WWE Backlash 2017 Preview & Betting Odds

The first SmackDown PPV since WrestleMania is upon us as Backlash takes place in the Allstate Arena in Chicago this evening. The seven weeks since the Grandaddy of them All has been interesting for the blue brand to say the very least, but what can we expect tonight from the SmackDown crew? Let's take a look. 

United States Championship - AJ Styles v Kevin Owens (C) 

The US title appears to be being positioned a lot higher up the card than we've seen in previous years, as Styles and Owens look set to main event Backlash with the red, white and blue strap on the line. The feud between the pair hasn't had much time to get into full swing, with Owens still focused on his old rival Chris Jericho, however I doubt that will have much effect on what should be an incredible match between two of WWE's top performers over the last twelve months. There was a time when Styles and Owens held the top two titles in WWE last year, so they'll both be looking to prove that they deserve to be back in contention for the top belts and should push each other even harder than usual. Owens could do with a prolonged spell with a belt, as trading the title back and forth with Jericho heading out of WrestleMania and the belt itself could do with a period of time around one guys waist, so I'm expecting Owens to walk in and out of Chicago as champion. The notoriously vocal Chicago audience should add an extra dimension and help produce a match that we'll be talking about for quite some time.

Betting Odds

Owens - 8/15 
Styles - 11/8

Dolph Ziggler v Shinsuke Nakamura 

Personally, I've not been a massive fan of how Shinsuke Nakamura's call-up has been handled. Him turning up on the post-WrestleMania SmackDown to interrupt The Miz produced a very cool moment, but since then as he's been shifted into a feud with Dolph Ziggler that hasn't exactly caught the imagination, with a series of segments involved Nakkers coming out and doing his entrance and not a whole lot else. If the plan wasn't to showcase Nakamura's real strength, his in-ring ability, until Backlash, I would have preferred to have seen a match announced between the two and then had Ziggler carry the programme on the strength of his mic-work, whilst ploughing through some lower card fodder or even local competitors. The quality of this bout will hinge on how much of a showcase it is for Nakamura. I'd like to see a much more balanced bout with Ziggler allowed to get some heat on the former NXT Champion, but I fear we may just a get a simple squash bout, which won't allow anyone unfamiliar with the Japanese star to fully grasp why Shinsuke is such a special talent. 

Betting Odds

Ziggler - 10/1
Nakamura - 1/33

Sami Zayn v Baron Corbin 

Perhaps surprisingly, this will be the first Zayn v Corbin bout that the WWE has aired, as despite numerous matches on live events in NXT and WWE since 2015, the two have never squared off in front of the cameras. The feud has been pretty simple since Zayn's move to SmackDown, with Corbin assaulting Sami on Talking Smack and building from there. Zayn has always worked best when fighting from underneath and this contest will give him plenty of opportunity to do so against an opponent almost half a foot taller and over 60 lbs heavier. Corbin has come into his own as a wrestler since moving up from NXT, but has yet to have a memorable singles bout that could potentially push him to the next level, so I'm interested to see if he takes the opportunity that is presented to him here. These two are more than capable of putting on a good match and with the right balance and attention they should be able to shine at Backlash. I'm expecting a Corbin victory, ahead of a big push, that could see the Lone Wolf grab the Money in the Bank briefcase next month.

Betting Odds 

Corbin - 1/5
Zayn - 100/30

Luke Harper v  Erick Rowan 

We saw these two lads feud back in late 2014/early 2015, as part of the larger Authority angle, with Rowan bizarrely taking on the babyface role of "Big Red". This most recent development seems to have come out of WWE having nothing much else for the two after Bray Wyatt moved to RAW and hasn't been particularly inspiring, beyond Rowan's creepy appearance on Talking Smack last week. Rowan picked up a win over Harper in four minutes a few week's ago on SmackDown, with very few signs that we should get excited about a potential rematch. Harper has shown against Randy Orton and Dolph Ziggler that he could be much more useful to WWE, so maybe we'll see Rowan step up to provide a big hoss battle against his more accomplished former Wyatt Family brother. Luke should get his win back here and I expect both will be slotted into the Money in the Bank Ladder match next month.

Betting Odds 

Harper - 1/5
Rowan - 100/30

SmackDown Tag Team Championship - Breezango v The Usos (C)

The spotlight that Tyler Breeze and Fandango have been given since becoming #1 Contenders in a Beat the Clock Challenge at the end of April has finally given both men the opportunity to show-off their character work and entertain the masses and the pair have ran with it, creating a series of comedic skits involving their Fashion Police gimmick. The Usos have also upped their game on the mic, bringing their thuggish gimmick up a notch, in a series of promos. Now it's time for the two teams to show us what they can do in a match together. Both duos have the talent to put on a belter of a match and with Chicago expected to be well behind Breezango, this match could give the talent strong, but investment weak, tag team division a much needed boost. I'd love to see Tyler Breeze and Fandango give the blue leather titles a makeover, but I think we'll see The Usos hold onto them for the time being. 

Betting Odds

Breezango - 100/30 
Usos - 1/5

WWE Championship - Randy Orton (C) v Jinder Mahal

The WWE Championship match finds itself towards the end of this preview, because the thing I'm most interested in seeing is how Chicago reacts to it, even more so after Orton's Twitter rants. Jinder Mahal got a title shot outta nowhere, winning a random Six Man bout on SmackDown and then being joined by the Singh Brothers to perform an anti-American gimmick. After spending most of 2017 to that point putting over the New Day, Enzo & Cass and Mojo Rawley it was certainly a bolt from the blue and the brand has worked hard to make Jinder seem like a threat as he's almost wholly got the upperhand on Orton, as well as picked up victories over AJ Styles and Sami Zayn since. If either Orton or Mahal put a foot wrong here, Chicago will be all over them, so Mahal better hope for a career performance or at least some help from his more polished opponent. With so much talent on SmackDown, I'm not quite sure what is achieved by giving Mahal the WWE title, other than to really push the Land of Opportunity situation...however if you only watched RAW and saw that someone you were used to seeing losing in minutes was the other brands top champion (especially so quickly), you'd surely consider that brand a bit of joke? I hope I'm surprised by this bout, but I'm not holding out much hope.

