Smack The Review: Smackdown Review (February 21st) – SuperShowDown aka Blood money go-home show

We’re back after a forced hiatus last week, as we get closer and closer to WrestleMania yet we still have to deal with a couple of bumps on the road. Super Show-Down is only a few days away, which means that Mania will get the backseat for a while as WWE gets past this obligatory propaganda show that they put twice a year. With Goldberg set to be LIVE (actually in flesh in the arena not via satellite), this should be an interesting episode but the biggest thing that I’m interested in is, of course, how Otis will react after the heartbreak that was his date with Mandy Rose?

Let’s get to business…

The Usos & New Day vs Ziggler/Roode & Miz/Morrison

The Usos came out to the ring and had their moment of hype introducing the New Day and having a bit of friendly banter before the tension crept in between the duos. Though, it is not important as they have a bigger fish to fry in the form of an 8 man tag against Ziggler/Roode alongside Miz and Morrison who cut a promo before the match heeling it up in classic fashion trying to get the crowd to chant along.

We return from the commercial break and the babyfaces are working together and putting the beating on the heel quartet who resorted to cheap shots by Miz and Morrison. From there, the heels took turns wearing down Kofi Kingston and taking cheap shots on him. One more commercial break and Kofi is still worked over by Ziggler and co. before Kofi finally made the tag to Big E who ran wild on the heels for a while getting a close count on Morrison who himself got a close count on Big E. From that point, the match went frenetic with near falls and pin breakups. Jey Uso got the win for the babyface quartet after superkicking Roode. On another note, the glitch that showed up last week was present again but for longer. The match was wild and fun and it protects Miz and Morrison in the loss prior to their tag title opportunity at SSD. This 8 man tag could be the great seed for the reported 4-way TLC match at Mania which will be a delight.

Backstage: Daniel Bryan gets in a hilarious interaction with Heath Slater setting up a rematch from two weeks ago after confronting Drew Gulak

A recap of Otis’s heartbreaking date with Mandy Rose followed by a backstage confrontation between Tucker and Fire & Desire

Lacey Evans’ Interview with Renee Young: FINALLY! someone addressing the change in the character of Lacey Evans from a bully to Be a star.

Symphony of Destruction match: Braun Strowman/Elias vs Cesaro/Shinsuke Nakamura

This should be fun, but disappointing too for Cesaro and Nakamura as it is a surefire loss for them. The worst thing about this match might be the fact that the IC title is not mentioned in all of this. The basis of this match was Elias’ interruption of Cesaro and Zayn’s “protest concert” in last week’s episode. Elias came out to the ring singing about the match itself summoning Braun Strowman who brought a standing bass which harks back to their history as enemies a couple of years ago on RAW.

It didn’t take long before things broke down and turned into an out and out fight where every possible instrument is used. Braun Strowman basically was rampaging the playfield and hitting all the high notes of destruction (get it ?! because the match’s theme is musical instruments). However, an intervention from Zayn set up a double suplex from Cesaro and Nakamura on Braun Strowman through the standing bass. The highlight of this match for me was Nakamura using the gong sticks as nunchucks. Braun eventually was back on his feet taking out the former IC champion and power slamming him into the piano for the win. The ridiculousness of this match made it funnier and more entertaining however Strowman is an IC champion and needs a feud quickly.

A recap of Roman Reigns and Baron Corbin’s feud ahead of their FINAL match at SSD (hopefully the last one). this recap makes this lame rivalry looks epic. After that, Corbin is interviewed backstage where he vows to take out Roman Reigns who is absent on the show which is weird.

A moment of Bliss w/Bella Twins

First of all, nobody should get carried away by fantasy booking the Bellas into a Mania match as they are both pregnant which is basically a manifestation of their song “You can look but you can’t touch”. By the way, I hate Nikki’s way of slow-talking. They will be into the hall of fame for this year’s class. On another note, where is Nikki Cross?. From this, we transitioned to Daniel Bryan’s rematch against Heath Slater. Daniel’s daughter, Birdie, is the cutest child alive. Overall, this was just a piece of PR for the Bellas and for my money I’ll forget it ever happened.

Daniel Bryan vs Heath Slater

This was a bit longer match than the first one, with Slater mounting a good amount of offence, with Drew on commentary. However, it wasn’t enough and Bryan dispatched of him quickly.

Backstage: Mandy Rose is riding WITH Dolph Ziggler and Otis is just devastated.

The usual darkroom promo from Sheamus talking about CHAD GABLE and Apollo Crews. CHAD GABLE tries to talk sense to Apollo Crews but the latter rejects him (heel turn??).

Naomi vs Carmella: The winner faces Bayley at SSD

This match is set off last week’s events after the fatal 4 way where Carmella won. Bayley was at ringside watching closely. The match started a bit slow with both women feeling each other out. Naomi looked to be on top at the early stages before Carmella turned it around. Bayley tried to interfere, but she got rejected for it. We return from commercial, and Naomi just mounted a comeback before Carmella took over gaining a couple of near falls. Naomi’s athleticism allowed her to gain momentum once more in this match. After a couple of roll-up exchanges, Carmella almost got it won with the Code of Silence as well as Naomi with the rearview. Naomi eventually managed to win via a split-legged moonsault. It was a sloppy match mostly that was running on slow-motion. Another thing, WWE referees should probably lower their voices when they are calling the moves for the wrestlers because it is quite clear sometimes. Congrats for Naomi.

GOOOOOOOOLDBERG !!

Thankfully, his head is fine and he didn’t hit any doors or something. So, this is the focus of the show as we get closer to his (surreal) match with Bray Wyatt at SSD. He is fired up for sure. He gets interrupted by firefly funhouse’ Bray Wyatt. He eventually goes face to face with the Fiend and spears him then The Fiend disappears. I got contrasting feelings about this, the segment felt so rushed and had no climactic ending. You can argue that Goldberg no selling the Fiend at all undermines it but that’s Goldberg. That was that, and we are getting the match which hopefully will be better than his disaster against the Undertaker last year.

That was Smackdown. Nothing major happened in it, and when the story I’m interested in the most is Otis’ heartbreak from his date, you know this episode was sub-par. The wrestling was average, and the Goldberg segment fell rushed and flat. Let’s get this Saudi thing out of the way and focus on WrestleMania, shouldn’t we??.

Final rating: 5.5/10

That was only one man’s opinion, after all. You can reach out on twitter @austin316tn or tell me in the comments below. Till next week.