{"id":13296,"date":"2019-08-29T02:12:32","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T01:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=13296"},"modified":"2019-08-29T02:12:40","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T01:12:40","slug":"smackdown-8-27-19-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/29\/smackdown-8-27-19-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Smackdown 8\/27\/19 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recaps and Rehashes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having two video recaps back-to-back was certainly\u2026a\nchoice. But I must say the brawl between Randy Orton and Kofi Kingston in\ngorilla was well done. This storyline feels similar to the Samoa Joe-AJ Styles\nfeud from last year, even incorporating the champion\u2019s family. However, this\nlittle brawl did manage to put some more fire into this feud after the\nlackluster ending of their first match. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B-<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

KOTR Tournament: Buddy Murphy vs Ali<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was such a fun, athletic match that I don\u2019t\nthink I moved from my spot throughout the duration. It was an example of a\nmatch that I would show a non-fan as a way to explain why I like watching\nwrestling. The booking was a bit on the catch-22 side. Ali has been being built\nup as a kind of superhero so it\u2019s nice to see him move on in the tournament.\nBut they also failed to capitalize on Murphy beating Daniel Bryan, which is a\npretty big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Ali<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uh hi, Lacey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like that Ember Moon and Bayley are still friendly\nafter their Summer Slam match. It definitely suits Bayley\u2019s character. I would\nlike them to have another match, just with better development in the feud and\nMoon\u2019s character. Also is Lacey Evans on the blue brand now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not Graded<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mouthpiece Sami Zayn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zayn might just be a mouthpiece for now but he was\ndefinitely the focal point of this entire segment, with that smug voice and\nmocking laughter. He was literally rofl-ing while running the Miz down on the\nmic. I\u2019m excited for this title match between Miz and Shinsuke Nakamura, but I\ndon\u2019t want Nakamura to be a transitional champion again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Bayley vs Lacey Evans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bayley can definitely go when given a good length of\ntime. Unfortunately Evans being unable to work the basic exchanges dragged this\nmatch down. There was a rather obvious spot call by Bayley but she managed to\nimprovise. Evans also sandbagged the Bayley-to-Belly, making the finish look\nweak. I would think that after four months in the main event, these wouldn\u2019t be\nproblems yet here we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Bayley<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C-<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randy Orton vs Big E<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I quite enjoy serious Big E whenever we get to see\nhim. This match was short due to a distraction by the Revival but what we did\nsee was pretty solid ring-work. It also advanced this feud between the New Day\nand Orton and the Revival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Randy Orton<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B-<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Title change\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst Elias was giving his spiel about being king, R-Truth and Drake Maverick got involved for the 24\/7 Title. It\u2019s interesting how they\u2019re able to incorporate this into almost anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not Graded<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

KOTR Tournament: Chad Gable vs Shelton Benjamin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This match was fairly solid but way too short! Gable and Benjamin have history as a tag team and it was an injustice that they didn\u2019t get any time to show that. Gable should be able to put on a good bout with Andrade, if they get the time, but we probably won\u2019t be seeing Benjamin for another couple of months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Chad Gable<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big Dog Murder Mystery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know what? I am truly enjoying this Clue-esque\nstoryline for Roman Reigns. I feel like they keep adding in enough new pieces\nto make sure it stays engaging. I also like seeing Daniel Bryan get his ass\nkicked so it\u2019s a win-win for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a middle-ground episode of Smackdown. It\nwasn\u2019t bad by any means, but it doesn\u2019t rank amongst the best episodes. At the\nsame time, I do think that we advanced some feuds and storylines so I feel like\nthe episode did what it\u2019s supposed to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall Grade: B-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recaps and Rehashes Having two video recaps back-to-back was certainly\u2026a choice. But I must say the brawl between Randy Orton and Kofi Kingston in gorilla was well done. This storyline […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":12979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,22,193,185,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-reviews","category-smackdown-live","category-wwe","category-wwe-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-3ss","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/download.jpg?fit=300%2C168&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13297,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13296\/revisions\/13297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}