WWE Smackdown Live Review : Wild Card Finals 12/27/16

My grade : A
Yea, I’m just going to put it right out there. Watch this show! There was so much about last night’s show that has me excited for the next year. Baron Corbin has officially arrived on the main roster. AJ Styles is the best wrestler in the world, and there is a ton of intrigue in the mid card. Let’s take a look

My Time Is Now
Nobody greets John Cena like Chicago fans. There’s so much hate, yet so much respect that I can tell he loves it. After he did his typical pandering he straight up announced his plans to jump ahead of everybody on the roster and get a title shot. He said it because he’s “John Cena”, and we should recognize! My jaw dropped to the floor, I mean this isn’t quite a heel turn but there is some edge to his character. He addressed the idea that everybody is making plans for his wrestling future with contempt as the Chicago fans chanted Undertaker. He’s taking control of his own destiny, and I like this Cena. Perhaps with Vince McMahon looking to other super stars for the future, maybe a heel tur… nope. I won’t say it.

End of Zig Zag
Most of us expected the triple threat between Styles, Corbin & Dolph Ziggler to be great, but damn. This was everything we could want in a main event. Solid booking, a solid work rate and high stakes. Unlike a lot of triple threat matches, there wasn’t a bunch of waiting around for spots. It was very seamless; I’ll give that credit to AJ.

For most of the match, the major story was the dominance of Corbin. From the start the commentary was asking the question of how they will be able to stop the big man? It escalated to a point were AJ and Ziggler teamed up and did an elbow/leg drop on him through the announce table to kill him.. for the moment. Then Ziggler and Aj had a chess match in the ring, they’re perfect for each other. Unfortunately Corbin missed his spot to save AJ from a near fall, but after that the three left it all in the ring. The End of Days Zig Zag combo move was so good; it finally got the Chicago crowd behind Ziggler.

Rightfully the champ walked away with the win, but this match was so good. It’s rare for all parts involved to leave more over than they were when they started. Ziggler was dead in the water, he was booed during his promo earlier in the night. After this match, he looks like somebody who belongs in the main event. AJ and Cena have so much intrigue to it that I’m on board with 2 or 3 more matches. Going into Wrestlemania season the main event feels fresh and there are a lot of questions on what Cena is going to do.

Arrival
It’s good news that American Alpha won the titles, and it was a huge surprise as well. When Randy Orton knocked Luke Harper off the apron and Orton was hit with the double team, I had no idea what was going to happen. After it did happen I cheered, but then AA just kinda walked to the back with their titles. They were happy but it didn’t feel like the big deal it should have been. This was the culmination of their career dreams finally being realized, but it just seemed like they’ve won another match. I look forward to seeing American Alpha finally live up to their potential though. I’m also curious to how this will affect the Wyatt family. On one hand, this could be another way to further the story between Orton and Bray Wyatt. On the other hand this could be yet another example of the Wyatt’s losing momentum shortly after they’ve finally gained some. Hopefully it’s not the latter.

La WhoChadora?
The title match between Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch was the best they’d had to date. I’ll admit, it was very sloppy at times, but it had such fluidity to it that I almost forgot. There were about 47 pin attempts, but it made for a nice back and forth mat game. It was a safe match for the most part, but it was brutal. Lynch laid it in stiff for most of the match. Confusingly, La Luchadora came out and things got weird. I have no idea what Bliss did, I guess she’s double jointed or something. Either way it was clever enough to fool the audience into thinking something bad happened. La Luchadora slammed Becky’s head into a ring post and Bliss retained with a DDT. So obviously we all are wondering who was this masked wrestler, there were some Micky James chants, so maybe?

All Clear
The rest of the show was just a bunch of entertaining segments, and I don’t mean Vince McMahon entertainment, I mean necessary entertainment. The tiny Miz segments were great. The audience popped pretty good when Dean Ambrose appeared behind the Miz. Whenever he does things that fit his character, the audience will eat it up. They gave us enough of this to want more, but not too much. Also the Lunatic Fringe just had to say something witty to get a good laugh from the Chicago crowd.

They also kept the narratives with James Ellsworth/Carmella and Nikki Bella progressing. Nikki’s promo was a little too Cena for me, but it was decent at advancing the story. Every single segment on tonight’s program had a purpose. That along with the fact that it was only 2 hours and it ended with a 5 star match helps the show seem a lot more succinct. You know what? Just watch the show, there’s nothing else to say.