wrestling / Columns

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

May 18, 2015 | Posted by Daniel Clark

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 5.14.15

QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
* Dean Ambrose def. Sheamus at 11.07 by pinfall
* Seth Rollins def. Ryback at 6.14 by pinfall
* Tyson Kidd def. Kofi Kingston at 2.04 by submission
* Neville def. Bo Dallas at 2.21 by pinfall
* Roman Reigns def. Kane at 11.00 by pinfall

THE Right:
Dean Ambrose vs. Sheamus: The show began with Ambrose in the ring, before Roman Reigns came out, and the promo that they both cut was very short and bland, and in reality, didn’t need to exist at all as they said nothing really, and all-in-all, the show could have just kicked off with the Ambrose/Sheamus match. The match between them though was excellent and they got a decent amount of time to do their stuff and just beat each other up, which is what they do best. The ending of the match as well was structured nicely to protect both men involved. With Ambrose in the title match, he had to win this match, but Sheamus couldn’t really afford the defeat, so having Ambrose get the win with a roll-up after reversing Sheamus’ attempt to throw him out of the ring, but hitting his head on the metal post, was done in a way that protected him in the loss. A decent match with Ambrose picking up the win that he needed.

Neville vs. Bo Dallas: Bo Dallas came out and cut a really good promo on the five stages of grief that the fans are having to go through now that Daniel Bryan is out injured, and once again, Bo continues to show that he is gold on the mic, and that the WWE really do need to ‘Bolieive’ in him more than they do. His promo got him some good heat from the crowd and he is doing what he needs to do standout in the midcard. The match was a bit too short ideally, as I would have liked to have seen Bo be a bit more competitive, but given that Neville is on the PPV this Sunday and is a good bet to pick up the Intercontinental title, he did need the win and he picked it up fairly quickly. It was a decent match with the right winner, and even though he lost, Bo did help himself with the promo he cut.

Adam Rose: The hot dog called Carl being attacked by Adam Rose after he complained about not getting paid was great. Rose has been drifting aimlessly for a long time, so this new attitude is something that might help him in the future. This was a fairly inoffensive little segment that helped improve his gimmick and sets up his heel turn.

Kane vs. Roman Reigns: These two put on a decent little match that fortunately ended in the right way with Reigns getting the win that he needed and coming out of it looking pretty strong. Kane attacked him with a Singapore cane, the steel steps, and chokeslammed him through a table, but that wasn’t enough to beat Reigns and he kicked out of it all. And then, with just one superman punch and a spear through another table, Reigns got the win. This was the kind of dominant performance that Reigns needs if he is involved in a title match, which he got, and he needed to be running through the likes of Kane at this stage in his career. We then go backstage and see Rollins saying that everyone else involved in the title match will be losers, only for Ambrose to show up with a tray and cookies, which he then throws a J and J Security. A brawl begins and the numbers game overwhelms him until Reigns makes the save by throwing a trolley at them. Reigns and Ambrose then look at each other before Ambrose gives him the belt and tells him that he will take it on Sunday. A nice little backstage segment which had Rollins acting cockily and arrogantly, but remaining confident that he will, Reigns making the save, and Ambrose acting like a clown yet having the belief that he can win the belt by telling Reigns he will take the belt. A nice little preview of Payback and sets up a good title match.

puRgatoRy:
Seth Rollins vs. Ryback: The match gets set up as a result of more tension between Kane and Seth Rollins with Kane deciding to book him in the match and saying that he is not sure what the right thing is yet. Before the match Ryback says that he is no dummy and that he saw the fear in Bray Wyatt’s eyes on Monday, but before the match can begin, Bray comes out from nowhere and attacks him. What we then get is Ryback getting some sympathy from the crowd as even though he is not really fit to compete, he is desperate to wrestle, which is what he needs to do as the crowd are not totally sold on him. Ryback does put up a pretty good fight in what was a fairly decent match, he does eventually get overcome by Rollins who pins him clean in the middle of the ring. Rollins does get the win that as a champion against an injured man he needed to, but even though he does have an excuse, it is still not great that Ryback loses clean days before he involved in a big PPV match against Bray Wyatt.

