Smackdown
Date: April 23, 2015
Location: Dunkin'
Donuts Center, Providence, Rhode Island
Commentators: Michael
Cole, Jerry Lawler, Byron Saxton
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
It's the final show
before Extreme Rules and for some reason in 2015, one of the major
stories is Kane seemingly about to turn on the Authority and becoming
a bigger deal than he is now. Of course it's possible that it's all
a swerve and Kane will cost Orton the title match on Sunday, making
the last few weeks a big waste of time, much like Kane in general.
Let's get to it.
Opening sequence opens,
as is its custom.
Here are Rollins and
the Stooges to open things up. After a recap of everything that
happened on Monday with the RKO's all around, Rollins mocks the RKO
OUTTA NOWHERE concept. It's a good thing Orton got all those out of
his system because the RKO is banned on Sunday. Speaking of Sunday,
Rollins doesn't need anyone's help, including an aging former
monster' like Kane.
Strike up the organ of
course so Kane can come out and threaten to chokeslam Rollins right
now. He can either keep the title on Rollins this Sunday or destroy
him right now. Seth laughs it off and says Kane will be fired for
crossing the Authority. HHH only gave Kane that job to make him feel
better because Kane is just a suit these days. Kane obeying the
Authority is what's best for business.
Seth brings up Kane
laying down and says that's what he should be doing, but Kane thinks
Seth should lay down for him right now. He'll even make it
non-title. A referee comes down and we get a bell. Rollins says
this isn't right but Kane says he's the Authority tonight. The
threat of disembowelment convinces Seth to lay down but as Kane goes
to cover him, he says he's just kidding and helps Seth up.
However, Kane isn't
done yet as he makes Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose RIGHT NOW. Ambrose
comes running out but Luke Harper follows, setting up a big beatdown
on Dean. With things going bad, Roman Reigns comes out for the save,
chasing off Rollins and Harper with Superman Punches.
Dolph
Ziggler/Neville vs. Bad News Barrett/Sheamus
On the way to the ring,
Sheamus says it's an insult to have underdogs like the men in the
ring compared to real men like them. He even offers to bring Ziggler
a stepladder to help Ziggler kiss up to him on Sunday. Neville
starts with Sheamus and starts kicking away at the leg, followed by a
running hurricanrana to send Sheamus outside. Barrett gets sent out
as well and Neville hits a big running flip to take them both down.
Back from a break with
Barrett holding Neville in a chinlock before Sheamus drops him with a
release suplex. Neville finally fights up and kicks Sheamus in the
head, allowing the hot tag to Ziggler. The jumping elbow and running
DDT get two each on Barrett but a Sheamus distraction lets Barrett
hit a quick Wasteland for two more. Ziggler spins around the
shoulders though, setting up a Zig Zag into the Red Arrow for the pin
on Barrett at 8:39.
Rating:
C. This was a nice way to set
things up, but again, well done on having a guy who might be winning
the Intercontinental Title in three days look bad. That being said,
it's really nice to see Neville get yet another pin over a big name.
Even though everyone pins Barrett, it's still the biggest fall of
Neville's career.
We
get the Tough Enough announcement and see some of the best/worst
video submissions so far. Yeah fine. Just let me know when the
winner (other than John Morrison) means anything.
Bray
Wyatt says someone's strength is an illusion, just like anyone else.
He sees right through this person because fear is the same for every
man. Bray will expose him as a weakling very soon. How does life
work for a butterfly with no wings?
Naomi
vs. Natalya
I
guess Natalya is a face again. Naomi slugs her down to start and
catapults Natayla throat first into the bottom rope for two. A
chinlock doesn't last long so Naomi drops an elbow, only to miss a
legdrop. Natalya does the
stepover into the dropkick, only to walk into the Rear View for the
pin at 2:28. As usual, the week to week continuity dominates the
Divas.
The
next target for the Prime Time Players is the Tag Team Champions.
Kidd is whipped and Cesaro is interesting. Why is he interesting?
Well.....uh.....you see......he's German! Uh I mean Swiss, but it's
the same thing.
