00:00The road to WrestleMania took a not unpredictable, but certainly interesting turn, with Randy
00:06Orton aggressively attacking Cody Rhodes. So, how would the WWE follow it up?
00:11Eh. Let's break down an, eh, edition of Friday Night SmackDown.
00:24So, yes, it is the road to WrestleMania, and Randy Orton had some explaining to do on SmackDown,
00:32and I think he did okay. It's tough because you can't just come out and say, yeah, we needed him
00:38to be a bad guy against our really good guy, so we did this. But you also, we've done this
00:43with
00:43Randy Orton a thousand times. I think he is way better as a heel than he is as a babyface,
00:48but I also am aware that we are at a point where people are going to want to cheer him.
00:53So,
00:53I think the reasoning had to be pretty aggressive. They're also telling this story of there being
00:59this guy in his ear, or someone like that, like a genuine voice in his head, not just the rev
01:05theory
01:05ones. So, they're trying to mix a couple of stories together here, and I don't know if it's really
01:12worked necessarily. Now, I don't know if it really needed to. You have the visuals, and you have a
01:17fan base that's just like, yeah, okay, it's Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes. Cool. But to kind of take it
01:22to that next level, that mania level, I think the reveal that whoever he's talking on the phone with,
01:28I think that kind of needs to be a big one. And we've seen WWE take some shots with reveals
01:34and
01:34stuff like that, and maybe initially it doesn't go well, although admittedly Dan Housen's nailing it
01:38since. But you are not just competing with, oh, well, it's this, that, and the other thing. You're
01:43competing with the wildest imaginations in fandom, in professional wrestling fans. So, I am hoping that
01:50this can really deliver and take this feud to another level. Because I do think it needs it
01:56for mania main event. We know these guys are going to deliver. And Randy, he is fine in this. It's
02:00just
02:00the story that isn't necessarily there. And then the kind of back and forth of, oh, no, you're right,
02:05Jelly Roll, I'm sorry. Oh, yes, it's Zach, I'm sorry. Oh, no, you're not. Boom, kicking the balls.
02:10I get what they're doing. It's just, it hasn't really locked me in just yet. Otherwise, the show
02:16was kind of blah. Like, again, like Drew against Fatou, the finish made it so lame, where they're
02:25falling off of the thing. And if this is 1980, then yeah, that's a cool finish. But it's so obvious
02:32that it's just onto a crash pad, and all of that, that it just, it takes you out of it
02:38almost
02:39immediately, right? Like, it becomes almost like eye-rolling at that point, and lame professional
02:43wrestling, instead of, oh, we shoot movies here, pal. Like, there's a way to do that that can up
02:49the drama. And I'm not saying, oh, no, they should have actually fallen off of a sign onto concrete,
02:53because that doesn't end well for anybody. But if you can't make it look good, then don't do it at
02:57all. And this was a don't do it at all thing. Unless you're setting up some grand spot for off
03:03of the stage at WrestleMania, then this is just an eye-rolling thing that kind of takes a lot of
03:08people out of it, which is too bad, because I thought the rest of the buildup was pretty good
03:11between Drew and Jacob Fatou. Alistair Black, Sami Zayn, Trick Williams kind of just did the same
03:17thing as we've seen for a little bit. Trick is always entertaining. Alistair and Sami are always
03:22going to deliver in the ring, but it wasn't exactly a progression of much here. And that's kind of
03:27what a lot of this show was, was just not much progression of anything from SmackDown. And like
03:34the Meechan B-Fab turn on Rhea, I've said before that, oh, well, everyone saw it coming, isn't the
03:43best reason to not do something. Because sometimes the reason we all see it coming is because it's
03:47the right thing to do. That is not the case here. This makes no logical sense to have Meechan and
03:52B-Fab
03:52jump Rhea Ripley just because Rhea was nice to them after Meechan lost to Jade Cargill,
03:57for the 150th time in a row. Again, we all kind of figured this was going to happen. But you
04:03need
04:03to do that in a way that makes any sense at all. And I don't think there is one explanation
04:08that is
04:08going to make that make a lick of sense for anybody going into WrestleMania. And right now that build
04:14also has kind of flatlined. Like they have, they have an interesting card, but a lot of the build is
04:21just, yeah, we know you want to see these. So we're just killing time till WrestleMania. That's
04:24it. But yeah, like Jade and Rhea, the whole thing has just been, uh, I'm, I know I'm, I'm that
04:30bitch.
