wrestling / Columns
Wrestling’s 4Rs: The Right, Wrong and Ridiculous of WWE Smackdown
Loading...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 12.13.16:
– Carmella d. Natalya **
– The Hype Bros win a #1 Contenders Tag Team Battle Royal **1/2
– WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship- Becky Lynch d Alexa Bliss (c) by Count-Out *
– #1 Contender Elimination Match- Dolph Ziggler d. Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper & The Miz ***1/4
THE Right:
Miz TV with AJ Styles: SmackDown opened with a MizTV segment with. WWE World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles. The two men had some playful banter, mocking James Ellsworth for not being able to challenge Styles due to illness and bragging about their various accomplishments. Styles was questioned about what was left for him as he beat everyone at the top of SmackDown but Miz claimed that his legendary run at Intercontinental Champion put him above Styles’ level and declared his desire to challenge Styles. Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler interrupted, setting off a brawl between the three men, which Ambrose got the better of. Then the lights went off and Luke Harper laid out Ambrose with a discus lariat. This all led to Shane McMahon announcing a #1 Contenders Elimination match for the main event with the winner challenging Styles on the 12/27 edition of Smackdown. This was a fun and effective opening segment. The back and forth between Styles and Miz was entertaining and the proceeding brawl put over the plethora of challengers that Styles could be facing. It was an easy set up for the main event and overall it was harmless fun.
#1 Contenders Tag Team Battle Royal: I’ve made it known over the past few weeks that I have not be thrilled with the booking and direction of the majority of the tag division outside of American Alpha. Tonight’s segment was the best in some time for the division, as the match actually went out of its way to get particular members of the bottom of the division teams to shine. The first half of the match was typical battle royal brawling but as the match progressed, they told good underdog stories with the likes of Heath Slater and Zack Ryder. Konnor of the Ascension looked like a beast during the match, tossing guys left and right in what was easily his best in-ring performance of his entire main roster run. The finish saw Zack Ryder survive a two on one onslaught against Konnor and Tyler Breeze and he was able to counter a powerbomb into a hurricanrana to bring Konnor to the floor to secure the win. It was a strong follow up to the Hype Bros tag win from last week and it’s a shame that Ryder got hurt on the finish, as the past two weeks actually have helped make them look more like a credible threat to the Wyatts and at the very least would have made for a fun tag match.
puRgatoRy:
Carmella vs. Natalya: Following up from last week, Natalya faced Carmella with Nikki Bella on commentary. Before the match, Natalya pleaded her innocence to Nikki and throughout the match made it a point to repeated plead to Nikki, ultimately costing her the match when Carmella caught her in a small package for the victory. The match itself was decent as Natalya worked with real intensity and had the intent of hurting Carmella for all the rumors she started which was a nice touch. If they had Natalya just destroy Carmella out of anger, this would have been a home run segment. Instead, they made Natalya look like a complete idiot as per usual, caring more about getting Nikki to believe her than the task at hand and having that cost her a much needed win. The who attacked Nikki story is doing nothing for me and if it’s revealed it was Natalya then having her lose in this fashion looks all the more stupid.
#1 Contender Elimination Match- Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz vs. Luke Harper: The opening portion of the main event was built around Harper looking like a beast, as he dominated Ambrose and Ziggler while Miz tried to avoid him like the plague. Miz used every opportunity when Harper wasn’t around to go after Ziggler but his opportunistic approach got the better of him when Ambrose caught him with a small package for his elimination. After a bit of back and forth between the three remaining competitors, Ziggler and Ambrose teamed together for a super kick/Dirty Deeds combo to eliminate Harper. Ziggler and Ambrose had a hot final stretch, with both men acting out of desperation to put the other away. The Miz still lurked at ringside and tried to attack Ziggler but Ambrose took him out with a suicide dive. Back in the ring, Ziggler caught Ambrose with a super kick to win and become the #1 Contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. This was really fun but it was missing a certain spark to it. The sequences in the match weren’t original or creative. It the basic get someone out of the ring so the others can engage formula so while the action was solid, it lacked imagination. The final Ambrose/Ziggler segment had good heat and a couple of hot near falls but the Miz interference really seemed unnecessary and took away from Ziggler’s win, so right now he doesn’t look too strong heading into his big championship opportunity in two weeks. I just feel like this could have been even better and they’ve could’ve come up with a more creative or stronger finish to give Ziggler a bigger rub for his upcoming match with Styles.
THE wRong:
Alexa Bliss Runs Her Mouth/ Bliss vs. Becky Lynch: Alexa Bliss came out for a match against a jobber but she ordered the bell not to be rung. She says unlike everyone else in the holiday spirit, she doesn’t do charity cases and attacks the jobber, dumping her to the floor. This brings out Becky Lynch who apologizes to Bliss for challenging her last week when she wasn’t even in her wrestling gear. However, they both had their gear on and she once again challenged Bliss. Bliss accepted the challenge but not for tonight and tried to bail but Shane McMahon came out and ordered an immediate championship match. The match was probably the worst they had together to date, as it mostly involved Bliss repeatedly fleeing every time Lynch attempted the Disarmer and then faking a knee injury after some brawling on the floor to get counted out. They brawl some more after the match and it ended with, shockingly, Bliss bailing for good once Lynch got the better of her again. They packed WAY too much into this segment and it was kind of a mess. Bliss could have used a squash win to build up her credibility a bit and then decide to bail on a rematch with Lynch after an easy victory. Instead, we got a really bad match with tons of stalling and uninspired brawling and coming out of this I’m ready for this feud to end, as I have no desire to these two meet into another match.
THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING
