RAW Finally Responded To Being Put Under Siege By SmackDown With A Counter Siege Of Their Own
Welcome to the weekly SmackDown recap! We got a great show last night, save for one embarrassing opening segment, and I’m here to fill you in on what you missed and give my opinions on it. This was the last show the WWE had before Survivor Series and I think they pretty much made the best of it. Let’s do it!
So this is the segment I referenced a few sentences ago, and I’m glad we’re getting it out of the way quick. I usually love when the whole roster is shown getting together and becoming one. The old school drafts where a big player would get the call to RAW and the locker room would celebrate like they won the SuperBowl, that was awesome! It warmed my shitty little heart. This, on the other hand, YIKES! Not good! Passing the microphone around in that tiny room, saying cheesy catchphrases (Becky’s was actually aight), Shane dancing with New Day, it was pretty cringeworthy. Let’s pretend it never happened and move on.
Daniel Bryan played as an advocate for the REIGNING, DEFENDING, UNDISPUTED WWE CHAMPION, “THE PHENOMENAL ONE”, AJ Styles, and put Brock Lesnar in a bodybag. As George Lucas would say, “It’s like poetry, it rhymes.”
I loved Bryan bringing up Lesnar’s UFC debut against Frank Mir when he said he tapped to a half-assed kneebar. It almost felt like he was trying to build his own match against the Beast.
*hmm emoji intensifies*
We’ve been talking a lot about the potential From The Top Rope bump Sin Cara’s gotten since joining us, but tonight, that was shut down. It was his End Of Days. Get it? Because it’s the name of Baron Corbin’s finisher. Alright. This was a fine match and it was even kinda unpredictable given the TV title changes there’s been as of late. Speaking of which…
Charlotte Flair is now your FIVE TIME, FIVE TIME, FIVE TIME, FIVE TIME, FIVE TIME Women’s Champion after defeating Natalya. This was much needed, as predictable as it was. Nobody in their right mind wanted to see Alexa Bliss against Natalya at Survivor Series. It’s just an extremely uninteresting matchup. Now, with Charlotte in that role, we have a match that could…dare I say…MAIN EVENT WRESTLEMANIA! I know people will call me crazy for that, but I believe it one hundred percent. Babyface Alexa Bliss vs heel Charlotte Flair could close out Mania in under five years, and people would love it.
After the match, the waterworks got started…
Before we get to the Ric stuff, WOW! What a promo from Charlotte! This is probably her first babyface promo the crowd responded to so heavily, and of course being in her hometown helped, but the passionate promo based in REALITY helped even more. More promos need to be like this one nowadays. I know things like the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Ric Flair’s health aren’t happening to every babyface struggling to get over, but tell the audience about what these people DO have going on, if they’re open to talking about it. We’ve all got shit. Roderick Strong is a great example of a guy who got a few vignettes to tell his tale, and instantly became beloved in NXT:
Ric surprising Charlotte like this (and I think the surprise was legit) was a beautiful moment, making me think Carmella is cashing in at Survivor Series to grab as much heat as humanly possible.
Chad Gable faced Jimmy Uso and it was fine!
New Day also “talked that shit”, for them, about The Shield, and then all hell broke loose…
RAW finally counter sieged the under siege siege that SmackDown sieged on RAW. It’s about damn time. I hated the first one, because it was unprovoked and kinda shitty of everyone on the blue team, but loved this one. Braun’s music hitting, and Kurt Angle basically unleashing The Incredible Hulk was a game changer.
Shane McMahon bumping always makes me laugh because for some reason he makes it seem like the ring has ZERO give to it. It looks excruciatingly painful. Oh, and you know what else makes me laugh? Kurt Angle. Everything about the guy. The way he stands up is hilarious. Someone on Twitter described it as “always looking for an invisible chair to sit in” and it’s 100% accurate. The guy’s a robot for some reason, incapable of just acting natural.
ANNNNNNNNYWAY, this was fun and really hyped me up for Survivor Series, which we previewed on this week’s From The Top Rope. Listen here!
I’ll have a blog-form preview for you guys on Friday, but for now, enjoy this gif of Goldberg headbutting a Surge machine to get a drink because he had no change on him: