Smackdown's first brand exclusive network special (are they still called "pay-per-views"?) is this Sunday and last night's edition of the blue show was all about hyping those new titles and progressing a few feuds that are starting to take off. The first segment saw Daniel Bryan host an "open forum" where all six women in the Smackdown Women's Championship scramble got to plead their case. This led to the heels, Natalya, Alexa Bliss, and Carmella cornering poor Becky Lynch before her fellow babyfaces Nikki Bella and Naomi could make the save. This set up a six-woman tag match for later in the night. I'll echo what I said last week: it's good to see all the Smackdown women get a chance to display their characters and evolve a bit from where they were pre-brand split. Lynch is the obvious fan favorite here, and it's hard not to love her. Carmella's heel turn has done wonders for her, but her in-ring stuff is still a bit soft. Alexa tried some interesting stuff in her brief promo during the forum, but she still feels underdeveloped, a la Dana Brooke on Raw.
Daniel Bryan continued to be a thorn in the Miz's side, putting him in a title match against Dolph Ziggler at Backlash. Ziggler sat ringside for Miz's match against Apollo Crews. Crews put in some work here, still impressive as an athlete but lacking in the intensity that I think would make him a real contender. Miz used Ziggler's distraction against him, scoring a pinfall in a formulatic villainous famous. I loved the bit where he used his wife Maryse to retrieve the title for him; she's a human shield against Ziggler's superkick. Shades of Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth. Miz might be Smackdown's best heel right now.
Bray Wyatt sent a spooky message to Randy Orton via pre-taped video. Nothing new here, it's the same shtick Wyatt's used before. This feud seems like a good idea on paper, but I don't know what it'll do for either guy going forward. The outcome of Orton's upcoming rematch with Lesnar might add an interesting wrinkle to the story line.
The six woman tag match got a lot of time, which is always a good sign. Everyone played their parts well, but obviously Becky and Natalya were the stand-outs. Carmella did secure the win for the heels by getting a submission victory over Nikki Bella, so management must be high on her. Nikki got a questionable reaction when she got the hot tag, leading me to think some crowds aren't exactly going to embrace her as the main babyface. Not having Bayley or Sasha or Charlotte around makes this division look second rate, but if they keep giving the women time to grow like this, they'll be able to give the Raw gals a run for their money.
The Smackdwon tag title tournament continued. American Alpha beat The Usos in a surprisingly short match which led to a heel turn attack from the Samoan brothers. Their heel turn has been telegraphed for some time, and I look forward to a long feud with many awesome matches. Expect them to cost American Alpha the titles in the tournament finals.
Randy Orton responded to Wyatt's message. "At Backlash, Bray Wyatt won't know what hit him." He looked sleepy during this segment.
Kane squashed Fandango. The crowd really ate this segment up. Kane's beatdown of the week is becoming a recurring segment until his thing with Baron Corbin takes off.
AJ Styles was acting like a jerk backstage, repeating the mantra he stole from John Cena. "I'm the face that runs the place." Good stuff. Heel AJ has been fun to watch thus far.
Heath Slater and Rhyno beat The Hype Bros. to advance to the finals of the tag title tournament. Slater's saga seems to be catching on with fans, and there was some endearing stuff with his family and kids at ringside. Hopefully he'll get that contract and Rhyno will get that above ground pool he mentioned a couple weeks ago. So . . . if the Usos cost American Alpha the match at Backlash, then that means out inaugural tag champs will be Heath Slater and Rhyno. Huh. What a world we live in.
WWE champ Dean Ambrose and his challenger AJ Styles faced off in the ring before their match on Sunday. Dean presented AJ with an old bowling trophy and taunted him about getting crotched on the ropes last week. There was a heated exchange of words and both guys are competent enough on the mic to pull it off. AJ paid him back with a kick to the nuts which left the champ lying. I'm liking this feud and I hope we get more than one match out of it. The show ended with Styles doing his "gun to head" Bullet Club gesture over a prone Ambrose. Sunday can't get here soon enough!
While Raw was the easy pick for top show last week, this week both brands seemed to be on equal footing. There are some good talkers on Smackdown and a few talents that are great on their own, but seemed to be locked into feuds that don't work (Wyatt vs. Orton). Overall, good show.
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