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Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 10/18/16: The Chin That Got The Win
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 10/18/16)
The Chin That Got The Win
– The opening video took us back to last week when Dean Ambrose and a Referee shirt caused havoc for WWE World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles, who looked for an “easy night” as he gave James Ellsworth a “chance at a Title opportunity.” Sure enough, as Ambrose was still irate with Styles’ cheap tactics, he gave him his own medicine as he deliberately screwed him over multiple times to allow Ellsworth to beat him. That brought us to the real main event WWE World Heavyweight Championship match where Styles would defend against Ellsworth.
WWE No Mercy 2016 Reaction
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
In an unprecedented period where we had five pro wrestling pay-per-views between Sept. 11 and Oct. 11 between WWE, Ring Of Honor and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, we were exhausted by Oct. 9 when No Mercy rolled around.
Luckily, if you look at that nice poster to the side, SmackDown Live had been headlined by the excellent heel duo of WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz/Maryse as he was engaged in a “Title Vs. Career” feud with Dolph Ziggler.
That feud would become synonymous with this show for reasons we’ll explore below.
It also helped that we had a Triple-Threat main event for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship between Champion AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose and John Cena that actually opened the show for a change.
Cool on the surface, but that brought us to the problem – one disorganized card.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 10/4/16: Keeping The Spirit Alive
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 10/4/16)
Keeping The Spirit Alive
– With the star-studded trio of John Cena, Dean Ambrose and WWE World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles all coming to a head by the end, they were wise to hype this from the opening video. They were set for battle at No Mercy just five days away.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 9/20/16: A Prime Time Showdown
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 9/20/16)
A Prime Time Showdown
– With two big main events hyped, John Cena would fight Dean Ambrose and the WWE Intercontinental Championship would be on the line as Champion Miz defended against Dolph Ziggler, we already had a fun show on our hands. After we suffered through what felt like forever the night before, we were welcome to change.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 9/13/16: The Champ That Runs The Camp
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 9/13/16)
The Champ That Runs The Camp
– As we expected, the opening video showed us the biggest highlights of the Backlash Pay-Per-View: Becky Lynch became the first-ever WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion, Maryse helped The Miz retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship against Dolph Ziggler with a foreign substance spray, Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt played a game of “I can injure you better than you can injure me,” there was a No Holds Barred match, an announce table (not the Spanish one) was broken, Heath Slater received both a WWE SmackDown Live contract and the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships with Rhyno and arguably the biggest news – AJ Styles defeated Dean Ambrose with a low blow and a Styles Clash to complete his rise to the top with the company’s most coveted prize, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Follow-up shows are always fun. Let’s hope this is one of those episodes.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 9/12/16: Getting Crazy
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 9/12/16)
Getting Crazy
– The opening video covered Raw’s side of the WWE spectrum, with Clash Of Champions a mere two weeks away. It was time to shape the foundation for the WWE Universal Championship match for the show and as it stood headed in, it was WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens against Seth Rollins. The main event of this show would have implications, as Owens would square off against Roman Reigns, who was also screwed over by Triple H the night Owens won. The gist was that if Reigns could beat Owens, then the COC match would become a triple-threat.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 7/18/16: Holy Foley And The Yes Man
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 7/18/16)
Holy Foley And The Yes Man
