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I attended last night's Smackdown. Gila River Arena in Glendale, AZ is more filled than an average weekday Arizona Coyotes home game in the 100s but a number of floor seats are empty. The giant Gila River Arena jumbotron was moved up and the lower angle boards are off. This was in no way like the original SmackDown here.
Let me say if you ever go to SmackDown, do not get the limited view seats. Due to the set for Fox, it is not easy to watch stage segments and fights. I had to watch A Moment of Bliss on the jumbotron.
Apollo Crews reprised his Uhaa Nation "Too Easy" gimmick against Gran Metalik of the Lucha House Party. They had a pretty good match considering Apollo can hang with the Lucha Libre style dating back to his days in Dragon Gate. For being not on tv for a long while Metalik got a good pop. Apollo Crews is a heel but because he hasn't been on TV as a heel, he was treated as a face by reactions. Apollo broke out the Uhaa combination for the win.
The Uces came out and their partners the New Day came out. Uce better get lawyers ready saying Superkick Party on tv. Pretty sure that is trademarked. They teased a future tag match. I would love to see that, just not in Saudi Arabia. Goode and Ziggler came out to Ziggler's theme (I guess Glorious is too much of a face theme.)
The eight-man tag when I heard about it, I knew would be good. It lived up. I forget how good Mix and Morrison were as an actual team and not rivals. Uce won with only a single superkick?
I hope WWE paid Dave Mustane money for the Symphony of Destruction match. That said, it should have had been named the Jeff Jarrett match. At the first of the production crew only brought out the guitars and then later they brought out the other instruments.
There is not much in a way to describe this match. It was just a spectacle. It had unique weapon usage especially the powerslam on the piano but it was a typical weapons match. But why have a weapons tag match that is falls count anywhere with tags?
The Bell as were formally announced as going in the Hall of Fame. I'm sure you can think of a woman or two that should have gone in before them to they most definitely deserve it. Sadly my seats were horrible due to the SmackDown stage to see a Touch of Bliss. That said, I loved how they included Birdie.
The Daniel Bryan Heath Slater match was a little too balanced. Now 10 years ago when they were in NXT together (wow, it's really been that long?) that would have worked better. At least it looks like we will see Gulak against Bryan. I will watch SmackDown for that and the Two and New Day feuding again.
Naomi's entrance is pretty cool even live. Carmella's is there... The match was rather slow and took a little too long getting my of first gear but towards the end, it got pretty good. I just think it was two girls with styles that didn't mesh. Naomi won with he springboard into the split legged moonsault.
It was great finally hearing the REAL Goldberg theme rather than his WWE edit one. Nice segment leading to a match I don't watch for political reasons.
At this point 20% of the crowd left and more would leave as 205 Live goes on. I wish they would announce main events before the show starts. They use to do this.
Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde fought in a pretty good back and forth match. Both men had interesting offense. It ended by a shock with Mendoza pinning Wilde with a shining wizard.
Tyler Breeze faced Sunil Singh in a fun match but sadly the crowd isn't into 205 Live besides me. Breeze won with the Supermodelkick.
The main event of 205 Live actually got what was left of the crowd into It with a hard hitting no holds barred tag match between the feuding Oney Korean and Danny Burch against The Brian Kendrick and Ariya Daivari. This was not a technical masterpiece and it was Hardcore. This was one of the better matches I've seen since WWE have gone to "easycore" matches. I do not want to be Ariya Daivari in the morning after taking a drop toe hold to a chair, a London Bridge on the announce table and then another London Bridge in the ring for good measure. Lots of plunder here.
Now it is time for you main event, Roman Reigns and King Corbin. WHY???? I'm surprised Corbin didn't get cheered since he is a former Cardinal. Wow did WWE create an unlikable guy with him... The match was what you'd expect from these two. Too long since we sat through both a SmackDown and a 205 Live episode. Roman won after a Superman Punch, Spear combo when Corbin brought in his scepter.
Fun night at Gila River Arena. That said, I wish we got the Daniel Bryan versus Bray Wyatt match that was promoted rather than the Roman-Corbin feud that won't end.
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