Smackdown Live Review 01/30/2018

Hello Misfits. It’s time for this weeks Smackdown Live review. It’s the first episode of Smackdown Live after the Royal Rumble. Shinsuke Nakamura walked out of the event as the winner of the 2018 Royal Rumble and already made his intention clear by challenging AJ Styles. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn weren’t able to defeat AJ Styles when the Styles beat them but only by pinning the illegal man. The Usos retained their tag team championship by beating Benjamin and Gable in 2-0 sweep, so who steps up to them next? How will the Smackdown Women’s division react to making history this past Sunday and the appearance of Ronda Rousey? Also there has been an announcement for a fatal four way tonight where the next number one contender for Bobby Roode’s US Championship will be named? Lets find out with this weeks episode of Smackdown Live.

Smackdown comes to us live from Wells Fargo Centre in Philadelphia, PA.

–  Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton and Corey Graves are on commentary.

Royal Rumble Winner – Shinsuke Nakamura
The winner of the 2018 Royal Rumble was introduced and Shinsuka Nakamura made his way out. Nakamura grabs a mic and says at the Royal Rumble Sami Zayn? Knee to the face. John Cena? Knee to the face. Roman Reigns? Knee to face! At WrestleMania, AJ Styles? Knee-FACE. New WWE Champion. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn walk out. Owens tells the crowd to give it up for the winner of the 2018 Royal Rumble. Nakamura can point at the WrestleMania sign all he wants but Owens and Zayn were screwed out of their title. They should be standing here as the co-WWE Champions. Zayn says, “yep”. They were once again held back by the vendetta machine that is Shane McMahon. Zayn says the referee has one job: protect the integrity of the match. Owens’ passion coupled with the incompetence of the referee is the reason they aren’t champion. Owens says at WrestleMania Nakamura will be facing them for the title.
Nakamura tells Owens and Zayn that Styles is a winner and that they are losers. AJ Styles’ music hits and he walks down the ramp. Styles says Owens and Zayn can whine and complain all they want but at WrestleMania, the dream match of Styles vs Nakamura is happening. Styles tells Nakamura that they should turn this dream match into a dream tag team and face Owens and Zayn tonight. Owens and Zayn leave the ring. Zayn and Owens turn around and go back to the ring. Zayn asks Styles if he really wants this match. Owens and Zayn say “NOPE”. Nakamura and Styles both knock Owens and Zayn off the apron.
Opinion
This was a solid opening segment and again the writers avoided using the Authority figures to kick off the show. It was cool to have the Royal Rumble winner kick off the show rather than having to wait for him to address the fans later in the night but I soon realized it was to set up the main event. It’s funny how Styles regularly books matches on Smackdown without any power to due so and then he gets them anyway. It’s going to be interesting to see how they book all four of these guys going into Mania. The fact that both Nakamura and Styles are babyfaces make their build up a bit unique to book. As more Zayn and Owens, if they’re not feuding with Shane McMahon and they’re sticking together, who do they rival against going into Wrestlemania.

– Backstage, Owens and Zayn complain to Daniel Bryan. Bryan says Styles can’t make matches but he can. Tonight they will face Styles and Nakamura. Bryan says he agrees they both deserve another shot at the WWE title. Zayn hugs Bryan. Bryan says next weel Owens will face Zayn. The winner faces Styles at Fastlane. Great way to build tension between the partners.

United States #1 Contender Match
Rusev w/ Aiden English def. Jinder Mahal w/ Sunil Singh, Kofi Kingston w/ The New Day and Zack Ryder
In a competitive match Rusev defeated his four opponents when Kingston misses Trouble in Paradise on Rusev and then he tries to hit the SOS but Rusev counters into the Accolade forcing Kofi to tap out. Early in the match all the people who were at ringside got ejected from ringside by the referee after a close brawl between them.
Opinion
This was a fun match where everyone had moments to shine. The only guys I saw winning here were Mahal or Rusev. I’m glad Rusev won and he received a massive pop when doing so. It seems like they’re finally capitalizing on the popularity of Rusev Day and putting Rusev in a position on the card where he can shine. I am really curious to see what’s next for Mahal.

– Backstage, the Usos tell us that they are coming to us live and in living color, next.

– Backstage, Breezango is supposed to be in control of the WWE’s social media accounts. Of course, they have the Ascension doing all the work. Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin walk in and call them all embarrassments. Breeze says they aren’t the ones who lost to the Usos twice at the Royal Rumble. Benjamin challenges Breezango to a match tonight, then flips over a table.

The Usos
The Usos gloat about their clean sweep of Gable and Benjamin from The Royal Rumble. Jimmy says they have the entire tag team division on lockdown. They list every team they have beaten since coming to SD Live. Jey says every struggle makes them stronger. Jey struggles are Jimmy’s struggle and vice versa. They are the best tag team in the world. As the Usos are leaving the ring the Bludgeon Brother make their entrance. They don’t acknowledge the Usos at all.
Opinion
This was a good promo and it was what it was supposed to be. It was unfortunate that the crowd didn’t chant along with the locked down part. If anything this reminded us of how great the Usos have been this past year.

The Bludgeon Brothers def. Local Talent
In a quick match The Bludgeon Brothers defeat the local talent after hitting them with a sky-high power bomb and an upside down.
Opinion
This was what you expected it to be. The fact that Harper and Rowen came out after the Usos cut a promo made me wonder if they’re the next ones up for the tag team title shot.

– Backstage, Bryan unveils the advent of the Smackdown top 10 lists. The list will be voted on by the WWE Superstars. Bryan and McMahon will not have a vote and the superstars will not be able to vote for themselves.

