WWE Friday Night Smackdown July Thread - 7/31/20 feat. Mrs. Metalik's Baby Boy Quest for Blue Gold
 

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Missed the opening stuff but this Matt Riddle vs. John Morrison match looks pretty good so far.

:lol: at Riddle needing a surprise roll up in order to beat Morrison.

Match itself was very good from what I saw but that ending was a bit anti-climatic.

Can cross Styles name off the list of people who probably tested positive for coronavirus since he showed up afterwards to beat up Riddle.

Meanwhile Bryan showing up via Zoom interview might mean he was the person who got pulled as a precaution from the Blue brand for tonight and last week's shows.

Also WWE shamelessly piped in crowd chants for this Gulak vs. Styles match since the actual crowd is barely reacting despite it sounding very lively on tv.

Bryan had a much better slow style and grapple match against Gulak a few weeks ago than Styles had tonight against him.

That Bayley and Sasha segment somehow managed to be both pretty good and terrible at the same time ... well mostly terrible to be honest.

Pretty good in terms of Bayley's mocking impersonation of Taker and terrible for everything else.

Show started off very well but its been dragging along ever since around mid-way into the Styles vs. Gulak match.

WWE really needs to go back to the drawing board with these pipped in chants for their empty arena shows. At least when they had actual crowds around, it was easier to fake it and not have it look as blatant and jarring as tonight.

Also Kofi vs. Shinsuke ended up being pretty disappointing in terms of quality.

Next week's show looks like it might be just as meh as tonight since its mostly repeats of what happened tonight but with little tweaks done.

Sheamus getting the live via big screen treatment for this Jeff Hardy toast segment is pretty interesting since his name was among those rumored to have tested positive.

I guarantee you SmackDown had the best actual wrestling match of the week on it.

Sheamus and Jeff Hardy segment at the end was pretty bad.

Show itself was decent at best but also pretty skippable. Only really interesting thing to happen was the Riddle vs. Morrison match.


Maybe if all you watch is RAW and Smackdown.

NJPW alone had back-to-back days with much better Match of the Week contenders.

I meant stuff readily on TV/cable. New Japan might be great, but exists off in the ether somewhere.

That still would be very debatable considering this past week's AEW and NXT shows.

Based on what I saw, I'd say no for the Riddle vs. Morrison match.

Sounds like SmackDown had three really good matches.

And yet it still feels so “meh”.

That’s modern wrestling.

Morrison/Bro was 4 stars

Are you sure it wasn’t just alright because it didn’t happen somewhere else?

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Seems WWE is using the same tactic of "replaying an old match to eat up time" for this week's show. On the bright side, Bray vs. Braun at MitB 2020 was only around 11 minutes long unlike some of the other lengthy past matches WWE has aired in recent months to eat up time.

Meanwhile 205 Live seems somewhat interesting this week based on the card revealed.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thanks to the &quot;Eye-for-an-Eye&quot; Match a Swamp Match doesn't sound so stupid, does it? <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/1281620056376565762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Miz TV segment with Jeff Hardy was decent I guess.

Also seems Extreme Rules could be getting 3 cinematic matches depending on how WWE handles that newly announced Bar Fight match between Hardy and Sheamus.

I think I'm going to skip it!

I can't wait for New Day vs. Nakamura & Cesaro to be "only decent I guess" versus a white noise clusterfuck on AEW that apparently "matters."

Cinematic matches are shit. The idea of Extreme Rules is shit. The photo above makes The New Day vs. Nakamura & Cesaro look like AEW-style parody. But the match itself will no doubt be excellent and underrated by people because it happened in the wrong promotion.

Do you have a sudden problem with my personal reactions to matches since that what these recent unprovoked digs by you have sounded like.

Since I'm watching NJPW's Lion's Break show right after SD, might as well as for your permission to post about matches there and not have fun watching if its a good show since it might upset you because its not in the "wrong promotion."

That might have been one of the ugliest roll ups I've ever seen to end a match.

More so on Miz botching the ending sequence and less on Hardy just stumbling backwards into the spot.

:| Women's karaoke segment announced for later tonight.

Might be worth some laughs though.

Much rather have WWE's old way of going to commercial breaks mid-match than what they've been doing recently, especially with what happened for the Women's tag match.

This match has count outs but somehow Sasha and Bayley randomly taking a break to complain to the announcers at the commentary table, Nikki deciding to randomly dance with Bayley's belt on the outside, and Sasha and Bayley both getting baseball slided by Alexa didn't even register a 1 count by the ref. The match then went to commercial with Nikki still on the outside and the ref doing nothing. Like a good 30 seconds or so passed during that whole sequence with even the ref giving up on saying stuff mid-way.