Betting Odds

Orton - 8/11
Mahal - 1/1

Tye Dillinger v Aiden English 

The events opener will warm up the crowd as they get to see the popular "Perfect Ten" and shout "Ten" a lot for a bit, whilst English continues his singing cry-baby gimmick (which is apparently a shot at Mauro Ranallo #lolmentalhealth). There's not much of a feud here, beyond Dillinger picking up a couple of wins over English on SmackDown, so I'm thinking we'll get a relatively straight forward singles match here with a clean win for Dillinger. 

Betting Odds

Dillinger - 1/8
English - 9/2

The Welcoming Committee v Charlotte Flair, Naomi & Becky Lynch 

Rounding off the card we have a tag match featuring the entirety of SmackDown's female division. The Welcoming Committee gimmick for Natalya, Tamina & Carmella has had it's moments, mostly involving James Ellsworth and what seemed like an initially one dimensional gimmick as the group targeted Charlotte Flair has branched out and worked relatively well. For me, the majority of the in-ring talent is on the babyface side, which could lend itself well for hot tags and face in peril spots, giving the heels chance to work the crowd and build. That's where the potential in the bout is for me, however a lot of it depends on if the bout is allowed the time it needs (over ten minutes, at least) and if the demanding audience allows the six women to build towards something. I think we could see a heel turn from one of the face team, most likely Flair, but more interestingly Becky Lynch, as either of those two would produce stronger opponents for Naomi and arguably stronger storylines to play with. 

Betting Odds 

The Welcoming Committee - 1/10
Flair, Naomi & Lynch - 11/2  

That's your lot. Check out the event on the WWE Network from 7ET or 12am BST. 

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WWE SmackDown Live #922 Review (Aired - 18th April 2017)

For the first time in seven years, WWE aired an event for Louisville, Kentucky as the 922nd episode of SmackDown came from the KFC Yum! Center. The main event would see Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, Mojo Rawley and Jinder Mahal (supposedly chosen by a random draw of some kind) battle in a Six Pack Challenge for a shot at Randy Orton's WWE Championship at Backlash on 21st May. Elsewhere the show featured AJ Styles, United States Champion Kevin Owens, Charlotte Flair, Baron Corbin and SmackDown Women's Champion Naomi in major slots on the card, but was it any good? Lets take a look. 

- SmackDown kicked off with Charlotte Flair demanding a title shot, because she was "fastly getting furious" with Shane McMahon. After SmackDown Women's Champion Naomi came out and got into a bit of a scrap with Flair, McMahon booked a match for later on where if Flair got the victory she'd earn a title match next week. 

- Backstage, Natalya, Carmella (with James Ellsworth) and Tamina were upset with Shane McMahon for offering Flair an opportunity, when McMahon no sold their displeasure, Natalya said she had a plan. 

Mahal def. Zayn, Ziggler, Harper, Rowan and Rawley in a Six Pack Challenge to become #1 Contender to WWE Championship 

Okay, so Jinder Mahal is Number One contender to the WWE Championship. He pinned Sami Zayn to earn himself his first title match since he challenged Seth Rollins for the NXT Championship in 2012, with a little help from the Bollywood Boyz. Wrestling in 2017 feels like we've shunted onto some weird alternative timeline and there's no way of getting off. Whilst the match appeared to be completely randomly chucked together, with their only being arguments for Rawley or Zayn to be included (at least based of recent results), as a spectacle the match was a damn entertaining affair. There was plenty of big spots that made the most of the bodies in the bout, including multiple suicide dives from Harper, Rowan powerbombing Ziggler to the outside as well as Zayn hitting a tope conhilo on Harper and following up with an Arabian Press to Rowan. In isolation, there wasn't much wrong with this other than awkward slam thing by Rawley, but I can't help but mark it down for having no explanation why any of these lads were given the opportunity to fight for a title shot. It's something different, but could have been propped up with some more logical booking. 

- Following Mahal's big win, he cut a little promo about how he was going to prove himself, before WWE Champion Randy Orton slowly walked to the ring to confront his new challenger. The segment concluded with another Bray Wyatt promo on the screen, going over similar ground as his one on RAW and still not cluing us up to what a House of Horrors match actually is. 

- A short vignette on Shinsuke Nakamura aired, with a couple of former NXT superstars putting him over. 

- Baron Corbin crashed a Renee Young interview with AJ Styles, leading to a match between the two being booked as the main event. 

- It turned out that Natayla's plan was to bump in Charlotte Flair as she walked past her in the hallway, great work Natty. 

Flair def. Naomi 

A feel with a little build, Flair v Naomi could have been electric on a PPV, considering how both have been presented on RAW and SmackDown since the Draft last summer and whilst we still got a pretty good match between the two here, it was a shame to see it thrown out there. With the two having a title match next week, I worry that WWE is already overexposing Flair in a similar way to how she ended up having WAY to many TV matches with Sasha Banks and Bayley on Monday nights. Inside the ring the two mesh together nicely, being able to match each other athletically and both bringing the fight and building the intensity when necessary. The back and forth chop and kick battle was very cool, as was Naomi's fire-up sequence and whilst some of the ideas didn't always come out looking as good as they could have (rana to the outside, Naomi's stunner thing) the two always seemed capable of recovering. The finish with Charlotte blocking the Rear View with a big boot to the back, before hitting Natural Selection, was nicely done, even if it felt a little more like a near fall than the actual ending. Naomi and Charlotte have a lot of potential together and once they're more familiar and cripsen up in the ring I'd expect an outing a few notches above this. Whether we see that next week or not, I'm not sure. 

