On today’s news, plans for Daniel Bryan’s original AEW debut have been changed, backstage
news on Bianca Belair, a review of SmackDown, and a review of Rampage.
I still refuse to dance to get you to subscribe. I will use the power of my words instead.
Subscribe. Do it. Or you will regret it. With CM Punk’s AEW debut now officially
in the rearview mirror, attention has turned to the speculated, and reported and oh god
it’s really happening isn’t it, arrival of “The American Dragon” Daniel Bryan
Danielson. Do we call him Daniel, Bryan, or Danielson? Maybe if we just call him Bryan
we can be right both ways. Interest picked up on Wednesday when CM Punk
teased Bryan’s impending AEW debut on Dynamite. Now, Bodyslam.net has reported some new information
about when we might see him for the first time.
The original report had indicated that AEW’s Arthur Ashe Stadium show would be the site
of Bryan’s debut. However, it appears that it might be coming sooner than initially thought.
The new report states that Bryan will be debuting at next week’s All Out as a way to capitalize
on the buzz stemming from CM Punk’s debut. Andrew Zarian also tweeted today that AEW
All Out will be an awesome show with a few surprises. There are a number of big names
who have been rumoured to be appearing for AEW in the near future such as Adam Cole,
Ruby Soho and Bray Wyatt, though the latter is still under his non-compete clause, but
Daniel Bryan could easily be one of those surprises. And if he is you can bet your ass
I will be crying seeing it live… Tempest wrote this, not me, the dickhead. I will not
be seeing All Out live. Thanks Tempest. While many had been excited about the potential
return of Becky Lynch, the return itself had a lot of fans frustrated by the treatment
of Bianca Belair. Lynch made her surprise return at SummerSlam,
filling in for the absent Sasha Banks, and beat Bianca Belair for the SmackDown Women’s
Championship in just 25 seconds. Needless to say, people didn’t like that.
But how did people backstage at WWE react? Well, Fightful Select reported that Belair
was in good spirits backstage despite the fan backlash to the match. The report states:
“WWE officials applauded Belair's attitude, and noted that she quickly got ready to attend
WWE's red carpet after party and participated in media after her loss with a smile on her
face.” The report also covered the reactions of the
general backstage crew, with the reactions being much more varied than Belair’s herself.
Sapp said: “The reactions we gained from talent and
staff we spoke to were somehow mixed with genuine shock, to not being surprised. Bianca
Belair is widely known as a professional, who makes the best out of every situation
she's put in creatively. Another source we spoke to said they believe there is an actual
plan in motion for this story.” Belair did become the number one contender
to Becky Lynch on SmackDown so it appears there is a plan of some sort in plan as of
this moment. Hopefully they can see it through. If you didn’t catch it yesterday either,
the new NXT logo has been revealed as part of the rebrand of the show - and it’s...it’s
different isn’t it? I don’t think I hate it at least? Colours are nice. But rest in
peace Triple H’s dark, grungy, heavy metal, brooding NXT.
And now it’s time for my review of last night’s post-SummerSlam SmackDown in about
5 minutes. The show began with Becky Lynch, who cut a
pretty good promo, saying that if you thought she was dangerous before when she was just
fighting for herself, you have no idea how dangerous she’s about to be. She then apologises...for
absolutely nothing at SummerSlam, which brings out Bianca Belair who wants a rematch.
They get interrupted by Zelina Vega, Carmella and Liv Morgan, with Morgan pointing out that
neither of the other two actually deserve a title shot considering they literally never
win. Bianca then says the other three have lost
their minds, so what do you say Becky? Let’s do a rematch, and Becky simply says ‘nah’
and then walks out. That’s a really nice dynamic honestly, with Bianca accepting Becky’s
challenge at SummerSlam, and Becky refusing hers now, it’s some good heel work, and
I’m more on board with this heel turn than I was before.
The other four start fighting and after an ad break, it’s turned into a number one
contender’s Fatal 4-Way Elimination match, and after Carmella and Zelina Vega are obviously
best friends because they helped out Sasha Banks that one time, Carmella then tries to
roll up Zelina, which makes absolutely no sense because it’s an elimination match.
Work together to eliminate everyone else you idiots.
Bianca KOD’d Zelina and eliminated her, while Liv Morgan hit her finish, I forget
the name, and eliminated Carmella. Morgan and Belair put on a really good final two
portion of this match, and I got quite into it by the end. Belair won clean, but Morgan
looked great in defeat. This was honestly a pretty good opening segment
all things considered, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Paul Heyman backstage sneers at Kayla Braxton for asking where he stands between Reigns
and Lesnar, before attempting to enter Roman Reigns’ locker room, but it’s locked.
The Usos come out and insinuate that Heyman knew Lesnar would be there at SummerSlam,
which is why he sent them to the back before Reigns’ match, and they vaguely threaten
him while still maintaining that positive tone. They go back into the locker room and
Heyman waits outside, and I’m already really into this story. This felt like the whole
dynamic between the four of them is back on track after it went a bit cold for a couple
of months. Chad Gable then faced Cesaro - yes please
more of that - but Otis caused the DQ as Cesaro went for the swing. I swear they’ve done
the same Otis story for months now. Gable has a match with someone, Otis causes a DQ
in that match, then the person faces Otis in a match, and that person loses. Gable looks
incompetent, and Otis looks strong. Rinse and repeat, with absolutely zero progression.
