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Csonka’s WWE Smackdown Review 8.30.16

August 30, 2016 | Posted by Larry Csonka
Miz Image Credit: WWE
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Csonka’s WWE Smackdown Review 8.30.16  

Csonka’s WWE Smackdown 8.30.16

OFFICIAL RESULTS
SD Tag Team Tournament Match: The Hype Bros defeated The Vaudevillains @ 2:50 via pin [NR]
– AJ Styles defeated Apollo Crews @ 8:05 via pin [**½]
– Alexa Bliss and Natalya defeated Naomi and Becky Lynch @ 7:25 via pin []
SD Tag Team Tournament Match: Rhyno and Heath Staler defeated The Headbangers @ 2:45 via pin [NR]
Non-Title Match: Baron Corbin defeated WWE Champion Dean Ambrose @ 12:07 via DQ [**½]


– We get to watch the Miz promo on Daniel Bryan from last week’s Taking Smack. THE MIZ LOVES YOU ALL!

– Bryan and Shane were watching, and Shane thinks he owes Miz an apology because he can’t provoke talent. Shane agrees with Bryan’s sentiment but says he can’t get in the face of the talent that way. Bryan finds this advice ironic considering Shane’s beef with Brock Lesnar.

MIZ TIME: The Miz made his way to the ring with purpose, demanding the music cut and asking if he has our attention. He has been champion for 148 days and it took that long to get everyone’s attention. He is bringing the tile back from failures, losers and quitters. He may not like to get hit in the face, he’s smart and finds ways not to get hit. The people do not know what goes on backstage, who do they call when they need a guy for a movie, commercial, talk show, to main event Mania? They call Miz, but you hate on him because he didn’t spend 12-years in he indies and then fail in WWE. He is not unworthy like the fans thin the fans are cowards. Dolph Ziggler appeared, and he agreed with a lot of Miz’s points. He says they all go above and beyond, and Miz just wants to be famous and that is why no one believes in him, they see right through him. Miz has the chance to change that each and every week, but he doesn’t. if Miz wants to prove himself to everyone, to his wife, to himself that he’s not a coward then do it right now. No title shot, no refs, just Ziggler and Miz in a fight right now. This is your chance Miz, right now. Miz teased the fight, but bailed. Ziggler said everyone’s right; Miz is a soft, safe coward. Maryse held Miz back as the crowd chanted “coward” at him. Damn fine work from both men here, Ziggler has been on fire since the Ambrose feud and Miz did a great follow up to last week’s promo.

– Bray Wyatt has a sermon for the serpent tonight.

– The Vaudevillains cut a menacing pre-taped promo; they want to win the tag titles.

SD Tag Team Tournament Match: The Vaudevillains vs. The Hype Bros: Ryder had control right away, English bailed to the floor and when Ryder followed he got cut off. The Vaudevillains took the heat, working over Ryder with some double teams and keeping Ryder in their corner. Gotch hit the Finlay roll, but English missed a senton and Mojo got the tag. He ran wild on English; Gotch made the save and it broke down. Broski boot by Ryder on Gotch, big forearm by Mojo and then hit the doomsday rough Ryder and picked up the win. This was a perfectly fine outing to give the Hype Bros a dominant victory.

– The Bros got a post match promo, they promised that the Hype train left the station and there is no stopping them. They plan to win the tag titles.

– AJ Styles was waking back stage to make sure everyone knew who he was, and ran into Apollo Crews. They had some back and forth and likely set up a match.

AJ Styles is The Face That Runs the Place: Styles looks like a completely unlikable douche wearing Cena’s arm band as a head band still. It’s perfect. He is the face that runs the place, and beats up John Cena, and the man that will beat Dean Ambrose here. He will be in Ambrose’s nightmares, and he will be crowned the new WW Champion. Before Styles could continue, Apollo Crews made his way out. Styles did not appreciate this. Crews got permission from Daniel Bryan to face Styles tonight, and the match is right now.

