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Smackdown - October 3, 2014

Smackdown
Date: October 3, 2014
Location: Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Commentators: Michael Cole, Todd Phillips, John Bradshaw Layfield

Reviewed by Tommy Hall

The Ambrose/Cena vs. Authority feud is picking up steam and that's a good thing so far. It looks like they're also setting up Ambrose vs. Cena which should be a solid match if they don't have Cena beat him and call it a rub. Hopefully they keep up the trend of not having a ton of recaps tonight. Let's get to it.


We open with a long recap of Ambrose giving away shirts and sliming Rollins.

Here's a fired up Cena with something to say. He talks about how different people refer to Milwaukee in different ways but Cena sees it as the place that is ready for Smackdown. This brings him to Ambrose who wants to beat up Rollins just like he does. He talks about the loss at Summerslam and having the worst beating of his life. Everyone from Michael Cole to his family wanted him to hang it up but he had to fight Lesnar one more time.

He got that chance at Night of Champions but Seth Rollins had to take his chance to become the future of the WWE. Well if that's what Seth wants, he can do it tonight right here in the ring. Cena doesn't want the briefcase or the contract as long as he can get his hands on Rollins tonight. Instead he gets Ambrose, who says he has his own issues with the Authority and Seth Rollins, but he's going to work those out by making Rollins pay. Cena says he doesn't want to do this with Ambrose and Dean says that's right.

However, Cena got in his way on Monday and that's not cool. Cena brings up Night of Champions again but Ambrose says that was one night while he almost lost his entire career. John says there's no reason for them to keep going after each other when they both want the same things. He offers a truce and says whoever gets to Rollins first gets to him first.

Dean isn't sure about shaking hands when the Authority pops up on screen. Orton talks about how the two of them deserve each other and brings up what Ambrose used to say about Cena when he was in the Shield. Apparently Cena is full of himself and can't wrestle his way out of a box of cereal. Cena on the other hand said Ambrose is only getting over by pretending to be crazy. Kane thinks it doesn't matter though because it's going to be Cena and Ambrose vs. Orton and himself tonight. So glad I watched that Raw main event this week.

Sheamus/Dolph Ziggler vs. Miz/Damien Mizdow

Sheamus takes Miz into the corner to start but misses a big right hand. Cole keeps talking about Mizdow vs. Sheamus from last night as Sheamus slams Damien for two. Sheamus sends him out to the apron and takes out Miz before hitting a few forearms to the stunt double. That's fine with Sheamus as he dives off the top with a double clothesline.

We take a break and come back with Miz hitting a Reality Check for two on Sheamus before tagging Mizdow. Damien stomps away for two of his own and it's very quickly back to Miz. Sheamus plows him down with a clothesline and makes the hot tag to Ziggler to clean house. The running DDT gets two on Mizdown and a dropkick gets the same. Sheamus and Miz fight on the floor until Miz nails him in the ribs with a chair. Not that it matters as the Zig Zag is good for the pin on Damien at 8:28.

Rating: D. This really didn't do anything for me as it was the champions dominating for most of the match, shrugging off all of the heels' offense and then beating Mizdow with ease. The problem with an act like Miz and Mizdow is there's nothing to fear. Miz's big move is the Figure Four which has won him one match in over a year and that was in NXT. Sandow....has he ever won anything with that full nelson slam? Why would two World Champions be afraid of that?

Sheamus swings the chair at Miz post match but has to lay out Sandow instead.

Luke Harper video from Raw.

Long recap of Henry/Big Show/Rusev including the Russian flag being ripped down. WWE already officially apologized because Heaven forbid anyone ever get even slightly offended by anything. They had to know this sort of reaction was coming. Either do the angle and don't apologize or don't do it at all. It makes WWE look like a five year old admitting to stealing cookies.

Paige vs. Naomi

Paige quickly takes her down into a chinlock before cranking on both arms at the same time. Back up and Naomi snaps off a headscissors to send Paige to the apron. Alicia Fox tries to help Paige to the floor but Naomi dives onto the new best friend. It goes badly for her though as Paige kicks Naomi in the head and hooks the PTO for the submission at 1:43.

Post match AJ hits the ring and beats up Fox as Paige bails to hide behind JBL. Putting his hat on doesn't really work for her.

Here's Big Show in a suit to address the flag deal on Raw. He talks about holding himself accountable for his actions and officially apologizes to the Russian people for what happened. The fans aren't pleased but here are Rusev and Lana to interrupt. Lana says WWE and Big Show apologizing doesn't appease them because they want a personal apology.

