Yes, I know. I said I was back for good last time and then went away for a few weeks. Again. That’s life my friend, it’s hard. But you know what’s even harder? (rhetorical question). Watching SmackDown Live every week and seeing very little character progression. This is wrestling and not a gritty drama, but if the increasingly ridiculous segments of the Attitude Era taught me one thing, it’s that I want to see Baron Corbin develop into a complete lunatic. Welcome to the most must-see Vulture Hound weekly review in history; welcome to… The SmackDown Review.
A change to proceedings saw Renee Young open the show this week, interviewing AJ Styles about his upcoming Fatal 5-Way match at Fastlane. Baron Corbin and Kevin Owens consecutively interrupted Styles to complain about how they’re not given their fair shot etc etc. Shane McMahon then entered and put Corbin in action against Styles in the main event, and made a singles match between Owens and Dolph Ziggler immediately.
During the match, it looked as though Ziggler was going to get one over on KO until the Show-Off was distracted by Sami Zayn. This allowed Owens to stun Zigglypuff with a superkick and remind us all that Dolph is only there to collect a fat paycheque.
After the break, Jinder Mahal was out in the ring and cut an awkward promo where he criticised Bobby Roode for putting himself at the top of an imaginary top 10 list. Jinder was interrupted by Roode where he then tried to get him to bad-mouth Randy Orton. Presumably, this was an attempt to goad Orton into attacking Roode, but this backfired as the slippery Viper entered and attacked Mahal, with Roode joining in. Orton did then try to RKO Roode but Roode reversed into the Glorious DDT. As Roode celebrated, Mahal snook up from behind and hit him with a Khallas.
I’m getting too old for this shit:
– The Riott Squad once again defeated the team of Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Naomi. To say this is going nowhere fast would be an understatement.
— In a backstage segment, Sami Zayn told Kevin Owens that he wouldn’t have title opportunities if it wasn’t for the help of his best friend. He added, when it comes down to the two of them at Fastlane, he’ll repay the favour by laying down to let Owens become WWE Champion. Aw, that’s nice.
– The New Day defeated Gable and Benjamin to become the No. 1 Contenders for the Uso’s SmackDown Tag Team Championships. This comes after Gable and Benjamin were once again hard done by when Kofi Kingston distracted the referee.
– The Bludgeon Brothers defeated more jobbers.
The End of Days:
The aforementioned main event saw Baron Corbin take on AJ Styles in a non-title match. After a series of reversals, Styles won with the Phenomenal Forearm. Immediately after the match, Zayn and Owens attacked Styles and tried to put him through the announce table, but Corbin laid them both out with the End of Days because he’s hard as nails.