- More awkwardness between Charlotte Flair and the odd group of rivals, Natalya, Carmella and Tamina. 

- The Colons (formerly known as The Shining Stars) won a quick match over American Alpha with a distraction finish. The bout did more for Epico & Primo than their entire run on RAW, but having them beat Gable & Jordan so quickly was a little disappointing.

- A vignette of Lana dancing around a chair on the entrance ramp aired, she's coming soon.

- The jumpy Dasha Fuentes spoke with Tye Dillinger, who introduce a video package about himself, which was nice of him. 

- Kevin Owens cuts a promo about being the Face of America, ahead of the first Face of America Open Challenge.

- Kevin Owens def. Gary Gandy in thirty seconds, with Gandy almost completely botching a Pop-Up Powerbomb. 

- Kevin Owens cut another promo about being the Face of America and joined the commentary team for the main event. 

Austin Aries welcomed viewers to watch 205 Live after SmackDown on the WWE Network. 

Styles def. Corbin via countout

Completing a trio of top quality TV matches, AJ Styles and Baron Corbin closed the show off with a physical battle, that saw The Lone Wolf more than hold his own alongside the company's 2016 MVP. The two worked a classic power v speed, brawler v wrestler, type contest with Corbin initially being able to keep up with Styles' pace and absolutely dominating the former WWE Champion, dropping Styles on the apron from a Fireman's carry position as well throwing AJ under the bottom rope and into the big thick ringpost. Just as Corbin showed he could match Styles for pace, we later saw that Styles could brawl like Corbin, as The Phenomenal threw a series of big strikes that resulted in a near fall. The presentation of both men as equally proficient at mixing it up in different styles could have really came into it's own later on in a longer match. After Styles found himself back body dropped onto Kevin Owens on commentary, the finish was a signal to just how high WWE are on Baron Corbin right now as Styles won by countout after sending The Lone Wolf over the barricade with a Phenomenal Forearm. Corbin really wouldn't have been hurt by losing to Styles by pinfall, even falling clean to a Styles Clash or Phenomenal Forearm, so the fact that WWE decided to have Corbin lose by countout goes a long way in showing just how big a star they feel big Baron could be. 

Finally...ATPW Scale Rating - 5.09/10

Three good TV matches and Jinder Mahal is #1 Contender to the WWE Championship. Is there much else I need to say here? 

Review - James Marston 

Twitter - @ATPWrestling 

Facebook - /acrossthepondwrestling 

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Review: WWE Smackdown Live #914 (21/02/2017)

On 21st February, WWE Smackdown emanated from the Citizen Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California, USA for the fourth time. This episode focused on a Battle Royal to determine who would challenge Bray Wyatt for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 33 after Royal Rumble winner, Randy Orton refused to face his Wyatt Family cohort at the Show of Shows. John Cena, AJ Styles, The Miz, Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper, Baron Corbin, Apollo Crews, Kalisto and Mojo Rawley were the chosen ten for the main event, whilst Daniel Bryan, Natalya, Nikki Bella, Becky Lynch and Maryse were also featured heavily on the episode. In the build where The Shield had a Smackdown classic with Christian, Daniel Bryan and Sheamus in February 2014, how would the brand do this time around? Let's take a look. 

The episode kicked off with an emotional moment for WWE Smackdown Women's Champion Naomi, as she was forced to drop the title by General Manager Daniel Bryan, because of injury. It was odd to see WWE bring back the "30 day rule", but the segment itself was compelling, with the fact that the sympathetic Bryan had had to drop two titles due to injury only a few years ago adding depth to the moment. Whilst I'm not a massive Naomi fan, her promo when handing the title back was believable delivered and left a few doors open for her return later down the line. Bryan throwing together a match for the title after Alexa Bliss' interruption was a disappointment, as with so many episodes to fill between now and WrestleMania on 2nd April and a strong Women's division, it would have been much more satisfying to see them competing in a tournament for the title. Plus, Bliss' opponent Becky Lynch had suffered a loss to Mickie James last week, so it's debatable that she hadn't earned her place in the opening match for the vacant championship.

Match 1 

Alexa Bliss

def.

Becky Lynch

to win WWE Smackdown Women's Championship

A decent opener here, with a hot Ontario crowd getting behind Lynch from the start. The duo seem to have a good understanding in the ring and this resulted in some lovely technical wrestling to begin with the pair trading holds back and forth, in a slick sequence. I would've liked to have seen this match really break into the next gear, as whilst Lynch and Bliss have been feuding for a while they are yet to have a definitive, must-see match, that I am pretty sure they are capable of if allowed enough time and pushed hard enough. In the end we got a near fall off an Exploder suplex for Lynch, a little bit of submission based action, before Bliss nailed The Lass Kicker in the throat and grabbed a handful of tights to reclaim the belt she dropped at Elimination Chamber. I'm interested to see how Smackdown's plans heading into WrestleMania will have to be altered with Naomi absent and who from the division has to step up.

• Match 2 - American Alpha (Chad Gable, Jason Jordan) def. Breezango (Fandango, Tyler Breeze) (2:12) before The Usos (Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso) cut a fiery promo in the crowd, signalling their title ambitions.

• The Black History Month vignette took a look at Jackie Robinson, the first African American player in Major League Baseball.

Match 3

Natalya

def. 

