SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Multi-Man Silliness for the Title…
Recap: The show began with the previously announced matchup between Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler, with the winner getting a spot in the title match at Fastlane. Before the match could begin, however, both Corbin and Ziggler were taken out by Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.
Later, an angry Shane McMahon confronted Daniel Bryan and set matches with Baron Corbin vs Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler vs Sami Zayn. If either or one of Owens’ and Zayn’s opponents were to win, they would gain entry into the Fastlane title match. Further, Shane set a stipulation that Sami and/or Kevin could lose their spot in the title match for interference in the their partner’s match.
In the matches themselves, Baron Corbin defeated Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler defeated Sami Zayn. Before his match, Sami told Kevin backstage that there was no more “we” in the upcoming title match, as would be every man for himself.
Evaluation: This was strange all around. Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler, normally two of the least well liked guys on the roster by the crowd, were set up as the faces in their matches tonight.
While there have been a lot of Zayn-Owens-Styles matches recently, adding Ziggler and Corbin to make a Five Way (with little backstory or build) isn’t going to add much interest to this match.
I don’t see this feud doing much to rehabilitate Dolph Ziggler either. However, if internet rumors are to be believed, Ziggler just accepted a high dollar, high perk contract in exchange for WWE being able to use him in the Swiss army knife role they’ve had him in for a couple years now. If that’s the case, he’ll be randomly filling in wherever needed, usually losing, for the immediate future.
Forecast: At Fastlane, we’ve got a Five-Way where four of the guys are heels. Among the four heels, two of them (Corbin/Ziggler) are comparatively written as faces against the other two. It’s a weird dynamic. I’m not sure how it plays out, other than AJ Styles retaining his title.
The U.S. Title Heats Up…
Recap: Bobby Roode cut a promo regarding how he admired John Cena’s time as US Champion, particularly Cena’s US Title Open Challenge. Roode issued his own Open Challenge for tonight, which was accepted by Randy Orton. Shortly after Orton hit the ring, however, Jinder Mahal also appeared. Jinder stated that Orton’s low ranking on the Top 10 List despite all of his accomplishments was evidence of the lack of respect he has from his peers. Jinder also stated, however, that he personally respected Orton (to “RKO” cheers from the crowd).
Orton disputed that he cared at all about the Top 10 List. Jinder tried to sow further seeds of division by comparing Orton’s ranking to Roode’s, and referring to Roode as an arrogant newcomer fancying himself a future “legend killer.”
Roode stated that he respected Orton, but that Orton’s low ranking is a result of the locker room being tired of getting “RKO’d out of nowhere.” Orton reacted to the comment by RKO-ing Sunil Singh. but Jinder came out on top of the ensuing melee by hitting the Khallas on Orton and Roode.
Evaluation: Despite Orton’s protestations, the announcers were much more explicit tonight than they were last week about Randy Orton’s actions being motivated by his low ranking on the Top 10 list.
This is actually about as good of a storyline as I could expect out of the Top 10 List. It’s entirely reasonable that Randy Orton would be peeved by his peers’ ranking of him. It’s also entirely reasonable that the aforementioned ranking would be driven by locker room irritation over the incessant “RKO out of nowhere”. And finally it’s reasonable that Jinder Mahal would attempt to exploit the resentment to his own advantage. The whole storyline seems to make sense.
Forecast: The downside is that it appears we’re headed to another multi-man match at Fastlane. On the positive side, they are running a perfectly acceptable, logical angle here which appropriately takes advantage of the Top 10 List gimmick.
More Pancakes…
Recap: The New Day cut yet another pancake promo, with Big E attempting to set some sort of pancake eating record. They were interrupted by Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin, who criticized them as unserious competitors.
This set up a match with the New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) against Gable and Benjamin. The New Day won with the Midnight Hour after the referee missed a tag from Chad Gable to Shelton Benjamin.
Evaluation: I can’t understand how the entire crowd isn’t completely sick of the New Day by now, but unfortunately this will continue for so long as they get good crowd reactions and sell merchandise.
Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin were supposed to be heels, however they aired a lot of my legitimate frustrations with the New Day’s lack of seriousness.
Forecast: Hopefully this sets up a feud between Gable-Benjamin and the New Day. They have legitimate beef due to yet another missed call by a ref in one of their matches. Chad Gable may legitimately be the most talented wrestler on SmackDown, so I would like to see the heels go over.
Random Thoughts…
The Usos’ hard edged promos are particularly undercut by WWE’s new cartoon text animation toy. It looked even worse in contrast to the destruction to the television monitor inflicted by the Bludgeon Brothers….
There were no Cruiserweight appearances on Raw last night, and no promotion for 205 Live on SmackDown tonight. Raw also lacked any promotion of Mixed Match Challenge, although we did get two MMC promos tonight…
NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: TOP 3 DEVELOPMENTS – SMACKDOWN 2/6: More Management Bickering, Kevin and Sami Show isn’t cancelled, The Top Ten List debuts
We’re not sick of New Day because we like a class clown in WWE, But just one [or one group]. Santino was great in that role so is new day. If I take my vitamins and say my prayers can we get three-four-five-17 way matches banned for a year. Pretty Please. You say 4 of 5 are heels in the big match, I’d love to see 5 heels in a match [if we HAVE to have multi man matches] without any of them being written as ‘cool’. Just 5 guys we don’t like thrown in a box and let them kill each other. Could be fun.