Tonight on SmackDown: the main event will pit John Cena against long-time nemesis Alberto del Rio.... and while this is almost certainly not designed to do ADR any favors as he's on a Farewell Jobbing Tour (he's not a fan of HHH and that feeling is mutual; ADR's contract expires next month, and neither side really feels like talking to the other), that does not mean there won't be some excitement... involvement from AJ Styles could easily create some late game drama, given that Cena/Styles is one of SD's two marquee matches for Sunday's SummerSlam...

SD's other big contribution to the PPV is a WWE Title match between champion Dean Ambrose and challenger Dolph Ziggler.... in order to hype that, both men will be a part of MizTV tonight... Ziggler is on a hot streak, pinning a Wyatt in the SD main event each of the past 3 weeks, and acting like he's got a bit of piss and vinegar in him... Ambrose, not one to be out-pissed, hit Ziggler with Dirty Deeds last week (to cheers), so this is no chummy Display of Mutual Respect coming tonight... it would be odd -- but not infeasible -- if Miz's SummerSlam IC Title Challenger somehow got involved, and a Strange Bedfellows match resulted (Ambrose/Crews vs. Ziggler/Miz)...

And Randy Orton will have to do something, to remind us he exists, even if his SummerSlam opponent doesn't (as far as SD is concerned, anyway)... public speaking isn't his friend, and the less he mentions "Viperville" as if it's a cool turn of phrase the better off we'll all be... maybe something with Heath Slater, as the logical counterpoint to last night?

Beyond that, last week really made it seem that "Jockeying for Position" in both the women's and tag divisions is in full effect... for example, Becky is trying to have a feud with Eva Marie (but Eva keeps finding ways to Not Wrestle, which is great for everybody involved), so Alexa Bliss snuck in and got a win over Becky.... or American Alpha had a match, and the ring was surrounded by the rest of the SD tag roster, and there was a big ol' brawl before it was over... neither division has a title belt, yet, but will soon, so perhaps this general lingering sense of proving superiority will trump personal rivalries in the short term...

And of course, the biggest drama of all tonight: will Daniel Bryon call Apollo Crews the wrong name for the third week in a row?!? Tune in to find out!

That is all. End communication....

The flOOr is yours, OO Nation. Don't wait till after 10pm to post, either. Pre-show previewing and prognosticating is certainly welcome. So discuss, debate, and rate!

"Kick your head right off your face!" Dolph said.

Then looked like he threw up in his mouth

Can we be done with Dolph please? Remember people bitching about Reigns' lack of crowd reaction? Ziggler is like the JV version of Roman.

LOL. Miz called him "Apollo CREEEED" during the commercial-break-that-aired-on-tv. (eta: yes, I am aware it was probably to most-certainly intentional.)

And yeah, Ziggler's not exactly lighting the world on fire here. I feel bad for him, because he -really- seems to be trying hard but... it's just not clicking.

Smackdown LIVE! Starring the Not-Ready-For-Live-Time-Players.

[Edited on 8-17-2016 by Count Zero]

I like how they've finally built depth in his character.

Not a big fan of "ohhh he wears makeup and changes his name" shallow stuff

If you're talking about Ziggler, I found Heath Slater's "I got a bunch of kids" more compelling than Dolph going into CENA-HIGH-INTENSITY-MODE.

That opening segment was the drizzling shits. Which I'm not happy to say, because I find myself lacking interest in BOTH main event scenes at the moment. (Yes, I'm weird, I know this.)

eta: So weird, in fact, that I really think Naomi's new look/entrance is AWESOME. Yes, I like black-lighting effects. Weird, see?

ALL RED EVERYTHING ON THE BLUE SHOW!!!!!

And that was the best Eva Marie segment yet. I love it.

[Edited on 8-17-2016 by Count Zero]

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc
"Kick your head right off your face!" Dolph said.

Then looked like he threw up in his mouth

---

Slater & Zig,

now Naomi with a new entrance!

And Slater has a contract!


[Edited on 8-17-2016 by merc]

Dom Returns� and he's going to watch B'lack Larceny stool push Young Randall at SooperSlam. Who said 2016 was a bad year?

FUCKIN JBL. SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT ORTON & BRUNO HEADLINING MSG.

IT NEVER HAPPENED

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc
FUCKIN JBL. SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT ORTON & BRUNO HEADLINING MSG.

IT NEVER HAPPENED

---

Flipped over to this just after it was starting, and Ziggler was interrupting Ambrose. One said something to the effect of "I don't need to talk"

Poured myself some rum.
Ate some rum cake.

Looked back into the hotel room and they're STILL TALKING.

FFS...


Also- was that a 3 team vs 3 team match? It looked at 1 point like the Uso's were after everyone, but when Gable got the pin, the hype bros and Uso's celebrated?

Rowan vs Ambrose. Wonder who's doing the job here...

quote:

---

Originally posted by janerd75

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc
FUCKIN JBL. SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT ORTON & BRUNO HEADLINING MSG.

