Smackdown Live Review 11/15/2016

PPV feels? It’s the 900th Episode of Smackdown! We have the return of the Undertaker, the return of Edge with a Cutting Edge segment with all the members from Team Smackdown, an Intercontinental Title Match between Dolph Ziggler and The Miz, Carmella takes on Nikki Bella, and apparently, a whole lot more of surprises! Who’s hyped? Will it deliver?! Let’s find out!

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WWE brings Smackdown Live to you from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

The 900th edition of Smackdown opens up with a video that goes through the history of Smackdown and also briefly hypes the Intercontinental Title Match, and the appearances from both Edge and The Undertaker.

Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan start the show properly with their awkward off-sync “YES” chants. They welcomed everyone to the 900th edition of Smackdown. They pretty much run down what’s going to happen tonight and announce the Intercontinental Title Match will kick off the show.

The Miz and Maryse made their entrance followed by Dolph Ziggler. Tom Phillips joined the commentary team which got a lot of hate but I don’t really mind a four man booth.

1.  The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler. Intercontinental Title Match.
You know the guys, you know the chemistry, you know the rivalry, so you know how good this match was. In a great match, The Miz defeated Dolph Ziggler by pinfall. Ziggler had Miz in a rollup but Maryse pushed the Miz to counter the rollup.
The Miz wins the Intercontinental Championship for 6th time.
Opinion: I mean, it was a good match. It had the story and the in ring work to back it up, but it was the fourth time we’ve seen this title match and not much changed. I guess The Miz makes for a better champion but it was a silly finish in my opinion and I was looking forward to Zayn vs. Ziggler. Oh well. Miz and Zayn will probably steal the show either way.

Footage from last night’s invasion from Team Smackdown on Raw was shown as well as hyping the Cutting Edge.

Backstage, Alexa Bliss is talking to Daniel Bryan about the way she lost the last week. Bryan said she would get her rematch but won’t commit onto when and to focus all that anger into beating Team Raw on Sunday. Natalya walked in and quoted the Chumbawamba song (had to research that really) and told her nothing would keep her down.

Kalisto makes his way to the ring with NXT…guy…I guess…Oney Lorcan already in the ring.

2. Kalisto vs. Oney Lorcan.
In a not so surprisingly short match, Kalisto defeated Oney Lorcan by pinfall with a Salida del Sol.
Opinion: Not much to say about the match other than it was good to see Lorcan get some offense in and it’s weird to me how Kalisto has a big match on Sunday, yet he gets a squash match only 5 days before the PPV. Sad to see Kalisto botch some moves by the way, don’t make to fun of the kid.

Backstage, we hear The Undertaker’s music play and the camera focuses on his hat. Taker’s gloved hand comes into frame and slowly picks up the hat away from frame.
Opinion: HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AWESOME.

The entire Tag Team division is seen arguing backstage until Heath Slater announces he’s brought them a special speaker and King Booker (No, not Booker T) walks in. He talks about the importance of the Survivor Series match until the “Fashion Police” Breezango stop him and call him King Booger and a Pirate of the Caribbean reject. Booker manages to get his catchphrase in and ends with “Can you dig that, suckaaa?!”
Opinion: I loved King Booker and it was awesome to see him back in that character, even if he kind of left it at the end of the segment. I also hate the Fashion Police gimmicks just because I love both Tyler Breeze and Fandango as in ring talent and feel like they could do so much better.

John Cena’s 2002 debut is shown followed by Carmella’s entrance with a new titantron (Is it new? I might have missed last week).

3.  Carmella vs. Nikki Bella.
This feud that has been going on for month receives a match at a landmark episode of Smackdown and…ends in a no contest. This match ended in a no contest when Charlotte appeared on the fans section of ringside and after a few minutes, Nikki decided to attack her and the action went back to the ring.
The rest of Team Raw ran down and beat up Nikki (no cheesy hashtag) until Team Smackdown came to make the save and a brawl broke out. It was pretty much chaos everywhere. Nia Jax went through a barricade, Naomi did a springboard splash, you know the usual. Team Smackdown stood tall.
Opinion: I was actually expecting a decisive finish due to the length of the feud so far and the duration of the match but it was a good match and a good way to even the “scores” for both teams heading to Survivor Series. I’m sure we’ll get the conclusion to the Nikki/Carmella rivalry post Survivor Series.

The Spirit Squad, Vaudevillians, Headbangers and Ascension are already in the ring as the Smcakdown team(s) makes their way to the ring.

4.  American Alpha, Usos, Hype Bros and Breezango vs The Spirit Squad, Vaudevillians, Headbangers and The Ascension.
In a match that was entertaining only to see all those teams trying to coexist, Team Smackdown defeated the other guys by pinfall when Chad Gable pinned Thrasher after Grand Amplitude.
Opinion: This match just makes me worried about how uninteresting it will feel like having 10 teams in the ring. It also shows how little WWE values the other guys.

Edge makes his –Fucking Awesome– entrance with a full beard and hair.
Edge started talking about how much he loved that feeling, how bleeds blue and invited the entire Team Smackdown to the ring. He said he has been watching Smackdown Live since the draft and wanted to shake the hand of the man who represents the brand and walked towards AJ Styles but shook James Ellsworth’s instead. Ellsworth said he was an Edge fan his entire life and wanted to do the 5 second pose but AJ said it was stupid and asked Edge to make a question that s really important.

Edge asked his former Rated RKO teammate Randy Orton if he needed Bray Wyatt to pull his strings to talk. Bray replied to not worry because we will see the most dangerous viper at Survivor Series. Edge then turned to Shane McMahon who said they didn’t need to like each other to win. AJ said they were lucky he agreed to team up with Dean Ambrose who he blamed for what happened last night on Raw. Ambrose said he was going after Styles right after Survivor Series and Styles said maybe he won’t play nice at Survivor Series and got in Ambrose face until the Undertaker’s gong interrupted.

The Undertaker made his way to the ring as everyone moved to one side of the ring. As he got to the ring, he got into Shane’s face and backed away. He told the team there was no better man to be the commissioner of Smackdown than the man with no fear and tipped his hat to him in a sign of respect. He then said he was there for two reasons, one being that Wrestlemania will no longer define who he is and that he’s back with the intention of taking souls and digging holes. He then said Survivor Series was where he was born and Smackdown was his home. He said there was no reason to fear failure but if they fail they will have a reason to fear the Deadman and Team Raw better Rest in Peace. Damn.

Final Thoughts
That’s Smackdown Live! How could have you not enjoed this show? I mean, yeah, The Miz winning the title back seemed a bit out of the blue and the finish was silly. The Kalisto match and 8 on 8 matches seemed pretty pointless but were there to be able to showcase the other matches this Sunday. Overall the show was pretty good! I want to rate it a 10 out 10 out of nostalgic fans perspective but hey, I won’t do that.
Final Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

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