Smackdown 2/5/19
What’s good, wrestling fam? It’s your favorite babyface authority figure here to talk to you about the blue brand’s weekly show. As we are on the road to Wrestlemania, there’s plenty of signs for all off the talent to point to. Because how else would we know it’s Wrestlemania season? Anyways, Smackdown was a little bit all over the place, but let’s dive into it.
Charlotte Flair kicked off the show and cut a promo on Becky Lynch’s appearance and subsequent suspension on Raw. She threw her hat in the ring about possibly replacing Becky as Ronda Rousey’s opponent at Wrestlemania. Becky appears and descends through the crowd, talking back to Charlotte before Triple H joins the party. Triple H dismisses Charlotte before going on a disappointed dad monologue. There was a stare-down and Becky slapped Trips before hobbling back out of the ring and up the stairs.
Thoughts: Charlotte is a natural heel and easily takes the heat of the crowd and makes it better for herself. I do think that Triple H’s monologue has tipped the perception of the Authority from neutral to bad and helps play up Becky as a hero.
Grade: A-
Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev vs Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson
The Good Brothers are sticking up for R-Truth! Most of this match took place during commercial breaks. Karl Anderson hit a wonderful Spinebuster on Shinsuke Nakamura. Lana also got involved, manhandling Shinsuke back onto apron after he was knocked outside. Rusev won the match with a Machka Kick to Karl.
Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev
Thoughts: It was a wrestling match and it happened. It’s frustrating that they separated Rusev from Aiden English just to put him with Shinsuke. Also why aren’t Karl and Luke anywhere near the tag team title picture?
Grade: C
Backstage: Mustafa Ali cut a cool promo with his light up mask providing the illumination in the room. Paige showed us a clip of her movie coming out. The Usos hyped up next week’s Miz TV on which they’ll be guests.
Thoughts: It was decent backstage stuff. Paige said “new clip” but it’s the same clip they’ve been showing since they first announced her movie.
Grade: B-
Mustafa Ali vs Randy Orton
Randy brought out his “vintage” arsenal for this match. He back suplexed Mustafa onto the announce table, we got a lovely chinlock, and he even busted out a superplex. Mustafa managed to evade an RKO out of nowhere and hit a tornado DDT. But Randy got that RKO by grabbing him out of the 054.
Also Samoa Joe came out and tried to choke out Randy Orton. He tried to confront Daniel Bryan but Rowan stopped him.
Winner: Randy Orton
Thoughts: Randy isn’t always the best when working with smaller opponents, but he did well here. He seems to actually respect Mustafa, which is great. Things can only go up for him. For some reason, I just really liked Joe coming out randomly. I’m kind of hoping for a surprise Joe victory at Elimination Chamber.
Grade: B-
The people of Washington State really like Daniel Bryan and believe in his message. There was almost no booing as he talked about the 10 Pounds of Hemp. Rowan also participated in this promo. They showed us a video about the Elimination Chamber.
Thoughts: This was the most I had ever heard Rowan talk. I’m all about saving the planet but “10 Pounds of Hemp” makes me giggle.
Grade: B
Fabulous Glow (Naomi and Carmella) vs The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) vs Fire and Desire (Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose)
Not much really happened here. Sonya took a lot of punishment from Naomi. Mandy won the match with a Moneymaker.
Winner: Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose
Thoughts: I’m a tad annoyed that this Mandy/Naomi thing is still going and also that Mandy seems to be the heavily favored person in terms of booking. Out of Fire and Desire, I think Sonya should be the one getting pushed.
Grade: C-
Backstage: Andrade and Zelina Vega said that Rey Mysterio is a myth. Asuka got a video that reminded us how awesome she is.
Thoughts: I’m digging Andrade’s attitude here. And I hope Asuka gets some sort of match for Wrestlemania, maybe against a NXT call-up?
Grade: B+
Jeff Hardy vs Daniel Bryan
Daniel got the upper hand fairly early in the match, but Jeff got himself back in the match before Rowan intervened. Jeff eventually hit the Swanton Bomb and tried to cover Daniel, but Rowan pulled Jeff out of the ring. All the Elimination Chamber participants come down to the ring and start whooping up on each other. Daniel Bryan escapes and AJ Styles stands tall, celebrating in the ring to close the show.
Winner: Jeff Hardy (via DQ)
Thoughts: Jeff and Daniel was not a match I ever really wanted, but I liked the post-match kerfuffle. It’ll be interesting to see how everyone’s ring styles come together in the chamber. AJ seems to be the favorite to win here.
Grade: B
As I mentioned before, Smackdown was a little messy. It definitely felt like a middle of the road show. The WWE Championship elimination chamber match is being built pretty well. I think the Women’s Tag Team Championship chamber match could use a little more consistent building. And no one is being groomed as the next challenger for Asuka’s Smackdown Women’s Championship, which is sad.
Overall grade: B-
-Wynter
