By Steve Khan, WrestlingObserver.com
– Air Date: September 24, 2015 (Sept 23 in Canada)
– Location: American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, TX
The Big News:
Dean Ambrose beat Seth Rollins, which will presumably leads to Kane against Rollins for the title. Also, Natalya confronted Paige but it didn’t go very well.
Show Recap:
They started with an almost 3 minute long recap of the Kane-Seth Rollins storyline. Kane was in the ring after the video and gleefully welcomed everyone to Smackdown. He said WWE was on fire and wanted to come back and help with the heat by using all his administrative experience. He announced Kevin Owens and Rusev against Ryback and Dolph Ziggler, as well as Luke Harper against Roman Reigns with all their friends banned from ringside.
Before Kane could announce another match, Rollins interrupted. Rollins told Kane to cut the crap, comparing him to Bruce Banner. Kane invited him to talk in the ring, but Rollins called him crazy and complained about everything he went through at Night of Champions. Kane said he was watching at home on the network.
Rollins freaked out about Kane dragging him under the ring, but Kane played dumb. They bickered back and forth for a while with Kane smiling through most of it. Rollins told Kane that he needs help. Kane announced Rollins against Dean Ambrose for tonight.
Booker T said he has sources who say Kane has split personality disorder. Jerry Lawler called Booker and Brennan nuts for believing this and said Kane was just playing with everyone. I’m glad they cut to the announcers who attempted to explain the story.
Roman Reigns beat Luke Harper via pinfall
Harper came out to his singles music and video. Reigns got him up for a Samoan drop but Harper countered with a series of elbows to the head. Reigns basically no-sold it and came back with clotheslines in the corner. They went to the outside and Harper cut off Reigns with a big boot.
In the ring, Harper followed with a senton, superkick and powerbomb, which Reigns kicked out of. Harper went for a discus clothesline but Reigns countered with a superman punch and spear for the win. Basic match and Reigns was booked to look strong. And by that I mean he no-sold most of Harper’s offense.
Backstage, The New Day dunked a basketball on some guy. The guy initially saw it coming, so Big E gave Kingston a perfect alleyoop for the basket.
6-Man Tag Match: The New Day beat Neville & The Lucha Dragons via pinfall
New Day said they would put an end to the Dudley Boyz once and for all at the MSG show. They called Bubba “Booty Ray” and chanted “Save the tables.” Brennan said the the Dudleys came back for the tag titles, but Booker said they came back for the money. Uh, ok. Despite this being a 6-man, Woods took a moment to play trombone.
With all three members of New Day on the outside, the three good guys hit dives — Neville and Kalisto hit moonsaults off the top and Sin Cara did a senton. Crazy spot. However, like Harper’s offense in the previous match, none of that mattered. Kingston distracted Sin Cara and Woods hit him with shining wizard for the abrupt win. New Day celebrated on the announce table and Woods played the trombone. This was fun despite the finish.
Cesaro beat Bo Dallas via pinfall
They showed a replay of Big Show beating Cesaro on Raw. I can see why they would do that if Show was having a match, but they didn’t have to show it here. Bo Dallas said he survived Suplex City but Cesaro can’t get off Big Show Boulevard. Bo said Cesaro should bo-lieve. Lame.
Cesaro beat the crap out of Bo for a while until Bo was able to pull the ring skirt out from under Cesaro, who slipped and landed back-first against the edge of the ring. Bo took control and used a headlock. Cesaro got up and applied the same roll-up he did to Rusev last week on Raw and got the pinfall win. Another pretty abrupt finish.
After the match, Cesaro went into the crowd next to a fan holding a “Cesaro Section” sign. I would’ve prefered Cesaro just kill Bo Dallas, but at least he won and was able to show off a bit.
They recapped Charlotte’s title win at Night of Champions and her promo with Ric Flair from Raw. They didn’t show the Paige stuff.
Charlotte and Becky Lynch came out. Lawler wondered where Paige could be and Brennan said, “She could be anywhere.” That’s nice. Charlotte said her title win was a dream scenario and put over Nikki as a great champion. She thanked Becky and the fans for believing in the revolution. That brought out Paige.