– Backstage, Tye Dillinger walks into Shane McMahon’s office. Dillinger says his opportunity was taken away from him last night. Baron Corbin burst in and complains that Bryan gave another shot to Owens and Zayn. Dillinger tries to interject and Corbin indignantly says, “you still here?” Dillinger says “yes… unlike your Money in the Bank contract”. Shane tells them both to calm down. They can settle their issue in the ring.

Charlotte Flair
Renee Young asks Charlotte how she felt Sunday night. Charlotte says it was the first time she didn’t want to be champion. She wanted to be in the ring battle to win the first women’s Royal Rumble. Charlotte says she was standing in the ring with Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss, Asuka and Ronda Rousey. Charlotte says she doesn’t know who will be standing across from her at WrestleMania but it doesn’t matter. The Riott Squad comes out and Riott calls Charlotte arrogant, entitled and unoriginal. Riott says Charlotte isn’t even going to make it to WrestleMania.
Charlotte woos in Riott’s face. Charlotte attacks Riott. Charlotte clears the ring. The Riott Squad surrounds the ring then swarm Charlotte. Riott finishes the beatdown with the Riott Kick. As the Riott Squad is walking up the ramp, Carmella runs down with a referee. Carmella kicks the Charlotte to make sure she is out. Carmella give the MITB briefcase to the referee. Charlotte starts to stir. Carmella tries to dropkick Charlotte but she kicks the referee by accident. Charlotte stumbles to her feet. Carmella grabs the Briefcase and leaves.
Opinion
This was a solid promo from Charlotte Flair. I actually do believe her promos have gotten more genuine and better since she’s been a babyface. I think she must really be a nice person in real life because she comes off as a super talents nice person. I liked the fact that even if defeat at the Rumble, the Riott Squad wanted to make an impact and attack the champion. Finally, for the first time in weeks we saw Carmella tease cashing in. I thought the way they wrote this segment was great. I liked how Carmella took advantage of the beat down but then botched the cash in by hitting the referee with a missile drop kick by accident before the match could ever start so she had to sneak away with her briefcase. Carmella as the Ms Money in the Bank finally feels relevant again for the first time since like Survivor Series.

– Backstage, Styles walks into the locker room and says they need to come up with a game plan for tonight. Nakamura says “yes, he is going to beat you at WrestleMania”. Styles goes, “what”? Nakamura says it again. Everytime Styles speaks Nakamura says he is going to beat Styles at WrestleMania. Styles asks Nakamura if he is messing with him. Nakamura says yes and laughs. Nakamura tells Styles to just listen to him out there tonight. Nakamura smiles and walks away. Styles is dumbfounded.

– Backstage, Carmella tells Renee that what just happened was exactly how she planned it. Mella says that she just wanted to remind Charlotte that she is still here… plus she has a broken nail so there is no way they could fight.

Baron Corbin def. Tye Dillinger
In a solid television match, Baron Corbin defeated Ty Dillinger after hitting him with a End of Days.
Opinion
Once again this was to allow Corbin to redeem himself after being made look like a fool. He was quickly eliminated from the Royal Rumble after weeks of talking about how this match was made for a guy like him and now they had to give him a W so he can get some of his momentum back.

– Backstage, Zayn says the good news is at least one of them are going to get a shot at the WWE Title. Owens and Zayn jab each other about losing

Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable def. Breezango
In a solid television match, Benjamin and Gable defeated Breezango when Benjamin counters a hurricanrana and lifts Breeze up in the power bomb position for Gable to dive off the top rope to hit a clothesline for the win.
Opinion
This was similar to what they just did for Baron Corbin. Benjamin and Gable suffered a pretty brutal loss at the Royal Rumble. They lost two falls in a row in a two-out-of-three falls match. This was a way for them to get some redemption and gain some momentum as a top team again.

AJ Styles & Shinsuke Nakamura def. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
In a more controversial main event where Sami Zayn walked out on his partner Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles defeated Owens and Zayn when Shinsuke hit a kinshasa on Kevin Owens for the victory.
After the match, Renee asks Zayn if his friendship with Owens is over. Zayn says nope. This is all about opportunity. Owens’ has had many. Owens’ has held titles while Zayn has been overlooked. Next week Zayn will be known as the man who beat Kevin Owens. Then he is going to be the next WWE Champion.
Opinion
It feels like these guys found out that Daniel Bryan actually won’t be able to wrestle again after months of getting different doctors opinions because the entire tension brewing between Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan due to Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn seems to have been dropped. Instead they seem to be going to the obvious eventual route of tension brewing between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. I mentioned how the match at the Royal Rumble should have been a triple threat so they could plant the seeds to the eventual Zayn/Owens break up but it seems like they decided to go this route instead. As far as we know next week we could be swerved and they could have been working together to get themselves both another title shot but we’ll have to see after next week. This match didn’t do anything to future develop the rivalry between Styles and Nakamura besides showcasing they’re both good wrestlers and can work as a team.

Final Thoughts
This was a solid episode of Smackdown where things actually happened and they gave us reasons to want to tune in next week. By the end of the episode we were left with more questions than answers and that always is a good thing with a weekly television program. Will Carmella try cashing in again? Will there be trouble in paradise for the friendship of Zayn and Owens? Will the Bludgeon Brother challenge the Usos? How will Rusev celebrate his enormous victory this week to become the number one contender for the United States Championship? Whats next for the superstars who weren’t on this episode or were on this episode but dont have a clear future booking wise? Stars such as Orton, Mahal, The New Day, Natalya, Riott Squad, Becky Lynch and many others. I would recommend watching this episode if you missed it and you have some free time. I’m looking forward to next week. 
Rating – 7.5/10