WWE SmackDown 02/06/18: Duly Noted
About Last Night is a quick reflection on the matches and segments, or random observations, from a wrestling show that sticks out to us the morning after we watch them. If you would like to get your comments featured, chime in below in our comments section or tweet us. You can also help support us on Patreon.
About The SmackDown Top 10…
Daniel Bryan announced the first SmackDown Top 10 this week, and since it’s based on locker room voting, it should come as no surprise that it’s all faces:
- AJ Styles
- Charlotte Flair
- Shinsuke Nakamura
- Naomi
- Bobby Roode
- The New Day
- The Usos
- Becky Lynch
- Randy Orton
- Tye Dillinger
Tye Dillinger being at #10 is what gives away that this is all kayfabe and not an actual vote, which I find disappointing. Having this doesn’t make much sense, outside of showing a list of who the writers find as priorities for booking opportunities. It is the first week though, so maybe it will evolve into something interesting with story implications, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
About Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan…
The relationship between Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan made some interesting progress this week in the opening segment. Shane welcomed Bryan out and let him know that he’s sick of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn constantly clogging the WWE Championship title picture, but Bryan points out that it’s because Shane keeps letting shady shit happen to them so they don’t lose cleanly. Shane then thickens the plot by bringing up Daniel Bryan’s desire to get back in the ring and that he’s living vicariously through Owens and Zayn.
So now we need to have Daniel Bryan vs. Shane McMahon in some sort of match at WrestleMania, right? I seriously don’t know how else this could end with the direction they’re going in. It doesn’t even have to be a singles match, as a tag match could help protect Bryan from working too much. a 6-man with Bryan teaming with Owens and Zayn would probably be the most likely, if this happens.
About The New Day…
The New Day spent the entire episode answering Twitter questions, which seemed like a good way to implement them this week without having to dedicate a full segment to them. The glimpses of them we saw were quite funny, with them taking shots at Corey Graves and praising Kofi Kingston as clearly the best member. I mean, they’re not wrong. Did you see him survive the Royal Rumble with the power of pancakes?
Adding a layer of social media interaction to the show when not shoved down your throat is a good move in their continued experiments with SmackDown. It’s way better than those terrible graphics they keep slapping onto the screen during promos.
About Rusev Still Not Getting His Push…
Rusev Day is the most over thing in the WWE at the moment. It got huge chants at the Royal Rumble, and has consistently been entertaining. Rusev and Aiden English have really been carrying their weight, and that was paid off by them not capturing the tag team titles. Last week it looked like that instead of pushing the team we’re going to have Rusev get a singles push by winning a title shot at the United States Championship. But silly me, of course Rusev would lose the match to Bobby Roode. To make matters worse, this was all a prelude to having Randy Orton RKO everyone. This killed the tiny bit of redeeming qualities Rusev could attempt to pull out of this.
Why can’t we have nice things. Breezango got turned into an online-exclusive segment that has them only appear on TV to job, and now Rusev Day is starting to head toward this direction. Let us have the things we like on television and let them succeed, dammit.
About Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens…
Did anyone expect this to be a clean finish with an actual winner? They tried to tease distension between the two last week and throughout this week’s episode, but it really didn’t amount to much outside of a decent match that would up meaning nothing. I had trouble believing any of the finishes, but it was nice to see some of Sami Zayn’s more face-ish moves again like the DDT through the turnbuckle. But with AJ Styles on commentary, shenanigans were bound to happen. And they did with Styles getting provoked fairly easily to attack both men for a no contest. Daniel Bryan came out and announced a Triple Threat for Fastlane between the three.
I really hope that isn’t the final match for the pay-per-view. We just had these three in a match at the Royal Rumble. Either adding more competitors (like Randy Orton?) or a stipulation could make this match more enticing but currently I have very little interest in it. Plus, do you really think they’re going to deprive us of AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania? Please don’t say yes.
What did you think of this week’s SmackDown? Let us know in the comments!
