WWE Friday Night SmackDown 1/3/20 feat. Some stuff I guess

[Emperor Smeat]

https://www.wwe.com/f/styles/wwe_16_9_l/public/all/2020/01/2020103_SD_RomanZigglarCorbinDB--7a4bf9301af33c78bb4ccaaf93c7f331.jpg

Friday Night SmackDown preview, Jan. 3, 2020: Reigns & Bryan join forces against King Corbin & Ziggler

On the first Friday Night SmackDown of 2020, The Big Dog will team with WWE's "Yes!" Man against King Corbin and The Showoff.

SmackDown Preview : Quick Hits

Roman Reigns & Daniel Bryan battle King Corbin & Dolph Ziggler
Bayley & Sasha Banks to square off against Lacey Evans & Dana Brooke and Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It's the first - and by default the best - SmackDown of the decade <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ReasonsToWatchSmackDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ReasonsToWatchSmackDown</a></p>&mdash; WWE Creative Humor (@WWECreative_ish) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWECreative_ish/status/1213123997061267456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Legit thought for a moment the show was going to actually start with a match. New year and same old start for Smackdown.

[Emperor Smeat]

Women's triple threat tag match was pretty decent overall.

[Emperor Smeat]

Wonder how much money WWE has blown on pancakes ever since New Day started that gag with it a couple years ago.

[slik]

Saw on Twitter Shorty G's new catchphrase is "Rise over Size"


Yikes.

[Emperor Smeat]

:| at Shorty G's new catchphrase of "Rise over Size"

Wonder what Chad Gable did backstage to piss off Vince and/or Creative to deserve the garbage he's been getting ever since the end of last year's KotR tournament.

[Emperor Smeat]

That Shorty G vs Wilder match was bad.

Was actually interested in the possibility of Sheamus and Shorty pairing until Sheamus destroyed him with the Brogue Kick.

First hour has been mostly skippable.

[Emperor Smeat]

WWE really likes to overdo the "wrestler hates the fans" as a reason for the heel turn.

Miz suddenly turned heel and started blaming the fans for booing him.

Then again, Miz has been way better in a heel role than in a face role.

[Emperor Smeat]

:lol: at John Morrison's tv return being a throw-away moment. Even the announcers were barely hyped up about it.

[slik]

so is Miz a tag rassler now w/ Morrison again

[Emperor Smeat]

WWE is on a roll with the lame nicknames for the Blue Brand's stars.

Shorty G
The Fella (Sheamus)
Swiss Cyborg (Cesaro)

[Mr. Nerfect]

Not watching, but Miz and Morrison as a team gets a :y:

[Mr. Nerfect]

The stuff with The New Day could be really good.

[Mr. Nerfect]

WWE has such shit nicknames. Daniel Bryan should not be labelled a "YES! Man." It's a play on words, but it sounds so placid.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I do have a feeling that Daniel Bryan will win the Universal Title at the Rumble. Well, my brain tells me that Bray Wyatt is just going to win because he's selling merchandise and they'll just do Roman Reigns against him or something, but I think FOX really wanted a babyface Bryan to lead the show. I can see Bryan winning the belt and Bray turning babyface and feuding with someone like Corbin, or do some of the usual wacky Bray shit in the middle.

I'm not sure how long-term the plan for him to carry the belt would have been.

[Droford]

Lol refs had the keys to the cuffs

Also you're 3 weeks from the Rumble and you bring back Sheamus, Morrison and the Usos. Dumb

[Emperor Smeat]

:lol: at the ending of Smackdown being the Usos surprise return to save Reigns.

Main event went from being very great to being a mess in the end.

Cole sounded like he barely cared about what was going on during the match and afterwards.

Outside of the main event and Miz's heel turn, rest of the show was pretty much forgettable or skippable.

[Emperor Smeat]

I do have a feeling that Daniel Bryan will win the Universal Title at the Rumble. Well, my brain tells me that Bray Wyatt is just going to win because he's selling merchandise and they'll just do Roman Reigns against him or something, but I think FOX really wanted a babyface Bryan to lead the show. I can see Bryan winning the belt and Bray turning babyface and feuding with someone like Corbin, or do some of the usual wacky Bray shit in the middle.

