Friday, 23 May 2014

WWE Smackdown preview (May 23, 2014): I Bo-lieve we can fly

Dolph Ziggler's Instagram

What you need to know

Bray Wyatt was telling us a chilling tale of being bullied by his elitist liberal grade school teach when John Cena decided to get a head start on his main event duel with Luke Harper by sneak attacking the whole family, but most importantly hitting Bray with an Attitude Adjustment.  Something tells me it's going to take more than that to adjust his attitude.
British royalist were shocked when Paul Heyman's impersonation of Queen Elizabeth was identical to the one he does of The Undertaker at WrestleMania 31.  His client (the one still showing up on WWE television anyway) won a slobberknocker with United States champ Sheamus due to a little distraction from his advocate.  Cesaro then further disrespected the Celtic Warrior by mocking his proffered handshake.  The Swiss Superman wasn't done dissing hosses - he punked Mark Henry on Main Event, too.
An impromptu Beat the Clock series was arranged to determine who will face Bad News Barrett (or beloved nationalist Barrett, as he's known in the United Kingdom) for the Intercontinental title at Payback.  Which meant a series of short matches, and Rob Van Dam winning the challenge with an-oh-so-close to being a great joke time of 4:15.  it didn't take long after RVD started to celebrate after Dolph Ziggler failed to beat his time against Mark Henry for him to get a Bullhammer elbow right in the back of the head.
Everyone's favorite ballroom dancer loves being stuck between two ladies, his current love Layla and the spurned-now-returned Summer Rae.  In Divas action that passes the Bechdel test, Alicia Fox defeated the queen of the division in her homeland, then put on Jerry Lawler's crown and coronated herself with a young fan's beverage.
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan's neck surgery went great, but not great enough to catch a flight across the Atlantic.  His music made the trip, though, and Stephanie McMahon used it to torment the London crowd - and announce that while she won't be stripping Bryan of his belt, she will be demanding he show up on Raw next week to hand it over.
The Shield is still feeling pretty confident heading into their rematch with Evolution at the next pay-per-view (PPV).  They don't want the veteran trio that's scared and has to hide behind 20 other guys.  But Batista still came across as less than confident when Triple H was announced as the ring announcer and Randy Orton as the timekeeper for his match against Seth Rollins, despite a "no outsiders in the ring area" stipulation.  But that was okay, because Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns got themselves assigned to the commentary desk.  From there, it was only a matter of time until we got the disqualification brawl.  But who cares?  It's Shield vs. Evolution!
Rusev crush.  Adam Rose annoys...Zeb Colter and Geno Mrosko, at least.
Finally, Luke Harper impressed in his latest main event spotlight, but lost to John Cena when Erick Rowan attacked before another AA could lead to a pin.  That lead to an up-and-down the ramp beating on the leader of the Cenation from the whole Family, and proof that Bray could put him down for the ten count required of a last man standing match.

What to look out for

Taped Tuesday in London, spoilers are here, but we roll spoiler-free down Preview Street.
Vince McMahon and company have had a week where it came crashing down, and it hurts inside.  So even though they're over there, they could use a Real American.  And we don't mean Jack Swagger.  Three words for you, brother.  Hulk. A. Mania.
I'm much more Bo-tivated to see someone else's de-Bo...too much?
Again, half the roster flew out for another leg of WWE Live shows on the continent right after Raw, so we won't be getting The Shield, Evolution or Bad News Barrett tonight.  Expect a healthy does of Cena/Usos vs. Wyatts, though.

What they should do

Momentum is building, Preview-ites...
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That's from the official WWE Universe Twitter account!  That's almost as good as coming from Vince's desk!  Right?  Kind of?
C'mon!  They can put Zack Ryder and Justin Gabriel in a bunny suit and we can't get Curt Hawkins or JTG in a damn bird costume!
Make it happen, Triple H!
#LetTheEagleSoar

What we're afraid they will do

The Adam Rose Experience has me feeling extremely gun shy about Bo Dallas' debut tonight.  And I don't know that I have the answer to how they should debut him.  Part of me says give him a microphone and let him put over his greatness, complete with sniveling laughter and pictures of working with kids in CamBOdia.  I think audiences would get the message fairly quickly.
Another part of me wants them to have him beat a babyface mid-carder, someone who is actually over with a large segment of live fans...somebody like Kofi Kingston.  Then simply do the spotlight and smoke machine celebration while the crowd is grumbling.
Hopefully they don't have him squash someone no one cares about like Xavier Woods, and/or lean too heavily on the motivational speaker gimmick.  It could work by turning the crowd due to his coming on too strong, but it could also confuse them and make them decide they're not interested enough to figure the gimmick out.
I do BOlieve, in Dallas, at least.  It's the WWE Universe I'm not sure about.
Everybody said their prayers and taken their vitamins to get ready for tonight's show?
Give it a watch with your fellow Cagesider in tonight's live blog, and stay tuned for all the latest WWE news and notes here on cSs!

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