Nikki Bella

in a Falls Count Anywhere Match

(14:33)

Arguably, Nikki Bella and Natalya pulled out the best match of the show as they brawled all through the arena and didn't hold back in what a lively scrap. It was cool to see the women like Bella and Natalya, who have been with WWE for almost ten years, getting the opportunity to work a match-type that was almost exclusive to their male counterparts even two years ago. They easily could have rested on their laurels and walked through a match with a couple of weapons spots, but the two really went for it here, starting with kendo stick shots and building to an exciting backstage brawl that peaked with Natalya being shoved face first through a mirror. There's was always a sense that the pair absolutely detested each other, producing some very watchable television. The submission the pair used on the ramp emphasised their distaste for each other perfectly. The finish involved Maryse attacking Bella with a pole, after Bella had been pushed into her backstage, looked to be setting up the rumoured mixed tag match involved the pairs husbands, whilst also giving Natalya some momentum to head into whatever is next for the Queen of Black Harts. There could have been a more satisfying finish that rounded the feud off smoother, but on the whole I didn't have too many issues with the run-in. 

Match 4 

AJ Styles, Luke Harper 

def. 

John Cena, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose, Baron Corbin, Apollo Crews (Uhaa Nation), Kalisto, Mojo Rawley

in a WWE Championship #1 Contender's Battle Royal

(24:44)

So, the show concluded with AJ Styles and Luke Harper supposedly both ending up touching the floor at the same time, with Daniel Bryan then putting them in a singles match at #915. There were a couple of issues with how this was done for me, but there were also some positives. Because I'm a mardy bastard let's start with the negatives. The spot that saw both guys hit the floor was ridiculous over-complicated, as Harper attempted to essentially suplex Styles over the turnbuckle, leading to both men hitting the floor. The complicated and risky nature of the spot meant that clearly Styles' feet hit the floor before Harper's and therefore WWE didn't show any replays of the spot in between it happening and the end of the show. My other issue with it, was just how cheated the Ontario crowd was of having seen a #1 Contender for the biggest show of the year crowned, and they clearly weren't happy with that. However, with WWE have five more episode's of Smackdown Live to fill with content, so extended stories that could have been played out over a shorter timespan is almost necessary. It could produce more of a buzz and hopefully created stronger, storyline with increased depth. The next few week's will reveal all. 

The rest of the match took a while to get going, struggling to break out of your generic battle royal gubbins before the first advert break. On the opposite side of the break the majority of the eliminations were used to begin or further storylines, with Dolph Ziggler attacking both Kalisto and Apollo Crews with a chair after being dumped out by Crews, Baron Corbin planting Dean Ambrose with an End of Days on the floor after being eliminated by The Lunatic Fringe and The Miz returning to dump John Cena over the top rope after being eliminated by the 16 time World Champion. Despite a couple of nice sequences that took advantage of the bodies and talent pool in the ring, there was definitely a certain familiarity to the way each of those stories played out, which gave the match an overbearing repetitiveness. If the ending had been a product of creativity when something simple would have been just as effective, the bulk of the match lacked creativity, rarely venturing outside of it's comfort zone. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.5/10

Show in a Sentence - Some stuff overcooked, some stuff undercooked, not a lot in between.

Review - James Marston

Twitter - @ATPWrestling 

Facebook - /acrossthepondwrestling 

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Review: WWE Elimination Chamber 2017

On 12th February, WWE's Smackdown brand took it's final major pit-stop before WrestleMania 33 as the Elimination Chamber returned for the first time in almost two years. The titular match saw AJ Styles, The Miz, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt and Baron Corbin challenging for John Cena's WWE Championship in the evenings main event, whilst Randy Orton, Dolph Ziggler, Natalya, Mickie James and Nikki Bella were also featured on the three hour show. The direction for the biggest show of the year would become a lot clearer heading out of the Phoenix, Arizona show, but would Elimination Chamber be worth the watch?

Kick Off

Mojo Rawley def. Curt Hawkins (6:58) 

A couple of minutes into this one, I was watching GIF's of JBL falling over on Twitter. Therefore it would be difficult for me to really comment on the quality of anything after those first few exchanges. However, I had absolutely no reason to care about either of these two guys and their reasons for having this match were confusing at best and then there was very little that grabbed me or made me want to keep my attention on Rawley and Hawkins at gone midnight. This match was perhaps a symptom of booking six wrestlers in the main event and every tag team on the brand in the same match, as it meant that Rawley and Hawkins were pretty much the only two wrestlers that were left available for the Kick-Off show spot. In it's defense, the crowd sounded like they were pretty into it, but that may have been down to the excitement of a city hosting it's first WWE PPV in over four years.

Main Show

Becky Lynch def. Mickie James (11:45) 

The opening match found it's groove early doors and developed into a solid, enjoyable contest. The pair wrestled a nice technical contest, that had plenty of animosity behind it and played out in front of a healthily invested audience. The bulk of the contest revolved around James focusing on Lynch's arm, following catching The Lass Kicker on the way into the ring, with Becky doing a cracking job of selling the arm and helping keep that part of the narrative in the audiences mind throughout. The bout however felt a little cockeyed in it's layout, feeling like it was beginning to elongate it's second act out, before cutting itself short just when it appeared like it was about to get going. For me, the work on the arm could have been used to develop stronger near falls for James and developed to create more issues for Lynch, to the point where I was questioning just how Lynch was going to pull out a victory over the 3 time TNA Knockout's Champion. 

Apollo Crews [Uhaa Nation], Kalisto def. Dolph Ziggler (7:20)

I'm still trying to think about what the aim of this match was. I'm sure that those aims weren't to get wild cheers for Dolph Ziggler battering babyfaces Apollo Crews and Kalisto with a steel chair, but then again Ziggler was the one in the two on one handicap match, so who the fuck knows. The bulk of the match boiled down to a Ziggler v Crews singles match, after The Show Off had chucked Kalisto into part of the set, before the babyfaces picked up the win when Kalisto "bravely" made his way back down to the ring for a two on one assault. The more I think about this match, the more it actually caused me mental (and perhaps physical) pain. The time would have been much better used on a decent singles match between Ziggler and either babyface, with their previous TV matches being used to develop something resembling a character for either. 