IT NEVER HAPPENED

---

Why are you yelling? Are you off your meds agayn? I thought it was determined that you require intensive mental health counselling due to a case of severe transverse obstinence, profound obtusity, and utter opinional wrongitude? Get help, bro. Srsly. No, srsly.

ETA: "I know that tore up his back! Goll-LEE!" - David Otunga after Dean-O back body dropped Rowan.

Fuck. Fucking fuck's sake, man. Listen to some god Lou Rawls or something. Shiiiiiiiit.

[Edited on 8-17-2016 by janerd75]

---

She's got an Iggy Azalea thing on her? Really, Otunga? Her ass doesn't look that huge.

ETA: what the hell was that? going quickly from only burying Becky to burying the whole division.

[Edited on 8/17/2016 by Paddlefoot]

Oh good. Traffic must've cleared up.

ALL RED LIGHTS EVERYWHERE.

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc

quote:

---

Originally posted by janerd75

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc
FUCKIN JBL. SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT ORTON & BRUNO HEADLINING MSG.

IT NEVER HAPPENED

---

Why are you yelling? Are you off your meds agayn? I thought it was determined that you require intensive mental health counselling due to a case of severe transverse obstinence, profound obtusity, and utter opinional wrongitude? Get help, bro. Srsly. No, srsly.

ETA: "I know that tore up his back! Goll-LEE!" - David Otunga after Dean-O back body dropped Rowan.

Fuck. Fucking fuck's sake, man. Listen to some god Lou Rawls or something. Shiiiiiiiit.

---

Translation?

---

Ahh, I didn't bother reading.

For this outburst, since GEG named me the OO JBL I need accuracy from him.

🍻

Picture on all the livestreams just went down. Audio is still on though. Could be an interesting experiment: is it less embarrassing to listen to wrestling with the picture off or to watch it with the sound off?

quote:

---

Originally posted by Count Zero
Oh good. Traffic must've cleared up.

ALL RED LIGHTS EVERYWHERE.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
Picture on all the livestreams just went down. Audio is still on though. Could be an interesting experiment: is it less embarrassing to listen to wrestling with the picture off or to watch it with the sound off?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by janerd75

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
Picture on all the livestreams just went down. Audio is still on though. Could be an interesting experiment: is it less embarrassing to listen to wrestling with the picture off or to watch it with the sound off?

---

Funny you mention that. As I'm dicking around on the Intarwebz I don't have the screen minimized so I can watch and surf at the same time. Listening in the background to SD and flipping over when Mauro's pitch goes up. He paints a pretty good picture using mouth words for mah haid moovies. When I switch back to watching my lying eyes don't match the awesomeness Renallo was describing.

ETA: He kill't A.J! Goll-LEE!

[Edited on 8-17-2016 by janerd75]

---

Mostly inoffensive show, ranging from boring to decent, with me liking the Cena/Styles stuff a fair bit. I kinda dig Heath Slater way more than I should, and was a bit sad when the contract wasn't signed. Here's hoping it brings another fun week of Heath Slater! The billion mag tag match was too cluttered for my tastes, though. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 on whatever chart.

[Edited on 8-17-2016 by Quentil]

Random thoughts:

-It seems most here are down on the Ambrose/Dolph segment, but damn did I love that superkick from out of nowhere at the end. That was some good stuff.

-I'm continuing to enjoy this Eva Marie storyline way more than I should. I thought they played it perfectly tonight, with the "Eva Marie Debuts Tonight!" graphic and then the usual big intro, only to have her not even make it to the arena this time. Like I said last week, they should just keep playing this out until it's beyond absurd.

-I hadn't really thought about Del Rio not even being on the SummerSlam card until AJ mentioned it backstage. Me thinks the writing is on the wall for Del Rio to exit the WWE when his contract is up.

-That was actually kinda heelish of Cena to put AJ through the table at the very end. Not that I think there's anything to read into there whatsoever, but it's just not the type of thing we normally see Cena do.

Put me in the pro camp for Naomi's new entrance - looked pretty cool to me. Also, she's apparently a babyface now. Okay. And yeah, the Eva Marie stuff is perfectly done.

I also really liked Dolph's superkick ending. The best part of that whole segment, though, was Miz and Maryse giggling in the background as the babyfaces talked shit to each other.

I liked the tag team segment, although it's odd that there are more valid tag teams on Smackdown than on RAW where the actual tag titles ended up. Seems kind of a fait accompli that Alpha ends up with the Smackdown titles.

Apparently Dolph and Miz ended up doing some kind of KFC-promotion dark match after the main event.

Ziggler as col sanders and Miz as a chicken was quite entertaining #SDLive #Postshow pic.twitter.com/tm2n8iqJsB

— John Lopez (@ravenlopez31) August 17, 2016

quote:

---

Originally posted by janerd75
Dom Returns� and he's going to watch B'lack Larceny stool push Young Randall at SooperSlam. Who said 2016 was a bad year?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dominator

quote:

---

Originally posted by janerd75
Dom Returns� and he's going to watch B'lack Larceny stool push Young Randall at SooperSlam. Who said 2016 was a bad year?

---

I said might. And anything that falls into the "Pushing Orton" category would not qualify.