Shit's just way too convoluted just to go to a simple commercial break.

Worst part was the women's tag match was actually pretty good up until that point but only came back somewhat decent from the break and ended in a sudden flat/weak finish.

Lost count on how many times they've done a similar finish for Sasha & Bayley matches these days.

You have been a drone for a while. If something happens in AEW, no matter how sloppy or shit it is, you will overrate it. If something good happens in WWE, it's "meh."

Was trying to figure what was it about this Bray vs. Braun match I soured on and then realized it was because it both happened during the low point of the MitB show and that ending being flat as hell because it just didn't work without a crowd around to feed off of that drama heavy sequence.

You do realize I watch other stuff as well.

This whole WWE "bias" issue is also the results of the attrition of watching countless years of WWE's downward spiral in quality and sticking to the same stale format for booking and shows throughout the years.

If anything, expanding my viewing habits over the years to include other promotions like NJPW and Lucha Underground just made me realize how much better WWE could be if they actually bothered to give a shit to improve for the long haul and not just use NXT as Triple H's personal toy to squash any competition like ROH and AEW.

Noid’s turned into the very poster he spent years despising. Going after one of the best, most consistent posters here. What a fuckhead.

I will admit that sometimes I do feel like I might be too harsh on WWE programming but since barely anyone posts in SD threads these days during shows, its pretty much just myself watching shows most of the time. Lot easier to get quickly bored and not find that much real enjoyment without others around to have some fun watching and read up on how they are feeling during shows.

Plus at this point, think I'm just running on fumes with WWE's style of wrestling and format for shows after countless years of it not really getting any better.

:| back-to-back matches ending in a no contest on SD.

This shit is why I've been having a hard time enjoying SD these days.

Tag title match was good up until that point but WWE's booking decisions for matches just keeps dragging things down. They've gotten way too happy with DQs and no contests for matches in recent times.

Don't change anything Smeat, you are a great poster the way you are!

Noid calling some1 a "drone" when he has the same embarrassing persona as every other one of the psychotically anti-AEW internet wrestling fan guys who "love Jim Cornette" and "hate Dave Meltzer" or whatever

Judging from twitter this was not the best ep of SD to say the least....

Seems like total dog shit based on the results...

Cry me a river. Smeat’s dedication is wonderful, but his opinion is a carbon copy of Meltzer’s and he’ll rate something average outside WWE as great and something good in WWE as average.

Hey, I don’t blame you for WWE fatigue. I stopped watching with any regularity a long while ago now. That doesn’t make the shit outside of WWE good though. The whole industry is a fucking mess right now.

That’s why I’m so pissed off at AEW. Could have been something revolutionary. Nope. More bullshit. And it gets a pass consistently just because it’s not WWE. I’ve seen too much shitty wrestling to get on board with that.

But I know how hard it can be to give something up. I love wrestling and it’s hard to stop following it, at least a little. Now my joy comes from the schadenfreude of watching people forcing themselves to enjoy it writhing around making excuses when it turns out this shit isn’t going to work.

I don’t hate Dave Meltzer. He seems like a nice guy and his reporting over the years has obviously been very good. But it’s very clear he’s biased, taking cues from the AEW guys, and has a vested interest in the millionaire who read his newsletter looking like a genius when all the evidence points to the contrary.

675k viewers to 992k in that main event this week. This shit is off-putting, bad and not what wrestling fans want to see. But hey, ignore that I explain and defend my position on this and don’t just shrug like Meltzer or Alvarez when the slightly better product turns things around on actual merit instead of a desperate audience trying to will Anything Else Wrestling along.

Vince McMahon just announced an Eye for an Eye Match. This is the pressure the “competition” is putting on him. Enjoy your modern wrestling landscape.

There is no wrestling company that I really love right now. Most of my time spent watching wrestling, is spent watching older stuff, and OSW review. Actually I probably play Fire Pro more than I watch wrestling at this point.

That said, I still watch out of habit mostly, and I can say with certainty that I enjoy WWE's product the least. Because personally, the one thing I can't stand is when wrestling is boring. And the current WWE product is the most bland, homogenized wrestling that there's ever been. They occasionally get something right and put on some intriguing content but it's few and farbetween, and they usually fuck it up eventually.

Even NXT which I used to really enjoy feels like it's lost that spark that made it feel special. Ever since the fox deal, it's felt more like the generic main roster style of programming.

