September 03, 2015
Smackdown/Twitter
AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami played host to Thursday night's Smackdown.
It was The New Day’s night on Thursday from the AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami. I’m not talking in terms of wins, either; I’m talking in terms of just making the most of their opportunity for exposure on WWE’s B show. The group opened up the show with a fantastic promo, and ended the show the way heels should – scared and running away.
This was hopefully a coming out part of sorts for the group, and down the road I’d like to see them eventually become a more serious team and a threat to the top stars in the company. Their act is hot right now, but I’m not so sure it’ll continue being hot six months from now. They’ll have to reinvent themselves at some point before WrestleMania next year, but I’m having a ton of fun watching them on WWE television right now. It certainly is a “New Day” in WWE.
Here are the main stories coming out of SmackDown:
It was awesome to see the WWE Tag Team Champions, New Day, get some well-deserved love on this edition of SmackDown. They bookended the show by opening the program with a promo in the ring, continuing their petition to #SaveTheTables in protest to the returning Bubba Ray and D’Von Dudley. The group cited such events as the first Thanksgiving, the writing of America’s Declaration of Independence, and Walter Cronkite’s announcement of the moon landing as being the perennial moments of remembrance as all of the above events took place at a table.
It’s so simple, but still so necessary in pro wrestling. The New Day may be the only heels in WWE working hard enough to make the audience hate them, and this newfound protest against breaking tables only helps their cause. Too many heels in the world of wrestling today try to be cool instead of being the cowardly cheater who would do anything to win a match or gain the upper hand on an enemy.
Case in point being Kofi Kingston hitting D’Von Dudley in the back of the head after the Dudleyz defeated the Prime Time Players, and then being miffed at being put in the main event of the evening, facing Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose.
AWWWWWW MIAMI! DON'T YOU DARE BE SOUR! #SmackDown #NewDay pic.twitter.com/nhMaLBKA0V
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) September 4, 2015
The match was good, but there was no way we were going to see the WWE Tag Team Champions go over clean. Hopefully New Day will be featured more prominently on WWE television in the coming weeks, especially Raw. They should get a minimum of three to four segments on WWE’s flagship show.
I’m not a fan at all of the current direction of the Lana/Summer Rae/Dolph Ziggler angle that was continued from Raw on Thursday night. Miz TV was the setting for the continuation of the angle where Summer Rae clearly went into Ziggler’s locker room unprovoked, ran out of his locker room later on while Ziggler came out in nothing but a towel, and now we have Lana mad at Ziggler in this entire mess.
. @RealSummerWWE you are a manipulator & conniving... Even @RusevBUL deserves better #Smackdown
— LANA (@LanaWWE) September 4, 2015
It’s not even good writing, and it’s really frustrating seeing an angle like this play out in 2015. It’s a stereotypical angle involving women, and it doesn’t make Lana look good at all. Yeah, get mad at the guy you just started dating who seems smitten over you because of something your sworn enemy says, which is obviously a lie to the cameraman who captured the shot of Summer Rae going into Ziggler’s locker room. I hate everything about this.
And please keep this video away from Lana.
Speaking of Divas, we had a pretty good Divas match on SmackDown between the number one contender for the Divas Championship and the daughter of the WWE Hall of Famer who was just arrested and charged with his girlfriend’s death over 30 years ago.
I’m hoping the seeds are being planted for a fantastic Divas division by the end of the calendar year. With Charlotte being the Divas Champion, I can see that Team PCB will have some dissention and Paige and Becky Lynch may get jealous, therefore kind of fading out the Bellas and Alicia Fox for a little bit and highlighting Charlotte, Becky, Paige, Sasha Banks, Naomi and Tamina. That would make for some fantastic matches and a real Divas Revolution.
But, I don’t think that’s going to happen. But it would be awesome if it did.
The Dudley Boyz once again got a big win against a tag team, and this time it came against the former WWE Tag Team Champions, the Prime Time Players. That makes three teams now that have lost to the Dudleys, which I don’t think makes the tag team division look that great. I understand it’s important to re-establish the Dudleys as the dominant tag team they’ve been throughout their career, but it really doesn’t make the current crop of teams in WWE look all that impressive. They probably should lose a match soon.
Cesaro and Sheamus had a nice match, but I’m not sure it ultimately amounts to anything. The two are mired in the midcard at this point, despite Cesaro’s resurgence after taking on John Cena for the United States Championship on Raw a few months ago. I have no issues with the match itself, and Sheamus did capture a must-needed win, but I want to see a title feud involving guys like Cesaro, Sheamus and Kevin Owens. I know Sheamus has the Money in the Bank briefcase, but he’s got some good competition to face in Cesaro and Owens, so why not throw a title in the mix? I mean, Rollins doesn’t need two titles.
Speaking of Owens, it looks like his direction is now heading towards the Intercontinental Championship. This absolutely needs to end with Owens getting some gold, but his promo backstage during SmackDown on Thursday night raised some questions.
He never addressed the Intercontinental Champion, Ryback, by name. Owens said he silenced the “Cesaro Section” after defeating him on Raw and SummerSlam back-to-back, so that feud is likely over. He said he wants to silence the movement of people making fun of him for the way he looks. That’s obviously an allusion to his weight, as he’s a little bigger in the gut area than what we’re used to seeing on WWE television. He said to feed him more, and I don’t think he means food. I’m just hoping that’s alluding to him challenging Ryback for the Intercontinental Championship. Owens would be a great champion and a better one than Ryback has been, even though injuries have played a part in the less-than-stellar run he’s had since winning the belt back in May.
Bo Dallas is just a mean person.
• The Dudley Boyz d. Prime Time Players by pinfall after they hit 3D on Titus O’Neil. New Day was on commentary during the match.
• Neville vs. Stardust ended in a No Contest after The Ascension attacked Neville before the match started. Stardust alluded to The Ascension now being aligned with him.
• Sheamus d. Cesaro by pinfall via the Brogue Kick.
• Bo Dallas d. R-Truth by pinfall via a hangman’s spinning neckbreaker. Dallas then continued attacking R-Truth after the match.
• Charlotte d. Tamina by pinfall via Natural Selection.
• Non-Title: Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose d. The New Day (c) [Big E and Kofi Kingston] by disqualification after Xavier Woods runs in and attacks Reigns after he hit Kingston with the Superman punch. After Reigns and Ambrose got the upper hand, Ambrose challenged the Wyatt Family to another match, to which Bray responded they’ll have to wait until Night of Champions.
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