#and then this is the Long Con to get solo vs reigns for the title

[takethistoyourstardust]

i do think that cody could lose the belt to kevin but if that happens i imagine that kevin’s run is gonna be very short lived, i can see him holding it through elimination chamber but he will not walk out of wrestlemania with it.

[hazyheel]

Smackdown Live Review 4/23/19

We started out with a promo from Shane, who said that he was in a bad mood tonight, because of Roman Reigns’ attack last week. He said that he wanted to fire Roman. Roman came out, and but didn’t want to talk. He and Shane squared up, before Elias came down to back him up, and hit Roman with the drift away after a beatdown. 

Grade: D. This segment was just nothing. Everything was predictable. Of course he would be beat down, but Roman wasn’t getting fired. Just kinda boring, but cool to see Elias in an important spot.

Next up was a rematch from Raw last week, Andrade vs. Finn Balor. These guys have a great deal of chemistry together, so I was happy to see this rematch. Early on in the match, Andrade hit a huge corkscrew dive out of the corner to the floor, looked awesome. At one point, Balor countered a powerbomb into a DDT for a near fall. However, as Vega was the one to get Andrade the win last week, she caused the loss this week. Vega went up for a crossbody, but Balor dodged and Andrade caught her. Balor then hit the shotgun dropkick into the coup de gras for the win.

Grade: B. Again, not their best work, but the two are 1-1 now, and they could be bound for money in the bank. These guys need to have a pay per view match, and really go all out. They could easily steal on of the upcoming shows, and I am looking forward to when they do. I think that they will both be in the ladder match, but neither will win.

Backstage, Elias challenged Roman to a match at money in the bank, and later on, Roman accepted. Cool, I’m down for that. Good for Elias.

We then went right into a match between Kairi Sane and Peyton Royce. The IIconics cut a quick promo about how the only reason Royce lost last week was that she was caught off guard and dehydrated. It was funny. So she drank a gallon of water, and felt very ready. But, the match was not long. Sane won with an insane elbow. After the match, Fire and Desire came out to intimidate Paige’s new team, so that will be a feud going forward.

Grade: D+. This match was too short, and Royce is not very good in the ring. I will say that the promo before the match was genuinely funny. Still annoying, but annoying in a funny and stupid way. The way they started talking about being dehydrated made me laugh, and it felt improvised. But that doesn’t help a match that was too short, and another time that the IIconics got pinned since becoming the champions.

Next, we were supposed to have a match between Jinder Mahal and Chad Gable, but Lars Sullivan ran out and murdered everyone. He threw Gable around ringside, before turning his attention to the Singh Brothers, hitting them with his freak accident and running powerbomb. R-Truth ran out to confront Sullivan after his attack last week, and although he got some shots in, Truth too was killed. 

Grade: B+. Lars is actually being booked well. He is a monster on a brand that has smaller guys. He is destroying people that are much smaller than him. If they keep him doing things like this for a few weeks, he will be a solid midcarder. Keep it going beyond that, he could be a conceivable challenger in the main event, possibly even a champion. I think he and Truth will be feuding until Money in the Bank, which would be a great place for Sullivan. I really like his booking, and I hope to god they don’t mess it up.

Charlotte Flair then came out, for her big confrontation with Becky Lynch. Flair blamed Rousey for her loss of the championship belt, saying that Rousey lost her championship for her. So, Flair called Lynch out to defend herself, saying that Lynch is not the rightful champion. Lynch was pretty typical here, but she seemed a lot tougher in this scenario than she is in solo promos. Flair says that she is in Lynch’s head, and Lynch simply said that she had destroyed Flair on many many occasions. Lynch said that she wanted new challengers. Bayley then came out to throw her hat in the ring, and she told Charlotte to earn a title shot for once in her life. Charlotte said that Bayley wasn’t worth her time, and Bayley got pissed.

So, the two had a match! And I was excited! They have history and it is a new matchup, and they have a lot of chemistry. Bayley had a new fire during this match, hitting some pretty brutal moves, and showing that she deserves to be competing for the title. Bayley had control during much of the match, until Charlotte started to target the knee, clearly setting up for the figure 8. Bayley fought back with a brutal belly to back suplex, as well as a sunset flip into the corner. Bayley almost had it by rolling up Charlotte during a figure 8, but Charlotte kicked out and hit a spear for the win. After the match, Becky announced that she would defend both belts on the Money in the Bank pay per view.

Grade: B+. Really good stuff. The promo was great, and Becky had an awesome reason for not wanting to fight charlotte, and Bayley was the perfect opponent. The match between the two was really good, and I’d love to see more of that. 

They did another firefly funhouse thing. Fuck this. Maybe it was the same one from yesterday, but it deserves another F. If you don’t like that, you clearly didn’t see the segment. I would tell you to watch it, but I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

Into the next match, Kofi Kingston took on Shinsuke Nakamura. Pretty good match, with Shinsuke showing his old strong style roots. He was delivering some stiff kicks and knees. He even at one point hit a sliding german suplex, reminiscent of Taiji Ishimori over in New Japan. However, Kofi was able to fight back into the match, even mocking the “come on” slogan. Kofi was able to hit the trouble in paradise, but as he did, Rusev ran in to beat up Kofi. Xavier Woods and Kevin Owens at ringside ran in to help Kofi, with Woods landing an assisted dive onto Rusev, only to be hit with a Kinshasa. Back in the ring, Kofi landed another trouble in paradise on Nakamura, only for Owens to betray them and hit him with a superkick. Owens then beat down both Kofi and Woods, hitting his Powerbomb on the apron.

Grade: B-. The match was alright, with Kofi not really getting in enough offense. I think these two could have a really good match if they wanted to, but it wasn’t meant to be just yet. However, as good as the betrayal was, I think Owens should have waited a while to turn on Kofi. He was very good with the New Day, and they have a good dynamic as a threesome (not like that). If he had waited until summerslam, then I would have given him more of a chance to win the belt. But now, Owens is probably going to lose unless he goes crazy apeshit like he did with Jericho a few years back. WWE pulled the trigger too early, but it should still be a good match.

Overall grade: B-

Pros: Balor vs. Andrade; Sullivan attack; Flair Lynch Faceoff; Bayley vs. Flair

Cons: Predictable Storyline to open; Women’s tag champs pinned again; the fucking funhouse bullshit.