Plenty of things I don't like about other current wrestling promotions, but I wouldn't call any of them boring.

Also, what AEW could have been doesn't even remotely compare to what WWE could be. For the past few years, they've had what I would call possibly one of the best rosters ever. A great mix of big men, high flyers, mat technicians, great up and comers, experienced veterans, a wealth of talented tag teams, and even handful of women that can really go in the ring.

And they've consistently flushed it down the toilet for investor happiness.

I would classify AEW as boring. WWE is definitely gentrified and sterile, with the promos being particularly fucking grating, but AEW has worse in-ring, somehow even shittier gimmicks, insults your intelligence just as much and has this self-congratulatory attitude.

Don't disagree with this too much. They've stayed away from making stars and they are about five years behind on where talent should be. There is lots wrong with WWE. My pet peeve is when people automatically project quality onto other shit. Creatively, not one single member of the AEW talent that has had exposure on any sort of big platform has looked better in AEW than they have everywhere else. Not even Cody, who would I say was better in the initial stages of teaming with Goldust in the WWE. But he would be the closest.

It's frustrating to know that I have to wait for the WWE to decide to turn things around to get excited again. The XFL was a positive for that. So are the TV rights deals, just in the sense that their value to television becomes so important and they now have the money to lock talent in for long-term deals that can pay an obscene amount of money. I would be very surprised if they didn't lock Drew into a new five-year deal before having him win the 2020 Royal Rumble, which means they can afford to build around him. And so far he's turned out better as a champion than Jon Moxley, although the internet will never admit it.

I can understand being suspicious of WWE, but at some point they might need to shape up. AEW needs to and has proven that they can't even do that with the need.

But yes, podcasts and talking about wrestling is largely more interesting than the actual wrestling these days.

I haven't bought Drew at all as champion. He went from being fodder for Reigns and a midcard guy to winning the rumble over night. It felt so artificial to me.

And what's worse is he's become the same guy as every failed babyface chamion before him. Seriously, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Drew, they're all the same guy. Like a good 75% of the roster.

I mean, look at this shit.

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Is he posing for a match up graphic or for a stock photo used for bowel irregularity medicine? Either way he's the friendliest looking Scottish Psycopath I've ever seen.

The killer is that Drew has all the tools to be a great champion, and they could have easily made his push to the top feel more interesting. But they stuck to this formulaic, cut-and-paste personality. Some of Drew's natural intensity shines through at times, but for the most part I haven't found his run to be very engaging.

I think that's part of why people our age are attracted to AEW is because they do try to give everyone on their roster something to seperate them from eachother and make them feel unique. I mean you're talking about a group of fans that grew up in the 80's and 90's. The double whammy of Hulkmania and Attitude, where almost everyone in the locker room, from the guys headlining Mania' to the guys opening Sunday Night Heat had larger than life characters that leapt out of the screen and demanded attention.

There is almost none of that on modern WWE programming. A very large portion of the roster are guys who give it everything they've got, because they worked really hard, and they love this business and

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That's why people latch onto characters ike Becky Lynch and Bray Wyatt so hard. It's why they're attracted to the personalities on AEW. They're fucking starved.

Everyone in AEW has something about them that is their own. It doesn't always work, and it shouldn't be excused when it doesn't, but I can understand the appeal it has for a lot of people.

I’ll take Drew as a champion beating the heels of the month over Jon Moxley talking about people’s grandmothers. Drew’s not perfect, but he carries himself well in the ring. Yes, that photo is shit.

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Card for tonight's 205 Live show:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Maybe we'll just do two hours of SmackDown Karaoke and watch the world burn <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/1284151818445041665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This intro video package for tonight's show is pretty good.

This tag should be really good. Smackdown has the best roster in Wrestling no doubt and here's four of'em.

For a match meant to have something important on the line, Cesaro vs. Big E felt like a mostly nothing match.

Crossover DREAM MATCH...

Baron Corbin vs Darby Allen

:lol: at that one person in the crowd blurting out "You Suck" to Bayley.

I'm glad someone is honest about it. The show is far from what it could be, but you've got the best talent in the world and when they get to do something good, it's the best stuff of the week. It's a shame WWE have created this bias against them.

Women's tag match was pretty good overall.

If Braun's beard grows by another inch or two, it might end up being bigger than his head.

LMAO @ BRAUN'S PROMO LOLOLOLOL

Is it not the consensus here that Smackdown has the best roster? Who are you arguing against?

That type of squash is what Braun should be doing at pretty much every weekly show except for PPV's.

