WWE SmackDown Ratings, Viewership (5/16/17): Another New Low For 2017
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Author: editor
The Taz Show Recap – Smackdown Analysis, Is Rusev Disgruntled? What Was the Best Part of Smackdown? More!
Block 1:
A listener calls in to open today’s show, saying he’s really looking forward to watching Backlash this weekend. The caller also hopes that the United States Title match between Kevin Owens and A.J. Styles main events the show. Taz says that he can understand that opinion, because those two guys can potentially steal the show, however he thinks Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal are going to have a great match as well.
Taz says that he didn’t like WWE’s utilization of Kevin Owens last night. He doesn’t believe that Owens should be stealing Chris Jericho’s gimmicks, and he thinks that Owens should be standing on his own because he’s better than this. Taz assumes that Jericho will be returning sooner than later and these two guys will revisit their feud, but Taz wonders how long WWE can drag out this program. It has already been ongoing for multiple months, and it doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon.
A listener calls into the show and says that reforming The Shield is the only way that Roman Reigns is going to get over as a babyface with the WWE Universe. Taz disagrees and says reforming The Shield right now would be admitting defeat and would be a step back for Reigns and the company as a whole. He believes that turning Reigns full heel for a year or more would eventually result in the audience getting on Reigns’ side, then the company can flip him back to babyface.
Reason Why Nakamura Should Lose At WWE Backlash
The hype behind the upcoming Backlash pay-per-view is thanks to one man, Shinsuke Nakamura. He arrived on the Smackdown Live brand two nights after Wrestlemania. He has been involved in promos and a lot of loud fan chants, but has yet to have a single match. That changes on Sunday when he takes on the Show-Off, Dolph Ziggler.
Now the potential behind this match is beyond belief. Ziggler is one of the best performers in the company regardless of his win-loss record. Putting a talent like him against someone as gifted as Nakamura is going to be magic. Most people are expecting Nakamura to win the bout, as they should. With the way Nakamura has been promoted, it wouldn’t make any sense for him to lose his very first match on the main roster to a mid-card heel who is floundering around.
Or would it?
Why Titus O’Neil Is One of the Best Parts of RAW Right Now
The Titus Brand bandwagon (Brandwagon?) is coming this way, and I am here to say that I will be climbing aboard. The man used to be a reason to reach for the fast-forward button. Now he’s one of the more entertaining members of the roster. It took a while, but Titus O’Neil has found his niche on the roster. But why is the Titus Brand now a big deal? Allow me to explain.
Titus O’Neil Has Always Been Capable on the Mic
After Titus cut that dreadful promo on Raw after Summerslam (you know the one I’m talking about), everyone said he was hot garbage on the microphone. That’s simply not true. When he would work commentary, many praised him for his wit and good speaking ability. He sounded very natural. Barring the return of the Dudleys where he spent a good amount of time yelling incoherently, he was good.
Batista himself has said Titus would make a very good public speaker. I do think Titus is a good speaker. However, he’s better off staying away from those dead-serious promos. The reason the “I want Darren” promo sucked is because you could tell Titus was out of his element. When you watch him trying to earn a spot in the New Day or pushing his Titus Brand, he’s clearly more comfortable and more natural sounding. You have to play to a superstar’s strengths. You wouldn’t make Stone Cold cut a John Cena promo. Roman Reigns should avoid talking like Santino Marella. Bayley should avoid talking at all (I jest).
Now that Titus is having his strengths played to, he’s clearly better off. You can tell that he’s having fun. Dancing with the New Day, stealing Enzo Amore’s intro for himself, and all that jazz.
The Titus Brand Is Hilarious
Of course, humor is subjective, but many people, myself included, enjoy Titus’ segments on Raw. Ever since he moved away from Darren Young and began holding press conferences with Tom Phillips, he’s been a good bit of harmless fun. The “Tussle in Texas” was a particularly entertaining bout. It was hyped up as a legit fight, complete with a tale of the tape. 1 minute later, Titus is pinned after eating a World’s Strongest Slam from Mark Henry.
The addition of Apollo Crews to the Titus Brand will make for an even more interesting dynamic. Clearly Crews isn’t 100 percent on-board with the Brand. Still, he goes along with whatever wacky adventure Titus drags him to. Although O’Neil is very clearly a heel (a heel who just called the state of New Jersey “poor ass”), Crews is not entirely bad just yet. Titus receives all the heat, all while allowing Crews to slowly develop a character.
