Whose stupid idea was it to change Cesaro’s entrance music? +++ Bo Dallas just started another inspirational streak +++ Trash talking Paige is best for business +++ What’s in your back pocket, Dean? +++ Y2J can’t look the interviewer in the eye +++ Where was Damien Sandow as Adam Rose?
Whose stupid idea was it to change Cesaro’s entrance music?
This episode of SmackDown started with the match I was looking forward to for a very long time now: Jack Swagger vs Cesaro, former tag team partners and now on very much different sides. You’ll always have more intense matches when two former tag team partners fight against each other in a one-on-one match. Well, with Zeb Colter still on Swagger’s side, this wasn’t really a one-on-one match. And that was proven later on when Colter distracted Cesaro for Swagger getting the win after almost six minutes. But I had two major problems with this segment, I will go into detail with right now:
- Cesaro’s new entrance arrangement.
Seriously, who decided that it would be better for Cesaro to come out to (European) ambulance sirens instead of the former tornado sirens? I didn’t like the sirens at all when Cesaro split from the Real Americans. But I got used to it and recently really liked it. Maybe, WWE wanted to bring back just another European touch into Cesaro’s gimmick; maybe it would be enough just to bring back his old Swiss t-shirt. Other guys loved to wear it in the past; and I can only speak for myself but I’d most certainly buy it, even if it’s considered to be an “old” shirt. It’s still far better than Cesaro’s current merchandize combined. Just, please, go back to the tornado sirens! With the still ongoing climate change, we’ll soon have tornados in Europe as well as you over there in America! - Cesaro’s status.
A match between both men right after their split would have been great. But this match tonight was only about Swagger getting the win to built his ongoing feud with Rusev and their match at SummerSlam. I’ve read that big things are planned with Cesaro and Heyman, probably a match against Brock Lesnar. But I’ve already heard about these “big plans” after he’d won this Andre-the-Giant trophy. Everything went down for Cesaro after this victory. But right now it looks to me like WWE hasn’t got any idea what to do with Cesaro. What about this: make him the snob European, proud about himself, getting William Regal as manager and feud with Brock Lesnar & Paul Heyman. Just imagine their verbal battles! But maybe, William Regal likes NXT too much – and who could blame him for that.
The match tonight against Swagger had Cesaro almost back to his recent violent self. But not too exaggerated which was good. Swagger had to eat some big boots and quite some bitchslapping by Cesaro. But then, like I’ve already written, Colter distracted Cesaro and Swagger could set his Patriot Lock to Cesaro for the latter to tap out. But this was just the preliminary program to the main event of this segment: because Lana came out with Rusev, of course. And her talk was all about the flags again. Certainly, at the end she had to challenge Colter and his client / friend / partner / whoever for a Flag Match at SummerSlam which Colter happily accepted. But, unfortunately, that won’t be flag waving from start to finish but who’ll get their hands on the other guy’s flag. It’s probably not that porn oriented like it sounds like.
Bo Dallas just started another inspirational streak
The next one inside the ring for a promo was Randy Orton. Certainly he was about to “explain” his violent beat-down on Roman Reigns at latest RAW. I just don’t know why creatives do such segments that don’t need any explanation while others remain pretty unclear. Like why exactly Seth Rollins joined The Authority. I’m still waiting for that explanation. But what Orton had to say as an explanation was pretty clear beforehand: Reigns robbed him for the opportunity to be champion plus getting his match against Brock Lesnar. So, anything else than him beating Reigns senseless would have surprised me. There was no explanation needed. The only reason for this segment was to talk about Reigns again and to hype his match against Orton at SummerSlam. It didn’t really work so far.
The next match was the re-match between Bo Dallas and R-Truth. The latter had already beaten Bo Dallas and – most importantly – broke the streak. So, now Bo got his chance to do better than the last time. But he lost again because he couldn’t control his temper to gift R-Truth a win due to disqualification. That’s now Two-on-Boo, right? Means, this is the start of another streak, JBL certainly won’t hype that enthusiastically as he did with Bo’s winning streak. I count on you, Michael Cole!
Trash talking Paige is best for business
The match between AJ Lee and Rosa Mendes wasn’t really memorable, except for the fun fact maybe that Rosa Mendes demanded a title match from AJ Lee. Within just sixteen seconds, AJ Lee proved to her opponent that she wasn’t anywhere near to demand something like that from her. What was more important was what happened after these sixteen seconds (I refuse to refer to this as an actual match again!): AJ Lee was making her victorious skipping back to the ramp when out of nowhere Paige attacked her. She then yelled at AJ Lee that they were both still friends and that doctors weren’t really needed. I enjoyed these far more than sixteen seconds very much.
What’s in your back pocket, Dean?
