Hey SmackDown fans!!! SmackDown has done it again and out shined RAW this week, as if it was even a question of who is the “A” show. This week featured one women’s match and a mixed tag match. Every woman on the active roster was shown on this weeks show except for Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose. General Manager Paige started the show, however, what she had to take care of as GM did not involve the women, so we will not need to highlight that in this review. Let’s move right along to the first match that involved Carmella/R-Truth (the Fabulous Truth) and Zelina Vega/Andrade ‘Cien” Almas. Heading into Smackdown, this was the WWE’s previewed match of the night.
So nice that we don’t have to sit thru another nauseating episode of #TruthTV All bcz @RonKillings & that PATHETIC excuse for a New Yorker @CarmellaWWE ARE LOSERS. Lost to Miz & Asuka for #MMC & again on #SDLive ?
I wouldn’t give you anymore tv time either ????? #facts #b
— Zelina Vega (@Zelina_VegaWWE) September 29, 2018
This mixed match came about due to Vega’s Twitter reaction of the groundbreaking hit, Truth-TV from last week. As we know from last week, The Miz defeated Truth, so this in turn canceled Truth-TV. She stated that she was so happy that she didn’t have to sit through another Truth-TV because R-Truth and the “PATHETIC excuse for a New Yorker, Carmella are LOSERS”.
During the mixed match up between the Fabulous Truth and Vega/Almas, both the women and men were given the chance to shine. The match was pretty equally distributed. Now that Carmella has turned baby face, in a very odd sort of way (much like when Mickie James randomly turned heel), the crowd was really into this match, and chanting for her success.
The match highlighted some playfulness as the Fabulous Truth is known to do anyway. Vega mocks Carmella by doing a moonwalk of her own, Almas and Vega show off their tranquilo style, Fabulous Truth do some splits to show their athleticism. As far as key moves to the match, Carmella excelled for her team. She was able to stay on offense by hitting a combination of a head scissor off the top rope, followed up by a bronco buster and then a flatliner. As Carmella went for the pin, the count was broken up by Almas as he pulls her off of Vega. Carmella, shocked by the fact Almas broke up the pin, started arguing with Almas as he attempts to calm her down.
Carmella went for the superkick, Almas blocked it, and then Truth was able to enter back into the ring and take out Almas to the outside. Vega tried to take advantage of this distraction and attempted to roll up Carmella. Carmella was able to counter and went for the kick to which Vega ducked under. Vega attempted to take Carmella down again for a pin maneuver, but Carmella counters it seamlessly into the Code of Silence and Vega promptly taps out. Carmella wins via submission for her team.
Next up we have what everyone has been anticipating since last week. Everyone, especially Rusev, wants to know what happened in Milwaukee between his wife, Lana, and his former best friend/tag team partner, Aiden English. Rusev and Lana make their way to the ring. As they stand in the middle of the ring, Rusev, who clearly is the most concerned about this news in regards to his wife, wants to take all his frustrations out on English as he stated he wants to “tear his pale body apart.”
However, first Rusev needs to see the video proof that English claims to have from that one night in Milwaukee. English came out to the stage and before he shows the proof, he started talking about some historical references for the city of Milwaukee. Lana interrupts stating that he is stalling with this useless trivia, as he has no proof despite his claims. After English continues to discuss some of high quality TV shows and films that have come from Milwaukee (most notably BASEketball), he finally shows us the video evidence.
English announces the video as “One Night in Milwaukee.” The video starts by English setting up the recording. He is in his dressing room, shirtless, and he is practicing his singing and trying out new songs for Rusev Day and the Milwaukee audience. After a few verses, he hears a knock at his door. Enter, Lana. English attempts to put a shirt on, but Lana let’s him know that he doesn’t have to as this will not take long and she doesn’t have a lot of time. Nervously, Lana states she has to tell English something, and it is something she has been thinking about for a long time. She then confesses that this is important for her to say out loud. “I want you”, is the what comes out of Lana’s mouth and the tape then stops.
English then regroups in the present and states that he would really like to show the rest of the video, but he has made an attractive offer with TMZ and he wouldn’t want to “cheat” on them. The segment ends with Lana telling Rusev in the ring that there was more to that video. Rusev, taking it in a negative way, becomes upset that there is “more to that video.” Rusev runs out of the ring and up the ramp and chases English back stage to end the segment. Lana remains in the ring as the crowd starts turning on her.