AJ Styles vs. Apollo Crews: Crews controlled early, taking Styles to the floor and beating him down and celebrating with the commentary team. We then took a commercial break. Post break, Styles took the heat and was grounding Crews. Crews fired up, landed clotheslines and kicks. The corner splash followed, and Crews then dumped Styles to the floor. An apron moonsault followed as Crews took control back. In the ring Crews set Styles on the ropes and followed, but Styles lipped out and that caused Crews to slip off the ropes; that whole thing looked rough. Crews would then hit a Samoan drop for a near fall. Crews went up top, jumped over Styles and then Styles stunned him off the ropes. The springboard forearm by Styles connected and that was that. That was a solid but very unspectacular outing there, they wanted to get Styles a clean win a she builds to his title match but also wanted Crews to look good against a main event guy. The flow was a bit off, they really messed up that corner spot and it never felt as if Crews got any real shine or felt like a threat. They wanted this to feel like Jericho vs. Neville from Raw, but it never got there. Styles has been so great on TV against a wide variety of guys, but something felt off here.

At Home With Heath Slater: Renee Young traveled to Heath Slater’s trailer park home in West Virginia. Rhyno just happened to be chilling there. We met Slater’s “wife,” who was presented as white trash as possible. She served cheese spray crackers and mini-wieners. Renee asked how Slater went undrafted, and he fees it was an oversight. Rhyno drew faces on the crackers with the cheese spray as Slater spoke about when Lesnar broke him in half. He is lucky to have Rhyno as his tag team partner, he is doing this for his family. Renee is revolted by Slater’s ‘wife’ here as she eats crackers with her mouth open and belches. When they win the tag titles, he plans to upgrade to a doublewide trailer. Renee asks about the kids, Slater says they are picking up cans and bottles in the back yard. One of the kids then stole Slater’s car, and that allowed Rhyno and Renee to have an awkward moment alone. This was either the best worst thing or the worst best thing I have ever seen.

Bryan Wyatt Speaks to Randy Orton: Wyatt claims to not fear snakes or man, because he is fear. Randy Orton is just a man, a man that believes he has venom in his veins, and that excited Wyatt. He found Lesnar’s destruction of Orton fascinating, but Lesnar exposed all of Orton’s weaknesses and he is now damaged. If you really have voices in your head, they need to tell you to run. This brought out Orton, who is again wearing pants, new era indeed. Orton said that he voices want to know who the hell Wyatt thinks he is. Orton has been damaged for a long time, which gives him his charm. Wyatt has his attention, and that pleased Wyatt because he wants to fight the predator. But in this situation, Orton is damaged and no longer the predator, Wyatt is now the predator. A predator kills, and he plans to cut off the serpent’s head at Backlash. Orton says he has been though wars with Cactus Jack and the Undertaker, but those scars are nothing compared to his internal demons. He even half respects Wyatt because they share that. Orton agreed to the match at Backlash; he is not afraid of Wyatt and wants to kick his ass right now. Wyatt then did the disappearing act as we went to a commercial. The segment was good overall to set up the PPV match, but didn’t have the fire of the show’s opening promo with Ziggler and Miz. Also, the needed a match between this and the Slater segment to break up the long section of talking better. They easily could have put the women’s tag in between.

– Daniel Bryan appears on SportsCenter tomorrow.

– Nikki Bella joins the commentary team. We then get footage of Carmella’s attack on last weeks show and after show.

Alexa Bliss and Natalya vs. Naomi and Becky Lynch: Naomi and Natalya to begin, the worked for 30-seconds and took a commercial break. After a near four-minute commercial break, we came back to Natalya working the heat on Naomi. Bliss tagged in, didn’t do much but did cut off Naomi’s tag attempt. Naomi again tried to fight back from the bland heat segment, and got the tag to Lynch. She ran wild on Bliss and woke up the crowd finally. STRAIGHT FIYAH on Bliss in the corner. Sorta hit the missile dropkick and Bliss started to bump too early. Carmella arrived and brawled with Nikki on the floor. This distracted Lynch and Bliss got the roll up for the win. They are doing a good job of retooling Carmella, she needed the heel turn and Nikki loses nothing by allowing Carmella to get over on her again this week. In that aspect, this worked as they are doing their best to give all of the ladies time. The match was really rough though out though, never really clicking and only having life off of the Lynch hot tag. At least they are doing a good job of building to the title match.

