Smackdown Review 07/07/2016

We are 12 days away for the long awaited Brand Split, which means this is the second to last episode of Smackdwon with a combined roster! How will the current storylines move forward? How will the 4th of July edition od Raw affect tonight’s Smackdwon? who will Brock Lesnar’s opponent for Summerslam will be? Let’s find out.

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Smackdown comes to you on the USA Network, taped on tuesday at the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio.

The show opens up with a segment where Chris Jericho is looking into a mirror and says that Sami Zayn has been a thorn in his side and that he’ll teach Zayn a lesson. Jericho starts asking where his blue scarf is, and his producer tells him he doesn’t know and Jericho (of course) calls him a stupid idiot. Sami Zayn tells Jericho that even if Jericho likes to call himself the “Best in the World”, tonight he’ll find out he is the second best in the world.

Another video is played, this time of Seth Rollins walking into the arena and running into Jey Uso. Rollins starts talking about the “Samoan Dynasty” being missing after Roman’s suspension. Jey calls Rollins a joke and Rolins calls Jey’s whole family a joke especially making fun of his father, Rikishi. They argue a bit and Jey finally challenges Seth to a match.

JoJo is about to make the ring announcement but Dean Ambrose interrupts him. Ambrose cuts a brief promo where he praised JoJo’s job and said he always wanted to be a ring announcer like Howard Finkel…but with hair and taller. He declared himself as the special ring announcer for the match and proceed to announce Jey Uso as a part of the “Flying Uso Brothers”. He then announces Seth Rollins as a scumbag from a place where he didn’t receive enough hugs as a kid and with a giant stick up his butt.

1) Seth Rollins vs Jey Uso.
In an entertaining match, Seth Rollins defeated Jey Uso by pinfall with a Pedigree. Jey Uso didn’t really showcase much in this match, but this match was really entertaining thanks to the Ambrose factor where he picked up the mic several times during the match to announce that a truck was about to be towed and to invite people to buy some of the WWE merchandise (where he made a WWE Ice Cream Bars comment) and stuff like that.
After the match, Ambrose announced Rollins’ victory and when he entered the ring with Rollins, Seth just backed up.

Zack Ryder makes his way to the ring with a brand new entrance music. Good for him by the way.

2) Zack Ryder vs Sheamus.
In a relatively short match where Sheamus looked a bit more aggressive than usual and what it looked like it would be a squash match for Sheamus, Zack Ryder defeated Sheamus by pinfall with the Elbro Drop. I was invested in the match as Sheamus looked far more aggressive and focused which hopefully means he’ll be changing up his character soon as he’s been stuck since he lost the WWE Title last december. On the other hand, Zack Ryder got a new entrance theme and back to back wins on Raw and Smackdown, so it looks as if WWE is putting him back on the map for the Brand Split.

Tom Phillips interviews Zack Ryder at the top of the ramp and asks him what he’ll do next. Ryder says that he will take some Advil and ice his back but after that he will be going after the United States Championship because being a champion means being the best at that moment and that the current champion doesn’t respect anything or anyone. Looks like Rusev has a new victim.

Rusev is backstage being interviewed and said that he will not consider Zack Ryder as a challenger until he challenges him to his face. Until then, he is just another coward American loser.

Becky Lynch is making her way down to the ring until she is attacked by Natalya. Natalya throws her into the barricade a few times and puts her into the Sharpshooter (Apparently the new Cesaro finisher) until referees came down to stop her. She then just leaves as the commentators hype their upcoming match at Battleground.

A video is played showing Xavier Woods warning Kofi and Big E about the Wyatt Family and a clip from WWE.com with Xavier saying he doesn’t agree with his brothers is also played.

Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady are in the ring cutting a regular promo until The Club appears and AJ threatens to shut them up. Big Cass invites AJ to get into the ring with him to which AJ says that he wasn’t to him, he was talking to the guy that looks like a bird. After a bit of Enzo dissing AJ, the match is set.

3) Enzo Amore vs AJ Styles.
In a good match with an interesting dynamyc, AJ Styles defeated Enzo Amore by pinfall with the Styles Clash. During the match, both Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows got into a brawl with Big Cass. Personally I think Enzo is better individually than Cass and he showed it tonight, but hopefully they stick together for a long time.

Chris Jericho is backstage looking for his scarf and founds Kevin Owens with the scarf around his neck. They both argue and Jericho tells him the scarf is worth about 750 dollars and expects Owens to pay for it. Owens pulls change from his pocket and drops it on Jericho’s hand, Jericho demands another 25 cents and Owens gives him a Jolly Rancher. He then wishes Jericho luck against Sami Zayn later on and says he will be out there calling the match.
A bit of a useless segmest but entertaining nonetheless.

The Miz is making his way down to the ring with Maryse as a video is played of  The Miz and Maryse backstage demanding answers on who threw the pie at him on Monday to a group of superstars rewatching The Miz and Maryse getting hit with food. They all declare themselves guilty and The Miz says Maryse is allergic to mayonnaise and that it could have been an international scandal. Kalisto steps up and says if him wants an international scandal, he’ll get one. Maryse accepts on behalf of The Miz.

4) The Miz vs Kalisto.
In an ok match, The Miz defeated Kalisto by pinfall with the Skull Crushing Finale. This match was nothing amazing but what really stood out to me was the fact that we know The Miz isn’t really a quick wrestler but the way he took everything Kalisto sent to him really impressed me.

Sasha Banks is interviewd backstage where she says that what happened on Monday was no joke. Charlotte and Dana Brooke appear with Charlotte wearing a pair of Sasha’s signature glasses. They both make fun of Sasha’s style and jewelry for a bit and Dana Brooke challenges Sasha to a match on Raw. Sasha says she wants the match tonight but Charlotte says she’s the queen and she makes the rules. Sasha vs Dana on Monday is set.

Brock Lesnar’s opponent for Summerlam is hyped.

The show cuts to a video with Corey Graves and Booker T announcing that at Summerslam it will be The Beast Brock Lesnar vs. The Viper Randy Orton. Finally the match is official and remember our words, it will be a great match.

Sami Zayn makes his way to the ring.

5) Sami Zayn vs Chris Jericho.
In a good match that got a huge boost from the Kevin Owens’ commentary, Sami Zayn defeated Chris Jericho with a roll up after Jericho tried to lock the Walls in. Jericho and Zayn have crazy good chemistry together and Kevin Owens at commentary is just gold.

After the match, Chris Jericho hit Zayn with a Codebraker and after Jericho left, Owens hit a Pop-Up Powerbomb to Sami to end the show.

That’s Smackdown for this week, what did you think of it? For me, it was 2 solid hours of wrestling and entertainment with some flaws. This show gets a 7.5 out of 10. Basically, because we didn’t have a women’s match, some segments felt like filler, another “Make Darren Young Great Again” vignette (which we refused to cover) and a bunch of buiding for Raw but hey, Randy vs Lesnar is confirmed!

Tanks for reading our review, we’ll se you next week when we’re only 5 days from the Brand Split.
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