Leave it to WWE to use a holiday edition of Friday Night SmackDown to advance current stories while setting up multiple future programs. We've been decrying the promotion for failing to make this show "must see" and then they choose Halloween night to do just that.
Here's what they gave us:
Divas Battle Royal: We finally have a number one contender to the Divas championship that isn't named "Paige" or "AJ Lee" and her name is Nikki Bella. A battle royal is as good a way to get there as any and it also pushed the Paige-Alicia Fox program. AJ got us kickstarted by remarking that "it's nice Nikki actually earned something for once", and we're off to the races. As far as Divas battle royal's go, this was okay.
Rusev vs. Great Khali: I don't know about you but now that I've seen Rusev walk right through a KHALI DEATH CHOP, I know he's a real force to be reckoned with. A quick squash to continue his recent run as a giant killer set him up nicely to call out Sheamus, who holds the U.S. title, because he wants to take that very title back to Russian to give to Vladimir Putin. Considering how over Rusev is and how Sheamus is the perfect wrestler to give him the best damn hoss match you'll ever see, this is the perfect feud to give meaning to the U.S. title after years of irrelevance. Slam dunk on this one, though early indications are that Sheamus will assume the role of Big Show as the babyface who actually acts like a heel, as he did last night when he attempted to Brogue Kick Rusev while he was helping Lana out of the ring and, in turn, out of the line of fire.
Los Matadores vs. Gold & Stardust: WWE had to know it couldn't ride the Uso train forever, so they dug deep into the tag team division to find the rarely used Los Matadores. I'm not sure I agree with the decision here -- I would rather Slater Gator get a real crack at the crown -- but at least they're trying something new. Also, El Torito is a real talent who deserves a place to shine. Perhaps he'll get the chance here.
Miz TV with Mark Henry: Damien Mizdow was placed on the backburner for once, and, for once, it was the right call. Much to my great surprise, The Miz was booked like he was Michael Cole playing a probing journalist, digging deeper to ask Henry the relevant questions that gave us the deeper backstory behind his turning heel against Big Show on Raw this past week. It wasn't about hard tagging; it was about Show's selfishly being motivated to upstage him, up to and including using America as a front to do so in matches with Rusev. That's all bullshit, of course, but it's a damn good story for Henry's purposes. It's good to see him back in his heel skin. It suits him so well.
Ryback vs. Heath Slater: The Rebuilding Ryback Tour continues with a quick win over Slater that featured THE BIG GUY retaining his wacky sense of humor. That's a good thing, too, considering it is what endears us to him most.
Corporate Kane vs. Dolph Ziggler: Having Ziggler score a clean win over Kane on Raw was the set up for this and they continued working the proper arc. Dolph is a scrappy underdog who looked strong on Raw in a victory he earned and he looked strong here on SmackDown in a loss he didn't deserve. He was better, and The Authority knew it, so they had him square off with Kane with Seth Rollins, Joey Mercury, and Jamie Noble at ringside. It's odd to think of Ziggler getting treated like a main player, but that's what he was here. They stacked the deck and he lost, and then they sent a message that it would be a bad idea to align yourself with John Cena for the upcoming war at Survivor Series. This all worked really well.
Bray Wyatt's message: This is the second Wyatt promo since his attack on Dean Ambrose and so we still don't know anything outside of Bray's belief that Dean is just like he is and he wants to play with his mind. Here, he also mentioned that he knows Ambrose has committed many sins and just because the fans now love him doesn't mean they've washed away. Also, "she still cries for you", which is probably not something we're ever going to learn the meaning to if past Wyatt programs have taught us anything.
Cesaro vs. Dean Ambrose: Just a simple, fun gimmick main event match in the spirit of the holiday. It was perfect for these two because Cesaro is a hell of a brawler and Ambrose can work with props in a way that doesn't destroy his character and may actually enhance it. This is a man who put a witch's broom between his legs and did a flying elbow off the posts through Cesaro on a table.
Put simply, this was a good show.
Grade: B
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?