04:30Well, no, I indeed believe that I am that bitch. So, uh, we, we will see whose bitch can bitch
04:35the
04:35most at WrestleMania. Um, like it's just that there, there's been no progression to it at all. And that,
04:42that is again, kind of the theme of this, um, the, the SmackDown. Now there were some highlights
04:47on it. Um, Carmelo Hayes, Ilya Dragunov, I thought was really, really, really strong.
04:51I like these two incredible chemistry. The U S open challenge has delivered fantastic matches
04:57on a weekly basis and continues to be the standout of the three hour SmackDown era. Uh,
05:03Priest and Truth winning the tag team titles that it's okay. Like you have such an exciting tag team
05:09division. This does feel like a step back. And like, I find truth to be entertaining. I think Damian
05:15Priest can be a little bit too hated on by the IWC a little bit. And there's like, he is
05:21a fine
05:22person to have hanging around the world title picture, but it's just like what we haven't seen
05:27the street profits in months. And we've barely seen any of these teams in months. And now we're
05:32throwing these guys in as champions. It just is a bit of a, huh, when you have so much talent
05:38there
05:38in the division, but at least it looks like we're going to get word of the day, some progression
05:43in the MFT's Wyatt six feud that has been taking forever to do anything. So at least we got, uh,
05:52a little bit of that, but yeah, although sticking in the tag team division for Axiom and MCMG.
05:59Oh my God. A great match there. And now a little bit of intrigue and say it with me progression
06:04with Candice LeRae coming down and helping the machine guns get that win. Um, a lot of people are
06:10just assuming that Gargano's contract is going to be up soon and he is going to be on the first
06:14flight to Jacksonville to head to AEW. But could there be some kind of a, a faction brewing with
06:20this group? And it's one thing, um, both companies have had a bit of an issue with is when something
06:26is established from outside, they it's okay. No, we're just going to throw it in there and people
06:31know it. So we're just going to go with it and a story. What story? Uh, whatever. Um,
06:35that they don't really adjust it all that much like bullet club. Those guys are just bullet club
06:41for forever. And they, uh, these two wrestled in ring of honor once. So that's them. Now that
06:46there isn't a whole lot of change in characters or dynamic with anything. So it's nice to see them
06:52maybe adding a little bit of their own flair and their own evolution to something that came from the
06:58outside world, a very good thing that came from the outside and machine guns, um, and Candice LeRae and
07:04Johnny Gargano as well, but adding a little bit of just something different to a, what could be a
07:11pretty good package in that group. So again, overall, it just, it felt like an episode we
07:15needed to get through to get to the next step for a lot of these things. It feels like with
07:19a lot of
07:19these stories, we have three ideas left and four shows to do. That's kind of where they were at.
07:24It felt like right now with this show. So some fun stuff, but I don't think it was worth three
07:29hours
07:29of any of our time on, uh, on Friday. So what did you guys think? Am I being too harsh?
07:35Excuse me. Uh, let me know in the comments and what we can chat about that. Um, but yeah,
07:41right now I think SmackDown, it has been for a while, but in just kind of a phase, um, let
07:46me know if you
07:47disagree with me. Also, uh, if you're a wrestling fan, um, with listening to the regular couch potato
07:52diary, uh, well, we've been a while into this show before we got to the wrestling talk, there's a podcast
07:57where you can just get my wrestling thoughts. And that is the living room Lariat, uh, search for
08:01that wherever you get your podcasts.
