Smackdown – September 20, 2016: Crush My Crackers This Was Fantastic
Smackdown
Date: September 20, 2016
Location: Legacy Arena, Birmingham, Alabama
Commentators: John Bradshaw Layfield, David Otunga. Mauro Ranallo
It’s a big night here on Smackdown as we have Miz defending the Intercontinental Title against Dolph Ziggler in a rematch from Backlash as well as a major showdown between Dean Ambrose and John Cena after Ambrose laid Cena out to end last week’s show. We’re only a few weeks away from No Mercy so things should start to pick up steam. Let’s get to it.
We open with a preview of Ambrose vs. Cena later tonight.
Daniel Bryan is in the ring for a contract signing for the Women’s Title match at No Mercy. Becky Lynch comes out first and agrees to keep this civil. Alexa Bliss comes out and suggests Becky use moisturizer. Becky says she’s here for a fight instead of a pageant. They go back and forth about how Becky doesn’t belong here but she worked as hard as she could at jobs she hated to get to this point. She wasn’t born to be a champion but Alexa knows she was.
At No Mercy, Alexa is going to prove Becky is a one hit wonder. Bliss hits her with the contract and turns the table over. Alexa goes to leave but Becky chases her to the back. Really simple segment here but I liked it. Bliss has a very natural feel on the mic and that’s going to do her a lot of favors. Becky is playing her character perfectly too and while the match might not be great, the build is working and these two have chemistry talking.
Miz comes up to Bryan in the back to complain about his title defense tonight. That’s fine with Bryan, who says we’ll cancel the match and cancel Miz’s contract as well. Miz backs down and leaves.
Usos vs. American Alpha
The winners get the title shot at No Mercy and Chad Gable’s knee is mostly fine coming in. It’s a brawl to start with Gable taking Jimmy down. Rhyno and Heath Slater are watching in the back and naturally Rhyno is enjoying some cheese and crackers. Alpha cleans house early on with their dropkicks but Gable is sent to the floor and comes up holding his knee.
Back from a break with the twins working over Gable’s knee. Chad elbows his way out of the corner and the hot tag brings in Jordan for the suplexes and shoulders to the ribs in the corner. Jey breaks up the superplex though and the Superfly splash gets two with Chad making the save. They got me on that one. Another toss to the floor makes Gable’s knee even worse and Jordan refuses to tag in his hurt friend. Chad tries to come in anyway and gets chop blocked, setting up a double superkick. Jey’s Superfly splash puts Jason away at 11:34.
Rating: C+. The booking of American Alpha is really interesting as they came in so hot that there’s no reason to believe any team can hang with them. WWE had to come up with something to slow them down so other teams could hang with them and this knee injury was as good as they were going to come up with. In theory this sets up the Usos winning the belts to set up the big showdown against Alpha down the line.
Slater and Rhyno ware watching in the back and Heath has an idea: “When I say Rhy, you say no.” Rhyno: “No.” The Usos come in and say they’ll win at No Mercy. They even threaten to knock Rhyno’s crackers out of his hand. That makes things serious but Jey threatens to send Slater’s kids back to the mudhole. Rhyno CRUSHES HIS CRACKERS and it’s a staredown.
Baron Corbin vs. Apollo Crews
Jack Swagger is on commentary. Crews hits him in the face to start and gets two off a fall away slam. A jumping enziguri knocks Corbin around even worse but he sends Crews ribs first into the post. Corbin drives the ribs into the post again and the End of Days wraps Crews up at 2:48. I’d love to hear the explanation for why Crews isn’t getting ready for a big showdown against Shinsuke Nakamura for the NXT Title instead of being a jobber on Smackdown.
Corbin and Swagger have a staredown.
Curt Hawkins Face the Facts vignette.
Naomi and Nikki Bella are ready to keep the momentum going with the power of the glow. Natalya’s glow went out a long time ago and Carmella has had it out for Nikki for a long time now because she wants to make a name for herself. See, they’re friends now because the script says they should be.
