WWE SmackDown Smacks/Downs: What a tone-deaf opener

What was the purpose of that opening segment, and why was it necessary? Well, it wasn’t, but it aired on WWE SmackDown anyway. What else happened? Here are the “smacks” and “downs” for May 29.

Just…why?

I’ll delve into this more soon, but that opening segment was completely unnecessary and utterly tone-deaf. Why take Jeff Hardy’s real life struggles and use them (again) to try and further an angle?

This is more than just “it’s the wrestling business.” This left a sour taste in my mouth, and wasn’t erased at all by the rather tepid ending to the show.

Reby Hardy summed it up perfectly.

The opening segment also led to changes in the advertised semi-final matches in the Intercontinental Championship Tournament. This was spearheaded by a battle royal to determine Daniel Bryan’s opponent in one semi-final match, with the Bryan match main eventing the show. Were the IC Tournament circumstances enough to help mitigate the opening segment?

There was a special episode of “Moment of Bliss” with Bliss Cross Applesauce and The New Day, the respective Tag Team Champion of their divisions. This was billed as a tag team champion summit to discuss the state of the tag divisions. What came of the segment?

Daddy Deville has been hitting all her spots the past month or so, highlighted by her keeping Dolph Ziggler off the microphone. Her counterparts on the other hand, Mandy Rose and Otis, seemed to be on a downward slope (at least to me). How did Deville look to continue her momentum while the latter two looked to regain some momentum?

There was also a lot of chatter about a certain “bro” making the move to “The Blue Brand,” and it’s confirmed: Matt Riddle is coming to SmackDown.

As a reminder of my criteria, I’m not going to run through each match/segment. Rather, I will identify a couple of segments that either worked (“smack”) or didn’t for whatever reason (“down”).

My criteria includes quality of match/segment and how it starts and/or builds stories. After all, we watch partly to be caught up in the stories. If a great work-rate match happens with no context or bearing on the stories, it’s going to be a miss.

Also, just because something is a hit/miss doesn’t mean it was an overwhelming choice. The selection could be 51 percent hit, 75 percent miss, and so on.

There are other subtleties to my criteria, but those are pretty much the parameters.

Down: using Hardy’s substance abuse issues (again) in angles

Look, I understand this is all in an attempt to further the feud between Hardy and Sheamus, who seems like the obvious culprit in setting up Hardy to take the fall (it was a “wrong place, wrong time” situation for Elias). I understand a good portion of pro wrestling angles and stories involves the shock factor. I understand real-life situations are kayfabed all the time in pro wrestling. I understand wrestlers at Hardy’s level generally have the power to modify or approve angles pitched to them.

That doesn’t excuse WWE (again) using Hardy’s substance abuse history as part of a story.

Granted, every viewer above the age of 10 probably understands he was set up and he didn’t relapse, but that is a thin line to walk.

I don’t need to go into the details of his past as most of us know his tribulations, including bottoming out (wrestling-wise) at Victory Road in 2011.

To recap, the show opened with a shot of Elias on the ground and a car propped up on a curb with its hood and driver-side door opened. Renee Young continually updated the situation as the camera went between different shots.

The “police” found an open but full liquor bottle in the car (that one sniffed) and registration showing it was Hardy’s rental car. The police and some WWE producers (including Jason Jordan!) ran towards the back and found Hardy moaning and in pain. He was then arrested and taken into custody on charges of public intoxication, driving under the influence (DUI), and hit-and-run.

Just a reminder that Hardy’s most recent troubles with the law included charges of public intoxication and DUI, so yeah…

They even suggested he might be inebriated, and not, you know, maybe concussed due to the “impact” of the accident…or being jumped by Sheamus.

It’s all the more perplexing and frustrating they ran this angle considering they spent four weeks on the “Jeff Hardy Comeback Story.” Yes, one of the four videos discussed his personal, legal, and substance abuse issues, but his videos framed as him having finally overcome those vices.

It helped rebuild a cache for Hardy with a certain segment of the audience who have been scorned one too many times by his troubles, as well as painting a redemption story that now seems moot. Why are they so quickly reverting to the “Jeff Hardy relapsed again” story, even if just a smokescreen?

WWE is very selective in which real-life situations they kayfabe. It’s not like we’re having redemption angles around Randy Orton’s use of the n-word (though props to him for tweeting #BlackLivesMatter in response to the death of George Floyd) or his Wellness Policy violations (beyond poking fun at them).

It’s not WWE is actively pushing Jake Atlas as an openly homosexual wrestler even after touting him as such when they signed him. It’s not like WWE explicitly stated that KofiMania was about being Black and a Black World Champion.

No. Instead we have WWE harping on substance abuse issues, an issue affecting millions of people in this country, in a negative light with seemingly no steps towards morality. If WWE used more tact in these situations (and they haven’t even just with Hardy), I would have more faith that this angle could possibly help achieve some shift in consciousness.

Now, if we turn to the pro wrestling aspect and examine the angle in a more micro sense, there were plenty of details missed that made me want to yell in frustration. First, look at the car. There are no dents, no shattered windows, nary a scratch for a vehicle propped on the curb and its hood open. Speaking of the hood, it looks like someone gently opened it and walked away rather than it being forced open due to impact.

