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Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 11/1/16: One Last Chance
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 11/1/16)
One Last Chance
– After James Ellsworth cost Dean Ambrose a chance at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship last week after Champion AJ Styles riled him up enough to attack him outside, we were left to wonder how they’d follow up. Would Ambrose pulverize Ellsworth? Ellsworth did a good job as he played a sympathetic pest who expressed sorrow towards Ambrose. The opening in-ring segment with Ellsworth, Styles and Ambrose (we’ll call them the “SmackDown Three”) was a good program advance. It was evident that Styles tried to use Ambrose to get under Ellsworth’s skin and get him to “join the dark side.” Ambrose surprisingly accepted the apology and we got the expected physicality as Styles stood tall to end things.
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 9/27/16: Meet The Parents
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 9/27/16)
Meet The Parents
– This episode boasted a WWE World Heavyweight Championship main event between Champion AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose. The opening video wasted no time hyping this huge match. Plain and simple stuff. Oh, there’s that theme we love so much.
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.
WWE Backlash 2016 Reaction
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
Like it or not, WWE’s new 19-a-year Pay-Per-View schedule is upon us.
While six-hour marathons like SummerSlam don’t make it sound delightful, the idea that we could get shows like Backlash gives us hope.
You knew the draft truly set in when we got the first-ever SmackDown Live-Exclusive PPV on Sep. 11.
With some things promised like the crownings of the inaugural WWE SmackDown Women’s and WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions and a few shiners like the WWE Intercontinental Championship match between Champion The Miz and Dolph Ziggler and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match between Champion Dean Ambrose and AJ Styles, we had much to look forward to.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 9/6/16: Done With That
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 9/6/16)
Done With That
– With Backlash five days away, WWE wasted no time getting its first SmackDown Live-Exclusive Pay-Per-View hyped up and ready to go. The opening in-ring segment with SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Nikki Bella, Alexa Bliss, Natalya and Naomi was a good start to things to hype the Six-Pack Elimination Challenge to crown the inaugural WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion between the ladies, as Bryan stood in the middle of it all. We got to see Lynch talk about her long journey and acknowledge her shortcomings as a kind of motivation. Natalya was a downer who called Lynch “boring,” while Bliss referred to everyone as “whiners” and insulted Bryan for being a “trophy husband.” Carmella got the last words when she bragged about her beatdowns on Bella. Eventually, the heels cornered Lynch and out came Naomi/Bella to back her up. We knew beforehand that we’d see a Six-Woman tag and that was easy to hype right from here.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 8/23/16: Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
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 8/23/16)
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
– Headed out of WWE SummerSlam on the SmackDown Live side was the news that AJ Styles cleanly pinned 15-time World Champion John Cena in the ring and despite a close effort (in a dud match), Dolph Ziggler didn’t fulfill his opportunity against WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose and fell short yet again. It was a smart idea to have the gloating Styles and upset Ziggler collide in the locker room based off SummerSlam alone. The only thing that confused us was a random locker room as Baron Corbin talked to Erick Rowan (with the sheep mask on) and Apollo Crews spoke with Rhyno. Like, what? Anyways, Styles had Ziggler snapping at him coming since he called the guy a loser to his face. Styles has comfortably settled into the “pest heel” role and it doesn’t hurt to have a solid character behind the guy who can go in the ring.
WWE SummerSlam 2016 Reaction
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
Within the “New Era” has been an attempt by WWE to showcase new talent on the precipice of an ever-growing content generator known as the WWE Network, where fans can not only tune in to live Pay-Per-Views (seven of more which were announced to be added to the already-stacked yearly 12 to make an absurd 19) but go back and watch almost everything WWE has ever produced.
That said, sometimes more new content isn’t necessarily the best scenario.
If you count the two-hour pre-show, SummerSlam clocked in and six hours and three minutes with 13 matches.
On a stacked Supercard, only a third of it was deemed excellent. The rest of it couldn’t have been more filler if we tried.
SummerSlam was the personification of having too much of a good thing and not knowing how to properly utilize it.
Notes In Observance – WWE SmackDown Live 8/16/16: Styles Crash
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 8/16/16)
Styles Crash
– The opening backstage segment with Commissioner Shane McMahon, General Manager Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton and Heath Slater was a fine open to the show, as we saw Orton officially sign off on the contract that ensured that he and Brock Lesnar would battle at SummerSlam, only five days away. Slater continued to use his “Free Agent” gimmick more to the comedic side, as he presented Bryan/Shane a fruit basket (likely stolen from a funeral parlor, funny) since he recalled them close to signing him, before they said no because of how they were dissed. We were left with how Orton “had an idea.” Wonder what that could possibly be. At least there was a tie with Slater to Lesnar. It’s actually pretty smart to have the one guy who could bounce back and forth between shows interact with the two feuding guys on separate shows.