American Alpha (Chad Gable, Jason Jordan) def. Rhyno [Rhino] & Heath Slater, The Usos (Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso), The Vaudevillains (Aiden English & Simon Gotch), The Ascension (Konnor, Viktor), Breezango (Fandango, Tyler Breeze) in Tag Team Turmoil to retain WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship (21:05)

The first championship contest of the evening, all Smackdown's tag teams got a run-out in a match that seemed to designed to take up as much screen time, with as little build as possible. The bulk of the match was taken up by the on again, off again, feud between the title-holders American Alpha and The Usos with the two having a decent (albeit with a sloppy finish) six minutes collision, that demonstrated the potential the two teams have together. It's a shame that this feud has been rolling along since the brand split and has yet to be fully captilised upon and could very well find itself lost in the shuffle when the card for WrestleMania 33 is put together. The post-match attack by Jimmy & Jey, that continued to showcase the fire shown in the match, set-up a dramatic conclusion where The Ascension attempted to capitilise on the fallen champions. This was helped by some smart booking where Viktor and Konnor had picked up a pinfall in a multi-team bout on the go-home Smackdown Live. A trick was perhaps missed in not having The Ascension take the belts, as it would have provided extra material to burn through on the next seven episodes between now and WrestleMania, whilst also making American Alpha's issues with The Usos bigger and lifting The Ascension from tag team fodder for at least a couple of weeks. 

The earlier portion of the bout was watchable, carried by how over Heath Slater & Rhyno remain with the audience. The duo's involvement in the first three sections of Tag Team Turmoil worked it's job of putting some heat on The Usos, but the trio of matches were nothing to get excited about. The opener with Breezango never seemed to click, floating through some awkward comedy, but The Man Beast's match winning Gore made things worthwhile. The Vaudevillains struggle on the main roster was showcased as they fell to Slater & Rhyno in just over two minutes. The idea was obviously to build momentum behind the babyfaces, that could be transferred over as heat for The Usos followed the elimination and to an extent it was successful in it's aims. As a whole, the bout suffered from the problems that the majority of types of matches do, in that in trying to tell an arch across five matches, each individual clash was underdeveloped and even the more exciting streaks of action struggled to stand out across the a mostly beige backing. 

Nikki Bella v Natalya ended in a Double Countout (13:15) 

Let's get the finish out of the way early...a Double Countout is pretty lame no matter how many PPV/Special Events/Network Specials/Extra Value Sports Entertainment Deals, you host a month. The two women did the best they could with it, having a fierce brawl up the entrance way, that will perhaps make a rematch stronger, but having wrestled for almost fifteen minutes, it wasn't what this programme needed. I was relatively high on this match before it broke down, as Natalya and Bella put together some decent technical exchanges, as an unusual narrative of The Fearless One looking to prove her wrestling chops to her more critically acclaimed opponent, whilst still having an underlying edge bitterness between the duo. The sequence of submissions just before the finish was a clear highlight. Even without a definitive finish, this was a match that more than held it's own with the other two Women's bouts on the card. 

Randy Orton def. Luke Harper (17:13)

In the only male one on one contest on the card, Luke Harper produced his strongest singles match outing in WWE and arguably Orton's best since he stole the show at WrestleMania 31 with Seth Rollins. It wasn't a particularly complicated contest, sticking to a familiar structure, but the pair did the fundamentals well, drawing in the live crowd and taking them on a journey in the process. The two showed real ring intelligence, starting with a wild brawl around ringside, which initially grabbed the interest, before The Viper took the sting out of the contest with a series of wear down holds. This lead to the people, who had been mostly behind Orton from the outset, beginning to root more and more for Harper, with a near perfect build into The Backwoods Brawler's fiery and flashy rebound.

The contest's second part was built around Harper's momentum continuing to build, as he picked up a number of near falls on the 8 time WWE Champion, including a sweet sequence into a sitout powerbomb. The flash finish with The Apex Predator hitting an RKO out of the proverbial nowhere, gives room for a potential rematch and with the issues involving the Wyatt Family yet to be settle the chances that these two will tangle again over the next few weeks, months and years are high. A rematch under relaxed rules could tear the house down. With the two mixing technical and brawling style throughout the contest and doing the basic to a high standard, this became a real sleeper contest, easily the strongest bout on the undercard.  It wasn't anything new but, just like a good Ploughman's sandwich, each ingredient was done well, creating a tasty combination.

Naomi def. Alexa Bliss to win WWE Smackdown Women's Championship (8:18) 

Curiously placed between the semi-main and main event, Naomi capturing her first championship in WWE, was the shortest and weakest of Women's trio. The match wasn't given enough time to really find it's feet, but the moments that the two had to potentially shine were often awkward or mistimed. The finish in particular was more than a little confusing to follow, with Naomi's split legged moonsault and Bliss' Twisted Bliss seemingly happening about four times in various combinations before Naomi got the pin. The confusion surrounding the finish took away the feel good moment of the former Funkadactyl grabbing gold, at least for me anyway. The main positive I took away from the bout was the strength of Bliss' character, which drove the story and kept me from drifting to social media at a couple of points. Both of the women have bags of potential and getting to work with Becky Lynch, Natalya and Mickie James on a regular basis will almost certainly push them to deliver on that potential.

