What did you think of WWE SmackDown on Fox?
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0 voters
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Paul from New Jersey
Loved the opening segment. The Rock and Becky were fun, but I also think Corbin deserves credit. Guy plays his position well. Thank goodness KO won. Build him up for Lesnar eventually, that’s a feud I’d love to see. Shocked at the Kofi squash, Cain Velasquez! Hats off to WWE tonight. I guess they will just email us the HIAC card? Wasn’t Austin supposed to be on the show?
Brandon from Oshawa
The set was great. Rest of the show was basic as usual. Nothing special. No new talent getting over on old ones. Corbin should have laid out The Rock.
Charlotte’s moonsault gets worse every time she does it. She almost hits people with her back now. The Cain stuff was ok, but the show ended awkward. AEW wins the week for me.
Andy in Columbus
Super cool new set! It was nice to see Becky get the rub from The Rock. I think that too often they use the legends in a way that doesn’t benefit anyone current. In that vein, the Strowman/Fury thing was pretty neat too. And of course, hot debut for Cain.
Unfortunately, it seems that WWE really overthinks these kinds of “landmark” shows, and they end up feeling all over the place instead of focused on accomplishing anything in particular. Six out of ten.
Jake from The Windy City
I ultimately knew that Kofi was gonna lose tonight, but didn’t think it would be that fast in five seconds. Anyway, the squash is fine, Brock is a monster again and Cain in a WWE ring gave me goosebumps. And Brock sold that fear well.
Other than that it was a good show overall, but I didn’t come away convinced that WWE is making major changes to their approach. And as someone who feels like change is needed, I have a bad feeling that once Rock and the celebrities go away and the WWE Draft has passed, it’s going to be business as usual again in no time. I hope I’m wrong.
1 Like
Jalen from Pickering,
It’s my own fault for thinking this company would do something. I think I was just riding the high of Wednesday.
This is the shiniest coat of paint on the same old same old.
Rock segment went forever and it felt like the rest of the show had to rush because of it.
Having your best thing from Mania lose in 5 seconds to set up a TNA-esque angle over the WWE title feels like a jumping the shark moment. I’m not mad at Kofi losing, but the ending feels like a weird statement of what WWE has become. UFC learned from them, and now they’re using a UFC feud as their top angle
Jesse from the 6
I watched the show tonight online via Sportsnet Now. (I use my mother’s cable log in info; she uses my Netflix). I use Sportsnet Now to watch NHL and Bundesliga matches and it’s fairly reliable. Tonight it worked fine until the main event. As the introductions were beginning, my feed cut out. My internet was working fine but I lost the feed. When I got it working again, I saw Lesnar holding up the title. Thanks Sportsnet. Helluva time to cut out.
I figured Kingston would lose but I didn’t think he’d do worse than his showing against Lesnar in Japan. Damn, why’d they do him like that? Between the squash and Velasquez coming out, not only was Kingston buried he was a complete afterthought. There’s no interest in a rematch now. Was this punishment for . . . getting himself over back in February? I don’t get it. Thoughts?
Take Care
Andrew from Cape Breton
Very good show and a great start to the Smackdown on Fox era. The show went by pretty quickly tonight. A 9 out of 10 show, the only main issue is WWE continues to go out of their way to make some stars look meaningless, Shinsuke Nakamura being an example and everyone who got jobber entrances during the 8 man tag. Poor Kofi though. His title reign was built up well in the beginning, but honestly, he’s felt very much secondary to everything else. It’s like they were putting the title on someone they felt deserved a nice little run before they got back to the real World Title contenders, which is sad. Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing El Toro do some lucha things and make more MMA fighters look for greener pastures in the future.
Sam from Melbourne.
Loved the big feel of the show, felt like I had to see everything instead of just flicking through it.
Thought they could’ve done the Kofi squash a little bit better to atleast give him a shred of dignity, casual fans would find it hard to take him seriously from now on.
Unpopular opinion, but I have never watched UFC in my life so I had no idea who Cain is 
so I find it hard to get hyped about that bit. But I look forward to you guys filling me in about the context of that.
Live wrestling on at 10am on a Saturday morning is the real winner in my household!
1 Like
Martin from Guelph
Just started watching it. I haven’t watched a WWE RAW or SMACKDOWN in over a year— I’m not a technical guy, but are they using a different camera / frame rate or something? The quality of the image looks a lot different than I remember or see on the PPV
Is this a Smackdown only change?
On Fox buffalo they aired a ROH commercial showcasing AJ Styles (Saying part of their history). Smart move.
