Friday, June 13, 2014

WWE Friday Night Smackdown Review - June 13th, 2014

The show opened with a great in ring promo from Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. They were interrupted by Triple H who appeared on the screen and announced that Ambrose would face Wyatt later in the night while Barrett would face Reigns next.

1) Bad News Barrett vs. Roman Reigns
Good opening match here. Although it ended in a no contest, it was an exciting way to start the show. 3MB ended up running down and getting destroyed by Roman Reigns. The spear that Heath Slater took after diving off the steel steps was epic. Fun start to the evening.

2) Jey Uso vs. Erick Rowan
I'm really enjoying the feud between The Usos and Harper & Rowan. Their match on Raw a few weeks ago was outstanding. This was a short match that was fairly fast paced. Jey hit a dive and some other high flying manuevers that he's known for, but Rowan came recovered quickly and got the win. Short, but enjoyable. Ready to see these two teams lock up again. Hopefully at the Money In The Bank PPV.

3) Bo Dallas vs. R-Truth
I've been pretty open about how I feel about Bo Dallas. I'm not sold on the gimmick whatsoever and as for R-Truth, I haven't enjoyed him since 2011. Despite all of that, I actually enjoyed this segment. As soon as I saw Bo Dallas start "dancing" if you will as R-Truth rapped his way to the ring, I couldn't help but laugh. WWE successfully executed an entertainment portion of the show here without being extremely corny like usual. Good job.

4) Sheamus vs. Cesaro
I normally complain about the same match happening several times in a row, but the series of matches between Sheamus and Cesaro has done wonders for both men. This match in particular was a bit different than some of their other bouts as it was a straight up striking battle. Heyman noted in a prematch promo that Cesaro didn't come to grapple, he came to fight and that set the pace for this match. It was a very stiff and physical bout between the two heavyweights. Cesaro picked up the win with a roll up which basically says that this feud will continue as Sheamus beat Cesaro with a roll up at Payback. Can't wait for the next encounter between these two. It's always fun to watch and that was the case here as well.

5) Adam Rose vs. Fandango
I left the room when this match came on. Such a shame that these two are basically jobbers. Imagine how great this would be if it was Leo Kruger vs. Johnny Curtis instead of two dancers facing off. WWE's gimmick choices suck. This didn't last long so it couldn't have been anything special.

6) Jack Swagger vs. Big E
These two had a phenomenal match at Elimination Chamber earlier this year so I had no problem with seeing them face off again here. They weren't given much time here, but this was still enjoyable because of the storyline development that took place. Lana came out seemingly to distract Big E, but Zeb ended up getting pissed and running Lana off. Big E ends up taking advantage of Swagger to get the win. It looks like we're gonna get a Swagger/Rusev feud which could be VERY good if WWE books it correctly. They don't need to just feed Swagger to Rusev like they did Big E. Make a legit feud out of this with competitive matches and intense promos. This could also turn Swagger into a babyface which would tremendously help him in my opinion. The crowd still says "We the People" with him so imagine if he became a fan favorite, he'd be over like crazy. The Real American vs. The Russian Destroyer screams quality TV. Zeb Colter is gold and could make the promos for the feud great. I really hope we get to see this feud play out over the next month or so. It would really be good for both Rusev and Swagger.

7) Alicia Fox vs. Aksana
Kudos to WWE for following through with the story from Raw, but this was just boring. In my Raw review, I noted that the main problem with WWE in the past two months is that they need to give us a legitimate reason to want to watch certain people on the roster. That's the main reason alot of stuff comes off as boring when it actually isn't that bad. If both of these women had established characters this may have been more meaningful, but it was just another boring divas match. I liked the character development of Fox when it started a few weeks ago as well as Paige's debut, but they've handled both horribly so far. The Divas Divsion has begun to crumble once again. So much potential to be great, but WWE just won't put any real thought into it.

8) Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt
Very good main event. These are two of my favorites on the main roster right now so I was excited for this bout and it delivered as expected. The sequence of near falls near the end was great. Seth Rollins came out and distracted Ambrose which allowed Bray to hit a Sister Abigail out of nowhere on him for the win. Looks like they're building towards Ambrose/Rollins at MITB. None the less, really good match here.

Overall thoughts: Pretty good episode of Smackdown. Better than previous weeks, but still not back at the level of those few weeks in January and February when Smackdown was high quality. However, this was still a solid show. The only segments that really bored me were Fox/Aksana and Rose/Fandango. Everything else ranges from tolerable to enjoyable.

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