WRESTLING WITH SMACKDOWN 9/10/19

Smackdown Live - 9/10/19 Madison Square Garden, NYC

Go Home show for Clash Of Champions this Sunday

Quick Results:

• The Miz defeated Andrade

• Nikki Cross defeated Mandy Rose

• Heavy Machinery defeated Johnny Silver & Alex Keaton

• Bayley defeated Ember Moon

• King Of The Ring Tournament: Chad Gable defeated Shane McMahon (replacing Elias) w/ Kevin Owens as Guest Referee

Highlights (or maybe Lowlights?):

• As on Raw the night before, Smackdown started out with The Undertaker making an appearance and cutting a promo. Ultimately, Taker had nothing of value to say and did no good for any younger talent. Even the involvement of Sami Zayn was useless and really didn't fit with his current gimmick of supporting Shinsuke Nakamura. While nostalgia pops for Legends and Hall Of Famers has it's place, it certainly can't be relied on to move the needle for long-term ratings and ticket sales.

• WWE tried really hard to make the storylines leading into Clash of Champions mean something but the majority have fallen flat. The Mandy Rose/Nikki Cross match started with a terrible promo from Rose saying she and Sonya Deville will win the Women's Tag Titles on Sunday "because I'm pretty and Nikki Cross is ugly!" This is what WWE considers to be the Women's Evolution? While it's true the Women's Tag Titles have not been taken seriously in any way since Wrestlemania, they have at least been featured on TV on a regular basis since Bliss Cross won them a little over a month ago. But this ridiculous storyline will do nothing but diminish the titles and the women that are involved with them. Hopefully, the shakeup that will be taking place in the writer's room will eventually do some good.

• Speaking of Clash of Champions, where were the Smackdown Tag Team Champions and their opponents for Sunday? The New Day and The Revival have been attached to the Orton/Kingston story and have had no build at all for their own match. These are two of the best tag teams of the last decade and they are severely looked over and under utilized. As of now, there is very little I'm looking forward to on the pay-per-view Sunday.

• I actually liked Shinsuke Nakamura sitting at commentary, answering questions posed at him in Japanese. I think it was a good heel tactic and really showed he doesn't need to be saddled with Sami Zayn as his mouthpiece. What I wasn't crazy about, however, was Corey Graves "translating" what Nakamura was saying as insults to Byron Saxton.

• Earlier in the day, it was announced that Elias had suffered an injury, breaking his ankle, and was unable to compete in his semi-final match against Chad Gable. In typical heel fashion, Shane McMahon volunteered himself as Elias' replacement. On top of that, he assigned Kevin Owens to be the Guest Referee and told Owens that if he "called the match correctly," Shane would remove Owens' fine. This whole angle did not work for me. Why is Kevin Owens' fine still an issue? The original infraction of Owens attacking referee Elias was several weeks ago. Since then, Owens apologized (which was terrible in itself) and still the fine is hanging over his head? This in turn led to Gable rolling up McMahon right away and Owens counting the pin. McMahon makes the match a 2-out-of-3 Falls match, but then, inexplicably, Owens now starts counting Gable's pins slowly or not at all. When Gable locked on the Ankle Lock for a tap out victory, Owens didn't even call for the bell. He just stood there and the timekeeper jumped the gun. This whole McMahon/Owens "feud" has completely gone off the rails and has completely diminished Kevin Owens steam. Remember 4-6 weeks ago when Kevin Owens was the hottest babyface in WWE? Not anymore. The show ended with McMahon attacking Owens and firing him. Hopefully, this will lead to some major retaliation from Owens.

• Oh and, by the way, Chad Gable has moved on to the finals of the King Of The Ring Tournament! We've said it before but Chad Gable is an incredible talent and should have had a major push a long time ago. Unfortunately, his current push is now being constantly called short, going into the finals of a tournament that has little to no meaning. He will be facing Baron Corbin on next week's Raw... Yes, you read that right. The finals of the tournament is no longer happening at Clash of Champions, as has been previously announced for the past month or so. Obviously, this tournament has significant meaning for the competitors, just not enough to take up valuable pay-per-view time.

I give this episode of Smackdown a low 2 out of 5. As always, the in ring action is good but the writing and booking are severely lacking. This show did nothing to make me excited for Clash of Champions on Sunday.