I am very pissed right now. After watching last night’s Smackdown Live, I gave myself a night to cool down and try to move past what happened, but after waking up this morning, I realize I am still triggered and pissed at the happenings of last night proceedings.
Last night saw Big E and Xavier Woods of the New Day defeat a bevy of competent tag team talent so that Kofi Kingston can face Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship belt at WrestleMania. I was very happy, as it finally gave me a reason to watch this year’s Mania, because as I stated in my blog yesterday, many of the official matches on this year’s card (with all the convoluted, and most times idiotic changes in the storylines of these feuds) have left A LOT to be desired.
I mean they took a match (Becky vs Ronda for the RAW Women’s Championship) whose feud really started before Survivor Series in November (a match that was selling itself quite well from the promos and happening leading up to Survivor Series last year) which was still drudging on its way to Mania last year. The potential of this matchup for WrestleMania was steadily growing at a gargantuan rate at the very beginning of this year. They’ve taken this feud completely shit on it with the addition of Charlotte to make it a triple threat match. THEN creative makes a point of attempting to quell Becky’s massive natural push, by booking her to apologize to what really is in many ways the reconstituted “Authority”. Why would badass Becky Lynch…”THE MAN” apologize for a chance that she earned at the Royal Rumble, possibly being taken away by the “Authority” for idiotic reasons? NEXT, they have Becky, the one who actually earned her spot to challenge for the title, go through all these hoops in order to actually keep her earned spot. The storyline of this whole feud and match has gone from greatness and something the fans were hotly anticipating, to a crap show, and honestly damn Vince and creative for what they’ve done.
NEXT, they have Sanity, a wrestling faction (who includes Nikki Cross) come out on TV (which was the first time we’ve seen them on TV in months), and play bodyguards to recently turned heel Shane McMahon. Sanity, a faction that is all about wreaking havoc and chaos on the world of professional wrestling, playing the toady heels to Shane McMahon—that was ridiculous. Why not just devalue them more by having them be cowardly as well, why don’t ya! This was just another example that Vince and creative doesn’t seem to know what to do with their tag team division outside of The New Day, The Usos, and really the Bar.
Oh and that’s not the worst thing that happened this week on RAW and Smackdown! One of the most idiotic, stupendous and frankly disgusting things I’ve seen on Smackdown in years happened last night.
For much of last year, after losing to Charlotte at WrestleMania, Asuka was denigrated to the lower card loser’s locker room. Why you ask? Simply because she doesn’t speak English as a first language, much like the way Vince and Creative had been treating amazing wrestlers such as Becky Lynch, Shinsuke Nakamura and others who take the chance to come over here to work for this company. They do amazingly well in NXT, which was once the development promotion, but has quickly become the top promotion in the company. Once moving up to the main roster, Vince, Kevin Dunn and their creative just doesn’t know what to do with them, which is the dumbest thing I, as a longtime pro wrestling fan have ever seen. Instead of just continuing with the persona and groundswell of fans that the wrestlers have built while in NXT, Vince and company decide, “Oh NO! That’s not good enough. We haven’t put our own stank on them yet, so we can’t do that.” Sigh, I’m taking a deep breath.
Asuka, an amazing wrestler, who is most definitely on the same top shelf as the Four Horsewomen (Bayley, Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks), has so much talent and charisma that it’s literally oozing out of every pore. WWE and NXT fans had frankly been waiting with bated breath to cheer her on when she moved up to main. While in NXT and leading up to that WrestleMania match with Charlotte last year (which was me one of the matches of the night), Asuka was undefeated in the ring, and until the recent breaking of her record by NXT UK’s Pete Dunne, the longest reigning champion in NXT history, and deservedly so. What do they do with Asuka for the better part of last year, after she lost to Charlotte? They have her lose to almost everyone on the women’s roster—even wrestlers, who I’m sorry to say, should have gone back to developmental, or who should have been outright released years ago. This was the rule of the day until towards the end of the year when Vince realized that his audience actually love Asuka, and he decides to add her to the TLC match with Becky and Charlotte. Up until the night of the match, I honestly thought that they added Asuka so that she could eat the pin and keep both Becky and Charlotte strong, leading into Mania and the New Year. Imagine my utter shamazment and jubilation when Asuka actually won the match and became the Smackdown Live Women’s Championship. I actually cried tears of joy, and I know I’m not the only one.
Things were looking up for Asuka FINALLY. Next, she had to defend her belt against Becky Lynch at the Royal Rumble, which turned into the match of the night for many, which didn’t surprise me in the least, because I know the top shelf matches that these two can bring. I frankly didn’t expect anything less. After the Rumble, again Asuka is sunk into the doldrums of the mid-card having matches against opponents like the members of the Iconic Duo, who are very competent in the ring, and who are some of the better wrestlers on the current Women’s roster. At Fastlane, (which has widely been seen as a throwaway PPV), they had her wrestle Mandy Rose, in a storyline which 1) made no sense whatsoever, and 2) they had her wrestle someone who wasn’t ready for a title shot in any way, shape or fashion. Even dispute Asuka’s best efforts, the match was botchy and frankly boring, because (I’m sorry to say) of Mandy Rose. I would have preferred Asuka wrestle Sonya Deville, who is far better in the ring than Rose, and who’s quietly becoming one of the better wrestlers on the Women’s main roster.
In the final push to WrestleMania, fans like me had wondered who Vince and creative was going to have Asuka facing for her title at the “Show of Shows.” What do they do? Last night on Smackdown Live, Vince and creative staff decide that they would take the belt off of Asuka, and put it on Charlotte. Like I’ve said previous, Charlotte is an amazing, top shelf wrestler (as are all the Four Horsewomen), but she didn’t need to get the belt on her. There’s already high stakes involved in the match that she’d been put in for WrestleMania. She is a part of the first all-female main event for WrestleMania. Charlotte gaining the Smackdown Live Women’s Championship damn near right before the big show was not needed at all. I mean it is looking more and more like they are going to consolidate the RAW and Smackdown Live Women’s Championships, but I honestly think that’s stupid as well. Each show needs their own titles, especially since Smackdown Live is moving to Fox in October.
Asuka deserved to have a lengthy and legitimate title run with the Smackdown belt, especially after all the shit they put her through for the majority of last year. Really?! It was bad enough that they had her lose to Carmella, TWICE, because of ridiculous shenanigans from James Ellsworth. This is just as bad, if not worse. Just when it seems like the Creative have finally gotten their heads out of their asses, they go and do something like this.
Sigh, I just don’t understand the thinking of the Creative team of the main roster. I was so pissed at this result (regardless of how I feel about Charlotte) that I actually found myself apologizing to Asuka, even though I had nothing to do with it. Frankly, I was so pissed about the Asuka screw job that it frankly soured the win by the New Day at the end of the show last night. I was happy for Kofi, but it all felt so hollow to me because that win also came (even in a small way) at the expense of Asuka getting outrageously jobbed by creative.
I don’t know. What do you think? Did you like the title change last night? Have you liked the lead up to this year’s WrestleMania? Let me know in the comments below.
