Wrestling’s 4Rs: The Right, Wrong and Ridiculous of Smackdown

How the 4Rs of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R’s. The column will run TWO times a week. We will group our feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and needs discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come. This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a “mark” column, nor a “smark” column, our goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. We will not apologize for our opinions, they are as they are, whether positive or negative.

---

By Daniel Clark
Smackdown 12.12.14
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
* The Usos def. Cesaro and Tyson Kidd at 11.08 by pinfall
* Nikki Bella def. Alicia Fox at 4.13 by pinfall
* Big E def. Goldust at 2.15 by pinfall
* Jack Swagger def. Titus O’Neill at 2.25 by submission
* Ryback, Dolph Ziggler and Erick Rowan def. Kane, Luke Harper and the Big Show at 16.44 by pinfall

THE RIGHT:
John Cena and Seth Rollins: John Cena kicks off the show with a rare appearance on Smackdown which tends to suggest that this is going to be a good show. We start by getting a mention that if Cena loses on Sunday then he is no longer the number one contender, but just as Seth Rollins being Mr MITB, it means absolutely nothing if the champion Brock Lesnar is not around. I mean, Rollins has a title shot whenever he wants one, but hasn’t been able to cash it in for the last few months even if he wanted to as Lesnar is not around. But once the two of them started speaking, this segment picked up and got good quickly. Rollins praises Cena by saying that 99 per cent of the time he does what he says he does because he is that good, but this Sunday, he will be the one who sets the new standard of doing what they say he will, before saying that Cena’s time is up and his time is now. He built up Cena by making him seem important but just said that he was a little bit better. Cena responds by saying that there has never been a safer bet than him and he will once again prove that he is the future and the future is now, and that if you think you will shove me out the door, you can join the rest who have tried and failed. Both Cena and Rollins were on point with their promos and got you invested in their tables match on Sunday (even if it is a terrible gimmick match). Rollins built up Cena with his promo but basically said that as good as he is, he is that bit better, while Cena tried to put Rollins back in his place by saying that he is not ready yet to give up his spot at the top of the roster yet, although there is an element of desperation in his voice that he knows someday his time will be up but he does not what to admit that yet but knows at some point he will not be the standard bearer anymore. Good promo from both men to start the show.

The Usos vs. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro: Everything with the Usos, Naomi and the Miz worked particularly well and has taken what could have been a fairly nondescript feud over the tag team titles into something more personal and real. The Miz on commentary was excellent, with him making a series of good and entertaining points that benefited everyone. By saying that the Usos are a good team and that they will give him and Mizdow a run for their money, he makes the Usos look and feel like the top tier tag team that we know they are, but just outlines that he is just that little bit better than them and that is why he will win, which in turn sells the match as one between two good tag teams. He then gets a call from his agent about Naomi, and later in the night runs into her and almost convinces her that he is being 100 per cent serious about the agent thinking that he is being serious, she does have the talent for Hollywood, and that he is not just doing it to try and get in the heads of the Usos to keep the tag team belts. I mean, we all know that is exactly what he is doing, but he is presenting his case so well and coming across so legitimate that you know he is going to convince Naomi of what he is doing only for her to be left high-and-dry after having caused a rift between her and Jimmy Uso and allow him and Mizdow to escape with the belts, which is already sort of happening with Naomi telling Jimmy that his words have had her doubting herself. As for the match, it was as good as you would have expected with these four men in the ring and was full of clean and crisp moves, and although the Usos got the win, Kidd and Cesaro were fairly impressive and you sense that they are determined to live up to their pre-match comments to grasp the brass ring.

Nikki Bella vs. Alicia Fox: This match was surprisingly competitive and far more so than I was expecting, but this was not necessarily as a bad thing as they had a little bit of time to put together what was a half-decent divas match. Nikki got the win cleanly, as she needed to do, and then just for good measure, hit the rack-attack on Alicia again. But the highlight of the match was AJ Lee on commentary who was clearly having fun, not only with herself but also with the audience, as she spent the whole time dropping hints that she could be gone soon, almost referencing and trolling everyone in regards to the constant rumours that she will be leaving the WWE soon, and yet, she kept it just about in kayfabe terms related to the match she was talking about. A decent way to hype the divas match.

Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose speak: Both Bray and Dean had a short promo tonight but in what they said they were very effective. Bray talked about how Ambrose’s demise will be his salvation, while Ambrose replied by saying that all Bray’s mindgames have been meaningless as he is just a guy who likes to fight and he will crush Bray’s world. The promos were just simple and effective and outlined their positions going into the TLC match and showed that at times you can say more in two minutes than you can in ten.

puRgatoRy:
Big E vs. Goldust: The New Day are still enjoying and loving everything about their gimmick and the good news is that the crowd seem to care and be getting behind them and are involved in their matches. And Big E came away with a dominant and clean win. But it was almost too easy – when you are building to a PPV match between the two teams, having one of them win this cleanly in two minutes does not seem to be the best method to hype the match. Furthermore, Stardust seems to have finally gone insane. His initial conversion to this gimmick was fine, but he has now gone from being wacky to just a nutjob who makes no sense as to what he is doing, and I think the crowd are getting tired of the act.