Ziggler says anything could happen here tonight and doesn’t think much of Miz. There are a lot of things he shouldn’t be but tonight he’s going to become Intercontinental Champion.
Intercontinental Title: The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler
Miz is defending and we even get Big Match Intros. Ziggler takes it to the mat to start and Miz is in WAY over his head with the technical stuff. A clothesline on the floor takes Miz down again but he dropkicks Ziggler off the apron to take over. Back in and Miz does the YES Kicks but continues the tradition of missing the big one. Ziggler goes shoulder first into the post and gets kicked in the face for two.
A Stinger Splash has Miz in trouble but he misses another charge into the post. That means it’s time for a running dropkick in the corner, again ala Bryan. The champ goes up top for the ax handle but dives into a dropkick. Ziggler’s running DDT gets two and a Cactus Clothesline takes us to a break.
Back with Miz countering a superplex into a slingshot sitout powerbomb. Ziggler’s sleeper sends Miz over to the ropes and the superkick gets two. Maryse loads up the hairspray but gets caught this time, meaning an ejection. Rollups are exchanged for two each and the Zig Zag gives Ziggler a VERY close two. Miz tries to leave with the title so Ziggler sends him into the steps, only to get sprayed in the face. A Skull Crushing Finale retains Miz’s title at 16:01.
Rating: B+. They had me worried more than once there but thank goodness Miz retains the title here and Ziggler loses again. I’m sure we’re going to get a third match between them at No Mercy and hopefully they still don’t change the title. As has been the case for weeks now I’m still not sure what they’re setting up with Bryan. At this point they almost have to deliver the big return match but most sources say there’s no way that’s happening. We’re either in for a major surprise or a debut of some kind and either one would be interesting.
Erick Rowan vs. Randy Orton
Rowan doesn’t even get an entrance so he starts fast with a reverse powerslam and a dropkick of all things. A trip to the floor makes things even worse for Randy but he gets in the Elevated DDT and the RKO for the quick pin at 2:23.
Post match the lights go out and Rowan disappears with the sheep mask taking his place. Bray pops up on screen and says that unlike Orton, he can never die.
Nikki Bella/Naomi vs. Carmella/Natalya
Natalya forearms Naomi at the bell and has Nikki in the Sharpshooter less than thirty seconds after the bell. For some reason Carmella pulls Nikki to the floor for a beatdown and that’s a DQ at 36 seconds.
Naomi kicks Natalya in the head post match.
AJ Styles says he doesn’t have a rivalry with Dean Ambrose or John Cena because he’s better than both of them. Tonight he’s going to enjoy watching them fight because the champ will always be here.
John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose
As usual, the fans are split on Cena. Feeling out process to start with Cena working on a headlock and then into a top wristlock. Ambrose turns it up by sending Cena into the post and we take a break. Back with Dean chopping and punching away until Cena pulls him down into the STF. Dean makes the ropes and gets in another shot to the head, only to have Cena roll through a high crossbody into the AA for two. Dirty Deeds gets the same and I probably should have penciled that in as soon as the AA hit. Back up and a second AA is countered into a sunset flip to give Dean the completely clean pin at 10:14.
Rating: B-. I upgraded this one for the clean ending alone. Cena losing clean is something that you almost never see and this win feels bigger than when Dean won the title in the first place. It’s not like this hurts Cena in the slightest but it gives Dean a huge rub and makes him feel like a factor instead of just a third man in the match to take the fall at No Mercy.
Post match AJ hits the Phenomenal Forearm on Cena but here’s Bryan to interrupt. As Shane McMahon promised, Dean is getting a one on one title rematch and that’s going to happen next Tuesday on Smackdown. Dean hits Dirty Deeds on AJ to end the show.
