The last Smackdown Pay-Per-View before Wrestlemania took place on Sunday 12th February at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. We all know that Randy Orton will face the WWE Champion at Wrestlemania but who will that Champion be? Let's take a look.
The match on the Pre-Show is Curt Hawkins taking on Mojo Rawley. Hawkins gets the advantage early on and tries to win it by count out. Mojo hulks up and starts his comeback with punches and shoulder tackles. In the end, Rawley gets the win with a tilt-a-whirl powerslam. This was quite a decent match to start the show.
Winner: Mojo Rawley (0 for 1)
The first match of the event was Becky Lynch versus Mickie James. Mickie gets hit with a forearm on the outside before hitting an armbreaker on Becky when they go back into the ring. Mickie then focuses on the left arm before Becky makes her comeback. In the end, Becky goes for the Disarm-Her but Mickie reverses it into a pin. I thought this was a good match between the two.
Winner: Mickie James (0 for 2)
Next is Apollo Crews and Kalisto taking on Dolph Ziggler in a handicap match. Ziggler attacks Kalisto during his entrance, making it a 1-on-1 match between Crews and Ziggler. The match goes back and forth before Kalisto comes back down. They then go to get the win after Kalisto does a roundhouse kick followed by a spin out powerbomb by Crews. Afterwards Ziggler takes out Kalisto then injures Crews' ankle with a chair. The match was quite short but I thought that it was pretty decent.
Winner: Apollo Crews and Kalisto (0 for 3)
We now get the Tag Team Turmoil match for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship. The first two teams were Heath Slater and Rhyno and Breezango. Breezango get eliminated when Fandango grts hit with a Gore by Rhyno. The Vaudevillians were next and they got eliminated thanks to a DDT by Slater. The Usos come in next and they eliminate Slater and Rhyno thanks to Jimmy Uso hitting a super kick on Slater. Next to come down were the Champions American Alpha and they eliminate The Usos after Chad Gable pins Jey Uso. The Usos don't take that well and they beat the fuck out of American Alpha The last team team to come down were The Ascension and, even though they hit the Fall of Man on on Jason Jordan, they end up losing after Viktor gets hit with Grand Amplitude and American Alpha get the win. This was an enjoyable match but I wonder if American Alpha comimg out earlier would have made it better.
Winners: American Alpha (1 for 4)
We now get our 2nd Women's match of the night as Nikki Bella takes on Natalya. After some back and forth, Natalya sends Nikki into the ring post. Natalya then goes on to beat down Nikki while shouting at the crowd. Nikki starts her comeback and comes close after hitting a spinebuster. In the end, they brawl to the outside and they both ended up getting counted out. Except for the ending, I thought this was a good match. I thought they would continue this feud until Wrestlemania. However, it ended a couple of weeks later and it looks like Nikki will be joining John Cena and feuding with Hollywood Miz and Maryse instead.
Winner: Double Countout (1 for 5)
Next is Randy Orton versus Luke Harper. Orton back suplexes Harper onto the announce table then proceeds to beat down on him. Harper does manage a mount a comeback and does a back suplex, sending Orton onto the same announce table. However, Orton goes on to win after countering a discus clothesline to hit a RKO. This was a match of two halves for me. For a long portion of it, it wasn't very interesting. However, it seemed to get a lot better with some really good spots.
Winner: Randy Orton (2 for 6)
The penultimate match is Naomi challenging Alexa Bliss for the Samckdown Women's Champion. Alexa initially doesn't take Naomi seriously, which almost cost her the match. Despite Alexa beating Naomi for a while, Naomi counters the Twisted Bliss and hits a split legged moonsault to get the win and become Champion...? Wait, what? Wow, I honestly didn't see that coming. Naomi has improved a lot over the last couple of years but I didn't see her becoming Champion for a long while yet. I would say that it would be interesting to see where it goes. However, a few days later, Naomi had to vacate the Championship due to injury and Alexa regained it after beating Becky Lynch.
Winner: Naomi (2 for 7)
The main event is the Elimination Chamber for the WWE Championship. The Champion John Cena will be taking on Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles, Hollywood Miz, Baron Corbin and Bray Wyatt. Cena and Styles start the match and then Ambrose, Wyatt, Corbin and The Miz enter the cage in that order. Corbin is the first to be eliminated when Ambrose rolls him up. Corbin doesn't take that well and beats up Ambrose. Miz seizes the opportunity and pins Ambrose to eliminate him. Cena then eliminates Miz with an AA. After Cena and Styles trade blows, Cena goes to hit the AA on Wyatt. However, Wyatt goes out of it and hits Sister Abigail to eliminate Cena; then goes on to hit another Sister Abigail on Styles to win the match and become WWE Champion.
Holy shit!! I know that I predicted Wyatt to win but I didn't actually think that he would win. Up until quite recently, I was getting sick of Wyatt. He seemed to be the doing the same shit for years and always lose the big matches. Orton joining the Wyatts was a surprise and it seemed that it was going somewhere. They became the Tag Team Champions briefly and Orton went on to win the Rumble and Wyatt is WWE Champion. It initially looked like it was going to be Wyatt vs Orton at Wrestlemania. Instead, Orton declines and after a battle royal and a match with Luke Harper, AJ Styles became number one contender. Later that night, Orton declares that joining the Wyatts was this master plan(?) and burns down the Wyatt Compound, exhuming Sister Abigailin the process. Can someone remind me why I would be cheering Orton for that, because what he did was evil as fuck? Anyway, well done to Bray Wyatt.
Winner: Bray Wyatt (3 for 8)
I quite enjoyed Elimination Chamber as a lot of matches were fun to watch. It looks like we will be getting some interesting matches from Smackdown for Wrestlemania. Let's see hoe RAW does at Fastlane.
No comments:
Post a Comment