Csonka’s WWE Smackdown Review 7.04.17

Csonka’s WWE Smackdown Review 7.04.17

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– AJ Styles defeated Chad Gable @ 8:16 via pin [***]
– Smackdown Women’s Title Match: Champion Naomi defeated Lana @ 0:05 via submission [NR]
– Aiden English defeated Randy Orton @ 6:30 via DQ [**]
– Battle Royal For a Shot at Kevin Owens’ US Title: AJ Styles won @ 10:00 [**½]

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– We get our July 4th video package.

OH HAI GUYZ JOHN CENA’S BACK: John Cena is back and makes his way to the ring. Cena tells the crowd to let him have it because he’s fired up tonight. Because it’s Independence Day, and America are a beautiful country, one where anyone can come and work hard to achieve greatness. We all have fun and all celebrate the American dream; he loves his country and loves WWE, because anyone can come here and prove themselves by competing with the best. But there are a lot of people saying he sold out, went Hollywood and lost his edge. Some have even called him a part time mascot. He’s not a part timer, he’s an all timer. He is a free agent, because if his time is limited, he will go down in a blaze of glory. Styles, Nakamura, Owens, Joe, Lesnar, Mahal, Reigns; line them up and he will knock them down. He’s never lost his fire, and he is the most dangerous man in the world because he has nothing to lose. The franchise is back. Here comes Rusev. Rusev says he works hard and got hurt working while Cena was back filming movies. Cena got commercials for his return while he got nothing while he worked hard to rehab. He sent video messages to Bryan and Shane with no response. Cena won’t take any opportunities from him, the American dream is a lie and Cena is a joke. Says they aren’t in Bulgaria, they are in the US. Cena tells him to come to the ring, and Rusev won’t allow him to boss him around. The US Independence day is a joke because American’s sit around stuffing their faces. Cena says Rusev has been thinking, which is a bad idea. Cena won’t let someone like Rusev push him around, and challenges Rusev to a flag match tonight. Rusev says they will fight on his time and on his terms, and Cena calls him a coward. Cena was great in terms on being fired up and bringing great energy, but I hated that they introduced Rusev back in the overly simplistic anti-American role. They were pandering on the 4th of July and I feel it didn’t do Rusev any favors at all, he’s much more than the typical anti-American character, I get playing up the USA deal on the 4th, but this could have been much better, they took the easy way out. Plus, we already have Jinder doing a very similar deal. They also missed a chance to bring Rusev back as a face to battle Mahal to play off of their Raw feud.

#SDLive kicks off with fireworks. Now let me make it official. @JohnCena vs. @RusevBUL in a flag match at #WWEBattleground. #YesYesYes

— Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) July 5, 2017

– And there you go.

– Daniel Bryan meets with Styles and Gable. Owens doesn’t want them in the battle royal tonight. Bryan books Styles vs. Gable, the winner is in the battle royal tonight.

AJ Styles vs. Chad Gable: The winner gets in the battle royal for a shot at the US Title tonight. Gable goes right to his amateur wrestling game, scoring with takedowns and throws. Styles fires back with leg kicks, and the dropkick follows. We go to the screen in screen commercial break, as Gable rushes Styles to the corner. He fights off a suplex, but Styles hits the head scissors. Chops by Styles follow, but Gable hits an overhead belly to belly and starts to work the arm. Styles makes it to the ropes, they trade chops and Styles connects with the back breaker. Styles takes gable to the corner, works him over and lays the boots to him. Back to full screen and they work up top, Styles shoves Gable off, but Gable pops back up and Styles slips out and slams Gable off the buckles. Styles goes for the springboard, and Gable rips him up, but Styles avoids the moonsault. Styles suplexes Gable into the ropes, but Gable then counters the clash into the ankle lock, Styles struggles and counters into the calf crusher and Gable rolls out. Styles fires up with strikes, Gable turns him inside out with a German and both men are down. Styles counters a German into a roll up and then hits the PELE kick. Styles to the apron and hits the springboard forearm and wins. AJ Styles defeated Chad Gable @ 8:16 via pin [***] It was a bit shorter than I had hoped for, but it was a good back and forth match and Gable got some time to shine. Good match overall. The future doesn’t look good for American Alpha, as it feels as if they are testing the solo waters for Gable.

