A chaotic episode of "WWE SmackDown" has come and gone. There were title changes, Wyatt Sicks videos, and impromptu title matches littered throughout the broadcast, but enough about "what happened" on the show, since that's been handily covered over on the results page.
Instead, it's time to break down what worked and what didn't from the October 17 broadcast. WWE is on the road to Saturday Night's Main Event, which itself will set the stage for Survivor Series, and so there were plenty of moving parts on Friday's show. There was an open challenge that went poorly for Sami Zayn, but very well for fans of Ilja Dragunov. There was a lot -and I mean a lot- of backstage segments. There was even some great wrestling amidst it all.
The Wrestling Inc. Staff will break down the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of WWE's trip to San Jose. Here's what we loved and what we hated.
I am never going to complain about more of the talent from the best women's roster in wrestling right now, "WWE NXT," getting time to shine on the main roster, but I love it even more when those women get to further their "NXT" storylines in front of a much larger audience. With Blake Monroe in attendance tonight at "SmackDown," that's exactly what happened.
Monroe is currently feuding on "NXT" with Women's North American Champion Sol Ruca and her tag team partner, Zaria, who faced Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss for the Women's Tag Team Championships tonight. She was seen sitting ringside before the match, so while it was obvious she was going to get involved, I still really liked it. WWE doesn't often bring up other "NXT" talent just to further their storylines and feuds with other developmental talent who are working matches on the main brands. But it makes sense to get Monroe even the slightest bit more exposure in front of a main roster crowd.
Tonight, she simply distracted Ruca, which thankfully distracted me and hopefully a lot of others from the not-so-great looking Sol Snatcher Ruca attempted to hit Flair from the ropes to the outside. The distraction let Flair take out Ruca at the knees to weaken her for the figure eight, which Ruca tapped to. I like that there's now a little story that WWE could always go back to there, with Flair owing Monroe something after "The Glamour" helped her a bit there. That gets me thinking about how much I'd love to see a Monroe versus Flair feud, though I'm not sure who would be the face and who would be the heel there.
Either way, I loved that Monroe got some screen time alongside "ZaRuca" tonight. Commentary was able to mention their Women's North American Championship match coming up at Halloween Havoc, getting "NXT" a little more exposure. If this is how things are going to be with the main and developmental rosters working together just the tiniest bit more in places where it makes sense, I'm absolutely all for it.
Written by Daisy Ruth
While former WWE NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov won the United States Title, and fellow former champions like Bron Breakker ascend to the top of the "Raw" roster, Carmelo Hayes remains in a go-nowhere feud with The Miz. Some Fridays can be a glaring reminder that WWE has a bad habit of fumbling NXT stars on the main roster.
There was a time when Hayes was getting comparisons to Seth Rollins or John Cena, someone who could be a franchise face for years to come, and yet it feels like he's being held down, held back, or just plain restrained in some fashion. It doesn't feel like WWE fans are getting the best of what Hayes can do, and it also doesn't feel like his feud with Miz is doing anything to add what wasn't already there for the former NXT Title holder. It feels like the big match is always around the corner, but like the tag division in general, Hayes can never find his way onto PLEs to show off what he can really do.
At this rate, I am going to have to wait until the f***ing Royal Rumble to see Hayes eliminate Miz and get any semblance of catharsis from this feud. I get it, TV time is limited, and top stars that can take a loss are limited even more so. It doesn't change the fact that Hayes has swiftly gone from "Him!" to "him?"
Written by Ross Berman
Where do we even begin?
No, really how do we even begin to talk about everything that happened during Sami Zayn's United States Championship open challenge? When Zayn took to the ring to mark the halfway point of Friday's episode of "WWE SmackDown," I doubt he could have anticipated being present for the amalgamation of storylines that were presented to him. At least, I wasn't anticipating the absolute avalanche of information (and chaos) we were presented with on Friday's episode of the blue brand.
