Renee Young welcomes out the WWE Champion AJ Styles to begin the show (huge “AJ STYLES” chants from the crowd, so much so that Renee can’t begin her interview right away). AJ says he’s in control of his own destiny, he says he can beat anyone and has done his whole life, and then runs through the different permutations that even if he could take care of one of the participants of the fatal 5 way then whilst that is happening someone else could get a pinfall in the meantime (yes AJ we kind of know this already… but thanks…). After running through each of the participants he goes to speak of Baron Corbin before the Lonewolf himself makes his way to the ring.
As the crowd boos Corbin reminds Styles that he beat him last time they met, and that he ‘has his number’ and that ‘you’re an athlete, I’m a fighter!’ Kevin Owens then walks down… he has a back and forth with Corbin, AJ asks if Owens got the “boil” off his back (Sami Zayn) , Owens says he doesn’t need Sami Zayn, and that he let him down last week. After then beginning to moan once again about Shane McMahon before, “YEP” (Zayn, 2018) you guessed it, Shane O’Mac comes out. Shane then makes Corbin vs Styles and Owens vs Ziggler for tonight. The latter of which beginning immediately as Dolph then makes his way to the ring.
Dolph Ziggler vs Kevin Owens then. Match begins with plenty of strikes from Ziggler as Owens multiple times escapes to the outside of the ring. Back in the ring eventually KO misses a Senton, Dolph hits a suplex, Ziggler goes into a turnbuckle, Owens hits a Cannonball that gets a 2 count, Ziggler then hits a big DDT, Owens gets sent into the post, Ziggler gets a nearfall after a neckbreaker but then misses a superkick then is turned into a gutbuster. Following this Owens goes up top for a possible frog splash only for Dolph to go up top with him, only to be thrown off and as KO then flies off for a Swanton only for Dolph to get his knees up. The show-off follows this up with a Famouser that only gets a 2 count from the referee. This match actually was good by this point as the pace picked up, Ziggler gets a ZigZag in but this only gets a 2 count. Following this Ziggler has Owens in the corner before Sami Zayn’s music hits; Sami runs towards the ring but stops just before entering, allowing for Kevin Owens to hit a superkick to the back of a distracted Ziggler’s head and then Owens claims the win. This was a decent match to be fair, I still care very little about Dolph but his involvement in the 5 way match will be a… different… element. Owens great as always.
Jinder Mahal appears next with a ‘secret’ to expose about Bobby Roode… he begins to tell us all about Bobby Roode’s personal ‘Smackdown Live Top 10 list’, Roode putting himself number 1 etc. … oh do me a favour PLEASE!!!! Roode Eventually come out to try and dispel these rumours from Mahal, he tells Mahal to stop trying to put Randy Orton and him in a fight and to face him himself. Orton eventually makes his way out, there’s a brawl, Roode gives Orton a Glorious DDT before Mahal comes in and delivers his finisher and ends the segment strong. Jinder Mahal on top in a segment with Bobby Roode and Randy Orton for the 2nd week in a row. He’s going to win the US Title isn’t he? FML. Following on from this Shane and Daniel Bryan are shown backstage and eventually Shane over rules Bryan and makes Roode vs Orton for the United States Championship for Fastlane, something Bryan wasn’t in favour of. Shane declares that is the FINAL decision with Bryan responding with a less than satisfied “OK boss!…”… it continues…
A 6 woman tag match follows next; pitting Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Naomi vs The Riott squad (Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan & Liv Morgan). Flair and Logan start off in ring. Charlotte calls Ruby in the ring, who seems less than keen. Tags are made to Naomi and then to Becky quickly on. Sarah Logan eventually tags out to Ruby Riott but Lynch then is able to avoid a double suplex before Naomi joins her teammate in the ring as both deliver dropkicks to the 2 members of the Riott squad, the other, Liv Morgan, is then tossed into a big clothesline from The Queen Ms. Flair as the faces take control of the match.
