wrestling / Columns

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

April 25, 2017 | Posted by Dylan Diot
AJ Styles Smackdown Image Credit: WWE

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 4.18.17
– #1 Contender’s Match- Jinder Mahal d. Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan, Mojo Rawley, Luke Harper & Sami Zayn [***1/4]
– Charlotte d. Naomi [**]
– Primo & Epico d. American Alpha [*1/2]
– Kevin Owens d. Gary Candy [SQUASH]
– AJ Styles d. Baron Corbin by Count-Out [***]


THE Right:
Baron Corbin vs. AJ Stylesin Owens was on commentary for the match following his open challenge win. Styles tried to go right on the attack but Corbin cut him off at every opportunity, culminating with him dropping Styles onto the apron to gain total control. He sent Styles sternum first into the post and began to work over the midsection but he missed a charge into the corner to give Styles an opening to come back. Styles caught Corbin with the Pele followed by a basement forearm for a near fall. He rolled Corbin into the Calf Crusher but Corbin fought his way to the ropes. Corbin got a big near fall off of Deep Six and he charged at Styles but got low bridged to the floor. Styles attempted to hit the Styles Clash on the floor but Corbin backdropped Styles onto Owens to block. Styles caught Corbin with a forearm that knocking Corbin into the front row and he beat the ten count back in the ring to gain a count-out victory. I thought this was a solid main event that really picked up in the final few minutes. I have mixed feelings on the finish. On one hand, it was one the better ways to get to a count-out result but at the same time ending on a count-out gave a flat finish to what was already a weird show. It they follow up with a rematch with a definitive winner next week, then I’m totally fine with the finish, so we will wait and see.

puRgatoRy:
Charlotte vs. Naomi: Charlotte opened the show cutting a promo about how it was ridiculous that wasn’t immediately granted a championship opportunity against Naomi despite being Smackdown’s biggest acquisition. Naomi said she wasn’t scared and attacked Charlotte. Shane McMahon made a non-title match for later in the show, with Charlotte becoming #1 contender with a win. Charlotte dominated the majority of the match, keeping Naomi grounded and tossing her around the ring while maintaining the head scissors. Charlotte continued to wear Naomi down with a Dragon Sleeper but Naomi fought back and caught Charlotte with an ugly wheelbarrow bulldog. She hit a cross body off the top for a near fall and attempted the Rear View but Charlotte blocked and hit Natural Selection for the win. This was the natural direction for Charlotte once she joined the show, as she should immediately be pushed as the face of the division. It wasn’t her best night though, as her show opening promo was pretty weak and the match with Naomi didn’t light the world on fire or anything. It was pretty ugly early on and just never got into a second gear. Still, I liked the layout of the match and it was a great idea to give Charlotte such a dominating performance in their first outing. I’m sure next week they’ll have a much better match than they did here.

Six Pack Challenge #1 Contender’s Match: The match started as a huge brawl and Harper managed to take control, hitting a big boot on Ziggler for a near fall. Everyone in the match hit one of their signature moves in a big sequence and Harper laid out everyone on the floor with a series of suicide dives. Rowan followed that up by power bombing Ziggler onto the pile on the floor. Mojo then had his turn to clean house but Jinder dumped him to the floor to cut him off. Zayn takes out everyone in the match and targeted Mahal, setting up for the Helluva Kick but the Bollywood Boys grabbed his legs to stop him, allowing Mahal to hit the Cobra Slam for the stunning victory. He cut a promo after the match complaining about the lack of diversity and acceptance from the fans but they will except him as the future WWE Champion. I’ll start by talking about the match first. This was a really fun and chaotic match, with lots of big spots and fun sequences that were led by great performances from Luke Harper and Sami Zayn. Now, onto the booking and the Jinder Mahal victory. This match made no sense in the first place. The only guy in the match that had any argument being put in a #1 Contender position was Mojo Rawley based on everyone’s wins and losses over the past few weeks. This essentially set up a placeholder contender that I don’t think people were going to accept as a serious threat to Orton regardless of who they chose to win this. Now, the mindset y for Mahal winning and how they went about it is a good idea in theory but this was not the time to do it. Mahal has been a jobber since his return to WWE last year, at the very least they should have had him go a on a surprising run of victories on Raw to quietly build him up and then give him this big, significant win. Just throwing him into the title picture isn’t going to work, no one is going buy into him as a main event or legitimate championship contender and even if they book him to beat Orton at Backlash, it won’t change things. They certainly needed to elevate guys but hot shotting Mahal to a title shot doesn’t achieve the goal. I hope for the best for Mahal and the Bollywood Boys as a unit but this push is destined for failure.

Kevin Owens Face of America Challenge: Kevin Owens launched his first Face of America challenge, where he would take on local Americans. His first opponent was Gary Candy from Louisville, and Owens proceeded to destroy him, quickly hitting the Pop-Up Powerbomb for the win. After the match, he declared that he will remain the face of America and that Chris Jericho or AJ Styles won’t be able to stop him. This is a fine little segment, it’s going to be something for Owens’ to do until his match with Chris Jericho in two weeks is finished and they can focus on his future match with Styles. Owens’ will make this segment entertaining as hell on a weekly basis and hope he elevates it into one of the must see segments on Smackdown going forward, it has potential.

THE wRong:
Primo & Epico vs. American AlphaAmerican Alpha controlled Primo in the early going but Epico distracted Gable, allowing Primo to send him shoulder first into the post. Primo & Epico beat down Gable for a little bit until Gable caught Epico with the hanging cross arm breaker, giving him an opening to tag Jordan who cleaned house. After a hot run, Primo caught Jordan with an enzuigiri, allowing Epico to roll him up for the win. This was as uninspiring and vanilla a match as it gets. This followed the pattern of every American Alpha match that we have seen for months and had no excitement to it what so ever. This did nothing for Primo & Epico and the tag division continues to be beyond dead. Right now they really need the New Day to bring things up a level because trying to give Primo & Epico yet another chance at a push isn’t going to turn things around right now for the division.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

The 1147h edition is over…

article topics :

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