WhatCulture Wrestling

Ups & Downs: WWE SmackDown Review (Aug 9)

Our WWE SmackDown review as Simon Miller recaps Roman Reigns destroying The Bloodline, Cody Rhodes challenging Kevin Owens, The Street Profits vs. A-Town Down Under, Santos Escobar vs. Andrade, #DIY vs. Pretty Deadly and much more.

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Duration:: 23m
Broadcast on:: 10 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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So, when your plans change, Merrill is with you every step of the way. Go to ml.com/bullish to learn more. Merrill, a bank of America company. What would you like the power to do? Investing involves risk. Merrill Lynch, Pierce Fennernsmith, Inc., registered broker dealer, registered investment advisor, member SIPC. Cody Rhodes kicked off this week's episode of Smackin' Down because he is the guy. But now that course is a massive argument, because Cody is the guy. But people are saying, "Oh boy, your Roman is the guy." You know how good this is? You always want to have two guys, or have two people at the top of the card having a big fight. It's like Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, so come into my house and tell me it's a bad idea. Now everybody, just calm down. It doesn't matter. What matters is this, the finger power, because we just have had WWE snuckin' down. So we got to give the good bits it up, and the bad bits are down. Oh WWE Champion also wanted to know what we wanted to talk about, and I was screaming from my chair. Talk about Wolverine and Deadpool. They didn't do that. I was like, "Well, what is the point?" Incently called the WWE title the North Star of the industry, and that he'd made up his mind, who his next opponent should be. And then we didn't find out, because he went and got interrupted by the bloodline. Right, a little bit worried, because Jacob Fatou wasn't with them, and we still don't know whether the injury was a work, or if it is real. And if it is, I send him all the best switches, and if it's not, well, he may be the greatest seller in the history of professional wrestling. As long as the car was mad, though, because he definitely doesn't want to talk about Deadpool and Wolverine, and instead he wants to talk about that WWE title, because he wants a rematch. Cody just went off here, though, because he was like, "Man, you deserve nothing, because not only did you go and get Jacob for two inches, but you just cosplaying as the Tribal Chief, and you pissed off Roman Reigns so much, he teleported back to WWE, and he whooped your back." The road since his soul as a car was totally delusional, when I was like, "Man, Cody, you have totally forgotten about wrestling maths, so I did the equation, Scott Steinestyle, and that's right, there's only one of Cody Rhodes, and there was three bloodline members that he was about to get his ass kicked." Now, thankfully, Kevin Owens must have just been sat in the back going, "Listen, if they do anything, I'm going to zoom out there, cos he did do that, but he didn't come alone, he had Charlie the Chair." This was a solo turn into a child, cos he didn't want to get into any of this, and he kind of went, "Fine, I'll go and fight Roman Reigns instead, I'll let's go, you've got to grow up here." Rhodes then turned to Kevin Owens, though, and you ain't going to believe this, he went and broke the system, there is no going back, cos we had talked about it for years. There's three simple words, "Dee's title shot, or when one wrestler walks up to another wrestler that does have a belt," and literally says, "Dee's title shot, what I'm saying there, is give me a title shot," they quite literally just asked for the opportunity, for some reason, the other guy goes, "Yeah, why not?" So, I'm not surprised they do do this, cos it works, if something works, you are going to do it, but here, it was Cody Rhodes saying to Kevin Owens, "I want to give you a title shot, so that's reverse Dee's title shot, this is like Dominic Mysterio." He was a heel, then a heel turn, and now we have reverse Dee's title shot, so I'm terrified about being pulled into the Phantom Zone. So, he truly is a new era, especially cos Kevin Owens is just the best, he went, "No, that makes absolutely no sense, it is two plus two equals per day two, have you seen my win-loss record? It absolutely sucks." So, he is genuinely one of my favourite wrestlers ever, cos he was like listening to me on this stupid show, Cody is the best too, he was just like, "Ah, ah, I don't care what you're saying, I'm going to find general manager Nick Aldis." And I'm going to make it happen anyway. So, this is like trying to give your friend a PS5, cos he doesn't want a PS5, cos he thinks he deserves a PS5, then he winds up with a PS5, just go and play Call of Duty. Rhodes points to the fans though, and they all start to chart you deserve it, cos I guess they know, and look, this was just a nice segment. