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 12.31.15
– Kalisto and The Dudley Boyz defeated New Day @ 11:08 via pin
– Tyler Breeze defeated Goldust @ 3:25 via pin
– Luke Harper and Braun Strowman defeated The Usos @ 6:34 via submission
– Brie Bella and Alicia Fox defeated Tamina and Naomi @ 3:36 via pin
– Dolph Ziggler defeated Bo Dallas @ 4:20 via pin
– Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose defeated Sheamus and Kevin Owens @ 11:25 via DQ

THE Right:
New Day vs. Dudley Dragons: Smackdown kicked off with The New Day coming to the ring for some interview time. They spoke about injuring Sin Cara, and that they have no resolutions because they are so great, explaining that the WWE Universe needed to have resolutions to recognize their greatness. This was the usual fun from these guys, which led to the Dragons coming out and challenging them to a match. It was all a trap as Kalisto revealed that the Dudleyz would be his partners to challenge all three members of New Day. From there we had one of the two good matches on the show, the Dudleyz had previously worked with New Day, and along with Kalisto delivered a fun opening match. The good guys won the day, and then put Woods through a table to celebrate the end of 2015. I also felt that they really worked on commentary to put over Kalisto as an important player, which was refreshing to hear. This was an enjoyable way to kick off the show, a fun interview leading directly to a fun match.

Champions vs. Challengers: I really enjoyed the main event of this week’s show, as it was a really simple champions vs. their challengers match. Both sets of champions and challengers work well together, and he match had a nice pace to it and good energy overall. I felt that this was easily the best match on the show, and delivered overall. The DQ was perfectly fine in this case, due to the fact that Sheamus and Reigns were set to face on Monday, protecting all involved, while giving us some good action. The post match was also fun, with a good and energetic brawl, where the heroes stood tall to close out the year. The Ambrose/Reigns relationship works very well, and while I get that not everyone liked Reigns, he’s done well overall in the top spot.

puRgatoRy:
Luke Harper and Braun Strowman defeated The Usos: This was a solid mid-card tag match, as WWE stays the course in rehabilitating the Wyatt Family. Strowman’s stuff was still kept to a minimum, allowing Harper to carry the load and work with the Usos, which he usually does very well. Unfortunately while this was solid, it lacked any real excitement. It was a match, it was fine, but it felt like they were largely going through the motions. I had hoped for more to be honest with you, I love the Usos and think in the past that they have been a really fun team, but they have not really impressed since their return. I am not sure what’s missing with them, but they are lacking something. Hopefully they get their groove back and soon.

Brie Bella and Alicia Fox defeated Tamina and Naomi: This was a short, but solidly worked ladies tag match. There honestly wasn’t much to it, what they did was largely fine, but it was just there with no real rhyme or reason. This simply feels like more women’s tag matches for the sake of having women’s tag matches. Also, Nikki Bella had her big run, and by proxy, so did Brie and Fox. Brie and Fox had been completely downplayed, doing the honors, since Nikki’s disappearing act (I know, time off for injury, but they have given us no real reason on TV). Brie and Fox winning made little sense to me, since YEAM Bad has been continually picking up smaller victories and has positioned themselves as more important now that team Bella has downgraded. This felt like 50-50 booking here, like they were afraid to continue on with the Team BAD momentum.

Dolph Ziggler defeated Bo Dallas: This was a match set up by Bo Dallas’ New Year’s Eve shenanigans. You knew that they would do something holiday related and Bo was the guy. His backstage altercation led to a confrontation and then match with Ziggler. The match was a solid piece of business, although I wished that Dallas would go to that more loose cannon side ha had shown. I feel that when he does that, he becomes a more interesting character. This was really about getting Ziggler a rehab victory, and it accomplished that goal. It was fine.

THE wRong:
NOTHING

THE Ridiculous:
Tyler Breeze defeats Goldust – Loses Summer Rae: The booking of Tyler Breeze since his main roster debut has been completely half assed. Trust me, I fully understand that not everyone will main event and that not everyone will be “the guy, brother!” but when you look at his booking, it was either done with no official planning or vision, it someone that needs help cutting their meat at dinner. Breeze got a win in a completely rushed match with Goldust, which given some time I felt would have been quite good, but at least Breeze won. But then, then they did the Summer Rae break up angle. On Smackdown. On New Year’s Eve. With NO REAL REASONING BEHIND IT. Like much of the roster they have no clue what to do with Breeze. It’s such a shame, Breeze has been so wasted, and he never should have been called up if this is how they were going to book him.

The 411:
Watch the opener and the main event, the rest wasn’t horrible, but you can skip it and feel better about yourself and the time you saved. Let’s hope that those rumors of big changes with the move to USA are true.

Show Rating: 6.0

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 1053rd edition is over…