WWE SmackDown Smacks/Downs: Bray Wyatt remains fascinating

It made all the sense in the world to pre-tape several shows and WrestleMania. What happens when things change between tapings, though? Here are the smacks/downs for the Mar. 27 WWE SmackDown.

With many places banning public gatherings and WWE having the Performance Center available, taping episodes of WWE SmackDown, RAW, NXT, and WrestleMania with limited crews was a smart decision.

For reference, all episodes of SmackDown and 205 Live through WrestleMania were recorded last weekend. A lot can change in that time.

Take, for example, the events of the past week.

There were initial reports that Dana Brooke and Rey Mysterio had voluntarily self-quarantined. This pulled Brooke from the Six-Pack Challenge Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania and Mysterio from his ongoing United States Championship feud. Brooke was reportedly sick.

Bobby Lashley self-quarantined earlier this month after a trip to South Africa, preventing any build for his announced match with Aleister Black at WrestleMania.

The biggest change came when The Miz reportedly showed up to the tapings for WrestleMania sick without informing anyone and infuriating The Usos. Remember, the tag champions were taping their feud with The New Day and The Usos. Jimmy and Jey spend lots of time with their cousin, Roman Reigns. This spurred Reigns to leave and pull out of his Universal Championship match with Goldberg.

Good for Reigns, who’s immunocompromised after defeating leukemia twice. People should support Reigns in his decision as he put his health, safety, and that of his family’s first.

As fans and viewers, we need to keep these things in mind as we watch and evaluate the next few weeks of shows. Can WWE pivot successfully? It will be difficult, but also interesting to see.

It makes it all the more difficult that last night’s show not only showed the match graphic for Goldberg-Reigns, but that Reigns would appear next week to build for the match. Will next week be the pivot, or will they find a route after next week’s show to edit in the switch?

In 2020, hindsight really is 2020.

Last night, we began with in-ring promos from the competitors in the Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania; Drew Gulak (w/ Daniel Bryan) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (w/ Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn and Cesaro); a backstage altercation leading to Dolph Ziggler vs. Otis at WrestleMania; King Corbin basically killing Elias; Asuka vs. Alexa Bliss (w/ Nikki Cross); a replay of Triple H vs. Reigns at WrestleMania 32; an interview with Triple H; an episode of “Firefly Fun House”; and The New Day vs. The Usos.

Smack: Bray Wyatt continues to deliver with the “Fun House”

I gushed previously about the “Firefly Fun House” where Wyatt traced the genesis of The Fiend to Wyatt’s clean defeat to Cena at WrestleMania XXX. Last night’s was another great “Fun House,” but for different reasons than the other one.

Mainly, it created a storyline reason to have a more cinematic match. Having the match in whatever the “Fun House” ends up being also works because for this entire rekindled feud, Wyatt has been doing all he can to bring Cena to his domain, his comfort zone.

What’s more in Wyatt’s domain than a “Firefly Fun House” match?

Adding to the depth and quality of this “Fun House,” every ingredient in his concoction is basically the qualities of The Fiend: disappointment, self-loathing, rage, resentment, and of course, hot sauce for flavor.

Oh, and one Ramblin’ Rabbit, too.

I, for one, am intrigued to see what WWE produces with this match. I don’t think it will be like the battle at the Wyatt Compound, but I also don’t think it will be as bad as projecting bugs on the canvas. At the very least, it should be fascinating.

That side effect of that shake might be dangerous for Cena, though: “Let Me in.”

Smack: reasonable builds to WrestleMania matches

There are many times when fans are disappointed in predictable booking (see: Reigns main eventing WrestleMania’s 31-34). However, there are also many times when predictable, straightforward booking is the right call.

For the most part, that’s what happened with last night’s show.

Most of us figured Gulak would defeat Nakamura so that we can have Zayn vs. Bryan for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania. I don’t think most of us anticipated a four-minute match. However, we do have to keep in mind the unique circumstances we are in due to the pandemic, so considering this isn’t the payoff match, I’ll give it a smack.

Though I am not necessarily a fan of the faces pulling a heel move to win, the Bryan-Gulak pairing is just so wholesome and enjoyable.

Otis and Dolph Ziggler is another story we’ve been expecting to conclude at the big show (no pun intended). While predictable, this is a story that fans seem to want, especially to see that smarmy pretty-boy Ziggler lose to the lovable teddy bear that is Otis. Let’s hope that is indeed what happens.

It also helped that they had Mandy Rose present her hesitance to Ziggler about his tactics. It further germinates the seed that many fans have that Ziggler (and possibly Sonya Deville together) is somehow manipulating Rose away from Otis and towards himself.

The last one I want to highlight here is the build to the Women’s Tag Team Championship match. Last week, I discussed how this angle was much better than the random mishmash suddenly put together for the Women’s Championship match. While the finish of this match was questionable, again, it was perfectly reasonable.