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it was, just two buddies having a good time, and actually gets a bit later later, give it an up. When we had a tag team title number one contender match, although actually it was going to turn into a mini-tolerant, listen, all of this was good, but the tag team division, in WWE, does feel kind of weird at the moment, hopefully this sorts it out. But it was the street province taking on Grace Waller and Austin theory, and that made sense, cos they were the former champs. Yeah, it was pretty good. For this four to nine Joe Dawkins also cut a probe beforehand, where they essentially said the bloodline are quaking in their boots, ever since Roman Reigns has returned, that's why it's like, well, they're clearly going to win, they're already taking shots at the line of blood. Also, I totally forgot the beef ab is still with them, and man, I don't know if this is working, like they all have individual traits, and of course the street province these days, are totally cemented as a tag team, and I think we should take beef ab and just do something different with her, just kind of getting lost in the shuffle. Of course one of us casting distraction early on was allowed Austin theories, just one of Angelo Dawkins, which went forward, got thrown into Barry Barricade, Barry was in for a terrible night. Angelo also went into reading the ring post, all our resting friends were getting murked. When Austin theory taunted, I was like, what do I have to do? Do I have to shout it from the rooftops? I've told you a thousand times. In 2024, leave your deep pad alone and stop doing your pose, cos do you know what's going to happen? Something's going to come up behind you, and give you a smack, and that is exactly what happened. Don't make me stop the counter, I'll do it. It also allowed Montes to take them out with a dive. Well, they did get hit with the most powerful force in all a sport entertainment, the commercial break, cos when we did return from the advert, a town down under were just in control. So we should probably give the commercial breaker championship shot, it is undefeated. Thankfully throughout all of that though Montes thought it had just been running his palm, so he was ready for the hot tag, although when he went for the splash of the frogs, he totally missed, ribbon. It didn't allow theory to hit his big elbow, but Dawkins then grabbed Grayson and thrown it into the time keepers area. That was kind of the opening the street profits needed, and they went through the door, and they hit the blockbuster, and they got the 1-2-3. Just like that, they were like, well at least they deserve it. That is what you should do though, if you are going to start brand new challenges for a championship, you press star on controller 2, giving it an up. When we got more great stuff with Cody and Kevin, we should probably turn that into a TV shot. But they were trying to Nick Aldis, and Nicky actually agreed with Owens, he was like, "Yeah, I don't think you should have a title shot, and in fact I've been doing some pondering, and I'm going to give it to Roman Reigns." Kevin could not believe what he heard though, cos sure, Roman held the bet for 1,316 days, but he kept on cheating, and the amount of times he should have lost it, but he always had somebody in his corner, so if Nick Aldis is looking for the right person, maybe he should go into the locker room, because there's a lot of deserving folk there. Roman was also pissed off that Roman was about to get an automatic title rematch, cos he didn't think WWE had been doing them anymore, and if they are, well, let's go back to when Kevin was a Universal Champion, did he ever get his? No, he did not. Aldis had a ride smile on his face throughout all of this when he said, "Well, now I do see it in your belly, and you are getting this title shot and honesty." This was such a fresh way to make a championship match, I felt like I was eating bread. Cos we talked about the past, there was reasoning on both sides, and the contender even tried to explain, "Would you look at the sense here?" But of course I want to see Kevin Owens vs Cody Rhodes, although I'm also that guy, cos Kevin, you know what you gotta do, what you always do, go super duper heel, or if you want to do a babyface, babyface match, that's fine too. We don't have a video reminding you that Roman Reigns has returned, did all the numbers on social media, which is always good to hear, when we were also told, "Oh yeah, at the slam of the summer, nah, Jax became the champion." When he's trying his new best friend too, she was backstage getting ready for Nye and Jax's big celebration, which I do believe is happening next week. And this is when pretty deadly turned up, and they said, "Well, we could do our new musical there, look at me in my eyes, WWE. This needs to happen, I need to see that musical." Chelsea Green and Piper Niven then walked in, they just don't like Tiffany Stratton, and they especially didn't like her outfit, and I do believe they called her "Tacky Time", and they thought her clothes were "Tacky". That's a really good shot. They also teased that Tiffany can't be trusted, because of course she does have the money in the back briefcase, when Stratton went toodles, and she walked off. You watch this after taking some drugs, you've probably had a little bit of a meltdown. When we got into building our women's tag team division, with a single match, it's the most WWE thing ever. But it was J-Car Girl taking on Alba Fire with their respective partners in the corner, and summed this up one quite well. At first, Alba thought, "I'm really strong", but she didn't realise that J-Car Girl was actually the living formation of WWE No Mercy, when she went to Slammer, she couldn't do it, and went, "Ah, my back!" Then J used one arm to throw her around, we'd go back in time. Eventually, Fire was able to apply the Black Widow submission, though, as made famous by AJ Lee. I'm just saying, but once again, at Car Girl kind of wiggled this off, she hit the jaded, and very quickly, she got the 1-2-3. Of course, Blair Davenport teleported in afterwards, because she is brand new friends with the tag team champions, but that just meant Bianca Belair could get in there, and Naomi's music hit, and she came to the ring, so you can see what we're doing here. We are going to have a six-man tag. It was okay, though, it was nothing bad, and I always enjoy CJ being a powerhouse, so I am going to give it an up, but this actually ties into Raw. This needs a lot more story, and it leads a lot more promo time. And actually, this is WWE shooting itself in the foot, because they have done so well with a lot of other angles. Well, this one just feels a little bit lacking. Therefore, I am going to give it a down. Don't get me wrong, everybody in it is really good. We just need to turn up the heat. We've got more love for Roman Reigns, because he's very good on social media. When we were told, "Oh, yeah, LA Night won the US Tyler Summerslam." This podcast is brought to you by E. 