Wrestling Thursday: Smackdown Has Some Issues

Welcome to my weekly recap and thoughts about all things wrestling. This week, I'm gonna focus a little bit on something that's been bothering me for a while, and that's Smackdown's heel/face alignment. But first, Raw.

Raw

Cena and Miz opened the show with a promo followed by a match.

They always work well together, partly, because they're both really good, and partly because of the underlying truth that Miz wants to BE Cena. Both the match and the promo were solid, and I'm fine with Cena going over here.

The Club vs. Revival was... interesting? Are they burying Revival? Are they pushing them? Who knows? But this is exactly the kind of Raw win they should have.

Bayley and Sasha have great matches together, and this was no exception. Nowhere near as good as their two epic NXT matches, but still great. Was Sasha about to turn heel before Nia mowed both of them down? Maaaaybe?

This Asuka promo is just spectacular.

Fun fact: Braun has a lovely singing voice! Is there nothing he can't do? Except play the bass, I mean.

Mickie and Alexa vs. Absolution also happened. Mostly meaningful for Alexa's ongoing campaign to get Mickie to trust her.

Similarly, Roman vs. Sheamus also took place, and was... fine. It was fine. Both are fine workers, but this had no stakes.

When the fatal fourway was announced, Finn was a no brainer pick to win. Then, when Rollins was added, it got trickier. Both are reasonable winners. Both SHOULD win. And so, WWE just went ahead and gave both the win. Which... okay?

Now, both are added to the chamber. So that's a thing.

All in all, a solid Raw, highlighted by Sasha vs. Bayley being awesome.

Smackdown

In which I complain about heel/face alignment. Like, a lot.

The start of Smackdown would have worked much better if anyone had any sympathy for Corbyn or Ziggler.

Flair vs. Logan was okay. Deeply harmed by the fact that it's the middle match in a quest by Flair to beat all three members of the Riott Squad. Charlotte vs. Ruby is interesting. Chatlotte vs. Logan is not, because Flair's win was inevitable.

Owens managed to drag a good match our of Corbin, because KO is the best. I'll talk a bit more about both KO and Sami's matches later.

Roode vs... no one? Okay, we need to talk about SD's face problem in the men's division. This thing had natural heels Orton and Roode as faces and actual heel Jinder. None of these guys should be faces. If any of them has a chance of working as a face, it may actually be Mahal. Right now, SD has 3 natural faces being booked as faces: AJ, Shinsuke, and Dillinger. Apart from them, all of the faces being booked as faces are in the tag division. There is a solution to this, which I mentioned last week: Turn Rusev (and English) face. Turn Roode and Orton heel. Bam.

New Day vs. American Alpha 2.0 was too short for me to really care. Love Gable, though.

There was another great Usos promo followed by Bludgeon Brothers breaking stuff. The buildup remains terrible, but the matches will be good.

Ziggler vs. Zayn

Both of these guys are tremendous wrestlers, and even though Zayn is yet another natural face working heel, he's so good at it that it doesn't matter. This was very good, except for my ongoing complaint, which is about both of the KO&Sami matches:

The Smackdown alignment problem

We're supposed to see one or both of Corbin and Ziggler as faces now? That's certainly how the matches were booked, and it makes no sense. They're assholes. That's, like, their entire thing. And sure, Asshole face is a thing that has worked before (I mean, Stone Cold was a complete dirtbag), that takes a level of charisma neither one of these guys has.

And it all stems from the single biggest heel/face alignment problem WWE has: They still seem to think Shane is a face and Bryan is a maybe heel. And, seriously, no. Shane works well as a face against his dad or his sister. Because they're much better heels than he is. He sorta worked as a face against AJ, because AJ is a wrestling wizard who can do anything. He CANNOT be a face against Daniel Bryan.

To make it work, they up the ante in ways that make no sense. KO and Zayn attacking Corbin and Ziggler before the match would make sense AT Fastlane. It would kinda make sense on the SD before Fastlane. It makes zero sense nearly a month ahead of the PPV.

Turn Shane heel. Turn KO and Zayn face, and align them officially with Bryan. Then I'll be invested in the show's main storyline.

Mixed Match Challenge

When the teams and first round matches were announced, I thought Lana taking the pin here was inevitable. But that was before Rusev and Lana did a whole entire series of training montages. And before Bayley and Elias were shown to have the very worst chemistry. By the time Tuesday rolled around, I figured Ravishing Rusev Day would get the win, but I didn't see Lana getting her very first pin. Certainly not against the surging Bayley.

This was lots of fun, as the MMC has consistently been.

205 Live

205 continues to be entirely focused on the title tournament, and it has infused the show with a ton of energy. Every match is important, because every match is on the road to Wrestlemania (well, probably the Mania pre-show, but still).

Mark Andrews vs. Tozawa

This was a fun, energetic match between two faces who have zero history. Very high skill level, very little storytelling. It was surprising to see Mandrews get the win, but not a shock.

Gulak vs. Nese

This was a main event caliber match that was ALL ABOUT the story. The story of two friends becoming former friends. The story of Drew finding his inner monster heel. By all accounts, Drew Gulak is a great guy. He's also a terrific heel, who deserves to contend for the title. That was always going to happen, I think, before Enzo got fired, and it may still be in the works now.

NXT

It seems WWE's developmental show is all about giving us title matches these days, and I am here for it.

Dunne vs. Strong was a Pete Dunne match, which means it was incredible. Strong is also very good, but Pete Dunne is just incredible. He is the absolute heel in everything he says and does that the crowd loves because A. He's really great, and B. It's fun to chant "Bruiserweight! Bruiserweight!"

Wait... Dream vs. Bate? I want to see that. I REALLY want to see that. I mean, I'll be a bit sad when Bate loses again, but it should be an incredible match.

Image credit: wwe.com
Dang, Aleister Black, that's a great suit! Black and Dane getting dueling promos looks to me like preparation for their inevitable rise to the main roster. I think they both acquitted themselves well.

Baszler vs Moon is one of those cases where I'm glad with where they ended up, but I'm not happy with the road they took to get there. I want Shayna vs. Kairi. I want Moon to stay champ. But I don't get why Moon can't get a clean win over Baszler. Just start with "her arm is healed up and ready to go!"

All in all, a solid week of WWE programming, with Smackdown as the weakest link.

Match of the week (new feature!):

Pete Dunne vs. Roddy Strong for the UK title on NXT.

Past Wrestling Posts
Wrestling Thursday
No To Goldust/Mandy Rose Romance Storyline
WWE Royal Rumble - quick reaction
NXT Takeover Philadelphia thoughts (spoilers, obvs)

All videos are on the WWE's official youtube page.