It’s another edition of SmackDown RunDown Live and this week, don’t expect a cohesive show because the quality drought of the Blue Brand is here to stay. If you haven’t watched the show, good for you. Go watch Sherlock or something. Let’s get this over with.
James Ellsworth just made 2016 a lot worse than it already is
In a previous edition of SmackDown RunDown Live, I argued to keep James Ellsworth on the main roster after serving his purpose in the Styles-Ambrose storyline. What I meant was for him to be the new Santino Marella—the comic relief guy, the lovable loser every aspiring babyface needs to protect. Make him do jobber work every now and then. As long as he’s not involved in a big storyline, he can stay.
Well, they made him stay, but they forgot to remove him from the title picture.
We all laughed along at James Ellsworth’s epic struggle to become a WWE Superstar. He was the man with two hands and a fighting chance. We all laughed as Dean Ambrose befriended the little bugger and helped him get two victories over the WWE World Champion, AJ Styles. We all cheered when the chinless wonder eliminated Braun Strowman with his bare hands. But this week, the joke wasn’t funny anymore.
The joke was AJ Styles, the Phenomenal One, the WWE Champion, lost to a badly-beaten James Ellsworth in a ladder match. Get it? I absolutely did, and I ain’t laughing. Did it help AJ Styles? Absolutely not! If the end goal is to keep AJ Styles the top heel, this was definitely not the way to do it. If anything, they are just laying the groundwork for an AJ Styles face turn because after Survivor Series and this week’s episode, AJ Styles got my sympathy. How am I supposed to boo this guy now?
And tell me, how is this going to help Dean Ambrose’s babyface character? On Sunday, he banded with his former Shield-mates to send Styles, his teammate, through the announce table. This week, he reverted back to his asshole character and spent the entire night annoying the living hell out of Shane McMahon. Am I supposed to cheer for this guy come T.L.C.? And no, making him wear different costumes isn’t helping.
My point is this: James Ellsworth is the joke that went way too far. How am I supposed to sleep at night knowing that this guy had more world title opportunities than a guy like Cesaro? Seriously, can you stomach that? I sure can’t. I’m not the only one with the same sentiment. When Ellsworth won this week, the entire arena was dead. Sure, there were some who still cheered, but the feeling was unanimous. No one cared about his victory. Everyone felt like the WWE World Champion was screwed, and honestly, when was the last time they built AJ Styles as a strong, credible champion? I can barely remember.
A Quick Round of Vibes and Blues—Live!
Blue: Did anyone really care about the tag team gauntlet match? We kinda expected American Alpha to win since we can’t give The Usos too many chances. What’s interesting is that the Wyatt Family is gunning for the tag titles. The Eater of Worlds is craving for some gold.
Vibe: I really wish that Alexa Bliss will win at TLC. The SmackDown Women’s Championship is getting boring around Becky’s waist. It needs a reboot and Alexa may just be the perfect woman for the job. Besides, it’s fun to watch Becky Lynch chase something. In other news, Nikki Bella's cleavage challenged Carmella in a No-DQ match at TLC. Good stuff.
Blue: Well, they totally ruined the Ziggler-Miz rivalry. From amazing promos week after week, all we got this week was a single superkick. You’d think these two despise each other by now. I don’t even care anymore. It’s a good thing their match at TLC is a do-or-die. If Miz retains, he better bounce back to the heel he was a few months ago.
Blue: The Corbin-Kalisto saga continued this week. I’m just disappointed they wasted a chance to transfer the Cruiserweight division to its true home just to continue this nonsense rivalry that no one cares about. Kalisto could’ve been the cornerstone of the Cruiserweight division by now.
Vibe: The Hype Bros rocked the WWEShop promo this week. Here’s a fearless forecast: Mojo Rawley will be big someday. I don’t know when or how, I just think he has potential. Or not, what the hell do I know.
Blue: There were still four people on commentary. Just fire “Jennifer Hudsband” already.
SMACKDOWN RUNDOWN: As a longtime wrestling fan, I’ve had my fair share of bullshit over the years. I won’t say this week was the greatest of them all, but it definitely made me question why I still enjoy watching wrestling. Everything is not making sense and hopefully, the next few weeks won’t be this bad. That’s the thing about us fans, though. All we can do is hope, right? I will bury this episode under another C where it belongs.
Photos from WWE.com
*****
Ricky Jay Publico (@HarambeMustLive) is a wrestling fan who enjoys watching high flyers and brawlers battle it out in the ring. A known Botchamania binge-watcher, he claims to have memorized the chronological order of Royal Rumble winners, but fails to remember who won in 2004. He writes stories about life and nonsense.
: Insert Chinless Joke Here){kind=link}