I'll tip my hat to WWE for continuing the Carmelo Hayes and Miz implosion storyline. While this appreciation is mostly self-indulgent (I love Hayes and despise the Miz), I do appreciate how WWE is not just letting the storyline drop off the face of the Earth, only to be built up over the course of two weeks for some C-tier "premium" live event. They're following up on Hayes, especially, which is absolutely necessary, considering that this is a pivotal time of growth for him in this company. I'd also like to give a shout to the MFTs, Rey Fenix, and the Wyatt Sicks for their contributions. This segment never relented in its shock value, and I found myself having the most fun I've had watching "SmackDown" in months.
Now, to the Mad Dragon. Ilja Dragunov made his stunning return to WWE programming after thirteen months on the shelf to answer Zayn's United States open challenge, and the match they had was magnificent: some of "SmackDown's" best contests. The man who put down "WWE NXT: UK's" Walter (now known as GUNTHER) came out in full force and set San Jose ablaze with nothing but his rage and vicious strikes. Dragunov is an absolutely insane performer. He is flat-out. He is explosive. The sparks that fly off of him when he lands a Senton, Torpedo Moscow, or H-Bomb could light up even the darkest of spaces. If this is his first match back after over a year on the shelf, we are in for a stunning reign from Dragunov.
Zayn was right there with him, and we got to see a downright belligerent Zayn as the technician was forced to slug his opponent just as hard. The refreshing change of pace from Zayn and the shared aggression made this one of the most captivating, dare I say "realistic" matches WWE has put on. Dragunov is just built differently, and Zayn is both experienced and flexible enough to match his freak. I was shocked to see Dragunov walk out of his first match back in WWE with the title, and as much as I'll miss Zayn's open challenge series, I'm glad to see WWE pull the trigger on Dragunov. They need to push that guy to the moon.
Written by Angeline Phu
For once, I don't have many complaints about an episode of "WWE SmackDown." I thought the matches we had were utterly insane, and the blue brand's highlighted storylines, while not the most sophisticated or thought-provoking, were almost always high-stakes, explosive, and downright chaotic. I don't think there was a match on Friday's card that didn't hold severe repercussions for its outcome, either in its stipulation, cast, or final result.
Can't say that I feel the same way about the backstage segment and video packages, though.
I'll give WWE some grace: I know that certain backstage segments, like Jacob Fatu's backstage assault, did have tangible ramifications on the show. Other segments, however, like Fraxiom's interaction with #DIY and Candice Lerae, didn't really strike me as anything that special. It didn't help that some of the dialogue in these promos was far from the best. Like, Los Garzas and Motor City Machine Guns' backstage promo exchange was far from any man's best work, and it read like a bunch of somewhat-buzzed dudes at the bar trying to get in a fight fueled by the masculine urge to fight for glory (no matter how low the stakes were). Don't even get me started on how useless Aleister Black and Zelina Vega's video package was or do, because it was so inconsequential that I completely forgot to write about it until I was reading back this paragraph. I understand that backstage segments are necessary to progress storylines (we can't be in the ring, in front of fans, all the time), but compared to the rest of "SmackDown's" high-octane, engaging on-camera segments, these backstage and prerecorded broadcasting beats simply fell flat for me. I would have much preferred to have an extra few minutes of Sami Zayn and Ilja Dragunov's insane United States Championship title match, or maybe even a post-match angle for Sol Ruca and Blake Monroe following ZaRuca's unsuccessful WWE Women's Tag Team Championship bout, over whatever Black and Vega's general brand Karrion and Scarlet pitch. I would have taken an official broadcast of Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes' ad break crowd-side brawl over whatever Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa had to say to Nathan Frazer and Axiom.
I know that cool-down segments are necessary, especially in an episode of "SmackDown" as jammed-packed as this one was generally, I don't mind a cute little backstage segment or two. I just felt like there were a bit too many in this episode, placed in spaces that could have been given to the show's more exciting in-ring moments. It's a hard balance to strike, but if anyone can do it, it should be the company that has monopolized the professional wrestling game for the past three decades. Right?
