Smackdown Live Review 10/18/2016

Can we all just agree that the ratings battle between Smackdown and Raw has been tight since pretty much the brand Split? Well, get ready for a big gap this week. Raw had Goldberg returning for the first time in 12 years and Smackdown only announced the AJ Styles vs James Ellsworth main event for the WWE Championship. I’m sure we know who’s ratings sky rocketed this week. However, will Smackdown Live still produce a good enough show to overcome the Goldberg return? Let’s find out!

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WWE brings Smackdown Live to you from the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado.

The show starts with clips from James Ellsworth’s victory over AJ Styles last week and from Talking Smack where the WWE World Championship match was announced for tonight. We than see Ellsworth backstage where Dean Ambrose comes in and shows him his new t-shirt with Ellsworth’s face on it and said it was available on WWEShop.

Now in the arena, Randy Orton makes his entrance where he talks about not knowing where Kane was, escaping from Bray Wyatt being difficult, and about him losing his mind. He said that was bad but specially bad for Bray Wyatt because he apparently is wrath and vengeance and he was coming for Wyatt. Bray Wyatt appears on the titantron and he was in a coffin with some people with black sheep mask around the coffin. Wyatt said he is coming for Orton so he doesn’t have to find him. He then said “He’s Here” and the lights went down as Luke Harper made his way to the ring.

2) Randy Orton vs. Luke Harper.
Early in the match, Bray Wyatt came down in his coffin being pushed down by the dudes in the sheep masks. Randy Orton defeated Luke Harper by DQ when Bray Wyatt attacked Orton.
After the Wyatt attack, both Wyatt and Harper tried putting Orton inside the casket but when it snapped open, Kane happened to be inside the casket somehow. After a brief exchange in blows, Orton and Kane were setting up their finishers and the lights went out and Harper and Wyatt were gone.
Opinion: I’m not sick of this feud as a lot of people are claiming to be but I really have no idea how further are WWE willing to push this feud, now with Kane heavily in the mix. I don’t think anyone really wants to see a Kane and Orton vs Harper and Wyatt match at Survivor Series.

AJ Styles is being interviewed backstage about his title match later tonight. Styles said he couldn’t believe it as he clawed his way to the top and the no talented skinny fat hack didn’t deserve the match. He also said Ambrose was going to try to interfere and cost him the match and if that happens it would the most ridiculous thing since David Arquette winning the WCW World Title.

Alexa Bliss and Naomi make their entrances.

2) Naomi vs. Alexa Bliss.
In a much better match compared to the one from No Mercy, Alexa Bliss defeated Naomi by pinfall with the Twisted Bliss.
Alexa gets interviewed by Renee Young following her match and Alexa says the fairytale of Becky Lynch was bound to end in Scotland in three weeks time and the fairest of them was bound to be the next women’s champion.
Opinion: Again, great match, it really means a lot for the division as a whole when a PPV match gets rebooked for free TV and is actually better than the PPV one. Also, Alexa Bliss came out in a Freddy Krueger outfit like she used to in NXT and it looks so much better than the Harley Quinn thing.

The Curt Hawkins very first match is announced to be next. Apollo Crews makes his entrance.

Curt Hawkins made his entrance with his (Awesome) voice over and then picked up a mic. He basically trashed Apollo Crews and said he was going to have to change his name to Apollo Lose, then Apollo hit Curt in the face and Curt went up the ramp and said Crews caused that the fans would have to wait to see Hawkins debut.
Opinion: Sad to see Apollo Crews not wrestling and directionless but Curt Hawkins is awesome!

Carmella is making her way to the ring as footage of her rivalry with Nikki Bella is shown. Carmella then started trashing Nikki until Nikki’s music hit and came down to the ring. Carmella said the only reason Nikki is fearless is because she goes every night to Mr. Hustle, Loyalty and Respect and Nikki responded that Carmella was just like any other hater and trolls she has faced in her life. Carmella then called Nikki a gold digger and showed footage from Total Divas and Total Bellas that portrayed her poorly. Nikki said Carmella was good at editing and she didn’t need a man and paid her own bill. Carmella then said Nikki used her looks to get in the door, her sister to get into the ring and her boyfriend to become a celebrity. She then just walked away.
Opinion: YES! YES! YES! That’s exactly what a Nikki Bella feud should be! The internet has been filled with Nikki Bella hate for like 4 years now, what took so long for WWE to acknowledge it and use it in a storyline? The Bella Army will be quick to defend which is great for getting heat for Carmella too. Now everyone is talking about how great it was to see Carmella take these shots at Nikki. Genius and better late than never. It’s a great way to extend this rivalry as well as make it more personal. Don’t think any of it is true by the way.

The Miz and Maryse make their entrance along with the Spirit Squad followed by Dolph Zigger and the Man Beast, Heath Slater and Rhyno.

3) The Miz and The Spirit Squad vs. Dolph Ziggler and Heath Slater & Rhyno.
In a fairly good match, The Miz and the Spirit Squad defeated Ziggler, Slater and Rhyno when Kenny rolled up Slater after a cheap shot from the Miz.
Opinion: Like I said last week, WWE struck gold with the No Mercy match between The Miz and Dolph Ziggler and it just seems like the feud is going down hill from here. My guess is that this leads to a Survivor Series match between The Miz, the Spirit Squad, Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper against Randy Orton, Kane, Ziggler and Slater and Rhyno.

Baron Corbin makes his way to the ring and Jack Swagger is already in the ring. A pre-taped promo from Corbin is played where he says Swagger is only a bad joke and people don’t care about him and only like to have at his expense and that’s what he is about to do.

4) Baron Corbin vs Jack Swagger.
For the third time in 4 weeks, Baron Corbin defeated Jack Swagger by pinfall with the End of Days after like 2 minutes.

Backstage, Daniel Bryan was talking with Natalya when Dean Ambrose walked in his ref uniform and Bryan told him he wasn’t going to be referee but he could be announcer, timekeeper, anything and Ambrose accepted without specifying.

Dean Ambrose makes his way to the ring and announces both AJ and Ellsworth by insulting AJ and making Ellsworth sound like a true champion.

5) AJ Styles vs. James Ellsworth. WWE World Championship Match.
In a fun match that was basically AJ squashing Ellsworth, James Ellsworth defeated AJ Styles by disqualification when AJ Styles kept hitting Ellsworth on the ropes and got DQ’d. The match was enhanced by Ambrose’s comments on the mic about the match.
Opinion: The James Ellsworth joke has officially run its course but this was a good way to just prologue the Ambrose-Styles feud without actually having them facing off or anything. I’m looking forward to the rematch, I think Ambrose belongs in the Main Event scene and it will be interesting to see this feud continue.

Smackdown Live ends with Dean Ambrose standing tall after hitting Dirty Deeds on AJ Styles after the match.

What did you think of this week’s Smackdown? Personally I think it was a solid show, nothing noteworthy came of it, it was a good way to advance each storyline and still be an entertaining 2 hours of wrestling. We had crap moments like the Swagger and Corbin thing but overall it delivered.
Final Rating: 7.4 out of 10.

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