Overall Rating: A-. This show was fantastic and there’s not much else that needs to be said about it. The wrestling was good, the angles were hot and the stories were advanced. Above all else, Bryan was only there when he was needed instead of running around every five minutes and interjecting himself where he wasn’t needed. I had a blast watching this show and thought it was more fun than anything WWE has done in a very long time. Great stuff here and by far the best episode of either show since the Brand Split and a long time before that.
Results
Usos b. American Alpha – Superfly splash to Jordan
Baron Corbin b. Apollo Crews – End of Days
The Miz b. Dolph Ziggler – Skull Crushing Finale
Randy Orton b. Erick Rowan – RKO
Nikki Bella/Naomi b. Carmella/Natalya via DQ when Carmella attacked Nikki on the floor
Dean Ambrose b. John Cena – Sunset flip
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KB Why is Zigger possibly getting IC Title Match #3 at No Mercy? We both know that if he wins he will be a pontless Champion. I swear this is the hotest roll Miz has been on for 5 years. Hopefully Miz wins at No Mercy so Zigger can go to the back of the line and do Apollo Crews role on Smackdown.
Because it’s a trilogy and trilogies are cool.
Some are, Some suck. I’m looking at you Bloodrayne.
They can be if done sparely problem is they seem to be done all the time completely defeating the purpose of trikogies.
I’ve been enjoying both shows tremendously since the brand split. Yes Raw is too long and often boring, but along with SD it’s finally feels different.
And as for SD, I enjoy it the most. Becky Lynch is one of the best parts of the show. Except for a few bumps in the road, I think WWE is doing a bang up job with the womans division. They really have my interest.
Surprisingly the shows being on back to back nights, three nights in a row on ppv weeks, haven’t been hard to watch at all. I look at it this way, I watch a three hour baseball game several nights in a row. Baseball is one of the most boring sports in the world, but I love watching it, even if the Yankees are shitty.
I don’t see anything in Becky Lynch. To me she’s still “Irish girl with orange hair”. I agree though, the women’s division is doing fine. They could still do better though.
Another strong outing from Team Blue tonight and I just don’t see how some people here can say the Brand Split has been a bad idea. Especially for Smackdown more so than RAW who’s made the most of what they have.
Thank you for finally saying it. I wanted to but chickened out because I didn’t feel like getting non sensical answers again.
Smackdown has been on a roll.
Rhyno getting pissed about the threat of his crackers was hilarious
I agree KB, this was an excellent show. But I can’t help but wonder if the cruiserweights would be a better fit for smackdown and maybe have a hardcore division for Raw maybe…..what do you think?
Not a good idea.
Hardcore matches put the body through a lot. They only really use tables, kendo sticks and chairs today. It would get repetitive fast. Hardcore matches are better when seldom seen than when there is a whole title based around it.
Raw is 3 hours. They need something to help fill time. Cruiserweights will help.
Not that they pride themselves on their storylines making sense, but if there’s no champion’s advantage in a triple threat match what the hell difference does it make who walks into No Mercy as champion?
We’re getting a WWE Championship match on free TV. Between Styles and Ambrose. What does it matter?
Ambrose is eh.
Im pretty sure Shane said last week and DB this week even said it that Ambrose was promised a one on one rematch for the Title. Don’t see how that doesn’t make anything but sense. I mean they did it twice before Battleground in the same week and now in the lead up to No Mercy.
You missed the entire point of what I said, but that’s to be expected from you.
In what way did i miss the point of what you said? You are complaining about a WWE Title Match on Free TV which was specifically said Ambrose was owed a one on one rematch. So what if they are doing it before the next PPV because its been done before. Then again that’s to be expected from you.
Definitely a good show but we differ greatly on that opening segment. Bliss was AWFUL. Not that her public speaking skills were bad, but she didn’t seem to know what to say (probably the writers fault). Thus, the “feud” isn’t about anything. What she said about Becky didn’t make sense, and she came off as “generic heel challenger #46. I like Bliss, but they need to give her more to work with as I hated that opening segment.