The Undertaker returns to WWE (kind of).
Bobby Roode is back!
(But where’s Booby?)
And Shane McMahon runs into a chair!
I’m Oli Davis and this is the RUSEV DAY, Oh RUSEV DAY edition of Smackdown Live...in
about 4 minutes.
Happy Rusev Day everyone.
Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn Smackdown opened with Kevin Owens’ eternal
foe Sami Zayn confronting him about headbutting Vince McMahon.
He’s seen KO snap in the past, and now he thinks he’s really lost it.
Watch this segment back, and imagine this isn’t a wrestling show, there’s no crowd
around the ring (not difficult considering Smackdown’s recent attendance issues)...and
there isn’t even a real Sami Zayn there.
The promo then plays out like Owens arguing with his own conscience.
Zayn is the babyface version of Kevin, the one that doesn’t take shortcuts or the easy
way out.
This has Smackdown writer Jimmy Jacobs’ fingerprints all over it from a dark three-dimensional
character perspective.
Not an electric promo, but a damn sure fascinating one.
Daniel Bryan made a match between them for later tonight.
Baron Corbin beat Tye Dillinger You know how some promotions have a TV Championship?
Smackdown should rename their United States Title the Commercial Break one.
Baron Corbin’s victory over Tye Dillinger was the latest match in their three-way feud
with AJ Styles to be more adverts than wrestling.
They managed a decent match for the time they got, though, where Corbin got a countout win
- which the crowd were super into because they got to chant 10 over and over again.
Corbin will now take on AJ Styles for the US title at Hell in a Cell.
Jinder Mahal & Shinsuke Nakamura After last week’s racism controversy, WWE
wisely ditched the Japanese stereotyping from Jinder Mahal’s promos.
But consequently, that lack of offensive material just exposed his segments and delivery as
being incredibly tedious.
The payoff was kind of cool, though, with the last TitanTron still image going all Hogwarts
on his ass - the picture of Shinsuke Nakamura starting to move, revealing that’s no photo;
it’s a live feed!
Nakamura took out Mahal, Singh Brothers and all, in a run down afterwards.
The Usos beat Hype Bros It seems the intriguingly teased ‘drastic
measures’ from the Hype Bros last week are: bump into each other and lose the match.
This feels like Zack Ryder will eventually turn on Mojo Rawley - WWE’s latest friendship
break up - rather than both men going heel as a team (which I think has a lot more potential).
The Usos called out the New Day at ringside after the match, where Xavier Woods added
a stipulation to their next bout...inside Hell in a Cell.
Pride of Bulgaria: Rusev Rusev’s Pride of Bulgaria celebration for
beating Randy Orton in 9 seconds last week was terrific - the cherry on top being Master
of Ceremonies Aiden English (I love it when random heels help each other out purely because,
you know, they’re just heels) singing an Ode to Rusev using Orton’s entrance music.
Aiden’s rendition was so good, Randy must’ve got confused and thought it was his - running
down to the ring, giving everyone an RKO.
Rusev vs Orton was then announced for Hell in a Cell.
Charlotte beat Carmella Carmella took the vast majority of her match
against Charlotte, suddenly losing to a superkick at the end.
UnderDolph Dolph Ziggler never fooled anyone by parodying
The Undertaker’s entrance.
He was walking down the ramp way too fast.
This was the latest of Ziggler’s style over substance critiques, which - as expected - finally
brought out Bobby Roode, back from his brief stint in GFW.
I’m still not keen on Roode as a face, nor the new font on his TitanTron.
I miss WordArt already.
Kevin Owens beat Sami Zayn While Owens and Zayn clashed in the main event,
Shane McMahon was shown arriving backstage - about 15 minutes before the show was due
to finish.
Some commissioner.
Following a great superkick counter to Sami’s turnbuckle DDT, KO powerbombed Zayn on the
ring apron and the referee called off the match.
Kevin’s performance was yet again spectacular, sitting on the commentary desk, psychotically
watching Zayn being helped out by medics.
KO went for him again, wrapping a chair around his neck.
This brought Shane out for one of the worst wrestling saves in recent memory - running
down the ramp and straight into Zayn (chair on his head and all), while KO escaped through
the crowd.
Owens didn’t even seem to push Sami into McMahon.
Regardless, this is the best version of KO’s character on the main roster so far, and the
blood feud between him and Shane is really starting to click into place.
So that was this week’s Smackdown Live in about 4 minutes, here’s the usual ratings
recap from top to bottom: SmackDamn, Smacktastic, Smack Bang In The Middle, Ellsworthy and Braun
Strowman vs Brock Lesnar.
I’ll reveal my score very shortly, but first, vote in the poll above my head to give it
your own rating.
I’ll announce the results in tomorrow’s WrestleTalk News.
For me, the Kevin Owens character is the best thing in WWE right now.
But unfortunately, it’s Smackdown’s only best thing.
The United States feud is middling, Bobby Roode is miscast, and Jinder is dragging down
the brand’s main title.
At least Fashion Files is back next week.
This week’s Smackdown is Ellsworthy.
The Bullet Club tried to invade Monday night Raw!
And is John Cena retiring from WWE?
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Patreon.
I’ve been Oli Davis and that was wrestling.