learn, get one of the best to teach you.

11 hours ago, Matt788 said:

Alexa should have spray painted NWO letters on the belt.

I'd definitely have her go the Hogan nWo angle and deface the belt with spray paint after she wins it to make it worthy of being around her waist.

[The Comedian]

Ya know at first I was thinkin' that they were low-key keeping the Spirit Squad around so they'd have another jobber team for these Survivor Series qualifiers. Then I thought about it a bit more and realized that they may actually end up making the team. I mean, I'm assuming a first four of Slater & Rhyno/Hype Bros/AA/Usos, and with Ascension eliminated your choices for fifth team are the Vaudevillains, Breezedango, and Spirit Squad. One of those teams is in the middle of an upper-midcard angle, and the other two rarely even make the show...