Randy Orton vs. Nick Aldis needs to happen at WrestleMania 41. (Photo by Eric Johnson/WWE via Getty Images)
(WWE via Getty Images)
Seattle was not treated to the same quality of shows WWE has put on in past weeks. This, folks, was a frustrating “WWE SmackDown,” and there’s no two ways around it. Hopefully, next week’s shows can get every storyline properly on track.
Please listen to the voices
“WWE SmackDown” started as perfectly as I could have hoped after Nick Aldis took an RKO from Randy Orton last Friday.
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The general manager invited Orton to the ring, promising to remain professional despite the challenge. We got to see an intense Aldis in WWE for the first time. That immediately continued the tease of his WWE in-ring WWE, which is long overdue and something I’ve been wanting since some of his interactions with Cody Rhodes.
Orton arrived and called back to the first RKO on Aldis, giving double his fine money to cover the inevitable second time. That was some fun little depth to a story that is coming together. Aldis didn’t care for it, and he shouldn’t have. Realistically, it’s not like he’s the one who gets Orton’s money, anyway. Instead, Aldis wanted Orton’s respect, which the former WWE Champion stated Aldis already had. Then Orton teased Aldis as his opponent, and even dropped a Mickie James reference to further get under the authority figure’s skin.
Oh, it was glorious. This was the quick build toward a match that Aldis deserves — then the lamest, biggest buzz kill of all time arrived in the form of Solo Sikoa with his dumb hair dye, and yappy sidekick Tama Tonga. This interruption was the stupidest, shoe-horn booking ever. All to get to an LA Knight tag team match at the end of the night. Incredibly piss-poor improv booking here, and I’ll elaborate.
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Orton really might be doing his best work on the microphone right now because he was incensed, passionately delivering every word he hurled at Sikoa and Tonga before calling them into the ring. The Bloodline boys entered and attacked, while Aldis just watched before Knight made the save. I love Knight, but this was such a bummer conclusion to where this opening segment appeared to be headed.
The tag team match was fine, but unfortunately, it only seemed to boost the possibility that Orton won’t take on Aldis as the Kevin Owens replacement at WrestleMania 41. If this “WWE SmackDown” was anything to go by, that will be Sikoa, as he and Orton brawled out of the match and into the crowd, allowing Knight to just hit a quick and easy BFT on Tonga for the win. Jacob Fatu attacked and stood tall to close the show. Whatever. The opportunity was — and hopefully still is — right there to do something really cool.
💩 Burial of the Night
The women’s tag team “division” in WWE has been a joke since its inception. Outside of a few rare exceptions, where real teams have held the titles, the concept has been nothing more than a way to help under-utilized talent get on screen just to bury them or keep big names busy. That’s entirely what the gauntlet contender match was on this “WWE SmackDown.”
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I hoped this would be different when it was announced last week. Then Bayley and the Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria were randomly thrown together, starting this match to embarrass team after team. Admittedly, some teams were like Bayley and Valkyria: Thrown together — because the “division” isn’t a real division. When they were matched with a real team like Pure Fusion Collective, Valkyria won it with a jack-knife roll-up on Shayna Baszler. After that, Maxxine Dupri and Natalya fell victim to a roll-up when Dupri tried to do the Sharpshooter.
Arguably, the most legit team of all three first opponents to Bayley and Valkyria was Kayden Carter and Katana Chance — and they got beaten the quickest. This was ridiculous. Michin and B-Fab, along with The Secret Hervice, took the losses after that. The Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez will defend against Bayley and Valkyria at WrestleMania 41.
This whole time, I couldn’t help but wonder why the Roxanne Perez-Bayely program was abandoned. Overall, the big cluster of a match had some really fun, creative moments. But booking-wise, this was atrocious, and helped the wrestlers who needed it the least. With Valkyria already holding a singles title, there’s no shot that Morgan and Rodriguez get dethroned.
Speaking of Perez…
👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑
The former NXT Champion Perez randomly appeared on “WWE SmackDown” to look for a match, and drew the Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton in the absence of Charlotte Flair. The latter was “sent home for the week” after last week’s segment with Stratton. That, obviously, doesn’t make any sense since it was, you know, last week.
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For anyone unfamiliar with Perez, they’ll find out she’s phenomenal anytime she’s in action on a main roster show. If Stratton is your dance partner, you will only shine further. These two put on a banger, and Stratton feels like she’s (re) leaning into a heel role, which is interesting when you consider where the Flair saga is at. Regardless, she’s at her best with an attitude. A Stratton win was guaranteed, and she got it clean with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever. It was just good, fun wrestling.
If there’s one thing you watch from this “WWE SmackDown,” make sure it’s this match.
After the match, it was our…
🥱Predictability of the Night
Flair was in Seattle, after all! Who could have ever seen that coming?
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Stratton absorbed the beatdown after her win, as Flair tossed her into the barricade and over the announce table. That’s essentially all that happened, so I don’t even think it qualified as our typical overused brawl. The most interesting element of the scene was Wade Barrett getting in the way to stop Flair’s attack. Nothing could possibly develop there, but it was a nice little wrinkle carried over from last week when he was in the mediator role.
After the aforementioned madness of Stratton and Flair’s last interactions on the microphone, it’s safe to assume we won’t get another next week before WrestleMania 41.
👍UP & UP👍
1. Ray Fenix again looked incredible in and out of the ring. Berto was a great opponent, and they had time to work in a fun match that Fenix, of course, won. Hopefully, he can get into something of substance sooner rather than later.
2. WWE put together an awesome video detailing the history of Paul Heyman and CM Punk. These types of videos are always a fun walk down memory lane, and the timing was perfect. I will say that the best friendship chatter is kind of funny. Not that it isn’t true, but whenever I think of Heyman and his best friend, Brock Lesnar is the guy that comes to mind.
3. Evil Naomi hit a home run again with her promo work. I mean, she was wearing razor blades for jewelry. She has just been an incredible heel so far. Jade Cargill was great in the promo too, but she can’t match her rival on the microphone right now.
4. Did Cody Rhodes cut another great promo? Yes. The man doesn’t miss. For this second-to-last “WWE SmackDown” before WrestleMania 41. This time, he did so with all the WWE titles of days past in the ring — except for the Universal title. I guess we’ll just forget that one. It’s probably for the best.
👎DOWN & OUT👎
1. Drew McIntyre attacked Damian Priest before they could have their face-to-face, which surely would have had the same result. He cut a basic heel promo before Priest came back out for them to brawl. Their street fight match at WrestleMania 43 will be fun, but there’s just nothing exciting about this feud.
2. Zelina Vega quickly beat the United States Champion Chelsea Green via countout. Everyone seemed very confused by this, as I was watching it. So, that was weird and bad. That’s been the whole forced feud along with Green’s reign, though. She deserves much, much better.
👑This “WWE SmackDown” was a breezy, quick watch but was largely uneventful as the second-to-last installment before the year’s biggest event. The bad was really bad, and nothing notably good happened outside of Stratton vs. Perez. I give this show a Crown score of: 4/10👑
