5 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (23 Jan - Results & Review)
1. Great Match, Great Finish!
The year is 2046. WWE boss Aurora Levesque has just booked a United States Title rematch between Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov. Together, the aging duo tear it up and leave fans breathless. Life is good. AI wrote the script for their promo exchange before the match. Sorry, couldn't resist that last gentle jibe.
Hayes ran it back vs. Dragunov on Friday's SmackDown. The bell to bell content of the match was excellent. There was a springboard DDT from Melo that grabbed a near fall and looked amazing, and the pair even spliced in some comedy on the ring apron; Ilja smiled through the pain and said he was having fun. Hayes: “What’s wrong with you?!”.
Some reading this may hate The Miz getting involved, but it fits his general involvement in the story (he has history with Carmelo, don't forget) and his bid to force respect back out of Hayes. The fact that Melo didn’t see his old partner's interference until watching a replay worked too. He was hot about Miz poking his nose in, as he should be.
Almost hilariously, Dragunov bled hardway yet again for the zillionth time. It seems that dude can't get through a match without dinging his eyebrow/nose/lip/ear/any other body part. Thankfully, the blood never takes away from his bouts or gets in the way. In fact, it adds to his own brand of pain theatre.
It looks like WWE plans to move away from the 'Open Challenge' thing and start a tri-pronged feud between Hayes, Ilja and Miz. Eventually, Dragunov should exit stage left and leave 'Melo Don't Miz' to thrash out their differences. Top match though.
What did you think of this week's WWE SmackDown? For more wrestling, check out 15 MORE Incredible WWE Attitude Era Moments Nobody Ever Talks About and 15 MORE Incredible WWE Ruthless Aggression Era Moments Nobody Ever Talks About!