Ryback
vs. Rusev
Jobber entrance for
Rusev but Lana gives a speech about the strength of the Russian
chain, which has protected the greatest of Russia for years. Rusev
says the chain is his weapon and a burden to Cena, to whom no mercy
will be shown. They stare each other down to start before locking up
with Rusev shoving him into the corner. Ryback nails a running
clothesline for two and the Russian is stunned. A delayed suplex
puts Rusev down again but he rolls to the floor before Ryback can
stay on him.
Back in and Ryback
misses a charge into the post, sending us to a break. We come back
with Rusev putting on a quickly broken bearhug. Ryback fires off
some right hands and gets two off a belly to belly, only to splash
legs. The Meat Hook and jumping superkick are countered but the
second Meat Hook connects. Rusev slips out of a Shell Shock though
and heads outside, where he hits Ryback in the ribs with the chain
for the DQ at 9:57.
Rating:
C-. Take two guys and let them
beat on each other for a few minutes. It's a strategy that has
worked for years and it worked well enough
here. This was a pretty
good way to make Rusev look like a killer again, even if it's just a
way to set him up again to be destroyed by Cena.
Ryback
gets the Accolade with the chain around the face.
Jamie
Noble isn't worried about Harper because it turns out they're
cousins. Harper comes up in
his usual trance and Noble tries to get his attention, but Harper is
annoyed that they broke his concentration. He was thinking of all
the ways he can hurt people you see.
Kofi
Kingston vs. Cesaro
Before
the match, the New Day blames the lack of positivity in WWE on the
lack of clapping. Have no fear because New Day is here! Woods
says they're like medicine: they may not taste good going down, but
they're the right thing for you. Kofi
goes on a rant about how the WWE isn't listening to them but soon
enough they will embrace the New Day. They're
kind of awesome at this.
The
fans aren't pleased and chant their version of the catchphrase. A
dropkick puts Cesaro down to start but he uppercuts Kofi into the
Swing, only to have everyone else brawl on the floor. Trouble in
Paradise hits out of nowhere for the pin at 1:30. That's
not as bad as it's not a tag match loss.
Big
Show has had enough of Roman Reigns and is ready to expose him for
what he is.
Roman
Reigns/Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins/Luke
Harper
Kane
is at ringside. Ambrose and Harper get things going with Dean taking
him down to the mat and ripping at Harper's face. Off
to Reigns for a stomping in the corner before Dean gets another tag
and hits a basement clothesline. Harper
finally gets Ambrose into the corner for a tag to the champ to take
over. A headlock into a
front facelock keep Dean in trouble before Rollins throws him to the
floor for a big boot from Harper.
We
take a break and come back with Dean fighting out of a chinlock but
having to DDT Harper instead of tagging. Seth
comes back in to break up the hot tag attempt with a clothesline
before both guys try cross bodies. The
double tag brings in the power guys with
Roman cleaning house but having to Superman Punch the Stooges off the
apron. Harper takes one as
well before Dean nails Rollins with the top rope standing elbow.
Luke
partially blocks Dean's suicide dive and sends him over the
timekeeper's area, only to eat a clothesline from Reigns. Rollins
comes back in with the springboard knee for two and it's the discus
lariat for two. Dean comes in off the hot tag to clean house. The
rebound clothesline puts Rollins down and Dean low bridges Harper to
the floor. Dean dives on the pile at ringside, only
to have Kane throw Rollins back inside, allowing
Reigns to hit the spear on Rollins for the pin at 16:44.
Rating:
B. This
was a much better main event tag than I was expecting. I'm not wild
on the champion getting pinned but that's one of those things you
learn to live with in WWE. It's also par for the course for this
title reign but that's another story for another time. Anyway, good,
long tag match here which was better than I was expecting.
Overall
Rating: C+. Pretty fun show
tonight with a good main event to carry things. Extreme Rules isn't
the most interesting card in the world but a lot of that is due to
the show just being a bunch of Wrestlemania rematches. The direction
of a lot of things is still questionable but at least we had a fun
two hour show to get us to the pay per view.