People have compared the two to LaVar and Lonzo Ball. To those who don’t know, Lonzo Ball is a Drake lookalike who many expect will be drafted in the next NBA Draft. LaVar is his loudmouth father who gets into all sorts of trouble. The comparison is there, and it works. Lonzo just wants to chill and play basketball, but LaVar keeps running his mouth and hyping him up as the Second Coming of Jesus. Same with O’Neil and Crews. Apollo just wants to wrestle and have fun, while Titus spews a whole lot of nonsense.
NoDQ Video #958: Why Balor lost to Reigns
Here is the latest edition of my Q&A video series. You can submit questions for future videos on my Twitter page and make sure to use the hashtag #RoadToNoDQ1000.
You can leave a comment or question below and I’ll try to respond to as many people as possible!
Click here for the t-shirt page!
Former WWE Superstar Shelly Martinez Blames Depression on Batista
Former WWE Superstar Shelly Martinez announced on YouTube that she will be retiring from professional wrestling after this year.
“I’ve slowed down a lot but I haven’t retired yet but based on me just keep trying to make freaking wrestling work..”
She continued, “The time has definitely come and one of the signs that I know that wrestling is done for me is a couple. I’ve been having a real hard time these last couple of months and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ has been promoted and now is out. For those of you that know that me and Dave Bautista got in a fight backstage, that’s how I got fired – so it’s been interesting for me to drive around town and I see Dave Batista’s face everywhere.”
“There’s a lot of healing that I did through all of that but I was finding myself getting depressed. I would wonder why am I depressed and I would backtrack my day and a lot of times it was triggered by Batista.”
She then said that if she didn’t get fired then she probably wouldn’t live where she lives now and she probably wouldn’t have met her boyfriend if she had stayed with WWE. She said she is thankful for what she has now but she is “tired of the BS and I’m tired of the fake and phoniness” from the wrestling business.
Charlotte Appearing on the Next Season of Total Divas?
With Eva Marie not returning for the 7th season of Total Divas, WWE is interviewing other active female Superstars for the role on the show.
According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, Charlotte is one of the females have have been interviewed to join the cast of the upcoming season. A handful of other females have been interviewed as well however we are unable to confirm those names at this time.
In regards to Paige appearing on the next season, her status is unknown at this time. Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Natalya and Naomi are a lock for the upcoming season.
Reason Rusev Didn’t Appear on SmackDown Live Tonight
WWE announced on last week’s episode of SmackDown Live that Rusev would be returning on tonight’s show. For those who watched the show tonight would have noticed that he never appeared despite being advertised in their 5-point preview on WWE.com earlier today.
Rusev revealed on Twitter that he was at the Nashville Predators’ NHL game instead.
It’s very possible that he is using that excuse as part of storyline. We will keep you updated.
The Taz Show Recap – Raw Analysis, Rollins’ Set For A Big Year, Presentation of Finn Balor, More!
Block 1:
Taz opens today’s show by discussing Braun Strowman’s elbow injury. Taz says that he believes WWE made a mistake by showing Strowman in the hospital bed on RAW last night, as he thought it made Strowman look too ‘human’. He also doesn’t think that Strowman will be out for 6 months like WWE has announced.
He doesn’t think that Roman Reigns will win the Fatal 5-way match at Extreme Rules, because he believes Reigns will go right back into another match with Strowman when he returns from his injury. Taz thinks Strowman’s recovery time will be closer to 2 months than the 6 that WWE announced.
A listener calls into the show and says he enjoyed Goldust turning on R-Truth on last night’s show. Taz says that this is a ‘C’ angle, and WWE needs to have those angles in order to keep everyone relevant. He says that having captivating angles throughout the entire roster is what made the attitude era so successful in his opinion.
Another listener calls into the show and says that both Alexa Bliss and A.J. Styles had good years last year as rookies, and he wonders if that gives WWE the confidence to push talent quicker. Taz says that wrestling is a work, and Bliss and Styles had good years last year because the company pushed them. If WWE has faith in a performer, they’re going to book them to win more matches than they lose.