Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

By Nicholas Jason Lopez

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 7/14/16)

The End Of The Taped Era

– A SmackDown novelty the past few weeks, we had another “promo mash-up” as a cold open to the show, which previewed the Kevin Owens-WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose/Sasha Banks-Dana Brooke matches and the MizTV segment that’d star Darren Young/Bob Backlund. This was also regarded as the “end of an era” by commentary, as this was the last SmackDown to air on Thursdays, since from this point forward, it’d be live on Tuesdays. As for the promos, they were fun. Owens focused on a card Sami Zayn gave him last December for his son that had $20 in Canadian money and how it was horrendous since they were best friends at the time and promised to send Zayn to a hospital if he stuck his nose in his main event match with Ambrose. Good stuff. WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte did most of the talking in her open promo outside of a limo with Brooke as she again referred to Banks as a “Nicki Minaj knockoff” and Brooke swore that lightning wouldn’t strike twice. Next was WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz/Maryse, as they prepped for MizTV and he lightly insulted his soon-to-be guest. Lastly, we had Ambrose who soaked in the last Thursday SmackDown as he embraced the chance to do something he loved with someone he hated. All sounds about right and then some simultaneous hype. Hopefully they keep these cold opens when they go live.

– The story of the Banks-Brooke match headed in was if Banks could defeat Brooke again at the request of Charlotte to be able to earn a shot at her Title. This was shorter than their Raw encounter, but had a decent finish where Banks made Brooke tap out after she knocked Charlotte off the apron. The post-match attack from Charlotte looked vicious and Banks sold it well when she was tossed over the announce table.

– The WWE United States Champion Rusev-Dolph Ziggler match initially gave us bad 2015 reminders, especially when the camera panned on an uninterested Lana during Ziggler’s entrance. Why even go there again? As far as the bout, it was okay as both men were portrayed evenly. The finish revolved around a Ziggler win as he took advantage of a distraction by Zack Ryder, which advanced the Ryder-Rusev feud. The fact that Ziggler pinned the Champ makes us think perhaps he gets added to the Battleground match or they do Ziggler-Rusev on Raw or SmackDown for the Title. Rusev’s ringside tantrum made sense given what happened.

– The AJ Styles/Karl Anderson-Enzo Amore/Big Cass match featured a brief pre-match promo from Team SAWFT as they criticized the “Too Sweet” catchphrase and Enzo juggled creative metaphors. The action was decent, yet never climaxed to a peak. The story was fine though, since it was all about The Club’s number advantage which prevented Enzo from getting to Cass and then he eventually tapped out to the Calf Crusher.

– The Tyler Breeze-Kalisto match carried off Breeze’s pin of Kalisto on Raw and it was all pretty much Superstars-esque fodder while Jerry Lawler downed the idea of Kalisto being a high draft pick. Given the guys in this match, we expected more, but it was highly unspectacular and worse yet, they went even-steven with this, as Kalisto avenged his loss with the Salida Del Sol.

– The MizTV segment with Miz, Maryse, Young and Backlund was a good start to Young’s new character as he was able to stand up for Backlund when Miz/Maryse praised him for his accomplishments and then implied he was old. Young looked tough in the way he got in Miz’s face and din’t back down, but Miz brought up the point we made earlier in that Young got his Title shot from other people losing before him. Either way, this was a good start to the long road of Young getting over.  However, he’s in no position to uncrown Miz at this moment. That’d be a huge mistake.

– The backstage segment with Banks, Charlotte and Brooke provided a brief swerve that also announced another Battleground match, as Charlotte granted Banks a match at the show, but not for the Title, just a tag match where Banks would have to find a partner. Think they did this angle on NXT once before, but this was a cool way to prolong that eventual Championship match for an eventual date.

– The Ambrose-Owens main event lasted about a minute thanks to a run-in from Seth Rollins and just like a “SmackDown classic,” the bout turned into a tag match after Zayn came to Ambrose’s rescue. This was a logical way for the Ambrose-Rollins and Zayn-Owens feuds to advance, while we knew shortly on Raw would be the huge WWE World Heavyweight Championship match between Rollins and Ambrose that’d determine the Champion headed into the draft and Battleground. The tag match gave us ample action with plenty of high-impact maneuvers and such. They were careful not to give away too much and eventually, Rollins pinned Zayn with the Pedigree. There was some subtle physicality between Ambrose/Rollins to end the show, as Rollins narrowly avoided a Dirty Deeds attempt.

Quick Results

• Sasha Banks def. Dana Brooke (w/Charlotte) via submission
• Dolph Ziggler def. Rusev (w/Lana) via pinfall
• AJ Styles/Karl Anderson (w/Luke Gallows) def. Enzo Amore/Big Cass via pinfall
• Kalisto (w/Sin Cara) def. Tyler Breeze (w/Fandango) via pinfall
• Dean Ambrose def. Kevin Owens via DQ 
• Seth Rollins/Kevin Owens def. Dean Ambrose/Sami Zayn via pinfall