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Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: recaps, Smackdown, wrestling, wwe
WWE Smackdown Review 8/7/2021: A Not-So-Clever Diversion
As the WWE Smackdown roster prepared this week to put on yet another mildly entertaining, mostly filler episode of WWE Smackdown, and as Adam Cole prepared to meet with Vince McMahon to discuss his future with the company, Vince, always two steps ahead of the game, was planning a Game of Thrones style bloodbath on the NXT roster. While fans were paying attention to, or browsing their phones during, or falling asleep while watching Smackdown, McMahon fired Bronson Reed, Tyler Rust, Leonn Ruff, Mercedes Martinez, Bobby Fish, Ari Sterling, Jake Atlas, Kona Reeves, Zechariah Smith, Asher Hale, Giant Zanjeer, Stephon Smith, and Desmond Troy. As a result, the question must be asked: is Vince McMahon stripping WWE to make it as attractive as possible on paper ahead of a sale? And if so, does that mean Vince McMahon truly hates his own children? We may never get to the bottom of what that cold-hearted bastard is really thinking, so I guess we'll just recap Smackdown instead.
Sasha Banks opened Smackdown by cutting a promo on Bianca Belair. Belair came out and cut a promo on Sasha. Then Zelina Vega came out and cut a promo on Bianca. Belair decided to fight Vega later on Smackdown and Banks at SummerSlam, so everyone left happy.
Next up, it was the obligatory Mysterio vs. Uso match, as we've seen on every episode of Smackdown in 2021. This time it was Dominik vs. Jey, with Dom telling his dad he could do this on his own. Turns out he couldn't. Uso won.
Maybe with all the wrestlers they fired, WWE can afford to hire someone to tune Rick Boogs' guitar? No? Oh well. Boogs introduced King Nakamura who faced Apollo Crews in a short match that ended in DQ when Commander Azeez got involved. And you're telling me the creative geniuses behind @#$% like this can't come up with anything for Bronson Reed to do? Shocking.
Backstage, Paul Heyman pointed out how messed up it is that John Cena can just sign somebody else's contract and get a match against Roman Reigns at SummerSlam. What? WWE terribly mismanaging its contracts? Unheard of!
Tegan Nox, who got her first name back this week apparently, faced Tamina, winning by rollup when Shotzi (no last name) fired her tank cannon to distract the women's tag team champ.
Do you think Nox feels bad that 12 of her former NXT colleagues had to be fired just so WWE could afford to give her a first name again?
Edge cut a promo on Seth Rollins, who appeared on the Titantron to argue with Edge. They referenced that time back in 2014 when Rollins tried to break Edge's neck, confusing viewers who have never seen WWE maintain storyline continuity for anything longer than two months. They'll settle the score at SummerSlam.
The Street Profits beat the Dirty Dawgs in a tag team match. No one cared.
Also, haven't the Profits been claiming it's "takeback season" for like eight months now? That's a long ass season. Just sayin'.
Zelina Vega got her shot at Bianca Belair… sort of. Though it seemed at the start of the show this would be a title match, it ended up being a non-title match, which didn't really make sense because Vega lost anyway. Glad the brain trust is focusing all their efforts on changing meaningless stipulations instead of coming up with idea for all the wrestlers they just cut from the roster for no reason.
Finn Balor beat Baron Corbin in a two-minute match. Afterward, he challenged John Cena to win back his Universal Championship match with Roman Reigns. Reigns came out to talk to Balor and the Usos jumped Balor from behind. Reigns stands tall.
Another mediocre episode of Smackdown made memorable only for the sad events that played out while it was airing: the decimation of the NXT roster. If WWE put half the effort into producing compelling storylines as they did into spitefully firing wrestlers in an attempt to overload AEW's budget, maybe the ratings would be up and Vince McMahon wouldn't feel like he needs to bail out of a moving car before it crashes with a big sale.
WWE Smackdown 8/6/2021
4.5/10
Another mediocre episode of Smackdown made memorable only for the sad events that played out while it was airing: the decimation of the NXT roster. If WWE put half the effort into producing compelling storylines as they did into spitefully firing wrestlers in an attempt to overload AEW's budget, maybe the ratings would be up and Vince McMahon wouldn't feel like he needs to bail out of a moving car before it crashes with a big sale.
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