WWE Smackdown
October 10th, 2014
15th Anniversary Show
Philadelphia, PA

Commentators: Michael Cole, JBL, and Todd Phillips

The show starts off with a pretty cool video package of great Smackdown moments. It is refreshing to watch Smackdown moments after constantly seeing Raw’s greatest moments seemingly every year.

Stephanie McMahon’s music hits and as she is strolling down the ramp Michael Cole gives a fun fact. 15 years ago Cole was commentating Smackdown, JBL was wrestling, and Todd Phillips was 10 years old! This guy is young than yours truly! I admit I am a little jealous of this guy.

Stephanie gets on the mic and reminds us all that her husband Triple H defeated the man who coined the word “Smackdown” on the first episode of Smackdown. John Laurinaitis surprises everyone by coming out to his “People Power” theme. The fans give him a pretty good pop with a big “People Power!” chant. Laurinaitis then begins to make a match until Teddy Long interrupts him and comes out. JBL then goes nuts and does Teddy’s little dance by the commentating table.

John and Teddy go back and forth and steals Teddy Long’s thunder by making a “TAG TEAM MATCH!” Teddy and John go back and forth adding to this tag team match until Teddy pulls out the 15 Man Tag team match (it’s an odd number because they are implying GatorSwoggle and El Torito as ½’s). Teddy mentions Tito Santana joining his team and I started to mark out thinking about Tito Santana (or Chico Santana if you’re Jesse Ventura) teaming with Los Matadores. Stephanie than lets us know that Tito is not in the building.

Stephanie then declares this as a Team Teddy vs. Team Laurinaitis match to determine the greatest General Manager of all-time. Stephanie then announces that on Miz TV tonight Dean Ambrose and John Cena will appear face to face to talk about their upcoming match at the Hell in a Cell PPV.

Adam Rose then comes out with his Rosebuds to celebrate Smackdown’s birthday. Adam tells “Stephie” to not be a lemon, but be a…. you guessed it, a Rosebud. Stephanie then says it is a party, and puts Rose in a match with….you guessed it, Corporate Kane! Rose and the Rosebuds look on disappointed and defeated as Stephanie, Teddy, and Laurinaitis dance to Adam Rose’s theme music.

The first #Smackdown15 moment is the first episode of Smackdown with the Rock challenging Triple H for the WWE Championship with Shane McMahon and Shawn Michaels as guest referees. It ended in Shawn Michaels turning heel and giving the Rock the Sweet Chin Music as The Rock was coming off the ropes for the People’s Elbow. Great moment. Shawn Michaels, my all-time favorite wrestler, taking out The Rock, my all-time least favorite wrestler.

Corporate Kane vs. Adam Rose w/ The Exotic Express: Adam Rose is wearing some pretty dark eyeliner these days. The gimmick might not be as over as it was in NXT, but I have to give Adam Rose credit for at least trying different things. Kane completely squashes Rose and then choke slams pretty much every member of the Exotic Express.

#Smackdown15 moment “Hustle, Loyalty, Debut”. John Cena’s debut complete with The Undertaker shaking Cena’s hand backstage after the match. (Yes, I said “backstage” not “locker room”. Just want to make sure that’s specified for certain people who may be wondering)

AJ Lee vs. Alicia Fox w/ Paige: AJ Lee makes quick work of Alicia Fox, forcing Fox to tap out to the Black Widow. And then Fox and Paige beat down Lee. They must be having quick matches tonight.

Seth Rollins w/ Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble vs. Kofi Kingston: It appears as though the New Age Stooges are accompanying Mr. Rollins to his matches for now on. This is pretty much a long squash match, but still entertaining. These matches are good ways to get Rollins over and to show off his entire arsenal of offense. This is why the WWE should sprinkle in some matches against enhancement talent for their up and coming superstars. It will show the WWE Universe what their offense entails. Seth Rollins wins with the power bomb into the turnbuckle followed up with a curb stomp.

#Smackdown15 Moment: They show clips of all of the Money in the Bank cash ins that have happened on Smackdown

Rusev w/ Lana vs. Dolph Ziggler: Before the match we get a recap of The Rock making Rusev look like a fool on Raw. If you follow me on Twitter (@LuchaNerd) you read my sentiments on this. If you listened to @ShakeThemRopes podcast this past week, Rob McCarron read my tweet about this segment and then proceeded to express my same feelings about how terrible this segment was. The Rock needs to go away from the WWE forever.

Ziggler works his butt off to make Rusev look like a stud in this match. Rusev is so good on his own, and has built a nice reputation for himself to separate his act from the Vladimir Koslov’s and Ryback’s of the world, but Ziggler makes his look like a million bucks. What a great feud this could be. Heck, throw these guys in a match at Hell in a Cell, have Rusev win the Intercontinental Title and then give the IC title some much needed prestige by running the gauntlet defending it every week on Smackdown until WrestleMania. Make the main event of WrestleMania XXXI Rusev vs. Lesnar. Title for Title. Beast vs. Monster. Book it. Book the ever living crap out of that match. (For the record I have now proposed Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, and Rusev as opponents for Lesnar at Mania. I’m okay with any of them really. But, can you imagine Rusev vs. Lesnar? Title for title? In a big Hoss fight? It’d be like Warrior vs. Hogan only a better in-ring match!