I'm not sure how long-term the plan for him to carry the belt would have been.

Current rumor is Fiend vs. Roman Reigns for the belt at Mania and Reigns to be the first to get a decisive win over Bray's Fiend persona.

FOX also cares a ton about Reigns being the top star of Smackdown after they lost Lesnar, Ronda, Rey, Charlotte, and Becky to RAW.

[slik]

Usos, Sheamus, Morrison...

None of the returns did anything for me because nothing in wwe matters.

No stipulations matter, feuds don't have real payoffs, the booking is 90% shit. All the shows look the same and feel the same.

[Droford]

Some old guy got arrested on Live PD for a warrant and he was watching SD.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You know the booking is bad when people start getting arrested for watching <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Smackdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Smackdown</a> <a href="https://t.co/vMKoC1T6Lv">pic.twitter.com/vMKoC1T6Lv</a></p>&mdash; Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) <a href="https://twitter.com/jessithebuckeye/status/1213340264422608896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[slik]

lol

[slik]

Their key demo, 50+

[Bad News Gertner]

Lights out episode of Smackdown.

AEW take note. This is how it's done.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Current rumor is Fiend vs. Roman Reigns for the belt at Mania and Reigns to be the first to get a decisive win over Bray's Fiend persona.

FOX also cares a ton about Reigns being the top star of Smackdown after they lost Lesnar, Ronda, Rey, Charlotte, and Becky to RAW.

Wyatt vs. Reigns wouldn't surprise me, but it's obviously not my first preference. They've been very careful about not jamming Reigns back into that top guy position. Like, he's a star, but they aren't going too hard with him.

I think the best thing they could do to drum-up interest is have Bryan win the belt and Reigns turn heel on him. With The Usos, if you want. Now that people sort of like him, have him spit in their faces and turn vicious big dog who hates that Bryan is on top after his comeback and Reigns hasn't found that magic. Bring Vince McMahon out to do a victory lap because he's got his Corporate Champion. Have Baron Corbin, the stooge, kiss up to Reigns now. Maybe throw in Dolph Ziggler as someone to get beat down a lot.

Bray Wyatt can turn babyface and specifically target Baron Corbin as a bad role model to kids or whatever. Fans want to see him get destroyed, so build up to a WrestleMania that is the cowardly King of the Ring getting beaten bad. It's probably the best role for Corbin at this point.

The Usos, as I said earlier, heat up that tag team scene. The Revival can, I guess, turn babyface, being replaced by them. Then you've got The New Day as babyfaces and Miz & Morrison as arrogant heels. Four-way Ladder Match for the belts at Mania. Or two tag team matches, should you really want to drag things out.

Dolph Ziggler can piss off Braun Strowman. His whole gimmick is he wants to be Shawn Michaels. Braun can play Taker. Neither is as good as their counterpart in that analogy, but put them in a Cell at Mania and let them do their best.

SmackDown could get real good with a tiny little bit of focus. Just not into Sheamus being back. I would have stuck him on Raw so there aren't any loose threads with Cesaro. Not that I have particular interest in him as a singles act either. But I would have done Sheamus vs. Chad Gable. I just hope it leads to Chad getting the duke.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

One page. Jesus.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Wrestling interest is at an all-time low. Something that AEW has done, which was completely unexpected by me, is that it seems to have zapped people's energy even lower. I don't know if it's just there being even more content, but my thought is that it's a faxsimile of something different enough that it turns even more people off WWE, without hooking them on AEW.

It's been like a bucket of cold water that's made even more people realize they are wasting their time with wrestling.

[Droford]

I honestly think Mon/Wedx2/Fri is a pretty good setup for the amount of wrestling on TV

It would be worse if SD was still on Tuesday and it was 4 shows in 3 days and then nothing the rest of the week.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

NWA Powerrr, AEW Dark and Impact are on Tuesdays.

[Droford]

I gave up on shitpact when they basically became the reason for losing NJPW on axstv

you can watch the other two whenever