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

January 31, 2017 | Posted by Dylan Diot
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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.


Smackdown 1.24.16:
– Randy Orton d. Luke Harper ***
– Mojo Rawley wins a Battle Royal to earn a Royal Rumble Spot *
– Dolph Ziggler d. Kalisto *
– Lumberjack Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship- Dean Ambrose d. The Miz © ***1/4


THE Right:
Randy Orton vs. Luke Harper: The Wyatts came out together prior to the match and Bray took a seat in his rocking chair at ringside. Orton took control early in the match, acting relentless in his attack on Harper and hitting some of his signature stuff right away like the hanging DDT and the back suplex on the barricade/announce table. Harper fought his way back into control and eventually they had a hot back and forth featuring hot near falls off of roll-ups and multiple counters. After hitting a super kick, Harper attempted a power bomb but was too busy trying to attract the attention of Bray, allowing Orton to roll him up for 2 and counter the discus lariat into the RKO for 3. After the match, Bray helps Harper up only to lay him out with Sister Abigail. This was a solid opener. I’m happy that they kept Bray completely out of the match, letting these two settle the score in the ring. Both men came out firing out of the gate and showed good intensity throughout the match. I also liked the dynamics played up here, with Harper being obsessed with wanting to show his worthiness to Bray while Orton just stayed focused on the task at hand, which impressed Bray more in the end. This segment had some solid storytelling and after weeks they finally got me interested in where this is going.

Mickie James Interview: Renee Young brought out Mickie James for her first interview since her shocking return last week. Mickie refreshed everyone of her accomplishments and says she has been watching the WWE even in the seven years she had been gone. She was frustrated that the Women’s Revolution got so much praise for it did for the women in the WWE and felt that it overshadowed her contributions and accomplishments. She says that Alexa Bliss reminded her of herself and that respected Bliss for making her own way. She promised that this was going to be the reinvention of Mickie James and this brought out Becky Lynch for a brawl. Mickie began to run into the crowd and Lynch gave chase, only to get clocked by Alexa Bliss. They beat her down in the ring and Mickie drilled her with a spin kick. Bliss hits a corkscrew press off the top and she and Mickie were left standing for the second straight week. This was a pretty good interview to bring Mickie back into the fold. Her delivery was fantastic, speaking with an angry calm about how she felt she had been forgotten about despite her previous success and contributions to the women’s division. Her reasons for helping out Alexa Bliss were plausible and it sets her up for feuds with not only Becky Lynch but also with the likes of Charlotte and Sasha Banks down the line based on her reasoning. The sneak attack and beat down were well done and so I’m seeing promising things for this Bliss/James alliance.

AJ Styles & John Cena Face to Face: AJ Styles came out and complained about his position on the Royal Rumble poster in comparison to John Cena before calling him out. John Cena came out and Styles quickly cut him off, saying he’s heard enough from Cena. He showed footage of the Today Show where Cena declared he would win at the Royal Rumble without mentioning AJ Styles by name. Styles reminded Cena of who he is and says he took over Smackdown while Cena was gone, calling Cena a sorry excuse for a wrestler. Cena reminded Styles he held down the fort for ten years and says that he wasn’t built for the indies like Styles, he was built for the big moments like the Royal Rumble. He said Styles was no different than every other guy who tried to be him and on Sunday, he’ll learn that Cena is still a bad man. This was a great final back and forth heading into their championship match at the Royal Rumble. Both men got their points and motivations across perfectly. Styles is obsessed with getting recognition and respect, constantly believing he is overlooked despite proving he has been the man for months. Meanwhile, Cena was calm. While giving Styles a harsh dose of reality about their statuses in the WWE. Cena seemed mentally prepared for the match while Styles mind seemed to be racing and lacking focus. It’s a great dynamic heading into the match and other than the Rumble, they’ve made this my second most anticipated match on the show.

Lumberjack Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship- Dean Ambrose © vs. The Miz: The lumberjacks were made up of the entire tag team division plus the likes of Baron Corbin and Mojo Rawley among others. Miz and Ambrose spent the early portion of the match trying to dump each other to the floor. Every time Miz was sent to the floor the lumberjacks were quick to attack while there was a split between them whenever Ambrose was in their grasp. Miz gained control for a bit with the snap DDT and a series of kicks to the chest. Ambrose was dumped to the floor once more but this time he fought off the lumberjacks before going on the offensive. Ambrose clotheslined Miz to the floor and followed up with a suicide dive onto everyone. Maryse grabbed the leg of Ambrose which allowed Miz to hit the flying knee strike for 2. Ambrose backdropped Miz to the floor and follows out with a huge stage dive onto everyone on the floor. He hit the Lunatic Lariat on Miz for 2 -as Baron Corbin broke it up, bringing everyone in for a Royal Rumble style brawl. Corbin cleaned house but Ambrose dumped him to the floor and eventually caught Miz with the Dirty Deeds for the win. The main event tonight was just a total blast. This had the stereotypical lumberjack and pre Rumble match troupes but the crowd was super into it and the dynamic of the lumberjacks wanting to beat up Miz for being a jerk while being neutral on Ambrose was really fun. The two big dives onto the lumberjacks looked really cool and the final stretch had a bunch of hot near falls that the crowd was buying into so this was a purely fun final segment to send us into the Rumble.