Man I bet this is the seeds of Morrison/Miz splitting up. Morrison going to be upset abut Miz not being in the match.

That post-match stuff with Morrison felt a bit odd.

Which BTW I really don't want. I really want Miz/Morrsion to develop a catalog of original music videos for each feud.

Felt more like they were writing him out for a while than the start of a potential split with the Miz.

Then again, spitting them up probably would be the best for Morrison since he hasn't really felt special since returning to WWE.

I don't pay much attention to most of the posters here, honestly. The general internet consensus seems to be that AEW has the best roster. This is perpetuated by guys like Meltzer who call AEW's tag team divisions one of the best ever. You see the people who really hang onto his every word echoing those sentiments and giving average reviews to SmackDown and amazing reviews to AEW.

Perception is important, but a lot of people in the bubble have their perception skewered.

Dude, that's incorrect. Miz and Morrison both revived their careers in on of the WWE highlights of the last 10 years with the debut of "Braun Strowman has to go" ...

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Don't you remember?

AJ is about but lose the title boys!

Wouldn't be surprised if this ends in a DQ. But Matt Riddle winning the IC Title is entirely possible. Not sure what it means to be IC Champion anymore. The Universal Title is basically the IC Title.

The video was great but outside of that Morrison has felt mostly irrelevant during his current run.

With the IC on AJ, it's like the main title on Smackdown.

I guess you are right, but I don't see Morrison as a main guy but I could be wrong. I think we've had this same conversation in the past. I don't see Morrison as being underused, he's on TV every week having great matches for the most part in a big spot. It's not the Universal Champion spot but it's a big spot. I don't know if he can really ask for much more.

Good LAWD! That brainbusta, it busted his brain!

Morrison is still amazing. I don't mind him in a team with The Miz. I don't "feel" a main event run for him, but he looks the business and he's good in the ring. Functionally, it would be fine. It just depends on whether or not you want to actually do it.

I think his best use is in that team with The Miz. They make a great arrogant heel duo.

When these two wrestle each other they are the best in the world.

Awesome finish! That pumps me up because you know we are going to get a rematch. I want to watch these two wrestle all summer. Awesome stuff. The ending wrestling sequence was like Lou Thez/Buddy Rogers level grappling. Awesome rasslin match. I feel like AJ and Riddle are at a career high right now "talent wise".

Oh goddamn King Corbin that no good piece of garbage!

Surprised Styles actually won clean. Match was good but felt like it was missing that next gear. Not sure if it was due to the match's slow pace or just something being off a bit between the two.

SD itself was average to good overall. Felt more like a regular show than something meant to give one last big hype for Extreme Rules if you were on the fence for the event though. Then again what do I know since apparently I'm completely biased against WWE going by someone else here.


Yeah he's been getting some quality tv time but guess its more of how quickly WWE made him feel like just another guy than someone who felt a ton more interesting wherever he went in the indies. That and they totally failed to continue with the running gag of his last name being the name of the company or brand he works in.

You think SmackDown has the best tag team division? What tag teams are even on the SmackDown roster? The New Day... Cesaro & Nakamura... Lucha House Party... uhh... who else...

are the usos still there, but still wwe don't care about tag teems.

meltzer is wrong about aew having the best tag div of all time but may have the best tag div now. after tonight impact may give aew run for there money depends on who they signed.

The tag teams AEW has are talented, but they all mostly wrestle the same style. Thre's not much depth.

FTR is a good aquisition but honestly, it's two guys who apply old school heel tag methods to modern fast paced, high impact wrestling. They're a welcome addition, but they're not THAT different from the other teams there.

Butcher and Blade would mix things up more if they weren't treated like jobbers.

AEW treats their tag division better, but they need a more diverse roster of teams before they can even be in the conversation for best tag division.

Way too early to put AEW's tag division on a similar level with 80s era tag wrestling. In terms of focus, could probably make a small case but you'd still run into the same problem of AEW's tag division not being around long enough yet.

A better argument would be AEW's tag division being the best since post-Attitude Era since the strongest challengers arguably are early to mid 2000s WWE and early era TNA both in terms of focus, tv exposure, and overall quality.

The Usos, Bryan & Gulak, Heavy Machinery, Miz & Morrison. And they had The Revival at the start of the year, which was a massive point in their favor. They also had Ziggler & Roode until recently too. The division had talent to spare.

Lol of course they’re sending Corbin against Riddle. It’s like clockwork.

Got a new face you want to build some momentum with? WELL HERE’S HUMAN MOLASSES BARON CORBIN RIGHT ON SCHEDULE!