The second match of the night shows us a preview of the tag team match at the upcoming Super Show-Down PPV in Australia this Saturday. The match saw Asuka, with Naomi in her corner, face off against Peyton Royce with the other half of the IIconics, Billie Kay in her corner.
This match continued to be what we have seen between these four individuals for the past several weeks. Dominance by Asuka continues, as she continues to pick up wins since teaming with Naomi. The IIconic’s have yet to see a win since Asuka has rescued Naomi from the numbers game and became her tag team partner. The build up for this match should have the IIconic’s winning in their home country of Australia, however, based off of the most recent track record, it does not fare well for the mean girls themselves to be victorious at SSD.
The match this week showed the same story, Asuka winning via the Asuka Lock submission as Royce taps out. Royce, again, didn’t have much offense throughout this rushed match.
And people wonder why I think I’ve been overlooked. pic.twitter.com/DtHEfOmcB9
— Rebecca Quin (@BeckyLynchWWE) September 30, 2018
Heading into the main event segment, this Twitter post foreshadows why the new champion is upset and feels disrespected.
Lastly, we have the SmackDown Women’s Champion segment as the main event of SmackDown this week. Before the show started, Becky Lynch vowed to have a surprise going into her first title defense at SSD this Saturday. Lynch starts the segment off with a surprise covered up in the ring, and she starts off by self proclaiming herself as the “best thing on SmackDown Live” since six weeks ago at SummerSlam.
Since she has run through every woman in the division and even took out the Queen, she as made the SmackDown Women’s division the most relevant division in the WWE. Despite all of this, Lynch feels like she is still not getting the respect she deserves. She demands that she should be the one on the cover of the magazines, and be the action figure holding the title, not Charlotte Flair who had her photo shoot last week. It should be her that is the face of the company, and as the face on WWE’s PPV posters, not Flair.
As patience has ran out, Lynch declares that if no one will make her the face of the company, then she will just do it herself. She reveals her surprise that has been covered up standing in the ring. As she demands a drum roll for the champ, she removes the cover revealing what should be the PPV poster for SSD. The champ standing over Flair (from the photo shoot last week), with the title in her raised and the Melbourne Cricket Ground arena in the background. She yells that this should be the match of the PPV and not the last match ever between Triple H and The Undertaker.
Flair’s music hits and she comes racing down the ramp and into the ring. Becky prepared for her, takes her down with multiple right hands. She attempts to get Flair into the disarmher, but Flair was able to avoid this and speared the champion instead. Flair then continues her attack and throws Lynch into the poster and follows that up with a figure four leglock down the ring apron. Flair’s last attack is a big boot to the Irish Lasskicker’s face. The show ends with Flair walking backwards up the ramp and Lynch clutching her title in the ring.
Thoughts: Let’s start from the beginning, I was really excited to see the Carmella/Vega match. I like the vibe between Carmella and Truth. They work well together. Carmella def excelled in this match, and that counter into the Code of Silence was fire. I always have loved the Code of Silence, but she wasn’t using it when she was a heel and as champ.
The Lana segment was great. They showed just enough for the feud to continue. Of course the video could lead to Lana saying “I want you….” and then just asking Aiden for some common thing or help with Rusev in some way. Depending on the time frame of when Milwaukee occurred, she could be wanting him to go to Paige for that tag team title match they had, or something innocent like that. I am invested to see where this goes.
My only negative about SmackDown continues to be the IIconics. I sadly am not interested, and I don’t know why. I like them both, I don’t mind their gimmick, but it just isn’t working. I was more excited for the Naomi/Asuka versus Sonya/Mandy match then this match. I am not really looking forward to the match at SSD either. My only hopes for the IIconics is for them to be involved in a push for the Women’s Tag Titles, even though I’d prefer the Riott Squad to be the first champs.
Lastly, Lynch continues to be one of the best on the mic. I am glad they allowed Flair to get the upper hand this week, only because Lynch has been the one with the victor every week. Her not being on the SSD poster is the perfect ammunition for Lynch’s gimmick. With that being said, I pray they don’t allow a hot potato situation at SSD and that Lynch continues with the title going into Evolution.
What did you think of this week’s show? Who do you have coming out as winners at SSD? Is Lana still number 1? Sound off in the comments below!!