Bray Wyatt def. John Cena, AJ Styles, The Miz, Dean Ambrose, Baron Corbin in an Elimination Chamber Match to win the WWE Championship (34:26)

The main event of the show was one of the best booked Elimination Chamber matches that I can remember with almost every step along the way getting the very best out of the talent involved, managing to create a compelling, exciting contest, that managed to create potential friction for future events, whilst providing a satisfyingly clean finish that propelled the winner Bray Wyatt into the upper echelon. Perhaps the best piece of business done was having John Cena and AJ Styles start the match and act as the spine or glue, continuing their epic in-ring feud. I could watch these two wrestle for days and it got the crowd pumped from the very beginning. Whenever the pair came back together (also extended to having Dean Ambrose come out third, calling back to their No Mercy three way was nice touch) there was an extra jolt of energy and with the two spending over half an hour in the Chamber, meaning that if there was ever a risk of thing beginning to drag, Cena and Styles would run through a sequence and you straight back into wizardry and wonder. Cena and Styles forever. 

Outside of the Cena and Styles love-in the Chamber did two other things particularly well, that being it's abundance of big highspots or moments and the timing, and also placement, of it's eliminations. The bulk of the craziness took place before the first elimination, taking advantage of the bodies filling up the structure and the new design to create chaos that perhaps hasn't been seen in this type of match before. Ambrose's whirlwind of offence after entering five minutes in, somehow managed to build into The Lunatic Fringe, Cena and Styles battling on a ledge installed half way up the chamber, in a stunning visual, before the madness peaked with an impressive take on the tower of doom from Ambrose, Styles and Wyatt. The bout settled soon after with the elimination beginning about 20 minutes in, with a nice domino effect that saw Corbin, Ambrose and Miz gone with a space of five minutes. Corbin's attack on Ambrose following the elimination, should begin an interesting Intercontinental title feud and made The Big Breakfast look like a real monstrous bastard. 

Wyatt winning the WWE Championship was an emotional moment for anyone who has followed The Eater of World's tumultuous career, since he debuted as "The Tank with the Ferrari Engine" Husky Harris on the second series of NXT in 2010. After his ups and downs, call ups and set backs, it was immensely satisfying to see someone, who has clearly worked his arse off, reach a career highlight. Having Bray pin both Cena and Styles with Sister Abigail, put a real exclamation point on the win, instantly lifting Wyatt up to the next level and legitimising his title reign before it even properly began. Whilst The New Face of Fear isn't quite as hot as 2014-15 when he was ripping it up with Cena, Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns, but a length of time with Wyatt at the helm of the blue brand has heaps of potential, especially with the initial storytelling possibilities with Randy Orton and Luke Harper over the WrestleMania period and beyond. 

Talking Smack

The main feature of the Renee Young and Daniel Bryan post-show was a chat with Alexa Bliss and Mickie James. Both gave pretty separate interviews, continuing to be an unconvincing partnership, with no particular chemistry and even contradicting outlooks. Bliss however gave another good accounting of herself as an individual character, listing a number of reasons for why she lost her Smackdown Women's Championship to Naomi, that seemed to be anything but giving praise to her opponent. For me, James' promo didn't really work, as she rambled for a long time and looked uncomfortable with the more relaxed style of the show.

• American Alpha were interviewed about retaining their Smackdown Tag Team Championships and The Usos attack.
• An interview with Naomi closed the show with a big focus on WrestleMania taking place in her hometown.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.71/10

Show in a Sentence : A superb main event, but only Orton v Harper managed to stand out on the undercard, although only the Handicap match was distinctly poor, mainly because of the head spinning booking.

Review - James Marston

Twitter - @ATPWrestling 

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Supercard Review: WWE No Mercy 2016 - John Cena v Dean Ambrose v AJ Styles (+ WWE No Mercy 2016 Kick-Off + WWE Talking Smack #11)

On 9th October, WWE's Smackdown brand presented the resurrection of No Mercy, as the event made it's return after an eight year hiatus. With matches likes Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle v Edge & Rey Mysterio and Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker's original Hell in a Cell bout from the 2002, as well as Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels' epic ladder match from 2008 in the event's history, how would this new edition shape up? 

In the main event, AJ Styles put the World Championship on the line against John Cena and Dean Ambrose, whilst Bray Wyatt, Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton and Intercontinental Champion The Miz completed the top of the card. Would No Mercy 2016 be an event to remember? 

The main event of the show actually opened the show (in an attempt to secure viewers outside of the US Presidential debate), as AJ Styles retained the World Championship by pinning John Cena in a Triple Threat that also included Dean Ambrose. It felt very odd indeed to start with the biggest match for the biggest prize on the brand, but the crowd was hot for it and the trio kicking things off with a trade off of their finishing moves allowed it to settle into the slot quite well. The match flowed particularly well throughout, as the trio used the gimmick effectively to create a number of striking highspots and even incorporating it into simple moments like rest holds. A personal favourite moment was Ambrose trying to suplex Styles to the floor, which built seamlessly into Cena hitting a German suplex on the pair in the ring. A mental situation with all landing big strikes one after another later in the contest also stands out for it's fluency.

Where the match didn't quite come off for me was in the finish, or more accurately, finishes. The first of these saw Styles tap out with Ambrose had the Calf Crusher locked on and Cena had the F of the STF cinched in, leading to a confusing moment where the referee decided to continue the match. It was very Dusty. So very Dusty. The actual ending would see Styles level Cena with two chair shots, one to the stomach and one to the back, after Cena had hit an Avalanche Attitude Adjustment on Ambrose. After the big moment Cena's move (which is also steadily beginning to lose a little of it's shine due to overuse) a couple of chair shots felt a little anti-climactic. An exclamation point of a Styles Clash or just about anything else in Styles' arsenal would have done the moment justice, short of Styles being able to twat Cena in the face with his weapon (ooh). Obviously, this whole situation was born out of trying to keep Ambrose in the running for a title shot (He submitted Styles and didn't take the pinfall), whilst adding a further feather to Styles' "I Beat John Cena" cap and give The Cenation Leader a reason to continue the feud with Styles when he returns from whatever it is he's going off to do for a bit. When you consider they had about twenty different things they needed to do, fair play to those who put this match together for actually managing that without everything breaking down entirely.

