The Smackdown Smark Report – September 20th 2016

Becky Lynch and Alexa Bliss
Image Source: wwe.com

Smackdown Live gave us a mixed bag this week, with some segments pushing feuds forward while others were kept in a holding pattern. Still, with a great opening segment and a show stealing Intercontinental Title match the highs definitely outweighed the lows here. It might not give us Seth Rollins diving from the top of a steel cage every week, but it’s a fun little show. Six months ago, giving Smackdown even that would have been a stretch.

Which isn’t to say there weren’t a few saggy moments. Smackdown‘s creative team struggled this week to squeeze meaningful moments for their whole roster into what amounts to around 80 minutes of airtime sans adverts. Once again though, the biggest losers from this shuffle were the Smackdown Women. It’s odd too, because the whole episode started so well for female wrestling.

 

The Fun Stuff

Women’s Championship Contract Signing

Smackdown opened this week with Daniel Bryan standing in the ring next to a table with an official looking document perched on it. If you speak wrestling this really only means one thing: a contract signing. It’s an old one, but as Becky Lynch and Alexa Bliss made their entrances things felt just a little bit fresh. Becky looked like money walking down the ramp with her championship, and Bliss got a stronger crowd reaction than you’d expect from someone who’s only been on the show for a couple of months.

Once everyone was in the ring Bryan left it to the women to carry the segment. Alexa bated Becky by calling her a one hit wonder, never really meant to carry the belt – she was an also ran who got lucky. Naturally, Becky had a few things to say about this, delivering a powerful promo that was raised higher by just how much Birmingham Alabama were going crazy for her.

Admitting that she wasn’t born to be champ, Becky said she’d got here anyway by years of hard work and simply wanting the thing more than Alexa. It sounds sentimental, but I’ve long suspected Becky might be the best female mic worker WWE has these days and she’s starting to prove it.

Result: Obviously Bliss attacks Becky with the contract book, but the Lass Kicker strikes back as Bliss struts back up the ramp.

 

The Usos Vs American Alpha (Tag Title No. 1 Contenders Match)

While the match itself was unexceptional but solid, it did a lot to move things forward in the tag division. The returning American Alpha stepped into the ring with a chip on their shoulder, while The Usos leaned into their new douchey heel thing. In particular they did that trick which The Revival are known for on NXT and targeted a body part through the entire match. And who knew? Attacking Chad Gable’s leg all match actually had a role in the finish. With Gable limping, Jason Jordan refused to tag in his partner which quickly cost him the victory.

This is good booking for a couple of reasons. The Usos really needed the momentum here if their heel run is going to go anywhere. Meanwhile it also gave American Alpha some potential conflict to chew on. Will they be at odds over Jordan’s refusal of Gable’s tag? Are they strong enough to overcome it? Giving them adversity to fight should make them more interesting to watch, and when they eventually do win the belts the payoff will be that much bigger.

But let’s not forget about The Usos’ fun little backstage segment with Heath Slater and Rhyno. Slater pitching Rhyno the whole “When I say Rhy, you say no” thing was exactly the kind of ridiculous which has gotten fans behind him in recent months. They should really make a buddy cop movie with these two. The bad guys can be The Usos, who delivered a pretty decent heel promo to their upcoming No Mercy opponents. If WWE ever decide to make Roman Reigns heel, they should use this as a blueprint.

Result: The Usos beat American Alpha via pinfall.

 

The Miz Vs Dolph Ziggler (Intercontinental Title Match)

These two always deliver good matches together, and this one was no exception. After an entertaining backstage interview with Renee Young, Ziggler marched straight to the ring and the pair stole the show. Miz dominated long stretches here, catching the Showoff every time he looked like building momentum. By the end though Ziggler was fired up and on top, forcing Maryse to try the spray trick she used at Backlash. This time the referee spotted it, banishing her to the back.

Soon Miz was ready to take his title and run for it, only for Ziggler to throw him back in the ring. This time Miz had to do the spray trick himself to cling on to his title. This keeps The Miz’s fun title reign alive, and Ziggler’s prematch admission that he’s been losing a lot lately hints at something interesting in his future.

My only gripe here was an editing issue. Midway through the match Miz leapt off the top rope right into Ziggler’s flying dropkick. A good spot which the crowd enjoyed. Except before Ziggler even covered Miz for a two count someone in production decided to split the screen up for an action replay. Any suspense about Ziggler getting the pin was gone, because the replay was suddenly more important. It might sound petty, but it’s real to me dammit!

Result: Miz wins with the Show Stopping Finale.

 

John Cena Vs Dean Ambrose

Pitting Smackdown‘s top two babyfaces against each other in their marque match was a smart move on WWE’s part. The match was short, but it had some fun spots even if we’d seen them all before. The trading finishers bit and Ambrose’s patented suicide dive were both on show. Ultimately Ambrose managed to reverse the AA for a clean victory over Cena. Twice in a month. Who was expecting that?

There were still a few minutes left though, so when the Superior AJ Styles appeared with a Phenomenal Forearm off the barricade it wasn’t really a massive shocker. What was a little surprising was Daniel Bryan showing up to announce next week’s main event: AJ Styles against Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Championship.

Result: Ambrose reverses the Attitude Adjustment for a quick pin.

 

The Meh Stuff

Baron Corbin Vs Apollo Crews

Do I have to talk about this one? A short match notable only for all the lame Jack Swagger bought to commentary, Corbin picked up the win in what felt like less than five minutes. This is clearly leading to Corbin against Swagger at No Mercy, and I just can’t muster any excitement for that. The pair need to do a lot to get me invested in their rivalry before then. Things don’t look much better for Apollo Crews either. His loss was both resounding and flat here, and it gave him nothing to chew on in coming weeks.

Result: Corbin hits the End of Days for the pinfall victory.

 

Randy Orton Vs Erick Rowan

This match wasn’t necessarily bad. It was just too quick to really do anything for the feud it was building. Erick Rowan only seems to appear these days as the mini-boss for whoever’s feuding with Bray Wyatt, which pretty much makes him a pre-jobber. What we got in the ring was fine but forgettable and Wyatt’s speech was the same rambling that’s increasingly started to sound like empty words of late. This was here so we wouldn’t forget about this feud, but saving it for a longer segment on next week’s show would have worked much better.

Result: Orton finds an RKO a little to quickly to get the win.

 

Natalya and Carmella Vs Nikki Bella and Naomi

Earlier in the night Naomi and Nikki gave us a pretty entertaining backstage promo. Naomi’s whole ‘feel the glow’ thing is goofy as hell, but it’s fun and sincere. Her entrance was the only one we saw for this tag match, and it was great. Is it just me, or are the crowd starting to get into it too?

So why is this on the ‘meh stuff’ column? Well, because there wasn’t a match, obviously. Thirty seconds in Carmella dragged Nikki out of Natalya’s sharpshooter and started beating her up. Immediately the bell rang for a DQ. It happened so quickly my brain took a minute to figure out what happened. When it did though, it rebelled, same as the Alabama crowd.

This kind of booking is exactly why #givedivasachance started trending last year. Every single one of these women can go in the ring. We’ve seen it. WWE have seen it. But for some reason Smackdown just won’t give its women the time they deserve. If The Smackdown Smark Report wasn’t family friendly there’d be some serious cursing going on here.

Result: Naomi and Nicki Bella win via DQ.

Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.