wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s WWE Smackdown New Year’s Revolution 2024 Review
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...WWE Smackdown New Year’s Revolution
January 5th, 2023 | Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia
Even when they miss, I’m all for special editions of weekly TV shows. I love when AEW and NXT do them and am so glad to see them come to Raw and Smackdown.
US Title #1 Contender’s Tournament Finals: Kevin Owens vs. Santos Escobar
This tournament has been pretty good so far. Logan Paul joined commentary for this and was pretty good throughout, dissing his opponents at every turn. My only gripe with this match on paper is that the outcome is pretty obvious. They aren’t going to book Santos vs. Logan as a heel/heel matchup. As soon as the bell rang, Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro arrived to take out Angel and Humberto, leaving this to a 1-on-1 affair. We got a commercial break pretty quickly but upon return, Santos targeted Owens’ damaged hand by slamming it against the steel steps and on the apron. That allowed him to hold serve through a second commercial until KO delivered a superkick and followed with a Swanton Bomb off the apron. The cut to Logan’s reaction to that move was pretty great. That triggered a strong closing sequence including some cool Popup Powerbomb spots capped by Owens winning with a Stunner in 16:53. I loved that this had no shenanigans. Just two great wrestlers putting on a very good opening contest. [***½]
Logan Paul got on the mic to diss Kevin Owens, the Canucks, and Canada while putting over his reign as impressive despite no defenses. Owens shut him up with a right hand.
Backstage, Austin Theory and Grayson Waller helped check on Logan Paul. Cameron Grimes showed up to laugh and got into a showing match. They took a page out of the AEW playbook by setting something up with a random backstage encounter.
In the ring, Bobby Lashley was with the Street Profits. He said 2023 was rough for him until he linked up with the Profits. They want the Tag Titles and Lashley said he’s going to enter the Royal Rumble to make 2024 a big improvement. They were interrupted by Karrion Kross and a now brunette Scarlett. Then Paul Ellering stepped out from behind them as the Authors of Pain returned and jumped the trio in the ring. So a new stable has formed and while Kross/Scarlett remain uninteresting to me, I always thought AOP was a damn good powerhouse tag team.
WWE Women’s Championship: IYO SKY [c] vs. Michin
They’ve met in NXT on 10/2/19 (***½) and later that year in a War Games Advantage Ladder Match (***¾). Some good action to kick this off with Michin delivering a top suicida heading into a commercial break. When this returned, she remained in control by using her strength. That included a gutwrench suplex and a powerbomb that they seemingly flubbed but came off kind of looking like IYO managed to slip free or partially block it. IYO turned things around before they began trading bigger spots like German and Dragon suplexes. The biggest moment came when Michin blocked a super rana and hit an avalanche Styles Clash but was too close to the ropes so IYO got her hand on the rope to break the pin. Very happy that wasn’t a kick out. IYO rolled outside and Michin tried another tope suicida but missed. Her crash led to some knee strikes and Over the Moonsault ended this in 10:20. Two for two in good matches tonight. Just quality action even if there wasn’t a lot of drama here. [***¼]
Paul Heyman was asked about The Rock’s words on Monday. He said Rock just wanted to go viral like everyone else who calls out Roman Reigns. He even mentioned an OG Heyman Guy, CM Punk, being back but says he upgraded from friend to advocate to wise man and that Roman will smash whoever wins tonight.
Backstage, Damage CTRL celebrated as Bayley said her vision is coming true and the Tag Team Titles are next for the Kabuki Warriors. When Dakota mentioned Bayley winning the Royal Rumble, Bianca Belair interrupted to say she’ll win the Rumble and beat Bayley next week as a bonus.
Butch and Tyler Bate vs. Pretty Deadly
Certainly didn’t have a British Strong Style reunion on my New Year’s card but I love it. Let them crush it in the tag division and remind the world that these are two of the best wrestlers on the planet. They started hot and showed off the chemistry that made them a strong team on the indies. However, during the break Pretty Deadly took over by isolating Butch. He made the mild tag to Bate who got to showcase why he’s such an explosive competitor. A glaring issue for this match was that the Vancouver crowd had no clue who Tyer Bate was and barely reacted to his stuff at first. The pops got a bit better with more offense. The rebounder lariat/German suplex combo was cool. They fought off Pretty Deadly and hit a tandem Tyler Driver ’97 to win in 7:52. A good tag here that did the job of showing off Bate. I’m all for this team. [***]
Ashante Thee Adonis spoke with Nick Aldis about wanting to earn his place on Smackdown. Aldis believes in him and says he’ll have an opportunity coming up.
NEXT WEEK!
- Bayley vs. Bianca Belair
- Cameron Grimes vs. Grayson Waller
- Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro vs. Angel and Humberto
#1 Contender’s Match: AJ Styles vs. LA Knight vs. Randy Orton
Winner gets Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble. I’ve been critical in the past of Knight in the ring but this was the ideal setting for him. Put him in there with two great veterans and the fact that there are three guys meant things could move along nicely and nothing ever got tired. They fought in and out of the ring, with Orton dropped Knight on the announce table early on. As this progressed, each guy had an opening to win but was often cut off by the third man. AJ Styles has had some lackluster years but the fact that he can still do things like a springboard 450 splash as smoothly as he does at 46 is wild. The closing stretch here was strong and I bit on the near fall where AJ’s Phenomenal Forearm was countered into a sick RKO. That was a great close call but Knight pulled the referee out of the ring (again, thankfully that wasn’t a kick out just for the sake of it). With all three men battered, Roman Reigns’ music hit as he came out with the Bloodline to attack his potential challengers. They took them all out and Roman talked trash the entire way as the crowd booed. That means we’ve got a no contest in about 19:40. Very good stuff. [***½]
Post-match, Nick Aldis, who was at ringside, told Paul Heyman to inform Roman Reigns that after he’s done celebrating, he has a Fatal-Four Way at Royal Rumble with all three men. I like Aldis as GM. He’s kind of a “take no BS” character which is refreshing.