Sean from Toronto
A better than average episode that literally threw everything but the kitchen sink at the wall. I liked the new Smackdown set a lot better than the Raw one and I liked the set-up of possible Wrestlemania programs involving Tyson Fury/Braun Strowman and Cain Valasquez/Brock Lesner.
However, until the draft happens and we have a solid roster, it is unknown how Smackdown on Fox will be in the long run, however it’s obvious WWE wants this to be their new top show.
Prakash from Michigan
Two words: Utterly Disappointed. I guess I will have to blame myself for it. I had way too high expectations going in tonight. I thought WWE and Fox would come in with guns blazing. I expected high caliber matches, stellar guest appearances and a couple of big surprises. Instead, I got a show that was even more disappointing than regular weekly shows. Even worse than those bad bad Raw episodes. None of the matches impressed me. The Rock was the only entertainment I enjoyed. Even Cain Velasquez “surprise” didn’t do it for me.
Having said that I am cool with the new set. Not overwhelmed but still cool.
4/10
The Rock was easily the best thing on WWE all week. I’m not sure we will get another one like him or Stone Cold. And I will say Baron was really quite good too, he played his role and I don’t know how he didn’t crack a smile once!
I’m not sure the ending was all that impactful. Would you know Cain is legit? He didn’t look very uhm, ring ready. But I do hope he does well because I caught his interview with Ariel and he seemed very genuine with his wrestling passion.
I was expecting more of a change, so why do I feel let down when all they did was turn the WWE knob to 11 .
Chris Thunder from Down Under.
Honestly a good edition of SmackDown, but it felt more of the same for most of the show then a Debut on FOX should have.
The Rock returns to call Corbin a “STD”, honestly 3-weeks from now who does that help. And speaking of 3-weeks from now do you think Shane can stay away for at least that.
The new set was Good, but the major talking point will be Kofi lossing to Brock in seconds. I get the mentality they were going for, many of Rondas UFC opponents charged her and loss quick.
Cain Velasquez & Tyson Fury are to legit sporting names and will be interested to see how this plays out.
QUESTION:
Do you think 205 live is over now and will just entirely be absorbed into NXT?
Dustin from St. Louis
This is my first time leaving feedback, as I usually don’t have time to watch the shows live, so I’m mainly doing it just to say thanks to John and Wai for the incredible coverage on the site, not only this week, but since the site began. You guys are as good as it gets!
As for Smackdown, I found it interesting that Vince and Stephanie had to be the first faces shown on the show although at least they kept it short.
The Rock taught a master class on the mic tonight. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand and I’m glad that Becky got the rub from being with him. Poor Baron…he’s going to be hearing that STD chant for months.
Most of the wrestling was nonexistent and just there to setup Hell in the Cell or future programs. I thought the commercial did a lot of damage to the Ladder match. We go to commercial with Shane’s big elbow and come back with KO splashing Shane on the ladder? What happened in between? Happy to see KO finally get the win though.
Interesting to see if Tyson Fury does anything in the future and really intrigued by Cain and Brock. I’m a big Kofi fan, but I thought things were getting stale with him. Excited to see what’s next. 6/10
Jamie from Royal Leamington Spa
White dude stomps out black hero in seconds. Braun starting an angle with a boxer known for being openly homophobic and sexist and refusing to apologise for it.
Feeling done with WWE. This isn’t what I want to be part of.
WHAT UP DOE , I’ll keep it short guys ,
Set looks amazing. Everything looked clean an
crisp.
2 man booth was great. KO an Shane was match of the night for me.
Crowd was super hot. pretty ok show , 7 out of 10 . Poor kofi
The presentation was amazing. It looked and felt like a Fox Sports presentation, which was a huge plus. The set looked great. I enjoyed the show with the exception of the last ten minutes. I knew Kofi was losing, but I felt Kofi deserved better. Only way I can justify this is if this loss serves as a wake up call, where he has to prove himself to get back what he lost. But it was a nice debut on Fox, with all that being said.
A really awesome debut for Friday Night SmackDown on Fox
I really liked the closing angle.
With Fox having paid so much money for the exclusive tv rights for SmackDown! they want a return on the investment.
Down the road Brock Lesnar v Cain Velasquez will create huge interest.
I think Kofi Kingston will end up getting drafted to RAW and potentially feud with Seth Rollins who may end up turning heel.
All and all the first official episode of Eric Bischoff as Executive Director for Friday Night SmackDown on Fox delivered.
Can’t wait for next Friday to see the follow up angles from both tonight and this Sunday’s Hell In A Cell on WWE Network.
Mike C from Toronto
Overall I thought it was an exciting show. The new set looks great and it had some solid highlights throughout. Downside is how they ended it, I just dont think sacrificing Kofi for Cain was worth it. 8/10