Sevan From New Jersey
Hey Guys! Let’s start from the beginning love the new set. Smackdown tonight was a very easy watch and good job by wwe to start the 1st match on Fox with the women. I did think that they could’ve balanced their time with the segments better. I thought they could’ve taken away from the Roman/Rowan match and given Kofi a little more time. I thought Corbin hanging with the rock on the mic speaks volumes as to how far hes come. Corbin has been very entertainmenting lately and I’ve really enjoyed his work. Nice touch to have Erin Andrews there as well. As far as the last segment with Cain Velasquez, Brock/Cain have to be the most uncharismatic monsters I’ve ever seen. What they did to Kofi was really unnecessary, they could’ve given him at least a few mins to get something in. Did this show do anything to hype up Hell in the Cell?
Dave in Boston
As a fan of the NFL, having Erin Andrews interview backstage did bring some legit cred to WWE so that was a nice touch.
Cole and Graves were the same as always, not great.
Having Brock pretend to quiver in fear to an out of shape Cain was a bit laughable. Cain should have kept his shirt on.
Braun and Tyson Fury now that should be fun.
Is it safe to say Raw is the show that is even more skippable now?!
WWE wont be putting any effort into it now right?!
I usually don’t get to post since I go to bed before Raw and Smackdown are over for work. But I got to see a full show for once. But I forgot the West wasn’t live and I got spoiled by Twitter.
No matter, there really wasn’t a lot of substance to the show, just a lot of window dressing. Baron got completely buried then a truck was parked on the grave. A nothing 8 man tag and a champion face Rollins afraid of his opponent. I don’t see myself going out of my way to watch on Fridays.
However, I did enjoy KO clearing his throat before he yelled your fired.
In regards to the WWE Title match, I don’t mind WWE ending Kofi’s reign, his title matches have been strangely heartless, he hasn’t caught fire and he hasn’t evolved as a character. What bothers me is that WWE won’t use this has a chance to see Kofi grow as a character, he’ll just be happy pancake man, probably on Raw, that I’m expected to take seriously still despite him just losing his title in 8 seconds. Hope I’m wrong.
I thought it was an average show. Can’t believe they didn’t at least try a soft reset on some angles and storylines. Firefly Funhouse is not what you’d expect from a sports oriented show. I saw a hilarious tweet of a picture of Fox executives in the front row looking baffled after it aired.
Was thinking there was little here to entice someone to tune in next week until the Cain stuff happened. It has me legitimately had me interested. Not sure how he’s gonna be in a one-on-one match but I think it would be hilarious if they did Cain vs. Brock in a UWFi rules match or a Lion’s Den match.
Jeremy from The Suite
Granted I haven’t watched a Smackdown live in a very long time, but this show felt all over the place. The thing that sticks with me the most is just taking Kofi’s title reign and throwing it straight into the garbage. He gets squashed in 8 seconds, never became the serious character we all wanted him to evolve into, and instead will probably be dropped immediately to the lower midcard.
Oh well.
Wow…way to ruin any credibility Kofi had as champion and make him look like a total loser. I get the Cain Velasquez intro being a big deal, but they made Kofi into a nothing champion in 5 seconds. At least give him a good match, or have Cain come out mid match as Cain Brock doesn’t need the title. Honestly the highlight of the show was the opening and women’s match. It is clear that they see Becky as a top star. After that it was a big spectacle but a very disappointing show. Especially after Wednesday this came off as a huge flop for me.
Really enjoyed this show, but good god did that finish leave a bad taste in my mouth. They did Kofi so dirty to end his title reign like that. If its somebody else in Brock’s spot, if garners a different reaction, but when its Brock the heat goes away from him and onto the company and the booking. Makes me just want to not watch at all.
On top of that, the Velasquez debut was very lackluster. He did not look to be in great shape and, on a personal level, I am sick of seeing non full timers as the only capable opponents when it comes to fighting Brock Lesnar. Why should I tune in EVER if everyone on the show every week is a geek? Tonight is further proof of that.
Overall, a good show with a very strong start, but the end left such a bad taste in my mouth that if the draft was not next week I would not tune in next week or the foreseeable future. WWE had my curiosity and they massacred my attention. 5 out of 10.
Jeremy in Texas,
That first segment with The Rock must have run long because this show felt very rushed. Why did they advertise all these legends for this show and barely use them? It’s great they wanted to showcase their stars but why waste advertising a Stone Cold and a very brief Goldberg cameo, among others.
Hated to see how they ended Kofi’s reign with a quick squash, but it was clearly done to setup the angle with Cain and showcase Brock as the monster he is.
Week 1 will likely do a solid number and was a good show, but doing this every week isn’t sustainable.