Kofi Kingston vs. Tyson Kidd: Kofi and Tyson put on a decent little match that wetted the appetite for their title match on Sunday, as Tyson continued the momentum that he and Cesaro have put together by picking up another win. However, the match was a little bit too short to really mean anything and Kofi tapping out as quickly as he did was not necessarily the right thing as although the New Day have been booked as ‘fluke’ champions in how they have held the belt, the fact they keep losing so quickly doesn’t make them look like champions. There was no reason why this couldn’t have gone another few minutes before getting the same outcome.

THE wRong:
Rusev promo: To be fair, there wasn’t really a lot wrong with the Rusev promo other than it was the same thing that he has been saying week after week on Smackdown. He says that he will make Cena say I Quit, and then shows a video of him saying I Quit, and that’s it. Nothing really wrong with it, but it didn’t actually add anything and just seemed to be a filler as they have run out of ideas as to how to make this Cena/Rusev feud work.

Naomi and Tamina promo: Naomi and Tamina had the chance to say a few words backstage and in doing so ripped into the Bella twins, by saying that Nikki is fake and desperate for attention, while Brie is just a quitter, and sometimes a good girl has to go bad to get things done. This was probably one of the best promos that Naomi has cut but it had one problem with it – she is completely right with her comments on the Bellas. This is the real problem with the Bellas turning face suddenly with no reason for them to actually have turned face as instead of reacting with outrage to what Naomi is saying about them, you actually sit there and go – you know what, I agree with what she is saying.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING:

The 411:

As the final episode of Smackdown and the last chance to build up to Payback, this show actually did a reasonably good job of hyping up to the PPV and making the event seem important, while increasing the tension between the guys in the main event. Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose all got the chance to compete and all of them were involved in pretty decent matches, and all got the wins that they needed to get, but in different ways. Rollins came through a battle against an injured Ryback and got a clean win eventually. Ambrose managed to outsmart Sheamus and roll him up, while Reigns as fairly dominant in his win over Kane. The tension between the men involved in the title match (and Kane) was also increased, with Rollins winding Kane up even more leading to the big red monster saying that he won’t know what the right thing is until Sunday, and Ambrose ending the show as the one with the momentum after he gave the belt to Reigns and told him he will take it from him on Sunday, in a backstage segment that had the right balance between humour and seriousness.

Heading into Payback we also saw a little bit of build up for all of the other matches on the card. Ryback told us that he wasn’t afraid of Bray Wyatt and that he saw fears in his eyes, but found himself on the end of another beatdown from Bray that effectively cost him his match with Rollins. Rusev cut another promo in the ring, but this one was fairly generic and didn’t really do anything to really promote his match with John Cena and the interest in the match is beginning to wane as with it being an I Quit match, Rusev really has no chance of winning unless they do a swerve involving Lana and Cena quitting to save her from being beaten up by Rusev, only for it all to be revealed as a ruse to screw Cena. Of course, if Lana is supposed to turning face then that option is taken away, and if Rusev does get the belt back it just resets us back a few months. However, I can’t see anything obvious for either of these guys afterwards, even if Cena does win.

The New Day lost another match to Kidd and Cesaro and continue to be booked as fluke champions, but will probably sneak a win somehow on Sunday, while Neville picked up another win ahead of his match with Bad News Barrett. With this being the last show ahead of Payback, what it did was just build subtly towards the PPV and actually for once did a reasonable job of adding something new to the build-up. We saw three reasonably good matches and the fatal-four-way title match got some promotion as well with the characters involved continuing their dislike and distrust of each other, while the angle of what Kane will do, if anything, to save his job, is arguably the most thought out one that the WWE has, even if it will lead to a Rollins/Kane match that no-one really wants to see. Smackdown still continues to feel like a fairly pointless show – but this week, it felt more meaningful that usual.

Show Rating: 7.9

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 988th edition is over…

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