FEEDBACK: WWE SmackDown 1/23/18

Leave us your feedback and questions coming out SmackDown Live along with your interest level for this weekend’s WWE shows from Philadelphia.

Tune into Rewind-A-SmackDown late Tuesday night.

RATE TONIGHT’S EPISODE OF SMACKDOWN LIVE:

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0 voters

Chris from Melbourne, Australia.

Just to top off the dreadful show last night we get a rather luck luster go home SmackDown, however I’m relived they didn’t beat Auska on Mixed Match Challenge, judging by the results.

Decided to watch 205live tonight for the first time since last May, mainly just to see how’d they’d address the news. It still looks like everyone is caught in multi-man tag / mid card purgatory. Needless to say regardless of what happens with the Championship and a new General Manager, I won’t be watching again.

1 “Sub-par TV weeks” outta 10.

Anthony in Philly:

On its own merits, this probably wasn’t a memorable SmackDown worth going out of your way to see. By “go-home” show standards, aside from what looked to be an injury angle with Kevin Owens, there wasn’t much to add more intrigue to the show.

But coming off of what felt like a massive disappointment in RAW 25, combined with one of the best SmackDown crowds in a while, it sure made the show fly by, feel enjoyable, and reinvigorated me a bit for Sunday. After last night, that’s about as good as anything I could have hoped for. I’m just upset I saw a better Nakamura/Corbin match here than when I went to Battleground last year and it was maybe Nakamura’s worst match ever.

7 “Rachel Bilson” signs out of 10.

Question: Now that all the shows are done, would you like to make your Rumble match winner predictions now?

Chris in Florida

Opening segment is already an improvement over last night. Great promo’s as per usual from Owens and Zayn. Styles cut a respectable babyface promo but they gotta ditch this Kammy nonsense. It makes AJ look like such a moron. On the plus side the stip means we got two Styles matches.

Skipping ahead to Nakamura and Corbin. This match pissed me off (at least until the ending). Nakamura was selling his ass off this match and Corbin was no selling or botching half the moves Nakamura was trying to give him. Corbin is just not a very good wrestler. Great suprise ending with the RKO to Nakamura (who again, sold the shit out of it). Didn’t see that coming.

Not having Rusev Day cut a promo seemed like a huge missed opportunity. The crowd was extremely hot for this match (a really great crowd overall I thought) and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t cause of Roode and Majhal.

Owens vs AJ was short but the story at the end was well laid out, with the missed cannonball, selling the leg into the Calf Killer that AJ wouldn’t release. AJ vs Zayn is a match I really want to see more of as I think they are two of the top workers on Smackdown. What we got here was pretty solid though, loved the snap-style Michinoku Driver from Zayn. One wonders if the leg injury angle with Owens will set up more of a prolonged battle between AJ and Zayn at the rumble. I think that match has potential to be excellent.

7.5 Knees to the Face out of 10

Tom from Charlottesville, Virginia

After what I thought was a very disappointing RAW last night, SmackDown delivered to me. It was a below average show for the most part, and I was ready to come on here and bash the show and give it a 3/10 or something, but I thought the AJ vs Owens and AJ vs Zayn matches were the best things to happen on SmackDown in a while, it got Zayn over as a credible challenger to the title, and added a few wrinkles to the AJ Styles character. He’s still a face, but he showed some heel tendencies for the first time in like ten months, and I think its way more interesting when characters exist on a spectrum vs just good or bad like how Tanahashi adjusts the mocking level of his air guitars based on opponent.

7 “is Randy Orton actually interesting?” thoughts out of 10

Smackdown came out swinging in the first few innings with the AJ, Sami and Kevin Promos and the Jey Uso Chad Gable match. That lead would be Squandered though by Booking and the Creative Team as they failed to once again come up with new and fresh ways to build the Royal Rumble PPV. Luckily for Smackdown, both Sami Zayn and AJ Styles homered in the ninth as Smackdown barely squeaks by with a 6-5 victory.

1 Like