Results
Dolph Ziggler/Neville
b. Bad News Barrett/Sheamus – Red Arrow to Barrett
Naomi b. Natalya –
Rear View
Ryback b. Rusev via DQ
when Rusev hit him with a chain
Kofi Kingston b. Cesaro
– Trouble in Paradise
Roman Reigns/Dean
Ambrose b. Seth Rollins/Luke Harper – Spear to Rollins
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:
Who are you to doubt Eva Marie? She's a real jam-guy. A high flyer of the highest magnitude. Wait......
ReplyDelete"She is absolutely not hotter than AJ Lee."
ReplyDeleteQuoted for Truth!
I was under the impression that they hired her FOR Total Divas so they could have (Like Strong Bad to Home Star Runner) an antagonist.
ReplyDeleteA surprising 30 seconds of fighting on a 3 hour show about fighting will be very surprising.
ReplyDeleteBest part of that promo was when Bret called Psychosis "Hypnosis"
ReplyDeleteNow Dolph/Neville vs Sheamus/Barrett sounds like a good old fashioned Smackdown match.
ReplyDeleteLove the New Day. It's a shame they didn't figure this out during February so New Day could have called out WWE's phoney tributes to their few black stars
ReplyDeleteWatched interstellar tonight. And i gotta tell ya. I'd rather watch the best of Eve marie than watch wooderson cry 15 times in 3 hours.
ReplyDeleteAlright, I'm all-in on heel New Day. They still shouldn't get the tag titles on Sunday, but they're growing on me.
ReplyDeleteMan they could have an instant main event feud if they'd just let Ambrose remember that he had a blood feud with Rollins that never had an ending. But he's weird looking so let's just have him toil in meaningless midcard matches all year and never win.
ReplyDeleteLOL - while I might disagree with your opinion about Edwards I give you many points for your effective use of contrast between sentences 1-6 and the final two. I acquiesce to your knowledge and command of the English language. =)
ReplyDeleteThe TV that blew up in his face scrambled his brains. He doesn't remember who Seth Rollins is.
ReplyDeleteYeah it looks like we're finally getting a brand split done properly with the second brand having a different style of product. It makes a lot of sense to have a "pro wrestling" show with a strong roster touring and being the anchor show on the Network. They can afford to keep some big names down there and recreate the great strength of the territories by rotating people out of the main roster when they get stale and refreshing their characters. Meanwhile the house shows in Florida in front of an audience of 100-200 become what OVW/FCW was - the actual development territory.
ReplyDeleteThe chain match. They aren't going to do it are they? They can't do it. They can't run the same ending can they? Rusev drags Cena to one corner, hits the corner. Turns away to head to the other turnbuckle, Cena secretly hits the turnbuckle afterwards. Rusev never sees Cena hitting the turnbuckles. Fast forward to the last turnbuckle, some how they get reversed and Cena hits the last turnbuckle first. They can't do this same ending can they?
ReplyDeletePretty much yep.
ReplyDeleteHas a match like that ever ended a different way?
ReplyDeleteCan I get a quarter at £55 please? Ta.
ReplyDeleteThat'd be a good stip for Brock, he could just annihilate someone and drag their lifeless carcass to the corners when he gets bored.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying Kendrick's teaching her how to type with boxing gloves on her hands?
ReplyDeleteI really liked the Dolph / Neville tag team and I think they could be a good team going forward. It's not like either guy is getting a world championship match anytime soon, and Dolph & Neville vs Cesaro & Kidd would be a hell of a match.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Respect to her for working so hard, but she's also going to have to transition to being in the ring for the most part with less skilled, clumsier, and weaker people than Kendrick. That springboard DDT looked cool, but she's going to have to go from being caught by Kendrick to being caught by a Bella.
ReplyDeleteMOTY candidate
ReplyDeleteWatching Smackdown now, the whole concept of just calling Adrian Neville by his last name bothers me more than it probably should. Also, how is a "Kiss Me Arse" match extreme? And how does Ziggler think he's going to make Sheamus kiss his own arse? Does Ziggler not now what an arse is?
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember Vader doing that at one point.
