SmackDown on Fox Episode #18
SmackDown Episode # 1,067
Tulsa, OK – BOK Cente
1/31/20
The show kicks off the Roman Reigns and The Usos coming to the ring. Reigns talks about his victory over King Corbin at Royal Rumble and then losing the Royal Rumble match later in the night. Reigns says tonight they will focus on Corbin and his bitches and then worry about getting to WrestleMania. Corbin, Ziggler, & Roode come out and say that Reigns is living in the past and without The Usos Reigns would’ve never beat him at the Rumble. Corbin demands a six-man tag match tonight (which was already scheduled) to get back at Reigns and the Usos. Corbin goes through his history with Reigns and shows when he poured dog food on him which feels like 10 years ago, this leads to Reigns saying Corbin has a dog food fetish. Reigns adds a stipulation to the six-man tag match tonight that the losers must eat dog food and at that time a guy rolls out a cart with tons of dog food cans and two giant buckets filled to the brim with what is supposed to be dog food.
AAAAHHHH Dear God WILL THIS FEUD EVER END? *Bangs head against wall* Not only is it going to last forever, but it keeps getting worse and worse and worse.
The announcers hype up tonight’s card and then Heavy Machinery makes their entrance for the first match of the night as we go to commercial.
Match #1: Heavy Machinery vs Lucha House Party w/ Kalisto vs The Revival vs The Miz & John Morrison
Tucker and Wilder start the match and Wilder grabs a headlock only to be sent into the ropes and taken down with a shoulder block. Wilder gets caught in a bear hug while going for a leapfrog. Otis tags in while Tucker still has Wilder held in the air with a bear hug and then Tucker throws Wilder over to Otis who continues the bear hug until Wilder headbutts his way out of it and then tags in Dawson. Otis blocks an Irish whip attempt only to get kicked in the face which sends him reeling back into the corner of Lucha House Party which allows Metalik to tag in and at the same time Dawson tags in Morrison.
Metalik and Morrison have a nice sequence where Morrison dodges a handspring back elbow and a kick before sweeping the leg of Metalik, Morrison goes for the standing shooting star but Metalik moves out of the way in time. Metalik runs up the ropes and comes off with a hurricanrana on Morrison and then he drops The Miz with a dropkick. Metalik hits a rolling sunset flip on Morrison but The Revival breaks up the pin attempt. Metalik ducks a double clothesline from The Revival who then gets hit with a top rope crossbody by Lince Dorado. Dorado propels Metalik into the air and he comes down with a dropkick on each member of The Revival.
LHP escape suplex attempts by Heavy Machinery and dropkick both of them out of the ring. The Revival catches Dorado off a springboard plancha and sends him into the ring post face-first. Morrison hits a springboard roundhouse kick on Metalik and then dives off the top with a tornillo onto Heavy Machinery. The Miz teases a dive to the floor but gets cut off by a clothesline from Dawson. Metalik catches Wilder with a hurricanrana from the apron to the floor where he crashes into The Revival and now everyone is down as we go to commercial.
As we come back Morrison and Dorado are in the ring and Dorado is trying to make a comeback, but Morrison cuts him off and tags in The Miz. Dorado evades attacks from Miz & Morrison and then hits them both with a handspring stunner. Dorado wants to make a tag but Metalik was knocked off the apron so Dorado has to tag in Otis. Otis comes in and takes everybody down with shoulder blocks and body attacks. Otis takes Morrison down with a flapjack and then hits a spinning slam on Miz. Tucker takes Dawson down with a clothesline and then follows up by hitting Wilder with a springboard crossbody out of the corner. Otis catches the leg of Morrison and then throws him across the ring with an exploder. Otis hits a corner avalanche and the caterpillar on both Miz & Morrison which gets him a 2 count.
Heavy Machinery tries to hit the Compactor on The Miz, but Wilder pulls down the rope sending Tucker to the outside. The Miz tries for the Skull Crushing Finale, but Otis breaks his grip and then slams Miz. Dawson gets a horrible looking roll-up on Otis which he easily gets out of. Metalik tags himself into the ring and takes Dawson down with a springboard crossbody which is followed by a top rope splash from Dorado which leads to a pinfall attempt that is broken up at the very last second.
