WWE Smackdown LIVE Highlights
The Alpha In the Tag Division is Made Clear
Over the past couple of years we really have seen a huge step forward made in the tag division. After years of terrible storyline's, weak tag teams, and boring matches the division finally saw improvements and it was again a great to deal with the work done down in NXT. Smackdown and RAW sure did jump on the band wagon and soon thanks to more teams being formed and making their way up to the main roster improvements were made so so clear. The brand split has also allowed certain teams to take the spotlight and for tag team wrestling to once again take over. Last week we finally got to see the much anticipated Smackdown debut of former NXT Tag Team Champion, American Alpha. Picking up a strong victory over The Vaudevillians the pair made a huge impact putting the division on notice. This week Jordan and Gable were back in action when they took on two local competitors however this week they were joined by the rest of the Smackdown LIVE tag division who made their way individually to the ring all watching the action almost playing the role of lumberjacks. This was very similar to what we saw from the women's division a couple of weeks back. They all looked to make a statement and after Gable and Jordan picked up their second victory all teams collided in a brawl. This is exactly what they should have done with the women a couple of weeks ago. It did the job last night showcasing all the talent the tag team division has to offer and in the end the alpha tag team was made clear with American Alpha standing tall in the ring marking their territory and letting everyone know who the dominate team on the Smackdown LIVE roster is.
Eva Marie Dodges another Match
Last week we saw Eva Marie fake an injury to get of her singles match against Becky Lynch and this week the all red everything superstar was up to her same old tricks however this time there was a slight wardrobe malfunction. Now, trust me when I say I was not expecting these words to come out of my mouth this week and I do believe this is an early sign of me literally going insane but I'm actually starting to dig Eva's character and what we are seeing from her. Trust me, that was painful to say and type. I'm very disappointed with myself. The first week I hated the little voice over during her entrance, the following week I began to understand it more and deal with it, this week I think it's just the best thing to add to her character. It does showcase her to be the arrogant, cocky heel that they want to portray her as. It's the perfect fit to her character. I'm also really liking seeing her dodge all these matches. Again, it just works for her and her character so so much. This is WWE playing at heat at their very best. If she can actually show she can wrestle there will be nothing stopping her what so ever. All she needs to do is speed it up in the ring and transition cleaner. But like I said last night, there is no doubt in my mind she will be the first Smackdown LIVE Women's champion and if they keep doing this with her it may just work. Damn I hate myself for saying that.
Orton Proves a Point
In less than two weeks time Randy Orton will go one on one with the beat, Brock Lesnar at the SummerSlam pay per view and as I have noted already, this is one of the matches I am most looking forward too. So far Orton has built up a great deal of momentum and last night he set out to add to it when he went one on one with former champion himself, Alberto Del Rio. Of course Del Rio is a man that more than knows his way around a ring. He has archived so much in his career and in the past we have seen him and Orton collide so for one night Randy had to forget about Lesnar and focus on defeating a man who could in seconds take away all that built up momentum. I was if I'm being honest really surprised at just how much I enjoyed this match. It was my favourite of the night and I really was hooked. Sure it was nothing spectacular and it won't be featuring in the top twenty matches of the year list but it was without a doubt a stand out of the night. Both Del Rio and Orton got some great offense in and I spent the later moments of this match on the edge of my seat just waiting for that RKO. I have to admit however that I was not all that impressed with the ending. I really did want to see a clean pinfall ending for this match. It's just one little thing that does annoy me a lot with wrestling today. We are often presented with these great matches full of close calls and then we see a DQ ending and that is exactly what we got last night. With Del Rio introducing a chair into the match the ref call for the match to end and I was disappointed for a little while. The former champion then went to town on Orton working more on the arm that he had tortured during the match. But of course, Orton being Orton was able to turn it around hitting a perfect RKO out of nowhere proving yet another point, wanting Lesnar to know that it doesn't matter what he does an RKO really can come out of nowhere.
The NXT Girls Make an Impact
Almost a month ago draft night saw two NXT women make their way to Smackdown LIVE and last night both women made their in ring debuts. Carmella and Alexa Bliss are two NXT talents I have been obsessed with since day one. Anyone that has been reading my blog for long enough would have seen me write several posts about both women and would have seen me mention them plenty of times in the past already. There was apart of me a couple of weeks back (and still a little now) that believes they should have stayed in NXT just a little longer but they have both already done so much over in NXT and with the division there growing it now does appear that maybe the timing was right after all. So far the girls have managed to fit into the Smackdown LIVE roster perfectly making an impact an making sure everyone knows their name. This week they were both in action for the fist time with Bliss first taking on Becky Lynch after the Irish Lass kicker made an open challenge. Bliss straight away made it clear how confident she was as she has done since arriving on the main roster. During the match she showed of her character and in the end thanks to a little distraction from Eva was able to pick up her first victory on Smackdown LIVE. Later on in the night Carmella went one on one following what we saw from the two the week before. Carmella did take a beating from the veteran but in the end was able to use the momentum from the crowd to lock in her submission forcing Nattie to tap out.
Ambrose Makes a Statement
At the start of the show we saw Bray Wyatt cut another promo naming himself as a victim following the actions of last week and this week he proved to be far from finished with number one contender Dolph Ziggler and current WWE Champion Dean Ambrose. The opening saw the two baby faces
As I mentioned in my intro I did enjoy this weeks Smackdown a lot more than I did RAW. I've already said it this week but I'm starting to believe that the one hour advantage RAW has will end up working against them, something I will be talking about more in the coming weeks. As always you can let me know what you thought of this weeks show by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.
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