Elias was also (from what we could see) unscathed, but unconscious. Wouldn’t there be some visible marks or scratches/blood after being hit with a car and landing on asphalt? Considering WWE.com reported that Elias has broken ribs and a torn pectoral muscle, one would think there would be more visible signs of damage.

I already mentioned the visibly full open liquor bottle with no spillage (remember, the car was propped up and angled). Did you notice when the cops ran back with the producers to find Hardy, they told Young, “Stay back miss, this is a crime scene,” but didn’t seem to care that the producers and camera operator were running back there with them?

Further, once they found Hardy, it didn’t seem like anyone was trying to figure out what happened to Hardy; they already assumed the worst. Even more egregious was the rent-a-cops deciding to arrest Hardy without conducting a single field sobriety test. They would have known then that he didn’t do it rather than spending the time (and kayfabe taxpayer dollars) taking him to the precinct to conduct tests there.

Details, details, details.

WWE.com did release a statement saying Hardy passed sobriety tests at the precinct, “therefore absolving Hardy of the charges.” That helped explain how he was able to show up at the end of the show to thwart Sheamus’ second attempt in the Intercontinental Championship Tournament, but was offset by the confusion of announcers Michael Cole and Corey Graves, who were befuddled at how Hardy could possibly appear.

This was just bad all around from the tone-deafness of using Hardy’s sobriety issues to the micro details of booking the segment that escaped WWE. There was a much easier way to book Sheamus against Daniel Bryan and maintain heat on Sheamus without reverting to poor-taste, controversial angles…

Down: an unnecessary path to get to Bryan-Sheamus

…and that would have been to have Sheamus beat Hardy in their first round match and have Sheamus decimate Hardy after the match, shelving him (kayfabe) until after BackLash. See how simple and smooth that is without using real-life issues?

Maybe they wanted a battle royal to give more television time to talents, like the newly re-signed Drew Gulak, the reappearing Chad Gable (again, I refuse to say his current gimmick name), or the now-singles competitor Jey Uso. Considering we’re still in a pandemic (there were 10 people in the ring) and I wasn’t too enthralled by the battle royal on Dynamite this week, I wasn’t too hyped for this battle royal.

However, it was smoother than Wednesday’s and filled with little stories, highlighted by Gable’s resurgence and Jey Uso’s wonderful showing. I’m not sure what’s in store for Jey, but Gable may be in for a mini-feud with The Artist Collective as he defeated Cesaro last night and will presumably face Shinsuke Nakamura next week.

(I chortled hard when Nakamura laughed at Cesaro for getting punched in the mouth by Gable backstage. Classic.)

It was still just so convoluted. Again, there are different ways to tell these stories than through a battle royal. Gable could be preparing backstage only to be confronted by Cesaro and Nakamura, and the same exact challenge that led to their match could have happened.

Jey Uso could have been booked to compete in a singles match against pretty much anyone, including “Performance Center trainees” (not to be confused with NXT wrestlers).

Again, there wouldn’t need to be a battle royal if Sheamus had just been booked to win his match against Hardy.

There are also too many distraction finishes in WWE, and Bryan needing a distraction from Hardy to defeat Sheamus is questionable at best (it was also the third leveraged rollup of the show, and all in a row).

Bryan is one of the best in the world and, atrocious booking of their WrestleMania match aside, has shown he can emerge victorious over anyone through his skill, technique, heart, and guile.

The match was fine, don’t get me wrong, but unnecessary in how they booked the path to the match. Hardy’s appearance at the end with the announcers not knowing what was going on only added to the confusion of the opening angle.

Convoluted booking bookended by a tone-deaf angle and one with no closure: sounds about right for WWE.

Bryan comes off as the noble, honorable competitor for wanting to earn his spot. Styles comes off as an intelligent and savvy veteran for seeing the loophole and advancing to the finals without a match. Why wrestle a match when you it’s unnecessary?

At least we’ll see Bryan vs. Styles in the finals, which should be a fantastic match.

Smack: emphasizing the Women’s Tag Team Championship

Smack: the continuing tease of Sasha Banks turning on Bayley

I don’t blame you if you’ve viewed the Women’s Tag Team Championship as an afterthought; after all, that’s pretty much how WWE has booked the titles/champions since their inception.

However, I really do appreciate this renewed focus on the championship and the tag division. Bliss Cross Applesauce have proven to be capable champions in their multiple runs, and Nikki Cross in particular has grown immensely as a character. Her and Asuka have been two of the top performers during these empty/PC trainee audience shows.

With the return of The IIconics to bolster the ranks, and the ability to feed makeshift teams consisting of PC trainees, the trajectory for the women’s tag division is shooting up.

It also helps when you have the first champion of this iteration of the Women’s Tag Team Championship, Boss “N” Hug Connection, reasserting themselves by interrupting this summit between The New Day and Bliss Cross Applesauce.

The New Day’s role was negligible, and probably would have been better off as a quick backstage promo before a match. They really were only there to name drop The Forgotten Sons as serious contenders to their championship and provide reactions to the quips between the two women’s tag teams.

