So I Guess Jinder Mahal Is The #1 Contender For The WWE Championship
Gonna be honest with you guys. SmackDown was kinda fuckin’ weird last night. It’s taken a very clear dip since the Superstar Shakeup, and we’re gonna have to weather the storm and get past it. But hey, at least it’s only two hours and not three!
So there was this six-way match to determine a new number one contender for Randy Orton’s WWE Championship. Mojo Rawley vs Jinder Mahal vs Sami Zayn vs Luke Harper vs Erick Rowan vs Dolph Ziggler. For some ODD reason, Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan decided that these six people who were not important enough to make the main card at WrestleMania were important enough to warrant a WWE Title shot. Even worse, guess who won?
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JINDER MAHAL. Yeah, Jinder. The fuck who is (allegedly) clearly on steroids and just recklessly injured Finn Bálor in the two minute squash match he lost. What are we even doing here, guys? This is insulting to my intelligence from a kayfabe standpoint. Literally squashed in two minutes last week, earns a main event at a pay per view for the WWE Championship this week.
Charlotte came in to SmackDown HOT, both in looks and in her debut. I think she’s going to beat Naomi again at the pay per view for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship, but I wouldn’t have it done clean. Charlotte coming into SmackDown and being able to run through their roster is a bad look for the division, so I’d plant seeds of doubt. Naomi should have Charlotte beat while the referee is down or something, then Charlotte goes over and expresses a face of “Oh fuck, I wasn’t able to do that clean and I thought I would.”
I mean, I guess we’re doing a big Primo and Epico push. I can’t hate on it too much because they’ve grinded their ass off for years, but it’s just weird to see. American Alpha’s lack of overness is unsurprising, but not entirely their fault. If you haven’t watched NXT, you have absolutely no reason to root for Chad Gable and Jason Jordan. It’s a problem they’re also going to run into with…
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The Perfect Ten, Tye Dillenger! Tye has one of the most compelling, long journeys to the main roster in WWE history, and instead of telling that underdog story that spanned like 16 years, they’re just showing us clips of the crowd chanting his chant. A criticism of Daniel Bryan that was clearly false was that he wasn’t over, but his chant was. If someone were to say the same about Dillenger, it’d be hard to dispute.
Oh boy, Gary didn’t know how to take a Pop-Up Powerbomb at all, did he? Call KO’s Canadian promos cheat heat or whatever, but I’m really digging the direction he’s taking the character. It’s a throwback gimmick with a modern spin.
The main event was a fine match with a good finish. Somehow Kevin Owens, AJ Styles, and Baron Corbin are completely okay with not even being considered for a WWE Championship match, but that elevates the United States Championship I suppose. Baron Corbin’s in-ring ability has been on an upward trend for his entire career so far, and his promo work is getting there slowly but surely. It’s a bold prediction, but I think he’s going to hold the WWE Championship within the year.
That pretty much does it for SmackDown Live. Let’s home the upswing comes sooner rather than later, because I really grew to love what SmackDown has become since the brand split.