A new SmackDown General Manager is announced, Daniel Bryan faces AJ Styles as a newly heel Shinsuke Nakamura lurks, an NXT duo makes their debut, and Carmella cashes in her MITB contract.
205 Live features the first appearance of new champion Cedric Alexander, Drew Gulak vs. Mark Andrews, and a sleeping fan who has clearly had his fill of Mania weekend.
John and Wai also discuss their thoughts on NXT TakeOver: New Orleans and WWE 24: Raw 25.
This was without a doubt the Best Takeover show. The ladder match alone is the best NXT match they ever had period. I’m calling it right now as match of the year. It’s one the best matches anywhere in years an instant all time classic. Olmos vs Black was Great as well. Everything was spot on. The triple threat tag match was Great as well and the turn from Rodrick Strong joining the Undisputed Era was such a good moment. It reminds me of the old 4 horsemen days. Gargano vs Ciampa was a great old school grudge match like the old NWA days with the different violent matches they had. Ember Moon vs Shayna Basler was a short match but it had some good spots and the title change was a timing switch. So to me this should of been the feeling Wrestlemania gave us and always gives us. They represented everything they should be displayed in the grandest stage. They have lots of wrestlers on the main roster that can perform like this but haven’t in awhile. As far as Smackdown after Wrestlemania this was done very well. Things actually happened. We got answers and results that gave us exciting moments. Paige was introduced at the very beginning of the show as the new GM even though I would have preferred Eric Bishoff. The Uso’s had another really good match with the New Day but New Day has to end. They need to either make them the New Nation Of Domination and make them serious putting them in world title or I.C. and U.S. picture or just split them up with the shake up and Kofi to go into the World title picture and Big E. Could also be in the World title picture with Xavier in the I.C. or U.S. picture. Carmella cashed in the money in the bank contract and beat Charlotte after Billy K and Peyton Royce debuted and attacked Charlotte leaving you with a satisfied moment. Then we got a big main event with Styles vs Bryan and Shinske inferring in the match beating both men up with his new heel gimmick and debuting his new heel attire. This was a one of the best Smackdowns in awhile and was definitely much better than Raw.
The Raw 25th anniversary documentary was very enjoyable and done well like most of the WWE documentaries but the actual Raw 25th anniversary show was a piece of shit pretty much. The only good things on it were the beginning segment with Stone Cold, Vince and Shane as well as the I.C. title match with the Miz vs Roman Reigns and Miz regaining the title. The other alright moment was seeing Trish and some of the other Diva’ s we haven’t seen in awhile. However I think if we didn’t see Trish until the Royal Rumble it would of made it much more special but it was still good to see some of those women back. The rest of the show was shit! They didn’t even go out of their way to get any of the bigger legends on the show that were a big part of the success of Raw. I know Bret had wrist surgery but they could of had a tribute and Big video package of some of his moments on Raw. He was the top guy from the very start of the show to when he left in 97. It’s pretty obvious the WWE tries to pretend Bret Hart didn’t ever exist. They hardly mention him, show video, pictures or have specials on him. Anyways they didn’t bring Hogan back either or The Rock or some the wrestlers we haven’t seen it heard from in awhile , Val Venus, Dlo Brown, Bart Gunn, Damian Domento, Marty Janetty, Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Tiger Ali Singh, Vader, Sid, Scott Steiner, RVD, Batista, Sting, and even some WCW wrestlers we haven’t seen in awhile that were part of the Monday night war. They just had the same old regular legends that are always around like APA, Million Dollar Man, Arm Anderson, Ric Flair, etc. They did have Tatanka which eas cool even though he didn’t do anything and MVP who was hardly there. It just felt like why even bother celebrating 25 years of your not going to go all out. The last segment was just the Kliq feeding there egos. They were in the ring for what reason I don’t know for about 30 minutes talking and just standing around while the newer wrestlers interacted with them like Balor giving them the too Sweet. It was so stupid and then Scott Hall who was being introduced as Razor Ramon comes out in a Outsider suit jacket to the Razor Ramon theme music. It made no sense. No gold chains and Bad guy vest. It was a pathetic show for the most part.
Paige smashed it as GM I felt, and this whole episode of SmackDown was really enjoyable, which I was worried about after watching RAW and being thoroughly underwhelmed by everything on it.
Great show. I liked the discussion about the logic behind the women’s title change. My take on that situation is long term I believe they want Charlotte to at least tie her father’s record so in order to win the title 16 times, she will have to first lose the title 15 times.