The quips were, I’ll admit, pretty good. This was topped by Alexa Bliss, noting how five of the six wrestlers in the ring held championships, asking Banks about her lack of a championship. Bayley defending Banks only to volunteer Banks for a match against Bliss was so good, accentuated by Banks’ facial reactions of utter shock and incredulity.

Banks winning (thanks to a distraction from Bayley) garnered the two a championship match next week against Bliss Cross Applesauce. Banks did win with a leverage a rollup, the first of the three consecutive rollups I mentioned last slide, so it was one of those “keep both strong finishes.”

Bayley’s excessive celebration of Banks after the match only further serves to feed the simmering tensions between the two. I’ve long been saying this should all lead to a match at SummerSlam, but the timing of the implosion is going to be key.

The intriguing aspect of next week’s match is either outcome (winning the championship or not) adds further intrigue to the story. If they win the championship, attention should be paid to how they won. Does becoming Bayley-2-Belts further exacerbate her arrogance and cause more stress and harm to Banks? Does Banks turn on Bayley while celebrating in the ring? Does Bayley turn on Banks after winning?

If they lose, again, how do they lose? Who takes the pin/submission? Does either blame the other for the loss, or do they regroup for another shot? Does a turn happen after the loss, setting up a match at SummerSlam (hopefully skipping Extreme Rules)?

What I do know is I’m looking forward to the match next week and the continued layers in this Bayley-Banks partnership. Will we see Bayley-2-Belts or will Bliss Cross Applesauce retain?

Smack: Deville impresses even without a victory

Smack and Down: that Otis-Rose segment was…something…

I’ve praised Deville’s growth as a character the past few weeks, noting her in-ring work has also improved. Deville continued to show that growth in her pre-match promo and her match with Lacey Evans last night.

Speaking of Evans, that wasn’t a very kind thing to do in shoving Deville down from behind as Deville was giving her promo. That wasn’t what a “role model” would do, right? How classy.

Evans’ rushed push last summer did nothing to help her with many considering she just wasn’t ready for that push (and hurt further by inconsistent face/heel booking). However, last night’s match between her and Deville showed just how much both have improved.

Their physical and grappling exchanges were more crisp and sharp than they’ve been in the past. Laying the foundation of Evans as a former amateur wrestler helped me buy into the opening moments of the match as Evans invited Deville (who has an MMA background) start the match on the mat.

Their Twitter exchanges and backstage interaction also helped set the context for both competitors ignoring the referee’s count to continue to beat each other on the outside. Evans, staying true to her face character (for now), sought to restart the match, but Deville, playing the methodical heel, responded by saying, “I’ll fight you on my time, blondie.”

(Also, props to Deville on her ring gear. It looks more refined and defined, and more in-tune with her current character.)

It looks like this rivalry may be make-or-break for both competitors, regardless of who emerges victorious. If last night was any indication, they’ll both emerge from this feud elevated.

As we turn to the other half of the Deville/Ziggler-Rose/Otis quartet, well…have any of you seen Fast Times at Ridgemont High?

If you haven’t (I mean, it’s from 1982), then the extended segment’s parody may have escaped you. I guess it was entertaining enough?

I mean, I did laugh, but were they laughs of humor or laughs of absurdity? Both?

I have said Otis is hamming it up too much for me, and having a crowd would really help him understand if he’s doing too much. Last night, maybe because of the beauty of post-editing, he still came off as humorous without being goofy. Of course, most of the segment took place in Rose’s dream of what she thought of Otis, so that may have diluted his goofiness a bit.

The biggest positive? The extreme chemistry shown between the two. It doesn’t seem forced, and they both look like they’re enjoying themselves.

However, after years of stressing Rose’s background as a fitness competitor and serious athlete (outside of, you know, the softcore porn entrance), we now have a sudden twist in disposition to comedy character. Maybe this is required when paired with Otis. It still doesn’t make it any less jarring, though they tried to save it a bit by still portraying her as sexy.

The qualm I have with the segment is we don’t really know what’s to come for the two. Do they support each other’s careers as pseudo-managers during matches? Does Rose play manager to Otis as he looks for the best time to utilize his Money in the Bank contract?

Besides Braun Strowman (whose brief appearance in the opening segment was one of his better acting moments), who might Otis target? What about Rose?

I’m sure we’ll receive some follow-up in the coming weeks (hopefully next week), but I also don’t want anything rushed just to have either or both on the BackLash card.

With BackLash a mere two weeks away, it looks like the card will consist of Strowman defending the Universal Championship against The Miz and John Morrison; The New Day vs. The Forgotten Sons for the Tag Team Championship; and Deville vs. Evans, definitively, for SmackDown. Remember, Bryan vs. Styles happens the SmackDown before the PPV on Jun. 12.

After next week’s events, we should have more clarity as to if Bayley will defend the Women’s Championship and against whom and if there are any other mini-feuds that might be added (like Gable vs. Cesaro/Nakamura or Sheamus vs. Jey Uso).

Until then, stay safe everyone! See you next week!