WWE SMACKDOWN HITS & MISSES 3/11: Lesnar chases Heyman, Big E’s neck injury, Pete Dunn becomes Butch, Sami challenges Ricochet for IC Title, McAfee-Theory angle, more

HITS

Brock Lesnar & Paul Heyman: This was a minor hit and more of a setup for next week as we found out that Brock and Roman Reigns will both be live next week on Smackdown. I didn’t like Brock basically throwing the WWE Title out of the ring saying that the title didn’t matter. I can understand and appreciate the idea that “this is very personal now,” but the blatant disrespect to the title didn’t do it for me. It was fun to see Lesnar throw around some guys backstage as he pursued Heyman. I said awhile back that I can also see part of this endgame being Lesnar getting his hands on Heyman. Tonight just reignited that thought in my mind and I think we’ll see it happen at WrestleMania.

Charlotte Flair & Ronda Rousey confrontations: The parking lot brawl at the end of show saved what was feeling like a miss for me when it came to both of these women. The in-ring promos felt flat and not very believable. How did Ronda know Charlotte’s thoughts about being a “one trick pony” last week considering she was having a match while those comments were made? The back and forth made me feel like there may be a stipulation making this a submission match for the title at Mania but that’s pure speculation on my part. The brawl at the end helped to push these two into the hit ledger. It added some intensity that was much needed and not coming across with the in-ring promos.

Sasha Banks & Naomi vs. Shayna Baszler & Natalya: This was fine for what it was. There are two schools of thought here and I’d have been good with either. The first is what they went with and that is that it gets Sasha & Naomi a win in the run-up to Mania. The other school of thought would’ve been to let Shayna & Natalya win thus setting up a potential four-way for the titles at Mania. There’s an argument that could be made that Nattie & Shayna aren’t “credible enough” as a team. That’s sound logic if you are willing to pretend that there’s any credibility to the WWE Women’s Tag Team division. Before I get your hate tweets (@TonyDonofrio), I feel the same way about the Raw & SD Men’s Tag Title divisions. Personally, I’d like to see Nattie & Shayna thrown into the mix since I doubt there’ll be a Women’s Battle Royal this year due to the lack of depth in the women’s division overall. I suppose there’s still time for that though or maybe Shayna or Nattie could end up with another tag partner. Again, this tag division is a mess and they could still go many different directions.

Sami Zayn vs. Ricochet (IC Title): There was nothing wrong with this match as both guys can go in the ring and that shouldn’t surprise anyone. The work-rate from these two alone is good enough to garner it as a hit. However, I thought it was strange that Michael Cole stated that Johnny Knoxville should be happy seeing how this turned out. Honestly, wouldn’t Knoxville want to see Zayn regain the title now that he officially has a match with him? Why wouldn’t Knoxville hope to have a championship match? Ah well, logic isn’t always WWE’s best thing. Regardless, this was a fine match for the main event spot. As for Ricochet, I’ll be very curious to see if he’ll be inserted into any type of feud going into Mania so that he can defend his title on a bigger stage.

MISSES

Pete Dunne is Butch: Welp, I’m sure Adam Cole is somewhere right now with a smile on his face sighing a huge sigh of relief. If anything, this just lends credence to the reports last summer that Vince McMahon wanted to change Cole’s name, cut his hair, and make him a manager. Having said that, a name DOES NOT make or break a character. Dunne, er, Butch still looked good in what he was given tonight but part of it came off as a little brother trying to impress his older brothers. We’ll see where it goes from here but if someone can make chicken salad out of chicken scratch it is Pete, er…Butch. Changing a wrestler’s name when he leaves NXT to go to the main roster makes absolutely zero sense. He isn’t coming from another company. Again, we’ll see what happens I suppose.

Big E suffers broken neck/Sheamus & Ridge Holland vs. Kofi Kingston & Big E: Obviously this wasn’t an angle on the show tonight but the news broke and was put out there by Big E right as Smackdown was about to go off the air. First of all, best wishes and hopefully a speedy recovery go out to Big E. It was great to see that Big E has full movement of his extremities and was even in good spirits despite the terrible news. As for the spot that caused it, I also feel bad for Ridge Holland. It’s not like any pro wrestler goes out there with the intent of hurting or injuring someone. I’m sure no one feels worse than Holland right now. Before the match took place I assumed this was going to lead to a 6-man at Mania with all of New Day vs. this new trio of Sheamus, Holland, and…Butch. I can’t say anything nice about the match considering the awful turn of events and it’s probably best to just leave it at that.

Drew McIntyre scrum with Happy Corbin, Madcap Moss, and crew: It’s possible that this build gets worse each week. Drew is still waving around his sword as if he’s gonna use it someday for real. Corbin and Moss are just corny characters that I can’t get past. Then, this week, even with the help of Jinder Mahal and Shanky we still saw McIntyre prevail and stand tall. I’m not saying we need to see the babyface beaten down every week but since his comeback after the Rumble, Drew has been booked like 80’s Hogan in his prime. I assume they’ll get some heat on Corbin in the few weeks left to this buildup but, at this point, this feud can’t end soon enough.

Jey Uso vs. Rick Boogs: The pre-match that set this up is what primarily makes this a miss. We got more twisted logic here (like when Ronda was supposed to know about Charlotte’s comments last week while actively wrestling and she randomly debuts a new move). We get Boogs limping to the ring with his knee wrapped up. Was he tipped off that they were going to be challenged to a match where they’d get a championship match out of it if victorious? Why sell a fake injury that can be used to outsmart the heel unless you knew there’d be a payoff to this? The short match itself was fine and I had no problems with the attack after. I really hope we don’t get a Boogs and Shisuke Nakamura tag title run coming out of Mania. The Usos have defended their titles agains some legit teams over the past 250+ days and to see them losing to this makeshift team at Mania would be a bit mind boggling. Would anyone else be surprised if the Usos showed up next week during the next Boogs/Nakamura car commercial to attack them while wearing scuba gear since Nakamura and Boogs apparently like to surf? I guess I shouldn’t give the creative team anymore bad ideas…

Pat McAfee and Austin Theory confrontation: This was a tough one for me but goes down as a minor miss if only because McAfee being escorted from the arena for defending himself is just outright silly. We’ve seen broadcasters in WWE have feuds before and they’ve never been removed from commentary, escorted from the building, and potentially suspended and/or fined (if we are to read between the lines on what Michael Cole was saying). Now, that aside, I loved the intensity and am optimistic about the match that the two could have at Mania. As I’ve said before, McAfee has a good track record from his on-and-off NXT feuds. Sure, he got to work with some good workers but he always looked up to the task (and again, I will always support a fellow Pittsburgher!). Theory has a lot of potential and, even if it hasn’t been handled perfectly, he seems to be a pet project for Vince McMahon. That means this match will get proper billing and build. It was also a smart idea to not mention that Theory was squashed by Brock in the MSG main event just last week.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This was a tough one. There was a fair mix of good and bad but approximately 56% of the show was a miss if I’m weighting the segments evenly (I don’t have time for math right now) and taking into consideration the sad news about Big E. We are a few weeks out now and I can’t see anything of significance being added or changed to the Smackdown side of the card other than possibly the tag title matches. But, what can be done is intensifying some of the builds and that was mostly done or started tonight especially with the main event type feuds.