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Smackdown - September 19, 2014

Smackdown
Date: September 19, 2014
Location: Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi, Mississippi
Commentators: Michael Cole, Tom Phillips, John Bradshaw Layfield

Reviewed by Tommy Hall

It's the go home show for Night of Champions and since this is Friday, we're not likely to see Cena or Lesnar, meaning nothing important is going to happen tonight. WWE has done a very bad job building up everything other than the main event for Sunday and it really shows when Cena and Lesnar aren't on the show. Let's get to it.


Opening sequence.

Reigns vs. Rusev. Just get to the DQ now.

Jimmy Uso vs. Stardust

The brothers that look different say they're coming for the titles. Jimmy and Stardust fight up against the ropes to start until a neckbreaker puts Jimmy down. Uso tries three superkicks and connects with the final one for the pin at 2:00.

Goldust gets kicked as well.

Sheamus/Dolph Ziggler vs. Miz/Cesaro

Haven't we seen this one a few times now? Cesaro tries to ride Ziggler on the mat but the champion gets away. A slam takes Ziggler down again and Cesaro cranks on a headlock. Back up and Cesaro counters a sunset flip and lifts Dolph all the way into a gorilla press. It's an awesome power display but Ziggler slips down the back and nails a dropkick. Off to Miz for a kick to the face for two and some posing. He avoids the Fameasser and hooks the Reality Check for two.

We come back from a break with Miz getting two off a top rope ax handle and putting on a chinlock. Dolph counters with a jawbreaker but Cesaro blocks a tag attempt. That earns him the swinging DDT and the hot tag brings in Sheamus. Miz gets caught in the fifteen forearms to the chest and the rolling fireman's carry gets two. The Irish Curse gets the same and Ziggler backdrops Cesaro to the floor, possibly injuring the big man's knee. The stunt doubles get into it and Ziggler superkicks Miz into the Brogue Kick for the pin at 11:43.

Rating: C. This wasn't bad but did anyone buy Miz having a chance to pin Sheamus? He has the character down but he needs something different in the ring. I still think a switch to tights would help him a lot, though that doesn't seem to be a possibility. Also let him get some wins with the Finale to build the move back up a bit.

Adam Rose vs. Heath Slater

Slater decks him with a right hand and Rose is in early trouble. He gets a boot up to stop a charging Heath in the corner and a high cross body gets two. Slater stomps him down in the corner again but misses a knee drop. Rose comes back with some forearms and a spinebuster but Titus trips him up. This brings in the Bunny who dives on Titus, setting up the Party Foul for the pin at 2:55.

We recap Henry and Rusev from Raw. This eats up over a minute.

Lana and Rusev are in the back and Lana speaks Russian about Henry and Reigns. Rusev does the same and that's about it.

Los Matadores/Big Show vs. Wyatt Family

I could have sworn this was originally going to be the Usos. Big Show does Torito's entrance in a funny bit. This is joined in progress with Fernando doing OLE to Rowan. Thankfully Erick picks him up for a fall away slam into the Wyatt corner. Off to Bray for the backsplash before Harper comes in and gets caught in a sunset flip. His response is to hit Fernando really hard in the face, though Fernando is able to get over to the corner for a tag to Big Show.

Rowan comes in as well and takes out Show's leg, allowing Wyatt to hammer on a downed giant. Harper Gator Rolls Big Show and drops him with a dropkick. The Family starts some fast tagging but Show rolls to the floor and headbutts Wyatt. Bray stops a tag attempt though and Harper hooks a chinlock. That's fine with Big Show who lifts Luke up and slams him down for a break.

Show misses a Vader Bomb elbow and it's back to Bray for a chinlock of his own. Wyatt is slammed down just like Luke was and the hot tag finally brings in Diego. Everything breaks down and the Wyatts destroy Los Matadores with ease. Diego dives out to nail Harper but Sister Abigail takes him out for the pin at 8:10 shown.

Rating: D+. The stuff with Big Show in there was good enough, but at some point you have to get the tag off to a Matadore and there's no way around that. I'm glad to see Bray get a win again but he needs to get back to his over the top stuff and a big win over a top guy. He can go in the ring but that Cena feud ripped his legs off.

We look at Reigns vs. Rollins from Monday.

Reigns is ready for tonight and Sunday because the Punch is ready.

Paige vs. Nikki Bella

Non-title and AJ comes out to do commentary. Nikki shoves her down to start and nails a middle rope spinning kick to the head for two. Paige gets knocked to the floor but she knocks Nikki off the apron just as quickly. Back in and Paige kicks her in the ribs but gets caught with some dropkicks. Not that they matter as the Paige Turner is enough to pin Bella at 2:57.

Post match Paige and AJ do their usual with AJ holding the title. Nikki lays them both out and holds up the belt, despite getting pinned about a minute earlier.

Bo Dallas vs. Jack Swagger

Rematch from Raw where Jack made Dallas tap. Jack takes him into the corner to start but Bo slaps him in the face. A chase goes badly for Bo with Swagger clotheslining him hard. Dallas is sent hard into the table but grabs a neckbreaker to take over back inside. Swagger comes right back with a suplex and Vader Bomb but Bo runs to the floor again. Another chase results in Swagger's throat being snapped across the top rope, setting up the Bodog for the pin at 2:48. Another short match in a series of them tonight.

Bo says the usual post match and says Jack will wind up being like Zeb Colter if he keeps up. Colter stole three packs of sugar and is a TERRIBLE TIPPER! Jack wouldn't want to be someone like that would he? Swagger chases him off.

