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Smackdown Spoilers for 9/20/13


victor

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This was a pretty fun show overall. Good follow up to Raw.

 

The only segment I thought was weak was the divas thanks to Nattie on commentary. AJ and Naomi were fine in the ring, but I couldn't tell what Nattie was going for out there. She had some very heelish talking points even though she's supposed to be the face, and it sounded like even she didn't know what her character's motivation was supposed to be. JBL and Cole tried their best to hold it together, but Nattie just kept talking and talking... "She's a title holder, I'm a champion." *shudder*

 

The gauntlet match was well done. Mostly served as a jobber execution, but Kofi and Ziggler had some good babyface comebacks.  Ziggler's demise was particularly fun. I don't know who decided to bring back the running single leg dropkick, but between Rollins, Cesaro, Bryan, and Naomi, there have been some pretty nasty ones flying around lately. That torpedo spear on the outside... Well, the .gif covers it nicely.

 

HHH's follow up segment was pretty good too. He's putting his cerebral assassin skills to good use coming off as a guy who's biding his time for some real revenge and has no interest in letting an incompetent stooge like Vickie screw it up with a sloppy, unimaginative plan. 

 

Ryback's segment was hilarious. "Paul Heyman told me earlier you wouldn't sign a little kids' autograph" is some high-quality transparently phony pro wrestling heel character motivation. Yelling "I hate bullies" along with the 3 count was the icing on the cake.

 

The main event 6-man was an excellent tv main, and probably one of The Shield's best, which actually covers a lot of ground towards the end of their first year. Strong teamwork by both sides, and much better structure with Bryan as the ace and the Usos as the young lions. There were some great individual spots like Bryan snatching Rollins on the leap frog attempt and Rollins' lightning enzuigiri to one of the Usos. The heat segments on each Uso went just the right amount of time, and the finish was appropriately heated. Classic Bryan hot-tag run on Ambrose, followed by a nice dive sequence to get Rollins and Reigns out of the way, Then there was the beautiful subtlety in the finish where the Usos hit the double superkick to give them a bit of a rub by being directly involved, but not taking away from Bryan who hit the long-setup variety running knee in true superstar fashion. Everyone came out looking great.

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Dudes...with some more seasoning...Naomi could really be an awesome worker. She's got some of her stuff down pretty good. I love that she has butt based offensive manuevers.

 

The only gripe I had with the show was Nattie on commentary. She should really allow the Bellas to talk for her....

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I figured out what's bugging me about the Uso's.  They're not as athletic as they seem.  Sure, they can dive over the ropes, but any other hops that they have that are based on the mat are very little, they're side kicks don't connect to people's heads that often and they're forearm strikes are weak as fuck.  I still like them, but I like my prowres Samoans to be a little more uncivilized and "surprisingly agile".

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Thoughts:

 

1) The Pete Rose comparison was amazing and epic. HHH is so good at being so completely full-of-turds and believing his lies. I also love that the WWE is showing and not telling with everything. They're trusting the audience to understand HHH is conning everyone with all of this stuff. That's how2) I am a big fan of Vicki's work but her delivery was terrible tonight. There was obviously a lot of memorization of stuff that she was struggling with. She did her great cackle at the end. I really liked that. But still, bad segment.

 

3) I liked that Diva's match. Good little match. Naomi's really athletic and has some cool spots. She doesn't have the ability yet to really incorporate all of those into a match without someone who knows how to do that. AJ doesn't have anywhere near Naomi's athletic ability but can carry another worker at this point. (See: Her match with Bailey on NXT.) "Hey! Here's how this will work. You do your spots. I'll bump around for most of the entire match. I'll talk trash and will pay the price for it. I'll get in a few sorta cheap shots here and there. But then at the very end,You just stand there and sorta spin me and I'll hook on my shocking awesome looking finisher. You struggle for a while and then tap." Solid stuff.

 

