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

How the 4Rs of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R’s. The column will run TWO-THREE 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.

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Jack McGee
Smackdown 1.28.16
– The Usos, Dolph Ziggler, and Titus O’Neil defeated The New Day & Miz @ 12:15 via pin
– US Champion Kalisto defeated Neville @ 7:55 via pin
– AJ Styles defeated Curtis Axel @ 3:25 via pin
– Champion Charlotte defeated Natalya @ 3:52 via submission
– Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns defeated Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erick Rowan @ 13:37 via DQ

THE Right:
US Champion Kalisto defeated Neville: I think that this was a good title defense, and a nice way to feature Kalisto in a positive way. The match on Raw was fine, but the non-title tag left a lot of people wanting in regards to presentation. Kalisto is an underdog that will fight no matter what, so allowing him to be a fighting champion (and having him play off of the work Cena did with the title) only makes sense. So we got a title match; which was a fun back and forth babyface match, which allowed Kalisto to get a title defense under his belt and to have an exciting and fun match while doing so. I still refuse to believe that Kalisto can be the second coming of Rey Mysterio, because no one will be Rey Mysterio, but they have a great guy to use as a mid-card attraction, to play to the kids, with the ability to give him some steam and occasionally tease a push up the card. They just have to stay the course and not cut him off when he gets momentum.

Champion Charlotte defeated Natalya: Charlotte defeated Natalya in a perfectly fine, but short match. I really had wished they got more time, because they could have delivered a quality match. But that wasn’t the case here. Charlotte got a mostly dominating victory, and then tried to add onto the fact that she won by attacking Natalya post match. Becky Lynch made the save and ran off Charlotte. I liked this because they have actually worked to create a true heel and face dynamic here, something the division has lacked seemingly forever. It was short, but also simple, which is often times the best. They had a good program between Charlotte and Becky, and with Banks also in the mix, things are finally getting interesting.

puRgatoRy:
The Highlight Reel: For the most part, I am completely irritated with wrestling talk segments these days. But wrestling talk shows may be even worse. Usually it is always way too long, saying a whole lot of nothing and only existing to kill time. But I actually mostly enjoyed this one. The interplay between Reigns and Ambrose was really good here; it didn’t feel forced and actually felt the most natural Reigns has in forever. The way they talked about being willing to beat on each other for a title shot, Reigns taking the shot that Ambrose has never beaten him, it wall worked. And then the Wyatts came out, and it fell into any other segment does, to make a match for later in the night. But that’s not the bad part; the thing that pissed me off is that Reigns and Ambrose just accepted Jericho as their partner. I guess they expect everyone to forget the Night of Champions match where Jericho teamed with them, they lost, and then Jericho left like a complete douche bag that never went anywhere. The storytelling is getting so lazy that it’s ridiculous.

The Usos, Dolph Ziggler, and Titus O’Neil defeated The New Day & Miz aka This is All About Pushing Titus as a Nice Guy: So on the surface we run a long promo segment to set up the opening match, which in theory is to continue the Usos vs. New Day feud. The opening promo was fine, and the match was fine, but lets call this exactly what this was; this was a “look at how good a person Titus O’Neil is” segment, and really nothing more. With all due respect to Titus O’Neil, who I think is a great guy for the company to have around because he brings a ton of positive press to them and is doing great things for the community, but this was about nothing other than showing off the good stuff he does. That was the only real goal of the segment. Titus O’Neil is a 38-year-old wrestler who is passable and has charisma. He was part of a tag team that they broke up again for no reason; he only makes the main shows to feud with Stardust and makes a home on Superstars and Main Event. He is not going to be a top star, but he does great things like visiting underprivileged children and bringing them to WWE shows while he shares his great message that they can do anything if they believe and try hard. And this is a great thing he does, but WWE only had him on this show and only had him win so that they could show the video package from the school and have him run into the crowd like a conquering hero. I appreciate everything he does, but WWE doesn’t have to be so completely transparent when they have him on TV like this.

AJ Styles defeated Curtis Axel: AJ Styles defeated Curtis Axel on Smackdown, which is the good news. The fact that Styles got to win again gives me a bit of faith. He has some cool music, he is winning and they are at times trying to make him a big deal. That’s the good news. Here is the other side of the coin. Axel was another poor choice of opponent, as he worked awkwardly and slowly with Styles, much like Jericho. They are failing to show new fans what he can truly do. Also, this bullshit on commentary where they continually have to discuss how someone hasn’t done anything until they have competed in the WWE comes off as completely condescending to the performer and their fans. You can easily play it as, “Styles has dominated the world of wrestling outside of the WWE for the past 16-years, and has now come to the WWE to see if he can do the same.” That puts over the performer; it doesn’t discredit their previous work, and also puts over the WWE as the final crowning achievement for someone’s career. I do NOT think that they are “burying” Styles or anything like that; please do not lump me in with those conspiracy theorists, I just feel that they could easily do a much better job of presenting him than they are currently.

Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns defeated Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erick Rowan: The main event of Smackdown was a solid match with some fun spots, but due to the booking of the main event matches over the last several months, I kept waiting for a non-finish, because they have basically conditioned me to expect it. The work had its moments, I really enjoy when Luke Harper gets to work and Ambrose busts his ass week in and week out despite the fact that it’s about Roman for the company. Also, I am still bothered about the fact that everyone forgot about the Night of Champions angle, which really needed to be worked into here more and discussed. Don’t tell stories and expect everyone to forget them, especially when the circumstances are nearly identical (six-man tag against the Wyatts). Just have things make sense and have some respect for your own storytelling. Also, and it’s not that I like the guy, but if they want to make Strowman a player, why is he on the floor not wrestling? This guy needs to be working as much as humanly possible with experienced guys like Jericho and Ambrose to help improve his skill set. Having him play uber-goon on the floor does him no good, and will only hurt him as they hope to put him in bigger matches. This dude has had under 50 matches and they are considering having him face taker at Mania. So yeah, let’s sit him out because that’ll help him improve. And then they told each and every one of us to fuck off because we got another DQ non-committal finish. That’s a clan sweep for January, and will get it’s own section below.

THE wRong:
NOTHING

THE Ridiculous:
No Need To Finish Anything: Since the move to USA, there has not been a pin or submission finish on Smackdown. Csonka has a more extensive list in his recap, but this is ridiculous and one of the reasons that people say the show doesn’t matter…

* January 7 – Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens went to a double count out
* January 14 – Neville and Dean Ambrose defeated Sheamus and Kevin Owens via DQ
* January 21 – Roman Reigns defeated The League of Nations via DQ
* January 28 – Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns defeated Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erick Rowan via DQ

The 411:
This was a very solid show this week, with another fuck you main event finish. What drastic changes we’ve seen since the move to USA…

Show Rating: 6.5

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 1064th edition is over…