WWE SMACKDOWN HITS & MISSES 1/31: Fetish Boy insult, Daniel Bryan reacts to Fiend loss, Sheamus vs. Gable, Naomi-Bayley, Braun beats Nakamura for IC Title, Dog Food Match

Opening Segment – MISS: Ugh. Smackdown and Raw couldn’t be more different right now. I look forward to Raw every week, while dreading Smackdown. This opening segment compares so unfavorably to the start of Raw. It is easier to start off Raw after The Royal Rumble because the Rumble winner was on Raw, but this was a terrible way to follow up on such a big show. Roman Reigns beat Baron Corbin in a decisive way at the PPV, so why keep going? That should have been the end of the feud. Instead of moving on to something new coming out of the PPV, they went back to the feud that has been already dragged on for too long. The Usos are cool. But, they don’t come across as cool when they are dealing with the perpetually uncool acts of Corbin, Dolph Ziggler and Bobby Roode. They don’t come across as cool when they are so giddy about the prospect of Corbin eating dog food. Reigns tried to get a “Fetish Boy” chant started and it didn’t work. That bit fell flat. This didn’t get me excited for the rest of the show. It was bad.

Fatal Four-Way Tag – HIT: At least WWE followed up that terrible opening segment with a pretty good match. The four teams all worked hard and had a good fatal four way to determine the number 1 contender for the Tag Team Championship. Miz & Morrison were the predictable winners as they have been feuding with The New Day, clearly setting up a Tag Title match. That was ok. But, the team that really stood out to me was Lucha House Party. They are DOA in terms of being ice cold as an act, but they are so talented in the ring. Gran Matalik in particular was so fun to watch. I hope WWE can find a way to utilize them better than they have.

Daniel Bryan Video – HIT: This was a good way to follow up on Daniel Bryan’s match against The Fiend at Royal Rumble. It sold the brutality of the strap match. It got over Bryan’s personality and character with an emphasis on how much he loves wrestling despite the pain that he went through in that match. It will be interesting to see where WWE goes from here with Bryan. What will he do at WrestleMania?

Nakamura vs. Strowman – MISS: This felt like the start of what could have been a good Intercontinental Championship match between Shinsuke Nakamura and Braun Strowman. WWE has done a nice job of building up this feud to build anticipation for Strowman finally getting a championship victory. Unfortunately, the match only lasted about 5 minutes. It wasn’t bad while it lasted, but an IC Title match with a long build should get more time. It had a chance to be good, but it felt cut off and anticlimactic when Strowman won the belt. Then that was followed up by more childish humor with Elias making fun of Sami Zayn’s group. That didn’t help make the IC Title change feel important. More of Strowman celebrating would have been better. The group needed a win at the end to get some heat back after Nakamura lost, but instead Cesaro was dispatched by Elias after Zayn sent him out to the ring to stop Elias from making fun of them. The group just came across as a joke.

Sheamus vs. Gable – MISS: Why did this match happen again? It wasn’t particularly good at the Royal Rumble pre-show. It didn’t end in a way to suggest that Chad Gable deserved another match against Sheamus. They could have done something different with the rematch, but instead it was basically the same with Sheamus getting a decisive victory to prove that he is right when he says that short people aren’t as good as tall people.

Bayley – Naomi – HIT: Bayley gave a better performance here than she has lately. She was more of a cocky heel than the emo girl she’d been playing which was a nice change of pace. I was relieved when Lacey Evans didn’t come out to interrupt her. I hate her as a babyface and don’t need to see her in a top spot in the women’s division on Smackdown. Naomi hasn’t been on in a long time so she is fresh. She isn’t great, but can be fun to watch and she has a connection with the fans. She has some good history. She can be a nice contrast to Bayley’s heel character and I’m already looking forward to this more than I ever looked forward to Bayley vs. Evans.

Dog Food – MISS: There wasn’t anything Super about this Super Smackdown. The show was built around the fact that the losing team in the main event six man tag match would have to eat dog food. They talked about it throughout the show. They showed the dog food being prepared multiple times. Every time there was a near fall in the main event, Michael Cole would excitedly yell “he’s going to have to eat dog food!” He had far too much glee at that prospect. In the end, I didn’t care about the main event. I’m not rating the match at all, because I was so over it by the end. Then, Corbin didn’t even have to eat the dog food. They just poured it over him. And Ziggler and Roode were nowhere to be found. They were part of the match. They were also supposed to eat it. They helped Corbin when he started this whole dog food storyline several weeks back. So, why didn’t they have to partake in the dog food bath? And once again, why promise that someone was going to eat dog food all night, and not deliver?

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com’s WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at jmezz_torch@yahoo.com.

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