[ad_1]
There were rumors that The Rock was coming to Memphis, Tennessee to Friday night SmackDown this week and do another “rock concert.” When he showed up, they treated him like the babyface megastar he’s been for a long time, hotter in business status be damned.
And then, interestingly, he played the role of babyface from above, working the gimmick as if he were still the beloved returning hero, back to conquer the long-reigning champion. He even said that he was back “home.”
And many “I love you too” messages to a crowd that kept shouting them at them.
Then, sure enough, he sat down to sing a song and gave a little concert. He made some of his usual jokes, called Cody Rhodes a mistake again, repeatedly criticized Seth Rollins for being embarrassing, and generally had a good time. The fans seemed to be having fun too.
Finally, he turned his attention to the “whining Codys,” called them whiny bitches, said he was going to beat his hero, and was done. The result was a loud cheer, chants of his name, and a really strange feeling that this is how they chose to play this.
It acted as a great showcase for the reality of the situation here: the fans never wanted to boo The Rock, they never wanted any of this to happen this way, they just didn’t want Rock to come back and take over Cody’s story. of the. He has created a line that they will have to continue weaving everywhere.
Here, The Rock looked much cooler than Cody when he mocked him for crying on Raw this week, saying “you’ve got to be fucking with me” for that. What a pathetic response and all.
Then, finally, he started acting like a real creep, talking directly to Cody’s mother and telling her how much he longs to take a belt to her son, make him bleed, and then give him the same belt he uses to inflict all that punishment. And then this damn guy dropped a Moana reference.
How I really hate him.
Oh, he’s also back to using heel music and calling himself “The Final Boss.”
Again, this was a very strange segment considering he was a babyface for almost the entire thing, but it still gave some depth to the story and remained firmly opposed to the babyfaces in said story, Cody and Seth. If the idea is to keep him as close to Babyface as possible for the inevitable turn and thus be able to get directly to the Reigns match they wanted afterwards. Wrestlemania, then maybe this will work fine. But I can’t decide if I like how much of a crowd pleaser he is when he’s supposed to be a heel.
LA Knight hasn’t had much time on television, so we haven’t been able to do this, but he had some this week, so we’re bringing back the LA Knight segment of the week:
He got great pop once again, fans still love him and we need a lot more of him. This was a fun promo, with Knight, quite amusingly, using some old Kevin Nash lines to run over Styles before challenging him to a match on WrestleMania 40.
When he finished his promo, Styles ran in, hit him in the back with a chair, and then accepted the match. Hell yeah, this should be a lot of fun and it’s a great opportunity for Knight to have a classic match with an opponent who can absolutely give him one on the biggest stage imaginable.
Come on!
All the rest
- I’m still a little confused, but it seems that Nick Aldis decided that with Slap earning two spots in the Six Pack Ladder match for the Undisputed tag team titles in WrestleMania 40, the way I wanted to find teams is through mini tournaments. They didn’t do a great job explaining this, and it’s even more confusing when WWE.com is promoting matches for Monday night raw Next week they will be simple fights in which you win and you win. It feels unnecessarily complicated, even if a contender is stronger for having won multiple matches to fight for the title. However, it is a bit excessive when said match is already a six-team battle. Anyway, Legado del Fantasma defeated LWO in fun fashion to advance before New Catch Republic defeated Pretty Deadly to set up Phantom Vs. New Catch Republic for the right to move to Wrestlemania. I’ll just say that I’m personally not happy with Pretty Deadly being treated this way.
- For something as big as Jimmy vs. Jey Use in Wrestlemania To me, WWE strangely decided to have Jimmy accept the challenge for the match in a backstage interview between tickets for a match between Randy Orton and Grayson Waller. Jimmy cut a passionate, fiery promo, promising to do his big brother thing again and put his little brother in his place.
- Logan Paul participated in the commentary of Randy Orton’s match against Grayson Waller, a very basic match that was about putting Orton as the mega babyface (and surprisingly ended in Memphis) with another fun RKO that Paul was able to personally witness . . Logan was upset with Nick Aldis for not finding him a Wrestlemania opponent, but it’s obvious where this is going. Sure enough, Austin Theory launched a sneak attack after the match and Paul kissed Randy’s forehead before pretending he was going to take the big hit. Instead, Kevin Owens came into the ring to make the save. Orton almost hit him with an RKO, confused by who was coming at him, but they teamed up and hit a sweet Stunner/RKO combo on Theory. Finally, Aldis appeared to make the announcement: Paul will defend the United States Championship against Orton and Owens in a triple threat match.
- Santos Escobar defeated Dragon Lee in relatively short order, pinning him clean despite Lee getting most of the offense in the match. He was entertaining for what he was, but we were quick to see Carlito coming out to help in the post-match beatdown and then right on to Rey Mysterio making his promised return to once again face Escobar. Rey seems to be in great shape, and the tease for 619 was super hot. Mysterio took the microphone and presented a challenge for a singles match for next week.
- Bayley vs. Dakota Kai headlined this show and as expected, it ended in Damage CTRL interference and a disqualification. It was always going to be this way, and the added problem this time was the fact that Naomi decided to get involved and try to save Bayley. She seems to have chosen her side, despite Bianca Belair’s attempts to dissuade her. How will this affect? Wrestlemania? Hey, maybe the power of friendship will rule the day and that’s how Bayley emerges victorious.
This was a solid show, as always.
Grade B
Your turn.