WWE SmackDown 05/01/18: We’re Not Talking About Big Cass
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 Miz TV…
SmackDown kicked off with Miz TV, as The Miz is still awkwardly trying to build to a match for the Intercontinental Championship while having the midcard champion of his show as a guest to build his match. He had Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton as the guests and tried to start shit between them, except the problem is they’re both faces so they just want to compete because they want the championship. Shelton Benjamin is also in this midcard picture for some reason since he got a distraction win over Orton last week, so that’s cool I guess?
The current midcard on SmackDown is starting to take shape, but it’s still got a lot of weirdness due to Backlash still having baggage from before the Superstar Shake-Up. That’s why it’s difficult to get invested in these matches, because we’re just waiting to get it over with so we can start focusing on longer-term plans.
About Rusev Day…
In a very heartening moment, Lana walked in on Rusev and Aiden English sporting a Happy Rusev Day shirt, the first time we’ve seen them together on screen since the Mixed Match Challenge. But then everything went south quickly as she spoke to her husband privately to inform him that something is holding him back from greatness, and it’s extremely clear she’s talking about English. This left me in a very conflicted place, because I love seeing Rusev and Lana together, but I also love the partnership between Aiden and Rusev. Why must I choose?!
This will likely end with Lana managing Rusev as a singles star again, and hopefully this will allow him to be elevated to one of the top faces on the brand. But it does have me worried about English’s future with the company. Will he get Ellsworth’d where he overstays his usefulness as a lackey, get kicked out, and then released shortly thereafter? SmackDown doesn’t have a lot of slots open for him to go if he isn’t part of Rusev Day.
About The Bar and The New Day…
I was wary about The Bar coming to SmackDown, as I was very much not a fan of their recent work on Raw. However, I forgot that this means they get to play foils to The New Day again, and this has freshened up both teams. The Bar trying to play off their loss last Friday as them wanted to be on SmackDown was pretty good but we also got introduced to Mr. Bootyworth, The New Day’s “butler” who serves platters of pancakes. It was weird and delightful, with The Bar not trusting that the pancakes don’t have laxatives in them.
This all led to a match between Sheamus and a smaller Xavier Woods, and it quickly just devolved into chaos with lots of interference and distractions on the outside. This being The New Day’s jam, it allowed Xavier to pick up the victory. It’s nice getting a feud in the division that isn’t focused on the titles, since that’s all we’ve been getting for months and it allows us to get away from The Bludgeon Brothers.
About Samoa Joe Killing Everyone…
Samoa Joe may have failed to capture the Intercontinental Championship (since he’s a SmackDown superstar) and Roman Reigns may have failed to capture the Universal Championship (because Brock Lesnar needs to break CM Punk’s record), but it won’t stop Samoa Joe from yelling about The Big Dog and likely annihilate him on Sunday. But we need to remember he’s on SmackDown despite Backlash hangover, and he’s already gunning for the top prize on Tuesdays.
Samoa Joe interrupted AJ Styles calling out Shinsuke Nakamura to demand his apology face-to-face so that he could make it very clear that he’s going to destroy either one of them after Backlash to capture the title, and because he yelled it so intense and because he’s Samoa Joe I’m not going to argue you with him. This has me very excited about the future of the main event picture on SmackDown with so much talent now there. Oh, and Nakamura uppercutted Styles in the ball again, because that is still totally funny. That isn’t sarcasm either.
About The Main Event…
It may appear as a really shitty “make good” for what happened last Friday by putting the women in the main event of the show, but it worked out really well and I’m not mad about it. Throughout the night we had promos from both sides, with The IIconics mocking Renee Young being Canadian by using a Minnesotan accent (which is a joke I’m very much into having just been in Minneapolis recently) before having their own interview with Carmella, while Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch gathered in the locker room while Asuka compared them to The Avengers. These were silly, but they got the job done promoting the match.
The actual match was legitimate great. By the end the whole crowd in Montreal were on their feet cheering. Charlotte stole the show with some big moves such as her moonsault off the top rope to the floor. Asuka also brought her hard strikes and Becky rallied with her quick offense. This is the one thing outside of the Samoa Joe segment that is worth going back and watching from this episode as it was excellent through and through, and allowed Asuka to get her retribution after suffering her second loss at the hands of The IIconics last week.
What did you think of this week’s SmackDown? Let us know in the comments!
