SmackDown results, recap, reactions (Oct. 17, 2014): Friday Night Chore

At this point, we're all hoping WWE decides that a move to Thursday -- or whatever other day is being considered -- will force a creative change for SmackDown, right? This show alternates between completely useless and moderately fun, but it hardly ever goes above and beyond its already low expectations.

Last night's episode was a great example of the former.

If you skipped this show, you missed nothing that will alter any understanding of any story currently being told. There was no "must see" moment. There wasn't anything that would lead anyone tasked with analyzing or recapping the show to tell you to do anything other than go ahead and save yourself the 80 minutes or so and free up that DVR space.

That's a problem, for all the obvious reasons.

I shouldn't feel comfortable missing entire shows and when I do, I should pay for it by missing out on something special, or at least something worthwhile. Instead, it feels like a chore to sit through an entire two hour episode of SmackDown anymore because you're either getting a repeat of something you already saw on Monday Night Raw that week, or a watered down preview of what will be on Raw next week.

Let's do a quick rundown of the matches/segments we got last night and see if there was anything terribly pressing, broken down into card placement:

Main

• Seth Rollins cut a promo calling Dean Ambrose crazy and admitting to selling out.
• Rollins had a strong match with Dolph Ziggler, who showed he could be serviceable as a clean cut babyface who has great matches.
• Dean Ambrose made threats in the way Dean Ambrose would make threats. Later, he gave an uninspired interview to Renee Young.
• Ambrose had a bad match with Kane in the main event with a predictably bad finish, though it made sense for the story.

Mid-Card

• Sheamus & The Usos gave a really bad, PG interview to Renee Young that some folks on Twitter were telling me was so painful during The Usos speaking parts they were muting the TV.
• Said team went over the heel squad of Gold & Stardust & The Miz in a six-man tag that used to be a big selling point for WWE shows and has totally lost its luster. Damien Mizdow was, however, outstanding as usual. Still, you've seen it before and he did nothing new here.
• Big Show cut a promo with Mark Henry that was really just a story of the two traveling together, getting hungry, then vandalizing a vehicle because a guy took a parking spot they had their eye on. You could argue, however, that this two were the only ones to advance their story here because Show told Henry he needs him not to get involved in his match with Rusev at Hell in a Cell and Henry admitting how much it bothered him. There could be plenty to come from this, and it was at least an attempt to explain away the disqualification finish from the two good guys on the heel on Raw this week. If I was grading this segment, it would grade high if only for the fact that it actually pushed the story and advanced the motivations of each character within it.
• Also, Lana did something amazing.

Divas

• AJ Lee won a short match and was attacked by Paige after.
• Nikki Bella defeated Naomi in a short match while Brie Bella watched on a monitor backstage.

That was it.

Nothing worth spending a Friday night on, especially when regular folks have lives to live that don't consist of the same tired, uninspired writing from a creative team that has shown it can do so much better.

Grade: D+

Here's to hoping it gets better soon.