Smackdown
Date: August 15, 2014
Location: Key Arena,
Seattle, Washington
Commentators: Michael
Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
It's the very final
show before Summerslam and man alive does it feel like it's taken
awhile to get here. The main story coming off of Monday is Cena
standing toe to toe with Lesnar and being ready to fight on Sunday.
Unfortunately tonight is likely going to be about an hour and forty
five minutes of filler and a few minutes of good build. Let's get to
it.
Opening sequence.
MizTV gets things going
with the host in a red suit. He talks about how awesome it's going
to be when the Hollywood icon gets to defend his title in Hollywood.
Nice touch. His guest tonight is Roman Reigns to a solid ovation.
Miz mentions his mom being a big Reigns fan and asks if Roman is
nervous about his match on Sunday. If Reigns loses, he's going to be
a guy remembered in a vest that was once on MizTV.
Miz keeps cutting him
off and bragging about his movie career, so Reigns punches him out
without standing up. The replays make it look even better as Reigns
made perfect contact. Reigns stares Miz out of the ring and says he
respects the titles Orton has won, but he's coming at Summerslam.
Dean
Ambrose vs. Cesaro
Cesaro is going to be a
lumberjack on Sunday. A quick knee to the ribs puts Cesaro down and
Dean hammers away in the corner. Cesaro comes back with a right hand
of his own and a big clothesline. Dean's cross body is caught but he
slips over Cesaro's back and clotheslines him out to the floor. Dean
follows him out with a plancha and hammers away again. They head
back inside for more punching as it's pretty clear we're not getting
their A stuff tonight. Cesaro whips him shoulder first into the post
and suplexes him on the floor as we take a break.
Back with Ambrose
fighting out of a chinlock and sending him to the floor, setting up a
suicide dive to take Cesaro down. A tornado DDT gets two for Dean
but his arm gives out when he tries for a butterfly suplex. Another
clothesline and Swiss Death get two each for Cesaro. Ambrose starts
to get on his nerves so Cesaro busts out a Burning Hammer of all
things for two. Naturally the announcers ignore it and keep
chattering about the lumberjack match. Cole tries to get “Lunatic
Fringe” over as the name for Dean's comebacks as he hits the
rebound clothesline and Dirty Deeds out of nowhere for the pin at
7:45 shown of 10:15.
Rating:
B-. This started slow but got
WAY better after the break. I can't believe we got a Burning Hammer,
but I can easily believe that Cole and JBL didn't bother to notice
it. It's nice to see Ambrose get a pin over a name but I don't like
that it's at Cesaro's expense. The problem though is who else could
Dean beat? The midcard has been so beaten down that there's almost
nowhere else to go.
Post
match Rollins comes out and explains the idea of a lumberjack match
before declaring himself better than Ambrose.
They were never friends, they were never brothers, and Seth never
cared about Ambrose one bit.
Miz is holding an ice
pack to his face when he runs into Kane. Miz complains a lot so Kane
makes Miz vs. Reigns tonight.
Titus
O'Neil vs. Dolph Ziggler
Before
the match we get a clip of Titus and Heath Slater ruining Hogan's
cake after Raw went off the air this week. Dolph
swivels his hips to start and sends Titus charging over the ropes.
Slater yells at O'Neil to get back in, earning Titus a dropkick to
the face. Titus hammers away in the corner but charges into two
boots to the face. A Stinger Splash has Titus in trouble, only to
have him kick Dolph's head off for two. The advantage is short lived
though as Ziggler escapes a fallaway slam and hits a Zig Zag for the
pin at 3:09.
Rating:
D. Nice job here of making
Ziggler look good heading into the match on Sunday. I can't imagine
they take the title off Miz this soon, even though Dolph has been
ready for a push now longer than most people have careers. Titus and
Slater are fine as a harmless tag team, even though I can't imagine
them ever going anywhere.
Video
on Jericho vs. Wyatt.
Mark
Henry vs. Luke Harper
This
actually has potential. Big Show is out with Henry. They
circle each other to start until Luke tries his luck against Mark's
power. It goes as badly as you would expect with Henry shoving him
out to the floor and staring down at Harper. Back in and a big boot
drops Mark for two before we hit the chinlock. Henry powers up again
and loads up the World's Strongest Slam, drawing in Rowan for the DQ
at 3:07.
Rating:
D. This didn't have time to go
anywhere but there's something interesting to another team. Granted
I'm not wild on having yet another pairing of big power guys but
that's life in the WWE. Big Show vs. Henry down the line doesn't do
anything for me, but you can almost sense it coming.
Big
Show clears the ring.
Mark
Henry/Big Show vs. Wyatt Family
This
is joined in progress after a break as Kane made the match on the
fly. Points to WWE for doing that during a break and not wasting two
minutes of TV time. Big Show chops Harper in the corner and Luke
bails to the floor to avoid a chokeslam. Show goes after him and
Rowan gets in a cheap shot to take over. Erick
comes in legally and drops an elbow for two before choking away on
the ropes.
