Smackdown Live 9-8-16

Lithium93_

Hottest free agent in the business
Heath Slater has been an entertaining character after not being drafted. Every week, he comes out and delivers a good segment where he speaks to everyone about why he should be hired.

And as WWE has built up SmackDown as the land of opportunities, last week, Daniel Bryan gave Heath Slater an opportunity to get signed by the blue brand.All Slater had to do was defeat Rhyno in a match this week. It is a simple booking, but it is an effective one. On paper, it’s just two mid card superstars, but the stakes here make this match worth watching for the fans.

All Red Everything
Eva Marie has been attracting attention ever since she was drafted to SmackDown. She drove everyone crazy with her over the top entrance on the first SmackDown after the brand split but what everyone wanted to see was her in-ring improvement.

Last week, she was supposed to make it happen but due to an ‘apparent’ leg injury, Eva was not able to compete.The fact that Eva’s injury being a script is clear and it would be interesting if WWE starts treating this as a gimmick for her. Eva already has a good amount of heat on her and a gimmick like this would do her wonders.

Taking the next step?
The battle lines between AJ Styles and John Cena were drawn last week on Raw and WWE has booked a date between them for SummerSlam. Now, WWE will be responsible for building up the storyline with segments. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows is no longer alongside AJ Styles, meaning that the angle needs to be driven solely by the talent of Styles and Cena.

As WWE has already gone through a similar path during the first Cena – Styles encounter, they will have to step up their uniqueness value if they have to keep the fans on the edge of their seats.

Bray and his intentions
Last week’s SmackDown saw Bray Wyatt joining hands with Eric Rowan once again. The reunion of Rowan and Bray is a good thing for both parties and at the same time, WWE is also letting Bray chase the WWE championship. The 'eater of the worlds' suffered a defeat against Dolph Ziggler last week but he got a strong booking nevertheless.

Now what Bray has his eyes rooted to the prize, he will go to any limits to get that. Ziggler and Ambrose might be in the WWE championship scene but Bray’s eyes will be all over them throughout their journey.

The transition of Dean Ambrose
Dean Ambrose is the top guy on SmackDown, period. The more this fact gets into our mind the more change Ambrose undergoes. He started showing shades of transition last week and it is bound to continue this week around. On the other hand, Dolph Ziggler is also there with a pressure to deliver and the contrasting needs of both characters make the match compelling.

After what happened in the main event last week, SmackDown might get to see a tag team match involving Ziggler, Ambrose, Bray and Rowan, this also provides WWE with a great platform to take the story forward.

SKY SPORTS 5 - 1 AM

CastorTroy

I want all Heath Slater segments to end with Rhyno goring him off the camera. Exit stage left by Gore.

Tssk

Rhyno won a Republican primary and is in the race for a seat in the Michigan state house of representatives. If only he could bring his random gorings to the campaign trail. Even if he did he'd still have more credibility than the Donald

Agent Coulson

Vince will love that and if Rhyno wins the seat I could Vince thinking about putting the title on him just for the publicity it would bring.

martyos121

Really love this Eva Marie booking. Brilliant stuff.

J. Marston

This Eva Marie stuff is the pits.

Agent Coulson

Eva Marie has a wardrobe malfunction this week to get out of her match with Becky


Great stuff love the way they are booking her.

mrkiscool2

Loving the Eva thing so far, it's pretty hilarious and such a great heel move.

Also, can some make a gif of Becky with her hands out with the caption come at me bro under it? Brilliant!

martyos121

J. Marston wrote: »

This Eva Marie stuff is the pits.

How? She has to get as much as heat as possible for her character to work, that's exactly what she's doing. Plus we don't have to see her wrestle this way. It's win-win.

Agent Coulson

Awesome booking for both Becky and Eva I think.


Becky loses but still gets over and Eva get more heat for the distraction.

Neil3030

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Awesome booking for both Becky and Eva I think.


Becky loses but still gets over and Eva get more heat for the distraction.

Except Becky again being distracted into a loss makes her look more and more stupid.

I'd prefer them to do what UFC did when Jones was removed last minute from UFC 200 and Anderson Silva took the fight against Cormier on a few day's notice. Have a one-night-only return appearance by a legend (Lita?) who was "hanging out backstage" but "always has gear, just in case". The legend would then go close but ultimately lose to Becky. Returning legend gets a pop, Eva keeps her heat, Becky looks strong.

Agent Coulson

Neil3030 wrote: »

Except Becky again being distracted into a loss makes her look more and more stupid.

I'd prefer them to do what UFC did when Jones was removed last minute from UFC 200 and Anderson Silva took the fight against Cormier on a few day's notice. Have a one-night-only return appearance by a legend (Lita?) who was "hanging out backstage" but "always has gear, just in case". The legend would then go close but ultimately lose to Becky. Returning legend gets a pop, Eva keeps her heat, Becky looks strong.

To be honest that seems to be her gimmick for the last six months The Gullible Irish Ejit.

Neil3030

Liked the Del Rio, Orton finish. I was worried they were softening Orton up with an arm injury, but they ended up strengthening the "outa nowhere" threat of the RKO.

Neil3030

Miz just got carjacked by Scooby Doo.

There's a perfectly ordinary English sentence.

Neil3030

Cena v Styles:

"A rivalry ten years in the making, and a match we thought we'd never see..."

Except we saw it. In June.

ERG89

John Cena loves Smackdown so much he isn't even on the show this week?
But he did wear that blue suit on that talk show so it's fine.
Smackdown is still struggling & a poor watch. The tag division looked awful when you saw it on this show, with the exception of American Alpha & the Women's isn't up to much either, nothing says don't take us serious like an intentional wardrobe malfunction.
The PPV's are consistently great as wwe have an abundance of talent to put on great shows but the storyline & character development is lacking.

Bounty Hunter

Like Raw it seems this was a bit of a filler show where certain wrestlers were missing (no AJ, Cena & Crews) and the most stand out things were Eva Marie's wordrobe malfunction and Rhyno's political revelation

Mr.Nice Guy

There was nothing particularly memorable about the show but I found it an easier watch than Raw. Two hours is definitely preferable to three hours.

Poor Dolph at the end as well with all the fans doing the Yes chant as he was laid out. It would be madness to have him win at Summerslam. I'm hoping he loses and then snaps, turning heel in the process.

I'm also enjoying the Eva angle.

PTH2009

SD needs a bit of Glorious Domination lol

Ziggler is like the reigns of SD where everyone boos him

Does Vince be in the Gorilla Position for SD too ???

sky88

Loving eva and heath slater since the draft

CSF

Like what happened was ok, but there were a lot of people missing. Starting to feel like they should have had the women's division on Raw and the tag team division on Smackdown. Because both of Smackdown's rosters are abysmal for these.

Without Cena, Aj Styles, Corbin, Crews, Miz (looked like his stuff was just pre-records) this Smackdown obviously suffered badly. Are they all in New Zealand too?

Loughc

David Otunga was pretty much non existent again on the commentating team. Giving him the nod just seems bizarre now.

And it was hilarious when during the American Alpha match when the other teams came out Mauro talked about the competitive tag team division Smackdown have. The 4 teams that came out have been horrendously jobbed out.

CastorTroy

Any word on who Eva Marie's voice guy is? Figured it was just recorded and used each time, but when he did the reintroduction I was surprised.
Was thinking the new women's title should be introduced by her like the million dollar belt, since I can't see her winning a title without outside interference.