I’m going to let this video from Friday Night SmackDown this week speak for itself:
Ricochet won his first Intercontinental championship on this show, beating Sami Zayn in a really fun match that showcased every reason Ricochet should be getting to have matches like this on television far more often. It’s just fun watching him fly around and do what he does.
It helped they had a good story to build off here, with Zayn not wanting to lose his baby and Johnny Knoxville showing up to ensure that’s exactly what happened. Those two are going to fight it out at WrestleMania, and that should be great fun. But it doesn’t look like it will be for the Intercontinental championship, and it’s probably better that way.
Let’s see what Ricochet can do with the damn thing.
Doesn’t it just feel good that he’s champion?
I don’t know how many of you play Call of Duty, or follow the professional scene, but I’m a big fan of the CDL and watch plenty of the pro players on Twitch and what not. Not unlike pro wrestling, the pro scene in Call of Duty has its own language.
The nature of a game like COD is such that it’s paramount that you keep your composure while playing, lest you find yourself playing poorly simply because you got too frustrated at how random it can all be. When something particularly frustrating happens, pro players will often say “I just lost composure.” When it goes really bad, to the point of no return, they say “I just lost full.”
Folks, Roman Reigns has lost full.
It wasn’t what he said, it was the way he went about saying it:
I like that they’re playing this like a man who is shook that the absolute biggest threat to his reign is the guy who is next and everything he’s thrown at him hasn’t worked out in his favor. He knows how dangerous the road ahead is, and he’s kinda losing his mind at the prospect of coming up short when it matters most.
That’s notable because, not unlike COD, things tend to go incredibly wrong when you can’t keep your composure in high pressure situations. That could cost Reigns everything, and it’s one hell of a selling point for a title unification match.
The biggest match in WrestleMania history, as they’re calling it. Lesnar is relaxed and having blast, and that can’t be helping Roman’s headspace either.
This should only get better from here.
We got our first angle for Pat McAfee on the road to his first match at WrestleMania and it included an appearance from the one and only … uh … Austin Theory?
Yep!
Initial rumors and reports suggested WWE was considering McAfee vs. Vince McMahon at the big show, one that still needs to sell a lot of tickets. But they didn’t announce as much when Vinny Mac went on Pat’s podcast and instead simply went with an offer for McAfee to work a match on the show. He accepted, of course, with glee.
That’s why we knew Theory was coming for him when he showed up talking trash. He claimed Vince set Pat up with the podcast appearance, and how he really feels is that McAfee is a loud mouth and everyone wants him shut up. So Theory showed up to deliver the news that he would be the guy to do that at WrestleMania.
For his part, McAfee played like he had no idea who Theory even is, even responding to a slap in the face with more surprise than anger. He called him a “little bitch” and then blamed Michael Cole.
It didn’t do a lot to get me hyped for the prospect of seeing these two in a match together, to be honest. McAfee being so dismissive of his opponent is generally a bad thing, considering it’s clear even he doesn’t take him seriously.
We’ll see where this goes. I’m not even ready to accept this is actually the match we end up with.
Ronda Rousey headlined this show, so I feel like I need to talk about what she did on it. The only problem is there just isn’t that much to say.
WWE is selling her as the dominant world beater she was when she took the MMA world by storm, still calling her the “baddest woman on the planet” and showcasing her running through Sonya Deville with next to no issue, even with SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair ringside to be a distraction.
Then, after swatting Deville away like an annoying fly, she threw an ankle lock on Flair and closed the show standing tall. It looked like we were being told to get ready for a coronation at WrestleMania. Maybe that’s the case.
I don’t really know how to feel about it.
Shrug.
All the rest
- WWE did something new to start SmackDown this week, showcasing many of the wrestlers to be featured on the show in brief promos to get us tuned up for the evening. No one said anything groundbreaking but I like the idea behind it more generally.
- We got our first taste of the new women’s tag team title feud, with Naomi getting the better of Carmella without much effort. Sasha Banks was there to assist her when Queen Zelina tried to interfere, an easy showcase of their superior teamwork. Seems like a title run in their future, no?
- Drew McIntyre beat Jinder Mahal in a simple singles match to heat him up on his way to Happy Corbin at WrestleMania. Not much to this. McIntyre cut an impassioned promo after but I’m having a hard time caring about this feud at all at this point. It just feels like such a step down for McIntyre.
- BOOGS still rules to me, dammit!
- The Viking Raiders never really felt like a threat to The Usos, but at least they had a fun title match before moving on from it.
- Big E has been rolling around on that ATV for like two weeks, and that’s all it took before Ridge Holland took a chair to it and then stole it with Sheamus. Those two sons of two bitches then completely destroyed it backstage with sledgehammers. How I really hate them.
This was a pretty good show!
Grade: B+
Your turn.
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