Friday Night SmackDown Review - January 9, 2015

Roman Reigns sets up Seth Rolllins.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Roman Reigns Interrupted Seth Rollins

Rollins showed once again why he's the top heel in the company right now with his exceptional mic skills. The knock against him is that his promos grow tiresome when they run too long, but that's not so much his fault as it is WWE's for booking the segments longer than they need to be. Thankfully, he was cut off by Reigns before he get too stagnant and Reigns' promo was kept short and sweet and the announcement of him finding a tag partner built suspense throughout the night.


Big E def. Adam Rose

The New Day act still annoys me to no end, and while it was nice to see Kidd and Cesaro get some TV time, it's hard to take seriously when they're in the ring with The New Day and Adam Rose. It was a logical follow-up the events from Raw, but the match itself was complete throwaway. The duo of Kidd and Cesaro has a lot of potential, but being pairing with the limited New Day and Rose who is spinning his wheels at the moment is doing them no favors.

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Jimmy Uso flies high for the victory.

The Ascension def. Local Athletes

Why have them cut the exact same promo they did on Raw? I still don't think it's wise to have them compare themselves to Legion of Doom and other legendary tag teams, but I don't at all think it was "disrespectful" for them to do so. I rolled my eyes at people online saying they were upset about that, when in reality, that's what a heel's job is. It's not like they brought up Hawk's death, so I honestly don't see what the big problem is. The squash match was as basic as it gets.


Alicia Fox def. Naomi

I couldn't care less about Fox turning for the millionth time, and as much as I enjoy Naomi's work, I couldn't find myself getting invested in this match. They put on a decent match not too long ago, but this match lasted all of one minute. How could I care about either of them if their match isn't given the time of day? It's one of the many things wrong with the Divas division right now and it makes them look amateur in comparison to the ladies down in NXT.


WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos def. Gold & Stardust and The Miz & Damien Mizdow in a Triple Threat Match

We've seen these three teams face off countless times in the past, so while the match wasn't anything too much out of the ordinary, it was still very fun and there was a lot of cool spots. The tag titles never felt like they were in jeopardy, but this match was all about teasing tension between Miz and Mizdow. Could that split be coming sooner rather than later? The final few minutes were very well done and hopefully The Usos are given a fresh batch of opponents to work with going forward.


Sin Cara def. Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett (Non-title)

I can't believe this actually happened. It has to be a rib on Barrett, right? The guy returned all of one week ago on Raw, won the Intercontinental Championship mere days ago and then lost to a nobody on SmackDown? How that does that even work? It doesn't help that the nobody he lost to was someone who's been irrelevant for years and is rarely on TV. Barrett's already been ruined and it hasn't been two weeks yet. When is this guy going to get a fair shake in WWE?


Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose def. Seth Rollins and Big Show

Ambrose was the perfect choice for Reign's mystery partner and the live crowd reacted big when his music hit. To my knowledge, this is the first time they've teamed since The Shield's split, so it felt like a major deal. The action was entertaining throughout and the crowd was hot for it the entire time. I didn't have much issue with Rollins being pinned clean because it came at the hands of someone he has a lot of history with. Could this be planting the seeds for something involving the former Shield members in the foreseeable future?


Overall Show

This was a pretty pointless show up until the final half hour. The tag title match was enjoyable and the final tag team match was a lot of fun given who was involved. Everything else was mediocre filler that didn't do much to peak my interest or further any meaningful storylines. It was encouraging to hear Bray Wyatt announce his participation in the Royal Rumble match, but WWE has a lot of work to do in putting focus on that match going into that event instead of The Authority.

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