Becky Lynch and Ruby Riott in the ring; Lynch focusing her attention on Riott’s arm, she then tags in Naomi who gets a quick 2 count. Ruby then makes a tag to Morgan, the 2 brawl for a while with Naomi’s signature moonsault stopped from getting her the win after Morgan was dragged out of the ring. Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan were then jumped on over the ropes by Naomi for their troubles. Liv Morgan then capitalises by tossing Naomi into the steel steps and then into the side of the ring. This only gets her a 2 count though. Morgan tags in Sarah Logan soon after, who locks in a great looking modified-Anaconda Vice type submission on Naomi, it is though powered out of eventually and at long last Naomi hits Logan with a hurricanrana and makes the tag to Charlotte. Charlotte goes on an absolute tear after this, only to be stopped by 2 chop blocks to the back from Sarah Logan. She is then almost forced to tag in Becky Lynch, Lynch hits Logan with a missile dropkick, Logan tags in Riott, Lynch is able to hit a Bexploder on Ruby, but that in turn is turned into a nearfall for Riott. The Irish Lassskicker is then able to lock in her Dis-Arm-her finisher only for Liv Morgan to stop a likely victory. Charlotte takes out for Morgan for that, Logan comes in and hits a running knee to Naomi, Becky hits Logan with a Bexploder suplex but then turns round and is caught by Ruby Riott, who is the able to hit her Pele kick finishing move and the Riott squad pick up the win! THE RIOTT SQUAD HAVE WON A MATCH! IT IS A MIRCALE!!! And it wasn’t all that bad this match either, action packed but I didn’t see anything that I noted as particularly bad, I had fun watching, so well done all. I expect a challenge by Riott for Charlotte and her title to come soon…
Kevin Owens is in the locker room with Sami Zayn next. And they seem to be on the same page and all fine again. Zayn tells Owens that he owes him for being in the spot he is now, in contention for the WWE Championship, he says he’s got his back and that if it comes to it Zayn will lay down and ‘do the right thing’ for Owens so that KO can win the WWE Championship… Owens seem shocked and almost emotional by Zayn’s verbal show of supreme loyalty to his “friend” … I liked this… really interested to see where it goes, because I’m kind of getting bored of the Owens/Zayn v Shane and Daniel Bryan story, because nothing is really changing… maybe I should wait until Wrestlemania… but that’s a long wait…
The New Day vs Benjamin & Gable now, a number 1 contenders match for the tag titles. Where The Bludgeon Brothers fit in to all this remains to be seen… (There were more of those god awful, tacky, and embarrassing words/graphics on screen during Big E’s intro as well… please stop with all this shit PLEASE). It’ll be Xavier Woods and Big E in the ring for this one for The New Day, always good to see Woods in a match, he is one of the most underutilised and underrated wrestlers in the entire company for me. Gable and Woods begin in ring, great athleticism shown off by both early on, Benjamin makes the tag in and hits Xavier with a huge spinebuster for a nearfall. A bodyslam comes before a Woods comeback but Benjamin puts stop to that with a big knee and a 2 count form the referee. After the ads Shelton Benjamin and Xavier Woods are on the top rope, this ends with Benjamin coming off and Woods hitting him with a missile dropkick.