I've grown to appreciate Baron Corbin for what he is. I hate the gimmick, but he understands his role in wrestling and doesn't pander to the bullshit internet fans. People mocked the dog food stuff, but that's simple wrestling. I'll take that (as will most people) over Sammy Guevara doing bad singing on the Chris Jericho Fellatio Show.

He's probably going to get his face caved in by Riddle and it'll be a nice moment for Riddle to continue building momentum away from that anchor of an IC Title. Could be a fine SummerSlam match.

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Preview and card for tonight's 205 Live show:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tonight <a href="https://twitter.com/JEFFHARDYBRAND?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JEFFHARDYBRAND</a> vs. Sheamus in a bar. Why? Because if we're making it through this show, we're gonna need a drink.<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/1286718423683289088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

These new intro previews hyping up the stuff for the night's show have been a pretty great idea.

Going to laugh if they end up splitting Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss as a team. Women's tag division barely has any teams to begin with and like only one that's an actual full-time team.

For as much time as Bliss vs. Cross got for a #1 contender's match, having it end via a cheap roll-up and not even in a good way was very anti-climatic.

Match itself kept going back and forth from being meh to being surprisingly good.

If Matt Riddle is the "Original Bro" then who took over as the new or modern bro in WWE and/or wrestling?

Miz twerking to Naomi's entrance theme ended up being a thing that actually happened tonight.

That might have been one of the worst Miz Tv's segments in a while. Only saving grace was Naomi's promo managed to be pretty decent to good by the end of it.

:y: at New Day finally going ahead with their real life long-term goal of wanting Big E to have his time in the spotlight as a singles star.

Kofi telling Big E to go ahead and "put your meat on my meat" didn't sound PG at all.

#1 contender's for IC title 4-way match was very good. Highlight of the show so far.

Gran Metalik vs. AJ Styles for the title next week should be great.

Scratch that, this Otis and Mandy vignette has been the real highlight of the show so far.

Guess Extreme Rules really would have had 3 cinematic style or inspired matches had this Bar Fight taken place on the show and WWE didn't change their plans for the Eye for an Eye match.

Just doing two would have been overkill but had they actually went ahead with 3, would have been another instance of WWE taking something good and quickly dragging it down to the ground.

:lol: at Jeff getting his head dunked into a urinal.

This has already been way more enjoyable than the Swamp Fight was.

Finish was a bit dumb but that Bar Fight was amazing.

This week's episode was mostly enjoyable overall. Didn't really drag like most episodes in recent months but still has the same issues of not really doing enough to hook people into watching regularly if you were not already.

Fatal 4-way match and Bar Fight are the only things I'd really recommend to watch from this show.

Daniel Bryan is apparently on the creative team. I was hoping he'd push for some sort of booking position with his contract coming up. The show sounds pretty logical. I'm no fan of Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross, but it seems like it is going towards a program between the two, but it is building, at least. Gran Metalik getting a match against AJ Styles could be an awesome spot for him. And Gable got to wrestle -- always a plus. Big E getting a singles push is a great move.

Matt Riddle's promo sounds awful. Just let him talk like a human and make fun of the obnoxious king guy. Don't become obnoxious yourself. SmackDown could really shed Braun, Bray, Jeff and Sheamus. Of them, I only really like Jeff, but they could all help out Raw by going there. It's a shame Braun is the champion. He sucks.

Just checked out sm on dvr. That bar fight was pretty bad ass and i actually enjoyed it alot . Jeff really needed that W

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Preview and card for tonight's 205 Live show:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We just announced our most profitable quarter ever, so we could air a test pattern tonight and be just fine <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/1289227448152858624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

WWE really needs to add these show preview intros SD has had going for the past several weeks for RAW and NXT as well.

They've been pretty great overall and have been a good run down for what's on tap for a show. Better than WWE's current way of barely announcing ahead of time what's scheduled for a show.

For a guy who's one of WWE's best high flyers and cruisers, this IC title match hasn't really been a good showcase of Metalik's skills.

Right now, feels like every other Styles tv match in recent weeks where its a lot more slower in pace and drawn out simply to eat up a huge chunk of tv time.

Last couple minutes of the IC title match was pretty good but the rest of it, not so much.

Thought this would have been a banger of a match based on its potential going in.

These piped in crowd reactions for Corbin are terrible.

Plus holy shit at 3 Baron Corbin segments planned for tonight's show. Already had a backstage segment with Shorty G, now he's doing a promo segment with Jeff Hardy, and now is in a match with Drew Gulak.