SmackDown Live Review 04/25/17

Shinsuke Nakamura Talks

My Thoughts: I really liked that Ziggler cut Nak off immediately, cut right to the chase and didn’t drag the segment out. This has really revitalized Ziggler’s career and he needed a solid feud with a star in order to be taken seriously as a heel after feuding with Crews, Kalisto, and Mojo since turning where he hasn’t looked all that great. Now he’s in a pretty important feud with a really over superstar in Nak. Even though he’s going to lose when they eventually collide, he’ll get a good showing and earn more legitimacy. He cut a real good promo on Nak by jokingly interviewing him and “translating” his “Japanese” and made me remember why I loved him so much back in 2011 and 2012 especially. Because he is a good talker but he’s 10 times better as the arrogant heel he really, truly is. I’m so excited for their match and I hope Ziggler gets a one-up on Nak next week since he hasn’t had one yet.

Baron Corbin vs. AJ Styles

My Thoughts: This was a classic battle of size and strength vs. speed and technique. It was a good showing for Corbin with him thwarting all of Styles’ attempts to get back in this match. Watching Corbin throw Styles around like a rag doll was rather entertaining and made Styles look like a real underdog. While this wasn’t necessarily a great match, it was solid and did its job of making Corbin look good and keeping Styles strong. Corbin’s blocking of the Calf Crusher was really well done. The interference I don’t think was really needed as Styles was distracted, Corbin took advantage, and still lost, albeit by roll-up so it really didn’t do any damage to Corbin. The post-match beat-down and save by Sami was pretty good and it really sets up a Zayn/Corbin feud and match for Backlash which I think is a great idea. It will more than likely give Corbin a strong win while continuing this underdog story with Sami where he keeps coming up short.

Rating: ***

American Alpha vs. The Colons in a Beat the Clock Challenge Match

My Thoughts: This was a fine match, totally inoffensive but nothing out of the water. I don’t agree with them doing this match yet again considering they could’ve had Alpha beat either Breezango or The Ascension but it was nice to see them beat The Colons after their loss to them last week that kinda made them look weak. They’ve re-booted Primo and Epico so much and none of their attempts have worked so I imagine WWE caring about them this time won’t last long either. The sloppy Grand Amplitude hurt the finish just a little bit for me but it wasn’t a big deal for me. The crowd was actually into Alpha this week which was nice.

Rating: **1/2

Randy Orton vs. Erick Rowan in a No Disqualification Match

My Thoughts: This was a good but basic no disqualification match. Nothing outlandish that you haven’t seen before happened but it was a no disqualification match and 9 out of 10 times they’re fun no matter what, and that’s what this was. Liked the table crash, the use of the kendo stick, and that Rowan looked relatively good even in a defeat. It got a good amount of time and Big Red had nice control during it. Would’ve enjoyed a more creative RKO finish but it was whatever. The post-match stuff with Mahal and Orton was solid. Mahal cut a pretty good promo and ended up with the upper hand after his minions The Bollywood Boyz helped him out. I’m liking this trio and no matter how little sense this random Mahal push makes, I’m enjoying it and really looking forward to his match with Orton.

Rating: ***

The Ascension vs. Breezango in a Beat the Clock Challenge Match

My Thoughts: Enjoyable, but real short tag team match. I liked Breezango working as faces and now it seems like that’s what they’re going to roll with. Viktor’s uppercut right at the start was a great way to get into things and he looked really good as always. I would’ve gone with a more last second finish in order to make it more dramatic but outside of that and it being short (as pretty much all beat the clock matches are), no real complaints here. Fun while it lasted and Breezango winning was great. I’m excited to see their match with The Usos and am happy they’re getting this opportunity.

Rating: **

Naomi (C) vs. Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women’s Championship

My Thoughts: This was a decent match that really picked up in the last few minutes. It was pretty slow and a little sloppy in the early goings and then Naomi’s comeback wasn’t done all that well but once the back and forth began it was solid. The finisher kickouts that were done with the Glow to Sleep and Rear View I wasn’t a big fan of but at this point I don’t even know what they actually consider Naomi’s finishing move to be. Still just don’t see any hype around Charlotte and while I like Naomi she can be pretty sloppy so while I didn’t love this, it wasn’t bad and it was a pretty good effort from both women. The finish was lame but I get it, you wanna keep Charlotte strong and keep the belt on Naomi as well as establish this alliance between Tamina, Carmella, and Natalya. I suspect a 3 on 3 at Backlash with Charlotte teaming with Becky and Naomi against the heel women of SmackDown.

Rating: ***

Overall
I actually liked this episode a great deal. While nothing delivered majorly, everything was solid and there was a lot of hype around every single match which I liked. SmackDown needs to do shows like this every week where it’s just a bunch of hyped up matches that you’re like “I can get with this”. Plus it was less talking and more wrestling which I loved and the one talking segment they had was good. No Tye Dillinger, so I gotta dock it points for that.

Overall Rating: 7/10