WWE Smackdown Summary: The Women Climb To New Heights

There is a strong emphasis put on women’s wrestling on Smackdown, much more so than Raw, to the point that it is the main focus of the show at the moment. Before the theme song for the show hit, each of the five women in the fatal-five-way match in the main event was given a moment to say why they will win and earn the number one contender spot. The women, who were promised a renewed emphasis in their booking on February 23, 2015, are helping carry the show.

Much like Raw, Smackdown opened with Kevin Owens doing his own version of the in-ring TV program, “Kevin Owens’ Highlight Reel,” where he once again announced that he will win the Money in the Bank ladder match. He then introduced and began to berate his guest Shinsuke Nakamura before Baron Corbin inserted himself into the conversation to claim his eventual win. Nakamura found it necessary to bring up recent losses by the two larger men, so they jumped him, leaving an open opportunity for Sami Zayn to come to the Japanese superstar’s aid and get his revenge against Corbin. And that’s how we got the opening tag team match.

It was a strong match to start the night. Slowly but surely, Nakamura is getting more and more comfortable in a Smackdown ring; Corbin and Zayn have great chemistry together; and Kevin Owen is just a spectacular performer right now.

Nakamura and Zayn won via pinfall after Nakamura hit the Kinshasa on Owens — which was preceded by a punch to the face from his own teammate, Baron Corbin.

When was the last time we had tag teams so strong in the WWE? Raw has The Hardy Boyz, Cesaro and Sheamus, Enzo and Big Cass, and the Revival as the top four teams, but as good as those are, Smackdown may be able to top them with the revitalized heel Usos, the quirky and fun Breezango, the workhorse team of American Alpha, and, joining them all in their return on Tuesday when they interrupted the championship-holding Usos, The New Day.

The Usos and the New Day have a clash of styles and cultures that makes for compelling television, and while it seems sad to think Breezango are going to be pushed back to the fringes for a while, the table is being set for a highly entertaining feud.

I’m not sure what’s up next for Breezango, but their backstage antics are top notch right now, and I really hope they get back into the title picture soon. The film noir scene from Tuesday was a thing of beauty.

Despite it not being the main event, there was a frenetic energy to the women’s fatal five way between Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Natalya, and Tamina. It’s interesting because the latter three are teammates in the Welcoming Committee faction (It’s a super lame name, but I actually like what they’ve done so far). I assumed there would be some shenanigans in the match because of that fact, and I was proven right before it ever began, as they jumped the two outsiders before the bell rang.

The result was carnage rarely seen in the women’s division. There were hard drops outside of the ring, people being thrown into the barricade and stairs, and Natalya was powerbombed through the announce table. It was so bad that the match never happened. Instead, Shane McMahon came out to declare there would be a women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match, the first ever in history, yet another milestone for the division. The moment was perfectly played.

Breezango finally made their way to the ring to face the Colon Brothers and had a pretty good match, but if I’m being honest, I’m not entirely sure why the match wasn’t called due to disqualification when Fandango started spraying the Colon Brothers in the eyes with a water gun. Either ways, their shenanigans work. It’s funny stuff, and that’s not always easy to do without coming across as hokey.

Breezango won via pinfall when Tyler Breeze hit his finisher.

Jinder Mahal is as polarizing as anyone in the WWE not named Roman Reigns. From being a jobber to being cut by the WWE to returning nearly twice his previous size to rising up and defeating Orton for the WWE Championship, people have a lot of complaints. Many feel his ascension to the top was rushed or illogical, or they feel he isn’t a good enough talker or wrestler to deserve that spot. On the other side other spectrum, many people are thrilled that the WWE is doing something big with someone that isn’t one of the usual suspects. To them, the hard work Jinder put in to reshape his body and get resigned by the WWE was respectable and earned him the shot. I suppose I find myself in the latter category, but I understand both arguments.

But across the ring from Mahal at Money in the Bank will be Randy Orton, who is no stranger to criticism. There’s arguably no one in the company with more pure natural talent, but he’s caught flack for phoning it in on a number of occasions over his 17 year career. It’s perplexing. On Tuesday, however, Orton brought it on the mic in a short, strong promo that brought up his history, family, and mindset heading into the rematch with Jinder.

Smackdown kept Jinder on the airwaves this week by both highlighting his Punjabi Celebration last week and the shockwaves it made on Indian television and having him interrupt Randy Orton’s monologue from the Jumbotron. This was the right move because it kept him fresh without overexposing him.

With the fatal five way going the way it did, the pressure was placed on the shoulders of AJ Styles and Dolph Ziggler to have the memorable match of the night.

And of course they did because it was AJ Styles against Dolph Ziggler, the best worker in the company against one of the guys in contention for second best. For their time constraints, they probably could not have put on a better match. The things AJ Styles can come up with to hurt people are incredible, and Ziggler has finally fully embraced his heel side, resorting to eye pokes and putting his feet on the rope during pins.

Dolph Ziggler won via pinfall after giving a super kick to the back of Styles’ head. Ziggler’s kick to the back of the head, one of the many small changes he’s adopted since turning heel, looks beautifully violent. The result was somewhat unexpected, but it gave Ziggler some much needed momentum moving forward towards Money in the Bank.

After sort of a weak showing last week, Smackdown bounced back with a huge show. It was one more big spectacle away from being perfect. I’m giving it a 4.5/5.