The WWE Smackdown Reaction for 9/24/21
Welcome to the Smackdown Reaction, where I offer my take on this week’s show in Philadelphia. As always, you can check out John’s full in-depth report here.
Promo Time with Becky Lynch kicks us off. Lynch tried her hardest to sell the Smackdown Women’s Championship match for Extreme Rules in the home of extreme. Lynch also talked about what had happened last week doing Bianca’s Homecoming celebration. Belair finally shows up to offer a counter point and ends the segment by laying Lynch out with the KOD. The promo was good enough for the final hype before Extreme Rules.
Our opening contest tonight has King Nakamura defending the Intercontinental Championship against Apollo Crews. The match was pretty good for the time given to them. The highlight of the match was when Rick Boogs took down Commander Azeez with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. That was simply amazing to see. If only Omos knew how to bump like that. It might make him interesting. Anyway, Nakamura picked up the win with an armbar rolling into the pin. It didn’t feel like a feud-ending victory to me, so we may see another rematch soon.
Backstage, Montez Ford cut a promo on The Bloodline and insulted them. Roman Reigns, speaking to Paul Heyman, demanded a match with Ford and got it. There’s something fresh for a change.
Seth Rollins also cut a promo backstage demanding an answer from Edge for his challenge. Edge would answer later, “See you next week.” I feel like he should have stayed out a little longer to sell the neck injury angle. Oh well.
Liv Morgan is out for her match against Zelina Vega. Logic would dictate that Morgan would have won since she has the PPV match on Sunday. However, Logic was released in 2006 and Vega won. Wow, Vega actually won a match. I sure didn’t see that coming.
Up next is Happy Talk with Happy Corbin. Is there something backstage that says if they cannot figure out what to do with them, we’ll just give them a talk show segment? It wasn’t even a decent talk show. It was terrible and felt like we were being punished for something. Corbin is still very boring on the mic. Kevin Owens comes out to end our suffering but he gets jumped by a returning Riddick Moss. Moss and Corbin beat Owens down and I guess this is what we’ll have to see until his contract expires. Poor KO.
Nikki A.S.H. takes on Natalya in singles action, with their respective tag partners at ringside. We get a disappointing Two Minute Smack Down with Nikki winning. After the match, someone realized that Shotzi and Nox never got their tag title match so they were sent out on the tank to shoot the nerf missile at the new tag champs.
Dominik Mysterio told Rey he wanted to grow on his own and Sami Zayn appeared after Rey left to offer advice to young Dominik. I don’t think this is going to work the way they want it to.
Naomi is out for her match against…Security? Sonya Deville shows up and has security escort Naomi out. Just what we needed, another not GM feud. Deville’s angle with Flair went nowhere, so I don’t have too high of hopes here.
It’s main event time with Roman Reigns taking on Montez Ford in a one-on-one match. The match was really good and Ford showed that he does have a future as a singles main event talent. I could see a World Title run for him as well. If you didn’t see the match, go seek it out. It is worth the time. In the end, Reigns put Ford down with the Guillotine Choke to pick up the win. After the match, The Usos showed up and did a three-on-one beat down until the lights went out. When they came back up, “The Demon” Finn Balor was on the top rope and took The Bloodline down with a cross body block. Demon beat up The Bloodline with a kendo stick before introducing a chair to Reigns. Demon wipes the Usos out with some near headshot chair shots before wiping Reigns out with a dive to close the show.
Let’s look at tonight’s highs and lows.
The Highs
Montez Ford proved tonight that he can be a main event player if given the chance. I see big things for him in the future. Perhaps we could do a Money in the Bank win in a year or two? Either way, I think WWE finally made a new star tonight.
The Lows
For the second week in a row, the women’s matches were roughly two minutes apiece. Raw has been also trending lately in the old two to three minute realm. Let’s hope it does not become standard practice again. Didn’t they learn anything the last time?
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In case you missed it, I got to participate in the Extreme Rules Preview which you can find here.
Hit me up on Facebook or Twitter (@ciscowebwiz76) anytime with feedback or discussion. That’s all I’ve got, until next time.