Official Smackdown Live Thread 8/9/16: Birthday of Bliss

SmackDown beats RAW for me this week.

Current standing:

RAW 1 - 2 SmackDown

I thought Smackdown had more highlights than Raw on the total but agree that neither show was particularly inspired. I saw people on Facebook claiming Ambrose turned heel. I laughed. I mean how difficult is it to follow the story they are telling over the course of the show? "I'll get you back for that" Gets him back at the end of the episode. "OBVIOUS HEEL TURN!!!! ZOMG" What the is wrong with people. But I digress.

Thought all of Ambrose/Ziggler/Bray were great this week. Not sure where this leaves Bray though for SummerSlam. Rowan sucks. They need Harper back. I still think this all leads to Ziggler turning heel. That's what will put him over.

I didn't care for Bliss getting a win over Becky. Do that sh*t to somebody else. I love Bliss, she's an awesome character and good talker, but last night we saw both Natty and Becky lose. They're both the top of the division and the most credible female stars on Smackdown. Don't do that 50/50 sh*t to them right now. They took a small step forward with Eva. I don't know why they are doing all of this though. People hate her. All she has to do is exist. All of this extra stuff is unnecessary. It's comical that WWE is trying to play into something that already happens naturally. Push her as a face and let people boo her. How does WWE not understand this yet...

The Heath Slater stuff was great imo. Someone start a GoFundMe for his above ground pool and help out the kids.

I wish they would have shown an American Alpha vignette this week instead of the squash.

I liked that Styles and Cena were only on in the video package. Smackdown has some of the benefits of NXT where it can keep you wanting more with some of the talent. So I like that kind of thing. Don't over feed me AJ Styles if you have nothing for him to do. This was my complaint with Seth Rollins this week. Protect your top talent by not over exposing them if you can from time-to-time.

Orton vs Del Rio was what it was. Del Rio feels incredibly out of place on the roster right now. I didn't want him back in the first place but he's more useless now than he's ever been before. At a time when Smackdown is short on heels, you would think Del Rio would be a guy getting a lot of attention but that tells me the focus is other places and he's an after thought, which is fine with me honestly. He'd be fine as IC Champion, but I think Miz is a better fit for that role right now.

I agree 100%. I've been a fan of Slater for some time now and am actually very exited about how this free agent stuff is going so far. He was hilarious last night, especially with the thing about his kids. He is solid in the ring and on the mic and I'd like to see him have a long run with the US Title.

Not a good show, but, neither was Raw. This week felt like a total phone-in.

Imagine how much more interesting Orton/Del Rio would have been if, over the last couple of weeks, Del Rio got wins over some undercard guys, and then Mauro played up the fact that ADR is a former MMA competitor and has been looking for a career resurgence. They could've put Del Rio on Talking Smack last week. Anything. Instead, we're back to making matches for the sake of making matches with absolutely no payoff and no reason to become invested.

From a writing standpoint, we're right back to where we were before the draft. The only thing holding these shows together, three weeks in, is the fresh talent. When that wears off, things could get real nasty.

RAW sucked this week and SD was a disaster as well.

What is the deal with Carmella? She's come out 3 weeks now and 3 weeks she's been met with crickets chirping. Her rhymes are terrible. What was all the hype with this chick in NXT? She's certainly not getting over with this gimmick.

The best thing about SD this week was Heath Slater and that's because it's a fresh storyline. The running gag about his x-number of kids was cute and tastefully done.

Becky jobbing to Bliss was the wrong call, she's supposed to be the top female for SD, don't book her in 50/50s

We all saw the main event coming since last week HOLLA HOLLA PLAYA IT'S SD YA DIG!

American Alpha - hmmm, I get why you smarks and hardcore fans like them, but the tag team "division" is completely laughable. All NXT teams, Vaudevillians haven't gotten over, The Accession were buried since last year, nobody I mean NOBODY likes Mojo Rawlins except Mojo Rawlins and if you do you're just lying to yourself.

Talking Smack was better than both Raw and Smackdown this week. Renee Young is so damn good. She's one of the most valuable assets in the entire company, and I mean that with the utmost sincerity. She's going to make herself a whole lot of money, probably outside of WWE.

I thought both shows were really bad. If I was forced to award one victory, it would be Smackdown. Not because it was any better in quality, but because it was shorter, and when you're watching two bad shows back to back, the shorter, the better.