“WWE SmackDown” was held in Bologna, Italy on Friday, as WWE continues its tour of Europe. The show saw many confrontations as the corporate nears WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, with Tiffany Stratton moving into a confrontation with Charlotte Flair, and Drew McIntyre coming to blows with Damian Priest. For more on what happened on this week’s show, there is a fastidious results page to guide you.
Now it is time to break down the gorgeous and the ugly of the night, the great and the bad, what we loved, and what we hated. With “SmackDown” at a laborious three hours, there was plenty to like, just like the opening promo, and many to hate, akin to the mess between Jacob Fatu and Braun Strowman. Without further ado, here’s what we loved and hated this week.
Loved: Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton official for ‘Mania
Kevin Owens versus Randy Orton wasn’t the match I expected to be made official tonight on “SmackDown,” but I’m definitely not mad about it. The gang tonight in Italy was absolutely implausible and added a lot to this segment, from singing along to “Voices” to chanting at Owens. I also really liked how Owens immediately interrupted Orton before he could even get a word out to get this segment rolling even quicker.
Owens’ delusional tendencies in relation to his friends and his own actions are among the best things consistently occurring “SmackDown.” Him coming out tonight and acting like he could just apologize about hitting Orton, of all people, with a package piledriver after which assuming he’d just be forgiven to team up with him to go after the tag team championships at WrestleMania was just funny. While I figured this match was going to occur at WrestleMania, I’m glad Orton issued the challenge tonight, and I also even liked how there was no physicality between the 2 to finish the segment.
There are such a lot of matches on the WrestleMania card without delay which have resorted to countless brawls week after week, and I feel Owens and Orton can do so much greater than just that within the 4 weeks now we have left before ‘Mania weekend. Owens is thought for cutting his automotive promos that WWE will then air on TV, they usually’re at all times emotional and excellent. Or, WWE can return to what they’ve done before, and Owens and Orton brawl only once, and Owens gets sent away by management from the backstage area for weeks to chop those automotive promos and it’s Orton who cuts the promos within the ring in front of the fans.
Irrespective of what WWE does with these two leading as much as WrestleMania, I even have little doubt in my mind that it is going to be excellent. While I loved these guys as goofy friends chasing Logan Paul around on a golf cart last 12 months before that triple threat match, I’ll love them just as much as enemies across the ring from each other. It should be a superb match, and I feel there’s simply enough time to proceed to construct to maintain fans interested.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Hated: This Show Is So Long Now
“SmackDown” is so long now. It’s an actual issue.
What was a two-hour program, done in two hours, is now a two-hour program that has been stretched over three hours. The segments are longer. The matches are longer. The show feels a lot slower.
Nowhere was this more apparent than the bloated match between Zelina Vega and Piper Niven. What should by every metric have been a squash match win for Niven was dragged out over two agonizing segments until it became an embarrassing slog for all involved, one which Niven wasn’t even in a position to win cleanly, thus hollowing her stature as Chelsea Green’s feared muscle.
Every promo looked as if it would lay out its point almost a dozen times to fill airspace. There have been countless recaps. It’s only a painful show every Friday. Where “Raw’s” unpredictable runtime has enlivened what was the same slog, “SmackDown” has died a death at three hours, a course that I cannot wait for them to correct.
Written by Ross Berman
Loved: Interference With An Actual Purpose
I’m not the most important fan of interference in matches because it’s a trope that is change into too overdone in the fashionable era of skilled wrestling. That being said, even I’ll admit that there is a time and a spot for it for use as an efficient tool to accumulate storylines, with Naomi costing Jade Cargill her match against Liv Morgan tonight being one such occasion.
It seems pretty clear that WWE are gearing up for a match between Cargill and Naomi at WrestleMania 41, and while Cargill has been established as a threat to just about everyone in the ladies’s locker room, that also implies that having someone be a viable threat to her would require just a little little bit of build up for that to change into the case. Having Naomi get the higher of Cargill by hitting her along with her shoe to offer Morgan the chance to deliver Oblivion and proceed beating her down after the match not only shows her anger and is step one in doing so after the revelation that she was Cargill’s attacker, but additionally worked to proceed the trend of Morgan getting assistance from outside parties to maintain racking up wins as a important event talent. The interference achieved all the things that it needed to, and felt warranted in a landscape filled with so many unwarranted interference endings to matches.
Written by Olivia Quinlan.
Hated: Jacob Fatu cannot catch a break
Jacob Fatu’s feud with Braun Strowman in its beginnings seemed to be a possible launching pad for the “Samoan Werewolf” heading into WrestleMania season, but to this point it has didn’t make the impression it first promised. This week’s “WWE SmackDown” was speculated to see them blow off their animosity with a United States title shot up for grabs, a rematch 4 months on from their non-finish at Saturday Night’s Major Event in December. As a substitute, yet again Strowman walked out with the technical victory, this time also securing the title shot, when Tama Tonga and Solo Sikoa rushed the ring – which they’d later explain as because they thought Fatu was going to lose anyway.