Long package on Cena vs. Lesnar with clips from the brawl on Monday spliced together with the sitdown interviews from Lesnar and Heyman.

This week's sitdown interview was with Lesnar, who called himself a prize fighter. In this fight, John Cena is going to get another beating.

Henry feels good about his rally on Monday but admits he lots to a Russian in 1992. Another Russian defeated him in 1996 even though he was injured. This Sunday, he will crush Rusev.

Roman Reigns vs. Rusev

They lock up to start and fall out to the floor before heading right back inside. Reigns nails a big running elbow to the face but gets caught with a kick to his own face. Rusev puts on a quickly broken bearhug before dropping Roman with a spinwheel kick. We take a break and come back with Reigns caught in a reverse bearhug. Reigns fights up and hits a running clothesline to put both guys down.

Rusev charges into a Samoan drop and Reigns hammers away. The Apron Kick looks to set up the spear but Rollins comes out for a distraction. Rusev kicks Roman in the jaw and starts working on the back. The Accolade is countered with something like Cena's ProtoBomb but with Reigns driving Rusev down (he basically throws him into the air and clotheslines Rusev's stomach) but Rollins comes in off the top with the briefcase, accidentally hitting Rusev for the DQ at 9:27.

Rating: C-. The problem here was the same one that so many of these matches have: we were just waiting on the run-in for the DQ because neither of these guys were going to lose this match clean. Rusev getting the win is an interesting choice but it's not like it really matters one way or another.

Reigns and Rollins brawl into the crowd and here's Henry for the brawl. The American flag comes down and Henry slams Rusev to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. Another week, another basic Smackdown. The wrestling was fine but most of it was too short to rate. It really didn't do much as far as making me want to see Night of Champions, but the show has pretty much been dead in the water for the last two weeks. This show just came and went without anything to see, which makes for an uninteresting show to sit through. It did go by really fast though which always helps.

Results
Jimmy Uso b. Stardust – Superkick
Sheamus/Dolph Ziggler b. Miz/Cesaro – Brogue Kick to Miz
Adam Rose b. Heath Slater – Party Foul
Wyatt Family b. Los Matadores/Big Show – Sister Abigail to Diego
Paige b. Nikki Bella – Paige Turner
Bo Dallas b. Jack Swagger – Bodog
Rusev b. Roman Reigna via DQ when Seth Rollins interfered


Remember to pick up my new book of 1997 Monday Nitro Reviews from Amazon at:



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Comments

  1. Crikey Mate Down Under AussieSeptember 19, 2014 at 8:35 PM

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but at the very least the Sister Abigail finisher is still pretty well protected right?

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  2. So much for Andy PG's "So for those of you like me who were worried that Swagger's face turn was just to be fed to Rusev, it looks like they're not willing to give up on him yet" after beating Bo on Raw.


    Great job pinning two heel challengers: has Miz won a match since becoming #1 contender? Why not have Nikki squash Emma to (try to) show she actually has a chance against AJ/Paige?

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  3. How can they continue justifying taping this show. I guess they are the highest rated cable show blah blah blah but still. If they want to cut costs just run a house show Tuesday nights. Save on production. Smackdown is nothing but a glorified house show anyway. House shows are probably more entertaining.

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  4. I know Cena kicked out of it at Wrestlemania and Bryan might have at the Rumble. That's not too bad of a track record.

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  5. You realize they make money on the show right?

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  6. The rights for the show more than make up for it. They could tape it on the same night but that's WAY too much for one night of tapings.

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  7. Eh... what this says to me is that the feud isn't over yet. So let's not go getting the shovels yet.

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  8. That they invested in a Swagger face turn and Cesaro is a heel shows how truly and completely fucked up the booking is.

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  9. The move that Reigns is doing used to be his finisher. Moment of Silence IIRC. Theoretically it's a back suplex into a uranage but as you noted he never did it very well and on the rare occasions it looked like a falling uranage, he couldn't protect the other guy and just drove their head into the mat.

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  10. They tried it the other way. Heyman cut the legs out from Cesaro's face turn and in a rare moment of WWE actually thinking on their feet they turned Swagger to feed him to Rusev and managed to get him over better than he'd been in 2 years.

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  11. "Yep Mode" ABeyAnce1©September 20, 2014 at 12:05 AM

    Except it's, you know, Cena.

    ReplyDelete
  12. HowmuchdoesthisguyweighSeptember 20, 2014 at 6:31 AM

    I miss the brand split

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  13. This. It's the same stupid idea they did with Rusev having him take forever to set up a Black Hole Slam with the swinging side slam thus killing the move's momentum. Picking a guy up and then holding him and trying to create the momentum from a dead stop into a spinebuster into the mat doesn't work much unless you're Goldberg.

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  14. Is it just me or is Adam Rose plus the Bunny super entertaining? They had a 3 minute match and I was super into it.

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  15. "Yep Mode" ABeyAnce1©September 20, 2014 at 8:17 AM

    You're not alone, I'm with you on that one.

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  16. "Yep Mode" ABeyAnce1©September 20, 2014 at 8:18 AM

    Could be a new tag team.

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  17. Dude, I just came here to say the EXACT same thing. I can't believe it, but I'm really digging it all of a sudden.

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  18. Eh, I don't. I'd rather there not be a wrestling show on Friday night that's must-see (which, if some of my favorites are only on Smackdown, it would be). It's fucking Friday, ain't nobody got time for that shit. Even if I DVR it, which I still do, I usually read the results before I even get to watching it.

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  19. I think it's just a matter of time before Smackdown is cancelled or put exclusively on the network.

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