WrestleTalk Roundtable – WWE SmackDown Live – January 15, 2019

Coming out of last night’s SmackDown Live, there were two major questions on my mind.

The first related to what Naomi could possibly have done to merit the completely disproportional response from Mandy Rose, trying to ruin her marriage. I mean, I understand she’s a heel. But so is Daniel Bryan, and he’s not going around wrecking lives!

As best I can tell, the origins of this blood rivalry date all the way back to two random tag encounters the women had against one another towards the end of last year, back when Naomi and Asuka were the hottest pairing in all of sports. Apparently those largely meaningless losses were enough to spark the vengeful side of Mandy Rose, prompting her efforts at seducing Jimmy Uso.

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And it seemed like that plan might work too, when a paparazzo jumped out of hiding to snap a few compromising photos of Uso and Rose together in a conveniently nearby hotel room. I have absolutely no idea why the photographer’s emergence came as such a surprise to Jimmy – did he not notice the WWE cameraman alongside him tracking his every move? Or the social media guy making sure that all of this found its way to the ‘Gram? This guy is terrible at adultery.

Fortunately it was all a ruse, as Naomi was revealed to be lurking outside the hotel room, waiting to unleash a can of gentle slapping on the blonde seductress. This was a ridiculous, over-produced, confusing mess of a segment, that may possible have been saved if only Jimmy had gotten the room number wrong and accidentally walked in on Otis Dozovic wearing his Mandy Rose halloween costume from last year.

Honey manipulating you mentally was too easy… now I finish you off in the ring 🤛 @NaomiWWE #NaughtyGirl #sdlive

— Mandy (@mandysacs) January 16, 2019

Even stranger than that drama though, is what’s going on between Shane McMahon and The Miz. The latest chapter in this odd tale of unlikely friends saw Miz throw a birthday party for his bestie, Shane. Does anyone know where this story is going?

I understand that it’s destined to end with one man turning on the other. But who honestly cares? The issue is that neither man is particularly sympathetic, with the Miz in constant pompous a-hole mode, and Shane… oh god, Shane.

He’s obsessed with over-priced sneakers, habitually places his partner in harm’s way and has long been utterly delusional. Last night he derided The Bar for daring to refer to themselves as the best tag team in the world. That’s right, he criticised five-time tag team champions for considering themselves the world’s best.

Shane, the Miz has been calling you the “Best Tag Team in the World’ for months and all you’ve got is one victory over the Vegas Boys! … I hate you so much.

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And that’s really the issue with this storyline. When the inevitable turn happens, neither guy will be positioned as the good guy, as both are fairly unlikable. It’ll be like broccoli turning on asparagus. We hate both of you equally.

But that only scratches the surface of what was, for the most part, a very enjoyable episode of SmackDown. We got the customary dropping of a last name, which inexplicably turns an ailing wrestler into a winner, a truly excellent TV match between two unsung heroes in the company and more of Otis just doing Dozovic things. “Yeeeeeah Tucky, pour dit in dere. How ’bout a liddle kerrrbs in dere. Couple eggs, ooh yeaah.”

I love him.

What else happened on last night’s show? Join our WrestleTalk writers as they take you through their personal highlights (and lowlights) from SmackDown and venture a rating of the show overall. Then let us know your thoughts. On with the good.

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