What did you think of WWE SmackDown?
Patrons, tune in live at 10:15pm ET here.
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0 voters
Andy from London (long time listener, first time posting)
I’ve stayed up until 3am to watch the duration of this show and I’m just asking myself, why? There’s just so little to get in to on Smackdown right now - the ratings are in the gutter and rightly so.
The Sasha/Bayley stuff is the best thing going in WWE at the moment, and although I don’t mind the direction for Summerslam with Asuka winning, the ridiculous number of camera cuts took me out of the battle royal. The only other decent thing on this show is Deville/Rose, of which we barely got anything of - just from a 1 min promo from each of them.
On the men’s side, the Hardy/Styles segment was weak, the retribution angles are laughably nonsensical and the rest of the midcard is just a waste of everyone’s time… Oh, and I don’t have any words for the Bray/Braun/Alexa stuff. 3/10 show.
Finally; I just wondered if you guys had any insights in to the location for Summerslam, is there any chance of it being shot on a beach? At this point a radical change in aesthetic might actually be one of the only things they can do to get me interested in the event.
Thanks for the continued great podcasts - your analysis each week provides far more entertainment than the WWE programming itself
McGuire
Let’s just get this out of the way: everything about this Retribution angle sucks, but trapping that guy in the bathroom was pretty funny. It’s a shame Big E has to get roped into this gong show when he should just be winning wrestling matches right now.
Normally I’m not a fan of them, but the women’s battle royale really worked for me! Having no crowd to worry about and pre-taping shows allows most of the performers to hide off-camera without it being too awkward. They were able to tell a lot of small stories over the span of that one match. I was really pulling for Tegan Knox.
If you’d asked me a year ago, I wouldn’t think I could possibly care about a Mandy/Sonya feud, but here we are. Bravo to Mandy on that promo. I’m not really into the Fiend/Brawn/Alexa stuff though. Pretty corny.
It felt like there was barely any wrestling on this show. 5/10
Paul from New Jersey
You know it was over before it started for Retribution when Big E referred to them as the Foot Clan. By the way, have you heard Big E is on a singles run? Hope it doesn’t get absconded. I like the Role Models as well as Asuka, but this feud is starting to get stale for me. The show was dragging up until the brilliance of the PISS. AJ flanked by Abyss, with some sort of nerdy saber metric system was hands-down my favorite thing of the night. Been critical of Alexa’s promos, but she was fantastic in that last segment. Still, not the most iconic show overall. 4.2.
Andrew from Cape Breton
This edition of my Smackdown feedback has been happily brought to you by the law firm of Park, Park and Park. I can’t tell you how happy I was to not only see Joseph Park, but have him seemingly be a new character with AJ Styles. I always loved him in Impact, and in my own head cannon, I like to believe that AJ doesn’t know that Joseph Park is Abyss and I don’t think he was around when it was revealed that he was actually Abyss. This edition of Smackdown I really liked for a few reasons. Obviously the debut of Joseph Park, but as much as I hate the Retribution angle, it got a really nice promo out of Big E that pushed him as a top guy in my eyes and I hope after this nonsense with the Fiend and Braun Strowman is over that they can just give Big E the belt and things get back to normal. I love the idea of a hair vs hair match with Mandy and Sonya, I liked Tegan Nox getting some shine in the battle royal and I liked the return of Kalisto and the potential feud with Cesaro and Nakamura. I’m seeing the voting at 11:17 and I have to disagree and give this episode a 7 out of 10.
Alexander from Portland
Such a weak episode tonight. Chad Gable is an absolute dork, the Cesaro/Metalik match was WWE booking at it’s most boring, and Bald Strowman’s new character direction is just weird. The Strowman/Wyatt feud doesn’t need Alexa’s involvement, so why have her there? Is she getting involved in the SummerSlam match? I heard rumors that WWE is taping Smackdown elsewhere next week. Why is this company so cryptic about itself? Saving grace tonight was seeing Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, and Abyss in the ring at the same time. I got into TNA when these three were main eventers and the thought of seeing Abyss back in action made me smile. Gotta ask, why have him be in the ring tonight if he’s going to remain unnamed? 3/10
question: do you think we’ll get any Payback matches announced before SummerSlam?
Phil from West Virginia
Whats up guys? Do you all have any insight on Pat McAfee and any of the training he’s went through, how it has been going, etc? Pat started punting at West Virginia University the year after I graduated there, I had buddies that had classes with him, met him a couple times. Quite the character way back then. He took that and amplified it throughout his playing and media career no doubt. We’ll see what he’s got haha. Great work as always guys.
I can’t believe Fox and USA are paying this much money for TNA?
Thank god for the women’s division.
Feel like the Amway Center is for Kross’s entrance and retribution stuff because they don’t want to make them seem like even more low rent. He should be taking the title. NXT needs a makeover after Takeover. And move everyone like UE, Lee, Ciampa and Gargano up to the main roster to save us from this TNA reboot. (I loved TNA 2006-Hogan)
God, what a brutal show.
Terrible promos from Strowman and Cesaro/Nakamura.
That Nakamura/Lucha House Party guy match sucked. It’s amazing how little all those people mean and how bad the tag division is in wwe.
They also need to be careful with Big E and Riddle. Both guys have potential but are being made to look bad. That Riddle promo sucked. And if you want to push Big E then push him.
The women’s stuff was good and so was AJ and Joseph Park. I always thought TNA could have done a lot more with that character, I think Vince will love it.
Oh and Retribution is some of the worst stuff I’ve ever seen
Our of curiosity, was the Joseph Park stuff a shot at Tony Khan? I’m behind on the podcasts so if this has been talked about already my bad.
The reason why I ask is because the criticism of Khan in July during FyterFest/GAB was that he was posting spreadsheets to show how he felt AEW actually won the ratings war, and he got quite a few shots thrown at him for being a fanboy. (specifically of Jericho who calls himself the Demo God).
Fast forward a month, WWE introduce a character who acts like a fanboy towards AJ Styles, and uses statistics to prove his guy is the best.
Is it me? Or did anyone else think this while watching?