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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SMACKDOWN 2.21.17
– WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship- Alexa Bliss d. Becky Lynch [**1/4]
– American Alpha d. Breezango [*]
– Falls Count Anywhere – Natalya d. Nikki Bella [***1/4]
– AJ Styles and Luke Harper fought to a Draw in a #1 Contender Battle Royal [***1/4]

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THE Right:
Naomi Relinquishes the Championship: Daniel Bryan kicked out Smackdown to call out Naomi. He talked about how hard she worked to finally become a champion and said he went through the same path she did, including getting injured and relinquishing his title. Bryan said that Naomi would be unable to compete for some time and he was forced to strip Naomi of the Smackdown Women’s Championship. Naomi talked about how sweet it was to finally reach the top of the mountain but now she was getting knocked off and is in free-fall. She apologized for letting everyone down and began to cry knowing her WM dream is likely gone. She warned the women in the back that when she returns, they would feel the glow. Alexa Bliss came out as Naomi was leaving and talked about how great it was to see Naomi give up the belt. Bliss said there was a problem since there was no champion heading into WrestleMania and threw out the idea that she should be handed the championship since she never got her rematch. Bryan decided that instead there would be a match for the vacant championship and Bliss’ opponent would be Becky Lynch. A very good and emotional segment to kick off Smackdown. Having Bryan making the comparisons to Naomi’s situation with his put over the disappointment and distraught the moment was for Naomi and she cut a good promo that is going to help make her return from injury a bigger deal. Bliss continued her excellent run on the microphone and led to an easy segue into the championship match which I’ll get into later.

Falls Count Anywhere – Nikki Bella vs. Natalya: Nikki Bella went right on the attack at the bell, beating Natalya down with a kendo stick .They brawled in the crowd and had a battle on top of some hockey boards that led to Nikki hitting a Disaster Kick onto Natalya off of them. They went to ringside and Natalya attempted to power bomb Nikki off the apron through the announce table but Nikki was able to block. Nikki hi the Alabama Slam onto the announce table for a close near fall as they went into the commercial break. When they came back, Nikki fought out of the Sharpshooter and they went back to the floor where Natalya suplexed Nikki onto the entrance ramp. The brawl made its’ way backstage and Nikki sent Natalya into Maryse who standing by, sending them both crashing. Nikki actually put Natalya’s head THROUGH A GLASS MIRROR for a near fall in an awesome spot. They made their way back to ringside and Nikki locked in the STF on the floor but Maryse came out and beat Nikki down with a pipe until Miz was able to pull her off. Natalya took advantage and covered Nikki for the 3 count and the victory. I thought this match was a blast. It was the type of brawl that this feud needed and they managed to live up to expectations. There was a lot of physical, intense brawling and the use of various weapons were well done and made sense. It was not the prettiest or most graceful of matches but I think the gritty nature really helped to portray their hatred in the contest. I also thought the way they manage to transition into the Maryse/mix tag feud in this match was really clever so this worked both as a blow-off to one feud and a transition into the next.

#1 Contender Battle Royal: The participants were John Cena, AJ Styles, Luke Harper, Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Apollo Crews, Kalisto, Baron Corbin, Dean Ambrose & Mojo Rawley. You had the standard brawling and elimination attempts to start but then Corbin ran wild for a bit. Rawley attempted to fight back but Corbin back dropped him to the floor for the first elimination. Kalisto and Ziggler fought on the apron and Ziggler ripped at the mask of Kalisto, allowing him to super kick him off for the elimination. Crews caught Ziggler with a roundhouse kick moments after to eliminate him. Ziggler, in frustration, attacked Kalisto with a chair on the floor, which distracted Crews and allowed Corbin to dump him. Miz had his turn to fire away with a series of corner dropkicks but John Cena was able to dump him. Corbin laid out Cena with the End of Days and he went for Ambrose but Ambrose low bridged him, sending him crashing to the floor. Corbin pulled Ambrose to the outside and laid him out with the End of Days on the floor before leaving. Miz also got involved post elimination, sneaking in to dump Cena in an act of revenge. Styles & Harper fought for a bit but Ambrose re-emerged and tried to dump both to no avail. All three men fought on the apron and Harper super kick Ambrose to knock him off and eliminate him. Styles and Harper had a series of close eliminations, leading to the final spot of the match where Harper tried to suplex Styles off the apron to the floor. They held on for dear live but the momentum sent both men crashing to the floor. Clearly, it showed that Styles’ fell to the ground first but they played it up like it was a draw, leading to Daniel Bryan declaring they would decide the #1 Contender in a match next week between Styles and Harper. The botched finish sucked and killed the post-match angle unfortunately. That being said, this was much better than your usual battle royals. Having only ten men allowed for more action and allowed the eliminations to be more drawn out and generate more dramatic elimination attempts. They did an excellent job showcasing and highlighting the various feuds throughout the match and, much like the women’s match, managed to get the ball rolling on the Cena/Miz mixed tag program. So overall, a very fun and productive battle royal that was unfortunately marred a bit by a mistimed finish.

puRgatoRy:
WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship- Alexa Bliss vs. Becky Lynch: Lynch caught Bliss with a series of rolls up to start and began to control Bliss on mat. She caught Bliss with a couple of suplexes for some near falls and then connected with a big missile dropkick. Lynch stayed in total control for most of the match and Bliss attempted to go to the floor to escape. Lynch tried to pull her back to the center of the ring but Bliss held on to the apron, dragging it into the ring. The ref went to deal with that, allowing Bliss to catch Lynch with a thrust to the throat and getting an immediate roll-up for the 3 to once again become the Smackdown Women’s Champion. I wasn’t thrilled that they once again had to go back to Bliss/Lynch. I know they were dealt a bad hand with the Naomi injury, but they could have found a better way to crown a new champion. As for the match, it was basically the same match they have had over the past few months with Lynch dominating most of the way before Bliss got the surprise victory through nefarious means. This would have been a good spot to have Mickie James interfere and cost Lynch the championship, so I’m surprised they didn’t go in that direction and they blew an opportunity to get more heat on that feud.

Breezango vs. American Alpha: Breezango jumps American Alpha at the bell and immediately double teamed Jordan. Breeze worked a front face but Jordan fought out and made the tag to Gable. They made quick work of Breezango and finished Fandango off with the Doomsday Bulldog. After the match, The Usos appeared in the crowd and cut a promo on American Alpha, declaring they would soon be ex-champs. They claimed that American Alpha would go back to the hotel and be kept up all night out of fear of what The Usos were going to do them. The match was a little sprint that continues to give American Alpha quick, decisive victories in order to build some heat back. The Usos promo was pretty good, you felt their energy and desire to become champions through it and I like the slow build method here as I’m starting to get excited about the prospects of that upcoming Alpha/Usos match.

THE wRong:
Nothing

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

The 1140th edition is over…

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

This week’s episode was a big improvement over last week. It was a more focused show with a much better collection of matches. Every match mattered in terms of building, starting, or blowing up a feud and I felt that they all succeeded in doing so. The final hour of this show was just incredibly fun, as the Natalya/Nikki brawl and the Battle Royal were extremely entertaining to watch. Despite the unfortunate battle royal finish, they continue to do a good job of aura of mystery to what is going on with the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania and next week’s Styles/Harper match should be fantastic. This was certainly a watchable episode this week that you should check out.