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Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 3/7/17: Vices By Vipers
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 3/7/17)
Vices By Vipers
– The opening video recapped the last month, aka Randy Orton’s “master plan” to sacrifice himself into The Wyatt Family to get a shot at the WWE Championship, which ultimately culminated with arson. Definitely one of the more darker angles in recent years, with the image of Orton’s pose with a fiery background probably something that’ll follow his career in the years to come. It’s still hard to determine ideologically that Wyatt wasn’t turned babyface by Orton’s actions judging by his sympathetic “Oh my god, my house is burning down” reaction. We guess this new episode will help out with that.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 2/28/17: A Flaming Invocation
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/28/17)
A Flaming Invocation
– As plenty of past episodes have, we opened with a close-up of a monitor backstage that aired last week’s “controversial ending” of the Battle Royale to determine the challenger for WWE Champion Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 33. In reality, something appeared botched because it looked like Luke Harper had thrown AJ Styles to the floor first, even though they were supposed to land at the same time. To cover that up, of course, they only showed us the hard camera angle. which had both guys falling out of view. In the room with said monitor was Commissioner Shane McMahon, General Manager Daniel Bryan and Styles himself. In chickenshit heel fashion, Styles tried to get by without wrestling on the show. Bryan shuts that down quickly and proclaimed Styles was lucky to even get this chance. We went for a funny as they had Styles badmouth Harper for not showering or discovering Dove, but Harper crept on him from behind. It’s like all those teen dramas. Or that time Stone Cold Steve Austin did it to Stephanie McMahon. Things ended as Styles walked away in disgust, as Harper cautiously got in the “friendly” Authority’s faces and… thanked them. Well, we guess he’s supposed to be a babyface trying to right his past wrongs, so this fits that. Either way, a good start.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 2/21/17: Feel The Blow
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/21/17)
Feel The Blow
– The opening video recapped last week as new WWE Champion Bray Wyatt had to defend against John Cena and AJ Styles. Also shown was Luke Harper’s attack on Wyatt as revenge, which only created another obstacle for the Champ. Sure enough, he battled through and actually pinned Cena to keep his belt. Autocorrect turned that into “belly.” Do with that what you will. Anyways, The “Era Of Wyatt” was set to continue and his influence was so great that even Royal Rumble Winner Randy Orton refused to face him for the belt come WrestleMania 33. What a loyal disciple. In turn, SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan determined that a 10-Man Battle Royale would take place to determine who would face Wyatt at Mania. Simple enough and we’ve got a huge main event on our hands.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 2/14/17: The Era Of Wyatt
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/14/17)
The Era Of Wyatt
– The opening video brought us back to the Elimination Chamber Pay-Per-View, with highlights of all the matches headed in and the big finishes. The most progressive developments were obviously Luke Harper proving himself in the ring with Randy Orton, Naomi taking home the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship and Bray Wyatt finally being WWE Champion.
WWE Elimination Chamber 2017 Reaction
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
Back in the Pay-Per-View fold after a year’s absence, the infamous Elimination Chamber was all a part of the blue brand’s WrestleMania build.
With Royal Rumble winner Randy Orton in the wings for a Title shot, six of the best would battle it out to see who he’d face, a few in the first Chamber match of their careers.
On a night where a few undercard talents had their moment, other bouts got lost in the shuffle, but as always, SmackDown delivered when it counted.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 2/7/17: The Latest Chapter
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/7/17)
The Latest Chapter
– Announced last week, this was a notable occurrence where the Royal Rumble winner would challenge the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion, nine days removed from said Rumble event. Now, enter Randy Orton and Champion John Cena into these roles and you might have a different reaction to that in 2017. Of course, we’ve all seen their past 34,000 encounters between 2006-2011, so this wasn’t any new territory, but the opening video accomplished an almost-impossible task – it made it feel like important history. We guess all that nostalgic footage also helped out. That was the nature of it all and surely, there was lots of footage at the old video library to rummage through for this piece. Give that Production Employee a cookie, dammit.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 1/31/17: Chamber Music
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 1/31/17)
Chamber Music
– Given that the Royal Rumble was won by a SmackDown guy (that’s Randy Orton, The Wyatt Family-Friendly version in case you didn’t know), the opening video gladly reminded us of all that jazz. WWE took it upon themselves to quote various media outlets with the most generic sentences on planet Earth. We’ll give an example. “That was a Rumble!” – Forbes. No kidding. You’d also be crazy if they didn’t sprinkle in footage of the epic rematch between WWE World Heavyweight Champion John Cena and AJ Styles where history was made and such. However, the Rumble madness is over and thanks to WWE’s killer Pay-Per-View schedule, we’ve got Elimination Chamber in a mere two weeks.
WWE Royal Rumble 2017 Reaction
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
While January begins with a countdown from ten to one, wrestling fans most associate the month with the same countdown towards another festivity – the Royal Rumble.
Given the “Big Four” treatment, equivalent in 2017 to a NXT TakeOver event the day before, a two-hour pre-show and a five-and-a-half-hour Pay-Per-View, it was treated as a huge deal.
It probably also helped that it emanated from San Antonio’s Alamodome, with a house count of 52,020. It was practically WrestleMania without being it.
Given the Rumble’s star power of Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman, The Big Show, Goldberg and The Undertaker, there was an unpredictability headed in that severely lacked the previous few years.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 1/24/17: Brother Vs. Brother
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 1/24/17)
Brother Vs. Brother
– The General Manager Daniel Bryan/Miz/Maryse backstage segment was another perfect example of chemistry done right. For months, Miz had been at his boss’ head ever since he was criticized in that infamous Talking Smack promo. There was no better way to set up a Lumberjack Match than have Miz boldly claim he “paid all of the locker room’s salaries with star power.” Bryan, apple aside, was all wits, as he used Miz’s statements against him to give him a WWE Intercontinental Championship rematch, but under his rules to prevent outside interference. Welcome to the world of logic. None of that on Raw.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 1/17/17: Merch Stand Mayhem
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 1/17/17)
Merch Stand Mayhem
– The opening video hyped up the big Steel Cage Match main event for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship between Champion Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch. Primarily, the focus was on Bliss’ repeated attempts to flee, but the bout’s basis would be that all paths were now closed off thanks to the cage. We were eager to give it a shot. Especially loved that this would be the closer.
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