The semi-main came midway through the show as Dolph Ziggler defeated The Miz (seconded by Maryse) and won the Intercontinental Championship for the fifth time, saving his career and perhaps having it's best match in the process. This was a terrific bout, helped in part how involved the audience were with the storytelling as they seemed to react to every little movement, with the noise increasing towards the end. The career v title gimmick was mined for all it was worth. With Ziggler's WWE future up in the air (helped by some great build up work where Ziggler emphasised how he had other ventures set up should he lose) it appeared and sounded like every fan in the arena was unsure of how things were going to go, perhaps in way not seen since CM Punk walked out of Chicago with the WWE Championship in 2011. Both men threw so much into their performances, with Ziggler's selling obviously being a crux of the bout as he sold the leg following a Figure Four Leglock superbly. Miz more than held his weight as a vicious methodical heel, desperate to get rid of a rival and add a few more sweet McMahon dollars to his paycheck.

Miz's near falls seemed to be building and building only one way, a dramatic and emotional exit for Ziggler, and by the time Maryse beckoned down The Spirit Squad (Mikey (Mondo) & Kenny (Dykstra)) and their distraction allowed The Awesome One to nail his second Skull Crushing Finale (the first coming after Maryse sprayed perfume in The Show Off's eyes in a mimic of the conclusion of their Backlash encounter) it felt almost fitting that Ziggler's employment would perish in the same way it started. Perhaps only having Chavo Guerrero come out on a golf cart would have been able to top it for the Ouroboros vibe it created. But Ziggler kicked out. It felt magical. The man who no one could have given a fuck about in the SummerSlam World Championship match just two months prior was suddenly the man the Golden 1 Centre, Sacremento and the entire WWE Universe couldn't bare to see go. After that the finish was near perfect, as the referee chucked Maryse and Spirit Squad out of the arena and with Miz distracted Zig-Zag kicked him in his weird face and got the victory and was raising the Intercontinental Championship in the air before the sound of Sweet Chin Music had finished buzzing in the former champion's ears. This was the best match either man has ever had and also easily in the Top 10 matches WWE has produced this year.

A huge part of me wishes that Dolph Ziggler and The Miz were allowed to close out this show, as even with the return of Luke Harper, Bray Wyatt's victory over Randy Orton didn't quite cut the mustard in that role. The bout showed early promise with The Viper's RKO attempt blocked by Wyatt, who rolled to outside and began laughing. It got my attention early, but as soon as Orton did an exaggerated flat back bump off an uppercut, I was taken out of the action. Perhaps, Orton is still feeling the effects of the beatdown from Lesnar at SummerSlam, because for a man that was willing to take multiple legit elbow blows from The Beast Incarnate, he worked particularly safe on a number of the match bigger moments. Whilst being "safe" shouldn't be a criticism of a wrestler in this injury plagued era, being overly-so can effect a match and this was notable when Orton took a clumsy apron DDT spot and ended up falling nowhere the edge of the apron, taking away massively from what should have been a major near fall in a WWE ring. 

Despite that criticism, Orton and Wyatt did put on a good match. There was a decent story, that saw both men trying to nail their big moves as early and often as they could, which worked well into the finish when it seemed inevitable that The Apex Predator had Wyatt ready for the RKO following his elevated DDT. There was also some fine work on the outside with the steel ring steps being introduced mid-match by Wyatt, before in the closing moments he'd take a big bump onto them as he went for a running senton in a nice piece of symmetry. Overall, I thought the story they told was pretty good, it kept me entertained and I never felt bored or uninterested, because the action was mostly tight and Wyatt is such an interesting character. I just feel like there was a lack of passion or emotion in the contest, especially considering Wyatt had attacked Orton backstage on the previous Smackdown supercard, and for a feud that has been all about mind games and dramatic segmented narratives, there was a surprising lack of any of that sort of thing. Only the Luke Harper return at the conclusion of the show saved this from being a completely throw-away show closer.

Every inch of me has loved Heath Slater and Rhyno's ride up the tag team ranks and all the razzamatazz that has gone with it, a good few inches of me has enjoyed The Usos recent heel turn and all their general shenanigans and bastardery. Therefore when they came together again in a rematch of the Smackdown Tag Team title tournament final from 11th September, it took me to a happy, happy place. Whilst part of the shine of Slater's contract chase alongside title dreams was now absent, I felt like The Usos upped their game with Jey especially getting in some good heel work as he riffed on the "He's Got Kids" chants by reminding the crowd that he also has kids. Two kids, Jey, two kids, Slater's got seven wonderful children, don't be a dick Jey. No one cares about your kids, Jey. Okay, got a bit carried away there. Either way, this bout saw both teams begin to explore what they can do in their new roles more, with Slater getting to do a pretty damn sweet hot tag sequence and Jimmy & Jey scrapping away on the larger Rhyno. The finish could have been a little slicker with the Tequila Sunrise being a difficult move to manoeuvre out of, but The Man Beast continued the fairytale with a gorgeous Gore, so crack open the squirty cheese and move on!