– Sad Mojo is backstage, and meets with Ryder. Mojo says it’s all good, as Ryder says they need to put this in the rear view, because he got them in the battle royal tonight. Mojo says Ryder just made a mistake, because he just won the ultimate battle royal (the Andre) and thanks Ryder. Mojo is happy now. The plot thickens.

– Carmella & Ellsworth walk.

Time For The Carmella-Bration: Ellsworth says he’s canceling Independence Day for the more important Carmella-bration. Carmella laughs at the crowd and mocks them for wanting someone else to win. The fans wanted to right a wrong and re-write history, but you can’t always get what you want, unless you are Carmella. She always gets what she wants and she now has all of the power. Naomi arrives as Carmella discusses cashing in on her. Naomi now has her glowing women’s title belt. Naomi congratulates her but says that she is the champion. Carmella has the power to cash in anytime she wants, but she’s not shook. Naomi makes fun of Ellsworth and brings out Daniel Bryan. Bryan questions what he should do with Ellsworth, tells him to shut up and says that he is barring him from the arena, because it worked so well last week. Bryan also fines him $10,000 and suspends him without pay for 30-days. If Ellsworth doesn’t leave, he will strip Carmella of the MITB contract. This was fine as they add some fuel to the fire of the Carmella/Naomi feud, and Ellsworth gets punished for last week. Also, if she cashes in it will mean more without him around.

Champion Naomi vs. Lana: Lana is getting another match because her shoulder was up last week when Naomi pinned her. They should show highlights of their Total Divas dance off to sell this feud. Naomi locks in her submission right away and Lana taps. Champion Naomi defeated Lana @ 0:05 via submission [NR] AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

And @NaomiWWE defeats @LanaWWE in record time! #SDLive pic.twitter.com/rjBKRJ69SQ

— squaredcirclesirens (@SCsirens) July 5, 2017

– Tamina arrives and tells Lana to get up and lets go. I guess we have our next filler feud set, or Lana has hired some muscle to help her out.

– Baron Corbin lays out Nakamura with his briefcase backstage. They brawl and are separated.

As @WWEDanielBryan announced, we will have a #FlagMatch at #WWEBattleground pitting @JohnCena against @RusevBUL! #SDLive ???? pic.twitter.com/c1NK5NN2sl

— WWE (@WWE) July 5, 2017

NEW DAY/USOS Rap Battle: Because the best way to set up a tag title match is to bring in Wale and do a rap battle. I am not their demographic here. Wale brings out the Usos first, they have a posse with them. New Day is out next wearing re, white and blue; Woods is reliving his Consequences Creed days. Big E fires off with dark match and butt jokes, noting that even Rikishi knows New Day Rocks. The Usos say everyone knows who their dad is, but does Big E know who his is. They make fun of his pecs and say to not make it rated X like your boy Xavier Woods (in a nod to the Paige sex tape). Kofi makes fun of the Usos for not working out and calls them college dropouts. Kofi keeps making fat jokes in something out of a fifth grade insult contest. The Usos make fun of Kofi for being “Ja-Fakin.” The Usos tell Wale to stop running with New Day and get all fired up, it’s not paranoia, and it’s the Usos. Woods says they look like recently divorced dads, but they weren’t nothing until Naomi got them on Total Divas. He then said they should go back to carrying bags for Roman. Wale awards the rap battle to the Usos. It wasn’t bad, it had its moments and some good digs, but felt way too long. It was solid overall, I got some laughs and didn’t want to turn it off.

WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT THE XAVIER/PAIGE VIDEO #SDLive pic.twitter.com/UqClTrfywT

— Italo Santana (@BulletClubItal) July 5, 2017

– Randy Orton walks.