Tucker takes Miz down with a Thesz press only to turn around and get hit with a springboard spear from Morrison. Otis catches Morrison with a pop-up powerbomb and then clotheslines Wilder out of the ring. Dawson hits Otis with a DDT and then rolls through a sunset flip from Dorado which leads to him trying for a slingshot suplex, but Dorado escapes and hits a superkick and then goes for a trifecta of moonsaults but Wilder crotches him on the top rope before he can hit the third one. Dawson looks to hit a super back suplex on Dorado but as he gets the move set up Miz blind tags Dorado, The Revival hit their version of the Power Plex and then Miz throws Wilder out of the ring. Mizz kicks out of an O’Connor roll and then hits a Skull Crushing Finale, Morrison tags himself in and hits the Starship Pain to pick up a win and now The Miz & John Morrison will face The New Day at Super Showdown.
Winners: The Miz & John Morrison via Pinfall Match Rating: ***
This was a really fun match that was fast-paced and action-packed the entire time. All four teams did a great job but it was obvious that Miz & Morrison were winning as they are the only team that New Day has had any interaction with the past few weeks. I really wish Lucha House Party were taken more seriously as actual contenders for the title that people cared about as they are so good, especially the duo we got in this match of Dorado and Metalik. It will be interesting to see how much longer The Revival are apart of this hot SmackDown tag division as they have once again asked for their release from the company.
We come back from commercial and see Heavy Machinery talking about the match they just had. Fire & Desire walk up and Mandy thanks Otis for his help in the Royal Rumble, then Heavy Machinery starts mumbling about something and Sonya speaks up and lets them know they can hear them. Otis is very nervous at first and starts stumbling on his words, but thanks to some encouragement from Tucker Otis asks Mandy out on a date for next Friday, but unfortunately, she has plans next week (most likely the same plans Otis should have which is work) but she is free the next Friday which will be Valentine’s Day. Sonya tells them they have a match and Fire & Desire walk off as Otis is all over himself and Tucker is congratulating him.
I have seen many wrestling fans talk about how they relate on a personal level to a certain wrestler, but I had yet to find that one wrestler that I relate to, however, that would all change tonight as I finally realized that I most relate to Otis, well at least I relate to him as far as this Mandy story is concerned. Just like Otis I am the short guy that is both a gentleman and a hopeless romantic (despite some of the things I say in the Place to Be Nation chat group or the stuff I like and retweet on Twitter lol) and I am also very awkward and shy when it comes to talking to women especially ones as beautiful as Mandy Rose, so when Otis asked Mandy out on a date I was living vicariously through him. I really liked the segment just as I have all the segments involving Otis and Mandy. I don’t know if this is supposed to be apart of the story but I like the fact that neither Sonya or Tucker is completely down with everything going on with Mandy and Otis, but they put up with it for the sake of their best friend. I really hope it doesn’t happen but something in me feels like we will eventually get to the point where this story turns into Otis and Mandy against Sonya and Tucker.
We get a recap of the Universal Title match from Royal Rumble and right after we get a post-match interview with Bryan where he talks about Brie saying what he went through in the strap match was too much and wouldn’t allow Birdie to see her daddy’s boo-boos, this got Bryan questioning himself if all of this is too much and while he agrees that it is he says he prays that Birdie finds something that she is as passionate about as he is about wrestling.
This was a fantastic interview that lasted only a minute and some change but was better than many 20+ promos you will hear that open up Raw and SmackDown every week. Not only was Bryan’s promo delivery great but so was the way it was filmed as they would interchange between the Bryan interview and Bryan’s upper torso while he is in the shower with closeups showing the scars from the strap match. I don’t know where this goes but I am interested and will say that this was one of the very few things I liked on this show.
Alexa and Nikki make their way to the ring as we go to commercial.
We come back to a video package that showed highlights from the 1999 Halftime Heat match between The Rock and Mick Foley.
One thing that had me scratching my head was why they showed the lesser talked about save spot that Mandy and Otis were apart of at the Rumble if you want people to go to the Network and watch the Rumble why not show the replay of the spot everyone was talking about.
Match #2: Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs Fire & Desire
Fire & Desire jump Alexa and Nikki before the bell and Sonya throws Nikki out of the ring and then tries to do the same with Alexa, but she reverses the momentum and sends Sonya out to the apron. Nikki grabs Sonya and ties her up in the ring apron and starts hitting her and then Alexa follows up with a baseball slide. We get a funny moment where Alexa goes to slide out of the ring and when she does the ring apron (that is still pulled away from the ring) goes right up her naughty bits and this gets an audible woo out of Alexa and at that point every female loving wrestling fan including myself wishes they were that ring apron. Alexa hits Mandy with a forearm only to then get her head slammed on the announce table by Sonya.
