Smackdown – October 3, 2017: Come See Shane Do Something Stupid
Smackdown
Date: October 3, 2017
Location: Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado
Commentators: Tom Phillips, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton
It’s the go home show for Hell in a Cell and that means it’s time to really hammer in some of the stories. The main event of Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens inside the Cell is pretty much set but it would be nice to have some of the other matches get some attention of their own. Let’s get to it.
We open with another moment of silence for the Las Vegas shooting.
The opening recap looks at Shinsuke Nakamura beating up Jinder Mahal and the Singh Brothers last week.
Renee Young brings out Nakamura for a chat. In regards to Mahal’s recent insults, Nakamura says sticks and stones may break his bones but words will never hurt him. He’ll take the title from Mahal on Sunday but here are the Singh Brothers to interrupt and mock his entrance. Mahal follows them out and the three on one beatdown is on in a hurry.
Carmella/Natalya vs. Charlotte/Becky Lynch
Becky slaps Carmella to start and it’s time for a breather on the floor. Charlotte and Becky take the villains down with a double baseball slide and we take a way too early break. Back with Becky in trouble until Becky rolls her up for two, allowing the hot tag off to Charlotte. A running knee to the head drops Natalya again and a suplex gives Charlotte two. The spear looks to set up the Figure Eight but Natalya hides in the ropes. Carmella hits Becky in the back with the Money in the Bank briefcase and the Sharpshooter puts Charlotte away at 6:58.
Rating: D+. Barely enough shown to rate here but twas your run of the mill tag match with Natalya getting a win to help set up the title match on Sunday. If nothing else hopefully we’ll knock out the briefcase soon as it’s still just a thing that exists instead of anything with any particular value.
Long recap of Shane vs. Kevin. The more I see of this feud, the less I care.
Mike Kanellis vs. Bobby Roode
A spinebuster and the Glorious DDT end Kanellis at 56 seconds.
Post match here’s Dolph Ziggler with a marching band drum to play for Roode. Dolph plays an air horn and throws some confetti too before asking if everyone likes him now. Roode has a great entrance but on Sunday, the bell is going to ring and he’ll be exposed as the fraud that he is. Bobby shows Ziggler how to do the proper entrance and strikes the Glorious pose.
Pay per view rundown.
Here are the Usos to read New Day their rights before Sunday. They explain that New Day is going to be walking into the Uso Penitentiary where there’s no trombone, no BootyO’s and no dancing. Maybe they can just throw every other tag team in there with them. This brings out New Day to shill their New Day underwear (a real thing) and to read some lefts because the Usos are reading the rights.
New Day has left everyone in the dust and no matter where they were on the card, they’ve left the fans knowing it was the best match on the night. Best of all though, the last time they met the Usos, they left with the titles. Short and to the point here as this segment needed to be. If the match is as good as their previous efforts, everything will be fine.
Mahal shows us a replay of what happened earlier.
Tye Dillinger vs. Baron Corbin
Corbin throws him around to start but a chase lets Tye score with a superkick to knock Corbin outside as we take a break. Back with Corbin elbowing Dillinger in the face and knocking him onto the steps. They head back inside and Dillinger grabs a small package for the clean pin at 5:52. Not enough shown to rate but it was angle advancement more than anything else.
Post match AJ Styles pops up on screen to say he’s going to show Corbin that taking shortcuts doesn’t pay.
Some breast cancer survivors are presented with pink WWE Championships.
Randy Orton vs. Aiden English
Fallout from Orton laying out English and Rusev last week during Rusev’s celebration. English throws him into the corner to start but has to avoid an early RKO attempt. No worries though as a pop up RKO puts English at 1:17.
Rusev tries to sneak up on Orton but Randy drops into RKO position to send Rusev bailing.
Sami Zayn tells Shane to be careful with Owens. Shane basically blows him off.
Here’s Shane to call out Owens but Kevin doesn’t show up. Shane calls him a coward and has a chance of pace for Sunday’s match: it’s now Falls Count Anywhere. So they’re not even bothering to hide the fact that the Cell is only going to contain them for a little while? Owens comes through the crowd, saying that the real money is right here. That’s all he’s doing though and starts to go back up the stairs, only pausing when Shane calls him a coward.
Owens leaves anyway and it’s Shane giving chase through the crowd. Shane gets into the concourse and the fight is on with Shane getting powerbombed through a merchandise table. Owens comes back to the ring to say that’s nothing compared to what he’s going to do to Shane on Sunday, where he’ll throw Shane off the Cell. Of course Shane staggers through the crowd to come back to ringside but Owens throws him over the announcers’ table. Fans: “THIS IS AWESOME!” I know weed is legal in Colorado but dang I didn’t realize it was that strong.
A headbutt drops Shane again and the Pop Up Powerbomb ends the show. I wasn’t wild on this match coming into this week and this segment REALLY didn’t do it any favors. It’s just Shane getting beaten up again and then basically guaranteeing that he’s going to do something really stupid on Sunday. I need a lot more than that and I’m getting a bad feeling that Shane will win and completely waste any momentum that Owens has built up.
Overall Rating: D-. My goodness this bombed and it bombed hard. With a grand total of 15:03 of wrestling and about half of that in commercials, the focus certainly wasn’t on the in-ring product this week. What it was on was Shane vs. Owens and the more I see of that, the less I can bring myself to care. As I said, they’re not even trying to hide the fact that it’s going to be a stunt show and Shane is only in there because he’s going to do something stupid. Shane gets less and less interesting every time he gets in the ring and one of these times he’s going to win, which would be about as dumb of an idea as they have.
The problem is there’s almost nothing to go with outside of the main event. Maybe New Day vs. the Usos will pick up a lot of the slack but they haven’t exactly been pushed to the moon. Other than those matches though…I have no idea what I’m supposed to be excited for. Mahal vs. Nakamura? That’s the best they have this month? They’re banking everything on people paying to see Shane possibly die, which is rather stupid when they’ll show whatever the bump is for the next year and a half on every highlight package they have. This was a one idea show and it wasn’t one I care about. Big misfire tonight.
Results
Carmella/Natalya b. Charlotte/Becky Lynch – Sharpshooter to Charlotte
Bobby Roode b. Mike Kanellis – Glorious DDT
Tye Dillinger b. Baron Corbin – Small package
Randy Orton b. Aiden English – Pop up RKO
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I like Shane as well. In fact at least KO against Shane is a fresh feud. Better than owen vs zayne for their 100th “final match”. But I have to disagree with you on Shitstain Nakamura. At least Mahal can talk. After Shitstain’s entrance, I lose interest in him very fast.
I guess i like Shane more than you do and i think the Match will be pretty good. I do see Kevin Owens winning however. Plus I think New Day/Usos could be the Show stealer and i hope Nakamura wins the WWE Title.
I know Shane being in matches can be stupid and pointless especially when he’s WWEs official stuntman but to me he doesn’t give the impression that he tries to force his way into stores that have nothing to do with him unlike his sister,
Oh not at all. Shane will at least take a beating and lose in the end. Stephanie takes one bump a year at most. While it’s usually great, it doesn’t make up for the year of buildup.