WWE SmackDown Live Review 11/1/16

Ok, You got me.
In this day in age in the WWE, it’s extremely rare for the fans to get a actual payoff to a storyline previously setup. But Smackdown turned around a lackluster show by finally giving Ellsworth what he so annoyingly has been wanting all night. I will have to cast shame on them for the awful journey we had to take to get there, though. The first segment was pretty bad. I feel like I’ve been seeing Ellsworth beg for Dean’s approval for too many minutes of my life.

The crowds reaction to AJ Styles over the two baby faces is about as much as we should take. Aj as a heel being cheered isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it’s definitely going to make things harder in the future. And considering the amount of baby faces on the roster worthy of a title shot; they’ll need all the help they can get. AJ used Ellsworth to hit Dean Ambrose with the phenomenal elbow. It didn’t make sense that Dean was more mad at Ellsworth than Styles.

Most of the night consisted of Ellsworth begging Ambrose to let him be at ringside during his match. They really hammered this in hard, all night ad nauseam. Actually to a point when I legitimately thought it was satire. Everyone was looking bad in the process too. Ellsworth started to look annoying and Ambrose looked like a jerk. So yea, it was great to see all that pay off, but we’re not going to get any of that time back.

I will say, the main event was a good match. Ambrose & Styles have matched up so much that their chemistry is quickly evolving. They worked a slightly different style than normal, it helped freshen up the match. The spot when the two countered the hell out of each other was smooth and quick. But I wanted to punch Ellsworth in the face when he was running around with security, distracting from the match. But yea, yea…payoff.

Actually Pretty Awesome
Daniel Bryan and The Miz used Survivor Series to bring back up their bad blood from that Talking Smack episode a few weeks back. The look in Miz’s eyes when DB said he was afraid to fight was the same look he had when he gave that seething promo. Seeing Bryan get heated up was a welcome sight even if he isn’t going to have a match, it reminds us of why we like him.

I was hoping the open challenge would lead to a good match, but obviously it didn’t. At least I got to see Dolph Ziggler relaxed for the first time in awhile. And I love how he lured Miz into a title match at Survivor Series, using his willingness to defend his title against the Miz. This has potential to lead to a great blowoff at Survivor Series.

I Hear Voices
It’s stupid for Randy Orton to be joining the Wyatts. This occurred to me when Bray said there are some that don’t approve of Orton joining and gestured to Harper. It reminded me of a comedy bit about a kid joining a gang of guys who think they’re cool, but they get beat up all the time. Also if he’s doing it as part of a diabolical plan to break up the Wyatts from within then it’s going to feel tame. With all that being said, I love the hell out of this. It’s wierd, it’s different, and somehow fun to see Orton chanting with the Wyatts and having glory eyes. So yea, go crazy.

Qualifiers
For some reason American Alpha had trouble putting away The Spirit Squad. They’ve been defined down to a point where they can’t even get a decent crowd reaction. The match was short and forgettable like most of the other matches.

The Usos faced the Headbangers because there’s no one else. I’m not even sure why they bothered to have a match in the first place. The worst part about this match was not only that it was short and forgettable, but the Usos won with a roll up instead of at least going over strong.

Women’s Tag
The women’s tag match seemed like it was going to get a little bit of time, but it ended almost as swiftly as the other matches. Becky Lynch got the hot tag and had a really hot flurry, looking fired up to be back in the ring. Unfortunately all it took to put Becky away was 3 moves a eye rake and a ddt. That’s all it took. So let’s hope next week will be the opposite.

A rough night for Smackdown, actually it’s just a bad night. Ambrose and Styles are not enough to make this a good wrestling show. One good wrestling match is all we got. We should be holding them at higher standards whether they have to build for PPV’s or not. We deserve more than one good wrestling match on top of a pile of short matches with lazy finishes.

My grade: C-