Paige admitted she wasn’t a team player. She got in the ring and insincerely tried to apologize. Charlotte said Paige sucks at this. Becky tried to interrupt so Paige told her to shut up. Natalya interrupted and Paige called her a crazy cat lady.
Natalya said she was proud of the new generation and thinks this is the best their division has ever been. Natalya said she’s excited, just like she was when Paige won the title for the first time. She likes Paige and doesn’t understand why they’re fighting.
Paige said she’s better than Nattie, who let the revolution pass her by and is now just clinging on. Paige slapped Natalya and left. This was ok. I’m not sure why they didn’t just beat the crap out of Paige by the end of it.
Ryback & Dolph Ziggler beat Rusev & IC Champion Kevin Owens (w/Summer Rae) via pinfall
As Rusev did his warm-up before the match, Owens held up his title behind him. Ryback and Owens were in to start, but Owens tagged in Rusev. Rusev demanded Ryback tag Ziggler, so he did. (What a fighting babyface.) As Rusev beat up Ziggler in the corner, he yelled, “I beat you on Raw, I’m the best! I’m the best! I’m the best!”
Lawler said, in WWE, a relationship is a success if it outlasts milk. Heels had the heat on Ziggler, who was able to hit Rusev with a jumping DDT. After a break, they still had the heat on him. Rusev used a scoop slam and tagged out. Owens hit a scoop slam and told Rusev to do another. Rusev tagged in but Ziggler slammed him instead. Ziggler slammed Owens too and made the hot tag to Ryback.
Ryback made a brief comeback but Rusev cut him off with a spinning heel kick (he missed). Ryback used a spinebuster and knocked Owens off the apron. Rusev used the distraction to hit a superkick, but Owens grabbed his title and left. He pointed at the title and said “This is what matters!” Ziggler hit a superkick on Rusev and Ryback followed with shell shocked for the win. If you’re a fan of watching Ziggler sell, this is the match for you.
There might have been something wrong with Rusev during the match. He kept talking to the referee and completely missed on the spinning heel kick.
They aired a video package for Big Show.
Backstage, Bubba told D-Von that he was tired of the New Day, especially “the kid with the trombone.” Renee Young asked them about New Day. Bubba said he knows she likes them, but they don’t care about the fans like they claim, and they don’t act like champions. D-Von said this isn’t about tables, this is about titles.
Prime Time Players interrupted saying they were next in line. They seemed insincere and Bubba wanted to go after them, but D-Von stopped him.
Elsewhere, Seth Rollins told Jo-Jo there’s something wrong with Kane and he needs help. He’s fine with facing Ambrose tonight because he’s destroyed him before and will do it again.
Dean Ambrose beat Seth Rollins via pinfall
During a break, Rollins hit Ambrose with a double foot stomp on the apron. Ambrose tried a dive but Rollins countered with a forearm and flying knee strike. Ambrose fired back with a million hard chops but Rollins countered with a superkick for two.
Ambrose followed with a rebound clothesline, which Brennan called a “lunatic lariat.” Ambrose made his comeback, with chops, running forearm and double underhook suplex off the ropes. They traded small packages and Ambrose nailed a suicide dive.
Ambrose did a fisherman suplex for two but Rollins came back with an enziguri and a slingblade. Rollins almost ran into the referee and used the distraction to thumb Ambrose in the eye and hit the turnbuckle bomb. The announcers called it like Ambrose was done, but Kane’s pyro went off and the lights when red. Ambrose used the distraction to apply a roll up for the win.
They showed corporate Kane watching backstage on a monitor. A pissed off Rollins grabbed the mic and said Kane doesn’t know who he’s dealing with and referenced what he did to Sting at Night of Champions. Rollins said he would do the same to Kane and no matter what, he’s still the man and the WWE champion.
Really good match, but perhaps they shouldn’t have given Ambrose the buckle bomb if he was just going to bounce back and get the win.
Final Thoughts:
Pretty much a normal Smackdown show with some good wrestling and nothing really important happening. I did like the 6-man and main event in particular.
On a side note, Booker T is really awful on commentary. Lawler was better than usual tonight, perhaps because he spent so much time correcting Booker.