Matt front Bowmanville
If anyone thought that Vince thought Kofi was more than just a sentiment champion was proven severely wrong tonight. Wondering if the Cain Velasquez reveal could have had more hype. Personally, I know who Velasquez is from podcasts and reading MMA results, but couldn’t pick him out of a crowd. Wondering how many fans on TV and in attendance actually knew that was Velasquez when Rey showed up. Overall, I was impressed by the show, but let down by the last 10 minutes.
This is the first event I’ve ever felt compelled leaving feedback for. I’m putting blinders on everyone else’s feedback; groupthink feels so common when I listen to the feedback on the podcasts. I don’t want to post a breakdown review but I do want to talk about how this show made me feel as a wrestling fan. Excluding the taped Smackdowns on UPN and syndicated ROH shows, this is the first time in DECADES that a major wrestling promotion has aired on broadcast TV, and more importantly, LIVE. It felt great seeing Smackdown on an uncompressed 720p feed. It felt great knowing that I was watching this for free; if I cut off my DirectvNow sub tomorrow I can still watch two hours of WWE programming FOR FREE. The set felt fresh. The camera angles weren’t comical. There was actual pyro. This was visually what I demanded as a wrestling fan and I wouldn’t be embarrassed to show a friend. I felt like I was allowed to just drink it in and it was so fun looking at wrestlers and going “he’s not serious enough to be on SD…”
While the wrestling left a lot to be desired, and the surprise interactions lingered way too long, I have almost decided based off this episode that I can no longer watch or even attempt to listen to the three hours of Raw. Smackdown is now the A show in my mind and I can comfortably scale down to just 2 hours of live programming with the WWE Network for PPVs and this family of podcasts for Raw/NXT and I guess AEW reviews (only Luchasaurus appeals to me at the moment)
There’s so many reviews that I doubt this makes the podcast, so on a personal note, I initially bought a sub in Jan as it felt weird listening to these guys for seemingly a decade and not supporting them. My wife bought the $25 level for a bunch of months for my birthday just for the swag and interacted with Wai. She stated Wai was one of the nicest people to interact with and she bought me bags of Hi Chew as Wai couldn’t import them into America. Though she hates waking up to various Post Wrestling podcasts, she does enjoy the idea of nice people running a business. I guess they’ll be taking my money in some various form for life now.
If WWE needed my money or my views they wouldn’t want Saudi’s blood money. I didn’t watch, haven’t watched WWE since the first Saudi show. They are simply an evil company now. I hope AEW buries Vince like he did the Von Erichs, the Gagnes, and the Crocketts. I sincerely hope WWE fails.
I have to say: I freaking love the Cain introduction and the reasoning for it. As Cain is a self-admitted fan of lucha libre, and who is more synonymous with lucha than Rey Mysterio. Now Cain is fighting his former rival in his hero’s name. Freaking awesome stuff.
Did you guys get appearances from Hogan, Flair, and Foley on TV? For the live crowd, they just seemed to come out and sit ringside. We kept expecting an angle or something with them, but they just disappeared at one point.
After the show, the crowd was audibly pissed Austin didn’t come out for them.
We stuck around for a bit after Smackdown and there was no sign of 205 Live. Did they cancel the show and not announce it? There wasn’t even a dark match.
Mj
I really liked @Cam feedback so I’ll add only this.
WWE started Friday Night Smackdown Live on Fox with an appearance from Vince and Stephanie and then the RAW Women’s Champion. I don’t care if Becky is the best thing going in the company, it’s the wrong F’n Brand! And the Vince cameo was so unnecessary. Let us never forget even for a night of firsts that he’s the only person that ever matters in this company.
Also the Snackdown Women’s Champ took the pin. I honestly thought this was an average show at best. The matches were rushed and they still haven’t learned that you don’t have to cram every superstar into a show just because it’s the start of a new series.
You had the Universal Champ (Raw) nearly best the Intercontinental Champ (Smackdown) nothing like flattening the value of two major titles on one show.
Why were Roodolph chosen for that 8-man tag but the revival, SmackDown tag champs weren’t ?
I smelt what the Rock was cooking and it was a big Ike pot of spicy charisma.
Kofi deserved to go out better than that, after the speech I thought was well done it felt odd to see him get flattened.
Don’t know much about Cain but he seemed like a big deal, I know more about his fandom of Wrestling than I do his MMA career.
Why is Brock afraid of him? Because he beat him? So did Seth, twice why isn’t he shitting his pants whenever he hears “burn it down”
The episode was just poorly paced the highlight was the set. A passable show because of the Rock and Becky segment.
Thanks for the note Cam!