WWE SmackDown – February 21, 2020 (Review)

WWE SmackDown – February 21, 2020 (Review)

SWAFT Nation!  It’s Friday night and let’s look at what Prichard is looking to grace us with tonight.

Goldberg comes to SmackDown, and let’s hope that this time it’s an actual appearance instead of via satellite as the last two guest appearances have been.

Saudi Arabia is getting another women’s match as we decide who will challenge Bayley at Super ShowDown.

Slight change from this graphic, as Nikki Cross is feeling unwell, but the Bellas are Back.  Possible HoF announcement?

Kind of interesting match, I guess there are some cool combinations we can see as a result of this.

And looks like we’re continuing this Lacey Evans babyface experiment.  That’s a spread of interesting things happening tonight, let’s see what the show delivers.

The Best of SmackDown

Heavy Hearts

We get a recap of the Otis/Mandy romance angle, though Christams to last week’s SmackDown where Dolph Ziggler crushed our hearts.  This is a great video package and the heartbreaking transition from joy to tragedy is well-executred.

We get back to the back and Tucker confronts Mandy about Dolph and about texting that she was running late.  We appear to get a plot twist as it seems Mandy may not have sent that text.  The plot thickens.

By the way, it is great to hear the crowd clamor for Otis, who is so heartbroken he couldn’t leave his hotel.  But the chants probably felt great.  Also, I’m suspecting and calling it right now, Sonia is the one who sent the text and sent Dolph, who she sees as more of a “Mandy Rose Type.”

We also get ANOTHER glitch in the Matrix, followed by Mandy waiting for her ride, but Ziggler offers her a ride instead.  And we see heartbroken Otis making his way from behind some boxes.  STOP DOING THIS TO MY HEART, SMACKDOWN!

 

In My Darkest Hour

We have the advertised “Symphony of Destruction” match, which is No DQ, No Count Out, and Falls Count Anywhere.  Instruments surround the ring and I’m sure the participants are Sweating Bullets.

Elias comes out to perform unplugged, and judging by his surroundings will be Addicted to Chaos.  In an amazing piece of continuity, Braun comes back out with a double-bass which was his weapon of choice last year against Elias.  I’m guessing during this match we’ll find 99 ways to die.

The Threat is Real as Elias and Braun try to Crush ‘Em, and they plan to Take No Prisoners.  Cesaro gets put through a Drum, and a takeover by Shinsuke as he hits Braun with a guitar interrupting his chase of Sami.

Braun gets the upper hand and teases getting the Bass, but Sami hits him with a keyboard and Cesaro/Shinsuke suplex Braun through the Bass instead.  Shinsuke turns the mallets into Nunchaku in order to distract and hit Elias, but delivers a kinshasa to the gong by accident.

Elias delivers a diving elbow through a table to  Cesaro, while Braun Strowman delivers a powerslam to Shinsuke onto a piano for the pin and win.  This match was highly entertaning and fun, and I don’t think they want to make Braun Angry Again.  Okay, that’s enough Megadeth references.

Making the One Man Band

Drew Gulak stops Daniel Bryan backstage to offer advice on how to overcome his opponents in the future, along with a helpful PowerPoint.  However, upon mentioning Slater, Heath shows up and claims he wasn’t ready.  Daniel Bryan accepts Heath Slater’s challenge for later that night.

Slater actually gets a strong start against Daniel Bryan, using heelish tactics and the coaching of Drew Gulak.

Bryan is able to take over, and it almost looks like Heath is going to steal the win, but Daniel Bryan gets the win with a running knee.  With Drew getting put in the main event scene, I’m quite intrigued to see if Heath is up for a renewed push.

The Mixed Bag of SmackDown

Tag-Tease Turmoil

Show immediately opens with the Usos who have been on, and I quote “Months-long Hiatus,” though we don’t hear exactly WHY that is.  Though they do say they’ll throw a Superkick party since Morrison and Miz can’t keep their names out of their mouth.  This summons their partners The New Day.

