Ding dong, the witch is champ! It’s the first holiday edition of SmackDown RunDown Live and as a gift to you, I’ll be less pessimistic about my reviews for the rest of the month. Sounds good? Luckily, I don’t really have much issues about this week’s SmackDown Live. Let’s start the show.
Let’s address my issues with James Ellsworth
You’re probably sick of me ranting about James Ellsworth, but hear me out. We can’t really ignore the guy since Creative kept him around to possibly feud with Dean Ambrose. So what’s my take on the current situation? I still can’t stand Ellsworth, but I have to give credit where credit is due. SmackDown Live is actually presenting a very interesting story arc featuring a very pissed off Ambrose and the dumb jabroni, Ellsworth.
Ellsworth’s motivation for costing Ambrose the championship match at TLC wasn’t to align with AJ Styles. On the contrary, he actually believes he has the biggest chance of beating Styles for the fourth time to win the WWE World Championship. It wasn’t a heel turn, at least not yet, and Ellsworth’s interference achieved two things: Styles was able to retain the world title at TLC and the Styles-Ambrose rivalry was placed in hiatus.
We got to see firsthand how dumb Ellsworth actually is on this week’s episode when he brazenly taunted the injured WWE World Champion and accused Styles of ducking him. I’m not really sure if I should cheer Ellsworth or boo him, though, and I think that will be a huge problem in this storyline.
For now, I’ll play along and give Ellsworth a chance. This is actually a good indication of how creative SmackDown Live writers really are. If they make this more compelling than it actually sounds, there’s no doubt they’ll make a star out of James Ellsworth. Whether this is a good thing or not is up to you. On a side note, props to AJ Styles for delivering a nice promo out of his TLC wardrobe malfunction.
The Miz officially became the voice of reason
If you’re not convinced that The Miz is the most complex character in WWE, then watch this week’s edition of MizTV with Dean Ambrose as his guest. He pretty much laid out the groundwork for the Ambrose-Ellsworth feud by pointing out that what happened at TLC was all Ambrose’s fault and well, he’s right. Ambrose did use Ellsworth to embarrass Styles week after week and now his pet decided to bite the hand that feeds it. Everything makes sense. Thanks Miz!
The participation award was also a nice touch. After Miz gave Ambrose the award, some members of the crowd chanted “You deserve it!” in one of the segment’s highlights. The Miz just added another layer of complexity to his already flashy character. Apparently, he also claimed ownership of Daniel Bryan’s Busaiku Knee which is another rib to the SmackDown Live GM. How can you not love The Miz right now?
Some Blue Brand Vibes and Blues—Live!
Vibe: I’m calling it. 2017 will be the year of the Wyatts. The SmackDown Tag Team Championships are just the beginning of their power trip. They will probably dominate the tag team division before Bray Wyatt decides he wants to have some bigger gold and chase the WWE World Championship. Plus, their post-match pose is so effing cool. It makes me wonder what’s next for Heath Slater and Rhyno. A rivalry, perhaps?
Vibe: The Wyatts definitely have a lot on their plate as they have to dominate a lot of teams on SmackDown Live. The Hype Bros made their presence known by soundly defeating the Ascension while Chad Gable defeated Tyler Breeze in a short blink-and-you’ll-miss-but-it’s-fine match. It’s a good thing Creative is still paying attention to the rivalries on the tag team division.
Blue: The new SmackDown Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss didn’t really get a decent celebration this week as she was quickly interrupted by Becky Lynch. What I didn’t like about their segment is that Becky came out to insult the champion like she cheated or something. I get that she doesn’t like Alexa, but she won fair and square so I don’t see any reason why Becky should step out of her fighter character and be rude towards the winner. Not a good start for their continued storyline.
Blue: Another lackluster rivalry is upon us as Nikki Bella confronts Natalya with a mean stare. We already saw this one coming and I’m not really excited about it. I’m pretty sure no one thought Natalya was a face so this angle won’t really work the way Creative wants it to work. On the plus side, Carmella got another chance to brush off her promo skills. I think we’ll hear from her more often in the future.
Vibe: Baron Corbin got another decisive win over Kalisto and I think this now ends their rivalry. Corbin and Kalisto delivered another fun match fresh off their Chairs match at TLC. It’s really frustrating how Creative took so long to give Corbin something fun to do, but nonetheless, I expect the Lone Wolf will become a more menacing presence on Tuesday nights.
SMACKDOWN RUNDOWN: This episode would’ve been perfect if the championship match between AJ Styles and James Ellsworth actually happened. Nevertheless, the Blue Brand produced another solid show that jumpstarted new storylines and established some personalities to watch out for in the coming weeks. Whatever your feeling for James Ellsworth is, you have admit that he made things interesting. I hate having written that sentence. Anyway, this week’s episode is an easy A.
Photos from WWE.com
*****
Ricky Jay Publico 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.
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