Randy Orton vs. Aiden English: This is set up from last week when Orton interrupted English and ate an RKO for his troubles. English was pissed that Orton interrupted him again and attacked Orton with the mic, took him to the floor and slammed him to the steps. English went back to singing as we went to the screen in screen. Orton made his way back in and they will in fact have a match. They brawl to the floor with English keeping the advantage, slamming Orton into the announce table and barricade. Back into the ring they go, and English grounds Orton with a chinlock. Orton escapes, and hits the snap slam. Back to full screen, and English rolls to the floor. Orton to the floor, hits a clothesline and tosses English over the announce table and then lays him on it and beats him down. Orton then whips him to the barricade and then the post. Orton then suplexes English onto the table, and follows with the draping DDT on the floor. Orton takes apart the steps and lays out English with them for the DQ. Aiden English defeated Randy Orton @ 6:30 via DQ [**] While I feel Orton should have simply steam rolled English, I didn’t mind the DQ because Orton was just looking to kick someone’s ass and even told the ref he didn’t care and basically dared him to DQ him. It was ok.

– Orton then lays out English with the RKO. Mahal and the Singhs arrive; Mahal poses and then mocks the USA and calls it the land of prejudice and ignorance. Mahal feels disrespected for the way he talks and the color of his skin, but is still the WWE champion. Orton promised to own Mahal’s ass in the Punjabi Prison and wants to RKO him back to India. Orton says no one likes Jinder because he’s a jackass.

– Tyler Breeze, dressed as a women, interviews Tye Dillinger. Fandango is in the background, dressed as a construction worker. The Fashion Police keep making the best put of the scraps WWE creative gives them.

– Renee Young interviews Maria & Mike Kanellis. Maria says their message is simple, love is timeless and everyone wants love. Their love s the power of love and we get technical difficulties and loose their picture. Sami Zayn is warming up and knocks some pipes down and interrupts them, he apologizes for ruining their deal last week and his week. He’s a fan of their gimmick. Bennett looks completely dumbfounded here by Sami. I await Mike screwing Sami out of the Battle Royal.

– Kevin Owens is out on commentary.

Battle Royal For a Shot at Kevin Owens’ US Title: Participants are – Konnor, Viktor, fandango, Breeze, Mojo, Ryder, Sin Cara, Jason Jordan, Erick Rowan, Tye Dillinger, Dolph Ziggler, Luke Harper, AJ Styles, Sami Zayn and Primo. We get the mass brawl to begin, and Ziggler gets tossed as we take a break. Post break and Fandango is tosses, he saves Breeze, but Breeze then gets tosses anyway. Sin Cara then get tossed, Mojo fires up and Harper eliminates Konnor and Mojo eliminates Harper. The Hype Bros look to battle, but Rowan attacks and they work together to toss Rowan and Mojo then tosses Ryder. Sami eliminates Mojo and we’re down to Tye, Sami and Styles. Tye runs wild for a bit, and hits the Tye breaker on both Sami and Styles. Tye charges and looks to eliminate both, they hang onto the ropes and Sami fights back and eliminates Tye; we’re down to Sami and Styles. They trade strikes and Sami hits the corner XPLODER. Sami looks for the helluva, but Styles avoids it and Sami almost eliminates himself. They battle to eliminate each other, Styles hits a knee strike and PELE to eliminate Sami and win. AJ Styles won @ 10:00 [**½] Overall this was your average, run of the mill battle royal. I liked the Mojo/Ryder deal, and more than that about lost it with Owens’ reaction to it (questioning how someone could turn on a friend like that in a completely serious tone), which when you look at his history with Zayn & Jericho, it’s just funny. I was surprised that Mike & Maria didn’t come out to distract Sami for his elimination, it seemed to make sense, so hopefully they follow up on that next week. Styles gets the win to give us our rematch at Battleground.

– Post match, Owens attacks but Styles fights back and runs him off.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

I think that tonight’s episode of Smackdown was a perfectly serviceable but ultimately forgettable show. John Cena is back and will compete at Battleground, Rusev hates America again, Naomi owned Lana again, Corbin vs. Nakamura continued, Zayn vs. Kanellis is being teased and Styles will challenge Owens at Battleground.