WWE Friday Night SmackDown hit the SyFy airwaves last night (Jan. 24, 2014) from Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a taped show featuring the go home edition to the Royal Rumble pay-per-view (PPV) scheduled for this Sunday night in Pittsburgh.
Click here to get quick results and the open thread. Let's get right to reactions:
- While the Zeb Colter message still sucks, what with the xenophobia and all that, he's one of the best on the roster in terms of pure entertainment enjoyed by watching him. He's really fun when he's not yapping about border crossing.
- Big Show throwing people is a new spot I greatly enjoy. Antonio Cesaro wasn't quite as good as Brock Lesnar, but not many will be.
- Another Paul Heyman promo that had him doing his usual set up stuff but not really having much to say while doing it. The conscious effort to use terms more commonly associated with UFC, like "stuffing a takedown" is interesting to note.
- I'll admit it: I popped for JBL's line on Brodus Clay when Josh Matthews revealed Clay recently joined the 500-pound bench press club: "Now he can bench half his body weight."
- THIS is how Bad News Barrett always needed to be used. The Miz and Brodus Clay are getting ready to work a match and old Wade shows up to say that to get to the awesome main event, we'll have to sit through one of the worst matches of all time: Miz vs. Clay. He then proceeds to shit all over the match WHILE IT'S HAPPENING. This was the best thing. They even did picture-in-picture just to show us Barrett's shit eating grin as he got to bury the hell out of the two guys in the ring! I loved this.
- Cameron doing the splits on top of AJ Lee as a legitimate offensive maneuver? Love it. AJ going for the pinfall and the referee pointing out the need to get both shoulders down? Do not love it. AJ reacting by doing just that and telling the ref to count while giving him a dirty look? Adore it.
- The Shield in the Royal Rumble makes this Sunday night's PPV a must buy. There are just so many stories to tell, so many awesome possibilities with this collective group of "hungry dogs" as Dean Ambrose referred to them. I'm actually most intrigued by how they're booked in the match.
- It actually made me feel legitimately sad that Curtis Axel pinned Los Matadores. It made me just as happy, though, to watch El Torito splash THE BIG GUY off the top turnbuckle, if only to see Ryback's reaction to it. I feel like the idea to have him be the new loose cannon is a brilliant one, and eagerly anticipate him pulling a gun on someone on USA one of these days.
- CM Punk's promos have been really underwhelming lately. He's better when he's passionate, or at least gives off that impression. He hit that right note towards the end of last night's monologue but he speaks in monotone a little too often for my tastes. When he's not "shooting" or saying something really interesting, it's hard to care.
- Kane, meanwhile, is great because his middle management monotony works well for the role he's playing.
- I'd be okay with Punk never talking about another man's "manhood" again.
- Remember when there was a thought that WWE would push Darren Young after he came out to TMZ and everyone was worried about how he would be treated? Last night served as a reminder that nothing ever came of that. He came out, and was treated no different than he ever was before, save for a babyface turn that wasn't really a babyface turn because the Prime Time Players just sort of started getting cheered. Still, that was a nothing match with the Wyatt Family that felt like a waste of time leading into Bray Wyatt's promo telling us he's going to change the world.
- For the second show in a row, the WWE production crew messed up with Bryan's entrance. Uncharacteristic, and unwelcome. Bryan is a "monster" now? Yeah, okay. Still like Bray's style, namely that he responded to Bryan prompting a "YES" chant from the crowd by smiling and walking with his arms out while shouting "I LIVE FOR THIS". Never a dull moment with this one.
- You hear that, everyone? Kofi Kingston is going to top his elimination saves from the past two years by doing something even more amazing this year: Actually win the match! The chances of that actually happening are about as high as WWE putting the world title on a Diva.
- EMMA!
- The John Cena vs. Randy Orton stuff wasn't worth watching when it aired on Raw, it's certainly not worth watching in a replay on SmackDown. I mean, yeah, promote away, but even the WWE production team couldn't dress this one up to look good.
- The 10-man tag to close the show was actually pretty damn good, as expected. There isn't a soul alive who didn't realize it was just one nice set up for a big impromptu battle royal to break out, though. I don't have a problem with this, necessarily. I like imagining WWE wrestlers backstage are like drunk idiots at a bar when a bar fight breaks out. They see enough people brawling in the ring, they can't help but go out and get involved.
- The best part of it? When CM Punk came out and got his entrance and all that, he went right after Curtis Axel. After punching him once, he bailed to the next guy. The best part? Axel tried to answer back with a punch and Punk no sold it to work someone else. That's a great ending.
This was a decent show, though it could have been better considering it was the go home for the Rumble.
Grade: C+
That's it from me, Cagesiders. Now it's your turn to sound off in the comments section below with all your thoughts on last night's show. How did you like it, if you liked it at all?