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I guess he was in the crowd. Lou Ferrigno, I pop. Man also said he didn't care about the fact that he beat Logan Paul in his hometown because the only thing that matters to him is that he said he was going to become a champion. He is now a champion and now he's arrived. Yeah. And I also admit that now he has a belt he knows there's a target on his back. When he said something like you better quit it or hit it, I was like, "I think we should move on from this very fast." He definitely had more to say, but this is a WWE show, so I sat there. Well, somebody's going to interrupt and of course it was Mr Santos Escobar. Now he pretended that he was really happy for LA Night, but he was lying. And he also started telling everyone in the crowd that they sucked, but he did it in the most notch a lot way. Like he was asking for a snack. Just walked in and was like, "Oh, hello. You suck. Oh, hello, you suck." Santos wasn't impressed with any of this though because he thinks LA Night is a crappy US champion and he is just the opening act before Escobar gets that belt. And I was like, "Santos, I understand what you're doing here." But you can't say he's a crap US champion. He's literally just what he hasn't had the time. He then sold LA Night's cadence and he said Escobar with a C on the end. And then I was like, "Man, you just wasted my time because you know if you do want to shot this thing, you have to earn it in a qualifying match." Who even cares about any of that though because the fans know the deal too. Everybody is going to go down to LA Night. Oh, Thomas. I'm such a star. So it was standard stuff, but that's why LA Night is so good. He can go out there and do the basics and it's just the most fun. I am giving him a lap. When? My gosh. Time stood still. Because after what must have been months and me thinking he was dead, we got a return vignette for none other than Giovanni Vinci. I do believe this whole gimmick is going to be. I am an Italian. This is actually quite smart because the new room was apparently in 2025. WWE heading to Italy so he could be super over. At one point is in a car and it was like, "I'm going to find the drive to be successful and smackdown." I was like, "Oh, great. He's going to make puns." When it was indeed Sanos Escobar versus Andrade to see who was going to be the number one contender for the US Championship, I tell you. You have 10 or so minutes today. You've got to watch this. It absolutely rules. Andrade just took off Escobar's head here at the start with a massive close line, which is when Angel and Berto started to get worried. And they were going to be a couple of dicks. But this is when out came Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin and they chased them away. I'm glad we did that. It's going to be a bit worried that WWE was forgetting. I don't have to point out though before all of this, the Garda del Fantasma just kept attacking on Giovanni. Sounds like, "Who signs off on this? Is that when your partner cheats on you?" And you go, "Oh, you're never going to do it again." Of course they're going to do it again. You need to learn. Escobar then hit this amazing till a while backbreaker in Andrade was coming back with sunset power bonds. When the worst thing happened, we cut to the commercial break. Who is the most power force in all sports entertainment? And when we did return, sounds Escobar was just in control. And I bet he said to Andrade, "You gave me the raw rumble. And now you only getting a push in August." Andrade was like, "Man, that's true. I hate it." And rather than use his silence and hit a moonsault when he got the three amigos for a 1-2-0, when they just fought. That was really great. It was like two kids fighting over the last piece of pie. The poison run that followed after this was absolutely amazing. Although Andrade kept coming. And just as he was about to win, I assume, Carmella hate was just here. And he jumped up on the apron. So Andrade was like, "Damn it. He punched him in the face." Now I do think this was really good because of course it ties into the last few weeks of WWE programming. Of course Carmella would come out here. He hates Andrade because he keeps losing to it. Electral Lopez was inspired by that. So then she started to strike the refs. So just when Andrade was going for the double knees, Haze pulled Santos out the way. When Mr. Tranquil turned in to say, "Why are you ruining my life? You make it so hard." Santos hit the most devastating move. In all the sports, in the timid surprise roll up, 1-2-3. So it doesn't mean that Escobar remembered his WWE training. And that was very good because it all happened so quickly. And now we can carry on Carmella Haze versus Andrade. And we have purpose to do it. And we're going to get Santos Escobar versus LA night. And I searched my feelings. I like all of this up. DIY was then very upset that they had lost