Kayla Braxton is waiting for Roman to arrive as a car pulls up, but it’s not Reigns,
it’s Baron Corbin, who won it big in Vegas, and has his money and his life back on track.
He tells her to call him Happy Corbin - so we’ve finally arrived at the reported end
goal of this story, to turn him into Happy Corbin. I heard that name originally, and
I rolled my eyes. But once again, I was pleasantly surprised.
Happy Corbin came out to the ring with his new theme music of slot machines, dressed
to the nines, champagne in the ring, and he was a proper obnoxious dickhead the entire
time. Yknow, I really didn’t hate this at all, and if the last few months weren’t
evidence enough, I will give Corbin massive props for fully committing to every single
character he’s given. He really tries his best to make everything work, and I really
think this did. Corbin brought out Big E and tried to buy
the Money in the Bank briefcase off him, but E refused, before eventually telling him to
get out of the ring or he’ll slap the smile off his face. So Corbin left the ring, still
smiling, still profiling, still just being a happy lad. I genuinely really liked this,
I thought Corbin did a fantastic job. We then got back to back promos from Edge
and Rollins, where Edge said he had to go a place where he was the most savage version
of himself, and says he’s moving on to the Universal Championship, while Rollins says
he learnt a lesson at SummerSlam, and that he needs to make himself more like Edge in
order to fight his way back to the Universal Championship. I swear if Rollins comes out
and calls himself the Rated R-ollins Superstar… Roman Reigns finally arrived backstage and
found Heyman standing outside his locker room looking completely out of place and almost
cowering in fear, but Reigns lets him into the locker room. Heyman is absolutely terrified
of Roman turning on him, and I love that this is the direction they’ve gone in.
We then got a tag match of Nakamura & Boogs vs Ziggler & Roode, which Boogs won with a
Pumphandle Slam. I like that move. The match was fine.
Naomi appeared backstage - woah more women on SmackDown? - saying she was excited to
be the newest member of the SmackDown roster, but Sonya Deville completely no sold it, saying
she doesn’t know if she measures up and she’ll get back to her next week about her
first match back. Yay for more women, and yay for Naomi.
Rey Mysterio then tells Dominik that he needs to fly by himself, he’s booked an opponent
for him tonight, a surprise opponent and Dominik needs to learn by himself, so Rey won’t
help him. By yourself Dom, remember that. No help from Rey.
So the surprise opponent turned out to be Sami Zayn, which was an odd decision to announce
as a surprise opponent, but sure let’s go with it, and after Dom got into some trouble,
out came Rey to ringside. Good job you’re letting him fly solo Rey and not offer help
from ringside, like literally every other week you do that.
Sami Zayn eventually won clean with an Exploder Suplex into a Helluva Kick - when’s the
last time Sami actually did that? - and after the match Dom gets annoyed and starts rejecting
Rey’s help getting to his feet and starts walking off to the back.
The Bloodline are about to make their entrance for the main event segment, a family celebration,
and Heyman offers the Universal Title to Reigns, who insists Heyman comes out with them, because
he is family. He loves him. Heyman is so scared, and he sells it with every single movement
and facial expression, it’s amazing subtlety honestly.
The four of them enter and Heyman asks the crowd to acknowledge Roman, The Usos and the
fact that Cena isn’t around anymore, when they’re interrupted by Finn Balor, who says
he hasn’t forgotten about Cena, and he was originally going to challenge Reigns at Extreme
Rules, but he doesn’t want to wait around so he instead wants a title match next week
on SmackDown. They get into a brawl, and then The Street Profits came down to offer assistance
to Balor, with the three of them standing tall to end the show.
Street Profits are a weird choice after losing to Alpha Academy, but it was fun enough, and
I’m sure they’ll put on some good matches with The Usos. Can’t for Montez Ford vs
Jimmy, and then Dawkins vs Jey, and then Ford vs Jey, and then Dawkins vs Jimmy. I’m also
quite glad they didn’t drop the Balor story, so at least that will have some resolution.
So that was the show, let me know what you thought in the comments and by voting on our
Community tab poll, where 54% of you, this might be the closest poll we’ve ever had,
voted for Balor vs Reigns! But for real this time!
This SmackDown was much better than ones in previous weeks, as we had the continuation
of the Becky/Belair story which started at SummerSlam, a new challenger for Reigns that
isn’t Lesnar right away, others vying for the Universal title contention, a solid showcase
of wrestling including the women’s division, and the introduction of Happy Corbin who is
my new favourite thing. There was a lot of stuff on this show that was perfectly fine,
and some good stuff, but nothing was particularly bad, so this show gets a high ⅗, maybe a
low 4. Somewhere around there anyway. And now it’s time for Tempest’s review
of AEW Rampage! Take it away Tempest. The newest episode of Fantasy Booking Warfare
is up on partsFUNknown right now, and it’s the final first round match, where me
and Tempest compete against Steve and Larson to see
who can fantasy book the best version of
the New Day Triple Threat! Check it
out
right now.