With a lot of talking and three matches of varying quality, this was a pretty average kickoff show. Though the good parts were quite entertaining, there weren’t a ton of them considering the two-hour running time of the show.
Lots more talking on this episode of SmackDown, but the main event match worked to make this a show definitely worth watching.
Last week, no one was set to face Bray Wyatt at Wrestlemania, but with this week’s SmackDown two people have a claim to a title match. Also, John Cena makes the best of a less than ideal situation (for everyone involved), Becky Lynch and Mickie James manage to squeeze three tiny matches into one normal match, Apollo Crews and Dolph Ziggler get really angry with each other, and more on this okay, but less than ideal episode of SmackDown.
This was a SmackDown with potential, but unfortunately the execution wasn’t there.
Bray Wyatt is forced to give both AJ Styles and John Cena a title match in an episode of SmackDown that was entertaining more for the few good matches than the rather forgettable talking segments.
A pretty good show that god better towards the end. A few matches felt like they were looking past this show and towards Wrestlemania, but the last few matches of the night made up for that.
This was an okay way to start the night, complete with a Main Event quality match featuring Mojo Rawley versus Curt Hawkins.
While the results make this show feel like more of the same from WWE, the show itself was entertaining. It wasn’t the best Royal Rumble in history, but the Rumble match itself was fine, and Styles versus Cena stole the show.
Though it felt long at two hours, the three matches helped make this a pretty good way to kick off the 2017 Royal Rumble.
The Usos face the Hype Bros in a pretty okay episode of Main Event.
Team SmackDown gets shaken up less than two weeks before Survivor Series, and Becky Lynch puts her title on the line against Alexa Bliss.
Breezango faces the SmackDown tag champs and Jack Swagger battles Simon Gotch in an okay episode of Main Event.
This episode of SmackDown had a good main event with Dean Ambrose’s last chance to get a World Title shot, but the rest of the show felt a little lacking.
American Alpha battles The Vaudevillains and Apollo Crews faces Curt Hawkins in an average episode of Main Event.
Randy Orton changes the direction of his feud with Bray Wyatt, team members are decided for Survivor Series, the tag titles are on the line, and James Ellworth attempts to help Dean Ambrose in his match with AJ Styles in a good episode of SmackDown.
Zack Ryder takes on Tyler Breeze and American Alpha faces The Ascension in a predictable but pretty entertaining episode of Main Event.
James Ellsworth gets the chance of a lifetime when he challenges AJ Styles for the World Title in an okay episode of SmackDown.
The Hype Bros versus The Vaudevillains and Jack Swagger versus Tyler Breeze were both decent matches, making this episode worth watching.
AJ Styles picks his next opponent, the Wyatt Family is (mostly) back together, The Miz isn’t done with Dolph Ziggler, and more on a packed and entertaining episode of SmackDown.
This year’s No Mercy was pretty good, with the good matches being very good. The placement of matches seemed odd, but that didn’t hurt the show too much.