Friday Night SmackDown Review - September 26, 2014

Big Show lays out Rusev with a devastating WMD.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Dean Ambrose def. The Miz

I enjoyed their interaction on Main Event this week and was excited to see them face off for the first time on this show. They work well together and I'd love to see them have more matches against each other in the future. The finish with Ambrose reversing the Skull Crushing Finale into the Dirty Deeds was  well done and it was a nice win for Ambrose. Ambrose and Seth Rollins could have a hell of a Hell in a Cell match if that's the direction they're headed in.


Cesaro Won a No. 1 Contender's Battle Royal for the Intercontinental Championship

Every Battle Royal is mostly the same, especially when a majority of the contestants consist of enhancement talent. Nevertheless, it was fun at points and the final four was pleasnatly surprising. All of them had an equal chance of coming out on top and Cesaro was the right choice in the end. The visual of him tossing Kofi Kingston into Jack Swagger over the top rope was a sweet one and it put him over in strong fashion. Is Cesaro's feud with Sheamus already over?

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Was Cesaro successful in winning the IC tite?

The Usos def. WWE Tag Team Champions Gold and Stardust by Disqualification

I preferred their Night of Champions match over this one, but this was still a very good matchup with excellent work from both teams. The Stardust character may not be my cup of tea, but he and Goldust work so much better as heels as a unit. Combine that with their tremendous teamwork and the amazing athleticism of The Usos and you've got yourself one hell of a match. The disqualification finish was fluky, sure, but it kept the titles on the 'Dust brothers, protected The Usos and kept their feud alive.


Summer Rae and Layla def. Natalya and Rosa Mendes

As an avid viewer of Total Divas, not even I'm a fan of whatever story they're trying to tell with Rosa and Natalya. Then again, I'm not a fan of anything that requires Rosa to wrestle. Seriously, she's deplorable. At least Cameron has an excuse since she was promoted to the main roster within months of being hired by the company. ROSA'S BEEN WITH WWE FOR SIX YEARS AND SHE HASN'T IMPROVED AT ALL! Rosa rant aside, it was a passable match since Natalya did most of the work for her team.


Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler def. Cesaro

This match has the potential to be a show stealer on paper, but it wasn't what I expected it to be. It wasn't the blockbuster bout it could have been, but I got the feeling they were holding back a bit. Don't get me wrong, the action was entertaining, but they're capable of more. I'm hopeful that the shady finish and Cesaro being entitled to a rematch leads to a feud between the two over the title.


Big Show def. Rusev by Disqualification

I was shocked that this match wasn't hyped more than it was going into it considering it was Rusev's biggest challenge to date and his "undefeated" streak was in jeporady. Despite that, it was a solid match and not nearly as boring as the last two Rusev-Mark Henry matches have been. The disqualification finish was predicable, but it kept Rusev's winning streak intact and saved the clean finish for a later date. The crowd popped big when Show knocked him out afterward, so I'm curious as to whether this means we're in for a full-fledged feud between them.


Overall Show

SmackDown has been mediocre more often than not in recent months, but this was by far the best edition of the program in quite some time. There were a lot of questionable finishes, but the in-ring action was above-average on the whole and it made for an enjoyable two hours. Thus, for the first time in recent memory, I'd suggest going out of your way to watch this show.

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