Hello wrestling friends and fellow Authority members! That’s right, we’re just over 48 hours into our new roles as the authority figures for WWE. Isn’t that exciting? The McMahons have decided to (supposedly) hand us the power. First order of business: Andrade “Cien” Almas is only allowed to wrestle in that snazzy gold gear. All jokes aside, let’s take a look at what happened on the final live Smackdown broadcast of 2018.
We opened up with Shane McMahon talking to the Smackdown locker room generally about the same things that were addressed on Raw: everything is up to them, new faces, new opportunities, etc. He revealed that Paige is not going to be general manager anymore but he also said she wasn’t going away and that her role was going to change. I wonder what she’ll be doing. C+
Then we headed out to the ring where Becky Lynch came out to her usual raucous crowd fanfare. She addressed the loss of her title and proceeded to make more threats to Ronda Rousey. Charlotte Flair came out and they started to run each other down until Asuka, the newly crowned Smackdown Women’s Champion, came out. While the three of them bickered, out came Vince McMahon (seriously, on Smackdown!) and said that it was time for someone else to have an opportunity and that Becky was now at the back of the line. B
Asuka vs Naomi
Once we got going with some actual wrestling, the first match of the night was a women’s championship match between the team of Asuka and Naomi with Lynch and Flair sitting ringside. The match was okay. Asuka was on point as always and Naomi showed her fantastic agility and athleticism. There’s no doubt that Naomi is very athletically gifted and it’s good that she’s always willing to try new things but sometimes this results in clunky, almost awkward matches. We did get to see the flying ass move though!
Winner: Asuka
Grade: B-
The Miz found the McMahon family locker room backstage and tried to talk to Shane. Vince answered him instead and told him that Shane couldn’t come out to play. He booked a match between Miz and a mystery partner and R-Truth and Carmella. Vince’s line “I’ve never given a blessing in my life.” was the highlight of this segment. B
Back out in the ring, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows interrupted the Usos and talked about how the same three teams keep getting all the opportunities (facts though!). So that started a tag team match which The Bar tried to interfere with but were beaten to by SAnitY. SAnitY beat up both the Usos and the good brothers then stared down The Bar. Hopefully this leads to something in the coming year! B+
Rusev got a nice little segment in which he commented that he looks like a superstar, has great muscles, and a nice beard that apparently we should make sweaters out of (gross but I liked the sentiment!) and give to children. He compared Nakamura’s blue gear to Sonic the Hedgehog. Later on, Nakamura showed a video package of funny Rusev moments from Total Divas, calling the Bulgarian Brute a “Total Diva” himself. It was kinda funny, but nothing to write home about. C+
Jeff Hardy came out because apparently Samoa Joe said he was going to apologize for what he said during Hardy’s 20 year anniversary celebration. Jeff called out Joe and said to come apologize to him face to face like a man. Joe showed and said that he actually wanted to stage an intervention. Yay, another storyline that pokes fun at Jeff’s past addiction struggles. Jeff countered with the fact that Joe hasn’t won a single championship in his two years on the roster and laid him out with a Twist of Fate. C
The Miz and Mandy Rose vs R-Truth and Carmella
The Miz had a match to try and win Shane’s love and his mystery partner was Mandy Rose, complete with the awkward strut down the ramp to porn music and Corey Graves needing about a thousand tissues. R-Truth reminded us that he and Carmella are taking a vacation to the WWE Headquarters and there was a dance break. It was a middle of the road match which relied more on the Fabulous Truth’s antics than actual wrestling. Miz and Mandy won though so he might get Shane’s love after all.
Winner: The Miz and Mandy Rose
Grade: C-
Daniel Bryan and Adrade “Cien” Almas vs AJ Styles and Mustafa Ali
Hey look, an actual change! Mustafa has officially been added to the Smackdown roster and what a great way to kick that new assignment off. Daniel came down to the ring and talked about how much pollution the city of Fresno put out and the crowd actually cheered for it. This vegan environmentalist Daniel Bryan is really effective at drawing heel heat. Almas strutted around the ring all smug and haughty in that golden gear and looked great as well; hopefully we can get a more meaningful program for him in 2019 as well. Ali actually picked up a clean victory over Bryan with a 054. His future is super bright on the blue brand! A
So that was the last live Smackdown broadcast of 2018. While there weren’t too many changes despite the McMahons’ big announcement on Monday, we really can’t expect things to change overnight. We’re on our way to the Royal Rumble so here’s hoping 2019 brings some much-needed positive change…and maybe some “Authority” shirts on WWEShop.
Overall show grade: B
-General Manager Wynter
