Tonight’s WWE Smackdown Live was held at The Denny Sandford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
There was a lot of truth to this week’s show, and to be perfectly honest, I absolutely loved it. This week’s Smackback will be the second week where I won’t be doing the Good, Bad and Ugly. It’s all good to me folks. Here we go.
Show Open
To my surprise the show opened with a match right off the bat. James Ellsworth was there to introduce Carmella…..wait….nevermind here comes Kevin Owens. For the second week in a row Owens came down to bully his way into a referee position. As he was trying to get the ref to give him his shirt Shane McMahon came down to the ring. Shane was there to make sure a repeat of what happened when KO was the ref didn’t happen again. Here’s where it got good.
Shane basically dressed down Owens in the middle of the ring, blaming all of Owen’s bad luck recently directly on Owens. Owens responded by getting extremely personal. Attacking Shane’s sometimes reckless actions on the fact that maybe his father didn’t pay enough attention to him. He began to mock the fact that everything always had to be about Shane, including parading his kids around before one of his matches. This caused Shane to get real serious for a second and warned Owens not to mention his kids again. You think he’ll listen? Nope!
As Kevin was telling Shane that his family would have been better off if he hadn’t survived his recently helicopter emergency landing, it happened again. He mentioned Shane’s kids and Shane exploded. KO took the full brunt of that explosion, unable to fend off Shane’s furious barrage of fists. The only one who was able to stop Shane was Daniel Bryan. Shane walked away in a daze, leaving Bryan looking at him in disbelief.
After the segment Daniel Bryan tried to apologize to Owens, but the New Face of America wasn’t having any of it. He threatened to sue the company for what happened. Bryan pleaded with him, urging him that there must be another solution. Owens agreed, and said that he would be filing criminal charges against Shane himself.
Carmella vs Natalya – Winner: Natalya
I’ll tell you what, Carmella is getting better. She’s not at the level of a Charlotte or Becky Lynch, but she’s getting there. Minus her screaming she put on a decent show, as did Natalya. The real drama started when Carmella was going for a pin on Nattie after a super kick. During the count James Ellsworth jumped up on the apron with the briefcase, obviously getting ready to cash in the MITB briefcase. He was a bit too excited though, and dropped the briefcase in the ring. The ref saw it immediately as did Carmella. As Carmella was busy telling the ref to not cash in the briefcase and yelling at James simultaneously, Nattie rolled her up for the three count.
After the match is where I totally got behind why there was a non title match between these two. It was to get to this interaction. Carmella verbally destroyed Ellsworth in the ring. She basically echoed what a lot of people have said about him in the past. The part with “How do you even still work here?” was especially biting. Long story short, Carmella broke ties with Ellsworth. Thank God.
Dolph’s Re-debut
Man I loved this so much. The mix of truth and a work is always the best. Dolph came out and told the crowd that they should be ashamed for not appreciating him and what he can do in the ring. He then “tried” to give the crowd what he said they love so much.
First he came out mocking John Cena’s entrance. I have to admit that I did audibly laugh when he held up a DZ towel to the camera and screamed “buy this!”. After that didn’t go over, he went back for a second try. Citing that the crowd loved nostalgia he came out to the Macho Man’s old theme. With a beautiful woman on his arm and a long robe he mimicked Savage’s old movements, but alas the crowd still wasn’t warming up to him. In a final attempt he came out to Naomi’s music and donned a glowing jacket and wig.
After doing all this he again chastised the fans for loving stuff like this. He told them that “literally ANYONE” could do what he just did, but no one can do what he can do in the ring. Walking off I couldn’t help but applaud in my TV room. This is what the WWE needs right now. Not another Attitude Era, but an Honesty Era.
Aiden English vs Sami Zayn – Aiden English
I kind of have to admit, I like what they are doing with English. Sami basically controlled the whole match, but Aiden picked his spot. As soon as he saw the opportunity he took it and rolled Sami up for a pin. After the match he was super smarmy and tried to finish his song, but an irate Zayn came after him on the outside. English played the scared heel roll perfectly. Running away scared after beating an opened is truly old school.
There was a short backstage interaction between Daniel Bryan, The New Day and The Usos. The Usos made the stipulation for their match with the New Day next week a street fight and they departed quickly. It was at this point Bryan got a call and had to take care of something immediately. Uh Ohhhhhh.
Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon Segment
A somber Daniel Bryan walked out to the ring and called out Shane to join him to talk. I have to hand it to Daniel Bryan, the usually goofy and light-hearted superstar really spoke from the heart with, that’s right, honesty.
He reminded Shane of the time last year when Miz was relentless in mocking Bryan and attacking him verbally. He told Shane the only thing that kept him from saying “screw the WWE” and beating the crap out of Miz was Shane’s words. Shane told him he had to put the fans, WWE, and their employees first.
Shane looked like he heard every word that Bryan was saying and promised to speak to KO himself and smooth things over. Unfortunately Shane would not get the chance. The phone call Daniel got earlier from from Shane’s father, and effective immediately he was suspended indefinitely. Daniel left Shane in the ring looking stunned and saddened. After standing in the ring a moment, soaking in what might be the last chants he hears from the fans, he pounded his chest and exited the ring.
Baron Corbin vs Tye Dillinger – Winner: Baron Corbin
Thank you WWE for finally giving Tye a decent match. First off, I don’t care what anyone says, I’m still behind Corbin. He has a great heel personality, not to mention he is explosive and athletic as hell for a big guy. However I want to focus on Dillinger here.
He really took it to Corbin in this match, showing exactly why the WWE Universe backs him. He deserves to be in the title picture and he showed it tonight. Even though he lost the battle tonight after a cheap shot, he won the war.
Backstage
After the match AJ Styles approached him in the backstage area. He was ringside for the previous match and was really impressed. He told Dillinger that the US Title Open Challenge would continue next week, but it would be open to just one person. AJ wants to give the WWE Universe the match they want to see. Man isn’t that the….there it is again…..truth. I predict next week’s match will be a phenomenal 10!
We also saw James Ellsworth begging Carmella to give him one more chance. To my, and probably many others dismay she agreed. This time though they will be doing it her way. Then, in the weirdest thing I have seen in a while, Carmella kissed then slapped Ellsworth.
Shinsuke Nakamura vs Randy Orton – Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura
What a match. No seriously. Usually Orton bores me to tears in his matches, but tonight whether it was Nakamura or just a good night, he brought it. The crowd was totally behind it as well, cheering both competitors with equal intensity.
I was most impressed with Orton’s selling job. Although he really had Nakamura’s number for a good part of the match, he really sold the fact that Nakamura is a powerhouse striker. Speaking of Nakamura, he performed two of the best counters to the RKO I have seen. The one where he caught Orton in an arm bar during an RKO attempt being the better of the two.
This match was awesome and the ending made perfect sense. Orton has already had multiple attempts at Jinder’s title, and it’s Nakamura’s turn. I would have liked to see Nakamura look a bit more strong coming out of this match, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it and that’s the TRUTH.
