The Smackdown Smark Report: September 27 – Ziggler to Retire?

Shall I just say what we’re all thinking right now? Smackdown is beating Raw. Maybe not in ratings, and certainly not in its overall talent pool, but this week proved it can do so much more with less. Perennial middle-of-the-roaders Dolph Ziggler and Miz have the hottest feud in the company. The tag division feels competitive if not yet meaningful, which is more than can be said for Raw. Oh, and everyone in the Smackdown Women’s Division matters.

Creative’s biggest takeaway from last week was clearly that trying to squeeze six matches into an hour and twenty means sacrificing quality. This time round we only got three, which could be a problem in its own right – this is a wrestling show after all. Still, the matches we got were all good. The biggest plus for this week was that everyone came out of the show with something that takes their story and character forward a little. There are shades here of the get-everyone-over approach which is the key to unmissable wrestling.

Here’s what went down:

 

The Fun Stuff

The Usos and The Ascension Vs American Alpha, Rhyno and Heath Slater

There were a lot of bodies around the ring for this one, which could have meant no one really got enough time to show their moves. Instead, the bulk of this match was a showcase for the Usos and their increasingly dickish heel personas. Chad Gable and Jason Jordan took the lion’s share of face ring time here too, making it a slight rehash of last week’s tag division bout.

Still, it was solid ring work, particularly from the Usos, who continued to target Gable’s leg. The Ascension showed they could work too, though don’t get your hopes up that it will lead to anything down the line. The highlight here was the finish – it was one of those messy, everyone in the ring at once things which can annoy some people, but here it worked.

For a second week in a row, the Usos took the win, getting in a sly tag in and pinning Heath Slater for the three count. Nearly everyone came out of this with something to chew on, which is what wrestling booking should really be all about. American Alpha came up short against the Usos again, who proved they’re a major threat to Slater and Rhyno’s tag straps. The only ones without direction are the Ascension, and those guys really need a fresh lick of paint before anything else.

 

Natalya and Carmella Vs Naomi and Nikki Bella

A women’s wrestling match happened! On Smackdown no less. In a week of solid but not exceptional bouts, it might have been the best on the show too. At least when it came to entertainment value, anyway. There were a lot of small details that worked well here, particularly Carmella and her aggression. The only bummer is that the Cleveland crowd just didn’t seem into it unless Nikki Bella was being featured.

For starters, we got another great entrance from Naomi, who absolutely has my attention now as a performer and character. Strangely, though, the crowd only seemed to warm up when Nikki’s music hit and it became a problem through the whole match. Which is a shame because there was a lot to like. Natalya gave us a mean looking Michinoku driver on the outside, and Naomi did a good job of selling a leg injury near the end of the bout.

In the trend of the night, the heels picked up the win, with Carmella getting a quick roll up on Nikki after raking her eyes. Carmella is starting to show real progress as a violent heel and is probably the NXT call up to show the biggest improvement since the draft. Naomi too is looking good, and once she’s built up a bit of momentum I feel like she’s going to have more crowds behind her and her entrance.

 

Dolph Ziggler interupts The Miz’s Hometown Celebration

I hesitate to award segment of the night to something which involved no wrestling, but man did these two bring it here. This could have easily just been Miz and Maryse running down the crowd, but when they bought Ziggler’s parents into it the showoff came storming down to the ring. After the usual back and forth Miz cuts to the chase: he knows Ziggler’s here to ask for one more Intercontinental title shot and his answer is no.

What follows is testament to how far Ziggler has come as a mic worker. Talking about how wrestling is all he has and how his career hasn’t worked out as he had hoped, he opts to put his entire career on the line for one more chance. The Miz’s reaction to this was exceptional. The thrilling idea of putting an end to Ziggler’s career is too enticing for him to resist, and like a diabolical supervillain he leaps at the chance to bury his nemesis.  This doesn’t just feel like the culmination of the last month, it feels like the climax of the Cleveland pair’s long term on-again-off-again rivalry. It will be the third time the pair have grappled for the belt in the space of four weeks, but it already feels like it’s going to steal the show at No Mercy.

 

AJ Styles Vs Dean Ambrose (WWE World Title Match)

A WWE title match on Smackdown Live? Surely they weren’t going to have the belt change hands on free television, were they? No, no they were not. But it was a good match nonetheless, though putting John Cena on commentary felt like a slightly lazy way to force him into the finish. Cena did do a good job of putting over Ambrose’s unpredictability as both a strength and weakness though.

The match had some good spots – the Ambrose suicide dive probably needs to stop, but his top rope elbow and Styles’ ring apron 450 splash got the crowd buzzing. Naturally we got a screwy finish, which is par for the course outside a pay-per-view. Styles attacked Cena, which left the referee distracted when Ambrose got the roll up pin. Next thing you know Styles is doing a roll up on Ambrose for the win.

That wasn’t quite it though, because the whole show closed with Cena delivering an AA to both men and holding up the title. Sounds fun on paper, of course, but when you realise both guys are beat up from twenty minutes of fighting it looks like kind of a dick move from Cena. Still, it was decent enough and gives all three guys direction and motivation heading into the triple threat at No Mercy.

 

The Meh Stuff

Bray Wyatt’s trail of breadcrumbs

There’s no easy way to say this, but the Wyatt and Orton stuff this week was shit. It was bad you guys. Not an ‘oh my god, who wrote this garbage?’ bad though. It probably sounded like a good idea in the writers’ room, seeing how great all the Broken Matt Hardy stuff is doing and the relative success of the Wyatt compound thing earlier this year. Trouble is, in execution it was just boring. And peppering it throughout the show just drained away any energy the other segments might have gotten going.

It all started with Orton opening the show and informing an absent Wyatt that he knew the eater of worlds was afraid of him. Naturally Wyatt popped up on the titantron and started rambling about a trail of breadcrumbs he’d left for the Viper. So all through the show were segments of Orton wandering round dark corridors where Wyatt had written things on doors.

It was meant to be a mind game from Wyatt, but just wasn’t. We have Wyatt’s number these days. He talks a good game, but we all know he’s really here for Orton to have someone to beat. After a heavy loss to Lesnar at Summerslam, Wyatt is his journey back to winning ways. The problem is Wyatt’s done this job for too many people, and we’re not buying it anymore. We’re going through the motions here, hoping that it’s over with soon so both men can move onto more interesting things.