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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Jack McGee
Smackdown 12.22.15
* Tag Team Title Match: Champions New Day defeated Lucha Dragons @ 12:55 via pin
* The Wyatts defeated The Dudleyz, The Ryback and Kane @ 16:10 via pin
* Rusev and Del Rio defeated The Usos @ 10:30 via pin
* Titus O’Neil and Neville defeated The Ascension @ 3:00 via pin
* Non-Title Match: Charlotte defeated Brie Bella @ 3:32 via submission
* IC Title Match: Champion Dean Ambrose defeated Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler @ 13:30 via pin

THE Right:
Tag Team Title Match: No bullshit 20-minute promos to start the show this week, as we went straight to action with the tag title match. These two teams have worked a lot, with the Dragons picking up several (three I believe) wins over the champions in recent weeks, setting up the title match. They got time to have a good match to kick off the show, they work well together and overall have found a good formula that comes off as easy. The only real issue was Sin Cara about spiking himself on a dive; that could have been really bad. One other thing I really liked was that commentary really seemed to be working hard to put over Kalisto for the first time. This was a good match with a slightly predictable, but good ending; the right way to kick off the show overall. Title changes are all in the timing, and I know that many feared that WWE would pull the trigger here just because it was a live show. Thankfully they didn’t, because New Day not only rocks, but they are also the right guys to hold the titles right now.

IC Title Match: The real focus of the show was the IC Title match between Ambrose, Owens and Ziggler. The match was hyped throughout the show, with interviews from all three as well as some video, showing the history between the three over the last few weeks. The match was basically what I had hoped for, they worked a great pace and a physical and intense style that fit the built to the match. I felt that the timing, as far as match length was about perfect to play into the pacing and style and in the end this was a great TV match. I am not a big ratings gut, but I’d go about **** for it. This was a great showcase for all three men and the IC Title. As I mentioned above, it is all about timing for title changes, and I am glad that they didn’t pull one here as well. It was not the time, Ambrose just got running and Owens’ run came to an end too soon. The title needs stability, and these three men are the right foundation to get the division back to where it needs to be. Hopefully they go the Daniel Bryan plan here and have the IC Title go back to its roots as the worker’s title and feature it on Smackdown once the new year begins and the show gets a reported new identity.

puRgatoRy:
Rusev and Del Rio defeated The Usos: in what worked as a great follow up to Raw, where the league of Nations attacked and laid out he Usos prior to Ambrose’s main event match with Sheamus, the Usos looked to gain some revenge against Rusev and Del Rio. I greatly appreciated the follow up, it was simple and made sense; unfortunately the match fell completely flat. I have no issues with the League of Nations sing the numbers game to steal a victory, they are heels, it makes sense and they don’t appear to be idiots that always get out smarted. Unfortunately, while the creative made complete sense, the match completely under whelmed. This came off as any other id-card match without an issue, there was no heat, there was no energy and there was no sense that there was an issue between the teams. The set up was there, but I came away disappointed by the match.

Titus O’Neil and Neville defeated The Ascension to Save Christmas: The holiday stuff was contained to these guys, along with Stardust and Santino. Considering that they kept it to a minimum and didn’t really hit you over the head with it, combined with the fact that I generally enjoy Santino and chuckled a few times, I couldn’t hate on this. I hope that Santino is brought back from time to time like he was this week, while I hate too much comedy in wrestling, I do not mind it on occasion and it fit into a holiday show. The match was not all that good, and pretty forgettable, but it was fine for a holiday show.

Charlotte defeated Brie Bella and Gave No Fucks About Becky Lynch: There wasn’t much to the match here, it wasn’t bad, but what was there was short and felt completely rushed. Much like last week’s Bella vs. Lynch match, it felt as if they were given too much content for the time frame allotted for the match. That’s an agenting issue, and one that needs fixed because it’s a trend. But the good news is, much like the match previously referenced, the angle they are working came across well. Last week as all about Lynch wanting to prove that she can win and lose on her own, and not wanting to cheat or more importantly, have people cheat for her. This week, as Lynch was at ringside, Team BAD came to the ring, in Christmas sweaters, and spilled eggnog all over her. They then attacked, but Charlotte didn’t care, and stayed in the ring, applied the figure eight, and won the match. But the time it was over, the beating was complete and she ended up laughing at her friend. Commentary even did a good job noting that this was a NON-TITLE match and that Charlotte could have helped her friend without endangering her title.

THE wRong:
The Wyatts defeated The Dudleyz, The Ryback and Kane: This was basically the same match as they had on Raw, with Ryback substituting for Dreamer. On one hand I am very glad to see the Wyatts picking up wins and actually getting something that feels like momentum. With that being said, the main issues I have are as follows. First of all, it feels like we’re simply doing variations on a theme; running essentially the same match over and over And over again. The outcomes are appreciated, you’re using the established names to get the Wyatts back on track, but I need some variety. But if I can’t have variety, I’ll settle for really good wrestling, unfortunately outside of the TLC rematch on Raw, the really good extreme rules match, these outings have been lethargic and difficult to get into. Quite frankly, it bored the piss out of me. The Wyatts winning is great, I want to stress that, but overall not enough to even pull this into Purgatory this week.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

The 411:
Most holiday editions of Smackdown are pretty shit, filled with clichéd holiday filler and bullshit matches. That was kept to a minimum, with good opener and great main event match that were very much worth your time. Outside of the repeat eight-man tag, everything was either fine or advanced something, so overall I felt the show was a good one.

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 1051st edition is over…

Retire now dude, it’s all down hill from here…