---

Eva Marie is garbage. I'm not even sure which is faker looking-- her acting ability, her dumb hair color or her tits.

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc
"Kick your head right off your face!" Dolph said.

Then looked like he threw up in his mouth

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by the goon
Random thoughts:

-It seems most here are down on the Ambrose/Dolph segment, but damn did I love that superkick from out of nowhere at the end. That was some good stuff.

-I'm continuing to enjoy this Eva Marie storyline way more than I should. I thought they played it perfectly tonight, with the "Eva Marie Debuts Tonight!" graphic and then the usual big intro, only to have her not even make it to the arena this time. Like I said last week, they should just keep playing this out until it's beyond absurd.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by royberto

---

Get off my lawn, ya bastids!

All kidding aside, I am a bit concerned with where this whole Eva Marie thing is heading. Unless she found some mystical wish granting monkey paw during one of their overseas tours, I think it's probably safe to say that she's still shite in the ring. I will commend WWE for actually turning into the skid and making chicken salad out of lemons (that's right, right? I feel like that might not be right.) but even the cheesy announcer (famed voice over artist, Corey Burton. Transformers G1 Shockwave!) won't be enough to keep me interested if she is still laughably bad in the ring. At least with the 6-Woman Tag settup they can give her a "win" (IF she's able to compete) without tarnishing anything.

Honestly? I hope things keep on keepin' on with her and we're all typing with aged, arthritically crippled fingers about her induction into the Hall of Fame class of '31 without having wrestled a single match since her drafting to Smackdown! Live.

It's a legit concern. They very well could push her until she mega-botches and ends someone's career. They are that damn dumb and short sighted sometimes.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Quentil
Mostly inoffensive show, ranging from boring to decent, with me liking the Cena/Styles stuff a fair bit. I kinda dig Heath Slater way more than I should, and was a bit sad when the contract wasn't signed.

---

I missed most of Smackdown last night, and only caught the closing seconds of Slater's segment. It couldn't possibly have been that bad, right? Seems more like a hyper-sensitive talking point for a dirt sheet comment section.

[Edited on 8/17/2016 by CM Crunk]

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc
Ahh, I didn't bother reading.

For this outburst, since GEG named me the OO JBL I need accuracy from him.

🍻

---

Eve Marie = Glacier..he says hopefully

quote:

---

Originally posted by royberto

quote:

---

Originally posted by the goon
Random thoughts:

-It seems most here are down on the Ambrose/Dolph segment, but damn did I love that superkick from out of nowhere at the end. That was some good stuff.

-I'm continuing to enjoy this Eva Marie storyline way more than I should. I thought they played it perfectly tonight, with the "Eva Marie Debuts Tonight!" graphic and then the usual big intro, only to have her not even make it to the arena this time. Like I said last week, they should just keep playing this out until it's beyond absurd.

---

Yeah. let's continue to bury the entire womens division for an untalented pile of garbage simply because she has an entrance.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by the goon

This makes me enjoy the Eva Marie angle even more now.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by CM Crunk


I missed most of Smackdown last night, and only caught the closing seconds of Slater's segment. It couldn't possibly have been that bad, right? Seems more like a hyper-sensitive talking point for a dirt sheet comment section.

[Edited on 8/17/2016 by CM Crunk]

---

Honestly, I think they should put the Smackdown women's belt on EM. I'm not even joking. She can be the women's division Honky Tonk Man, the undeserving piece of talentless crap who keeps using underhanded tactics and bullshit to keep the title against far more deserving and capable wrestlers.

And when Asuka comes to Wrestlemania and Ultimate Warriors her ass, it will be very, very satisfying.

quote:

---

Originally posted by GodEatGod
Honestly, I think they should put the Smackdown women's belt on EM. I'm not even joking. She can be the women's division Honky Tonk Man, the undeserving piece of talentless crap who keeps using underhanded tactics and bullshit to keep the title against far more deserving and capable wrestlers.

And when Asuka comes to Wrestlemania and Ultimate Warriors her ass, it will be very, very satisfying.

---

Buried people don't get titles. They just keep getting buried deeper and deeper. Oh the frustrating losses for Becky in her feud with champion Eva Marie over a few months before the feud wraps and Eva Marie moves on to her next challenger. There will be a couple wins in there - perhaps a non -title match to bait some into thinking that Becky might come out of this with a the title. But more likely the "champ gets self disqualified giving opponent victory while keeping title" routine. And the meaningless tag team loss.


GEG - love your thoughts on this. Works perfectly.

If that happens I will find you. I will... well, you know the rest.

quote:

---

Originally posted by punkerhardcore
If that happens I will find you. I will... well, you know the rest.

---

Whoooo boy. With all these people lining up to bury Bex, we're gonna need a lot more:




Everybody grab one, and get to work.

Sadly that jobber may be the only woman left for the next 30 days.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Count Zero
Whoooo boy. With all these people lining up to bury Bex, we're gonna need a lot more:

Everybody grab one, and get to work.

---

Bertos not a good troll, he's not a bad troll, he's THE troll...

quote:

---

Originally posted by royberto
The key to a good troll is not being so blatant.

---