The query I’m left asking in any case of that’s who is actually getting over from this. Strowman now has a pending shot at LA Knight’s title, which itself is prone to end with some type of interference again. Sikoa and Tonga might need come off as silly for getting involved anyway, since obviously that was going to cost their stablemate – unless, in fact, that was the plan. But greater than anything it showed that Fatu couldn’t beat Strowman – and while WWE might want us to consider in Strowman as a threat, he has yet to record a singles victory via pinfall or submission since December, and has spent almost the whole thing of this second run floating between the upper midcard. Fatu is someone touted for a match with Roman Reigns down the road, very like Sikoa was, and already the booking pattern is failing to place him in the appropriate position for that match.
There would have been little or no harm in having Fatu actually go over on Strowman and get the title shot, especially 4 weeks away from WrestleMania where it could work well for him to challenge for the title there. I’ll concede that there’s something occurring between him and Sikoa, and the interference marring the finish did add something in that vein, and it could thoroughly be the plan for them to collide on the “Show of Shows,” but even then the concept Fatu even looked like he was going to lose before the DQ leaves questions. To chop an extended story short, something must be done in regards to the sheer volume of distraction finishes and the failure on weekly TV to deliver a match with a clean finish. They harm all involved, sell the group short on a bout they paid to see, and leaves gaping plot holes for the sake of an inexpensive swerve.
Written by Max Everett
Loved: Street Profits are UP!
One week ago, the Street Profits finally won the “SmackDown” tag titles for the primary time in 4 years. In front of the Italian fans they talked about the way it was long overdue. The fans broke out in “You Deserve It!” chants before Dawkins led them in “Hey!” chants. I said on this column last week that the Street Profits have long been one in all WWE’s best tag teams and it’s about time they were champions again.
They’re fighting champions too. Two weeks ago, Pretty Deadly beat Los Garza and Motor City Machine Guns to change into the Number One contenders. Legado Del Fantasma got to the ring first with Los Garza in ring gear. Pretty Deadly finally arrived, also of their gear. Being the type gentlemen they’re, they decided to let Los Garza have the primary shot at the brand new champions. Pretty Deadly will face them next week in London. Luckily for the fans, the Profits and Los Garza delivered of their impromptu match.
The division only has 4 teams, but they’re all excellent. So while the storylines may spread just a little thin (or get convoluted, as Nick Aldis needed a white board to clarify the last 4 months), the matches will deliver. Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins as champions will force the division to up their game. They’re laser focused and look the perfect they’ve shortly (they usually’ve at all times been great). After chasing the titles for 4 years, they don’t seem to be going to wish to lose those titles anytime soon. Hopefully, we’ll have a superb ‘Mania season for the blue brand’s tag division.
Written by Samantha Schipman
Hated: Charlotte Flair eats Tiffany Stratton alive during interview segment
While I can understand the storyline want/have to keep Charlotte Flair and Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton apart after their major pull-apart brawl last week on “SmackDown” where Stratton finally stood tall over “The Queen,” this interview segment did the champion absolutely no favors tonight. Possibly it’s just the nerd in me, but to begin off with, I noticed their microphones didn’t appear to be quite balanced appropriately and Stratton already seemed quieter, which I assumed immediately was bad news because I knew Flair can be interrupting her.
Which is what she did right off the highest, saying that “the Queen speaks first.” The primary portion of this was okay, with Flair having more good heel heat than anything. She then went on to say that she picked Stratton because she felt bad for her, which is where it began to feel like she was undermining Stratton as a champion a bit an excessive amount of. We already know Flair is winning at WrestleMania (at the least, that is my prediction) and she or he doesn’t have to bury Stratton that tough on her way there. That only continued when she reminded Stratton that she was only champion because she had the Money within the Bank contract that she cashed in successfully. Which I suppose is true, but gave the look of an enormous “yikes” to bring up right before Stratton has such an enormous match against an opponent like Flair on “The Grandest Stage of Them All.”
The promo battle segment then fell off and got seriously awkward when Stratton stumbled over a line after which repeated herself, and Flair, who I’m sure was just attempting to make things go easily on the production end, just wrecked her. Flair had an excellent quick comeback to a different line, telling Stratton that fans were either “wooing or booing” her, that just made Stratton’s small mistake look even larger and the champion look just a little silly.
Stratton thankfully got the last word in during their promo battle and reminded Flair that the WWE fans were “running on Tiffy Time.” It was overall a reasonably weak, if not straight up bad, segment on “SmackDown” tonight. After WWE had Stratton looking so strong last week with two big moonsaults, including one off the highest of the tron, they simply did Tiffy dirty tonight and I’m frightened about what’s next for her after WrestleMania.
Written by Daisy Ruth
