I wasn’t a fan of this show as a whole. But Bayley? It’s been quietly done, but her personal story has made a lot of sense.
Bayley’s morals have been compromised for quite a while, now. She sided with her friend Sasha Banks in her feud with Becky Lynch by smashing Becky with a steel chair, and the reasoning has always been suspect. Essentially, Bayley argued that she was still a role model; she was showing kids that loyalty and friendship matter. But matter more than what, exactly? It’s always been a flimsy argument, and it always seemed like Bayley was due for a realization.
She had that realization last week as the SmackDown Women’s Championship was pried from her fingertips. With a new haircut and new gear, she showed exactly what she’s realized by slashing all of her Bayley Buddies to ribbons.
It wasn’t a transformative performance, but simply one where she stopped holding back. She didn’t apologize for putting her feet on the ropes in a pin attempt. She had no qualms with grabbing two fistfuls of hair to pull Charlotte into a roll up.
And simply by letting go and doing what she wants to do, she was able to win. Finally freed from the demands of the crowd, she dropped a “Hey bitches – screw all of you” on her way out.
This was fun! We’ve never seen a heel form of Bayley in WWE, and it was equally surreal and entertaining for me. It’s pretty odd that she’s SmackDown Champion and yet not drafted to SmackDown at this point...but I’ll get to that in a moment.
As it is, this was a really fun first look at a character who could make some waves. Just keep her away from Hell in a Cell matches, I guess.
The Draft was rough
Boy oh boy, this company just loves to let me down.
My expectations for the WWE Draft were pretty darn low coming into SmackDown. I’ve already addressed my concerns with how this Draft has been framed and the problems that a show like this would have over an actual sports draft. And despite those concerns tempering my expectations, I was still disappointed by the entire experience.
Where should I start? From WWE handing out the draft order days in advance to the absurdity of USA Network splitting Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss only to take the other with another pick in the same round, there were plenty of moments that just rang hollow.
And don’t get me started on the non-finish of Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins. Or how insincere the Fox football dudes analyzing the Draft felt. Oooh! And the fact that Bray Wyatt COST SmackDown the top pick, and they picked him anyway!
Ugh.
I’m not even sure how to analyze the draft picks until the entire roster is drafted. Raw has no headlining male babyfaces at the moment, but I’d imagine Seth Rollins fills that void on Monday. Other than that, this was just...boring.
The Rest
Seth Rollins def. Roman Reigns via DQ – It’s comical that WWE ran a non-finish after all the backlash from Rollins’ most recent non-finish. Comically sad.
Wyatt ripped through the floor of the ring to try to drag Rollins down “to the depths of Hell!!!!” Rollins escaped, and then Wyatt left, satisfied that his message had been made. All of this annoyed me.
King Corbin def. Chad Gable – I refuse to call him Shorty. It’s not happening. None of you can make me.
This is a prime example of WWE taking two wrestlers I like and doing everything they can to make me hate them. I hate the name, I hate how they are feuding over height of all things, and I hate how they have wrestled each other three or four times in a month. It’s not solving anything, either; I’m sure they’ll wrestle again next week.
The New Day def. The OC – So let me get this straight. Kofi Kingston has a miraculous run with the WWE Championship and looks awesome for months, suddenly gets caught by Brock Lesnar and loses the title in less than 10 seconds, and then has nothing to say the next time he’s on the show?
That doesn’t make any sense at all. He was the guy to put AJ Styles down in the end, but this just felt weird. The match was entertaining enough, though.
Brock Lesnar is scared of Cain Velasquez – Paul Heyman cut a promo saying Brock feared the result that happened in their MMA fight happening again, but that Brock’s a conqueror and that he’ll conqueror his fears. Cain said he’d give Lesnar a matching scar on his face to the one he gave him during their last fight.
...Pretty wild that this isn’t even for the WWE Championship, huh?
I think that covers everything. This is a hard show to grade because of the unique nature, and yet I really wasn’t a fan of anything until the last 20 minutes. It’s bizarre to me that I’m going to give a show that featured these three matches this grade, but...
Grade: C-
The WWE doldrums continue. Hopefully things get better soon. Heel Bayley should be fun, though;