Written by Angeline Phu
Drew McIntyre's pursuit of the WWE Championship, currently weighing down Cody Rhodes' shoulders, continued this week with a number one contender's match booked between him and his rival, Jacob Fatu. There had been rumblings heading into the show that Fatu was injured, so naturally, a question loomed over the status of their match that had, up until the very last moment, continued to be advertised as going ahead. But then it was at the very last moment that at least half of that question was answered, with Fatu having been discovered backstage, attacked by some unknown assailant one would presume McIntyre had done so, but we all love a "Who done it?" when the opportunity arises and thus the match was unable to take place.
McIntyre made his entrance, Nick Aldis tried to get a handle on the situation, with one man apparently attacked by another, and him having to manage the fallout. But before he could, McIntyre got to defending himself and begging for Aldis not to be another to cost him in his quest through, what he perceives as, unjust means. And then Rhodes emerged because he, like most of his colleagues and rivals, had grown tired of McIntyre's drilled whinging, taking the situation further out of the control of Aldis as he stomped to the ring suit and all to get into a fight. The bell rang like there was a match between them, commentary struggled to ascertain whether the title was on the line, and still, they continued to fight through the arena and ringside area.
McIntyre tried to make it a match within the ring, because of course he would, while Rhodes had, as you would expect from a man in dress shoes, zero interest in wrestling a cookie-cutter wrestling match. As such, he ended things via disqualification with a shot to the head with his championship belt, and then they fought until the officials got involved; well, Rhodes did hit a final splash from the top rope to put an exclamation point to things, but aside from that, that was it. For what it was, the segment did well to bridge the gap between injury-forced match cancellation and the next stage of McIntyre and Rhodes' feud for the title. They couldn't find the final resolution during this week's show and on such short notice, so this was a great way for them to extend the story while circumventing the need to put a winner to things as of yet.
Written by Max Everett
I thought this was one of the best episodes of "SmackDown" in quite some time, and I was trying to look at this main event angle through the eyes of someone who hadn't seen the news that poor Jacob Fatu is injured and who didn't see the spoiler about tonight ahead of time. However, it's pretty difficult for me to even try to imagine that. Even if I weren't writing wrestling news, I'm certain I would have seen it on social media, so it's impossible to look at things any differently.
That being said, I thought General Manager Nick Aldis was going to announce Fatu wasn't cleared to compete at the beginning of the show. I guess WWE was trying to play at some kind of swerve, because Aldis just announced it was a number one contender's match. And with that, it was pretty obvious that Fatu was somehow getting taken out before that match, presumably by McIntyre, though I guess we aren't exactly sure about that.
The way Fatu was taken out backstage was kind of silly, too. It looked like some kind of light fixture fell on him, rather than just a straight-up beat down by another star with a chair or kendo stick, and they went as far as putting fake teeth in the fake blood by his mouth. Gore doesn't bother me, especially stuff that looks pretty cheesy, but that just felt really goofy.
The spoiler earlier in the day revealed that the main event would then be changed to Cody Rhodes versus McIntyre, but it wasn't initially clear if it would be for the championship. And it still wasn't clear even after the bell rang for the match, which didn't happen until well after their initial brawl throughout the crowd during a commercial break. Commentary didn't have any clue either because Rhodes mentioned McIntyre could have his title match right then, but Aldis didn't say anything, which didn't help and only added to the chaos.
While it's unclear what the plan was before Fatu's injury, I'm not looking forward to seeing Rhodes and McIntyre for the title at yet another premium live event. It's getting sad to see McIntyre keep losing every title match he gets. And Rhodes' motivations for snapping at the end of tonight's segment are very unclear. Is he that furious at McIntyre for taking out Fatu? I highly doubt it, so we're bound to get some half-baked story about Rhodes losing his mind after losing the Crown Jewel Championship.
Written by Daisy Ruth