WWE has been telegraphing a match between champion Kabuki Warriors and Bliss Cross Applesauce for a few weeks. Though conspicuous by her absence the past few weeks, Kairi Sane’s absence hasn’t hurt the build thanks to the wrestling goddess that is Asuka.

I love Asuka. Having her lose clean is something I would only do once every couple of years, depending on the situation. I figured there would be some kind of foul play, but then again, WWE is billing BCA as the faces in this feud. Now we have what should be a good Women’s Tag Team Championship match.

Predictable? Yes. Reasonable? Yes. That’s why these angles work.

Also, if their match turns into a dance-off with Asuka and Sane uttering obscenities in Japanese, I will be laughing with glee the whole time. I mean, how could you not like this?

Kabuki Warriors dancing is always a highlight, so adding in Bliss and the awkward Cross should increase the hilarity and entertainment factor.

Down: how many times do we need to see the same, tired angles?

I’ve made my complete dislike of King Corbin (the gimmick) well-known in this space. His ongoing feud with Elias does nothing for me, either.

Elias turning heel-face-heel-face on a whim doesn’t help. His “songs” where he tries to straddle that line are generally just bad.

Corbin’s entire King gimmick needs to be retired (as discussed here). He could use time away to repackage.

Their segment with Corbin knocking Elias off the elevated platform (taking a cue from Tomasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano) was less effective than in NXT and less believable.

While we saw Elias fall, we didn’t see him land like in most of these angles. There was also an audible “crash” rather than the expected “thud” of someone landing on concrete, yet the shot had no destroyed table.

I understand you can shoot things like this when taping shows, but it wasn’t believable because the sounds didn’t match the actual scene.

If that really happened and Elias fell straight to the concrete like that, he’d be dead, right?

The other segment that needs to be revamped or scrapped was the opening segment of the night.

https://twitter.com/WWEonFOX/status/1243694050450059267

Let me be clear: this has nothing to do with the women in the segment. They played their roles. This has to do with the segment itself.

It seems like when WWE has no direction for a championship match, they decide to have a parade of contenders trot out individually to declare their intentions of winning whatever championship is being presented. These always devolve into physical altercations, and is generally just a space for everyone to say their witty one-liner.

Then again, in Tamina’s case, there was nothing witty; it was just straight physicality.

Last week, we had Paige announce all the competitors. Last night, we had all of them (except Brooke) make their case. This is one where it’s predictable but not reasonable.

There has to be different ways to accomplish the goals of these segments without trotting out the same thing basically every month.

This also applies to the triple threat Tag Team Championship match set for WrestleMania. How many times have we seen heels stupidly interfere in #1 contender matches in an attempt to have no contender only to have to defend their championship against all possible contenders?

It happened again last night! It happens in pretty much every #1 contender match when the champion is a heel. It’s just so tired.

I know it protects the challengers and supposedly garners more heat for the heel champions. It just needs to be done differently.

Look, the triple threat match should be great and fun, particularly considering The New Day and The Usos are involved. However, these repeated, illogical angles need to “drift away” to infringe on a certain wrestler’s previous gimmick.

-Smack: wrestlers as commentators

When Samoa Joe was commentating on RAW while recovering from injury, fans gravitated even more towards him because of the perspective and knowledge he brought to the show.

I made a similar comment about Cody on this week’s Dynamite.

Not every wrestler-as-commentator has to follow that mold, though. Take Nikki Cross.

I wouldn’t say she was necessarily there to add commentary on the technical acumen of either competitor. Rather, she brought a much need energy and enthusiasm that is lacking in an empty-arena environment.

Her interactions with Cole were funny and heartwarming as well. “I didn’t invite you,” from Cole was a great line.

Zayn falls somewhere in-between. He loves to describe the artistic and technical brilliance of both Nakamura and Ceasro (and himself), but he also brings a tremendous enthusiasm and humor in a more serious yet hyperbolic manner. Just go watch his reactions anytime Bryan and Gulak have pinned Nakamura and Cesaro.

The Miz and Morrison were fine. They played their parts as they should have, and were obnoxious heels. Check and check.

Smack: the main event tag match

You might be thinking, “Wait, didn’t you just spend the last slide disliking this match?” Kind of: I only disliked the ending.

As we’ve come to expect anytime The New Day and The Uso face off, this was another good match. There was fast-paced action with serious stakes (a chance at the Tag Team Championship).

These two teams have chemistry like no other teams in WWE the last decade. I would argue only The Revival and American Alpha had similar chemistry with each other.

Beyond the chemistry, these teams seem to have an inherent trust of the other team. How else could we have had all their classic matches, including matches like Hell in a Cell where their bodies are at the whim of their opponents? They truly are a joy to watch, and here’s looking forward to what they accomplish at WrestleMania.

Last night’s show presented the highs and lows of taped shows: the ability to edit spots, but also the inability to make changes when things change after tapings. It will be fascinating to watch the next few taped SmackDowns to see just how exactly WWE is able to (if they are) make a smooth transition from Reigns to whoever replaces him.

Stay safe everyone. See you next week!

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