WrestleRant
  • Home
  • Columnist Corner
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • WRR
  • Audio
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • About
    • Contact

Columnist Corner

WWE SmackDown Review - March 12, 2015

3/12/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureMark Henry returns to confront Roman Reigns.
By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Daniel Bryan Announced His Participation in the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match

Bryan's big story has been what role he'd have at WrestleMania, and I can't believe it took them this long to confirm he'll be in the Intercontinental Championship Ladder match. He should have been one of the first ones in considering he beat the champ in non-title action (along with everyone else) weeks ago. Everyone cut a decent promo and their brawl set up the six-man main event tag match, but it was predictable this was headed after Dolph Ziggler came out and it was fairly formulaic from that point forward.


WWE Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Tyson Kidd and Los Matadores def. The Usos and The New Day

Los Matadores tagging with Cesaro and Kidd made no sense given that the two teams are polar opposites. I realize it's their way of building up the tag title match and teasing tension between everyone involved, but I find it increasingly difficult to care about either The New Day or Los Matadores. The match was fun at times, but I would have rather had the focus on the champs winning rather than Los Matadores. Even if WWE is trying to establish them as heels, I don't think anyone will give two craps.

PictureRyback nails The Miz with Shell Shocked for the win.
Ryback def. The Miz

It may have seemed to be a nothing match on paper, but they made it feel somewhat meaningful with Miz's pre-match interview and banning Damien Mizdow from ringside. They worked a decent matchup with the crowd solidly behind Ryback throughout. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Michael Cole bring up their history on Tough Enough as I found that to be a nice touch. I still don't see Ryback winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal (my money's on Mizdow), but at least they're letting him ride a wave of momentum going into the match.


Mark Henry Interrupted Roman Reigns

It was nice to see Henry back, but he felt out of place in this segment. He filled the seasoned veteran role well, and even though he appeared to be a heel, this also could have been a case of him trying to bring out the fire in Reigns. That said, was Reigns justified in attacking him? Thankfully, they ended up making sense of it later on with Henry saying backstage that Reigns made a believer out of him, but I was glad Reigns looked strong in this segment and we should be seeing more of this Reigns going into WrestleMania. Now if only we could get him and Brock Lesnar in the same ring...


AJ Lee and Paige def. Summer Rae and Cameron

Well, it appears WWE listened to their fans for all of one week in regards to the #GiveDivasAChance movement, as this match was nothing out of the ordinary. Not every Diva match is going to get an ample amount of time, but they could have easily gone a few more minutes to make it more memorable. On a side note, I would have liked if WWE made a bigger deal out of AJ and Paige teaming up for the first time ever here.


Michael Cole Interviewed Randy Orton

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't WWE advertise Orton's return to SmackDown on this show? Technically he didn't even appear as the interview was pre-taped. Nevertheless, I enjoyed how they switched up the format by incorporating clips that recapped the history between Orton and Rollins dating back to last year. Orton was calm and composed in his answers and as I've said before, this is the most interesting his character has been in years. Him calling out Rollins on Raw to challenge him to a match at WrestleMania was also a nice hook.


Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose def. Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett, Luke Harper and Stardust

This is what this multi-man feud should have been about from the start: the exceptional in-ring ability of each of the combatants. The game of hot potato all but killed my interest in the Ladder match at 'Mania, but this very solid match served as a nice reminder that if given time on the grand stage, they can deliver one hell of a match. All six competitors had impressive outings and the pace really started to pick up down the stretch leading to a fun final few minutes. The post-match interview bit with the babyfaces was... uh, weird, but it effectively sent the message that it's every man for himself in that match.


Overall Show

Personally, I'm a fan of less being more, so I liked how they gave us four matches instead of the usual seven or eight as each of them served a purpose and had meaning. Only the main event stood out as being above average, but the other three matches were decent and built nicely to WrestleMania. With a little over two weeks to go until The Show of Shows, WWE really needs to go into high gear when it comes to making the match card feel special. I'm still excited for it regardless, but TV time is precious and they need to make the most of what they have in the remaining weeks until the event.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    Categories

    All
    #AskGSM
    Battle Of The Belts
    Cruiserweight Classic
    Halftime Heat
    Hidden Gems
    Lists/Rankings
    Mae Young Classic
    Mixed Match Challenge
    News
    NJPW
    NWA Shockwave
    Opinion
    Previews
    Retro Reviews
    Reviews
    RJ's Two Cents
    Satire
    SummerSlam Recall
    The Deadly Draw
    Tribute To The Troops
    Women's Eliminator
    Worlds Collide
    WrestleMania Recall
    WWE Draft
    WWE Starrcade


    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010

    RSS Feed

©2023 WrestleRant. All Rights Reserved.
  • Home
  • Columnist Corner
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • WRR
  • Audio
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • About
    • Contact