Skipping forward to Talking Smack's headlining segment, the new Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler spoke to Renee Young, Smackdown Commissioner Shane McMahon and Smackdown General Manager Daniel Bryan. As with a lot of the work done on the show, the interview felt very real and raw for Ziggler, who put over the emotion of his win well, questioned McMahon and Bryan for not kayfabe putting the match on last and put over The Miz for his hard work, whilst also calling him a jerk to supposedly keep the feud running without completely blowing the kayfabe doors off the sports-entertainment van. Some of the best work done was in explaining the effects of the perfume spray from Maryse, with Zig-Zag doing a stellar job of describing how it was painful, why it was painful and how it impacted the rest of the match. It's that kind of stuff that will make a second, third or fourth viewing of that contest even more enjoyable. Well done Mr. Nemeth on a superb performance all evening.

Skipping back to the Kick-Off show, because I'm crazy motherlicker who don't play by no rules, American Alpha (Chad Gable & Jason Jordan) and The Hype Brothers (Mojo Rawley & Zack Ryder) bested The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor) & The Vaudevillains (Aiden English & Simon Gotch) in an Eight Man Tag Team bout that outshone it's stature as the depth of Smackdown's Tag Team division continued to be showcased. The contest worked smartly around the ad break, before heading into the more meaty second act as Ryder worked the face in peril role, whilst English, Konnor, Gotch and Viktor tried their best to keep The Long Island Iced Z from tagging out. All four heels did some strong work here, with some nice booking seeing Jordan left as the only team member left to tag. This negated the more logical tag from Ryder to Rawley who is arguably the least over of anyone involved. The finish came soon after as all eight men got their own moments in a busy breakdown, leading to Jordan pinning English after a Grand Amplitude that came almost out of nowhere, with a nice touch of Gable having fight off Gotch in the ropes. This was a great advert for anyone unsure about the show and the kind of thing WWE should be doing more often with the Kick-Off programme.

The higher profile of two female matches was a grudge contest that saw Nikki Bella go over Carmella. This match had some good sizzle but had apparently forgotten to actually put the steak in the pan. The storyline elements like Bella going straight after Carmella got me interested in where the two would go, with a pair of well-done slaps also helping to get over the distaste that the two had for each other, perhaps better than the Orton v Wyatt closer managed. However, after the opening slap-fest, when the two had to actually wrestle is where the match fell apart for me. There was a lot of sloppy hair pulling from Carmella, awkward hope spots for Bella, Carmella slapping on another wear down when they appeared to get lost, more clumsiness from the Princess of Staten Island on a rana and thrust kick, this was not good stuff at all. The last stretch with Carmella getting the Code of Silence locked in twice was a slight improvement, but Bella's TKO, now going by Rack Attack 2.0 is not a pretty move at all. I feel like Bella isn't a strong enough wrestler to carry the still green Carmella to a decent match. They've still got roles to play if positioned with stronger talents like Becky Lynch, but this one didn't help the women's cause.

Baron Corbin's victory over Jack Swagger was poorly received by the live crowd and received "Boring" and "Delete" chants from portions of the crowd, which has a lot to do with how the pair have been handled since the brand split and even more so on how Swagger has been treated for years. It's unreasonable to expect an audience to care about The Real American when he's only just turned up on Smackdown, had his repackage apparently sidelined, had only four singles matches on RAW or Smackdown in 2016, hasn't had a PPV singles match since December 2015, hadn't won a PPV singles match since February 2012! Therefore, Corbin and Swagger wrestled the wrong type of bout here. Corbin went after Swagger's hand after it got caught in the steel steps, which would have been a great story with an invested audience, it was sold well, it went on to effect a major moment when Swagger couldn't do the Patriot Lock (which should have been the finish, being able to do the move later on didn't make much sense), but it wasn't right. Here was the time to try to get the crowd on board! Do the Real American schtik, work out two or three big spots that will make the 7 minutes or so stand out and grab the crowd by the balls, but that wasn't to be. A good chunk of the blame has to go with whoever the agent or producer was for this one.  

Rounding off the evening, Alexa Bliss suffered a surprise loss to Naomi, after Becky Lynch was unable to defend the Smackdown Women's Championship against her #1 Contender, Bliss. This ended up being a six minute mess as Naomi and Bliss seemed to just throw a load of random stuff together, without particularly trying to have a clear and coherent contest. Naomi hit a decent split leg moonsault early on, but the move was completely out of place a few minutes in to, what I guess was supposed to be, the face-shine. Bliss sort of worked the arm a bit, Naomi sold the arm a bit, but it never felt like it was the driving story for the contest, despite being awkwardly involved in the finish. Bizarrely, Naomi hit a wicked spinning facebuster thing, but then fucked up her Rear View finish. Drop the Rear View, Naomi, it's red reels. The finish went from bad to worse as Naomi got a flash pin after shifting the weight whilst Bliss had an arm bar locked on. I struggle to understand the booking for this one, with Bliss rescheduled to face Lynch on a November episode of Smackdown in Glasgow, a win here would have solidified her at the top contender, Naomi winning unnecessarily muddies the situation.

Best of the Rest 

• On Talking Smack, Alexa Bliss was interviewed by Renee Young, Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon, as the Smackdown Women's Championship picture got even more muddied.

• On Kick-Off, Nikki Bella joined Renee Young, Booker T, Jerry “The King” Lawler and Lita for a short interview, that was mainly Lawler perving on Bella.

• Tom Phillips interviewed The Usos on Kick-Off – The Miz and Maryse interrupted Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan backstage prior to the Intercontinental Championship Match - Curt Hawkins announced he'd be having his “very first match” on the next Smackdown Live on Kick-Off - Bray Wyatt did some creepy singing in his rocking chair before his match.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating

No Mercy 2016 - 5.5/10
+ Kick-Off - 5.71/10
+Kick Off + Talking Smack - 5.73/10

Show in a Sentence - An higgeldy piggeldy card, propped up by one very good match and one great match with two career-best performances.

Match of the Night - Dolph Ziggler v The Miz 

Weakest Match of the Night - Naomi v Alexa Bliss