3A) I don't know if the commentary was terrible because Nattie's awful or if they just don't know what POV they want to do here. The angle would maybe work a lot better if they had AJ actually show jealousy about not being on that dumb show. But AJ and the divas division, overall, is a lot stronger by having someone who takes her stuff (kayfabe and otherwise) seriously rubbing in the faces of people who'd rather be on reality TV. None of Nattie's talking points were good. "We should stick together. We're role models." I don't have a daughter but if I did (and my wife allowed her to watch wrestling -- not happening), AJ's the one I'd have her look up to in this. Sure AJ's nutty with boys and struggles with romantic relationships. But with this, she's a super confident young woman not afraid to stick up for herself who is telling people that she's important and told the dumb dumb old boys club at ringside that they have no right to treat her as meat. Whereas Nattie and the rest are fine being creeps and willing to have themselves exploited on a Reality TV show and/or are totally fine with Lawler oggling them. Also, "She's a title holder. I was born a champion." Sure you were, unover daughter of Jim Neidhart. If so, take the title. We should all be so lucky to have someone who respects that belt so much and its meaning she'll get the date she won it tattooed on her neck.In other words, AJ rules it. Still. She's one of the most compelling people in the WWE of the past decade. The only role she's struggled with was as GM. Everything else (the love triangle, the Dolph/Big E. team, etc.) she's hit home runs with. And she's also a very competent worker in the ring.

 

4) Zeb talking about Santino not having a proper reptile owner's was soooooo awesome. That match was eh. Just couldn't really care and there was a lot of baseball on last night.

 

5) Ryback and Heyman already have tremendous chemistry. Perfect. They totally misread Ryback as a monster. The guy looks like one but he even had good delivery as goofball Skip Sheffield back in the day. I loved him saying "I! HATE! BULLIES!" along with the pin. Heyman and Curtis marking out was great, too.6) The Shield gauntlet showcase was great. I loved the build. Darren gets crushed right away. The stronger Titus gets a little bit of offense but eats it pretty quick. The fiesty Dolph who has figured out Ambrose, at least, goes at it. He knows what to expect since he's been repeatedly put in matches against them. Gets some offense and has a chance at the win but the damn numbers game finishes him before, at least, he takes the best spear bump ever. Jeez, Dolph. Kofi's got a little momentum going again with the rebellion stuff but succumbs. The veteran RVD -- crafty but with the (kayfabe) athetic ability and weirdo offense to give The Shield fits -- is about to win. The build for this has been so great. The release is RIGHT there for the crowd who wants to see these dudes fall and fall hard. But then HHH takes that away right as it's about to happen. PERFECT.7) HHH ripping into Vicki was awesome. He sure was fine with the gauntlet when The Shield was kicking ass. As soon as they might have lost, game over. He explains it well -- doing this can only make the rebellion stronger. He's "heard" the audience. His ideal revenge will wait. Not now. Vicki's too big of suck-up to ever stand up for herself to the boss.8) Ryder calling HHH bro and acting all chummy. HHH's textbook "Yep. You're buried." smirk. Sends out the brutal Wyatt's to beat up guys who aren't a regular tag team. Bray hits Sister Abigail and does more A++++ promo stuff. This is how to use these guys for now. Let them just beat dudes, have Bray cut his insane promos, and wait. Once the belts come off The Shield, the Wyatt's are up next.9) HHH's smarmy "Hey! Sorry about that!" to RVD. He's perfect at this. I loved that they hinted that, yes, this was a set-up when ADR jumped RVD. Also, ADR WORE HIS SCARF during the beat down. Great little touch.10) The Rays/O's game was getting really good. I skipped past ADR and dumb ass R-Truth.

 

11) That main event. Wow. Reigns and Rollins holding up the titles and being cocky pricks. Great stuff to start. The Shield doing all their "sacrifice yourself for the team" stuff. "YOU'RE ON THE BAD SIDE OF TOWN!" Reigns CRANKING in that chinlock. So many awesome cut-off spots. I loved the end sequence. Bryan's comebacks are THE BEST. It's a five moves of doom thing at this point but I will forever love this. Bryan reverses out of the corner with his flip. Corner dropkick series. A lariat maybe. YES! Lock attempt. And, maybe, the Knee of Death. The Uso dives were really great. So was Rolling that did the "You can take me out, bro, if it helps us win" Shield trademark. Usos get up, nasty double kick from the floor to the apron that lets Bryan get the win.The end of the show was great. No trash talk or anger from the faces. A joyous Bryan celebrating with the crowd. The happy-go-lucky Usos join in. Faces, they want to have fun.

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I really, really, really don't want to listen to Vicki. I can't say whether I like or dislike her, because whenever she's about to speak, I either mute it or skip the segment entirely. Her voice is impossible to listen to.

 

I wish Heyman would give a little nod to Curtis every once in a while instead of fully ignoring him. He stands there like a doofus while Heyman's only got eyes for his latest acquisition Ryback. It doesn't do Curtis any favours at all because it makes him come across as spineless and unimportant -- until the inevitable face turn when he's had enough of being ignored, I have no doubt, which I'm not exactly looking forward to because Curtis just isn't interesting.

 

I love Triple H, though. He's so amazing in his role.

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