This week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown on Fox saw an overall improvement in the quality of the programme compared to the week prior. As we head towards the TLC PPV this Sunday, things have been heating up in leading storylines for the Blue brand. Welcome to the most must-see VultureHound review in history; welcome to… the SmackDown Review.
Results:
– Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross defeated Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville.
– The Revival defeated Mustafa Ali and Shorty G.
– Bayley defeated Dana Brooke.
– Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Heavy Machinery.
– The New Day defeated King Corbin & Dolph Ziggler via DQ.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwKqpVYlgXw]
Bradley’s Best Bits:
The show got underway with King Corbin and Dolph Ziggler in the ring to gloat about humiliating Roman Reigns on last week’s show and promised things would get much worse if the large canine decided to show up tonight. The New Day interrupted when their names were mentioned. This led to an exchange between both sides where the main event of Kofi vs Corbin was set.
In the final stretch of the episode, the match between Kofi and Corbin was thrown out due to disqualification after a brawl broke out between the New Day members and Corbin and Ziggler. After the show returned from the final ad break, Big E demanded a tag-team match between the sides which was granted.
As the contest went on, Reigns music played and he unleashed a series of punches on anyone in his way, including The Revival, who arrived to attack New Day who they will face in a Ladder match on Sunday. Corbin caught Reigns off guard but the babyface fought him off with a Superman Punch. After a ladder was introduced by Ziggler, Reigns met him at the top where he threw the Show-Off crashing through the announce table below. A strong message of intent from Reigns ahead of his Table, Ladders and Chairs match with Corbin this Sunday.
Even in defeat to The Revival, Mustafa Ali and Shorty G continue to impress as a makeshift tag-team. The former Chad Gable’s natural wrestling ability coupled with Ali’s incredible aerial assault is a combination with much more to give. However, it wasn’t enough to beat The Revival who are currently delivering on their promise to return the tag team division to old school wrestling with their hard-hitting attack. Wilder and Dawson were able to win the match after they caught a diving Ali with a Shatter Machine.
Renee Young was with The Miz at his house for a sincere interview regarding the A-Listers feelings towards Daniel Bryan and the danger of The Fiend. Miz went on to say that despite the history between himself and Bryan, he cares for the safety of his former arch-enemy out of respect as a fellow family man. Fatherhood has changed The Miz and this was the centre point of his interview when he said, “family is the most important thing to me”.
Before Miz could answer the question of if he was afraid of taking on Wyatt, his wife Maryse screamed from elsewhere in the house. Miz raced to find her where he saw a baby monitor of his daughter surrounded in her cot by the Firefly Fun House characters. When they arrived in her room, they found a brand-new doll dressed like The Fiend. Following this, Wyatt hosted a new episode of the Firefly Fun House where he said he trained himself to not feel pain anymore so he can help show The Miz not to feel love either. The pair face each other at TLC this Sunday!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WLx2w5-I8Q]
We once again got to see tag team action, this time from the emerging Sami Zayn managed the team of Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro against Heavy Machinery. As we have seen quite a lot in recent weeks, Tucker became isolated until Otis was able to spark the comeback for the babyface duo. Yet, following The Caterpiller from Otis, Zayn provided a distraction that allowed Nakamura to claim the win for his team. Whilst this didn’t serve much of a purpose, it is great to see this band of incredible talent together and looking impressive in the process.
For Fox Sake:
Before Bliss and Cross could get into the ring, they were attacked by Fire & Desire. Yet, this early assault wasn’t enough for Deville and Rose to claim the win and actually ended up losing very quickly. Cross scored the pinfall but this was a less than inspiring for the first match of the night.
Without Sasha Banks by her side, Bayley looked to prove that she is a convincing champion that can go it alone. She made the most of her match with Dana Brooke by claiming a fairly quick victory. The sad thing about this one was that it did nothing to further Bayley’s feud with Lacey Evans and killed any possible momentum that may be behind Dana Brooke. Brooke did get to land a Batista Bomb though, which was a nice little reference to her very public flirting with Dave Batista.
All pics and videos courtesy of WWE.