the tag team titles last week, but they promised they weren't going to get them back. When we did indeed get our tribute to Kevin Sullivan, who very sadly passed away yesterday. So it's definitely worth a read today about his career because you will see that he had a massive impact on the industry. And it's ever all the best with his friends and family. We also continue to tease that they town down under our going to break up soon because basically they have a chat with Dick Aldis and maybe accidentally on purpose. Austin Theory got Grace Smaller booked in a match with Kevin Owens next week. I think that's going to go very well for him. Especially because Kevin Owens really enjoys punching him right in the nose. When all of this tag team stuff did turn into one big tournament because it was DIY taking on pretty deadly. And the winner of this was going to take on the street profits and the winner of that will take on the bloodline. Now listen, I like pretty deadly. I'm a huge fan, but this is why we probably need a few more teams in the division. I can't actually remember the last time they won. This sadness was going to continue as well, especially because Kit Wilson was thrown into his own partner. But actually they had a plan. And when DIY went to do double dives, they both gave them the Sagat uppercut. I thought this is why pretty deadly are so good. They have been playing street fire. Actually, no, it didn't work. So we can't go to bus or charter. We just went, well, till we do it again, the answer was yes. This time it worked. So I put the tag in properly and they just went to town on these guys, which kind of made sense because that is their name. When he told Joe to get back in the ring, they hit a double bomb of power. They got a one two ooh and the tag clacks and sounded high and everybody was in there. And I think pretty deadly hit, or can it only be described as like a chicken wing slam? And that would have worked too if it wasn't for those meddling kids, or trying to gargano being back and breaking up the pin. Gargano also stopped that with one of those big old spears and that left pretty deadly, totally divided and conquered. So yeah, DIY hit the shat machine and they followed up with meat in the middle. And if you were going to describe this, I'd probably say you'd go with short but sweet. So we can absolutely do more with pretty deadly and I still need that musical more than life itself. That's not true because without life, I would be dead. But honestly, we're going to do DIY versus the street profits. I do believe that will be good. So does the car was then getting right to the head to the ring. But I'm a tonger in Tango Lower like yeah, man. Roman Reigns ain't here. So one, that's totally unprofessional. And two, so I still went to the squared circle. I was like, bro, if he's not at the building, that is definitely the wrong way. He did still make a big song and dance though, saying, oh, I'm the tribal chief and you need to acknowledge me once again as that friend. This is not the night to do this. You were about to die. He also made me about the Ula Fowler as well and said that Roman Reigns wanted this. He better come and get it. Well, of course we got the new version of Roman's theme from WrestleMania. And here came the OTC, which as we know stands for Only Tigers Care. Let me give it a minute because somebody will definitely correct me in the comments. Of course, it's the only tribal chief or the original tribal chief or the one tribal chief. I don't know. So whatever you want. The reaction was totally awesome though and it means after a decade we have finally arrived. Roman Reigns, it's the super duper over babyface of WWE. So if like me, you've been watching all of this time. Finally, we can rest. So go and tell Tango and Tango Lower to get him to, which was the worst advice. Because Roman guilt, especially lower. He threw him face first into the simple and still steps. He's probably going to have to wear an eye patch over the other eye. I really like the fact too that when he did get in the ring, soulless of color and him just started fighting straight away. There was no standing on ceremony here, Mr. Wayne and you would do that. For the last few months, soullows been calling him a massive dick. He basically murdered Paul Heyman. The grinders of Destiny have actually made the save, but that was like hugging your neck. Because Roman just went back and kicked their ass. One point he had a chair and he spied Tango right through Bara Barricade. And interestingly, it's always that one battle in the same position. Almost like it's a weak spot. I've actually sold it to Coa Bell to the entrance way as Roman Reigns did look at that Oolafala. That's the crowd actually charted OTC. So don't you tell me shirts don't work. Nobody has even said this yet and it's getting noise. So Roman is just so damn special and this feud feels like the most important thing in the world, which is awesome. Because the WWE title isn't involved and that is just going to make the show even better still. And it is getting it up. Wish bonus to the end of SmackDown and yes it was a really good time. I mean I think it just ticked the boxes that you would expect tick to tick. But when you have a super duper style like Roman Reigns, well it does make things a lot easier. Now of course please do drop me a comment below and let me know what you thought about last night's SmackDown. Like the video, share the video, subscribe and engage as much as possible. And if you would like my thoughts on Monday Night Raw, boom, there's the video for ups and downs. 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