puRgatoRy:
Royal Rumble Spot Battle Royal: The participants here were the Vaudevillians, the Ascension, Breezango, Heath Slater, Rhyno, Curt Hawkins & Mojo Rawley. This match was a series of rapid-fire eliminations eventually leading to a final of Mojo Rawley and Breezango. Breezango got the better of Rawley and got him onto the apron. Breeze went for a super kick but Rawley pulled Fandango in the way to knock him to the floor and he backdropped Breeze to the floor to eliminate him and earn a spot in the Royal Rumble match. The match was bland since no one in the match had any momentum going in and they were all the bottom of the roster wrestlers. Rawley was the right pick out of the group and he’ll like get two minutes to shine in the Rumble before being quickly dumped. Pretty much a time filler segment and a mediocre one at that.

Naomi vs. Natalya: The Match never happened as Nikki Bella attacked Natalya backstage in retaliation for a beatdown that happened in the parking lot earlier in the day. Naomi said she returned because she wanted opportunities and challenged anyone to face her. Alexa Bliss came out and mocked Naomi for not being around for some time. Naomi told Alexa she’s looking at the next Women’s Champion but Alexa says that Naomi isn’t worth her time. Simple segment that brings Naomi back into the fold and it looks she’ll be built up as Alexa’s next challenger. I liked how they managed to build up two feuds in the same segment, continuing the Nikki/Natalya saga while planting the seeds for Naomi/Bliss. This was nothing groundbreaking but it served its purpose well enough.

THE wRong:
Carmella Takes James Ellsworth Shopping: They showed some footage of a week ago when Carmella took Ellsworth shopping. Ellsworth was in his wrestling gear and wanted to do some shopping of his own. Ellsworth put on a bunch of wacky outfits that Carmella didn’t approve of. Carmella finally picked out an outfit for him, which has a lot of gold apparel. Carmella declared that he was fabulous. This is one of the weirdest segments I’ve seen on SmackDown in some time. Ellsworth looked extremely awkward and phony in the segment and there was a total lack of charm to it because of it. These two are the anti- Bliss/James, they have zero chemistry and so far every segment they’re in together is bombing. I’m not happy SmackDown is going to have these wacky, unfunny comedy segments on the show but if there is a silver lining, it’s that it’s keeping these two out of the ring for now.

Kalisto vs. Dolph Ziggler: Kalisto fired away with kicks to the leg to start but Ziggler was quick to cut him off. Kalisto caught Ziggler with a spin kick and went for the springboard battery ram but Ziggler caught him with a super kick for the win in less than two minutes. Ziggler grabbed a chair after the match but was distracted by JBL confronting him, giving Apollo Crews the chance to attack him, forcing Ziggler to run to the back. Last week I praised the Lawler/Ziggler segment and liked how they shaped out Ziggler’s new heel character. They killed that dead this week. The idea was that Ziggler was going down a dark road and it wasn’t giving Ziggler success yet. I wanted to see what lengths Ziggler would eventually go to in order to finally start picking up wins and in turn would turn him into a more vicious and hated heel. Instead, he gets a quick two-minute CLEAN victory that people are going to immediately forget about. It wasted so much potential for a good story and it’s a shame.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

The 1138th edition is over…

7.0
The final score: review Good
The 411
Smackdown this week ended up being a strong go home show for the Royal Rumble. There was some bad stuff sprinkled into the show unfortunately but for the most part this was a very focused, straight forward show. We got final pushes for the Rumble Match and the Styles/Cena match which were well done. The set-up for the six-man women’s tag at the Rumble was well executed in both segments and they did a good job adding intrigue to various stories that will be going on within the Rumble match like the Wyatt Family saga. I’m excited for the Royal Rumble and this week’s show only helped to boost my excitement, so check this episode out to prepare yourself for what’s looking to be one hell of a show.
legend

article topics :

Smackdown, Wrestling's 4Rs, WWE, Dylan Diot