Rusev defeated Ziggler despite receiving the Famouser. Lana gets on the mic and says her usual shtick (by the way Lana actually looked surprisingly good standing up to the Rock on Monday) Rusev then snatches the microphone from Lana’s hand and delivers the best promo of his career. Like a frustrated angry Russian mad man he tells The Rock he will suffer the consequences. And then challenges the Big Show to a match on Raw.

#Smackdown15 Moment: Stone Cold opening a can of whoop ass on Booker T in a grocery store. I had downloaded this segment from Kazaa (remember, Kazaa? Ha!) and watched it so many times. Great segment.

Michael Cole and JBL talk about how members of the Philadelphia Eagles are here as the camera pans to them. As a diehard New York Giants fan, this makes me almost as upset as anytime The Rock appears on my TV.

We then get a segment of The Rock backstage this past Monday on Raw talking about all of the times they wrestled each other. As much as I hate this Rock, this segment is hilarious. Really, funny stuff between the two. Probably the funniest Triple H has ever been, and probably the funniest segment the WWE has put together in 15 years.

Cole, Phillips, and JBL are at the commentating table with a Smackdown 15 Birthday Cake. JBL smashes this giant sheet cake all over Phillips. Phillips handles this like a champ and no sells it while eating the cake. Booker T then comes out to join the commentary team and fist bumps Cole and JBL while ignoring Phillips. With or without cake on Phillips face, Booker T probably doesn’t recognize the guy.

15 Man Tag Team Match – Mark Henry, Sheamus, Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando), Jack Swagger, The Uso’s (Jimmy and Jey Uso), and El Torito w/ Teddy Long vs. Goldust, Stardust, Heath Slater, Titus O’Neil, Cesaro, Damien Mizdow, Bo Dallas and GatorSwoggle w/ John Laurinaitis: This match went as every multi-man match goes for the WWE. Lots of actions, lots of flying moves to the outside, lots of finishing moves etc., etc. It was entertaining though. Forgettable, but entertaining. Especially the interaction between Sheamus and Cesaro, because anytime the two of them go to battle it is gold.

#Smackdown15 Moment: The September 11th show that took place 1 or 2 days after the terrorist attacks. The first public assembly in America after September 11th. Chris Jericho recently talked on his podcast about this day and the travelling arrangements. It was really insightful.

Miz TV w/ John Cena and Dean Ambrose: Miz starts off by explaining the match stipulation at Hell in a Cell. Cena and Ambrose will wrestle with the winner getting Seth Rollins in a Hell in a Cell match later that night. Miz breaks the news that the Cena vs. Ambrose match will be a No Holds Barred Contract on a Pole match! (Cue the Vince Russo jokes).

Dean Ambrose is the first to make his way out to the Miz TV set. Just looking at Ambrose and Miz in the ring is startling. Two kids from Ohio that look so completely different.

Miz starts off by asking Ambrose why he took out Cena on Raw. Ambrose says that Cena lives by a certain code of honor, and so does he. Its “Don’t take crap from anybody”. Ambrose says that Cena is getting dangerously close to taking his chance to have Rollins in the Cell away from him. And nobody steals from him.

Cena then puts over Ambrose like a true champ (Attention: Rocky Maivia) telling Ambrose that he has “it” and Ambrose proved it on Monday by dropping his face into the mat. Cena then pulls two baseballs out of his pocket and says Ambrose has these.

Cena then goes Tony Montana on Ambrose and says after 12 years of wrestling he has two things. “These (the baseballs) and his word, and he doesn’t break them for nobody!” Cena says he likes his chances at Hell in a Cell.

Miz then antagonizes Ambrose by asking him if he feels like he has a chance against THEE John Cena. The Miz asks Cena how he feels about that and Cena tells him to shut up and tells Ambrose that he will see him at Hell in a Cell and then goes to walk out of the ring. The Miz then blows up on Cena telling him that these people want to see Cena and Ambrose fight, and that Cena is ruining Miz TV. Cena then tells Miz he’s wrong. These people want to see Cena and Ambrose fight the Miz. They take out the Miz, Ambrose gives the Miz a double armed DDT and then Cena gives Ambrose the Attitude Adjustment out of nowhere to finish out the show.

Overall Thoughts:

This was a good episode of Smackdown. As said previously, the greatest Smackdown moments were refreshing to see since the greatest Raw moments always get so much attention. The exchanges between Ambrose and Cena continue to be entertaining, and Ambrose continues to impress with the lack of fear he shows and the gumption he displays when standing eye to eye with these legends and main eventers time and time again. That’s it for this week! Remember that you can follow me on Twitter @LuchaNerd and look for my next edition of “My WWE Soapbox” coming this Monday, on Voices of Wrestling!