The New Day hype up the Usos, and mention their 6-time Tag Team title statistic, and how it is one less than The New Day.  As they get in each other’s face teasing a challenge, Miz and Morrison come down and try to get their chant over, which doesn’t go over well.  However, their promo is quite entertaining and they get real heel heat with mentioning Dolph Ziggler’s Valentine’s Day shenanigans.

Match looks to begin immediately with the heels surrounding the ring.  A lot of heel action to Kofi on the outside during the opening of the match, and Kofi seems to take the majority of the heat.

Big E gets a great hot-tag to clear the ring.  We get that glitch again and it seems to show an envelope forming?  Tag team action finally heats up, and Jimmie able to pin Roode after a superkick.  Felt like a slow build, but there was a good amount of interaction between opponents for Super Showdown

King’s Speech

Corbin cut a promo about the upcoming match next week that was well-delivered, nicely articulated…and unfortunately WWE didn’t post it on their timeline. So instead, here’s the hype package.

The Hall of Fame gets Twin Magic

Alexa comes out and leads saying this is a special Hall of Fame Moment of Bliss, introducing the Bellas as the latest members of the Hall of Fame.  Note, I think somebody is going too high on the saturation setting, as the Red dresses are SUPER intense.

They take the moment to express their gratitude to the WWE Universe, and afterward we get a small family moment as Bryan makes his way to the ring.

I, for one, find the Bellas to be highly deserving of the Hall of Fame.  Not only did they make Vinnie Mac A LOT of money, but I know a large number of people whose introduction to WWE was either Total Divas or Total Bellas.  They had a fanbase, expanded the audience, and managed to grow their own brand in the process.

An Over Abundance of Green Citrus

A Sheamus Promo out of nowhere.  Says he’s exterminating the vermin of WWE, and will do so in the Elimination Chamber.  Apollo Crews and Shorty G are backstage watching and while Shorty G says they need to confront Sheamus, Apollo Crews insists he has his own method. It does leave me wondering where this story is continuing.

Spear’s Goldberg

Goldberg main events the show, in person opposed to the teleconference, thankfully.

As soon as Goldberg starts cutting his promo in the ring, Bray interrupts from the Firefly Funhouse with a set of construction toys.  He introduces Goldberg to the cast, but The Fiend comes out in person, appearing behind Goldberg in the ring.  Goldberg meets him with a spear, but the fiend disappears with another flash of darkness.

The Worst of SmackDown

Namaste, Ya Nastie!

Renee Young backstage with Lacey Evans dressed in her finest black and yellow.  Recaps her Royal Rumble loss and Renee calls out the hypocrisy of Lacey Evans’ prior heel run as a bully.

I find it interesting that they have her in a prerecorded segment it seems, and though it’s doubtful she walks out of Elimination Chamber as the challenger, it does seem like they have a lot of faith in her.  Not sure this was worth being an advertised segment, however.

A Contentious Contendership

Time for Naomi vs Carmella to see who gets an all-inclusive trip to Saudi Arabia for the SmackDown Women’s Championship match.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1231048677030088704?s=20

Grounded start, and it’s a face vs face match, but not a lot of excitement in the opening.  Feels like it is taking some time to get the timing and pacing together for the match.  A bit of sloppiness unfortunately, though Bayley gets in to cause a distraction, seeming to focus on keeping Naomi from winning.

Bayley gets ejected and the action in the match gets better, with the women taking some higher risks in their movesets.  Match isn’t getting much cleaner or smoother, however. Naomi does win with a top-rope split-legged moonsault.  Carmella walks away disappointed, but Naomi will be heading to the historic match.  I just really wish this match had come off better.  Especially after seeing what Carmella was able to pull off last week this was a real downer of a match.

Overall Rating for the Show (From best to worst: Smacknificent, SmackTastic, Smack Bang in the Middle, SmackDowner and A Smack in the Face)

This week’s SmackDown suffered most in the advertised segments.  The exception being the very fun Symphony of Destruction match, which was announced at the beginning of the show.  There wasn’t much to grab ahold of and due to this show being treated heavily as a go-home for Saudi Arabia, it very much felt like a non-canon placeholder.

This SmackDown was a: SmackDowner

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4 years ago by Wrestle Talk

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