Smackdown (Oct. 16th, 2018): The Crackdown On The Smackdown #1000 Or Something

It's time for another Crackdown On Smackdown!

So I saw the 1000th episode of Smackdown, which was a mere 2-hour program whose opening segment was nothing but McMahons, featured a reunion of a stable that was a focal point of RAW's worst years, and generally felt like any other episode of the show. For a show that's going to be on the FOX Network next year and hitting their 1000th episode, this sure as hell didn't feel like an important show. But then again, if WWE couldn't be bothered to produce a worthwhile anniversary show for RAW earlier this year, then my expectations shouldn't be (and quite frankly, weren't) that high.

So much like that show, I'll bring up five observations that came to mind when watching this show. I was going to save this for later on... but I ended up watching the show late last night and wanted to get this out of the way so I can have something more worthwhile later this week.





#1 - The Montage Of Classic Moments Was Nice
I like that they had a nice montage of the show's classic moments; either with the show's opening package or with the occasional still shots that would come along between segments. It's not a big thing or anything like that, but these little bits serve to remind people of what a long and storied history that Smackdown has had since its inception in 1999. So, that's one nice thing.

#2 - The True Reason For Evolution's Reunion On Smackdown
So when they announced the Evolution reunion taking place on Smackdown, I questioned that logic since Evolution was never a major factor in Smackdown. If anything, they were on RAW contributing to some of the worst shows on that program for the better part of two years. Regardless, there was a reunion. We have old man Hunter, we have old man Ric, we have Randy Orton who looks like he has nothing better to do... and then we get to the returning son himself, Dave Batista.

See, while Evolution has meant fuck all for Smackdown, Batista was one of the major players on that show for a good long while. While John Cena was the face of RAW, Batista was the face of Smackdown. And while his 2014 return was marred by unfortunate timing and circumstances, here he was given a hero's welcome and why shouldn't he? He's one of Smackdown's own, he's a big star... and he's the only guy who should've had the spotlight to himself... but he has to share with these other assholes.

But one thing I found interesting is Batista's comment about Triple H never beating him. And that has me wondering if the whole reason this segment was set up was so they could start planting the seeds to an eventual match between the two. Surely, there've been interviews where Big Dave has expressed interest in such a match and I'm sure ol' McSon-In-Law wants to get his win back, so I don't know? Sure, why not, I guess?

#3 - The Bar Defeated The New Day With An Assist From Big Show
So the Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro) finally beat the New Day for the Smackdown Tag-Team titles... and they needed Big Show's help to do it. I'm not quite sure what to think of this, but hey, they're champs again and I'm cool with that. Also, Big Show's looking the best he's been in a good long while. While a renewed Big Show push doesn't exactly excite me - it's hard to get excited with a guy that flips alignments every five seconds - I don't know.

Big Show is one of the odd characters where he can be a really entertaining guy as far as interviews and other bits are concerned, but when it comes to his wrestling stuff - especially these past few years - my only reaction is just "Ugh, fucking Big Show again." The thing is that it's not an exclusively "Big Show" thing because there are a lot of guys and gals whose are infinitely more interesting in interviews and outside videos than there are on WWE television. Almost as if they actually have a personality that's vaguely interesting outside these fucking shows. Imagine that.

#4 - The American World Cup Of Wrestling
So they brought back Rey Mysterio and have him go over Shinsuke Nakamura to qualify for this World Cup Of Wrestling Tournament To Determine The Best In The World... and disregarding the fact that he was born in California, you could make the argument that Rey is the only foreigner in this World Cup Of Wrestling Tournament To Determine The Best In The World... a tournament that is comprised ENTIRELY OF AMERICANS. This would be like booking the Mae Young Classic, advertising talent from all over the world, and all the women are American.

So you've got John Cena, Kurt Angle, Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton, Miz, Jeff Hardy, and Rey Mysterio. They're all fucking Americans. I get it; you want to pack this tourney with big names, but if all the Saudis care about are the old fuckers, who gives a shit about who's actually in this tournament? Why not have Rusev in there? Or Nakamura? Or whatever NXT foreigner is up there and give them a big spotlight? Just more WORLD flavor in the WORLD Cup tournament.

Also, the whole concept of this World Cup to be the best in the world is stupid. If you have to win a tournament to determine who is the best in the world, what's the fucking point of having World championships? After all, if you're the World Champion, shouldn't that automatically make you best in the world by virtue of being champion of the World?

Also, how the fuck can you have a tournament to determine the best in the world and not include Chris Jericho? For fuck's sake...

#5 - Everyone Loves Becky Lynch... Except WWE
So they have this Cutting Edge segment with Edge and his guest is Becky Lynch, who is supposed to be this dastardly, evil person doing underhanded things except the people like her because they actually agree with her. And poor Edge is trying to get Becky to see the errors of her ways by using past experience, but Becky just comes off as such an interesting character with motivations and reasoning behind her actions that actually make sense that the crowd are actively rooting for her and even start booing Edge for just being the moral compass or whatever he called himself. My guess is they realize it's not really Rated-R Superstar Edge in the ring; it's just some guy who looks like him. But yeah, Becky Lynch is perhaps the most interesting character on this show and I'm dreading that they're going to completely fuck her up and play the sacrificial lamb to Baby Flair because... well.

And that's about it, really. On a whole, it was just a regular show with some cameo appearances here and there. Nothing too elaborate or substantial to be had here. And while some folks might lament the length of the show, I am quite pleased they didn't turn this into a three-hour show. WWE already has a three-hour show that they do on a weakly basis; they don't need to fuck up Smackdown with this brain-dead strategy.