LogFAQs > #950825000

Next up was the Feb 12th episode of Smackdown. They're making a big deal over this Thunderdome thing, which I guess looks cool. Of course, the video fans thing looks even sillier and more distracting than on NXT

Opening / Reigns promo 3/5
I hadn't seen Roman Reigns since he finally got his heel turn, but his faction has a good look. Apparently he's with Heyman, who can put just about anybody over, as well as Jey Uso. I guess Roman is the Universal Champ.

I hadn't been keeping up with any WWE storylines, but I guess Edge won the RR and is delaying on picking who he wants to fight at WM. Good handling.

It's nice to see Roman as a heel (well, again), which seems a better pick for him. I loved the I'll beat him so bad they'll have to put him on a Legends contract. They'll have to use him as a WWE Ambassador. (Considering Edge is a face at this point, I guess he's going to job to Roman at WM.)

I fucking loved Heyman's shit. That was a nice spiel. On the whole, that was a reasonably good opening promo, but I guess if I'd been following it week-to-week I might not be as approving.

Rey & Dominik Mysterio vs King Corbin & Sami Zayne 3.5/5
I was kinda surprised to see Rey's son there. Otherwise I like Zayne's new gimmick. Zayne is a good promo now. It's nice to see him as a heel.

Boring Corbin seems to have improved a bit. It's weird seeing him bald, but his hair had made him look goofy. They pretty much changed everything about the guy, which was for the best.

Of course, Dominik stole the show there. He's got Rey's agility but he's bigger and has good look. I can see this guy being huge at some point.

Decent match overall. I kinda expected the outcome from the second it was booked (also wtf at Sonya DeVille in an executive role?).

Big E vs Shinsuke Nakamura 3.5/5
I've always liked Big E. He's got a great look, good personality, and is very talented. He seems like the kind of guy who could have succeeded in any era... and apparently he's only gotten better. His mic-work is a bit better, he has even more charisma, etc.

Of course, before we get to his match, there's an interruption where we see some stuff between Sasha Banks (I like the hair and new look). I love Sasha, but wtf? And then there was ANOTHER interruption. Ugh. Wtf, WWE? If you have a guy in the ring, stay on the guy.

Apollo Crews comes out and argues with Big E. Last time I saw Apollo, I liked his agility but he was weak on the mic.

The actual opponent was Shinsuke, who had been super-hyped when I last watched WWE. He's an interesting pro wrestler, but I was kinda indifferent towards him. Regardless, it was two very talented wrestlers who put on a pretty good match... well, until the end (One of Shinsuke's kicks went wide, but that was the only really obvious issue I saw.)

Seth Rollins comes back 1.5/5
Why'd they empty the locker room and have everybody come around the ring for this? Seems stupid. Otherwise the segment mostly felt like filler. At any rate, apparently they brought everybody out just so they could walk out on Seth.

I guess he's coming back as a heel? Was this the gimmick he left with?

...also I just realized that the show is halfway over and I've only seen TWO matches. Wtf?

Bayley vs Liv Morgan (of the Riott Squad) 3.5/5
Wait, Bayley is a heel now? Wtf? >_> Now THIS I didn't see coming? And are they just flipping everybody now? The whole This is my show shit is the same crap they tried with Paige that went over like a lead balloon.

Liv Morgan was pretty impressive. Bayley was great as always. It was a good match, and as long as it needed to be... the only problem is that they're freeing up time and doing NOTHING with it. Instead of more wrestling, we're watching the Street Prophets give a replica belt to a NASCAR driver. Wtf?

The Street Prophets vs Chad Gable & Otis 2.5/5
My only experience with them in the past was some shitty comedy they did with a WWE Legend at one point. (Oh wait, one of them is Angelo Dawkins. I remember him NXT. I think he had a string of shitty gimmicks?)

...and while the Street Prophets are in the ring, the announcers are fucking talking about the Super Bowl. Wtf?

Chad Gable I remember a little of. I don't think I've seen Otis before. Otis is surprisingly agile for a guy his size. He's short, but goddamn is he wide. He reminds me a little of Bull Demsy, except bigger and stronger. All in all, it was a decent enough match. There was some clumsy shit at times.

Sasha Banks talks with Bianca... and Nia Jax, etc 2.5/5
Sasha's ring entrance was nice. It was neat watching her and the Street Prophets dance, nice little touch.

This is probably the first I've seen of Bianca Belair. Kinda like the personality.

Nia looks even worse than before. I don't really know what the fuck is going on at this point, but I'm not complaining. It was a weird segment, but okay.

Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode vs Cesaro & Daniel Bryan 3/5
I liked how Daniel Bryan's suicide dive backfired. I'm so fucking sick of suicide dives. In general, Ziggler has been criminally under-used over the years. He's an incredible talent... although I guess Cesaro is in a similar boat. Decent enough match, but wtf was with that shit afterward? And why the fuck did they have Seth randomly attack Cesaro if they weren't going to do anything with that. I was expecting him to come out and interfere, leading to an angle between Seth and Cesaro at Elimination Chamber, possibly one that Seth would win and "convert" Cesaro into some new faction. But no, they're not doing anythign with that.

Oh, and Kevin Owens is a face now? They really did flip everybody... wtf >_<

Overall - 2.3/5

Well, what do I say? For a wrestling show, it felt like there wasn't that much wrestling... which, come to think of it, was one thing that turned me off the main roster WWE shows. Had that time been used for promos to hype up matches and get me to care about *anything*, I would have been fine. However, I saw a lot of the WWE whoring itself out to other sports, etc, and then a bunch of recaps. Offhand, I only remember that AEW episode I watched as having maybe 1-2 recaps (and the wedding recap wasn't terrible, although I understand the wedding event was poorly received).

Otherwise the big advantage to the WWE is that I know at least half the talent going in. I may not have watched Smackdown in maybe 3 years, but there were only a handful of people I didn't know and they were paired with ones I knew. It kinda makes it easier to pick up the show. The other thing is that, unlike AEW, most of these guys are fucking talented. I'm looking at the wrestlers from tonight and I'm not seeing any Joey Janellas or that midget who jobbed to Lee Johnson. Smackdown has a pretty deep bench.... the problem is that they don't use them that much.

The opening segment was good, but it went a bit long. We only got 5 wrestling matches in the show (were more in the actual broadcast?), and most were of a reasonable length so it meant that there was a lot of non-wrestling, but not the good kind of non-wrestling (like stuff that gets you hyped for a match). No, instead we had throwaway segments like Seth Rollins coming back, and people would walk out to the ring then we'd see backstage shit. Wtf?

All in all, though, I liked the episode enough that I'm tempted to watch another one.

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