WWE SmackDown Live – April 16, 2019 (Review)

The Worst of SmackDown Live

Franken-teams of Convenience

As much as I enjoyed the opening segment, I didn’t quite understand why the New Day needed a third member to join them for their tag match against Rusev and Nakamura. Recruiting ‘Big O’ only meant that the babyfaces would be at a 3-on-2 advantage later in the night.

But then out of the blue, Cesaro offered his services to the heel team in order to even the odds. I have no idea why Cesaro would be so keen to offer his services to an already tenuous tag team, nor why the heels would ever be in a position where they’re at a numbers disadvantage. But apparently there’s a first time for everything. Also, where’s Sheamus?

Admittedly this is a minor complaint, but the order of events could have been reversed. In any event, I’m kind of sick of seeing random individuals being thrown together into a team. If SmackDown needed a ready-made three-member heel opponent they could’ve just used SAnitY! Oh, right…

A Tradition Like No Other

If you were running an office pool on how long it would take WWE to forget about the WrestleMania Battle Royals, here’s hoping you picked two weeks.

Because we know that Braun left his trophy in the MetLife Stadium. And just eight days after the ‘Show of Shows’, Carmella’s victory in the excessively hyped pre-show event was barely mentioned. I’m giving it another week until the uterus trophy disappears from ringside altogether.

With that said, ‘The Princess of Staten Island’ had a passable encounter with Charlotte before ultimately falling victim to the Figure-8. See could easily be competing for one of the women’s titles again at some point. And you know what? That wouldn’t be half bad either.

After the match ended, Lars lurked down to the ring and decimated R-Truth. Fine.

The Women’s Half-Hour Variety Act

As massively popular as Becky Lynch has been in recent months, it’s only a matter of time before her tendency to deliver the same promo every night dulls fan reaction to her. It’s almost as if the decision to temporarily unify the women’s belts has created an over-reliance on one star, thereby forming a bottle neck at the top of the card with little room to develop interesting, multi-dimensional feuds. If only someone could have seen this coming.

Becky’s short promo was however interrupted by a brand-hopping Ember Moon, who announced her stake for the women’s championship gold. She in turn was interrupted by new recruit Bayley, who essentially said the same thing (to complete silence from the crowd) but followed it up with this little gem targeted at Lynch:

“I guess it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, huh?”

You were both on Raw on Monday! Even before then, you’ve regularly been flashing four fingers at one another for months! For the love of God, what exactly are you talking about, Bayley?

Thanks Montréal ppppftttt 😏#SDLive

— Bayley (@itsBayleyWWE) April 17, 2019

For some reason, this dynamite exchange prompted The IIconics to emerge in order to show off their two belts. Then Paige walked out to make good on last week’s promise to introduce a new team to challenge for the tag team titles, before SHE WAS ALSO INTERRUPTED. This time by Mandy Rose and the other one who’s name I constantly forget. Honestly, I was so tired of this segment by this point. Sonya Deville, that’s it.

Eventually Paige was able to finish her introduction, bringing out the team of Asuka and… Kairi Sane?

I have nothing against this particular pairing other than the obvious observation that Asuka is a top quality singles star who should still be holding the SmackDown Women’s gold, and Kairi Sane is already in an established team with Io Shirai. So why they couldn’t just debut the latter pair as a team is baffling to me. Also, announcing Sane only after the lengthy introduction of every other woman on the main roster really undermined the impact of the moment. As did conflating the singles and tag divisions into one giant mess of humanity.

You do you, @BeckyLynchWWE. #Becky2Belts #SDLive #SuperstarShakeUp pic.twitter.com/eGhU2sMzaa

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) April 17, 2019

Which is to say, all of this could have been handled infinitely better.

Oh, and in case you were wondering how this segment ended, I’d love to be able to tell you that it concluded with Asuka, Kairi, Bayley and Ember Moon clearing the ring of Mandy, Sonya and The IIconics while Becky looked on in much the same nonplussed way that I did. But that only led to a messy 8-woman tag featuring everyone except the ‘Champ Champ’, which Kari’s team won. Because who really cares, right?

• review
• Superstar Shakeup
• Smackdown
• wwe

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