Harper's
superkick gets two and a big reaction from the crowd. Big Show
fights out of another chinlock and plants Harper with a side slam.
The hot tag brings in Henry who cleans house and loads up Rowan in
the World's Strongest Slam. Big Show nails Erick with the KO Punch
before Henry plants him with the slam for the pin at 5:00.
Rating:
C. I'm kind of in shock but
this was actually pretty good. The Family can wrestle the power
style very well and have the size to match up with Show and Henry but
are lanky enough that they can sell the big power moves like smaller
guys. I wouldn't mind seeing this again and I can't believe I'm
saying that.
LONG
recap of Stephanie vs. Brie. They say Stephanie hasn't had a match
in ten years, even though she competed (very technically) against
Vickie in the mud pit match a few months back.
AJ
Lee vs. Eva Marie
Non-title
again. AJ charges and sends Eva out to the floor but she's able to
snap AJ's throat across the ropes. Back in and AJ snaps, even
ripping Eva's extensions out. Paige comes out but takes a beating as
well, but it causes AJ to get counted out at 2:07.
Paige
kicks AJ in the head and nails a Paige Turner.
Jack
Swagger vs. Bo Dallas
Dallas
takes him into the corner to start and hammers away. That's the
extent of his offense as Swagger shrugs off a spear and grabs the
Patriot Lock for the submission at 53 seconds. So much for Dallas
meaning anything.
Rusev
and Lana come out post match (with
Cole calling the Gold Star the Bronze Medal) and do their usual.
Nothing to see here.
Post
break we get a video of Bo saying he was crawling for the ropes and
not tapping out.
Video
on Lesnar vs. Cena.
Roman
Reigns vs. The Miz
Non-title.
Miz runs from Roman to start, earning a calm smile from the big man.
Miz's hammerlock doesn't work and a left hand has about the same
effect. Now it's time for a chase scene and Reigns is ready for the
sneak attack as they get back in. He pulls Miz to the floor and
sends him into the barricade as the beating begins. Back inside and
Miz goes for the leg to take over. He wraps it around the post and
hammers away on Reigns' back.
Cole
and JBL debate if Miz is really an A-lister as Miz slaps on the
Figure Four. It doesn't stay on long though as Miz opts to punch him
in the head, only to get kicked into the corner. There's
the Samoan drop followed by the apron boot, but Miz rolls away to
avoid the Superman Punch. Ziggler comes out to block Miz's way,
allowing Reigns to NAIL the Superman Punch on the floor. Back in and
the spear gives Reigns the pin at 7:00.
Rating:
C. This was fine and another
former World Champion to add to Reigns' pile. I'm not wild on
another active champion getting pinned but at least it's not a way to
set up a title defense. Miz has a good character but he still isn't
the best in ring worker. A few alterations to his offense and look
could do wonders for him, including tights instead of trunks. The
trunks just don't look right on him and never have.
Overall
Rating: C+. I liked this one
more than I thought I would as they did a nice job of setting up the
pay per view on Sunday. Thankfully there was far less Brie vs.
Stephanie which has been one of the major drawbacks to Raw lately.
It also helps that this show doesn't have the extra hour of filler
matches to dull your brain. Good
stuff here and Cesaro vs. Ambrose was a solid match.
Results
Dean Ambrose b. Cesaro
– Dirty Deeds
Dolph Ziggler b. Titus
O'Neil – Zig Zag
Mark Henry b. Luke
Harper via DQ when Erick Rowan interfered
Mark Henry/Big Show b.
Wyatt Family – World's Strongest Slam to Rowan
Eva Marie b. AJ Lee via
countout
Jack Swagger b. Bo
Dallas – Patriot Lock
Roman Reigns b. The Miz
– Spear
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:
http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6
Some asshole at Sportsnet 360 aired the Roman Reigns Vs Alberto Del Rio main event from 3 weeks ago instead of the Roman Vs Miz match.
ReplyDeleteSeems like i didn't miss much, aside from seeing a secondary champ doing another unnecessary J-O-B.
The story goes that Miz wears the trunks because Vince McMahon fell all over himself saying that Miz had great legs and he needed to show them off and not hide them under the jorts he used to wear.
ReplyDeleteOh...kay.
Moving on, I agree with your assessment. It's a shame he can't wrestle because he's doing this character better than it's been done in the past. Really making it his own.
Reigns-Miz should've been built as a legit upper midcard feud, with Reigns going over in October or something for the IC title to put him on another level before his "big push." Unfortunately, the IC title and Miz are so devalued that it can't accomplish that goal anymore.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how these letter grades translate into star ratings, but the Cesaro/Ambrose match was flirting with **** for me, and Reigns/Miz was kind of eh.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the whole that match was going on that in the good old days, the guy you were pushing to the top got put over for the IC belt first in a big feud.
ReplyDeleteToday if you get the IC belt you know you're never getting near the top. Or in Barett's case you're about to get a shoulder seperation.
That happened with Jericho, too.
ReplyDeleteProbably HHH for that matter.
About 4 stars, maybe slightly lower.
ReplyDelete