Benjamin and Woods both then get tags. Big E delivers 2 belly –to-belly suplexes, Gable then responds with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex on Big E of his own for a nearfall (if only Chad Gable was made in to the empathetic ultra babyface he was in American Alpha or at least had some form of character worthy of his supreme ability in the ring he could be a superstar). Gable then is unable to hit a moonsault and eventually is hit with a huge Big Ending slam from Big E that gets a 2 count. The finish of the match came from Kofi Kingston distracting the ref whilst Benjamin and Gable hit their tag team finisher, and as a result their delay in getting their pin counted gave Xavier Woods enough time to break it up. Woods makes the tag, throws Gable to the outside and hits a shining wizard on Benjamin to give New Day the win. Decent match I won’t lie, without being spectacular. As Big E tosses pancakes to the crowd as New Day make their exit, the lights dim and we are greeted with the arrival of the aforementioned Bludgeon Brothers. They walk towards the ring, stop to take off their cloaks and as Rowan goes to approach The New Day he is held back and told to go to the ring by Harper (a Charlotte iPhone promo was on in between this, calling out Ruby Riott and showed willing to put her title on the line too, as predicted). This was followed by a match between The Bludgeon Brothers vs 2 jobbers. You don’t need me to tell you how this one went… although I will say I am beginning to buy-in to the presentation and what they are aiming to do with them, let’s see how it goes…
Separate IPhone promos from first Ruby Riott (responding in kind to Charlotte’s earlier message) and Baron Corbin, hyping his match with AJ later. I am still so un-entertained by this new concept of promos. I just find them so unnecessary and cheap-looking, but that’s just my opinion. They then showed a video package for Shinsuke Nakamura (nice of you to acknowledge his existence again Smackdown Live, but WHERE THE FUCK IS HE?????? GET HIM ON TV!!!!!!).
And finally we have your main event of AJ Styles vs Baron Corbin. AJ was on top early on, until Corbin delivered a huge punch as Dolph Ziggler was shown watching the match backstage. A Corbin knee to the mid-section, AJ fought back but was thrown to the outside, he then flies over the ropes but there’s no flip pin to follow. Corbin takes some hits from AJ who then sends him to the outside, AJ again comes over the ropes only to be caught by Baron into a slamdown onto his knees on the outside. Baron Corbin nearfall, Corbin gets launched into the ring post, AJ hits a knee to Corbin on the outside, Corbin throws Styles over the announce table but AJ uses his momentum to quickly bounce back over and comes over the ropes with a Phenomenal Forearm he didn’t quite get in fully, hence it only keeps Corbin down for a 2 count.
AJ hits plenty of strikes to Corbin then, only to be hit himself for a 2 count. Corbin then puts Styles on the top rope only to be knocked off, only for Styles to come flying off and straight into a great looking Deep Six from Corbin for a nearfall. The WWE Champion then reverses a potential End of Days into a Cab-Crusher submission, which The Lonewolf gets out of by slamming Styles head to the ring floor. AJ then has enough time after to fully hit The Phenomenal Forearm to pin Corbin for the win. AJ not really out of 2nd gear in this one but still decent of course, and a good showing for Corbin as well. He has certainly improved from the past, but still I don’t see him at the level where he’ll be matching AJ on a regular basis. After the match Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn came out to attack both men, but Corbin responded with an End of Days to both and BARON CORBIN ended Smackdown standing tall.
And that was Smackdown. An OK show overall, but again too many good people are not on the show each week; WHERE was Ms Money In The Bank Carmella? WHERE were Rusev and Aiden English? WHERE were the TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS? I get it’s only a 2 hour show but talent that good, it would be a huge shame for it to be forgotten about. I guess The Usos are the champions and Carmella has the briefcase so there is always that, but behind AJ and Nakamura and Charlotte it is Rusev who is the most over act on the whole show, so he should be being used ALL the time surely?
Key points to take home:
- I hope they have something BIG planned for Charlotte and her title at Wrestlemania…
- Ziggler is still good in-ring, his character is so lacklustre it’s a joke though
- BORE OFF with this Top 10 list thing Jinder, I DON’T CARE!
- The Bludgeon Brothers are getting there
- Can we skip to AJ vs Nakamura build now please?
Conclusion
Fastlane is being built up to be a decent show, but it does very much feel like this is all filler until Wrestlemania. On the Raw side of things there seems to be much excitement whereas Smackdown seems to just exist right now. The Shane/Bryan/Owens/Zayn tension/feud/whatever it is continues to dominate the show for the 3000th week with seemingly no end. Smackdown; I really want to like you a lot, and with the abundance of talent you have it should be easy, but you’re losing me just lately. Let’s hope as Fastlane and, more importantly, Wrestlemania draws closer they can pick it up. We can only hope.
Josh.
NobodyisReady.com 