This week's Smackdown.

[BestWrestlingOpinions]

This might not be popular, because I know most people don't even watch Smackdown anymore for the obvious reason that it is unwatchable, but this week, I dare say it was really good and was the best I have seen in I can't remember how long.

The show opened with Jey Uso facing off Eric Rowan in a rather quick match. Eric picked up the victory, which was pretty much needed in order for the to get a tag title shot at MitB.

Afterwards, the Shield came out. Dean cuts a really good promo (again), Roman pretty much repeats what he said on Raw, and HHH on the titantron makes two matches.

Roman Reigns vs Wade Barrett. FINALLY. A match between YOUR CHAMPION and an UP AND COMING GUY. It wasn't the match of the year, but it had a great dynamic and uncertainty of who would win. 3MB cost Barrett the match by DQ but Reigns afterwards destroyed the entire 3MB. That's how you make someone look strong.

After the random comedy segments, we get to the main event. Ambrose vs Wyatt for a slot in the MitB match. Simply the dynamic alone makes this match amazing. Both men worked really well in the ring and was finally a match that people could get excited on a weekly episode.

Why can't the WWE produce some quality product for Smackdown? I know that Raw is the flagship show, and the main stuff should be running there and I'm ok with that and it is pretty reasonable, but not to the point of making SD unwatchable. This week, they made some quality matches, progressed the storylines a little and overall had meaning and excitement to most of its segments. It didn't require so much either, just some creativity and the Shield to cut a promo.

 

[FickMoley]

SD was excellent again this week. SD seems to be transforming from a miserable recap show w/ dark match-worthy matchups into the role that Main Event on ION TV used to fill. I hope it will permanently become home to long, interesting matches and more nuanced commentary for actual fans.

I've grown to hate 3 hour long RAWs, with the 25 minute promos and the NFL style ad breaks. RAW is historically the show that advances stotylines, but who cares? Excepting the Wyatts & Shield, WWE is in the creative latrine right now.

I can watch Cesaro & Sheamus have a 20 minute SD bout with one commercial break, where neither speaks and Heyman cuts a 30 second promo about Undertaker & Cesaro winning the first AtGMBR. Commentary calls moves & mentions title/partnership histories.
Or I can watch Sheamus deliver a painfully corny/repetitive Titantron promo on RAW, ad break through his entrance, cut to Heyman's 30 second promo delivered 4 times in a row, then a 5 min match with bad camera angles sandwiched around another ad.

 

[Hillali2]

Funnily enough, I'm actually watching it right now and that's exactly what I was thinking. It has been an excellent show this week. The Wyatt's, the shield, the uso's, cesaro, bad news Barrett have all had a great show. There actually having to build stars properly now. It has felt like the first time in a long time that they haven't heavily edited the show in terms of the crowd reaction/noise. Also that bray Wyatt entrance was visually stunning.

 

[mcfly2012]

Smackdown will never be the same again since the days of edge and Benoit and Eddie and jericho and jbl and rey and of the sort in the 2000s. When wrestling was awesome and miles better than raw. So you got a decent smackdown after many a long time. Don't mean jack shit. Raw in recent times ain't that better either. Or should I say WWE in general.

 

[BestWrestlingOpinions]

Smackdown will never be the same again since the days of edge and Benoit and Eddie and jericho and jbl and rey and of the sort in the 2000s. When wrestling was awesome and miles better than raw. So you got a decent smackdown after many a long time. Don't mean jack shit. Raw in recent times ain't that better either. Or should I say WWE in general.

You are probably right. Next week, we will go back to the random shit SD, with the super heavily altered crowd reactions, random matches with random commentary etc.

The point I tried to make is that even if it is a B, maybe even a C-quality show, there are so many ways to make it bearable to watch, or even enjoyable, just like this week's. Even as irrelevant as it is, they can still make it fun, but doing the small things like they did this week.

 

[Brushfire]

Friday was one of the very few times that I actually saw the card prior to watching the show and it made me immediately excited for it, something that doesn't happen too often with SmackDown these days. It was honestly a really good show, and seeing matches like BnB v Reigns, Cesaro v Sheamus, and Wyatt v Ambrose was really refreshing. All good matches and well worked too.

Like others have suggested I'm sure it won't be too long before it goes back to being so much more randomly booked but I'll be happy if there are more shows like this weeks.