WrestleTalk Roundtable – WWE SmackDown Live – January 8, 2019

What was your favourite moment from SmackDown Live?

Brian Farrell

Almas and Joe vs Mysterio and Ali. This was the best of a trio of good matches on the show. There were some incredible spots, most notably the variation of the sunset flip powerbomb by Rey to Almas. I was glad to see Almas get a needed victory, while keeping Ali clean. A great match that protected the younger, fresher stars.

Kyle Payne

The entire show was absolutely great from start to finish. The theme of the show was definitely promos because a lot of them were cut and all of them were good. I loved how the entire night built up the main event between Becky Lynch, Carmella and Charlotte Flair. Each one of them had a sit-down promo of sorts, tweets from their social medias were shown, and during the match the announcers even called back to their history.

The main event itself was great, action packed, and dwarfed Raw’s. The show even started hot with Daniel Bryan and his excellent character change and he had a fun match with R-Truth. It was Bryan’s second promo as he left the arena that was absolute gold, with its intensity and ominous promise.  

Tag team matches on this show were also good. Mustafa Ali is really establishing himself as a key player and he didn’t look out of place next to Joe, Almas and Mysterio. The match was action and the heels went over. The Usos and The Bar also had a great tag match with a sketchy finish. The feud between Nakamura and Rusev is actually getting interesting and I want to see more.

Steven Lugo

Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas and Samoa Joe vs. Rey Mysterio and Mustafa Ali. This was just a very good match with four terrific wrestlers, and the right finish. I love Rey and Ali, but we definitely didn’t need to see Joe or Cien take another defeat, so, well-played, WWE. At least for now. I’d love to see more from every one of these guys in 2019.

Emma Heeley

While I thought the start to the show did smack with similarity to how Raw opened, I still loved it. Heel Daniel Bryan is the best thing that could have happened to SmackDown, especially if they let him just run away with the mic like that. I find ‘the new’ Daniel Bryan a strange oddity; I actually love hating him. Even though he never speaks a word of a lie in his promos, you can’t help but want to spite him in the best way possible. The guy is priceless.

I also very much enjoyed the Usos vs The Bar. I love a good tag team match and this foursome never fail in putting on a great showing. Plus the separate love triangle storyline with Jimmy, Naomi and Mandy entertains me no end!

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