Big Show reiterates his apology to the Russian people but not to Lana and Rusev. We get more English from Rusev who accuses Big Show of wiping his nose on the flag. He nails Rusev with the flag and drops him with the jumping superkick. Show gets up and the Russians bail. This segment made me feel better about this as it feels like the apology was intended to be a plot point and not WWE cowering away from any criticism.

Heath Slater/Titus O'Neil vs. Usos

Hornswoggle Gator is at ringside. Jey takes Slater into the corner to start but misses a charge and gets kicked in the face. Cue the Bunny to hop over Hornswoggle and send him face first into the post. The distraction lets the Usos hit stereo superkicks and a triple splash (the Bunny dives on Horny) is enough for the pin at 1:45. This is setting up Horny vs. the Bunny isn't it?

WWE still hates breast cancer.

Ambrose talks about how he embarrassed Rollins on Monday and that's a lot worse than a beating. He'll go through everyone from Kane to Orton to the Gator to the Bunny to get his hands on Seth Rollins.

Cesaro vs. R-Truth

This is due to Cesaro making jokes about Ziggler earlier tonight and Truth calling him an unfunny nincompoop. Before the match Truth makes sure he has the town right and Cole thankfully explains the joke. That's not sarcasm for once as that line wouldn't might not have made sense to a lot of fans. Cesaro hammers Truth down with European uppercuts and a gutwrench suplex. Truth's comeback goes as well as you would expect before the Neutralizer ends him at 2:12.

The Dusts are in the back and I believe this is the same vignette from Raw. The belts are the Cosmic Key and the rest is science fiction.

Bob Uecker is here.

Hulk Hogan hates breast cancer.

Kane/Randy Orton vs. John Cena/Dean Ambrose

Orton and Ambrose get things going with Dean quickly taking him down for a basement clothesline and two. Off to Kane vs. Cena for the power showdown and our resident hero takes over with right hands. Dean comes back in for the running dropkick against the ropes before clotheslining Orton down as well. An STF attempt from Cena doesn't work but a belly to belly gets two on Randy. Ambrose dives on both Authority members and we take a break.

Back with Kane nailing a big boot for two on Ambrose and bringing Randy in again. Randy stomps away and sends Ambrose outside before whipping him into the steps. They head back inside and Dean nails a middle rope dropkick to put both guys down. Kane breaks up a hot tag and we hit the chinlock.

Dean quickly fights up by biting the hand before getting punched into the Rebound Clothesline. As he's inches away from the hot tag, Rollins comes down the aisle and Cena drops down to go after him. Ambrose is left alone and gets caught in the Elevated DDT for two. Dirty Deeds is broken up and Kane kicks Dean's head off. The double teaming is enough for a lame DQ at 13:13.

Rating: D+. The match wasn't terrible but man alive is it going to kill the Authority to have Kane lose a fall? Just mixing up how they get disqualified isn't enough to make things interesting. Ambrose and Cena fighting should get interesting, but I hope Dean doesn't start yelling about Cena leaving him in a handicap match like Nikki Bella has been doing.

Ambrose gets beaten down even more until Cena finally makes the save to end the show.

Overall Rating: D-. This was one of the most worthless shows I can remember in a long time. There were five matches, three of which combined to be less than six minutes long. Other than that there was a segment to build up to Big Show losing another big match and the same main event we saw on Raw. This was a worthless two hours of TV with some dull matches wrapped around three matches that didn't go long enough to rate. Nothing to see here.

Results
Sheamus/Dolph Ziggler b. Miz/Damien Mizdow – Zig Zag to Mizdow
Paige b. Naomi – PTO
Usos b. Heath Slater/Titus O'Neil – Double Superfly Splash
Cesaro b. R-Truth – Neutralizer
John Cena/Dean Ambrose b. Kane/Randy Orton via DQ when Orton and Kane double teamed Ambrose



Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazing author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Comments

  1. Wow, so I guess the Wyatts attacking Cena was a dark, um, angle? It seemed a weird end to the show when I was there. FWIW, Ambrose helped Cena fend them off, and then they took turns playing to the crowd, which Ambrose won.

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  2. Never mentioned. Then again the Wyatts don't mean much anymore unfortunately.

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  3. "Yep Mode" ABeyAnce1©October 3, 2014 at 8:57 PM

    That's going to be the major continuity for R-Truth huh? No Awesome Truth, no Little Jimmie, no Crazy Truth, but just the guy that said the wrong name of a city.

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  4. Why the h*ck is Randy Orton crushing Jericho in SuperCard?

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  5. I'd like to think that they all high five each other simultaneously, Ninja Turtles style, after the pin. Freeze frame and all.

