Last week on SmackDown Live, WWE left us with quite the cliffhanger.
Had Samoa Joe terrorized ... or tortured ... or murdered A.J. Styles’ family? Ok, maybe that’s a bit extreme, but obviously something was happening, and it was bad.
I took issue at the time with the idea WWE’s 24-7 “news” cycle would basically ignore the goings on in favor of a week-long wait for information, but we were likely to get a big climax to the situation last night before the two tear each other apart in Australia.
Except, we weren’t.
Authorities were called after the show went off the air and Joe never entered the house. WWE wanted to fire him, but Styles said no because fighting him is more important and ... that’s it.
We got a pre-tape from Styles, who was staying at home and Joe was nowhere to be found.
And that’s the heat going into the pay-per-view.
The matches have been entertaining, but it’s been the little things with this feud. For example, the stipulation for the Super Show-Down match being no count out, no DQ made a lot more sense after the first match, where Styles was disqualified after snapping. Not so much after an ending where the ref missed a tap while making a three-count. That same missed tap is just as possible in a no-DQ match as a standard contest.
And then they wrote themselves into a corner with the Joe “home invasion” bit. You can’t actually have Joe go beyond ringing the doorbell, especially in modern WWE. This isn’t Pillman/Austin. And holding out for a week to say “actually, we called the cops and he left” is deflating.
I’m looking forward to their match on Saturday. There’s a long history to draw on and they’re usually wonderful together, some of the family stuff — especially early on — was very well done.
But in having Samoa Joe go too far, they went past the limits of what they genuinely could handle writing.
- Here’s your SmackDown Live recap and reactions, as well as your video highlights.
- We also have an NXT preview to get you ready for tonight.
- Raw’s gif of the week? The zombie beard grab.
- What are Kofi Kingston’s next WWE goals?
- Raw’s ratings are troublingly low.
- Can we ever deal with bald Shawn Michaels?
Halfway through the week once again. Don’t let it beat you down.
lol, Hansen just flings a chair into Taue's face #AJPW1990 #AJPW pic.twitter.com/VFbcCTL5nf
— LARIATOOOO!! (@MrLARIATO) October 3, 2018