WWE Smackdown Recap (23rd May 2017)


We start the show with Shane McMahon saying that Randy Orton will get his title rematch at Money In The Bank. He also announces that the MITB match will be between Styles, Zayn, Corbin, Ziggler and Nakamura. Owens was annoyed at being left out because there were wrestlers that lost at Backlash involved. Shane decided that he was right and put him in there. He announces Zayn vs Corbin and Styles & Nakamura vs Owens & Ziggler for tonight. As opening segments go this did what it needed to.

Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch vs Carmella & Natalya - This was better than the match at Backlash but it still had some boring bits in it. The faces pick up the win because of 50/50 booking.

Baron Corbin vs Sami Zayn - Roll up. Pin. 15 seconds. Following the match Corbin beats down Sami until he has to be stretchered out. 

Backstage AJ welcomes Nakamura to Smackdown. 

We get another Fashion Files. This time Shane is with them. Breezango thinks Shane wants them to hand over their badges and guns. Shane tells them they aren't really police. He says they will both be in singles matches against the Usos tonight.

Next up is a celebration of new WWE Champion Jinder Mahal. He gets the full Punjab experience and WWE don't make fun of it or minimise it's impact in any way. Nobody even comes down to interrupt him. It's a refreshing surprise. It wasn't spectacular but it did it's job nicely.

Tyler Breeze vs Jey Uso - Fandango sprays Jey with water, Breeze rolls him up. Second rapid roll up finish of the night.

Fandango vs Jimmy Uso - And the third rapid roll up finish of the night. 3 matches in a row in fact.

Breezango want a tag team rematch and the Usos accept.

The Usos vs Breezango - This was a short but fun match. I preferred it to their match at Backlash. The finishing sequence was great, with one of the Usos hitting a splash after Fandango had hit the leg drop.

We get a backstage segment where all of the women's division asks for title shots and Shane books a 5-way elimination match. It's a messy segment with everyone talking over each other. On a separate note WWE seems to have booked more 5 and 6-way matches in the last year than in the rest of it's history combined.

AJ Styles & Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kevin Owens & Dolph Ziggler - You are probably looking at this match and thinking this has to be great. Nope. I'm not saying it's bad, it definitely isn't, but like Nakamura's match at Backlash this does nothing to make him stand out as anything special. It also felt long, because it was, for a TV tag match. It just felt like they were being overly safe. It is nice to see Nakamura and Styles working together though.

Thoughts

This was not as good as Raw. Smackdown just seems to have taken it's foot off the gas a bit recently. Having said that it was good to see Jinder get his moment without Orton getting in his way. They also set up some matches for MITB.

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