5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Feb 16)
2. SmackDown In General
SmackDown really is a strange and woeful show at times.
This week, it yet again plagiarised RAW 24 hours after the fact by booking two men into the main event of the next pay-per-view. As with Finn Bálor and Seth Rollins entering the Elimination Chamber, both Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin will make up the numbers in a Fatal 5-Way at Fastlane following victories over Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, respectively. Incidentally, the 'Kami' tandem went full Screech Powers on the geek-o-meter. Not only did they deliver a woefully ineffective beatdown to the Lone Wolf - who prior to Tuesday night, was more a less a serial loser - they once more failed to strategise effectively. Attacking a fellow wrestler invariably ends in a match. If they'd just let Ziggler and Corbin - who by themselves are clearly no threat - duke it out, they'd, in WWE math, have a 50% chance of winning the match, as opposed to 40%. If they can cleanly lose to two guys even worse than them - after they'd been weakened - what are we meant to make of them? And what are we to make of the now completely redundant Top 10 list?
It's hard to parse, this: without full knowledge of the creative process, we're left to ponder two possibilities: was a RAW and SmackDown summit held, at which point nobody pointed out the repetition, or did Road Dogg et al. simply watch RAW and think: that'll do? Also: this was Dolph's big return? He vacated a title in order to stand little chance - in the fiction of WWE, mind you - of obtaining another?
For a brief time, Ziggler, when teaming with Kerwin White, entered arenas to the strains of 'Never Thought My Life Could Be This Good'. His life was better then than it is now, and he played the f*cking caddy of the worst gimmick ever.