ReplyDeleteI loved the sneaky heel move of Xavier trapping the guys legs so they get counted out on Raw
ReplyDeleteIf it's Rollins/Harper/Rowan/Bray that's just the Wyatt family with Seth Rollins, which doesn't seem very horsemeny.
ReplyDeleteThe whole 4 weeks of story lines in one night thing seems so weird.
ReplyDeleteHow long was the actual show from start to finish? Did each match come on in chronological order as it appeared each week on Raw? Did you watch Raw each week with friends and "predict" what was going to happen? And they were like, "Holy shit! Your psychic!"
Were there any screw ups that they had to do over? Was there any point where you got so burned out that you said, "Fuck it, this is stupid. I want to leave.?"
Sorry, this whole concept fascinates me.
How do you mention Bob cat and announcer 3-ways but omit JOE GOMEZ?!?!?!
ReplyDeleteTaker, HHH, and Kane are the only 3 guys from the era that are still around. I guess you could include Mark Henry but he had barely started wrestling at this point in 96.
ReplyDeleteKane is the only one of the 3 who still works a relatively regular schedule. But Taker started in the WWF 6 years prior to this period. And he probably started wrestling a good 8-10 years before 96.
It's definitely impressive. Of course it helps that he wrestles only once a year now. I think the most impressive part is that he is respected enough, in the locker room, by Vince, and by the fans that people still want him around.
Most people; after nearly 30 years, one of those three (sometimes all of those three) entities don't want that wrestler coming around anymore. So the fact that Vince, his peers, and fans still look forward to his appearances is pretty amazing.
Sucks for me that I hated the gimmick from day one. Didn't care for his locker room politics through most of the early 2000s either.
I hear what you're saying. But as a wrestling fan for 30 years I didn't need Warrior wearing a hat to hell me how that segment was going to end. I was tipped off by the fact that a heel was giving a babyface a present. I would have been far more surprised if Lawler HAD NOT hit Warrior with that picture frame.
ReplyDeleteMy question is: Why didn't they use gimmicked glass? Like when Piper hit Albano with that framed record. Piper hit him right over the head. It looked awesome. The whole "turning it around and hitting Warrior with the non-glass side" looked contrived and silly anyway.
But bottom line, Scott was right. The whole angle was stupid. This was the best they could come up with for Warrior? Feuding with Jerry Lawler over a drawing?
No thanks.
I know right. They use it again with Austin in the SummerSlam preshow match. Especially if he was on his way out. Why not have someone beat him solidly to gain some good heat? I thought the Austin thing was weird too because even at that size I'm sure he could have taken a Stunner. It's not the hardest thing to bump for.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed by this point he never really landed the Drop anymore. He would go up for it but always miss. I think they were scared that he was too fat and he really might kill someone.
ReplyDeleteI don't know any pre-teens that look like that. Those legs are unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteAJ once had my favorite ass in WWE. I will admit she has gotten too skinny since hooking up with Punk, but that can be overcome. She was at her hotness peak when she was with Dolph.
ReplyDeleteBecause Joe Gomez is a legend or something? I dunno that was so 3 days ago.
ReplyDeletehad a lot to do with who ut was in the ring then his "best work"
ReplyDeleteSub Rowan out and put in..Bo Dallas?
ReplyDeleteat mind games after the main shawn went by the announce table and had words with henning
ReplyDeleteWell it was 19 years ago now so some of the details are fuzzy, but I want to say it started at 7 and went to about 11:30 or so. They taped stuff for future episodes before the live episode at 9:00, then went back to taping for future episodes before taking on a main event of Michaels-Lawler. I watched the RAWs with the friends I went to the taping with, and I think we were all too excited to have a WWF TV taping in our area to be too critical, but yeah, the shows weren't good.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't leave, but when we got home and watched that night's NITRO (when Scott Hall showed up) we all realized which was the more interesting show.
We'd also been to the In Your House where the power went out the night before.
they were trying to kill time until warrior was put back into title picture and help build him up as a face to newer fans by pairing warrior against heels crowds are totally against like goldust and lawler
ReplyDeleteBatista sure was a workhorse, eh?
ReplyDeleteyeah when motivated actually yes
ReplyDelete