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 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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By Daniel Clark
Smackdown 5.21.15
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
* The Lucha Dragons def. Los Matedores, Tyson Kidd and Cesaro and the Ascension at 7.18 by pinfall
* Dolph Ziggler def. King Barrett at 5.21 by pinfall
* R Truth def. Stardust at 4.02 by pinfall
* Curtis Axel and Damien Sandow def. Adam Rose and Heath Slater at 3.51 by pinfall
* Dean Ambrose def. Bray Wyatt at 9.44 by pinfall

THE Right:
Four way tag team match: The four teams involved in this match gave us a taster of what to expect at the Elimination Chamber by putting on a very good match full of lots of high spots and crazy action, with them making the most of the time that they were given. There wasn’t really a weak link in the match and the Lucha Dragons continue to be showcased whenever they get the chance and really should be able to star inside the Chamber. They got the win here as well to continue their rise with a roll-up on Los Matedores, who are really just in the match to make up the numbers, but aren’t too badly damaged by the finish. A good match that did the job of hyping the Chamber.

Bo Dallas promo: Bo Dallas can cut promos all day as far as I am concerned. He tells a story about nursing a damaged bird back to health and with the help that he gave the bird, it was able to fly away and be healthy again. He then says that Neville has a damaged wing but he can help him to become stronger and can overcome the injury if he Bolieves. A nice short promo from Bo that was entertaining enough, told a story that fitted in with what we know about Bo, and ended by making it relevant to his opponent in Neville and saying that he will help him if he Bolieves. These two can put on a good match as shown by what they did on NXT so hopefully they do get the chance rather than having Neville squash him in a couple of minutes.

Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt: Ambrose and Wyatt put on another good match that ended with a bit of a surprise with Ambrose winning the match and pinning Wyatt in the middle of the ring, which I think is the first time that he has been pinned on TV since his debut two years ago, something that should have been a bit bigger and emphasized more than it actually was. The two put on a good match and gave Ambrose the win back he needed ahead of his match with Seth Rollins at the Elimination Chamber, although Wyatt was slightly protected as the loss came after Reigns hit him with the superman punch before Ambrose hit dirty deeds. Rollins and J and J security tried to interfere by Reigns had come out to drive them away, and the show ended with Ambrose celebrating in the ring. He’s not winning the title, but they have done a great job of re-building him up given that a month ago he was floundering in the midcard and heading nowhere. Wyatt is probably heading to face Reigns next judging by how the match ended but given the Ryback feud didn’t really work, he is once again back to going nowhere.

puRgatoRy:
Paige promo: Paige comes out to the ring and reminds everyone that she is the number one contender to the Divas title and now that she is back, she has come to take back what is hers. In the same spirit as the men, no-one can cut a promo without someone else interrupting, and Naomi comes out saying that she deserves to be the top diva, all the Paige is good at is screaming, and she just took the opportunity to take her out. Paige then sort of buries Naomi by saying that she has done more in one year than she has done in her career and that she lacks any personality but doesn’t lack excuses, before the two-on-one attack happens on Paige, only for Nikki Bella to come and lay out both divas. It was nice to see the divas given a chance with a reasonably lengthy promo and it was fairly decent, although it showed that Paige can hold the division together but Naomi probably can’t, and she came off second best by a long way in the talking stakes.

R Truth vs. Stardust: With R Truth being in the Elimination Chamber match for the Intercontinental Title and Stardust not being in the match, Truth needed to pick up the win, which he did. There is not really a lot to say about the match as it was pretty forgettable, but at least the ‘right’ man got the win and got it cleanly. Stardust continues to head nowhere and this gimmick isn’t working for Cody Rhodes anymore, while Truth seems to be the go-to man to add into any mid-card matches as the extra opponent.

Adam Rose/Heath Slater vs. The Meta Powers: Damien Sandow and Curtis Axel have now fully committed to the Meta Powers gimmick as they search for something to do, but clearly this gimmick cannot really last a long time and you have to question where either of them go once the split does happen. However, for the meanwhile, they are a nice little comedy tag team and got the win over Rose and Slater who are just a thrown together team.

Ryback promo: Just a short and brief promo to remind people that Ryback is still supposed to be a threat and not the man who lost to Bray Wyatt in a feud that has been forgotten about. He said he will become the Intercontinental champion and that anyone who stands in his way will be devoured. Nothing special, but just there as a reminder of him.

THE wRong:
The show opening promo: Another week, and another bland and fairly pointless promo to open the show, where no one really says anything. Roman Reigns came out and said that he will enter the MITB ladder match and will win it. Dean Ambrose then interrupts and says he won’t need to enter the match as he will already be the champion. Obviously Kane then needs to come out and say not a lot, before booking Ambrose in a match against Bray Wyatt, and telling Reigns that he has the night off to reflect on his failure (but then we don’t see anything at all on the rest of the show of Reigns reflecting on his failure, or him hitting up catering like he promised to do). Just a promo that didn’t really do a lot and was just the generic filler to start the show.

Dolph Ziggler vs. King Barrett: Sometimes you just get the feeling that the WWE are having a laugh at the expense of certain people and that definitely includes Barrett. They pretend to give him a push by giving him a title or letting him win the King of the Ring and then mock him by making him lose every match he has afterwards. This match with Ziggler was a fairly decent match, even though they seemed to have faced each other every week for the past month in various forms, but the problem is that Barrett lost again clean. Since Barrett became KOTR, he has lost more matches than he has won, which is not the way to capitalize on winning the crown and makes the whole tournament seem pointless if the winner of it is constantly presenting as a loser. The match itself was fine as Ziggler gets a win, although given that he appears to be heading to a feud with Rusev that the Bulgarian Brute has to win to keep his credibility, it’s not going to help him too much, but King Barrett should be treating like a King as winning matches rather than jobbing clean in meaningless five minute matches.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING:

The 411:
This show was pretty much the definition of the average episode of Smackdown. It had the usual opening promo that didn’t really need to take place, nobody really said anything, and just set up the main event for the show. It had a decent match involving the guys in the midcard but ended with someone losing cleanly for no reason at all. It had a decent tag team match. There was at least one match that was okay but instantly forgettable. Someone said some things backstage. And the main event was a good match but ended with some kind of interference protecting the loser. And nothing really changes or means anything.

Dean Ambrose did pick up a much needed big victory in the main event against Bray Wyatt, who appears to be once again floundering around and doing nothing, but he did get an assist from Roman Reigns who helped him to drive Seth Rollins away and then hit the superman punch to Bray. The match was reasonably good but the fact that Bray lost for the first time on TV should have felt more of a bigger deal than it was, and the contest between Bray and Dean felt a bit like a throw away match when it should be the kind of match that can main event PPVs.

Dolph Ziggler and King Barrett also had a decent match but as usual, Barrett ended up losing clean, which has become a bit of a running joke that he gets a push but loses every match. I don’t really see what the point of bringing back the KOTR for Barrett to win was if he is going to be treated like this, while Ziggler appears to be getting another push that won’t really go anywhere if he is to run into Rusev next, as Rusev cannot lose his next feud if they want him to remain relevant.

The rest of the show was a bit of a push for the Elimination Chamber with Paige and Naomi talking about their Divas title match, only for the champion Nikki Bella to lay them both out, Ryback saying he will run through everyone in the IC title match, and there being a pretty good four way tag team match as well to promote the tag team Elimination Chamber match.

Again though, the show just felt as if it was just there, with nothing really happening that meant anything.

Show Rating: 7.0

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 992nd edition is over…

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