Sonya rolls Alexa in the ring but before she can continue her attack she is held back by the referee who is checking on Alexa. At this point, the referee calls for the bell and Sonya goes for a cover but Alexa easily kicks out. Sonya delivers a couple of knee strikes before tagging in Mandy who stomps a mudhole in Alexa and then immediately tags Sonya right back in. Sonya grounds Alexa with a chin lock, but Alexa quickly fights her way out of it and then tries to make a tag but Sonya cuts her off only to be taken down herself. Alexa goes for the Insult to Injury, but as she rolls through after the first knee drop she is leveled by a bicycle knee from Mandy who had made a blind tag earlier, Mandy goes for a cover but its broken up by Nikki. Mandy sends Alexa into the heel corner and hits her with a series of forearms before tagging in Sonya.
Alexa fights her way out of the corner and lands a big kick on Sonya who tags Mandy back in. Mandy goes after Alexa but is sent face-first into the middle turnbuckle. Alexa then ducks a clothesline attempt by Mandy and rolls through to finally make the tag to Nikki. Nikki hits forearms on both Mandy and Sonya and then she hits Mandy with an avalanche in the corner followed by a bulldog. Nikki hits a diving crossbody and goes for a cover that is broken up by Sonya. Alexa decks Sonya with a right and then Nikki hits The Purge on Mandy. Nikki tags Alexa and she goes up and hits Mandy with Twisted Bliss to get the win.
Winner: Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross Match Rating: **
This was a decent match but other than the apron trying to grope Alexa (which I didn’t catch on the first watch but it was pointed out to me when Alexa jokingly replied to a tweet about it) nothing about it really stood out. I said it a few weeks ago but I will bring it up again that Alexa really needs to change up her moveset as it feels way more repetitive than the other women on the roster which is a shame because with Alexa’s athletic ability she should be able to do some really impressive stuff. I just want her in-ring work to be as great as her promo ability and facial reactions, I always look forward to her matches but after they are over I always feel disappointed as I want to be blown away by what she does in the ring but instead, I just get a meh feeling. While I do like the team of Alexa and Nikki I feel like something needs to happen with them as they have been spinning their wheels since they lost the tag titles back in October. I imagine they will be one of the teams in what will most likely be a multi-team match for the Women’s Tag Titles at WrestleMania, but with three other women’s matches on the show, I don’t see the tag title match getting much attention other than let’s throw some teams in this match so we can have the titles defended on the show.
Braun Strowman is walking toward the ring for his Intercontinental Title match and then we see the events that led to Braun getting a title shot.
Match #3: Braun Strowman vs Shinsuke Nakamura © w/ Sami Zayn (WWE Intercontinental Title)
Nakamura ducks under a lock up attempt from Strowman and struts around the ring. Nakamura lands a few kicks and then ducks a clothesline and delivers a forearm shot. Nakamura runs off the ropes and is hit with a shoulder block. Strowman charges at Nakamura in the corner but Nakamura gets his foot up and then jumps on the back of Strowman and tries to apply a sleeper but Strowman backs him into the corner which breaks the hold and then Strowman throws him over his head. Strowman drives Nakamura into the corner and hits him with an avalanche.
Strowman goes for a running boot in the corner, but Nakamura moves and then kicks the leg of Strowman which takes him down to the mat. Nakamura drives his knees into Strowman and then chokes him across the middle rope. Nakamura distracts the referee long enough for Zayn to get a cheap shot in. Nakamura locks Strowman in a front face lock to try and wear him down. Strowman works his way to his feet and throws Nakamura off but Nakamura quickly regains control by hitting Strowman with a spinning wheel kick. Nakamura gets Strowman in the corner and drapes his leg over the rope and starts kicking away at it.
Strowman finally grabs Nakamura and takes him down with a clothesline. Strowman hits a couple of shoulder blocks and then biels Nakamura across the ring. Nakamura hits an avalanche in the corner followed by a clubbing blow to the chest which sends Nakamura to the outside for a breather which can only mean it’s time for the Strowman express as he takes down Nakamura with a shoulder block. Strowman throws Nakamura back into the ring and goes for the Powerslam, but Nakamura slides out the back and evades a charging Strowman before connecting with a kick and Kinshasa to the back of Strowman’s head, Nakamura pinks Strowman but he surprisingly kicks out at 2.
Sami Zayn jumps up on the apron and tries to undo the top turnbuckle which distracts the referee momentarily, but luckily for Strowman, the referee sees Cesaro trying to interfere and stops him in time. Nakamura tries to drive Strowman head-first into the exposed turnbuckle, but Strowman blocks and sends Nakamura into instead. Strowman hits the Powerslam and that is enough for Strowman to win his first singles championship.