– With Battleground six days away and the WWE Brand Extension Draft even closer (the next day), there was a feel for change in the air. What better way to bring that out than to start the show with a long-winded talking segment that involves the McMahon clan? Original stuff, guys. The one saving grace here was that it served a purpose for us to find out who Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon each selected for their respective General Managers. Are you keeping up with the authority figures? Hope you like it, because there’s a lot of that here. There were also some half-assedly explained Draft “rules” – Raw got the first pick and for every two SmackDown picks, Raw would get three. Why? We don’t know. Better news was that six picks would come off the NXT roster. Oh, make them good. After some pointless sibling bickering, Steph announced that Raw would feature a new cruiserweight division exclusive to them. She then introduced her GM, which was Mick Foley to a nice pop. Foley’s promo here leaned more towards the humbled and appreciative as he used his experience when he partook in the Monday Night Wars to compare it to nowadays. That’s a bit of a stretch, but okay. More or less, the segment was stolen when Shane announced his pick, none other than Daniel Bryan. Yes, that one. The place went bonkers as you’d imagine. Bryan’s promo revolved around the “underdogs” and there were some moments where he stuck it to Steph, as she had her own responses that underdogs always end up at the bottom despite their rise. So, some more pointless bickering to end it but we got our big news.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 7/11/16: Rollins The Reporter
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 7/11/16)
Rollins The Reporter
– We applauded the Battle Royale opener to decide who’d challenge WWE United States Champion The Miz at Battleground that featured the likes of Darren Young, Apollo Crews, The Usos, The Dudley Boyz, The Vaudevillains, The Ascension, Dolph Ziggler, Baron Corbin, Alberto Del Rio, The Golden Truth and Jack Swagger. It switched things up and also gave us Young’s long-awaited “re-debut,” who now had Bob Backlund at ringside. Thankfully, Crews also got a televised entrance and even Corbin was pushed like a beast here to the end. Miz’s pre-taped promo was well-delivered and he stood on commentary, even if he messed up a few lines. The finish was okay, just wasn’t a fan of how Young was the winner mainly for how he stood in the background as Crews/Corbin went over the top rope together. Perhaps it wasn’t the planned finish? Crews looked like he tried to hold on, but fell with Corbin. Luckily, the crowd bought into it and they chanted for Young as he and Backlund celebrated in the ring. Young was later hyped for a SmackDown appearance on MizTV, so that could also be fun.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 7/4/16: Independence Dud
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 7/4/16)
Independence Dud
– WWE and holidays never mix if you seek quality television. It was the Fourth Of July and America celebrated it’s 240th birthday with greasy grilled goodness and such. WWE threw on a three-hour Raw with the agenda of half-assedly pushing Battleground with holiday filler. It worked in some ways and was missable in many others. Case in point – the opening segment was your general locker room food party. The Golden Truth performed on stage before The Vaudevillains forced them off and then Aiden English had food thrown at him. WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz/Maryse warned everybody not to let it end in a food fight and sure enough, that’s what happened. Kevin Owens also got pied by someone in the face off-camera, Heath Slater went through a table, Darren Young sat with other heels and we knew we were in for one of “those” nights.
Notes In Observance – WWE Raw 6/6/16: Holla, Holla, Holla
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 6/6/16)
Holla, Holla, Holla
– The opening in-ring segment with Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, Teddy Long, Stephanie McMahon and Alberto Del Rio was an obvious ploy to hype the Money In The Bank ladder match. On one hand, it worked as an entertaining comedic segment with unique banter from all involved. On the other, the visuals were silly. Why would they open the show with everyone standing on a ladder so vulnerable? How did they get to that point? It would’ve made more sense had Steph forced them to do so, rather than have it organically come off that way. They just looked downright silly. We liked that everyone’s lines stayed true to their characters. Owens name-dropped Nation Of Domination and Waylon Mercy as challengers he’d take on as WWE World Heavyweight Champion. This made our heart flutter. The back-and-forth between Zayn and Jericho on Jericho’s claim to have won the first or sixth MITB match was funny, even though Jericho looked like a dope for how he stood on the ladder and let Ambrose climb it and punch him in the face. Long’s appeal lasted about two minutes, since he was made to look like an incompetent old man. We got this was likely the first of many authority figure teases for the live SmackDown, while we seen Steph show her true self with Shane “on vacation.” With her announcement of the Zayn-Del Rio, Ambrose-Owens and Jericho-Cesaro matches, we had something to easily look forward to throughout the night.
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