Jack Swagger vs. Titus O’Neill: This was fairly simple and inoffensive enough with Swagger getting the convincing win that he needed heading into his match with Rusev at TLC but the ending almost made Titus look too strong if that is possible. When Swagger locked the ankle lock on Rusev on Raw, he was left in agony and almost in tears, and yet, Titus seemed to be in the submission move for about the same period of time before he tapped out, when to really build up Swagger, he should have tapped straight away. Just seemed as given how Titus has been booked lately, holding on as long as he did makes the finishing move seem a bit weaker that it should do. We also heard that the US title was on the line on Sunday in a throwaway line in commentary, but I might be wrong, but that could be the first time that it has been mentioned that it is a title match, which shows just how little the belt means.

THE wRong:
Dolph Ziggler/Ryback/Erick Rowan vs. Luke Harper/The Big Show/Kane: For all the good things on this show, the main event just fell flat and never really got going, and ended up feeling a bit of a filler to just close the show as nothing better could be booked. The match was lengthy but fairly meaningless and pedestrian for the main part with a lot of the time the feeling that they were just killing time rather than trying to make the most of the lengthy timeframe that they had been given. The match picked up a little bit near the end once the hot tag had been made but the ending, with Ryback cleanly pinning the Intercontinental Champion, just left you feeling ‘is that it?’ and having to see a champion again taking the fall randomly and needlessly in a tag team match. Kane attacks Ryback afterwards with a chair to remind you that is what they are fighting with on Sunday, but the face team fight back and end the show standing tall. Just seemed very paint-by-numbers and as the final segment before a PPV, didn’t feel anywhere near as big as it should have done.

THE Ridiculous:
Nothing

The 411:
The first hour of this show was so good, it was a shame that it started to tail away in the second half, but this was still a pretty good episode for the most part.

John Cena appearing on Smackdown always seems to indicate a step up in quality and that is exactly what we got as he and Seth Rollins both cut some excellent and worthy promos to start the show that hyped up their tables match at TLC as well as putting each other and making it feel like a battle between two people who are at the top of the mountain and are fighting to be the standard bearer. It is the battle between the young upstart who is cocky enough to know just how good he is and although he respects the veteran, knows and thinks that he is now better than him, against the veteran who is fighting a losing battle to remain at the top as he is a bit slower than he was and knows that someday someone will take the top spot from him but is determined that it will not be this weekend. It feels like a big match and a reason to watch the PPV, even if a tables match is a terrible gimmick for such a big match.

This was then followed by a really good tag team match between The Usos and Tyson Kidd and Cesaro that mixed in with and further the angle between the Miz and Naomi. The Miz is playing a very clever game of making Naomi think that the interest in her from the agent is legitimate and not just a tool to get into the heads of the Usos and cause friction between her and Jimmy, even though you know that it probably is. The way he is coming across and presenting his case is convincing enough to think that he might just be telling the truth, and what this is doing is adding more of a reason to be interested in the tag team title match.

Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose then cut some short but effective promos ahead of their TLC match on Sunday which outlined just how they are viewing the match, with Bray treating it as a salvation exercise for him while Ambrose just wants to fight and kick his ass.

But into the second hour, the quality declined slightly. Jack Swagger got a routine win over Titus O’Neill, but having Titus hang on in the Patriot Lock for as long as he did seemed a strange move if you are trying to build it up to something that could force Rusev to tap out. Big E got a very quick and dominant win over Goldust that was effective in building the New Day but not something that makes their match against Goldust and Stardust on Sunday look appealing, while Stardust seems to be going more insane.
The main event which featured three matches that are taking place on Sunday however was a poor main event and just never got going in any way, which when the match is nearly 17 minutes long is not a good thing. It felt as if they needed something to end the show and couldn’t book anything substantial so just threw these six men out to try and do something, but the end result was to not make you intrigued in their TLC matches. The faces got the win with Ryback pinning Luke Harper cleanly (because as a mid-card champion, he must take the tall wherever possible), and then ended the show standing tall after cleaning house, but it didn’t feel like the big segment to lead in to a PPV and neutered the ending of Raw when the heels stood tall. I think if this match and the Cena/Rollins segment had been swopped around, they may have come off better.

However, this was a fairly decent show which did a great job in promoting Cena/Rollins.

Show Rating: 7.4

As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…

0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9:Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually Perfect

The 947th edition is over…

“I think you and I are destined to do this forever.”