RAW Deal: Snowed Out ‘Til SmackDown

HARTFORD, USA—For all the neglect SmackDown gets in general in favor of its bigger brother RAW, the blue show has always stood out in its own little way. 

Even when the show had devolved last year into what was basically a RAW recap (it got to the point that they were replaying entire matches and angles from RAW as segments), even with the advent of the better-written NXT, SmackDown was still the haven for pure action.

Even when it only had all the minor angles, you could always be guaranteed a decent-to-great match that would run for at least 10 minutes somewhere in every SmackDown. You could get legitimate match of the year contenders from the midcard alone.

But that all changes this week, as this Monday’s “historic snowstorm” (which is really God’s—or Mother Nature, depending on what you believe in—way of voicing his displeasure toward the events of the Royal Rumble PPV) forced the WWE to cancel the usual RAW and go with replays of last Sunday’s WWE Championship and Royal Rumble matches, as well as unexpectedly entertaining interviews with some of the newsworthy roster guys. While it turned out to be a better RAW than everyone was expecting, that meant all the major developments had to happen on SmackDown.

It’s understandable. What we got, then, is an unusual little product—whether that’s in a good way is a bit up in the air. It had all the hallmarks of RAW booking—quick matches, too many talking segments that either dragged or accomplished little, but in all that, we got a taste of that bygone era where RAW was just a measly two hours. The muck of contemporary RAW writing is a whole lot more palatable when you cut out that extra hour.

Despite having to be RAW Lite, however, it’s still got some of that distinctly-SmackDown flavor. It was still short, but we got to see the Ascension have the best match of their run so far as they got a little loose with Goldust and Stardust, who watered the seeds of their dissension. Jey Uso and Tyson Kidd were allowed to put out a short yet solid match. Roman Reigns was kept to a fortunate minimum.

And that main event, bah gawd that main event. Nobody was salivating at the idea of yet another Daniel Bryan/Kane match on SmackDown (what is it, their third straight in a row?) and having it be a Casket Match really didn’t help things. But who better to really pull of a Casket Match than Bryan and Kane? What’s more: the right guy won.

The biggest thing to note about the entire show, however, is that all the matches had the right kind of drama and intensity to go with them, no matter where they were on the card. Roman Reigns vs. Big Show, a match we’ve seen ad nauseam for the past two months, felt far more thrilling than the final moments of the Royal Rumble thanks to the story they were able to tell in the ring. This pretty much applies to every match down the card. 

Maybe it was Vince McMahon trying to make reparations for messing up last Sunday. Maybe it was someone reminding the fans that hey, we’re not so down on Bryan—and by extension, the New Generation—as you think we are.

I’d like to think that somewhere along the way, from Philly to Hartford, they finally learned a thing or two.

High spots:

• Triple H’s opening promo was highly unusual for an Authority heel. It’s like he was told to go out there and save the company from the fans all by himself.
• Had Reigns and Show used the finish they had in their SmackDown match in the Rumble, it might have been possible for the Philadelphia crowd to forgive the Rumble. Alas, too many mistakes were made in that match itself. But by the time Reigns hit his spear on Big Show, a good part of the crowd was hooked.

• Speaking of, if you didn’t catch any part of Monday’s RAW because you thought it was all replays, you have to watch this interview. I’m not asking you to suddenly like him if you’re staunchly anti-Reigns, but it’s comforting to know that the WWE is trying to make its WrestleMania main event the best that it could be.

• Goldust and Stardust were able to carry the Ascension to a passable match. It’s tag team breakup season, ladies and gents!
• Bray Wyatt has officially hinted at facing the Undertaker at WrestleMania!
• That main event was match storytelling 101. I like that the crux of the finish was plain but not too on-the-nose: all Bryan had to do was make Kane fall to the casket, but he couldn’t do it with his usual dropkicks, building up to the eventual Knee Plus that seals the deal. Simple, predictable, but very compelling in the way they drummed up the tension for that one pivotal spot. Again, if the Rumble at least had moments like this for its key eliminations, the crowd would’ve had less of a problem with the result.

Low blows:

• That Vince McMahon Fast Lane/WWE Network vignette was the sound of a man breathing in nothing but his own ego, ladies and gentlemen.
• What… were those Kane segments?
• It felt like Rollins was back on his treadmill when Team Cena jumped in. Survivor Series was two months ago, Rollins just came off a dominating WWE Championship match performance, can’t we all just move on already? Surely there are new stories to tell, even among these same players. We can’t keep coasting on the Survivor Series main event forever.
• Because Cena is angry and is completely #turnt, and there’s a woman involved, he goes back to being the ultimate #ScumbagCena: Slut-shaming Misogynist Cena. I mean really, Vince, this is the guy you want kids all over the world to look up to? An upstanding gentleman who calls women he doesn’t agree with whores?

Do you listen to podcasts? Would you want to listen to a local podcast about pro wrestling? If the answers to most of those questions—especially that last one—are yes, then you should check out the cleverly-named Smark Gilas-Pilipinas Podcast—featuring Mellow 94.7 DJ and PWR General Manager Stan Sy, wrestling writer Romeo Moran, and all-around multimedia person (and voice of the PWR) Raf Camus! Their post-Rumble episode should be out by the time you read this, but for now, their last episode features Rappler’s very own Sports editor, Ryan Songalia! Ryan talks a little about Pacquiao-Mayweather, becoming a writer, and goes all out on the Ascension! Listen to it here!