Overall
SmackDown had a pretty standard show this week. Matt Riddle and King Corbin are set up for a solid little feud, and this king’s ransom idea actually sounds promising. Nikki Cross is getting her rematch against Bayley next week after a fairly average match with tag-team partner, Alexa Bliss. The first hour and a half of this episode were perfectly fine and even had some good moments. It’s the main event that really left me wishing I had just dvr’d it to watch later.
The bar fight between Sheamus and Jeff Hardy was an event two months in the making. After a long and tedious storyline rehashing Jeff’s very public substance abuse issues it felt like it was finally time to watch Jeff really beat up on Sheamus and move past him into a bright future. Instead we got toilet spots, basketballs, and both men moving at what felt like half speed. I’m a fan of both of these guys but I really think they should’ve just given them an extreme rules match this Sunday instead of whatever this was.
Aside from seemingly having jumped the shark when it comes to cinematic matches there were some things to like about SmackDown tonight. So, let’s break down the good, the bad, and the ugly for SmackDown 7/24/20!
The Good
- Bayley setting up a match between Nikki and Alex was good. This had a lot of storytelling potential.
- Both Nikki and Alexas were doing some fantastic face acting in their match.
- The Firefly Funhouse intro and swamp fight recap were good. The recap was a lot more coherent than the actual match.
- Great heel move for Corbin to tell Matt he should go be on 205 live.
- Corbin’s “King’s Ransom” could lead to some really fun matches!
- Rating Morrison, and Naomi’s sickness levels with puking Seth Rollinses.
- YES! Give Big E the singles push he deserves!
- AJ on commentary was fun. He was really putting Shorty G over.
- Lince had a ridiculous splash onto Shorty G that had some crazy height to it.
- Gran Metalik getting a shot at the IC title should give us a great match.
- Jesus, I love Shinsuke Nakamura. This promo was great!
- Ok, I popped for the story beat with Jeff Hardy revealing the facepaint and contacts.
The Bad
- Alexa Bliss seemed to be moving at half speed throughout her match with Nikki.
- Sucks that Tony Nese is having to job to Matt Riddle. #Nesedeservesbetter
- Speaking of people deserving better does talking about the hashtag on Miz Tv count as breaking kayfabe? Not really a bad thing but I put it in bad because it wasn’t good or ugly.
The Ugly
- Maybe its the fact that I’m tired of this story but the bar fight was not fun to watch at all.
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