– We get a video package for the Headbangers.

– We then get Curt Hawkins facts.

SD Tag Team Tournament Match: Rhyno and Heath Slater vs. The Headbangers: Slater and Mosh to begin, Mosh actually hit a springboard dropkick to take control. The Headbangers isolated Slater, hit the double team flapjack and scored a near fall. The heat was largely fine, the Headbangers hit the vegamatic for a near fall as Rhyno made the save and then dragged Slater to their corner for the tag. SPEAR by Rhyno and SLATER WINS! SLATER WINS! SLATER WINS! Perfectly fine for the time given, it was fun and the Headbangers were fine here. I do absolutely hate that most of the tournament matches have felt so short and meaningless.

The SD Tag Tournament Final Four are: The Usos facing American Alpha and The Hype Bros facing Rhyno and Heath Slater.

– Gary “The Milk Man” Milliman, a play off of the AWA jobber, is in the ring. He is wearing dress clothes and says he has been given a chance to compete tonight. He strips down to his underwear and demands an opponent. Kane came out and killed him. Well that as completely pointless, did they air a dark match segment by accident? Oh this set up Corbin entering as Kane left, possibly teasing a feud I cannot imagine anyone wanting to see.

Non-Title Match: WWE Champion Dean Ambrose vs. Baron Corbin: Corbin had early control, but Ambrose battled back an sent him to the floor. The apron clothesline followed an then Ambrose slammed Corbin off of the commentary table. Back in, Ambrose hit a dropkick off the second rope, but Corbin stopped the bulldog and hit a lariat to the back of the head. Ground and pound followed and then Corbin tosses Ambrose to the floor so we could take the commercial break. Post break, Corbin had control, working a solid heat segment. He had aggression, but the work was bland and the crowd wasn’t exactly into it or caring. They started to put together a nice back and forth as Ambrose made his comeback. Ambrose teased dirty deeds, Corbin escaped and then posted himself, which got a near fall for Ambrose. Corbin scored with the lariat, but Ambrose hit the jawbreaker lariat for the near fall. Ambrose cut off a he went up top, they battled back to the mat where Ambrose sent Corbin to the floor and then followed with a suicide dive. Back in the ring Corbin hit deep six, right away, for a near fall. Back to the floor where Corbin slammed Ambrose to the barricade. Styles told Corbin to keep attacking, Corbin bucked up to him and then Ambrose slammed Corbin into Styles. Back in Ambrose hit the elbow drop for a near fall, Styles distracted Ambrose, Corbin got a near fall and then Styles accidentally hit Corbin for the DQ. This was not a bad main event, but it felt way too long and just felt lethargic. Ambrose meshes well with certain guys, which can play off of and emphasize his style, Corbin was not one of those guys. This was an example of a match where Ambrose did not feel like the world champion, he felt like “a guy” and nothing more.

– All three brawled, Ambrose hit dirty deeds on Corbin and then crotched Styles as he went for the springboard forearm. Ambrose shook the ropes a bit t make it worse and then shook Styles’ hand. He posed with the title as Styles sat on the ropes, selling his balls.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

 photo fe36ffd0-0da4-4e3b-a2d3-b026b341dd87_zps41ef5d61.jpg
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

6.0
The final score: review Average
The 411
I think that the theme of tonight’s show was solid but unspectacular. The show was not bad, it advanced things as we build to Backlash, but didn’t really deliver anything must see. The beginning promo was the best thing on the show, but I think going right from the hot promo last week into Miz vs. Ziggler completely cooled it off. Ziggler has been on fire promo wise, but with so much damage done and the back-to-back losses to Ambrose and Styles, clean, he feels too damaged. Also, I have discussed how the brand extension will give chances to guys to sink or swim, last week Titus sank while Miz scored Olympic gold, Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin were given chances tonight, and in my opinion, did little with them. This was a lackluster show in the ring, but the opening promo performances and the work to build towards the PPV saved this from being a completely useless show.
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