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  6. Hedoublehockeysticks!

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  7. "Southern man don't need him around anyhow"

    I'll never forget when Skynard cut that promo on Hogan.

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  8. "Yep Mode" ABeyAnce1©October 4, 2014 at 1:02 AM

    It should be Ambrose and Cena.

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  9. Looked it up, and they did a billion variations on the match, but they literally did the Hogan/Savage vs Sting/Luger combination on the Feb 16th and March 16th Nitros. But yeah, totally different time and different dynamics, with both matches basically just being throwaways with the focus being on the never-ending "dissension in the nWo angle".

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  10. WCW had a lot of BIG PPV's, didn't they? BATB was always a big show as well, angle wise or celebrity wise. I miss the old days.

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  11. Both in 96 and 97, they almost used Starrcade to set up Superbrawl. Both the main events for those years had screwy finishes to setup rematches at the February show.

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  12. Huh, Big Show is actually coming across as a decent babyface. None of the usual dickhead 'funny' babyface antics.

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  13. As soon as it was up on their site, WWE stopped trying to make the apology for Big Show seem legit. It was clear it was just a plot point when they (1) gave it a name: "International Incident," (2) kept replaying the incident, and (3) produced a highlight package in which Show ripping down the flag was treated as the dramatic climax, and which focused on fans cheering for Show.

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  14. I'm lost on the AJ/Paige feud.
    So it starts with AJ taking the newcomer Paige lightly and losing the Divas title due to her own arrogance. Then Paige starts to come into her own as champion, and just as she's starting to get too arrogant herself, AJ comes back and gets the title back. Paige then turns manipulative and cozies up to AJ so she'll drop her guard and drop the title. AJ then shows Paige she's onto her game and throws her some "mind games" of her own to keep Paige weirded-out and distracted, allowing AJ to win the title back.
    That's all well and good, but where is the feud now? Paige doesn't do much more than skip around to mock AJ, and AJ doesn't really do anything memorable to get under Paige's skin. At this point they're just hovering around each other and WWE is selling it as compelling hatred.
    Paige and AJ might be the two best workers on the Divas roster, but it's time to move both ladies on to something new.

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  15. The build to the Starrcade matches were much bigger than the build to the SuperBrawl rematches.

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  16. SuperBrawl, Bash at the Beach, Halloween Havoc and Starrcade were their big four.

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  17. (slow clap) All these years reading Scott Keith--this may be the best rant yet.

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  18. Orton and Kane have been around the main event for like a year. Yikes.

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  19. I feel like WCW's PPV structure was a lot like the UFC's. Major February show, Major July show, Major October Show, Major December Show. I think it's better than the weird way WWE has their calendar where they have a playoff season between January and April and fucking nothing after.

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  20. Extant1979 - Ghetto SuperstarOctober 4, 2014 at 9:29 AM

    The PTC never cared about USA or Raw or anything on cable. They're campaign was against broadcast networks and their problem with the WWF was with Smackdown on UPN.


    Unfortunately, they confused the issue using clips of Raw and PPVs to complain about Smackdown.

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  21. What the H!?

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  22. See, I know the wrasslin' never makes sense anyway, but from a storyline perspective, why - when the two enemies of the authority are close to coming to blows - do the authority then intervene, stop them fighting one another, and put their own guys up against them?


    It would make much more logical sense for them to say "Cena v Ambrose in a TLC match" and then have Orton/Kane/Rollins go down and pick apart the weakened winner.


    I know they're likely to run Cena v Ambrose at HitC, but it just seems jarringly stupid. "We can't let our enemies fight one another, one of them might get hurt!"

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  23. "Here's a fired up Cena
    with something to say. He talks about how different people refer to
    Milwaukee in different ways" R Truth reference for Green Bay or did he fuck that up the other way? I forget now

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  24. I miss the old days of David Crockett calling matches.

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  25. I still wished in 2000, Russo and Bischoff had never happened and Hogan had either put over Sid or destroyed him at Spring Stampede. The Billy Kidman thing was an insult.

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  26. If you have Hogan break out the rare ensiguri and drop kick spot, and top rope spam spot -- then Hogan big boots and slams Shark Tens and drops the leg - it would have been awesome .

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  27. Actually neither. He said some people call it by an Indian name, some people call it the home of Pabst Blue Ribbon etc.

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  28. Like most other feuds in WWE: they're feuding because they've been feuding for awhile now.

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  29. I think they're going Cena vs. Rollins, and Ambrose vs. Orton at HIAC.

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  30. I try to keep it PG on-line.

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