Winner: Braun Strowman via Pinfall Match Rating: **¼
It’s about damn time they finally give Strowman a singles title as he is long past due as they should’ve capitalized on when he was super over back in 2017 and put the Universal Title on him. Although I wish he was in the Universal Title picture I am completely fine with him being Intercontinental Champion as that is better than nothing and hopefully it means he will actually be in some kind of meaningful match at WrestleMania this year defending the title.
As we come back from break we see Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, & Cesaro pissed off about Nakamura losing the Intercontinental Title. A new interviewer walks up to speak with Zayn but he ends up getting cut off by Elias in the ring who is playing his guitar. Zayn sends Cesaro out to take care of Elias but he gets his ass kicked and thrown out of the ring in short order by Elias.
Not much to say about this segment other than poor Cesaro he just like Strowman should be doing bigger and better things, but instead, he is the henchman that always gets beat up in quick fashion.
We get a shot of Graves and Cole talking about Ronda Rousey being on Graves’s podcast and they talk about how she says she misses being in the ring. I can’t help but think that they wouldn’t be mentioning her this much if it didn’t mean she could be returning soon.
We then get a video recapping the Sheamus vs Shorty G match on the Royal Rumble pre-show.
Sheamus makes his way to the ring for a Royal Rumble rematch but he gets jumped from behind by Shorty G as we go to commercial.
Match #4: Sheamus vs Shorty G
As we come back from commercial we see Shorty fighting his way out of a rest hold but Sheamus cuts him off and then Sheamus lifts him into the powerbomb position but Shorty slides out the back and goes for a monkey flip, Sheamus holds him and sets Shorty on the top rope, Sheamus pushes Shorty off the top rope but as he falls back Shorty grabs Sheamus in a body scissors and pulls him to the floor. Sheamus catches Shorty who tries a crossbody off the apron and hits him with a Finlay roll. Sheamus rolls Shorty back in the ring and lifts him up into the rack position and then slams him to the mat face-first and then he picks Shorty back up and hits another one.
Sheamus picks up Shorty but he stalls for too long which allows for Shorty to make a comeback with several chops to the chest and then a headbutt. Shorty kicks the leg of Sheamus but he comes back with a cross chop that sends Shorty to the outside where he drops Sheamus neck first across the top rope. Sheamus delivers more forearms and headbutts to Sheamus who is sitting on the apron. Shorty goes up top and hits a missile dropkick. Shorty hits a running capo kick in the corner followed by a moonsault that gets a 2 count. Sheamus blocks a Chaos Theory attempt and tries for White Noise, but Shorty turns that into a roll-up that gets a 2 count. Sheamus hits the Irish Curse followed by the Brogue Kick and that is enough to keep Shorty down.
Winner: Sheamus via Pinfall Match Rating: **½
I’m really not sure why we needed to see this match again when the outcome was the same but the match wasn’t as good as the first one. I look forward to seeing who Sheamus feuds with next as this feud should be done after this match.
Bayley comes to the ring and gloats about beating Lacey Evans at Royal Rumble. Bayley says she has beaten everyone and isn’t that surprised that Charlotte will be challenging her at WrestleMania and then calls for Charlotte to come out and just get the match over with, however, much to Bayley’s surprise it wasn’t Charlotte that came to the ring but rather Naomi who had made her return at the Royal Rumble. Naomi comes out and if her entrance wasn’t cool enough already this was even cooler as they used the lasers and Naomi had a cool helmet that covered her entire face and reminded me of a mix between Daft Punk and DeadMau5 and I have no clue how she was able to see out of it. Naomi says she was listening to all the trash that was coming out of Bayley’s mouth and how she was bragging about how she beat everybody, but the fact is she hasn’t beat her and the SmackDown Women’s Title could use some glow. Bayley hits Naomi with the microphone and then starts hammering her with mounted punches until Naomi makes her comeback and knocks Bayley out of the ring.
This was a decent segment that picked up when Naomi comes out as her entrance alone is enough to hype you up. I am glad to see Naomi getting some time in the spotlight right after her big return as she definitely deserves it if for no other reason than she is attracting new non-wrestling fans (in particular new African American female fans) to the product which is more than most of the roster has been able to do. I look forward to this match as it feels fresh which is always nice because as we will see in our main event not everything on the SmackDown brand is new and fresh.
The Usos make their way to the ring and Naomi meets them halfway up the ramp as we go to commercial.
When we come back we are informed that next week we will get the return of Daniel Bryan and the Firefly Funhouse and for the first time in over 10 years, The Miz and John Morrison bring back their talk show The Dirt Sheet.
