WWE Friday Night SmackDown hit the SyFy airwaves last night (Feb. 14, 2014) from Ontario, California, with a taped show featuring all the latest build to the upcoming Elimination Chamber pay-per-view (PPV) this coming Feb. 23 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Click here for full results and the live blog from the show if you missed it. Let's get to reactions. These were written as the show moved along with real time reactions to everything that occurred hour-by-hour.
HOUR ONE
- Have we considered that Roman Reigns oozes the charisma he does in part because of the interaction with his fellow Shield stablemates? That's not to say he won't do the same as a single -- I'm confident he will -- but Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose bring a different feel, one that lends itself well to giving way to a dominant leader. That's without mentioning style during matches. It's impossible not to mix and match when considering their work because they're always together and that lends itself to helping Reigns perception as a burly badass. Again, I think he pulls this off just fine as a singles star but I wonder how much of a difference there will be, if any.
- Can we also recognize how lucky we are to open a SmackDown show with a match like The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, and Christian? The first sound we're greeted with is Bryan's entrance music and the crowd is immediately on its feet and in a good mood. That's a great tone-setter. The fact that a six-man tag featuring awesome characters and even better workers could follow is amazing.
- Daniel Bryan's urgency is the best thing.
- To prove that these matches can somehow stay fresh after all this time, I don't believe we've seen a situation where Bryan hit his suicide dive and was almost immediately followed out by an opponent hitting a suicide dive of his own. It was a great spot in yet another well planned and executed match.
- Roman Reigns only bothering to halfway get out of the ring while celebrating during Ambrose's winning pinfall is the second best thing.
- Zeb Colter lobbying for Jack Swagger was a nice touch for the story they appear to be telling. Also, can we get more segments like this where he isn't just going on about foreigners sneaking across our borders? He's a really diverse performer and should be given time to showcase that in situations other than a promo before a match.
- Cesaro's interview was pitch perfect. They know we aren't currently taking him serious as a contender in the main event, so why not acknowledge it and book around it? That sets up an easy story for the match against Randy Orton later. He needs to win or no one will buy him as a threat to win the title. The match has meaning beyond the original intent, which was just The Authority forcing Orton to run the gauntlet.
- Jobber entrance for a guy booked to win a match to become number one contender to the Intercontinental title? You would think more mind would be paid to stuff like this. Swagger challenging for the title at Elimination Chamber is an interesting match if only because Big E. isn't a guy you're worried will get hurt by Swagger's recklessness.
- I don't know that I've ever wanted something more than Mark Henry doing... well, whatever the hell it is he was going to do when all three of his opponents were on the outside of the ring and he had that gleam in his eye before running the ropes. "What did he think he was going to do," wondered JBL. I really, really wish we could have found out.
- Really, really fun four-way and those are usually incredibly difficult to execute well. You wouldn't think the list of misfits in this match -- Swagger, Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio, and Mark Henry -- would make for such a good match but they put together a really entertaining bout.
- The Bad News Barrett character still isn't being used to its fullest potential but is there much better than the gleeful look of joy he gets on his face while telling us he's got some bad news?
HOUR TWO
- There are two ways of looking at the New Age Outlaws at this point: 1) Two men in their 40s still working an act like this is really sad and kind of pathetic or 2) It must be a lot of fun for two men in their 40s to be able to come out on WWE television and continuing working an act like this. Still not sure where I fall, but tend to lean towards the former especially considering the in-ring abilities aren't there to make up for deficiencies elsewhere.
- Really enjoyed the conversation JBL and Michael Cole had during the eight-man tag match with the Rhodes Brothers and The Usos taking on the Outlaws and Rybaxel that centered around why Curtis Axel hasn't been able to get over. It wasn't said that way, of course, but that was the gist of it. JBL: "He's got all the intangibles, the pedigree, everything, he just hasn't clicked yet". That might as well be Vince McMahon saying, "We paired him with Paul Heyman, gave him a couple wins in the main event, showcased him on TV, and put the Intercontinental title on him yet no one cares about him. I don't get it." I'll help out: He's got everything you could ask for in a wrestler except the one thing a wrestler needs to be successful. Put simply, he cannot connect with a crowd. There is absolutely nothing about Curtis Axel that makes anyone have a strong opinion about Curtis Axel. That's a death sentence in this industry.
- Another good tag match and while there seem to be plenty of break ups on the horizon, that hasn't stopped WWE from booking a lot of multiple person tag matches. I've been saying this forever now it seems but whoever the agent is helping lay these matches out needs a pat on the back, and maybe a raise. They're just so much fun from bell to bell.
- Still loving Randy Orton's insecurity and false bravado. He's so worried The Authority will abandon him in favor of Batista that he's getting increasingly desperate to please them. He's become exceptionally good at this role. It will be a shame when it ends and that's 100-percent happening at WrestleMania.
- I couldn't care less about Alexander Rusev because I don't really care about the stock big foreign powerhouse character but Lana, on the other hand, is awesome. That could be because she reminds me so much of Nastasha Romanenko of Metal Gear Solid fame, I admit. Either way, she's great.
- Normally replays are awful but Titus O'Neil doing commentary over the beatdown he suffered at the hands of Darren Young was better than the ensuing match between Young and Damien Sandow. So was his commentary. "How many times have you won a match in the back, JBL? ... You're five year old nephew did a great job cutting your hair, Darren."
- The noise was undoubtedly piped in to make this segment sound hotter than it was but this is a great mid-card feud. I do wonder why they're booking Young to rip off O'Neil's pants but at least they kind of sort of explained it with O'Neil previously mentioning how much his suit cost. Either way, good stuff here.
- The Bella Twins are actually telling me I need to have my computer plugged in and turned on to use the WWE Network. I just can't even. Still, I'm beyond excited to subscribe and spend far more time than I should watching old shows.
- Holy hell, that takedown Emma threw on Summer Rae. Gorgeous. This is what we should have seen from the beginning. Start with this goodness then throw in the goofy dancing, not the other way around. Still, she's talented as all get out and if nothing else it will be interesting to see if she can get over considering her current circumstances.
- With all the drama that still surrounds the CM Punk situation, why is it that so few bother to give credit to guys like Orton for working the same, or arguably more, insanely grueling schedule that allegedly helped push Punk out the door? Just a thought.
- Veteran savvy: Teasing the crowd with the Giant Swing spot just enough to get them hot for it before actually going through with it. Let's face it: There was a big part of each one of us that never thought we would see Cesaro swinging Orton around like that. The fact that we got to see it made this one fun. I suppose you could say the same with the European uppercut. Actually, Cesaro has a ton of really great trademark spots that look better as the difficulty of the opponent increases. It's great when he does it to Kofi Kingston, sure, but Randy Orton? Glorious.
- So glad they went the right direction and booked Cesaro to win here. Not only that, they put him over super strong. First, the sunset flip powerbomb from the ropes, then the spinning uppercut, then the Neutralizer before Cesaro covered Orton for the 1-2-3, clean in the center of the ring. Huge respect to Orton for putting him over so damn big here. This was a monsterous win that got the proper push from the commentators. Good story leading up to it, damn good match, and a perfect payoff at the end. Perhaps the best part? This is a fresh match-up. More, please, and immediately.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The spoilers for this show made it sound good but they were wrong. This was fucking great.
Grade: A
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?