Kevin Owens finally go a measure of revenge, Bianca Belair won some NXT Redemption Points, & we sadly may have seen the last of Billie Kay’s mosh pishing days.
It’s the last stop before The Royal Rumble, people. Everything’s locked in on The Blue Brand’s side, so not a lot left as far as build was concerned for tonight. Let’s see how they did to get us stay hype for Sunday.
Final Obstacle
Did you know that Bayley & Bianca are really good at this?
..You did? Oh… okay then.
As fun as DingDongTV & The Double Dare finale were, it’s nice to finally see these two get back in the ring to settle things once & for all. Bayley beating Belair down with her own hair was a particular highlight. Stop hitting yourself! Bianca’s heartfelt promo after was also nice too. It wasn’t anything special, but it felt genuine, which is always a nice touch.
All & all it was a great blowoff match & it’s going to be pretty hard to deny Belair heading to the top of the division going forward.
Papa Do Preach
First thing’s first:
Secondly & more importantly: LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO!!
I was already all in with the closing from last week’s episode & Owens finally getting the upper hand, but here we are with this back & forth, making me think Sunday can’t come soon enough. I’m not going to go through it bit by bit, just watch it, but there’s a lot of good stuff there. The 100% best part of the entire thing is at the end when Owens starts to get real mad that Reigns keeps shitting on his family, so he gets up & starts shouting at Reigns. Roman then hangs up on him. What a colossal jerk. It would’ve been hilarious if it was just the video & you could hear Reigns & Heyman with just the audio trying to fix their connection. A+ all around.
I am an absolute mark for The Royal Rumble & it is unquestionably my favorite show & match of the year. But I cannot wait for Reigns & Owens to come a head again. I don’t how they’re going to up the ante from their match at TLC, but I’m definitely itching to find out.
For The Go-Homies
You know what these shows have seriously been missing lately? The Quarterly Brand To Brand Invitational Crossover Wrestler Swap Spectacular. RAW’s roster showing up unannounced is just the thing a SmackDown that’s pretty much been firing on cylinders lately needed. I’m all about AJ Styles & Daniel Bryan competing against each other, but once you see Miz & Morrison pop up backstage after it’s already established Roman Reigns wasn’t going to be appearing, you knew something wonky was going down.
The match between the two is great while it lasts. I’d love to see them actually finish what they started at some point. If you’re going to do these crossovers, might as well make them worth it & maybe have the winner of these become #1 contenders on their respective shows. That way you can get the star power/fresh matchups you’re looking for, but also take out the pointlessness of it all.
The singles match is great & all, but Cesaro’s on commentary, then Sami Zayn wanders out to Sami Zayn everywhere, then Big E, then Shinsuke Nakamura because he has beef with *looks closer*… nobody there. I could practically hear Michael Cole warming up to scream which Sunday the Royal Rumble is taking place.
The ensuing six-man tag is nothing to write home about mainly because it’s so short & you’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop now that guys are showing up at random. I did like the momentary interaction between Cesaro & Nak as, get this, friendship prevailed! I kind of wish this match took us home instead as all these guys have a history with each other on the SmackDown side & Styles is more than welcome as a random addition.
Then Miz & Morrison run out with the clear goals of… heels, I guess? That brings along Otis who probably should’ve found them from the moment they appeared backstage complete with Kill Bill sirens blaring. Naturally, we end up in a nine-man tag match, because those are things. At this point, I’m thinking Teddy Long may have snuck into Sonya Deville’s office & stolen her phone, making tag match after tag match until we reach a World War III style affair. One of these days, Teddy.
Sheamus rolls through to even the odds & at this point the train is fully off the tracks. A little serendipitous I suppose as anthropomorphic choo choo train Braun Strowman returns to take everybody out. The announce team wondering aloud if he’s back for The Royal Rumble is legitimately funny to me. No, guys. He’s looking ahead to St. Valentine’s Day Massacre or whatever happens in February these days. Also, if you look closely enough, you can see all that momentum Cesaro was talking about having going into Sunday physically leave his body as Strowman Powerslams him repeatedly. It’s not necessarily good overall, but if they were looking to recreate the confusion & anarchy of a Rumble Match, well then, congratulations. You nailed it.
Anyway, please enjoy Big E with the sound strategy of going full Michael Nakazawa for The Rumble.
Crash Test Dommy
I’m not sure the whole Dominik Mysterio experiment is working. He’s shown flashes here & there, but most of the time it was in matches involving no disqualification where others could help carry the load like Rollins, Rey & Murphy. Between last week & especially this match, he needs a little more practice. For all the grieve we can give Corbin, it can’t be said the guy can’t put on a least a watchable match, so I think a lot of the issues are squarely on Dominik.
I think the main issue is the he’s just not a luchador despite being the son of perhaps the greatest one ever. He’s like a full foot or more taller & probably at least fifty pounds heavier, so trying to fly around for hurricanranas or those twisting tornado DDTs just doesn’t hit like they’re supposed to. It’d be like Otis throwing on a luchador mask & thinking he could all of a sudden do 450 Splashes. They’re probably better off just letting him do his own, more grounded style going forward instead of trying to emulate his much better father.
*Side eyes Ted DiBiase Jr.*
Overall
Worth Your Time: Bianca vs. Bayley, The Reigns & Owens interview
If You Have Time: The Second Hour Chain Of Matches
Don’t Waste Time: Corbin vs. Dominik
That’s our go-home show, friends. Pretty heavy on the go-home aspect, but still a lot to like. I’m not sure if you’ve heard but The Royal Rumble is this Sunday!! Be sure to stop by as we’ll have results & a review after the fact. Feel free to drop a comment below about how you’re feeling heading in or better yet, join our Discord & you can comment along to the show with myself & all our other members. There’s also still time to join & make your picks for our always fun Royal Rumble Challenge.
Hope to see you guys then & now if you’ll excuse me, I need to do some Steiner math & figure out how I finally win our Rumble Challenge this year. See you Sunday!!