Match #5: Roman Reigns & The Usos vs King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, & Robert Roode (Losers Eat Dog Food)
Corbin tries to knock Reigns off the apron at the start of the match but misses and then turns around into Jimmy who delivers a series of chops, Corbin gains control momentarily with a big right hand but Jimmy gets back into it by hitting a sunset flip. Jimmy drives Corbin into the corner and tags in Jey who hits a running forearm shot in the corner. Jey sends Corbin into the ropes and as he does Roode makes a blind tag and then pulls the rope down to cause Jey to fall out of the ring and then Roode hits a spinebuster to Jey on the floor. Roode sends Jey into the timekeeper area and we get a close up of the dog food as we go to commercial.
We come back to Roode working over Jey in the ring with a surfboard but Jey is able to fight out of it and make a short comeback before getting cut back down by Roode with a kick to the gut. Roode becomes too preoccupied with Reigns and it costs him as he gets hit with an enziguri by Jey. Roode gets the tag to Ziggler who tries to hit a stinger splash on Jey but he moves sending Ziggler crashing into the top turnbuckle. Ziggler tags in Corbin and just when it looks like Jey is going to make the hot tag he is stopped by Corbin and sent shoulder first into the ring post and then gets a 2 count off a schoolboy.
Jey is backed into the heel corner but quickly fights his way out of it and then he finally makes the hot tag to Reigns. Reigns is fired up as he clotheslines Corbin over and over including the ten corner clotheslines and then he hits the running big boot. Reigns sets up for the Superman Punch but Ziggler provides a brief distraction that allows Corbin to charge at Reigns only for Reigns to move and Corbin to do the outside and right back inside clothesline spot, but Reigns ducks the clothesline and attempts another Superman Punch but he gets caught and is choke slammed to the mat for a 2 count.
Corbin knocks one of The Usos off the apron and sends him into the barricade. Corbin rolls back into the ring where he is hit with a couple of uppercuts. Corbin rakes the eyes of Reigns and then Ziggler hits him with a superkick while Roode has the referee distracted. Corbin hits a Deep Six which Reigns kicks out of. Jimmy hits a tope suicida on Roode sending him over the announce table and then Reigns hits Corbin with the Superman Punch for a 2 count as Ziggler breaks the pin. Jey superkicks Ziggler sending him out of the ring and then he hits a tope suicida on Ziggler that sends him over the announce table as well. Reigns goes for the Spear but receives a kick to the face instead, but Reigns doesn’t let that stop him as he rolls Corbin up in a schoolboy to pick up the win.
Winners: Roman Reigns & The Usos via Pinfall Match Rating: **1/2
After the match The Usos handcuff Corbin and hang him on the ring post just like he did Roman Reigns months ago. The Usos throw a couple of cans of dog food to Reigns for him to poor on Corbin and then they pull the entire cart over that has all the dog food on it and then both The Usos and Reigns poor the buckets onto Corbin. SmackDown goes off the air with Reigns and The Usos doing some funny poses in front of Corbin who is covered in dog food.
Remember how in the months and weeks leading into the debut of SmackDown on Fox everyone was talking about how SmackDown was going to be more in-ring centric since Fox had their own sports networks while Raw would be more of the entertainment brad, well we are three months in and that assumption was completely wrong and nothing proves that more than what we saw tonight in our main event. I never imagined when I started reviewing SmackDown back in October that I would have to write about a match where the losers have to eat dog food, but damn if I’m not sitting here doing just that. I pray to the wrestling gods and the wrestling goddess Alexa Bliss that this is finally the end of this feud, but I have thought that twice before and I was sadly mistaken so at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if the feud continues and we get a Kennel from Hell match at Super Showdown. The match itself was fine (although I was thrown off by Roode wearing long tights) but I thought the booking last week was better and a bit more creative whereas this match was pretty much a paint by numbers six man tag match.
Sometime earlier this week WWE decided at the last minute to name this week’s episode Super SmackDown (the reason I think it was last minute was because the logo they came up with was so bad that it was funny as it was just the regular SmackDown logo but it had Super written over it in what looked like a black sharpie) as I guess they wanted to go along with the Super Bowl that is also airing on Fox on Sunday night, however, there was nothing special about this show.
I didn’t really care for this show as we got two rematches that didn’t need to happen and one of those consisted of people having to be covered in dog food that looked more like chili. The things I did enjoy about the show were the fact that Strowman won the Intercontinental Title, the fantastic Daniel Bryan post-match interview, and the return of Naomi to SmackDown.
That’s it for this week but I’ll be back next week and hopefully, it’s a much better show than what we got this week, I mean it can’t get worse than someone covered in dog food, can it?