Then, we relived the Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins feud with another backstage promo by Dean Ambrose. Once again, I’ve learned another English word: chaperone, i.e. a person who accompanies and looks after another person or group of people. I knew the word “chap” but I didn’t know that there actually is a longer / full version. At least, this word very much describes Kane best at the moment. And Seth Rollins, later on in the match, acted just like this. But more on the match later on this page. Because before that I have to talk about something more important: this white little something, Dean Ambrose had in the back pocket of his jeans. I’ve already read one or two conspiracy theories out there all over the internet and thought about myself, of course.
First of all (to lead you through my thinking process, all you Sherlock Holmes’ out there): this white paper (that was obvious that it had to be paper. I think we can all agree on this indication) stuck into his pocket like this already before the match started. So, he must have stuck it there like this backstage. Maybe, he just received it from a not known person and wasn’t able to get it back to his stuff in the locker room. Another possibility, of course, is that it was something he carries with him all the time when he’s in a match. And only this time, we got to see it because he didn’t hide it like any other time. So much for the assumptions. Now for the conclusions / possibilities what this white paper could have been. I’ve decided to make a poll, so all you people who come to this blog can vote for your preferred option. You can also add your very own conspiracy theory in the appropriate area. I’m looking forward so some interesting suggestions:
Now for the match itself: it only lasted for around six and a half minutes but it added another interesting chapter to this feud. Both, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, met first at Money In The Bank inside a ring after the Shield break-up. Now, it was only for the second time and still, Dean Ambrose couldn’t get a one-on-one match. Kane indeed was there to protect Seth Rollins. And Rollins himself did a great job as the heel coward, only able to act superior when Dean Ambrose was beaten up by Kane before.
Because, tonight, Kane was able to beat up Dean Ambrose on several occasions. Then, Seth Rollins tagged in to mock his former tag team partner but only for Dean Ambrose to hit back very soon, so Seth Rollins fled the ring for another tag out. So, the finish was quite inevitable: since Dean Ambrose now lost quite some matches through disqualification when Seth Rollins was around, this match was no difference. He organized himself a chair, hit Kane with it and went for Seth Rollins just the way Seth had betrayed his former brothers almost exactly two months ago. He could also overcome a chokeslam by Kane, hit him with Dirty Deeds into the chair. But couldn’t make it to Seth Rollins who had already made his way to the ramp to witness Dean Ambrose destroying Kane.
So, all this is only over when Seth Rollins will have finally cashed in his MITB contract and Dean Ambrose getting his clear win over him. That won’t happen at SummerSlam but we’ll hopefully get a first one-on-one match between these two.
Y2J can’t look the interviewer in the eye
The next segment was a backstage interview with Chris Jericho. He promoted his main event match later tonight that came up with the stipulation that, when he would beat Erick Rowan, the man would be banned from ringside for Jericho’s match against Bray Wyatt at SummerSlam. I haven’t noticed that before, maybe it’s the way Jericho does his backstage promos and interviews but I personally find it a bit strange when people don’t look others in the eyes when they talk to them. I need to further investigate this case.
After that we got another surreal backstage promo with Stardust & Goldust, followed by a short match between Fandango and Diego (w/ El Torito, Summer Rae & Layla). Seriously, when Summer Rae and Layla started to dance with El Torito, my facial expressions mirrored the ones of Fandango. Not surprisingly, Fandango was distracted for his loss against Diego shortly after. And another match happened before the main event match of the evening: Alberto Del Rio vs Dolph Ziggler. Of course, Mizzz was on commentary, later on distracted Ziggler with an acceptance speech for the IC title on the announcers table. And Alberto Del Rio won the match via tap-out by Ziggler after almost four minutes.
Where was Damien Sandow as Adam Rose?
I have to confess that I wasn’t very much into this match between Chris Jericho and Erick Rowan. I still like Jericho; I just don’t find anything interesting about his feud with Bray Wyatt. His match against Luke Harper was good. But when he was banned from ringside tonight because of him interfering into the match, this match was pretty much dead for me. In the end, Jericho got his Codebreaker an Rowan after eleven and a half minutes for the win. Surprisingly, Bray Wyatt didn’t interfere to cause disqualification. Maybe because Luke Harper wasn’t at ringside anymore, so he would have had to deal with Jericho on his own. Consequently, when Jericho challenged Bray Wyatt for an immediate match, he backed off to finish SmackDown with just some staring at each other.
And, yes, like the headline might suggest: there was a segment with Damien Sandow coming out as Adam Rose. And Adam Rose himself had one of these short matches against his alter ego. Only WWE thought it would be cool not to show it on television. This is what I call burying. I hope, I’m wrong.
PS.
The latest edition of 30-Second Fury by WWE was dedicated to Dean Ambrose. Enjoy:
The Gifs for this review are brought to you by antidivaschamp / stellarollins / dean-ambrose-net.
Eire + Alba 
